Now that both Ty Segall AND John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees have moved to Southern California... Does that leave Mikal Cronin as the Last Man Standing and the reigning king of San Francisco neo-psychedelic garage rock???
You be The Judge.
Exhibit A: from last night's show at The Chapel, "Change", "Gone", and a cover of Wreckless Eric's "Whole Wide World"...
Previously, many people only knew Mikal Cronin as Ty Segall's pal from Southern California, who sometimes played bass in Ty's touring band. But since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, Mikal Cronin has quickly become an integral part of the City's psychedelic revival.
In some ways, Mikal Cronin surpasses Ty Segall, as Cronin masters both psychedelic experimental avant garde improv noise distortion garage fuzz AND melodic pop.
His two solo albums are excellent, full of edgy psychedelia and catchy pop songs, with ready-made sing-along choruses, as demonstrated by the hometown crowd of Noise Pop festival attendees, music nerds, cool kids, and a few requisite drunk loud techies (get the fuck back on the Google bus for chrissake, and stay in fucking Mountain View dammit.... on the way to the club, had to pass those disgusting bistros and cocktails lounges for the new elite that now pollute Valencia St... Where are those 19th century Anarchists when we truly need them??? END OF RANT). The crowd was full of people dancing and singing along. It was fun....
Mikal's touring band includes: Chad Ubovich on guitar, Michael Anderson on bass, and Kyle Gibson on drums. Anyone who has seen Mikal play will definitely notice the lead guitarist, Chad doing outrageous 70s style solos, windmills, fishing for distortion in his amp using his guitar as a fishing/lightening rod, and so on... Mikal is primarily known as a bass player, but is also a good guitarist. He sometimes plays lead (or his own twisted feedback seshes), but is content to let Chad do most of the leads (Chad also adds some nice background vocals). Chad, for his part, shines without ever overshadowing the star of the show, Mikal.
I missed the first two openers, but Blood Sister was pretty good.
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