Eclectic All-Day Rock Fest Comes To Half Moon Bay

By Dave Pehling

HALF MOON BAY (CBS SF) -- The second annual Bar Fight Bonfire brings a host of heavy rock and garage punk bands to the Old Princeton Landing in Half Moon Bay this Saturday for a marathon celebration of music, food and drink.

Organized by Half Moon Bay-based outlaw country band Bar Fight, last year's inaugural event featured a similarly wide-ranging variety of acts including roots rockers Sweet Chariot, entertaining one-man bands Chaki the Funk Wizard and Brian Kenny Fresno, indie-rock shoegazers Bellavista and more. Held at longtime local institution the Old Princeton Landing, Bar Fight Bonfire II offers a whopping eight bands including a headlining appearance by local heavy rock heroes Hot Lunch.

A force on the San Francisco underground for over a dozen years, veteran proto-punk quartet Hot Lunch was founded by singer Eric Shea after the split of his potent retro-rock outfit Parchman Farm in 2006. Shea pulled in several talented locals for the group, including former Mensclub guitar hero Aaron Nudelman and the pulverizing rhythm section of drummer Rob Alper -- ex-The Sermon as well as guitarist with Sacto garage-punks SLA -- and bassist Charlie Karr (best known for his work with the Alternative Tentacles band Harold Ray Live in Concert). Hot Lunch soon became a fixture in S.F. clubs with their fiery live performances.

The gestation of the band's first album would take considerably longer. Funding their own recording sessions in 2012, Shea and company captured the fuzzed-out fury of its stage show on analog tape at Louder Studios with lauded producer Tim Green (Comets on Fire, Melvins, Sebadoh, Earthless) just prior to Green relocating the facility from San Francisco to his new home in Grass Valley. Unlike the many acts who do little more than mimic the sonic template of influential early '70s bands, Hot Lunch interweaves elements of skate punk, psychedelia and prog rock into their unique sound.

The eponymous album's 2013 release on the small German label Who Can You Trust? in Europe and Tee Pee Records stateside led to sponsored recordings and concert appearances for Scion A/V and Converse, considerably raising the band's profile. And for good reason: Echoes of the MC5 and other more obscure '70s riff rockers like Sir Lord Baltimore and Dust can be heard in the headlong drive of "Handy Denny," "She Wants More," and the wah-wah fueled "Killer Smile," but the more straightforward salvos are balanced by a number of equally potent curve balls.

Over the next few years, the quartet issued a number of singles and EPs, including the five-track Scion A/V collection Slappy Sunday that was released for free download in 2015 and a 45 featuring the new tracks "Haul of Meat" and "Pot of Gold" last year. Earlier this year, the band announced plans to release its appropriately titled sophomore album Seconds on Tee Pee Records in March.

Expanding the group's sonic palette, the effort finds Hot Lunch embracing an ever-widening dynamic range with the haunting middle section of "Smoke Ring" and the sprawling prog epic of album closer, "Skulled to Neptune." But fans of the group's burly proto-punk attack will be pleased by the hefty crunch of "Human Reissue" and the energetic fury "Black Angel's Curse" kicks into following Nudelman's acoustic introduction.

While the band went through a seismic change of two members moving out of the Bay Area (Shea relocated to Georgia for his job with online radio station Pandora, while Alper ended up in Tuscon, Arizona), Hot Lunch say they will continue to record and tour together as a unit despite the geographical challenges. This closing set for Bar Fight Bonfire II marks the group's first local show since playing the Heavy Psych Sounds Festival at the Bottom of the Hill last May.

Hot Lunch will be joined by one of Northern California's preeminent purveyors of unhinged garage rock, Sacramento favorites Th' Losin Streaks. Founded in the state's capitol in the early 2000s, Th' Losin Streaks' story began when Sacramento garage mainstays Tim Foster (guitar/vocals) and Stan Tindel (bass) of like-minded veteran band The Trouble Makers teamed up with drummer Matt Shrugg (ex-Groovie Ghoulies and Zodiac Killers) and guitar virtuoso Mike Farrell, who had made his name in area bands Daisy Spot, Sex 66 and Persephone's Bees. The group quickly established a reputation with their frenetic stage show at venues around Sacramento.

The quartet brought a snarling swagger to their raucous 2004 debut album for Slovenly Recordings, Sounds of Violence. Even when addressing well-worn subject matter like two-fisted romance ("Beg, Steal or Borrow" and "Your Love, Now"), the group managed to keep things fresh with razor-sharp hooks, Foster's gruff, authoritative vocals and the collective's fiery delivery.

With Farrell dealing out one searing, sustain-driven lead after another with the same wild abandon that Jeff Beck brought to the classic rave-ups of the Yardbirds, the album solidified Th' Losin Streaks as NorCal garage-rock contenders of the highest order. The group followed up with a 7-inch single for Dollar Records Records the next year, but outside of live performances that included an extensive tour of Europe in 2005, it would be years before the band would finally issue it's sophomore effort.

While Th' Losin Streaks continued to draw sizable crowds and put on blistering live performances, Farrell's recurring struggles with heroin addiction that had started back in the '90s would derail the band, leading the group to dissolve in 2010. Farrell battled his demons for years, moving in and out of rehab before finally getting clean for good in 2016.

The quartet reconvened and began playing shows again, making scorching appearances at the Burger Boogaloo in 2017 and Debauch-A-Reno the following year in addition to returning to clubs in Sacramento and the Bay Area. The band also finished work on the band's long neglected second effort This Band Will Self-Destruct in T-Minus, which finally saw release on Slovenly last year.

Recorded with noted garage-rock studio guru Chris Woodhouse (Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall), the group's first release in 14 years is packed with ferocious anthems like "Trouble You Find," the propulsive title track as well as Who/Yardbirds-inspired fuzz of "Time Has Come" and "Order of the Day." While Th' Losin Streaks had to cope with the departure of longtime drummer Shrugg earlier this year, after some searching (Woodhouse sat in on one show and was considered as a permanent replacement), the band eventually brought powerhouse drummer Brian Machado (Go National, The Decibels, The Trouble Makers) into the fold. Last summer, the group supported British garage legend Billy Childish when he made a rare Bay Area appearance for a Burger Boogaloo afterparty at the Starline Social Club in Oakland.

Also appearing at Bar Fight Bonfire II in addition to the festival's namesake organizers will be Oakland band Psychic Hit. Featuring members of several notable hard rock and psychedelic punk bands including Queen Crescent, Pins of Light, Nik Turner's Hawkwind and Ovvl, the group has build a solid buzz with a sound that draws on classic Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and early Judas Priest while injecting an element of expansive prog rock to great effect. Psychic Hit recently released a limited vinyl edition of their first demo recordings through Netherlands-based DHU Records that quickly sold out. The balance of the festival line-up includes trashy Bay Area garage rockers the Durty Whyte Boots, SF psychedelic indie "rock en Español" outfit Novio Electrico, Oakland country crew the Ugly and opening stoner rock band That Ship Has Sailed, which features former members of the Radio Reelers and Blessing the Hogs. For more information and tickets, visit the Bar Fight Bonfire II Facebook page.

Bar Fight Bonfire II
Saturday, Sept. 21, 3 p.m. $12-$15 (children 12 and under free)
Old Princeton Landing