Local punk-metal favorites Glowing Brain play early show at Knockout Sunday
A rising force on the Bay Area underground for several years, Oakland band Glowing Brain headlines an early happy hour show at the Knockout Sunday.
Glowing Brain has been making its piledriving Motörhead-inspired punk-metal noise since first emerging from Oakland five years ago. Bassist/singer Conrad Nichols and drummer James Lyter recorded the self-described "long-haired punk" group's scorching debut EP with Nichols handling guitar before current six-stringer Doc Miller completed the trio's current line-up. Nodding both to Lemmy Kilmister's locomotive intensity and the raw blackened metal riffs of Venom and early Voivod.
The crew's first full-length album Brain Dust was tracked in five days at El Studio just before the pandemic shutdown, offering up another aggressive salvo of the band's ferocious sounds and weed-obsessed lyrics when they released it in late 2021. The well-received album further established Glowing Brain as one of the leading lights of Oakland fertile punk/metal community. Building on their rising popularity with west coast touring and slots opening for touring bands like Bongzilla and onetime Oakland metal institution High on Fire last November. The group recorded new songs for its forthcoming second album last fall. For this headlining early show at the Knockout in San Francisco Sunday, the trio is joined by a pair of Los Angeles acts: "heavy dungeon metal" outfit Forest Lawn and brutal psychedelic punk/metal crew Biomass.
Glowing Brain with Forest Lawn and Biomass
Sunday, Jan. 14, 5 p.m. $12-$15
The Knockout