SF band the Freak Accident celebrates new album at Hotel Utah
SAN FRANCISCO -- Long-running side project/solo band of Victims Family guitarist and founder Ralph Spight the Freak Accident celebrates the release of its fourth album Outer Space Is Boring at the Hotel Utah Saturday night.
While Spight has been dealing out a complex style of punk rock since first coming together with bassist Larry Boothroyd in Santa Rosa during the early '80s to start Victims Family (not to mention subsequent related bands Saturn's Flea Collar and Hellworms), the Freak Accident didn't come together as an alternative outlet for some of Spight's other music until the early 2000s.
Mixing elements of more traditional pop and rock songwriting with surf, punk and even Tom Wait-ish tango influences while always exhibiting the songwriter's surrealist barbed-wire wit and outlandish guitar pyrotechnics, the initial recording by the band for its self-titled 2004 debut on Alternative Tentacles was essentially just Spight singing and playing guitar, bass and keyboards with a variety of guests including fellow member of Jello Biafra's Guantanamo School of Medicine Jon Weiss on drums, fellow six-string virtuoso Eric McFadden and punk horn player Ed Ivey.
Since that first effort, Spight has put together a full band with another player from the GSM Kimo Ball (Mol Triffid, Plainfield, Griddle) on bass that would release several albums and EPs, included an instrumental surf tribute to Joy Division entitled Tropical Depression in 2016 that featured onetime Victims Family drummer Eric Strand. More recently, the Freak Accident has issued it's ripping third album Misfortune Teller as well as a lost set of songs recorded with an early line-up of the band back in 2009.
The band's latest album Outer Space Is Boring features the current line-up of Spight with bassist Henry Austin Lannan (Othered, KnightressM1) and local drumming institution Stark Raving Brad (The Hellbillys, The Mutaytor, Marginal Prophets, Undercover S.K.A. and many others). This show at the Hotel Utah will also feature a closing set by rising SF garage-rock outfit the Seagulls. Fronted by British punk veteran Jon Brooder, the quartet has been entertaining audiences across the Bay Area for years.
Raised in South London during the 1970s, Brooder found inspiration in '50s rock, Motown, rock steady, British pub rock before the initial wave of UK punk rock took hold of his imagination. He would end up playing bass in the Clash-inspired late '80s punk band Lightning Strike, which played CBGBs after relocating to New York and managed to score a record deal with RCA.
Though the band only managed to release its debut album before getting dropped by the major label, the experience whetted Brooder's appetite for making music and his desire to live in the U.S. He would move to San Francisco in the early '90s, eventually working with the bands the Hairdressers and the Music Lovers, an indie-pop project led by fellow Brit songwriter Matthew Edwards. It was in the latter band that Brooder met keyboard player Isaac Bonnell.
The two musicians would start the Seagulls in 2012, building on their shared experience to play a mix of covers and original music that nods equally to roots-minded songwriting, punk energy and a bluesy swagger that recalls legendary British pub-rock band Dr. Feelgood -- who the Seagulls have been known to cover from time to time. Rounded out by longtime drummer/singer Geri Vahey (who played in the bands Skint and Mom's Favorite Vase) and newcomer Christina Michelle on bass (Fog City Swampers, Malice Cooper), the band managed to ramp up its activity in the past two years despite the pandemic.
After releasing the holiday tune "Spirit in the Air" in December of 2019 before COVID shut down the planet, the Seagulls have put out a pair of EPs (recorded both live and in the studio) and several digital singles, with some of the material addressing the stark new reality of sheltering in place and missing human interaction. The band also played a steady string of outdoor shows in San Francisco and at Winters Tavern in Pacifica as businesses gamely tried to operate amid new COVID protocols, providing a bit of relief for people starved to for live music hoping for a brief moment of normalcy.
The Seagulls trekked to the UK last year, playing a series of gigs in and around London. They celebrated the long-awaited release of their album This Time Next Year in March. Packed with catchy rockers like opening track "Big Bad Beautiful World" and "Sunday Afternoon Drinking" and ska-tinged tunes "Hold On" and "G'is a Drink Woodcock," the bracing effort is a fine encapsulation of the energetic party the band delivers onstage. East Bay favorites Greg Hoy and the Boys open the show.
The Freak Accident with the Seagulls and Greg Hoy and the Boys
Saturday, July 8, 7:30 p.m. $10-$15
The Hotel Utah