Fuzzed-Out Local Psych Heavyweights Headline SF Eagle
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Anchored by renowned Bay Area guitarist Ethan Miller -- the musician who founded Comets on Fire and Howlin Rain and more recently became part of the psych supergroup Heron Oblivion -- since 2011 Feral Ohms has been delivering a deafening, fuzzed-out fury. Recalling the lysergic caveman stomp of late '60s underground legends Blue Cheer and Sir Lord Baltimore as well as the more modern psych blowouts unleashed by cult Japanese favorites High Rise while hearkening back to Miller's most unhinged early work with CoF, the trio quickly earned a reputation for its deafening, corrosive live sets around the Bay Area.
After putting out a string of 7-inch singles for a variety of imprints including SF boutique label Valley King and Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, in 2016 the threesome issued a frenetic live recording tracked at the Chapel in San Francisco on Thee Oh Sees frontman John Dwyer's Castle Face Records. The following year, the trio offered up it's self-titled studio debut released on Miller's own Silver Current label that manages (barely) to contain the ferocity of the band's onstage assault.
Last year, Silver Current put out a limited edition box set of the band's singles that quickly sold out (the same thing happened to a split live cassette with the Zig Zags that was recorded at a show by the two bands in Long Beach. The band headlines this stacked show at the SF Eagle with its current line-up featuring longtime drummer Chris Johnson and relatively recent addition Phil Manley (Trans Am, the F---ing Champs, Life Coach, Terry Gross) on bass.
Fresh from appearing at Stumpfest in Portland, OR, with a host of heavy psych bands including Earthless and Johnson's reunited group Drunk Horse, Feral Ohms tops a stellar three-band bill at the SF Eagle Thursday. Support act Mick's Jaguar is a NYC-based quintet with no shortage of attitude, echoing the snotty sound of their hometown forebears like the New York Dolls, the Dictators and Dictators' lead singer Handsome Dick Manitoba's metal-tinged late '80s band, Manitoba's Wild Kingdom. The band deals out sleazy anthems from their swaggering Riding Easy Records debut from last year, Fame and Fortune.
Opener Psychic Hit is an East Bay band featuring members of several notable psychedelic and space rock bands including Queen Crescent, Pins of Light, Nik Turner's Hawkwind and Ovvl. With it's first demo recordings and blistering live shows, the group draws heavily on the classic sounds of Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and early Judas Priest while injecting an element of expansive prog rock to great creative effect.
Feral Ohms with Mick's Jaguar and Psychic Hit
Thursday, April 25, 9 p.m. $10
SF Eagle
