Local "geriatric punk" band the Grannies reunite at Bottom of the Hill
The late legendary guitar great, composer and satirist Frank Zappa in the mid-1980s released a live album with the title Does Humor Belong In Music? That question gets answered with an unequivocal "Yes!" from local geriatric punk-rock reprobates the Grannies.
Punk bands built around a gimmick usually focus far more attention on concept than they do songs and execution, but for over two decades, the cross-dressing rabble rousers behind Bay Area quintet the Grannies has been mixing their love for ridiculous shenanigans with some solid and serious rock and roll. Formed in 1999 when the group first clambered upon a San Francisco stage dressed in thrift-store old lady dresses, masks and wigs, The Grannies deliver a trashy, furious assault that echoes the likes of the New York Dolls, the Dictators and the Dwarves.
Lead guitarist Lois "Carmen" DeNominator (aka the Grannihilator, aka Sluggo Cawley), exhibitionist lead singer Deanamite (aka Dean Scheben), longtime drummer Chris Sanborn (aka Granimal) and company have been entertaining the masses with their onstage antics and infectious anthems drawn from such fittingly titled efforts as Taste the Walker, the outtakes/demos collection Incontinence and the band's most recent full-length effort -- 2015's Ballsier -- for Texas-based imprint Saustex Records while playing regular local shows and touring abroad. The following year, the crew released Lords & Ladies, a split live album with the Upper Crust, the notable powdered-wig sporting Boston hard rockers who the Grannies have shared stages with in the U.S. and Europe.
The group went on an extended hiatus in 2018 so Cawley could pursue his more roots-oriented songwriting with the noir-ish country-rock band REQ'D that has released three albums and a number of singles and EPs since first coming together, including Wrongheadedness, a mini album of bonus tracks from the band's 2020 effort Pulling Up Floorboards. The Grannies got back together back in 2020 to play their first show in four years at the SF Eagle to honor the memory of Daniel Blair, a longtime employee at Cawley's San Francisco framing shop.
The band has largely remained quiet since that show, though Scheben has been playing in the new band Clencher featuring current and former Grannies including bassist Scott Shanks (who also played in Turn Me On Dead Man) and guitarist Neal Stillman (Hockaloogie, Handfulla Flowers). Meanwhile, Cawley self-published his entertaining underground rock and roll memoir "Guitargonaut" last year that tells his (mis)adventures of his four decades playing in bands that has since been picked up by UK publisher Earth Island Books, who will be reprinting the volume with new additional chapters.
For this early show at the Bottom of the Hill Saturday that will celebrate the 50th birthday of band friend Tuula Ala, the Grannies will take the stage for what Cawley has announced will be the group's last performance ever. The recent passing of Sanborn's mother will keep him off the drum chair for only the second show he's missed in his 25+ years with the crew, but his shoes will ably be filled by explosive drummer Richard Stuverud. A veteran musician who played with Northwest punk heroes the Fastbacks and filled in behind the kit for Pearl Jam at several arena shows in 2022 (he has a long history with bassist Jeff Ament, having played in multiple groups with him), Stuverud is a member of heavy rock power trio Slow Phase in addition to issuing a pair of solo albums. He's also recently performed live with Bad Scene, a band featuring Fastbacks guitarist Kurt Bloch and his brother Al. The Grannies will be joined by Ala's metal outfit Theya and local skate-punk favorites Party Force.
The Grannies
Saturday, March 29, 6 p.m. $15
The Bottom of the Hill
