LA psych-punk band plays Halloween show at the Independent
Rising Los Angeles-based garage/psych band Frankie and the Witch Fingers return to the Bay Area to headline the Independent on Halloween night.
Started in Bloomington, Indiana as a two-piece by guitarist Dylan Sizemore and drummer Glenn Brigman with the aim of recording a surplus of lo-fi psychedelic punk songs Sizemore was writing, the band soon expanded to a four piece with the addition of lead guitarist Josh Menashe and bassist Alex Bulli. After a self-released cassette Sidewalk in 2013 (which would later be reissued by Burger Records and Permanent Records) and an eponymous sophomore album, the group relocated to Los Angeles where they would hone a raucous, tuneful garage punk that touches on classic psych and power pop (echoes of Roky Erickson and the Flamin' Groovies) as well as the more modern, frenetic sounds of former SF standbys Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees.
In the spring of 2019, the quartet released its first album for new label Greenway Records, the explosive double LP ZAM. Packed with some of the most infectious and propulsive tunes the outfit has come up with yet, earning Frankie and the Witch Fingers some of the best reviews of the group's career. The band toured extensively supporting like-minded Perth, Australia-based psych experimenters the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, sharing stages at South By Southwest in Austin and across the country including an unhinged stop at the Independent in San Francisco.
While the pandemic would put a damper on their touring activity, the band has remained busy amid some major line-up changes. While still anchored by Sizemore and Menashe, the group parted ways with Brigman and Bulli, adding bassist Nikki Pickle (of Death Valley Girls fame) and drummer Nick Aguilar (Mike Watt, Slaughterhouse, Neighborhood Brats) to fill out the rhythm section. In addition to releasing their riotous 2020 album Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters..., the band issued a live Levitation Sessions album made up mostly of tracks from the new effort two months later. That was followed by an expanded reissue of their debut recording for Record Store Day and an October digital single featuring the songs "Cookin'" and "Tracksuit" that accompanied a return to the road for headlining shows and several festival appearances.
In 2023, the band played August festival dates and concerts supporting Ty Segall in Europe and the UK before playing fall dates as part of a brief tour promoting the Desert Daze festival (where they also performed in early October). They also put out yet another single through Greenway Records that quickly sold out.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers released their latest full-length Data Doom last year, another fuzzed-out collection of frenetic tunes that introduced a new element with Menashe adding skronky saxophone. The band returns to San Francisco to headline this Halloween show at the Independent Thursday night. This time around, the band is joined by Portland, OR-based psych-punk group Spoon Benders. A regular visitor to San Francisco, the band put out its most recent salvo of dark psychedelia with How Things Work in May of 2023. SF throwback psychedelic blues-rock group Bolero! opens the show. Frankie and the Witch Fingers and Spoon Benders will also play Wednesday night at a (((folkYEAH!))) presented show at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers
Thursday, Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m. $25
The Independent
