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San Geronimo performs Abbey Road Terrapin Crossroads, San Rafael, CA - 8/17/18

9/14/2018

When the Beatles released Abbey Road in 1969 the band was in great turmoil and on the verge of breaking up. Although the album did well in the UK, it came to the US under mixed criticism and it took many years after the fact for this amazing pile of songs to become truly appreciated.

Although the Beatles never performed the album live, many bands over the decades have done their best to honor the songs and the legacy that The Beatles gifted us within Abbey Road. Marin County rockers San Geronimo set forth to bring to life these great songs, words, and melodies by recreating, in its entirety, Abbey Road in an epic, sold-out night at Terrapin Crossroads Grate Room.

In order to capture the true authenticity of the album, the band added 3 violin players and a cellist, New Monsoon keyboardist Phil Ferlino and Mother Truckers’ vocalist Teal Collins-Zee along with the five regular members of San Geronimo, guitarists/songwriters Darren Nelson and Jeremy D’Antonio, bassist Mike Anderson, drummer Danny Luehring (“The Beatles ARE the reason that I play the drums.“) and guitarist Dave Zirbel, (“The Beatles are probably the hugest influence on me in my entire life”). From the opening track of “Come Together” to “I Want You”, then on to “Sun King” and the final track “Her Majesty”, the band upheld their own sound while simultaneously nailing the essence of the Beatles.

The second set was pure San Geronimo songs; hard driving, story-based Americana at it’s best. The band showcased their favorites such as the rocking “Josey”, the sweet love song “Carolina” as well as the bluesy romp of “Pay Day” with a short tribute to Aretha Franklin with Collins-Zee performing a smoldering “Respect.

Recreating Abbey Road live is no doubt a tricky thing, as it can be difficult to imitate the original freshness first heard in 1969, when many of the effects, vocals, arrangements and strings were, at the time, unusual additions within a rock album. But San Geronimo stretched the sonic limits and recreated something magical.

Says Darren Nelson, “I actually was intimidated by the notion of doing this album. I’m such a big fan of the Beatles and Abbey Road speaks to me as well as so many others worldwide that I was afraid our take on it might ruffle some die-hard feathers. But then as we got working on it I realized I am so proud of my band mates for putting in the amount of hours to respectfully do this album justice. “

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Physical Suicide Deterrent System Project- Sweetwater Music Hall, Mill Valley – 7/19/18

9/14/2018

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Sometimes a band gets into your head, rearranges your brain synapses and then you are never the same again. As once that music enters into your body there is nothing to be done but allow it to become part of who you are. With a force of sonic madness that can only be thought of as “getting fucked by music”, Marin County grunge rock band Physical Suicide Deterrent System Project has no problem making their music hit you like a truck in a way that feels really good.

The music of Physical Suicide Deterrent System Project, (or PSDSP for short) is more complicated then just “grunge”, as the band pulls from jazz and psychedelic genres while often eschewing the normal “verse/chorus/bridge” construction of a song to create a river of sound that takes you on a sonic journey with intelligent and poetic lyrics that uphold deep imagery to tell a story of both darkness and hope.

PSDSP has mainly been hitting the local Bay Area bar scene, but it was a joy to witness their magical chaos at the famed Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA recently. Seeing the band live is a very different experience than hearing their recorded songs, as the rambunctious dynamic between the three members of PSDSP is very much greater than the sum of their individual parts. Frontman and songwriter Eli Carlton-Pearson tosses himself around the stage with his guitar while wailing, screaming and howling his vocals. Each song often goes from vicious insanity to a sweet whisper of someone telling you a secret, all in about 10 seconds. Michael Pinkham’s fluid playing on drums and the wicked 6-string bass playing of Brian Wilkerson rounds out a band that has a habit of bursting into a cosmic explosion of sound; simplicity is not what this band is about.

With their incredible back stock of songs, the band ripped us open from the get-go with a soothing instrumental piece, then tore through punked-out thrashers like “Stolen Fruit”, “Shoulder”, “Overpass”, “Give It Up For The Ocean” as well as the instrument jazz-like song “Time Thing” and the sweetly crafted “Love Grows”. PSDSP ended their amazing set of rollicking hard-core tunes with a killer version of their punk-ass, bass-thumping rager “Orders Of The Motherboard” bringing the crowd to a happy mosh pit mentality of pogo dancing and headbanging.

I would like to say that a PSDSP show can be like a spiritual experience, bringing a powerful force of someone else’s creative juju into our own bodies as it uplifts and shifts our personal reality. Spirituality comes in all shapes and sizes, and to me “spirit” is music, as music changes us in positive ways and helps us recreate who we are and how we see the world.