but a good one!
yes, for the fifth time in my illusory career, i played The Fillmore. you betcha, Saturday night with Mutaytor, to a capacity crowd. [check website for waaay too much info on the group - http://www.mutaytor.com ]
we have Oingo's old bassist John Avila with us these days, and he smokes! even uber-busy LA studio whiz David Raven came up for this one (he played on Hurly Burly and just finished Michelle Shocked's new one). great crowd, the vibe was wondrous, it went off superbly.
then, to the afterparty! this was cool; it was at (and here i quote from a website) the old Westerfield House at the corner of Fulton and Scott Streets has a wild history. Built in 1889 and often erroneously called the old Russian embassy, it was really a Russian social club in the 1920s, and a Russian restaurant called Dark Eyes was once located in the basement. Marchese Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the radio, conducted radio experiments from the tower. The home was also a hippie commune and is mentioned several times in Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Manson family member Bobbie Beausoleil lived here in a commune with experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and some of Anger's films were shot in the house. Anger and Anton LaVey also performed magical rituals in the tower. While residing there, LaVey wrote the Satanic Bible, and there are still claw marks on the bannister from his pet tiger.
Now it's home to store owner and music promoter Jimmy Siegel, who runs an electronic-music radio station, Thump Radio, from the house and is lovingly restoring it to its Victorian grandeur, including marble fireplaces and authentic wallpaper. If these walls could talk, they would give one crazy-ass history lesson.
indeed! when they were demolishing similiar neighborhood structures in the 70's, Jim went around and salvaged all the authentic period piece stuff he could find, the baseboards, light fixtures, dressers, vases, etc etc etc. the whole house is a frickin museum, no shit. i believe Big Bro & the Holding Co used to live there...i know Janis partied there, the Dead partied there, there was once even a murder there, you name it. so, not surprisingly, the whole evening was one big contact high, i tellya, chillin' on the 5th floor roof and bubblin' in the hot tub later with freaks running amuck in every room, each of which was painstakingly restored to turn-of-the-century absolute splendor. not to beat a dead horse or anything (oh who am i kidding), but, Micko, my town rocks, and yours does not. eat my shorts!
photos: http://www.mistersf.com/props/index.html?props1198fulton.htm
