San Francisco Dispatch #6: F8 -- Saul Stokes and Impuritan

Another week came, which meant another music venue to explore in San Francisco.  This time it was off to a bar called F8.  Via Bart, I got off at the Civic Center/UN Plaza stop and went down 7th street and turned on Folsom.  The whole process took 45 minutes.  I had this distinct feeling that I was speed race walking with someone else as I tried to get to F8 as quickly as possible.  Despite my efforts, I arrived in the middle of the first musician’s set, Saul Stokes.

Saul Stokes is a one man show who creates music via gadgets with wires that go everywhere.  Now his choice of music instruments initially made me moan when I walked into F8.  It reminded me of my adventure at The Lab.  Now I don’t want to bad mouth the musicians who played that night at The Lab. In fact, one of these days before I leave San Francisco for good I wish to head back there.  I just wasn’t looking for a night of “art” music.  My initial reaction to Saul Stokes was wrong.  His use of his electronics was totally different from how those at The Lab used their electronics.  I was met with the beautiful sounds of rock.

After his set ended, the MC called out that everyone should come up and check out his equipment before he tore it down.  A number of us took the opportunity to take a look at all the knobs and wires.

As for the set-up of F8, various seat couches line the floor.  It reminds me of a venue in Vancouver called The Media Club.  A side door near the stage kept opening up and folks would walk in and out.  I wondered what was going on there.  I looked through the door and the area was brightly lit with folks sitting around round coffee tables.  When I walked out later in the night, I realized that it was a bakery.  I guess the bar and bakery share bathrooms.  Also, since there was a cover charge for the bands, there must be an honor code in place.

Next up was Impuritan.  As I was sitting on one of the couches a young woman came and asked if she could take a seat.  “So do you know anyone in the band?” she asked.  “No,” I responded.  “So why are you here?” “I’m just randomly checking out the different music venues in San Francisco.” “Well,” she responded, “the advantage of the San Francisco music scene is that the city is so compact that the music venues are very close together and we have a real music scene here unlike a spread out city like Los Angeles.”  I could have gotten into a huge argument with her on that point.  And then she nodded to her friend who was on the keyboards.  “He’s a real musician.  In fact, he’s an artist,” she fawned.

The night was dubbed as a shoe gaze night.  Maybe shoe gaze means something different in San Francisco versus Los Angeles.  I find it hard to pigeon hole Impuritan into any specific music genre.  I can say their set was like a jam session that swept across multiple genres.  One moment they sounded like a jazz band.  The next like a rock band.  The next moment they sounded like an aimless group of musicians, each pulling their music in different directions.

Moments of the set.  One of the band members after every song went around high fiving all his bandmates even when they were attempting to down their beers.  This resulted in the lead singer asking early in the set, “Are you going to high five me after every song?”

Unrelated moment of the set.  One of the band members yelled out, “Radioactive.”  A young woman at the bar who probably hadn’t even heard the comment started to get highly animated with her friends.  The band’s response, “She’s been waiting for that song all night long.”  Imagine Dragons, you’ve invaded the F8 bar.

Southwest flight attendant comments of a Friday night:

“For those of you clapping, you’re suffering from captive audience syndrome.”

“We have reached the magical altitude of 10,223 feet and 3 inches.”