Bad Antics & Pterodacdudes – Bay Area Weekend

The plan was for us to meet up at our friends house in Fullerton at 8:30am on Friday morning. From there we would meet the rest of the group at their house , load the gear and hit the road to San Francisco for a weekend of mostly fun, intoxication, and just a little musicianship if time provided.

For Bad Antics and Pterodacdudes this weekend was a perfect excuse to blow off work and make a three day weekend of it, not only for music’s sake, but also to celebrate the 21st birthday of  Tony, our friend, and singer of Bad Antics. It was 11am, and we were just getting on the road, when we already had to make our first pit stop not even out of Fullerton city limits. We gassed up, and bought some beers for the drive and were off. Thanks to our refreshments it took us a little longer than expected to make it up to the bay area with all the pit stops that needed to be made.

Nevertheless, we made it to the show early, which was in Hayward, CA just east of Oakland, and all got out to stretch and have a smoke. To our surprise we saw a street sign that stated that it was illegal to smoke ANYWHERE in the city of Hayward! We were in disbelief and indifference at the same time…as if that sign was going to tell a bunch of red blood Americans where they could enjoy a smoke…especially outside! As if things couldn’t get worse we walked to the corner liquor store to buy some beers, but when we walked to the cooler there was a sign posted on the glass door that stated that the sale of single beers was prohibited in the city of Hayward. Keep in mind that this was an extremely low budget trip, so we skimped and cut corners whenever possible, which is why it is an absolute necessity to buy singles of beer rather than cases or packs.  This town was getting stupider by the minute! Sorry if you live in Hayward, not for my comment…just sorry you live in Hayward. We decided that it was getting close to show time, so we loaded in, set up merch and played the show. There were a few little scuffles in the pit at this basement venue, but nothing too serious it seems.  We got paid our pittance and packed up and headed for San Francisco to our friend Max’s house where we were going to be staying and having a party to celebrate Tony’s 21st.

We pulled up to Max’s and walked inside only t be welcomed by our friends, some of the coolest people from San Francisco. There was a keg of beer waiting and the party was already in full swing.  The two story house was packed with people all having a blast, smoking and drinking everything in sight. The night was a complete rager, lots of yelling, music and laughing. Everyone was fist pumping like champs, just like how we do it on the shore!  Before the night was over the keg was tapped, and someone went out and bought a bunch more beer. I drank a little bit more and then found a space on the floor to crash…it was damn cold that night.

I woke up the next morning to someone yelling “who the fuck ate my chili dogs!”. I don’t care how drunk you are, but you don’t touch another man’s chili dogs. People were slowly starting to wake up and walk around like zombies. When everyone was finally up we walked down the street to some Mexican food place. We thanked Max for being such a rad host and left. We had a lot of time before we needed to be in Oakland for the show later that night, so we decided to go to Haight St. A couple of the guys we having a medical emergency and needed to get their prescriptions filled at one of the green clinics. We got them there just in time or else who knows what would have happened. All I have to say about Haight St. is “goddamn hippies“!

After hanging out for a few hours we packed back into the van, got some pizza, and then made our way to Oakland. At Saturday nights show only Pterodacdudes played because Tony had to drive back home the same morning. Though it was a total bummer that Tony had to go back home for work, it was cool that we were able to just hang out on Saturday night.  After the show we headed to someone’s house a few blocks away that we were going to be staying at. A couple of guys from each camp decided to sleep in the vans to keep an eye on the gear since it was a sketchy town we were staying in. John from Bad Antics, our friend Annie and I decided to sleep in the van. It was around 4am and we couldn’t get to sleep, so we just sat up and talked. I was sitting in the drivers seat with my feet on the passenger seat when I see a head cross the front of the van and come to the passenger side window. At first I thought it was a little black girl, but later John told me it was a midget or something. As she stared at me through the window she was mouthing something to me. John yelled very loudly for her to go away, but she didn’t flinch, she just continued staring at me moving her lips for a few more moments before walking away.

Somehow we managed to get some sleep in spite of the various disturbances and sketchy activity going on outside.  We woke up the next morning, got everyone together, gassed up and headed back to the south, everyone dreading the return to their normal routine.
 

 Photos by: Trevor Rounseville
 

-Matt C.-
Editor in Chief

 

More photos of the event can be seen HERE

 
                                          Go HERE to see all the latest show reviews