2010 In-store Favorites:

This year in San Francisco, Amoeba Music was host to 48 live music performances! Here are some of my favorite photos that I edited for Amoeba.com's "In-store photos" section. While I did not take all of these images, I had the pleasure of editing them and they are some of the most fun photos I've edited this year.

TsuShiMaMiRe

This Japanese female rock trio was loud and got the crowd into it.

Die Antwoord

1. Slices - Cruising LP (Iron Lung)

A tortured hulk of a record. Both sides fool you into thinking there’s something Fucked Up styled on deck, just to swerve into the guardrail seconds after initial takeoff. Art damaged agro-sPunk that’ll give Dry Rot or Sex Vid a run for the money in the "New Hardcore for Haters" competition. There’s the drunken metallic sway of Blut Aus Nord. The pummeling thug-jazz of Unsane. The recent Pennsylvania noise-rock shuffle. A blaring tension release full of guitar squalor that more than occasionally comes off like a chorus of strangled geese. Instrumentation sputters and flails as someone – something - barks obscenities at you. Your new scene-cleaners. A thinking man's mess.

Take 2 parts Sleater Kinney, plus 1 part Helium, plus 1 part Minders and you get an incredible super-group of ladies. Not to mention they had only been a band for 2 or 3 months before embarking on their first tour and they were incredibly tight together! Can’t wait for recorded material!

I have been waiting YEARS to see this band actually play live. I got into them 4 or 5 years after they had broken up and shat myself when it was announced that they were reuniting for 3 shows. It was everything I had hoped for, plus that day also saw reunions of Henry’s Dress and Boyracer as well, but nothing compared to Rose, Linton and Paul playing the most influential songs of my 20’s.

Another case where I got into The Need right after they had broken up. This was a special experience because it also involved a road trip up to the Northwest with co-workers and friends. The Need were unbelievable! Bangs, who I saw the last time at their last show in Olympia, were spot on, and CAverage and Thrones completed the throwback to the Evergreen days for me. It made me want to move back up to the Northwest, so that definitely lands it on this list, if not list of best show experiences ever.

by Evan Litwack
images by Ryan Stark

Last Sunday, the staff of Amoeba Music Berkeley was brought together for their annual Amoebapalooza holiday party, which combined the talented musicianship of many of Amoeba Berkeley’s key figures with some good-old fashioned celebrating. The concert party was hosted at the Stork Club in Oakland, which provided the perfect intimate atmosphere and stage setting for Amoeba’s diverse personalities to perform and interact in. Amoebites of all age groups and walks of life were in attendance with friends, including past employees and long time fans, and every room of the Stork Club was buzzing with the energy and enthusiasm of a hundred hardcore music heads in unison. Excitement lingered in the air as weeks of waiting to see colleagues and friends show their true musical colors built itself to a head. Thankfully, none of the bands disappointed.

Maestro's Choice

People were still arriving and buzzing amongst themselves when the evening’s first band, Maestro’s Choice, set their equipment on stage and started the night off on a moody, downtempo note. Michael Henning worked the percussion and looping while Kai Keya complimented his arrangements on flute. There was some curiosity in the crowd surrounding Kai Keya, who hadn’t performed in public for years, and folks were impressed by his playing and by the chemistry between the two musicians. Those who know Michael’s band The Why Because would have been certain to appreciate this set.