Before the in-store, we had the pleasure of interviewing Die Antwoord. Check out this clip on YouTube.
Before the in-store, we had the pleasure of interviewing Die Antwoord. Check out this clip on YouTube.

All photos by Kaitlin Layher and Mat Dara
Words by Tarin Muir
On Sunday, September 19th 2010, a magical event took place at Milk Bar on Haight Street in San Francisco. This event is know only as AMOEBAPALOOZA! Since the beginning of time... or at least Amoeba Music's birth those 20 years ago in Berkeley, California, Amoebapalooza has been our annual celebration of music and entertainment produced and played out by Amoeba employees. One night a year, the hard working, talented folks that work at the greatest record store in the world get to gather together and show off their musical skills. Amoebapalooza is always open to the public, and on Sunday the 19th the public came out en masse to enjoy a night of music, drinking, and dancing with the Amoeba Music San Francisco crew.
At 8pm on Sunday evening, the doors at Milk Bar opened and the beer began to flow. We had two fantastic DJs, DJ Kindle & DJ Vinnie, start out the evening and spin tunes in between each band. This year we had 7 bands perform total, including a singer song writer, an old fashioned cabaret act, a metal band, a Sting cover band, and so much more. Each band was able to perform for almost 30 minutes, which made Sunday's showcase really fulfilling for the audience and the artists. I could attempt to write out a description of each band and try to give you a visual myself, but I'm a full believer that photos speak louder then words.
For many years now Amoeba Music has been presenting must-see, free instore events spanning all types of music. For the past several years the folks at the Amoeba website have been diligently recording the majority of these unique instores, and then systematically uploading most of them to our website's
impressive Video Gallery where they are neatly sorted into New Videos, Featured Videos, Browse All Videos, and Upcoming Videos, which tracks which ones are being coded, edited, and/or awaiting approval.The Amoeba videos are great on many levels. It's fun just to go back and re-watch an Amoeba show you attended and to be able to it see from new angles, and, of course, it's even better to be able to catch up on shows you wanted to attend but couldn't make. Sometimes we will even have a live video stream cast of certain instores that you can watch in real time from anywhere in the world!
In addition to the high quality (both video and audio) of these Amoeba instore concert clips, what sets them apart from typical YouTube fare is that they are not limited time wise to ten or so minutes in length. For example, the Tegan & Sara video at Amoeba Berkeley (above) runs 41 minutes and includes five full songs plus an intro with fans outside the Telegraph Ave store. You can also check out an interview video with the ladies right here. Another wonderful aspect of these Amoeba videos is that they also often include behind the scenes interview clips like the Aceyelone concert video below (including the songs "All Balls Don't Bounce," "Anywhere You Go," "My Fantasy," "Rappers Rappers Rapper...," & "Hardship"), which is accompanied by another ten minute piece in which the knowledgeable Luis from the Haight Street store sits down and chops it up with the famous LA emcee.




