RIP Pound SF
Sunday the 22nd was the last show at The Pound in San Francisco. Evidently, the club was evicted for reasons beyond its control by the city’s Port Authority. The Pound was the place to see metal and hardcore punk in San Francisco for the past five years. Occasionally there would be a fight or accusation of shady business. But when I lived in the Bay Area, The Pound was hands down the place where I felt most at home. I’m gutted.
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| The ATM inside |
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The Pound was a dive in the industrial southeast part of the city next to the Hunters Point projects. Cab drivers and buses wouldn’t go near it, so you needed a car to get there. The place was essentially a big shack with a wire fence and an unpaved parking lot. But it’s people that make a place, and I have fond memories of the characters at The Pound. There was the staffer who had a nasty spider bite on his arm and showed it to everyone whether or not they wanted to see it. There was the hot metal mom (MMILF) with the Hate Eternal jacket; her hotness was only matched by the hugeness of her boyfriend. For a while, there was Metal Chef, who cooked bands hot gourmet meals before shows. The bouncers were genuinely into the music and would sometimes enter the mosh pit themselves. Once, one even helped me stand on top of the bar so I could take better photos.
The main draw of The Pound, of course, was the music. Bands loved to come to San Francisco, both for the city and for the great crowds at The Pound. The list of bands I saw there is too long to recount, but a few shows stand out. There was the crazy Willowtip tour with Alarum, Arsis, Neuraxis, and Necrophagist (who was playing in America for the first time). Animosity and Cattle Decapitation were also on the bill. Practically half my wardrobe comes from merch from that show. There was the Thrash Against Cancer outdoor show, where I saw Agent Steel, Hirax, and the reunited Laaz Rockit and Testament, complete with short-haired Alex Skolnick. Suffocation on the Souls to Deny
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| Meshuggah!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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The most visceral, most goddamn metal moment for me was the first time I saw Krisiun. The rest of the bill was formidable – Incantation, Into Eternity, and Hate Eternal. But Krisiun blew everyone away. You’d think that without a second guitarist, the band would be at a disadvantage live. But Moyses Kolesne is by far the most bad-ass guitarist I’ve ever seen. When the guys in Nile bow down to you, you’re the fucking don. Kolesne manhandled his guitar (bridge pickup only, neck pickup gouged out) with savage shredding, pick squeals, and insane sweep picking. People in the front were literally agape at his power. The combination of his playing locked in with his brother’s drums, with Alex Camargo growling bloody murder and hair flying all over the place – that was metal with a capital M.
From two years of photos from Pound shows, I picked out 50. The bands shown are but a small cross-section of who I saw. For those outside the Bay Area, hopefully the photos give an idea of what it was like. And if you knew The Pound, or know someone who went or played there, please pass on the link to these photos.
