[The 924 Gilman Project]
Right in the heart of the East Bay
The 924 Gilman Project is a personal project started by me, inspired by the heavy influence of musical culture that is deeply rooted in the East Bay, I wanted to expand my musical horizons and explore what my hometown has to offer. After watching a stunning documentary about the history of punk rock in the Bay Area, I was introduced to 924 Gilman Street, a lovely community run venue that hosts all sorts of bands primarily revolving around punk rock that was established in 1984. The establishment provided a place for people of all ages to come and share their love for the punk rock genre. It has found a place in Berkeley's heart and has now found a place in my heart.
The purpose of this project is to highlight a fair amount of the bands and artists that wind up performing at this lovely venue and over time I will ask difrerent questions to help showcase the amazing people that perform here. In addition to that, we will see how are these bands interpereted and appreciated by me, a classically trained pianist.
Gender Crash
Wylder (E-Ukulele), Ariel (Drums), Sean (Bass)
The first thing I noticed when I saw Gender Crash perform on stage was Wylder's amazing electric ukulele. I don't know if it is a common thing in the punk rock community but the electric ukulele was truly fascinating, and Wylder rocked it almost as well as they rocked their voice. It is quite evident that the trio loves to be loud (which in this case, is a great thing!) Wylder has been playing the ukulele for 10 years and the talent shows, for a band that has been together since 2015, you can tell that they know their stuff, they do a fantastic job at keeping the liveliness in their songs, which typically derive inspiration from how they're feeling in the moment of making music. This is their second debut this year and they performed marvelously! As an introduction to this project, they set a very strong tone and mood for what I am to expect for future bands to come. Loads of talent from all musicians and again a fantastic performance! unfortunately, I am unable to find them on spotify or on the web, but hopefully they will show up eventually!
MiSS PRiNCE
Seth Michels (Lead Guitar / Voice), Clayton-Micheal Ruthruff (Guitar/ Lead Voice) Yash Michels (Bass), Loren Hallstrom (Drums)
Head Bobbin, Guitar Throwing, Jumping off the stage, psychotic screaming, MiSS PRiNCE has it all. And the passion of this not even three year old band got the audience so amped up I feel like I could absoluetly go home and destroy some furniture. And all that energy from their music comes from "A constant state of sexual tension" between the four of them which allows them to focus their excess energy ("Man Fluid") to the crowd. I really enjoyed their song Small Hands, which took me on a thrilling adventure.
Clayton-Micheal Ruthruff Was very open to questions and made me feel very comfortable which was very helpful for me being able to get more out of our pleasant interaction, since the scene is still all new to me I don't know what proper etiquette was but Clayton-Micheal was very friendly and approachable. It was quite a pleasureful experience, still fueled with adrenaline from the stunning performance they just gave, with such energy in his eyes you could almost feel it yourself. After our short interview, he gave me a lovely complimentary goodie bag with some amazing gifts including a vinyl sticker, a magazine, as well as a CD. Highly recomend checking them out on their website above.
Audience Spotlight: Ronnie and Edwin
The first thing I noticed about today's concert was that there was a lot more people today, when I showed up to the venue, I actually had to wait in a line to go inside, and when I stepped foot, there was tons of people and to my surprise, it audience was a whole lot of younger people, I loved seeing some younger faces here seeing that this long lasting tradition still stands strong to this day. There was a beauty trend today which was gothic. Didn't matter who you were everyone had goth makeup on which was a pretty sick theme to see. As I was looking around and analyzing the crowd, I was stopped by these people chilling on a couch and they were getting my attention, I stopped and pulled out my earplugs and the trio complimented my posture. I was taken aback by this comment, my posture definitely is not one of my shining features but Im very charmed by their compliments. I walked closer and asked if they wanted to be interviewed.
Ronnie (Middle) and Edwin (Left) are two lovely individuals here to enjoy the scene and the music, but they were here for one band and that band was Widowdusk. A Very enthusiastic group just spending their Saturday evening listening to some good music. Since they're the first people I've ever interviewed I actually don't have that much material to write about unfortuntely but they are very much familiar with the Gilman venue, having heard from it by word of mouth and Instagram some time ago but this is their first time ever coming to the venue. Unfortunately since Widowdusk has not performed yet, and I did not get to watch Widowdusk perform, I wasn't able to ask them questions such as "What do you like about Widowdusks music" and I was too forgetful to ask them "When did you first started listen to Widowdusk
One Way Mirror
Harris (Voice), Tate (Guitar), Milo (Drums), Henry (Bass)
When I first looked up at the stage, a look of confusion crossed my face, what were those little kids doing on that stage? They were about to give one of the most mind blowing performances I've ever bore witness to is what they were about to do. Something I saw that last weeks performance didn't have were actual videographers videotaping the performance on the stage, not just some random friend recording on their phone, but perhaps a friend with some real professional grade recording equipment.
The Electric Guitars had such strong tones that I could feel the vibrations in my ribcage, to me that was a precursor to a wild performance. Before the performance starts, the lights go out. The Drummer requests for a singular light. Then, chaos, I hear a bloodcurdling scream like someone's been murdered, did someone get murdered? No. the music starts. The drummer is going wild but even crazier is the vocalist Harris is absolutely screaming into the microphone like there is no tomorrow. Having an average age of only 15, they bring such a strong state presence like they have been in the craft for decades. I have a deep sense of respect for Harris as he, like I has been raised on classic music. Recitals where everyone sits down, is quiet and listens to the performer is quite the polar opposite of the punk rock scene where people are moshing, throwing hands at each other and so many things are happening at the same time. With much gravitas in his voice, Harris says he has no performance fears, a very impressive accomplishment for someone of his age. He very much appreciates mosh pits as they symbolize people having fun at the performance. A wonderful performance and a memorable one at that.
Versera
Sonny (Voice), Yavi (Guitar 1), Jace (Guitar 2), Erick (Bass), Chill (Drummer)
Instagram: @versera_band
A common theme I found in this awesome band that I quickly caught on to was that their performances had this theme where it would be a section of typically calm music, calm for rock music definitely not calm as in "I can sleep to this" kind of calm. Unexpectedly followed by crazy screaming. Could I tell if there were actual lyrics or not? No. Did I care? Not in the slightest. There was a period of the performance where it was purely guitar harmonics which may or may not have been just an accident but the audience was enjoying it.
Originally titled the Walmart Boxers, they performed a grand total of three shows and decided to stop as they wanted to just make some more music before going back out into the performance world. After finding the right name for their new brand by typing random words into the keyboard, they landed on Versera as they found it very fitting.
Sonny has been singing since November of 2022 which was the same time that this band was made, he always watches a Neil Ferry movie before his performance to hype himself up before a performance. A very pleasant interaction and I am very impressed by their skill despite being less than a year old.
Audience Spotlight: Jadyn Chen
Jadyn is a Cal student that just just came here from LA (Go Jadyn) who wanted to check out this legendary and iconic location. Recommended by his friend, I was running out of time to ask Jadyn questions because my phone was dying at a very fast pace.
From someone who grew up in SoCal that came up to the East Bay, I was wondering if he noticed any cultural differences from punk rock concerts up here compared to down in SoCal. Jadyn really likes the locals, a distinct change in energy. Thankfully Jadyn's impression on the Berkeley Community is that we're pretty chill and kinda accepting. Take that how you may I'll say that it's a pretty good impression.
Looking at Jadyns lovely style of clothing, and his gorgeous long and luscious hair I'm sure he would have some strong opinions about mosh pits in one direction or the other. He says "Fucking awesome shit. As long as you’re not an asshole." A quote I agree with, we should not be throwing hand directly at one another
Wish you the warmest of welcomes and welcome to Berkeley!
