My professional grade earplugs couldn’t save me from the wailing and screaming of last night’s bands at The Rickshaw.

The first band, SF’s The New Up, was really sub par. It’s unfortunate, because I can tell that the female lead singer has one killer set of pipes, they just weren’t being taken advantage of. The rest was rather sloppy. And the dancing was bad. And the flute was weird.

Next was MC Rut, or Middle Class Rut, from Sacramento. It’s rare that I see a two piece, and there is usually no middle ground, it’s either good or bad. But, I’d say MC Rut is in the middle. There were times when I missed a bass, or thought the guitar got a little sloppy when the singing got really intense- and this singer is really intense, but at the same time it’s different and kinda charming. That is, when it didn’t borderline on emo, which it did from time to time. Their sound is Jane’s Addiction meets Filter, which is not a bad place to be. The drummer’s heavy breathing on his mic between songs cracked me up. MC Rut have fans that travel to their shows already, and help them carry equipment, etc. This could be good, we’ll see. They have some catchy songs.

Before the headliner went on, we noticed a quite preggers woman walking around the stage. It’s always funny when you see a pregnant lady in a bar. Well, it got even funnier, because Ms. 6 Month Preggers is the totally rockin’ bassist for the Burning Brides. Seriously, I was ROFLMAO, or whatever. It was awesome. That baby is gonna RAWK! So, Burning Brides, from Philly, have a very impressive background by virtue of the bands that they have toured with, though they have not seen much commercial or popular success. A Perfect Circle. Fu Manchu. Trail of Dead. Queens of the Stone Age. Eagles of Death Metal. Peaches. This trio is loud loud loud. They are really quite phenomenal live…however, I found that the songs started to blend together. They definitely gave a Nirvanaesque vibe, which come to find out they have been featured on a Nirvana tribute CD, performing ‘Something in the Way’. Ah, I miss grunge music. They are heavy, distortion filled, and definitely satisfy live.

The killer was when they signed off at the end. “See you next year, after the baby’s born!”. Teehee.

From Flickr:

OVERALL: 8/10
Burning Brides performance: 8.5/10
MC Rut performance: 7/10
The New Up performance: 4/10
venue (Rickshaw Stop): 8/10
crowd/scene: 7/10
value ($12.00/ticket): 7/10
memorable: 8/10