World Famous In San Francisco

I decided last minute to check out Tarantism & Snacks at the ATA with our East Bay correspondent Legs before heading to the Eagle for Mayyors. This was kind of a bad idea because once I got there I was super on edge about getting across town -- could you tell I can be a bit neurotic?? Anyway, I'm not completely paranoid but I think everybody involved with this show was out to get me. Like they knew I was being neurotic about getting to the Eagle. Right after we paid the door guy he told us that things were running a little behind and it wouldn't start for thirty minutes. Eventually, Tarantism showed some videos they made. First was a set of late night local tv commercial spoofs. Then an absurd surrealist thing that they made about Colonel Sanders visiting a fish tank and ending up in a meat grinder. To top it off they played an abstract laptop piece with video starring basic shapes in (mostly) primary colors. I liked the Colonel Sanders video, it had a very amateur aestehtic to it and it reminded me of ashley huizenga and hazel hill's halloween video. I also liked that the video accompanying the laptop piece ended with the message "Its Over". Its hard to tell sometimes, you know? Here's a clip from a DVD they have out, it pretty much sums up what they did at this show:



Then Snacks took a half an hour to set up a drum. I swear they did. The way the guy kept getting distracted I'm tempted to think he was really stoned, but it also lends credence to my theory that I was being tormented. But more likely he was stoned, I mean this is a band dedicated to and named after snacks. They always have a snack at their shows, something gross that you wouldn't want to eat (but people eat it). Tonight it was baguette, nutella, and capers/olives/mint. I couldn't imagine, watching them eat it made me queasy. It was so very post modern, just like their videos (which they could have started showing while they were setting up that drum but they didn't because the more I think about it the more I'm sure they were out to get me).

Actually, I thought their videos were really fun. The first one was this spliced up futuristic/primitive martial arts b movie that I'm sure is some classic I should know but with a new vocal track laid on top about an epic journey for octopus pizza. Kinda like that thing they used to do on that irritating improv show "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" or, probably more accurately, like Mystery Science Theater 3000. The second video was another spliced up superhero b movie. Instead of overdubbing it, they transformed the narrative by splicing in video of themselves on the phone speaking in tongues, laughing hysterically and seemingly arranging to have elepants attack a guy dressed up like superman. That description sounds terrible, but it was super engrossing.

Oh, wait. Both of these are actually on youtube, thank you amazing miracle internet:





When they finally got to the music I was so wound up about getting to the other show I couldn't really stay. I bailed when they switched from live electronics and drums to interpretive dance accompanied by bike horns.