Fresno Famous

Say what you will about the C.A.F.E. Infoshop (or the Chinatown Youth Center for that matter), but you've got to be impressed by the amount of talent coming through there lately. Sadly, the shows don't get the publicity (or the crowds) they deserve. But we'll leave that alone for now (on a side note, check out the amazing lineup of bands playing there this weekend at the Legal Violence Festival).

Devilkin Assailant: Anyone remember the '90s metal band Sacred Reich? Devilkin Assailant (pronouced as one word, no pausing) is that, only played by high schoolers. Lots of shredding. Some headbanging. The singer had the schtick down, growling out song titles between quick breaks.

"This next song is called ... DEATH UNIVERSITY."  

You get the idea. These dudes were fun to watch. 

Eindrah: I tend to be leery of any band that bills itself as "experimental." If you're really doing experimental music, listening to it probably isn't going to be much fun and most often the band is "experimenting at all." They just have a violin player or some crap.

I wouldn't call Visalia's Eindrah experimental. I also see how they don't fit conventional genre labels. So ... Let's see. Instrumentation wise it's piano (or an electric version of such), drums and vocals. They do a lot with it. The singer has a  Maynard James Keenan kind of wail and the music is dark in a Toolish way. This was their demo-release show.

Dimerunner: A four-piece punk-band from Fullerton, which doesn't say much. Musically, Dimerunner reminds me of the new Off! album, but that could be because it just got gifted to me and I've have been listening to it a lot. Seemed sort of one note, that one note was awesome so who cares? A lot of bands I love (Motorhead, Ramones, AC/DC) have made careers on one note

Our set: We were too loud and unfocused, which maybe came off as chaotically cool, who knows.