24-03-2025
Psychedelic punk band Hot Lunch plays the Kilowatt
Local psych/punk band Hot Lunch brings its cathartic sounds to
the Kilowatt Thursday night
, sharing the stage with guitarist Graham Clise's new band Stepmother and SF punk the Losers.
A force on the San Francisco underground scene for over 15 years, Hot Lunch was founded by singer Eric Shea after the split of his potent retro-rock outfit Parchman Farm in 2006. Shea managed to put together an all-star quartet of talented players, including former Mensclub guitar hero Aaron Nudelman and the pulverizing rhythm section of drummer Rob Alper -- ex-The Sermon (he also played guitar with Sacto garage-punks SLA) -- and bassist Charlie Karr, who was best known for his work with the Alternative Tentacles band Harold Ray Live in Concert.
Hot Lunch soon became a fixture in SF clubs with their fiery live performances and expanded their audience with the eventual release of the group's self-titled debut in 2013. Unlike the many acts who do little more than mimic the sonic template of influential early '70s proto punk/metal bands like Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad and the MC5, Hot Lunch wove in elements of skate punk, psychedelia and prog rock into their unique sound.
Issued on independent German label Who Can You Trust? in Europe and Tee Pee Records stateside, the album led to sponsored recordings and concert appearances for Scion A/V and Converse, considerably raising the band's profile. Over the next few years, the quartet issued a number of singles and EPs, including the five-track Scion A/V collection
Slappy Sunday
that was released for free download in 2015 and a 45 featuring the new tracks "Haul of Meat" and "Pot of Gold" last year. In 2019, the band released its appropriately titled sophomore album
Seconds
on Tee Pee Records.
Expanding the group's sonic palette, the effort found Hot Lunch embracing an ever-widening dynamic range with the haunting middle section of "Smoke Ring" and the sprawling prog epic of album closer, "Skulled to Neptune." But fans of the group's burly proto-punk attack will be pleased by the hefty crunch of "Human Reissue" and the energetic fury "Black Angel's Curse" kicks into following Nudelman's acoustic introduction.
The band went through a seismic change shortly after the album's release with two members moving out of the Bay Area as Shea relocated to Georgia for his job with online radio station Pandora, while Alper ended up in Tuscon, Arizona (though the drummer has since returned to SF). Despite the obstacles presented by half the band departing the region, Hot Lunch seems more intent than ever to continue developing the band's unique approach to heavy music. The group's set at the San Francisco edition of the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in 2022 was a highlight of the weekend. The quartet also served as the Friday headliner
at the three-day Bargain Rock Festival in Oakland
that summer and headlined the Heavy Psych Sounds kickoff party in 2023.
For this show at
the Kilowatt Thursday night
, Hot Lunch will be joined by visiting Australian band
Stepmother
. Formed by
onetime local guitar hero Graham Clise
-- who has played with hugely influential punk-metal outfit Annihilation Time, as well as the more psychedelic hard rock groups Witch and Lecherous Gaze -- after he relocated to Melbourne, the new group finds the musician leaning harder into proto-punk sounds. The band released "Vacant State," the lead single from its forthcoming sophomore album, earlier this month. San Francisco hardcore band the Losers opens the show.
Hot Lunch with Stepmother and the Losers
Thursday, March 27, 8 p.m. $15.66
The Kilowatt
