I went to Eli’s again to see Blues Lawyer and The Acharis play. Both of these bands are solidly “Oakland DIY” affiliated and are getting more successful. Blues Lawyer’s frontman Rob Miller used to lead a band called Mall Walk which has the spectacularly well produced ‘Funny Papers’ LP, and that band performed the first ever show at the Oakland DIY venue The Hole which I basically became the in-house videographer for since I filmed basically every single show there. Rob has a solo project called Christian Singles as well. He also runs a “micro label” record label Vacant Stare Records which actually has a substantial catalogue. The Acharis are now kind of an Oakland-Detroit hybrid band, since Mila and Shaun moved to Detroit a year ago, but they still have a practice space in Oakland and all their music gear is still kept here, and the other two members of their band (Janice and Adrian) are here. They did a European tour recently, and told me if they want to get their gear to Detroit they’ll need to do a U.S. tour. They recently came out with a new LP ‘Blue Sky / Grey Heaven’ on the famed George Chen’s ‘Zum Audio’ record label. George was a major major component of the Oakland DIY scene for 20 years until he moved to LA to pursue his stand up comedy career. I think he now also runs a podcast division for Pandora.

Aside from going there to see music, bars haven’t been a component of my social life for a long time, but Eli’s seems to have a devoted clientele. The back area is really nice. They used to serve really good tacos for awhile, but it seems like that’s not still happening.

So, basically the social highlight of this show for me was getting to hang out with Ellen Matthews, who is now lead guitarist in Blues Lawyer. I hadn’t been around her for a long time, and she’s continued to personally develop over the years, and at the show I felt like she’s on a really good track right now. As a musician, she’s basically been the preeminent guitar shredder of the entire Oakland DIY scene. There are other great guitarists in this scene, but Ellen fucking SHREDS. An early live video I made was for Ellen’s old band Nopes, and that video featured my usual obsessive color correction and sound mastering, and the sound of Ellen’s guitar cut through the speakers. When I first posted that video (I think it was in 2016), Rob Miller commented on it and said “Guitarist rips.” The new Blues Lawyer record that has Ellen on it hasn’t come out yet, and the band is trying to figure out a label that would be a good fit for it.

Ellen made me feel special by taking me with her upstairs to Eli’s green room, which I had never been in before. We talked while she ate a crunch wrap. She was telling me how she came to be invited to join Blues Lawyer because Rob wanted to add a shredder component, and Ellen wanted to do something Jangle Pop-style oriented, so the relationship was perfect.

This is musician and producer-engineer Luis Gutiérrez (L) and Rob Miller (R). Luis currently has two big music projects. He’s in the band Pregnant with Sacramento musician Daniel Trudeau, and Luis has a new solo project called ‘Edgar’ which from the way he’s described it to me has a sort of performance art component to it. He says it’s kind of a synth punk exploration/deconstruction of performative Mexican-American machismo. Luis is brilliant and intense, so the new project will probably be interesting.

Me, Luis, and Rob.

The Acharis. Their set was good. The sound had both space and texture, and some of their songs are real bangers.

This is journalist/editor Lisa Hix. She’s the Features Editor for the ‘Local News Matters’ Bay Area news website. I told her about my search for new employment that fully makes use of my skills but gives me free time to maintain a creative identity (which is probably what everyone in the DIY arts wants).

Lisa and me.

Shaun was manning the merch table at the show.

I recall this guy’s name is Tyler and I think we’re FB friends and he recognized me at the show. His face, facial expression, and haircut seemed very rock music compatible. Actually, that was true of his two friends he was with too.

Eli’s has an upstairs area with a bunch of arcade games.

This guy is Liam who is Lisa Hix’s roommate and came to the show with her.

Lisa and Liam.

I was stoked to get to briefly chat with Mila, because we hadn’t had time to chat during her band’s record release show a few months ago. She says Detroit is going really well for her and Shaun. It seriously seems like Bay Area people who are utterly depressed about the impossible housing market here should consider moving to Detroit if they can handle the cold winters, and figure out employment (like if they can work remotely, or travel for their work). House prices in Detroit are still super affordable, so with a small down payment your mortgage payments for a whole house there are literally half the price of renting a bedroom in a house in the Bay Area.

Mila and her friend Jake.

Jake

Mila and Jake.

This is Blues Lawyer about to play.

Ellen

Alejandra

Elyse

Blues Lawyer

Ellen doing a guitar solo.

Ellen came to the merch table to assist with record sales.

Alejandra Alcala plays bass for Blues Lawyer. Her other band is Naked Roommate.

Ellen’s spiritual energy at this show was really good. The Oakland DIY scene is more unusual than any other music scene I’ve ever been involved with in that it makes space for the full spectrum of emotional energy (like aggression vs tenderness), but there’s zero tolerance for physical/sexual violence here. So people can kind of exist in their own interior universes and figure themselves out while sharing physical environments with other people who equally care about art. I myself continue to try to figure out “where I’m at” in my mind and heart, and figure out how I do (and/or should) exist in the world. I’m basically trying to figure out how I can be useful to the world artistically while pursuing something that feels real and personal to me. I feel like I am a very strange person and my (medical-grade) anxiety condition often gets the best of me and makes me inject weird anxious energy into situations, which I then panic about and I retract and it becomes this ridiculous cycle for me that I can’t escape. It’s really really frustrating. I’ve recently started DBT therapy, which hopefully will give me the tools to finally disengage from this. In the meantime, I somehow have always been able to go to DIY music shows basically regardless of how I happen to be feeling at the moment, and my anxiety doesn’t feel crippling to me at those shows. Like I can just stay contained in my own sphere and move around the environment and engage with other people. Somehow this seems to be working out for being a social documentarian.

Once the show was over, right before I left, I got to talk to Shaun. He’s completed his degree in Industrial Design at San Francisco State University, and he’s now looking to get employed. Now living in Detroit, he feels working for General Motors would be a good fit. Shaun is one of the most creative people I’ve ever known, and if you’ve read the articles that have been published on my documentary work, you might have noticed that Shaun was the drummer in the two most epic music performances I say I’ve ever documented. In addition to currently being vox/gtr in The Acharis and his time as drummer in Diesel Dudes, Shaun was the drummer in Undō, which I basically feel was the ULTIMATE Oakland DIY band. Shaun was showing me on his phone pictures of Industrial Design projects he’s recently done. He uses the Solidworks and Rhino 3D software (he says people don’t use AutoCAD anymore), and he told me there’s this device called a CNC Router which is kind of like a 3D printer but for cutting wood, so you can make a wood design in software and then have the CNC Router automatically precisely cut out all of the pieces of wood you need to assemble into a design. Shaun’s new website showing off his design work is www.ShaunHunterWagner.com. You should hire him!