Continuing on with my Noise Pop reviews, can I just first ask all of San Francisco to shrink down by about three inches? I’m 6’2”, and Friday’s shows proved to be another convention of tall people, all obstructing my view for most notably A Place to Bury Strangers. It’s cool though: by then end of the night I had eaten two great burritos, so everything is more than good.

Here is, if anyone cares, my thoughts on the evening:

1) The Builders and the Butchers - Sure, they’re from Portland, and sure, I’ve seen them a half dozen times, but it doesn’t matter: this is the next Portland band to make it big. If you don’t think so, you’re insane. It’s one thing to watch them in their home town with a bunch of rabid fans who are most likely their friends, but it’s a whole different beast to watch them completely win over a crowd of people who have never seen them before. I recommend trying the latter: it’ll make their greatness all that more prevalent.

2) A Place to Bury Strangers - Believe the hype! Noise, noise, and more noise, but done so in the most pop sense of the term. Their ear-shattering, mind-blowing set was pretty phenomenal. They managed to clear the uncomfortably-packed room both during and after their set, proving they are both too abrasive for the casual listener yet great enough to make people leave before the almighty Holy Fuck.

3) Holy Fuck - The band has played Portland twice in the last month, and if you haven’t managed to catch either show, I’m sorry. Seriously, this is a freaking live band. Quasi-dancey, yet totally experimental, they managed to recreate their record pretty true to form, which for a band with that much going on is no small feat. I’m always impressed with people doing live sound manipulation though, and these guys have it locked down. Hopefully they’ll be back soon, and hopefully you won’t miss it (like I had managed to do thus far) this time around.

4) Wale - Every time I think I like hip hop again, I see a live show and realize that I’m actually over it. I’m not super familiar with Wale’s material, but he had a DJ that pressed play on a laptop and then he managed to rap over what was clearly his own album, vocal parts and all. Even karaoke nuts perform more than this. Granted, I only caught a song and a half, but that was more than enough for me to not care.