Adventures in Urban Exploration-The "Cannery"

After finding several blogs and galleries alluding to an abandon, graffiti filled, building referred to as "the Cathedral" I was intrigued and excited for an adventure. One sunny SF afternoon I set out to find graffiti in general and this so called “Cathedral”. Just off of 3rd, down on the waterfront, in the Dog Patch neighborhood, a fence surrounds a crumbling concrete structure. The windows are smashed out and slabs of metal block all obvious entrances.

The building sits on Islais Creek that feeds into the SF Bay and use to serve as a tuna processing plant until a botulism outbreak, which killed several people in the early 1960's. After which, it was shut down and has since sat withering.

Trying to find a way to get in I semi-circled the building until I ran into the corrugated walls that jutted into the water. Eager and fool-hardy I waded through the water around to the other side of the building to where I found a small hole just big enough for me to Houdini myself through and pull my camera bag in after me.

What I found was something quite breathtaking and fantastic. As I snuck around corners, through dark stairwells and dank shadows my adrenaline pumped. Every surface was painted and spray cans were everywhere (literally 1000's). There was asbestos blowing about, rusty pipes, broken glass on the ground and other random debris was everywhere. Even though it was the middle of the day, the building felt haunted, eerie and creepy. I kept expecting to be find someone or worse yet, someone find me.

Just my camera and me; I felt vulnerable.

(The pics that are not in the building are from the trip there.)

Rebirth Brass Band & Extra Action Marching Band @ The Great American Music Hall

On Saturday night forces of brass and drum converged at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. A spectacle of lights, dancers, masks, costumes, horns of all sorts and foot stomping beats came together in a sweaty ear-popping 4-hour montage of music.

Hailing from New Orleans the main attraction, The Rebirth Brass Band, brought a mix of big band trumpets, saxophone, trombone, bass and snare drums, hip-hop lyrics and covers. Their energy passed through the crowd and at the end of the night it was a full on party.

The local Bay area opener, Extra Action Marching Band, set the bar quite high with a show that in my opinion went unrivaled throughout the night. With an entrance that had them marching out of the back of the GAMH to perform several of their songs in the midst of the audience, they jostled everyone's sense of normalcy. Their highly sexualized act was this juxtaposition of music and dance that kept your eyes flitting from one spectacle to another. If marching out with pounding drums, blaring horns, flags, dancers and masks weren’t enough the band and dancers gradually stripped bare throughout the show until almost everyone in the band was flashing some sort of skin. They ended their set there was a with a quasi S&M spectacle complete with leather, fake money and lots of skin. Odd? Yes. Entertaining? Extremely.

Enjoy the Pics,

Here's the whole story on SF Weekly Music Blog All Shook Down by Anna McCarthy

Patterson Hood and The Stone Foxes @ the Independent

Yet another show at the Independent. Patterson Hood (lead singer of the Drive-by Truckers), played in support of his new solo album, Killing Oscar (and other love songs). Opening was an amazing San Fran act, The Stone Foxes. Check them out if you get a chance, they put on a really great live act. Here's the write up on the SF Weekly Music Blog.