Krampus Night with Jello Biafra and the GSM, Arnocorps and more
Cindy Frey
Jello Biafra's long-running record label Alternative Tentacles hosts this holiday Krampus Night celebration Saturday featuring performances by the punk legend and his band Guantanamo School of Medicine, action rockers Arnocorps and more.
One of the Bay Area's pioneering punk-rock figures, Biafra first came to fame as the lead singer and main songwriter for the Dead Kennedys. Started in 1978, the brash San Francisco quartet mixed surf, garage rock and rockabilly, providing a foundation for the singer's bitingly humorous lyrics and caustic delivery on classics like "California Uber Alles" and "Holiday In Cambodia."
The band's string of landmark albums and EPs Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables and In God We Trust, Inc.helped make the DKs one of the leading lights of West Coast punk. Biafra would make headlines with a sarcastic run for San Francisco mayor, but a controversy surrounding a poster with inflammatory art by H.R. Geiger inserted in the band's 1985 effort Frankenchrist set off a long and draining court battle that eventually led to the dissolution of the Dead Kennedys.
Biafra would embark on numerous high-profile collaborations in the decades since, teaming with the likes of Ministry's Al Jourgensen and Mojo Nixon and tracking classic albums with Canadian contemporaries NoMeansNo and D.O.A. in addition to recording and touring with grunge iconoclasts Melvins. It wasn't until Biafra fronted the then-named Axis of Merry Evildoers at his 50th birthday concerts in 2008 that he once again was at the helm of a full-time band.
The following year, the re-christened Guantanamo School of Medicine released its debut album The Audacity of Hype to great acclaim. Anchored by the twin-ax attack of Victims Family guitarist Ralph Spight and onetime Carneyball/Mol Triffid six-stringer Kimo Ball, the group established a reputation as a ferocious live act and helped propel Biafra into a punk-rock renaissance.
Though there has been some turnover in the band's personnel in the years since (it currently features Victims Family bassist Larry Boothroyd and Helios Creed/Chrome drummer Paul Della Pelle), Jello and the GSM has continued to tour internationally, playing festivals on both sides of the Atlantic to wide acclaim. Fan are still waiting for the band to release a follow-up to their sophomore album White People and the Damage Done, but there's always the chance that Jello and company will have a holiday surprise in store at the hometown celebration.
Jello will be joined by one of Alternative Tentacles' most powerful bands, electrifying action-rock heroes ArnoCorps. Founded back in 2000, the San Francisco sextet of punk-metal combat veterans aims to take back the Austrian mythology and lore appropriated for American consumption by actor and sometime politician, "Austroploitation" figurehead Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Dealing out such spectacular rock anthems as "Terminator," "Predator," and "Total Recall," the dynamic outfit led by charismatic vocalist Graf Holzfeuer has built a rabid following of Bay Area fans while cultivating an international following with regular UK and European tours. In addition to last year's reissue of the group's 2005 debut Greatest Band of All Time (made available on vinyl for the first time), ArnoCorps teamed with AT to put out their new "Two More" 7-inch single. The Krampus Night bill is rounded out by SF punk greats Fleshies (fronted by Street Eaters and former AT band Triclops! singer John No) and unhinged trash rockers Death Hymn Number 9.
Krampus Night with Jello Biafra and the GSM, Arnocorps and more
Saturday, Dec. 5, 8 p.m. $18-$20
Slim's