Live review and photos: Chris Farren and guests live at Bottom of the Hill

San Francisco, CA – 27 Sep 2023

A raucous and fun mid-week gig

A beautiful day had turned into a bit of a chilly evening by the time I finished dinner with the family and then skedaddled up to the city for a night of music at Bottom of the Hill. Chris Farren (Fake Problems, Antarctigo Vespucci) was bringing the show to town to celebrate the recent release of his solo LP Doom Singer.

Providing support for the gig were local act Funeral Cake and LA’s GUPPY. TGEFM has had the pleasure of covering all three acts in our news stories, so to say that I was pumped for a stacked gig wouldn’t be hyperbole at all.

Starting off the evening was Oakland’s Funeral Cake. This band is rooted in duo April and Fred Brott, who in the past have split the lion’s share of instrument duties on their releases, although it looks like they may be fleshing out the act for while April performed guitar and lead vocal duties, and Fred pounded the drums from the back corner, for the gig there was also a second guitarist and bassist along for the ride. And a child, but we’ll get to that in a second.

Funeral Cake released their new EP, One Piece Left, at the beginning of the September, and the front-end of their set was all four of those tracks in order. They travel in a 50s/60s-infused fuzz rock with misleadingly twee vocals (second guitarist slots in nicely on backing vocals and harmonies). But while their songs may seem simplistic at first blush, they are anything but. There’s a lot more depth there. The bassist, who may be a stand-in but hopefully is kept around, sounds great, and was shuffling his feet across the stage in what turned out to be a theme of active bassists for the night.

Additionally, that first set of songs also included a child who, if I had to guess based on those flowing blond locks, is the progeny of April and Fred. He nailed the glockenspiel, knew all of the words, and seemed a natural on the stage.

After a brief break, GUPPY out of Los Angeles came on. TGEFM was turned onto this band earlier this year, and so it was quite the event to also see them perform live. While Funeral Cake’s style tends to invoke gentle dancing and swaying, GUPPY comes out full bore and melts your face off. They’re a very guitar-driven indie-rock band, strong emphasis on the rock part of that, with some quirky rhythms and transitions between quiet and loud.

Of special note was their active bassist. GUPPY’s front three were definitely on the move, no doubt about that. But like the previous bassist, Marc Babcock was especially noteworthy as well. While Funeral Cake’s four-string maestro had fancy foot moves, Babcock expressed a sassy shake of the hips, moving back and forth on the stage without missing a note. It was all fun to see, but that put an extra smile on my face.

GUPPY played songs across their discography, with a decent share coming from their Apr 2022 LP Big Man Says Slappydoo, as well as the 2023 singles “Burrito” near the start, and most recent tune “Texting & Driving” to close things out. They had the crowd bouncing and cheering, truly seemed like a fun bunch on stage, and definitely left a good impression.

After GUPPY’s set a line formed up at their merch booth, and I went to my camera bag stashed away by the stage and then a spilled beer and a rescued cell phone later, I end up face to face with Pacing (the solo act of Katie McTigue), who TGEFM has been keeping an eye on lately. She was there with her partner and we got to chatting about the area, moving long-distance for your significant other’s career, and more. It’s a blast to meet the people you write about in person. Just another feather in the cap of this great night.

After some set up, Chris Farren took the stage. Touring in support of the August LP Doom Singer, I was curious how Farren was going to pull off this gig considering this is his “solo” act. Turns out he has a few arrows in his quiver, the first and most important of which is certified lesbian drummer* and collaborator Frankie Impastato. It would be lie to say that this isn’t the Chris Farren show, but Frankie is an integral part of the act, and it’s clear to see how deep their connection is. (*literally an ongoing gag as Chris humorously describes how he has permission to refer to Frankie as the “lesbian drummer” several times during the gig)

Another arrow is that, between Chris and Frankie, many of the assorted flourishes and extra instrumentation is piped in electronically. This isn’t to say that they just phone in their parts, but this leaves Frankie to pound away on the drums, and Chris to roam the stage like an animal, foot tapping away on the bountiful set of pedals he uses to coax the sounds he needs from his guitar.

Throughout the set, two separate projectors are in use, one pointed at the mic stand and regularly projecting on Chris, the other aimed towards the back wall, where it displays supporting video for the songs, informational tidbits such as how excellent the guitar solo going on at the moment is and, in one of the most humorous (out of many) parts of the night, Chris cycling through the same repeated message about how great (insert city name here) is, until he finally lands on “San Francisco.”

Chris Farren is a consumate stage performer, entertaining the crowd with not only performance, but also stage presence, banter, and more. There is a visceral energy of seeing this lone person strutting around and wailing away at a guitar (ooooh… there was A LOT of shredding going on).

Of particular note was “Statue Song,” where Chris donned a face mask, and stepped right off of the stage, wending and winding throughout the crowd, trailing his microphone cable behind him (and intentionally twisting it around concertgoers legs). It became an event to watch people try their best to focus on and appreciate the moment, while also trying to clumsily work themselves out of the tangle that Chris was making (and he was 100% definitely doing his best to tangle them up). It was an interesting and provocative way to present this somber song.

“Human Being,” from 2016’s Can’t Die closed out the set. It’s an energetic and moving song, and both performer and crowd were going hog wild for it.

There was little-to-nothing to fault with this gig. Each act brought their A game and the crowd was super-pumped to be there with them. From a photographic standpoint, the drum set was tucked into the corner with a perpetual dim blue light on it, which made it super tricky to get a good photo with everything else going on. Still, if that’s the one complaint, then it’s really a nothing-burger.

Merch-wise, Funeral Cake had cassettes of their new EP and stickers. GUPPY brought along some vinyl, clothing, and a hot sauce. Chris Farren had a plethora of shirts and other branded merch, including water bottles and more. I’m still in that nether region between medium and large for shirts, so I didn’t pick any up (although I was quite tempted by a few). No bands had buttons for my cap on-hand, which is always my go-to. A bit bummed about that one.