Blood Brothers Locust House
The Blood Brothers at the last-ever show at Locust House

watch The Blood Brothers at the last-ever Locust House show in '02 + Some Girls in SF (previously unseen videos)

With no shows happening, live videos are more important than ever, and thankfully some musicians and videographers are unearthing never-before-seen footage to provide even more entertainment during these concert-less, boredom-and-anxiety-filled times.

We recently posted previously unseen videos of The Locust and related band Some Girls in San Diego, and now we’ve got one of Some Girls at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill in 2002 and one of The Blood Bothers at The Locust’s house in San Diego that same year. Both videos are great and offer up snapshots of historic moments. The Some Girls set was from their run with The Blood Brothers’ Cody Votolato filling in with the band, and Swing Kids‘ Jose Palafox made a guest appearance during this show too. The Blood Brothers’ set was from the last-ever show at the Locust House, a rare, insanely-packed, tiny house show (500 people!) that they played in the midst of recording …Burn, Piano Island, Burn. The Locust’s Justin Pearson said they “put on one of the best performances I had ever seen by them [that night], and I had seem a lot.”

Videographer Matt Driscoll of The Pizza Series (who was also behind the Three One G DVD This Is Circumstantial Evidence and the Holy Molar DVD) shot both of these videos, and he tells us:

I have a very special history with the Locust House. In 1996, I met the members of Locust for the first time at the house, when the band I was in (Makara) played with The Crimson Curse at Che Cafe. I had just turned 19 and it was great to meet these dudes and just rock out at these shows. James and Chris who were also in Jenny Piccolo, brought Makara down to San Diego to play the show and it changed my life forever. Over the past 24 years, Three One G and The Locust have become family to me. Such great people and it was/is an honor to have been apart of such a great music community/family. Having the chance to film the very last show at the Locust House is something I’ll cherish in my heart forever and it’s also great that we can share the footage of these memories with everyone.

What an insane last house show this was, with about 500 people packed in. It’s a two story house and both floors had off setting shows happening. Upstairs was…Locust, Blood Brothers & Das Oath. Downstairs was…Moving Units, GoGoGo Airheart and De Facto (later became The Mars Volta). If you know the Locust House, it had a pretty steep staircase, definitely a challenge for bands lugging their equipment upstairs. You can imagine the mayhem with hundreds of people running up and down the stairs to catch the next set on each floor. This was a dream show that will never be matched, ever again! I’m so happy to be sharing this footage with the world, it was stored in a box for many years and now brought to life. This show sums up my memories of the Locust House and will forever be immortalized.

This is my favorite footage of The Blood Brothers playing live and I’ve filmed them live a handful of times. Their energy in this small setting is like a pressurized cylinder, ready to explode, just sheer beauty and chaos.

Some Girls was amazing at Bottom of the Hill. Though I knew JP for years, this was my first time seeing Some Girls. Great things happened at this show with a guest appearance on guitar by Cody Votolato (Blood Brothers) and Jose Palafox (Swing Kids) joining Sal on drums for “Deathface.” This footage demonstrates the raw energy of Some Girls and was just a great mind blown experience.

And Justin Pearson of Some Girls and The Locust adds:

Some Girls had a strange existence. During its time as a functioning band, and non-functioning band, we had a few different line ups. There was always various reasons for that, but for this performance here, we had just released Heaven’s Pregnant Teens and were on a US tour. Just before we got back to the West Coast, Charles has to leave us for a family emergency. We were about to get to Seattle and somehow had been in touch with Cody Votolato from Head Wound City and The Blood Brothers about filling in for the rest of the tour, which was only a few dates that headed down the coast. On the drive from Seattle to Portland Nathan showed Cody Charles’ parts, which he played later that night. San Francisco was the second stop with the new line up, and before this show we had been enlisting any of our drummer friends in various cities to join in and perform the double drum portion of “Deathface” that Gabe Serbian played on the album. When we got to SF, Jose Palafox from Swing Kids and Struggle joined us. Needless to say, we had some rad players on stage and it certainly made for a unique and odd performance. I suppose the people who view this can weigh in as to if it was a decent performance or not. I’m just grateful to have always been around such innovative and interesting musicians.

The footage of The Blood Brothers was from the eviction party that we had at the Golden Hill house AKA The Avocado 500 Club AKA Locust House (thanks to Adam Gnade’s book by that title). The band was recording in Venice with Ross Robinson and I managed to talk them into taking a break one night and come down to close down the house venue that we had been doing shows at for quite a few years. Needless to say, the band was on fire, and put on one of the best performances I had ever seen by them, and I had seem a lot. The sheer insanity and impractical situation of everything about this show and performance made for a special time that will never be able to replicate. The other bands who played this show were The Locust, De Facto, Moving Units, GoGoGo Airheart and probably some other bands. If you were there, and among the 500 or so people who made it out that night, you knew what was up.

Watch both: