SF Stoner Rock Favorites Headline The Chapel

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- With a history that dates back to just after the early rise of such iconic stoner rock bands as Kyuss, Monster Magnet and the Bay Area's own Sleep, down-tuned drone merchants Acid King have been rattling sternums and punishing eardrums for over two decades.

Formed in 1993 by lead singer and guitarist Lori S., drummer Joey Osborne and bassist Peter Lucas (the first in a long string of rotating bassists), the power trio became one of the stalwarts of the San Francisco metal scene. Recording an EP and its debut album for the Sympathy for the Record Industry label, the group eventually moved on to Frank Kozik's local Man's Ruin imprint later in the decade.

The band would refine its lumbering, hypnotic riff magic to new heights on the rumbling 1999 opus Busse Woods and their 2005 follow-up III for Small Stone Records. Acid King would go on hiatus for a time following that release, but invitations to perform at European festivals prodded the band back into activity. With Scorched Earth Policy guitarist Mark Lamb joining the band as its latest bass player, the trio began playing regular local shows and gradually got together for a new album.

Last year, Acid King issued what may be the band's crowning achievement with the trio's first new album in a decade, Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere on Svart Records. Adding psychedelic atmospheres to their signature monolithic riffs, songs like "Silent Pictures" and "Coming Down from Outer Space" take the listener on an interstellar journey unlike anything Acid King has produced in the past.

A year after the band's sold-out album release party, Acid King returns to the Chapel Saturday night for another highly anticipated hometown show. For this concert, the trio will be joined by industrial doom/drone outfit Author and Punisher and DJ Naked Rob as well as illumination from Donovan's Lights Out Light Show.

Acid King
Saturday, June 11, 8 p.m. $15
The Chapel

San Francisco