Local stoner/doom heroes HTSOB headline the Golden Bull in Oakland
Oakland all-star stoner/doom heavyweights HTSOB (aka High Tone Son of a Bitch) headline this hometown show at the Golden Bull Thursday night.
Coming together in the early 2000s after the split of guitarist Paul Kott's sludge/doom project Cruevo, the group put out its debut EP Better You Than Me in 2003 that featured such notable players as A Minor Forest drummer Andee Connor, Portland, OR singer Scott Wagner and Kott's brother Andrew playing lead guitar.
Andrew's tragic death after a fall from a hotel window in San Francisco's Tenderloin in 2007 led to an extended hiatus for the band as Paul Kott shifted his focus to the crust metal band Kalas with Sleep and High on Fire guitarist/singer Matt Pike. Kott would revisit recordings made prior to Andrew's passing years later, eventually putting together a new line-up of HTSOB to finish and release the band's Velocipede EP. A follow-up EP the next year included the band's epic cover of the Alan Parsons Project radio staple "Eye in the Sky."
Two years ago, the band compiled its past efforts for Lifecycles: The EPs of HTSOB that was released right at the beginning of the pandemic shutdown. With the band unable to tour, Kott and company would plan a live in-studio concert that would be streamed and recorded for release by Bay Area metal imprint Ripple Music.
Live at The Hallowed Halls features Kott alongside noted bassist and producer Billy Anderson (who has played with the Melvins, Acid King, Men of Porn), singer Russ Kent (Noothgrush, Alaric) and keyboardist Bryce Shelton (Nik Turner's Hawkwind, Acid King) and Phantom Hound lead guitarist Jake Navarra with guest appearances from Pike, guitarist Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain, The Skull) and singer of defunct Portland, OR, doom greats Holy Grove, Andrea Vidal.
The band has embarked on several extensive tours since the pandemic and appeared at both editions of the Heavy Psych Sounds Festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco last spring. For this show at the Golden Bull, Kott and the current line-up of HTSOB with Anderson, Kent, guitarist Patrick Peterson (ex-Messiah), drummer Matt Butler (ex-Skin Horse, Nero Order, AnsiA) and keyboard player Luke Laplante (ex-Spacebag) are joined by celebrated Portland outfit Tigers on Opium, Joshua Tree-based desert rock trio Flames of Durga -- which features identical twins Béah and Cecilia Romero on guitar and bass -- and LA doom merchants Pegzilla.
HTSOB
Thursday, Aug. 10, 8 p.m. $15-$18
The Golden Bull
