Very Paranoia brings proto punk to Merchants' Saloon in Oakland
High-octane rockers Very Paranoia play this early show at Merchants' Saloon in Oakland Sunday evening with guitarist Graham Clise's new Australian band Stepmother.
An all-star proto-punk venture, the Bay Area band features Hot Lunch drummer Rob Alper on guitar (he also played in SLA, the Fells and the Sermon) as well as members of late lamented punk/metal greats Annihilation Time (bassist Chris Grande and later addition Jamie Sanitate on guitar), Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound (drummer Jefferson Marshall) and Dragon Rojo/Salem Lights (singer Cory Linstrum).
After coming together in 2018, Very Paranoia released its debut 7-inch single on German psych/punk imprint Who Can You Trust Records. In 2021, the group followed up with their first eponymous full-length that features lean, two-minute blasts of primitive ferocity that genuflects at the altar or the MC5 and Aussie punk pioneers the Saints.
While Alper has had to miss some local live dates over the past couple of years due to commitments outside the Bay Area, a spot opening for psychedelic power trio Earthless at Berkeley's Cornerstone in February of 2022 proved Very Paranoia could still deliver the goods as a quartet. In the spring of 2023, the band unveiled some new tunes from its forthcoming sophomore effort when they supported the Detroit Cobras for one of their Bay Area tour stops paying tribute to the band's late singer Rachel Nagy.
While the band has taken an extended 18-month break since its last live performance, Very Paranoia promises a set of all-new material when it returns to the stage this weekend. For this rare show at famed Oakland dive bar Merchants' Saloon, the band is joined by visiting Australian band Stepmother. Formed by onetime local guitar hero Graham Clise -- who has played with hugely influential punk-metal outfit Annihilation Time, as well as the more psychedelic hard rock groups Witch and Lecherous Gaze -- after he relocated to Melbourne, the new group finds the musician leaning harder into proto-punk sounds. The band released "Vacant State," the lead single from its forthcoming sophomore album, earlier this month. Oakland synth-punk quartet Nasty World opens the show.
Very Paranoia with Stepmother and Nasty World
Sunday, March 30, 6 p.m. $12
Merchants' Saloon
