Pure Finder-Doc's Lab, San Francisco, CA; 1/20/16

Driving into San Francisco last night, Andrew Palmer of Pure Finder, Sung Kim, and myself had a conversation about the drastic changes that have taken place in the cities that we love, and their effects on us, subjectively. This talk hit home for me as walked down into Doc's Lab, the North Beach space that used to house the Purple Onion. The latter, rooted as it was in funky 1950's Beat aesthetics, was an endearing mess of a joint. Doc's Lab, with its smooth lines and chic interior, not so much. San Francisco is no longer interested in dumpiness, and that's just the way that things are now.
As for the music, I felt that Pure Finder had a great, albeit somewhat short, set. We played two pieces, totaling about 25 minutes. It feels like we're getting closer to the concept that we've envisioned for ourselves, one that could be described loosely as "Space-ed Abstraction".
Doc's Lab has a nice Gretsch kit for a back line drum set, and I enjoyed playing it, along with some of my favorite cymbals and the Waterphone. I used a few repeated rhythmic motifs as little mental guideposts, coming back to them when I felt that I needed to. This strategy seemed to work well. Andrew did a nice job tweaking the sounds that his contact mics captured from the drums.
It was a real treat to be a part of the Sonic Scientists show! Look out for the next Pure Finder gig, scheduled for mid-February!

Below: Andrew Sets up

Above: Gretsch Catalina drums, very nice
Below: Sung Kim sets up for his solo set

Above: a nice pic of an SF classic!