Shawn Harris and Gnarboots at the Uptown
The Matches just finished touring for their final album’s ten year anniversary (A Band in Hope) a few weeks ago, so I didn’t think they’d be planning anything anytime soon. But of course, frontman Shawn Harris decided to keep the momentum going. Toward the end of an email blast he sent out it said:
For anyone in the bay, I’m playing a small show at the Uptown in Oakland, CA on Aug 17th. (if you were to rearrange the letters from the band name on the flier, “Harsh Raw Sin,” you might guess that Shawn Harris was actually performing 😉
I’ll be playing St. Ranger and the Matches songs (with a couple of special guests 😉
Harsh Raw Sin, that dork. The Uptown is a pretty small bar/venue, and tickets were only $8, so it was pretty easy to convince Niki, one of my closest friends and COTF who was going to be in town that weekend, to join me.
Headlining the show? None other than Gnarboots, the insanity that opened for the Matches at the Ivy Room last September.
Me to Niki: “We don’t have to stay for Gnarboots if you don’t want. They’re pretty weird.”
They’re just weird enough that I was kinda excited to see them again, but I didn’t need to see them if she wasn’t up for staying out that late. Shawn wasn’t even supposed to go on until 10:45. It was going to be a late night.
We got to the Uptown before they were checking tickets for the show (because it is also a bar), and turns out they never made an effort to check our tickets at all. We could’ve gotten away with not paying the $8 to get in. But obviously I don’t mind paying and I hope the money went to the artists, because I want to support them.
But while we were outside getting ID’d, I heard a meow. Kool Kat. (Or is it Cool Cat?) I’m not even sure what his real name is, but supposedly he’s the one who started the meows during “Scratched Out.”
Me: “He’s a character.”
I’m not sure where he disappeared to when we went in to the bar, but he was gone.
I’d never heard of the first two bands (Terabyte and Vice Reine), so Niki and I stayed at the bar drinking until Shawn went on. There was a screen set up in the bar where we could see the venue in the other room and watch the performances. We didn’t pay them much attention in all honesty.
A few people I knew walked by and stopped to chat. Paul, who I was in a band with for one day (I was going to play triangle for one show, but neither of us stuck with the band), and Mandy, who joined Niki and I at our table. Shawn and his wife Lauren also walked by and I got hugs. They were wearing black masks that just covered their eyes. Is that a Harsh Raw Sin thing now?
Shawn said he’d be playing on the back patio. I didn’t even know there was a back patio at the Uptown, but we went outside and it was really cute. Matches bassist Justin San Souci and his wife (and Bleeding Audio director) Chelsea Christer were out there already.
I introduced Niki and Chelsea and they pretty much immediately hit it off. Mandy and I unintentionally wore the same Bleeding Audio shirts, so I told Niki that Chelsea’s the director.
Niki: “It’s okay, she embarrassed me earlier too.”
Me: “Oh yeah, Niki works for NASA.”
Chelsea: “Oh my god, that’s amazing. If I wasn’t doing film I would want to work for NASA.”
Shawn Harris
The internet was not helpful in reminding me of the setlist, so I’m only confident in the order up until “Salty Eyes,” and I might have missed a few songs.
Lauren Harris apparently has been learning to play drums since June, so she joined Shawn onstage to play during his St. Ranger set, which was the first four songs.
Happy
Billy Brown
Shawn’s mask came off right before this song. (I mean he threw it off, it didn’t just like… come off.)
Sentimental Bullshit
Shawn talked about how he wrote this song for/about Lauren after they’d only been dating for about a week. He said if he knew he’d been playing it now WITH her, he would’ve called it something a little more romantic than “Sentimental Bullshit.” But it’s cute. They’re cute.
Unfuck the World
Salty Eyes
Shawn traded out his guitar for an acoustic one and dove into a Matches set after Lauren left her drums.
As soon as he started playing, I turned to Niki and pointed to the “You Belong” tattoo on my wrist.
“This song is where this came from.”
Shawn: “I promise I will not step on your fingers. There is no barricade. I will not put all 200 of my pounds on top of your heads tonight. It’s not the vibe. It’s not the vibe.”
Me to Niki: “I love him.”
Dog-Eared Page
Watching Shawn play Matches songs acoustic on his own is really something. He got to Jon’s guitar solo and just kinda stood there saying something like, “Here’s the guitar solo. Can’t you guys hear it?”
It’s like banter with himself mid-song. I love him.
Chain Me Free
I can only imagine how weird it was for Niki watching this entire back patio follow “She calls me during love line, gets the machine” with “BEEP.” Everything is so planned. Not really, but like… we do the same shit every time and it has to be weird for an outsider to witness. It’s definitely something. I love it. I love this weird culty family.
Scratched Out
Speaking of weird…
He started playing the beginning of “Scratched Out” (and naturally all of us in the crowd are screaming lyrics… “TOOTHPASTE MAKES MY ORANGE JUICE SOUR!”) and when he gets to the hums, he asks Kool Kat to come onstage to meow. Kool Kat, the character that he is, had Shawn start the song over from the beginning so he could be onstage for the whole thing.
Shawn introduced him as an L3 kid (L3 being where the Matches played their shows for the first few years of their career) and the original meower. Apparently the other guy who claims he started the meows wasn’t present at this show, so it’s uncontested.
Destination: Nowhere Near
Shawn: “Justin San Souci, another L3 kid.”
I don’t think they knew what they were playing together, but “Destination: Nowhere Near” happened and I was happy about it.
Clouds Crash
“What else should I play? Oh I know. Lauren Wakefield, are you here? Lauren Wakefield, another L3 kid.”
Lauren played “Clouds Crash” with the Matches at their Ivy Room show in September when they had to change the setlist due to the insane heat in the bar and Shawn realizing he didn’t remember how to play it. So he invited her onstage to play it again at the Uptown.
“Is Adam Davis here? Adam Davis, another L3 kid.”
Apparently Adam Davis is one of the members of Gnarboots, as the two guys came onstage with Shawn with an acoustic guitar and started playing “Stand by Me.”
Gnarboots
Shawn stayed onstage to sing “Stand by Me” with them, and he gave the microphone to Lauren Wakefield at one point, and she absolutely killed it. She’s got an amazing voice.
Then Shawn left the stage and Gnarboots took over. I wasn’t sure if we were staying for their set, but it kinda just happened. They played one more acoustic song outside, then all of a sudden they’re leading us into the building, where what I remember a Gnarboots party looking like was already underway.
I think the alcohol we’d been drinking for the past few hours helped, but Niki and I were super into it. I think it also helped that I was much more prepared for what was about to go down than I was the last time I saw them.
Here are some things a Gnarboots party entails:
- Dudes in semi-creepy masks.
- Toilet paper being thrown through the crowd.
- Light up balloons that say “Party Time.”
- A giant plastic thing pushed over our heads.
- A parachute like kindergarteners play with pulled over us while we all laid on the ground like it was “nap time.”
- A lot of chanting, such as: “The power of Gnarboots compels you,” and “You are Gnarboots!”
- Money (thrown everywhere) printed with “Gnarboots” on it.
- Drums brought into the middle of the floor for the crowd to play.
Niki actually plays drums, so she was into it.
It was nuts. So much fun.
When their set ended, Niki grabbed two balloons, convinced she would bring them back to New York with her somehow (she did not, they’re still in my living room) and carried them on our half hour walk through Oakland back to my house.
But not before telling me to ask the security guy if I could snag a poster.
