Words by Jordan Martich
Join us this weekend back in the strange days of the late ’90s, when Stinky’s Peepshow gained attention as a thrilling weekly exhibition of the bands, booze, and babes that defined the City by the Bay’s underground scene. Current talent booking agent for Thee Parkside Audra Angeli-Morse threw the city’s wildest party with Stinky’s back then, and is now expanding the idea into a two-day festival called Stinky’s Al Fresco, happening this weekend, September 24 and 25.
Angeli-Morse started booking a weekly event in 1997 at The Covered Wagon Saloon, where Stinky’s Peepshow built crowds and gave bands their start until the venue was sold in 2002. They then moved into a new, larger space called The Justice League – which became The Independent – she was unhappy with the lack of intimacy at the events. Stinky’s spent time at Cafe Du Nord until the Covered Wagon was reopened as Annie’s Social Club and the peepshow moved home again, until Annie’s went under at the end of 2009. Since then, Angeli-Morse has resurfaced Stinky’s a couple of times, once at Total Trash Fest in 2010 and earlier this year as Stinky’s Peepshow pop-up tent at the Burger Boogaloo in Oakland.
Along with an impressively diverse and long list of amazing bands come special DJs and performances from the Large and Lovely Go-Go Girls, The Mudslide Sisters, and Jordan L’Moore. When asked what to expect at the festival, Stinky’s proprietor Angeli-Morse was ecstatic.
“Great music, sleaze, and big butts,” she said. “Stinky’s is burlesque on crack.”
Oakland heavy metal hitters High On Fire, Memphis dystopian punks Nots and SoCal garage rockers Audacity stack the list performances scheduled for the weekend, with exciting performances from The Spits and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – both bands that got their start with Stinky’s – showcasing the events’ historic reach.
“(I’m) bringing back the San Francisco that I knew and loved,” Angeli-Morse said.
Stinky’s al Fresco
Thee Parkside
September 24 + 25, 2016
12pm, $50
Jordan Martich is a writer and musician living in Oakland. He drinks too much coffee and doesn’t go to the beach enough.
