The Heavenly States Played Bottom Of The Hill: A Foggy Holiday Release Party

On Friday night we had the pleasure of heading over to The Bottom Of The Hill for the release party of A Foggy Holiday 2008, the latest in Talking House Records' series of holiday comps for charity. The joint was packed, and most (or parts) of the bands on the record were in attendance. The night was predominantly shorter sets that included the holiday tracks that the bands had recorded for the benefit, but The Heavenly States were headlining the evening's festivities. We managed to catch the holiday goodness on film (Or, well, microchip. You know how it is).

To be frank, this is probably the most we've heard The States rock out in a live show - maybe it was the packed room, maybe it was the headliner status, or maybe it was just the right kind of night. Regardless, it worked - the whole band was blazing through the set, and despite our better judgement, we kept our earplugs out so we could absorb the full awesomeness of the set.

The band played a ton of the material from their latest, Delayer, and even managed to squeeze in their cover of "Little Drummer Boy" from the album of the evening. To be frank, we here at HAD tend to hate "Little Drummer Boy" (yes, even the Bowie version), and we weren't very optimistic about hearing it yet again. That being said, we were pleasantly surprised. The band managed to take the tune's typically bore-inducing repetition and inject it with a solid dose of droney rock sensibility. Add some percussion provided by members of The May Fire, and hey - we're liking what we heard.

At the end of the day, we here at HAD are suckers for charity and Christmas, and Foggy Holiday manages to have both. Not only that, but they managed to rope in some of the best bands SF has to offer at the moment. The event at Bottom Of The Hill echoed the vibe, with happy people, good music, and holiday cheer. Trust us kids, you don't have an excuse not to check this one out.

More pictures at the HAD Archive