After having a total blast at RuPaul’s Dragcon LA 2023, we headed over to Oracle Tavern for what would be our very last Sean Carnage Friday Night. No one knew that at the time, but there were some ominous signs…

Dragcon LA 2023: See the complete photo Carnage

The music was fucking EXCELLENT. Thank you again, belatedly, to all the performers.

I’ve said it before: if you’re going to go out in a ball of flames, make sure it’s the biggest conflagration you can muster… this one qualifies! It was a biiiiiiiiiiig fucking nasty, smoldering, sticky mess at the end. Geezus. After all these years, I’m still scraping up shit off the floor at the end of the night.

After the afterparty, when I returned home, my life resumed the turmoil that began in November 2022 when my husband relapsed on drugs and couldn’t/wouldn’t admit it to anyone. He raged out at me so terribly after this show I wished I was dead. Sorry, I hope that’s not oversharing, but this was the start of three extra bleak months (I thought I had already cried all I could cry in December, January and February when my husband began his descent back into addiction and an avalanche of mental health issues).

It all culminated in me being served divorce papers mid-July, and spending three months homeless and on the run from my husband when I had to flee our home.

READ: I’m getting divorced—and it fucking sucks

And then Oracle Tavern closed. Ugh.

In any event, this crazy event foreshadowed it all, and despite the pain that followed, I wouldn’t change anything. Thanks again for the opportunity to host this run of excellent shows. Prediction: there will be more in the future once I get reestablished.

Rock on…

Bat Noise (all photos: Sean Carnage)

Bat Noise is one of those excellent bands that slips through the cracks of easy categorization. They make noise groovy, improv scary, and turn cosmic into caustic (and vice versa). Bravo! True originals and keepers of the underground flame.

READ: Bat Noise: Still ‘freaking the streets’

Bat Noise

Bat Noise

Bat Noise

Bat Noise

Bat Noise

DJ Kyle Mabson

Mikhai Tran!

Chaki, Bret Berg, Ryan… right before shit hit the fan in the worse possible way yet.

Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits fits the profile of a modern underground artist: solo emotional explorations augmented by technology. Though Myriad Slits fits the template her songs and presentation were anything but rote. I felt like I was in the presence of a great undiscovered singer—a soul singer in the literal sense of the term—and an incredible talent. She brought us in, held us in her hand and then flung us to places far away with dazzling songs. Iconic. Thank you!

READ: Cute & difficult & fun: Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits

Myriad Slits

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior… they did all the things that annoy independent bookers. Took way too much time to set up, got sticky goo EVERYWHERE, played too loudly, broke equipment, set shit on fire… and yet, we were all clapping and smiling at the end. The bar staff (bless ’em) even joined in the cleanup—what?! That was not expected. But they are artists as well and it takes one to know one.

I would not really recommend any band pull the stunts Pain Behavior did. But since they fucked up the bar, and got praise from the bar folks for it… well, I guess that was a huge success? Vive l’arte!

READ: Pain Behavior brings ‘Industrial Slutcore’

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior

Pain Behavior

It’s super sad to be signing off—saying bye bye to Sean Carnage shows. We’ll be back. This was a brief run compared to our Monday Nights. But it was highly successful and gave me confidence and joy at a time I really needed it.

I hope you had fun too!

Take a look back at all our Fridays

Watch Sean Carnage Parking Lot—the definitive Carnage concert doc

Need more Carnage? How about 40 Bands in 80 Minutes?!