Trainwreck Riders
Dawn Riding
DJ Pattis Myth
This event is 21 and over.
$13.00 – General Admission (Advance)
$15.00 – General Admission (Door)
*plus applicable service fees
Tickets available at The Independent box office (628 Divisadero, SF) with no service charge.
All doors & show times subject to change.
Trainwreck Riders are a rock ‘n’ roll four-piece that have been influenced by their ol’ country records just as much as their punk records. Their heroes range from Meat Puppets to Creedence Clearwater Revival, and they put forth a style versatile enough to get the crowd moving at a barnyard dance or ignite mosh pits in the inner cities. This ability is not what sets them apart though; it’s the fact that they blend these spectrums effortlessly in a way that is never hokey or gimmicky. Soft and slow or loud and fast, they know exactly where the twang needs to be.
Born and bred in San Francisco, dueling vocalists Pete Frauenfelder and Andrew Kerwin tell tales of The City in a way that few can. Whether it’s crooning or belting at the top of their lungs, they have plenty to say about the place they grew up in. Having been around long before San Francisco 2.0, naturally, nostalgia is a common theme from ones that know all about the way things used to be. Pete supplies the rhythm guitar, while Andrew’s lead guitar work dances gracefully and fittingly to each song. Steve Kerwin, brother of Andrew Kerwin, has been providing the hard-hitting drums since him and Andrew met Pete in high school and started playing under the original band name Rockin’ Chair in 2000. Shawn “Boof” Wyman has served as the permanent bassist since 2008, bringing a tangible energy to the group along with sweet, raspy third layer to the vocal harmonies.
Initially playing anywhere from BART stations to art galleries to house shows, the DIY efforts have paid off. They have gone on to headlining premier local venues such as The Independent and Bottom of the Hill, performing at The Treasure Island Music Festival, and even playing shows with Meat Puppets. Touring nationally, Trainwreck Riders have earned a reputation for their must-see live shows and have built a loyal following. Their touring buddies have included their hometown friends Two Gallants, who they gigged with in the early days and eventually became label mates with on Alive Naturalsound Records. Almost two decades since their start, the band sounds just as fresh as they always have, and the train has yet to come to a stop.
Trainwreck Rider’s self-titled 5th release captures a loose vibe that is the most reminiscent of their live shows. It’s their album that breathes the most, as space is allowed for the music to speak for itself without steering far from their signature sound. Lyrically, it is apparent that the band is still grappling with the cutthroat changes of the city they call home. They can’t help but to reminisce about the simpler times and offer their own unique perspective on what has transpired in the Bay Area and in their personal lives. The songs were tracked in a comfortable atmosphere at Tim Green’s Louder Studios in Northern California’s Grass Valley. Despite the presence of somber themes, the guys had fun making the album: “We’ve always talked about recording a record like this,” says vocalists/guitarist Pete Frauenfelder.
Northern California native Tony Molina has a restless, multi-faceted musical personality. He got his start playing in hardcore bands, but over time developed two distinct styles that are very far removed from that sound. Initially under the name Ovens, then as a solo artist, he crafts bite-sized chunks of melodic pop that can be broken into two sub-headings: quiet acoustic guitar-led ballads and noisy electric songs that sound like Teenage Fanclub with J Mascis and the Fastbacks’ Kurt Bloch spearheading a dual guitar attack.
Molina broke through with 2013’s Dissed and Dismissed, which leaned almost exclusively on his louder songs to great effect. Not content to be pigeonholed, however, he switched to the gentle, acoustic side of his dual nature for his next two releases — which included the eight-song EP Confront the Truth in 2016 and 2018’s Baroque pop-influenced LP Kill the Lights. 2019 saw the release of Songs From San Mateo County, a 14 song collection of previously recorded unreleased tracks, released while Molina was working on songs for 2022’s In the Fade, an album that incorporated all aspects of his previous work as a solo artist. In 2023, Molina also released In The Store with his side project The Lost Days. Featuring friend and fellow musician Sarah Rose Janko on vocals, the album is made up of beautiful home recorded folk rock songs written by Molina, with Janko and Molina trading off vocals.
Molina played in various D.I.Y. hardcore acts starting in his teenage years, while at the same time recording short songs that varied from acoustic ballads to almost symphonic metal, none of them lasting much more than a minute. This work was released under the name Ovens, beginning in 2006 with the “Beau Goes to the Hospital” single. He kept up a prolific pace, both as a member of bands and as Ovens, and in 2009 released the first music as Tony Molina, the 12-song Embarrassing Times cassette. In 2013, Molina released his second solo album, Dissed and Dismissed, a collection of 12 short and fuzzy tunes that took notes from ’90s indie and power pop acts like Weezer, Redd Kross, and Dinosaur Jr. What was intended as a demo caught the attention of fans of melodic guitar pop and hooked two legendary American labels, Matador and Slumberland. The former released the Six Tracks EP later in 2013; the latter signed him and reissued Dissed and Dismissed in 2014.
While playing guitar in the hardcore band Scalped, Molina began work on his first Slumberland record. He wrote and recorded over 40 songs, feeling pressure to make the record just right and wavering about which musical direction to take. In the end, he pivoted from making an album to releasing an EP instead. Stripping away the power
and guitars from his pop sound, the eight-song Confront the Truth featured Molina playing acoustic guitars, adding keyboards, and channeling his love of the Beatles.
His next album, 2018’s Kill the Lights, came about much more naturally. He worked on some songs with a friend, Jasper Leach, and they decided to make a record out of the demos they had started. Recorded in two studios and a bedroom, the album was again built around Molina’s acoustic guitar and winsome pop melodies, but this time featured some folk-rock-ready 12-string electric, a full-band sound, and Leach’s keyboards. The next year, Molina put together a collection of previously unreleased songs from throughout his career. Titled Songs From San Mateo County, the 14-track album was released in July 2019, just about the time Molina was wrapping up a U.S. tour.
When he began putting together another album, along with writing new songs, he also dipped back into the vaults to extract a few demos that were written during the Ovens era, but never finished. Once he had a batch ready, he braved the COVID lockdowns to head to the studio with long-time collaborator Leach at his side. Also helping out were drummer Josh Mendoza and Sarah Rose Janko, his partner in the folk-rock duo the Lost Days, who provided harmony vocals. The finished album, In the Fade, was released by Summer Shade, an offshoot of Run for Cover, in August of 2022 and was the first of his solo records to contain all the sides of his musical personality under one roof.