This time I managed to mostly avoid the great jetting plumes of pot smoke that went off twice a minute like a school of whales breaching, but mostly my reaction to the show was, "I think there might be a band playing beneath this molar-rattling bass hum." How do you manage to make the bass howl like that when the band has no bass or drums? Jesus.
But I'll count the 25 minute, $16 quesadilla that tasted like a $2 grilled cheese sandwich as "my own damned fault". There was a time when the food at Fillmore was actually pretty good, but I keep forgetting that that time was, like, more than ten years ago.
I'm not sure about stylish. After you left they started using paisley lights. Although, I was impressed that the guys smoking pot directly in front of me actually stopped when I asked them to.
The place is clean, in good repair, and has a fortune in the sound and lighting rigs. Usually when a place sounds that bad, it's because someone's cheaping out. But clearly money is being spent. So I don't know where it's all going wrong.
Last time I was there was for Morrissey and the sound was adequate. Perhaps tonight's sound guy just sucked balls? I turned around at one point and watched him for a while. He seemed oblivious.
It's possible, but I can't even recall the last time the sound there had risen to "adequate". Wait, I just went through my calendar. It was probably Gang of 4 in 2005.
Nouvelle Vague sounded good there, too.
You know at some point I rather liked it because you could get food there early and then sit by the balcony. But in the last few years ok, decade, it's all bong water.