"Unfortunately, I'm the idiot [who] came up with the world's worst f***ing band name," said Kai Kln drummer Neil Franklin. "It comes back to haunt me when I have to explain this name and try to pronounce it."

Kai Kln (pronounced "kai" as in "kaiser" and "klin, but ignore the vowel," Franklin said) formed in Carmichael and played its first gig in August 1989 at Southside Park. When the four-piece headlines the inaugural End of Summer Fest concert in Cesar Chavez Plaza, it will be the 20-year anniversary of the band's first performance.

Friday's concert, which is a continuation of Concerts in the Park, will also feature opening band Prieta, a 2009 Sammie award winner for best rock band. Prieta plays fast-paced rock 'n' roll, sounding like a cross between Led Zeppelin and Soundgarden.

Back in the late '80s before Scott Anderson, Neil Franklin, Sherman Loper and Gene Smith adopted it as their band name, "Kai Kln" was a character from a story Neil Franklin wrote in detention. "I had to do something in Saturday detention every week, so I started to write these stupid stories about this character I made up," he explained.

Despite having the "worst" name, in the first year that it existed, Kai Kln quickly made friends with Sacramento promoters Jerry Perry and Brian McKenna, both of whom found the band gigs. After opening for Primus, the band grew in popularity and began selling out gigs in Sacramento and all over Northern California.

By 1992, Kai Kln had already released three cassettes: Rhythm of the Strange, 1990; Hair of the Bud, 1991; and Vigoda, 1992. The songs featured punk and psychedelic rock with a grungy Seattle tint.

The band shared the stage with other big-name local acts such as Deftones, Cake and Oleander, and opened for rock legends such as Sublime, Bad Religion and Nirvana. However, at that point (June of 1991), said Franklin, "[Nirvana] were not the powerhouse they became."

In fact, Nirvana was opening for a larger band named Dinosaur Jr. The show took place at the Crest Theatre.

"Nirvana [consisted of] vegetarians, so we got to drink all their beer and eat all their food downstairs at the Crest," Franklin recalled. "That was my favorite part of playing with Nirvana."

"I still thought they had their first drummer from their Bleach album Chad Channing," he added. "It turned out to be Dave Grohl, and I was a huge fan of the punk band Scream that Grohl played with right before Nirvana. So we talked about Scream for a little while. He ran off chasing girls, and the rest is history."

But Kai Kln's successes didn't stop there. In 1992 the band became the first unsigned band to sell out the 975-seat Crest Theatre.

Lead singer Gene Smith had quit a number of times by 1993, with the other members talking him back into the band every time. But one day, "I just couldn't talk him back into it for some reason, but that's how s*** happens sometimes," Franklin explained.

The breakup lasted for two years, and then the band got back together in 1995, but it "wasn't as fun," Franklin admitted. "Everybody had kids at the time, and it took a shift: All of a sudden it just became a real job, and it's the job you think you want to have, but we got sick of each other I guess."

Kai Kln released another a album, The Matter of Things, in 1997 but played only sporadically from 1998 to 2000. Then the members didn't play any shows until 2007, when they reunited and started playing again on a tour that they named "The Grandpas of Rock Tour."

At Friday's concert, the members expect to bring back an old ritual that they haven't performed since their early years: having a drunk roadie introduce them while covered in costumes and props from thrift stores. An emcee named "Young Jimmy Telethon" will introduce the group to the crowd wearing a "wacky outfit," Franklin said.

Joining the band will also be local musicians Mike Farrell and Nicole Burdock, one of Smith's guitar students. Their set will be the band's first album Rhythm of the Strange, played front-to-back, plus a few extra songs they put on the tail end of the album for the CD re-release in 1995.

"It's the best damn gig in town," Franklin added, referring to Concerts in the Park/End of Summer Fest. "It's so much fun, there are so many people and the sound is great."

End of Summer Fest takes place at Cesar Chavez Plaza on 10th and J Streets from 5 to 9 p.m. every Friday through Sept. 18.

Photograph credits: 

Photographs 1, 2 and 3 credit Ilsa Hess. 

Photograph 4 credit Denise Wentzel Dunning

Photograph 5 credit  Greg Savalin.

Photograph 6 credit Marc Malakie.