This Thursday night, The Torch Club will be hosting San Francisco artist Seth Augustus who is a proficient blues musician. What is so rare about a blues musician appearing in a blues venue? Throat singing. Seth Augustus is a throat singer who studied under Paul Pena, one of the foremost blues musicians of our time. Throat singing is very different from normal singing. It takes years of discipline and practice to learn to hold the throat and stomach muscles before you can isolate sounds and master them well enough to sing repeatedly. Throat singing was originally part of the Inuit culture - women would have contests to outlast each other and it is a normal part of Tuvin and Mongolian cultu

Sudden darkness, strobe lights and a disco ball were probably the last things one would expect to find at a show as tightly driven as the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, who performed Tuesday night at Harlow's to a full house for the second time in two months. It took a while for the crowd to arrive, but the band was punctual and they opened their first set with a well-received hat trick: “Lizzie Mae,” "New Minglewood Blues” and “Tulsa Yesterday.” Front man and guitar wizard Chris Robinson is touring heavily throughout California on this next leg of the schedule with quite a colorful tumble of organ-grinders: bassman Mark "Muddy" Dutton (LA Guns), George Sluppick on skins (City Champs, Alber

Zen Sushi, located at the corner of 15th and I streets, has re-opened after weeks of construction and renovations. Days following it's grand re-launch, I ventured in and sat down to talk with my favorite sushi chefs: Michael Kwong and Lou Valente, and to meet the owner and Master Chef, Jason Von Hom. Gone was everything. All the orange and brown lacquered wood and Formica had vanished. Short, white leather chairs standing neatly at attention alongside uber-thick marble counters replaced the old, rickety, high-seated counter stools. Large flatscreens behind the new glass sushi cases made the room look bigger and drew more attention to the ceiling. Now affixed to the ceiling of each room

Sometimes, amazing things are happening right under your nose and all it takes is for one small moment to grab you and change your course of direction, sucking you into something you would normally have walked right past and never given a second thought. Saturday, March 11th.  The night was clear and I had just finished a long interview at Zen Sushi with restauranteur Jason Hon.  I stood at the corner of 15th and I Street, waiting for the light to change. It was quiet and I was admiring the way the spotlights showcased the brickface of the Memorial Auditorium when the silver door to the Torch Club swung open.  The blues that poured out of that door was the kind I hadn't heard in a long,

It's Thursday, just past midnight, and I've been at the Torch Club to see Trampled Under Foot. I'm out back behind my house sitting in the car, listening to the rain fall on the roof. Since last Saturday night, I've been so busy that the days have become a blur. The more I need things to slow down, the faster I am being pulled through an undertow of phone calls, discussions and fires that need putting out — all the while sitting on this review.  I can't even come up with a title. The Daniel Castro Band packed the Torch Club last Saturday, February 19th.  It was, by all accounts, one of those nights where everything flowed perfectly — as if by stepping through the front door, you entered i