Noise Addict, Pee, Imperial Teen
Bottom of the Hill. San Francisco. January 6, 1996.
Review and photos by Scott Zimmerman.

At one point amidst Noise Addict's January 6th performance at the Bottom of the Hill, vocalist Ben Lee offered a rather accurate observation that went to the effect of "You all seem pretty uptight for Americans." Sure, there were a couple of people jumping up and down in front, but that's about it. Even the applause was extremely lackluster, yet Noise Addict was absolutely tearing it up on stage, and Ben's vocals were coming out solid as a rock. It's not that I want to be caught in a wild, hysterical crowd, but still, showing a little enthusiasm doesn't seem too much to ask. Perhaps we were all afraid to admit to enjoying music being performed by possibly the youngest people in attendance?
Or it could've been that Noise Addict wasn't enough of an improvement, or enough of a change compared to the opening bands, which were quite adept with their guitars, too.
Pee offered lots of spunky, brief spurts of guitar-pop, with a pretty cool combination of boy/girl vox. They probably racked up the most beats per minutes of the three groups, and probably played the most songs, too. As soon as the songs began, they seemed to be over. It was like "bang! bang! bang! bang! bang!" Real cool.
And Imperial Teen, the opening band of this sort of Sonic Youth inspired night, had a very nice sound as well. They were the most laid back of the three groups, sounding roughly like a less fired-up version of Pee. Boy/girl vox, nice, interesting guitar combinations, etc.
Totaled up: Three great bands, three great hours of music!

photos from this gig:
Ben Lee of Noise Addict (12k) (same photo as at the top of page)
Noise Addict guitar girl (13k)