All-star hard rock cover band, East Bay metal favorite play Retro Junkie

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Brought together by a love for hard-rock hits, the all-star local covers outfit the Butlers delivers an array of radio staples and album cuts at Retro Junkie in Walnut Creek Friday night after a free outdoor show by East Bay headbangers Blackwülf.


The Butlers – ‘Live from the House of Rock’ – October 18th 2020 by
The Butlers on
YouTube

Founded by guitarists Billy Rowe (a veteran of ’80s SF metal band Jetboy) and Craig Behrhorst (who played with Ruffians, another Bay Area metal act from the same era), the Butlers specialize in playing the blues-based rock songs from the ’70s that inspired their respective bands. The band is filled out by musicians who have put in time with such local institutions as thrash-metal icons Exodus and Death Angel, sleazy punk merchants American Heartbreak and hard rockers Immigrant.

The players’ collective connections in the music world also has led the band to welcoming a number of heavyweights onstage to perform, including former Ted Nugent singer Derek St. Holmes and longtime Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens. Frequently included on bills alongside other tribute bands, the Butlers reputation for putting on raucous, good time shows has led to  spots opening for groups like Ratt, the late guitarist Ronnie Montrose’s band Gamma and L.A. Guns.

While the group found its activity grind to a halt for much of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Butlers got creative with the downtime forced by the stay-at-home order. The band did a number of livestreamed shows at closed music venues, including a recent unplugged performance that found the Butlers delving into some different territory with covers of songs by Van Morrison, the Waterboys, Little Feat and Bob Dylan.


The Butlers – St. Dominic’s Preview by
The Butlers on
YouTube

The band headlines this indoor show at Walnut Creek nightspot Retro Junkie Friday night. While that show requires paid admission, East Bay band Blackwülf plays a free show in the bar’s beer garden earlier Friday evening.

One of the leading lights on the current burgeoning Bay Area metal scene,  Blackwülf has established a reputation for dishing out colossal riffs and memorable tunes over the course of nearly a decade and three acclaimed albums. Coming together around longtime collaborators guitarist Pete Holmes and drummer Dave Pankenier (who have played music together since they were growing up in Arizona), Blackwülf is rounded out by singer Alex Cunningham and bassist Scott Peterson.

Working from the classic quartet model that served so many great hard rock and metal bands during the ’70s, Blackwülf crafted a handful of doom-laden originals for their self-released album Mind Traveler in 2014. While the group’s sound owes an unquestionable debt to Black Sabbath, even on that debut effort Blackwülf stood apart from the many stoner-metal outfits who are content to pilfer riffs and song ideas wholesale from the iconic metal godfathers.

With Cunningham’s commanding delivery and memorable vocal melodies at times recalling singer Pete Stahl (who fronted notable bands Scream, Wool and Goatsnake) and Holmes’ hefty chord progressions and stinging, concise solos ably propelled by the group’s hard-swinging rhythm section on “Royal Pine” and “Thunderwitch,” the album quickly earned the band fan locally and abroad while catching the ear of Bay Area heavy rock imprint Ripple Music.

The label would partner with Blackwülf to release the group’s sophomore effort Oblivion Cycles late in 2015, earning another round of rave reviews, including the endorsement of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in a video posted on YouTube.


Blackwülf – Acid Reign by
Rock Freaks [official] on
YouTube

The East Bay headbangers took some time to get their next batch of songs together, but Blackwülf returned in 2018 with their second sternum-rattling effort on Ripple Music entitled Sinister Sides that was released to wide acclaim. The album featured guest appearances by legendary doom-metal guitarist Geof O’Keefe (a founding member of Pentagram and Bedemon) on several tunes and further refined the crew’s heavy, psychedelic metal sound.


Blackwülf – Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream Cover (Official Video) featuring Geof O’Keefe of Pentagram by
Blackwülf on
YouTube

In addition to having O’Keefe play on the album, the band prevailed upon the doom legend to visit the Bay Area to appear at their local record release party in addition to filming a couple of videos for songs from Sinister Sides. The band would go on to make appearances at Desertfest London and Planet Desert Rock in Las Vegas that same year.

The band played a number of local shows in 2019 (including a short surreptitious set in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum parking lot prior to a Raider game before security pulled the plug), but has focused most of its energy before and during the pandemic on putting together new material for the forthcoming next Blackwülf album. Earlier this year, the band announced the addition of second guitarist Jesse Rosales to the line-up. The quintet plays an early free show in the beer garden at Retro Junkie in Walnut Creek at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, but RSVP is required.  

The Butlers and Blackwülf
Friday, Oct. 21, 6 p.m. $10-$20 (admission for indoor set by the Butlers)
Retro Junkie

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