The Garden
The Garden has recently hit the road on their “The Bootleg” Tour in support of their sixth studio release of that same name, hitting San Francisco on a Tuesday night along with support from Her New Knife and bar italia. While being an unusually busy night for live music around the Bay, it was fairly easy to spot “jesters” heading down Market Street on their way to the party.
When The Warfield doors opened, the diehards bee-lined it to the barricade, ensuring a tightly packed floor by the time Her New Knife took the stage and blasted through their 30 minute set. Moody and grungy as hell, the four piece from Philly certainly grabbed the room’s attention as people continued to filter in, may by way of the merch table that had a stead line all night long.
A quick changeover and bar italia from Europe took the stage and bumped up the energy in the room significantly as vocalist Nina Cristante snaked around center stage, her hair aflutter from the pair of fans facing her from the edge of the stage. Whatever trance that Her New Knife had put over the crowd was quickly broken and The Garden fans who had been chomping at the bit for some action finally let loose, spurring a pit down front that lasted through the remainder of their set.
With The Warfield generously making the floor level open to all ticket-holders, the remainder of the room quickly filled out as the crew cleared the openers’ gear, leaving a wide open stage with simply a drum riser, a bass amp and two microphones. And when twin brothers Wyatt and Fletcher Shears finally took the stage and launched into “Filthy Rabbit Hole,” the San Francisco crowd went absolutely nuts.
Channeling a bit of Lemmy with his Rickenbacker bass and cowboy boots, Wyatt craned is neck back to reach the mic position while Fletcher beat the crap out of his drum kit and the lights strobed spastically. And then the crowd surfers started bubbling up from the crowd and spilling over the barricade, keeping the security team busy.
Short on talk, long on rock, The Garden took only brief breaks during their set, opting to launch from song to song with only an occasional mention of the name. This approach kept the energy at a fever pitch through most of the set with the enthusiastic fans eating it all up and spitting it right back at the band as the catalog-spanning set went deep on the newer material, namely Bootleg and Horseshit on Route 66 (2002).
It’s hard to put a label on the genre-bending music of The Garden; punk at its core but taking the tunes in so many different directions. What is undeniable, however, was the explosion of energy from the stage that was only amplified by the absolute mayhem on the general admission floor. This is a show not to miss, even for the most casual of fans or those looking for something new for their ear holes.
The Garden
bar italia
Her New Knife
© 2026 Alan Snodgrass | www.digitaldiversion.net. Please do not use without express permission.