Band of the Month
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Darrell McKee
Bar Guide
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Rome Hooks
Restaurant Guide
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Tech Toyz
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Top 21 Bands
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Show Pics
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Genny Martin Marcus Azar
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Band of the Month
Pirahna Written By:
Darrell McKee Photos By: Darrell Mckee irahna: Coming from the word Prana, it is the notion of a vital, life-sustaining force of living beings and vital energy. When you see these guys perform live, the experience is the same. A fairly new band to the San Antonio music scene but its roots have been here a while. Front man Nathan Alvarado has been performing live for over 4 years alongside bassist Steve Coronado (Spade). They both were in very popular cover bands, playing in virtually every bar in San Antonio. Nathan took his talent to the next level when he paired up with guitarist Randy Toman. Randy is a solid guitar player with the skills to match up with Nathan’s vocal range perfectly. Randy has been playing since he was 5 years old and played in Alleged and Dragon Fly. Rounding out the band with drummer Jason West (Shakes) a former band member of the popular cover band Dragon Fly & San Antonio all time favorite Pitbull Daycare, Pirahna has all the parts in place to produce a sound that will compete with any of the top bands in San Antonio.
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Band of the Month
Q: When did you know you were ready to take the leap from a cover band to making and producing original music? It was a gradual process over the past few years. I mean, when I was singing with Papa Wood people would often come up to me and ask if we had our own material. At first I never really considered it a possibility and I was content just being in a well liked cover band. But as time went on, and the encouragement continued, I along with Spade started to see writing our own music as a necessary step. Basically, I felt I needed a new challenge and a new type of fulfillment musically, so the door to what is now Pirahna was opened. Spade and I began to brainstorm on possible guitarists who may be interested in our new project, and Randy Toman was prominent in both our minds. Since we came from the cover band scene, it made sense to get a guitarist like Randy who also was well known as a cover band guitarist. I had actually heard though that he wanted to start writing original music as well, and he was glad to jump on board. By the way, technically you could still call us a cover band because we do play a lot of covers at our shows to fill the night out. We chose to do this once we added our drummer Shakes to the mix. With he and Randy being full time musicians, and with all four of us having a catalog of covers in our heads, it made sense to keep performing in the clubs we were used to and in front of the same type of crowds we were used to and we could only do that if marketed ourselves as “a cover band that plays our own material as well.�
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Band of the Month
Q: The band has a lot of experience coming from different bands, was it a smooth transition to get everyone on the same page? I’d say the transition was very smooth. Fortunately, Spade and I already had a pretty tight professional relationship, and our writing styles and work ethic mesh well with Randy. Our newest member, Shakes, I think probably has more professional band experience than the rest of us, and that only helps our work and creative flow. So yeah, right now we all seem to be on the same page as far as what Pirahna is all about. Q: What bands do you like to play with? Well, early on in Pirahna’s existence (and with our first drummer Roy, who plays with Accord of Dissonance) we had the privilege of playing with several local and regional artists on some fun shows. Since we only played those kind of shows for about half a year, we never played with any one band twice, and that was intentional. Now, like I said we play all our own shows for most part, but there are those bands we would probably like to play with again...Flesh Electric, Pop Pistol, Accord of Dissonance, Deadpool, to name just a few. I mean, there are definitely more local bands around that I would be grateful to share the stage with like Blowing Trees, Pasenger, Nothingmore, etc.
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Band of the Month
Q: Do you have a favorite venue you prefer to play at? Whew..that’s a tough one because we play at so many different venues in SA, and we’ve had great shows just about everywhere. I can say though that places like Wiseguys and Tonic stand out in my mind because the managers/owners are extra supportive of what we’re trying to do, and I feel personally really comfortable playing at those clubs. Then from a technical production stand point we have venues like Scout Bar and Click’s Live that have great stages and great sound which make it a pleasure to play there as well. Q: What bands influence Pirahna? I usually like to site each of our personal musical influences which combine to influence Pirahna as a whole. For Randy it’s Led Zeppelin, Incubus, and A Perfect Circle. Spade usually cites Pink Floyd, Santana, and Black Sabbath. My top three influential bands are Dredg, Goodnight Goddess, and Tool. I haven’t asked Shakes this question yet, but I know he likes heavy shit. From a listener’s standpoint you can probably hear some Radiohead and Doors influence as well. Q: Is there a studio album in the works? We have just finished a recording session at Test Tube Audio in Austin where we laid down three tracks. We are very excited with the quality we were able to achieve with Kevin Butler who runs that studio. I wouldn’t say we are pushing for a full album
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just yet, but we are anxious to get these first three songs mixed and mastered, and then into the hands of our fans. Hopefully, we’ll get a good response, and then go back to record a few more. We also have committed to writing at least two more songs that will help balance out our originals set. Q: What is Pirahna’s goal for 2010? Our goals for this year are to keep recording and writing new material all while building our following. Even though we have all been playing the SA scene for many years, Pirahna is still a relatively new name, so we want to get as much exposure as possible right now. Another goal I guess is to get more merch to sell at our shows. Right now we are almost sold out of our first batch of T-shirts, but we plan to get more designs produced (ala Spade) as well as other stuff like stickers, buttons, etc. There is even talk of a possible sponsorhip with a certain beverage company, but that’s just an idea right now. Personally, with our first recordings or maybe even an EP, I’d like to get some attention from some regional influencers in the music biz, like management and labels. www.myspace.com/pirahnaband
Bar Guide
Restaurant Guide
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Restaurant Guide
Top 30 Restaurant Guide Big Lou’s Pizza 2048 S WW White Rd San Antonio, TX 78222 (210) 337-0707
Barbaresco 9715 San Pedro San Antonio, TX 78216 (210) 231-0989
Casa Rio 430 E Commerce St San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 225-6718
Boudro’s on the Riverwalk 421 E. Commerce San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 224-8484
Chart House Restaurant at the Tower of Americas 600 Hemisfair Plaza Way San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 223.3101
Chama Gaucha 18318 Sonterra Place San Antonio, TX 78258 (210) 564-9400
Crumpet’s Restaurant and Bakery 3920 Harry Wurzbach Rd San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 821-5454
Hotel Valencia 150 East Houston Street San Antonio, Texas 78205 210-227-9700
Liberty Bar 328 E Josephine St San Antonio, TX 78215 (210) 227-1187 The Lord’s Kitchen 118 Seguin St San Antonio, TX 78208 (210) 354-3888
Chunky’s Burgers 4602 Callaghan Rd San Antonio, TX 78228 (210) 433-9960 Dick’s Last Resort 406 Navarro San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 787-2494 La Focaccia Italian Grill 800 S Alamo St San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 223-5353 Little Italy 824 Afterglow St San Antonio, TX 78216 (210) 349-2060
www21inSA.com Alamo Café 14250 San Pedro Ave San Antonio, TX 78232 (210) 495-2233
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Los Barrios 4223 Blanco Rd San Antonio, TX 78212 (210) 732-6017
Lorenzo’s Italian Restaurant 8032 Fredericksburg Rd San Antonio, TX 78229 210-692-9900 Los Patios 2015 NE Loop 410 San Antonio, TX 78217 (210) 655-6171
Mikes in the Village 2355 Bulverde Rd # 3 Bulverde, TX 78163 (830) 885-2283
Ounce Steakhouse 1401 NW Loop 1604 San Antonio, TX 78248 210-493-6200
Paesanos 555 East Basse San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 828-5191
Pico de Gallo 111 S. Leona San Antonio, TX 78207 (210) 225-6060
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse 1170 E. Commerce St. San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 227-8847
Silo 434 N Loop 1604 West San Antonio, TX 78232 210-483-8989 Sushi Zushi 203 S. St. Mary’s St San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 472-2900 Tip Top Café 2814 Fredericksburg Rd San Antonio, TX 78201 (210) 732-0191
Sazo’s Latin Grill 101 Bowie Street San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 554-6180 Spaghetti Warehouse 1226 E Houston St San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 299-1296
The Palm 223 E. Houston St San Antonio, TX 78205 (210) 226-7256 Wildfish Seafood Grille 1834 NW Loop 1604 San Antonio, TX 78248 210-493-1600
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Tech Toyz
Play Time Written By:
Genevieve Martin genny@21insa.com
The Alienware M15x
http://www.alienware.com/
wii Classic Pro Black
http://www.engadget.com/
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Google Nexus One
http://www.google.com/phone
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Tech Toyz
Dell Mini 10v
http://www.dell.com
www21inSA.com
Apple iPad
http://www.apple.com
Rosendahl Watch II
http://www.thinkgeek.com/
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#1
Top 21 Bands of San Antonio
Girl in a Coma
Could Easily go down as the best band to come out of San Antonio. Signed by Joan Jett. Nuff said.
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Top 21 BANDS
an Antonio has very talented and creative bands. For the past couple of years, there have been some really good bands that have emerged and have made their mark on the local scene. Not only is it difďŹ cult to have a good sounding band, just getting gigs is hard to do in San Antonio. (I) hate to say it but cover bands seem to get more respect from venues. 21inSA.com will be ranking bands every month. Rankings are based upon popularity, originality, longevity and merchandising. We focus on bands that have been playing since 2006 to present.
#2
Pop Pistol
#3
Blowing Trees
#4
Yoshimoto
A great three piece. Great drummer and psychedelic guitars. Visuals provide a good stage presence. Downtown roots
Awesome guitar Killer vocals Matt PinďŹ eld is a big fan Gigs galore Moving up on GIAC in ranks
Super charged live performances Playing since 2004 Great use of distortion
#5
We the Granada
#6
Ledaswan
#7
Id
Six piece ensemble Nice mix of percussion, horns and guitars On stage light show ďŹ res up the show Tour dogs
Best album of year 2007 by San Antonio Current Top notch song writing by Erica Guitierrez Seems like they headline every gig they play
Super tight punk band (if that makes sense) Sick guitar player with great back up vocals All around great band
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Top 21 Bands of San Antonio
Best of the rest #8 The Offbeats #9 Dance Like Robots #10 Pasenger #11 The Hawks #12 So Unloved #13 Pinata Protest #14 Pirahna
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#15 Daytes #16 Heather Go Psycho #17 Slick Dickens #18 The Sons of Sancho #19 Espira #20 Don’t Ask #21 A Kid Named Thompson
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Show Pictures
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