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Filmed December 9, 2007
15th and San Bruno
Under the 101 Freeway
San Francisco, CA
“The Bus” is a mobile venue usually parked somewhere in the Bay Area. A visionary Californian converted this former MUNI vehicle into a moveable concert space, complete with miniscule stage, microphones, monitors, and, unbelievably, a kind of balcony loft above the performance area. Fans of Al Gore will be pleased to learn that this entire contraption runs on vegetable oil. Though the Bus’s philosophy is nowhere writ large, I believe it runs something like this: “Fuck booking, fuck venues, fuck ‘the system’—-let’s drive the Bus wherever the fuck we want and have a fucking show, man.” To further this idea, over 100 shows have been staged on the bus in less than two years.
When I played the Bus, my bourgeois sensibilities were thrown into shock by its proto-anarchist modus operandi. Too stunned by the lack of a green room and the fine catering to which I am accustomed, I failed to film the bus’s driver/organizer, who I suspect prefers to remain anonymous. In its place, I present my own portrait of the Bus—-a static loop of a random collection of people hanging around the bus under the 101 freeway. Though this portrait captures an element of the Bus experience—-watching semis speed by, waiting for bands to play, getting on the Bus, getting off of the Bus again—-it ultimately violates the letter and spirit of “Iceland: Three Minutes of No Comment.”