Alright, you palookas...this week we're gonna jaw about bands as adjectives, youthful exuberance vs wisdom, volume as foreplay, and the contact buzz. It all came to light with Blue Cheer's Thursday night performance and The Bug Jar. That's right, baby; the psychedelic sonic three-piece once heralded as the loudest band on earth shoe-horned onto a tiny stage. The place was packed with everything from young punks to rock 'n' roll crusties.

When describing heavy blues-based, drug-inspired bands, Blue Cheer gets thrown around a lot. "Dude, these cats sound like Blue Cheer," or "Was that a Blue Cheer riff or what?" So what do say about Blue Cheer? Well first you stand right in front and brace yourself...

The sound was testicle-rattling and monstrous. The band played with a heavy, picturesque groove that trumped speed. It was like those movies where the chick runs as fast as she can, but somehow the zombie - staggering slowly - still manages to catch up.

Though the band kicked off in 1966, this is a sound and spirit with no beginning and no end. It is essentially the blues howled from the mountain. The fact that some members of the trio are in their 60s doesn't mean shit. This is the same band it has always been, and each member played amazingly.

Blue Cheer was initially met with resistance with the whole San Francisco counter culture. How cool is that? The outsiders didn't want 'em, either. So as the old hippies wind down to their golden years of box sets and Ameritrade commercials, these three dudes plug in and roar. Forty years and they've got it down better than a lot of the kids that crank it up to 15. And they sound very Blue Cheer.