by Taryn Harrington

Saw what is, arguably, one of San Francisco’s hottest new bands at the moment, The Fresh & Onlys, at Amnesia on Saturday along with The Aerosols and Austin-based Woven Bones. Haven’t gone to a show at Amnesia in some time and nearly forgot how mellow it is; if the cute bartender wasn’t wrapping her arms around The Fresh & Onlys drummer, the lead singer of Woven Bones was walking around winking at bystanders. (Note: Beer and wine are reasonably priced [$2 Tacate!] and outside a taco stand guy withstood the cold for most of the show.)

Anyway, the set was pretty solid. The Aerosols have a quintessential San Francisco garage sound that's never played out.... even if it is the hundredth time. And although Woven Bones were a bit of a frat party turned lo-fi, their energy didn’t falter.

Then you have the Fresh & Onlys. Their ability to create sweet-laced, garage-synched melodies separate them from the many talented bands around and hearing Tim Cohen sing really establishes its place in San Francisco's music scene. Cohen has already made his mark on the indie world with previous bands like Black Fiction and the Skygreen Leopards. The Fresh & Onlys seem like the next coherent step for Cohen and other founding member Shayde Sartin. Already the band released a number of albums from a variety of labels like Woodsist, HoZac and Chuffed, to name a few.