The Poor Luckies: Bobby Musgrave Presents

While politicians play power games Bobby Musgrave presents local punk rock Nixed, Normal Weirds, Toro Meteoro, and The Poor Luckies July 11th at Drakes Barrel house! The Poor Luckies have been scraping their way across San Francisco for 15 years now, fueled by $2 beer, word of mouth, and pure sweat. Along the way, though, frontman Danny Cuts has been tucking away stories and vignettes like trinkets, all culminating in the band’s very first LP, Wrong Way, out this coming Spring. “Wrong Way is the next step, sharper, louder and true to our vision,” says Cuts. “Each song is a different story — most of them about San Francisco. The noise of the streets, the clash between the wealthy and struggling, and the chaos of beauty and ugliness tangled together bleed into our songwriting and sound.” Cuts grew up in a religious household and first got into music as a kid — playing at his parents’ conservative church — but it didn’t take long before his taste for grunge, punk, and rock & roll pulled him into late nights and loud shows he probably wasn’t supposed to attend. He formed the Poor Luckies in 2008, named for a string of said bad luck due to run-ins with the cops and various and sundry misfortunes. After their 2012 debut EP, the band hit pause on new music while frontman Danny Cuts turned his energy to raise his son. Still, they kept their claws in the music scene — shifting through various lineup shifts — and currently feature Cuts (vocals, guitar), Will Waldron (bass), Earl Kramer (lead guitar), and Joshua Abeyta (drums). “We’ve survived the San Francisco punk scene where bands scrape by on borrowed gear and every show feels like it could be the last one before the city shuts the doors,” Cuts says. In 2025, though, it was make-or-break-it time — and the band went out to L.A. to record Wrong Way with Ruddy Cullers at Hollywood Playpen Recorders, yielding a 10-song explosion of ACAB-laced barnburners, raging ruminations on faith, and a whole host of San Francisco oldballs in song form. Take single Running the Street, a car chase of a dirty punk song inspired by Cuts’ experience with the San Francisco Police, who are either totally absent or totally fucking up. “Police don't really respect people — and abuse them whenever it benefits them,” Cuts says. “I’ve been detained a few times just for looking alternative.” Those themes echo through the pogo-friendly “Wrong Way,” about San Fran’s insane traffic laws and yet another confrontation with the fuzz. Religion also weaves its way through the record — a vestige from Cuts’ upbringing. See thrasher “Time’s Not Your Friend,” about a preacher always warning of hellfire, and the lazily hedonistic grit of “Garbage Soul,” which feels like the devil on Cuts’ shoulder finally getting a solo. And then there’s those moments Cuts has collected over the decades he’s spent in the scene: the driving “Speed King” (about a crazy dude who just loves to race); the Aughts-tinged “Sliding Low,” which Cuts wrote when he was a 17-year-old skater kid; and the deceptively bouncy “NPD,” about a really bad ex. “Nothing has been handed to us, we’ve played backyards, basements, and clubs all over the West Coast,” says Cuts. Now, it seems, they’re ready to take over your speakers.