On April 27, Nekron 99, a local band composed of Archie Williams alumni, made their live debut with their first album, Visions of the Trapdoor Man, at Petaluma’s Phoenix Theater. Three other bands performed that night: Milk for the Angry, Petra, and The Strange.
The band, led by artist and arachnologist Amin Al-Jamal, alongside Nick Brown, an orchestrator of many Archie Williams theater productions, recently completed their otherworldly 10-song album. An experimental concept album, Visions of the Trapdoor Man features everything from whimsical love songs to heavy metal Viking anthems, divided by six spacey interludes.
At the Phoenix Theater show, five members of Nekron 99 took to the stage in matching red jumpsuits painted with black lighting bolts. Al-Jamal led the band from the front on synth and vocals. To his right, Brown joined him with guitar and additional vocals. The rest of the band included Noah Hornick on bass, Oliver John on drums, and Gaelen Mckee on rhythm guitar. Other Nekronians include Will Roth, usually on drums, and Vanessa DeBishop, who provided scream-o vocals as a guest appearance at the show.
The band scavenged all the members from other bands, according to Al-Jamal. He described how Nekron 99’s presence at the show felt like, “hey look, the weird Frankenstein band is performing.”
Al-Jamal concluded the set by reaching into a black box presented by a cloaked man who appeared on stage momentarily, pulling out a dozen handmade silicone squids, and throwing them into the yelling crowd. The squids were designed in a variety of eye colors, shades, and “species,” crafted with the help of Delilah Hixon, a local artist and friend of the band.
“I loved every part of the show. It was just a very beautiful space for a bunch of people to rock out and chill and have fun,” said Archie Williams senior and Nekron fan Ella Swain.
“I head-banged so hard that my brain leaked out of my eyeballs but in a good way,” said Archie Williams junior Ford Cocciolo.
Both Ford and Ella expressed how visually and musically harmonious the whole show was, with the free squids, the music, and the merch table selling T-shirts, CDs, posters, and stickers all being designed by Amin.
“I’m a big fan of Amin and his hit Instagram account @ardentxenoart… He creates stuff constantly. It’s kind of miraculous, actually,” Ford said.
Al-Jamal emphasized the importance of the whole project being a multimedia experience, with different creative aspects of the event working to highlight the album’s release.
“I really believe in that union of young people doing visual and performance art,” Al-Jamal said.
In addition to music production, visual art, and running a consistent business of selling handcrafted creatures, Al-Jamal also studies Arachnology at San Francisco State University. He described the album as personal, almost diary-like. It had its roots in melodies and lyrics from as far back as his senior year at Archie Williams, merged with his interest in arachnoid creatures and fantasy worlds. Despite its fantastical themes, Al-Jamal reflected that Trapdoor Man represents a self-portrait of himself at the time he wrote it. He expressed how important he felt it was to document his world from late teenagehood and his early 20s.
“One of the biggest challenges about making the album was that I never talk about myself as an odd art person that lives in a cave and mostly just makes stuff,” Al-Jamal said.
Brown joined in on the project as its producer in the early part of quarantine. Al-Jamal explained that after writing some of the songs and designing the main idea of the album, he reached out to Brown, an old friend from Archie Williams, who had recently graduated from California Institute of the Arts’ school of music and led a successful band at the time. Brown covered the more technical side of the music production and wrote the track “Green Planet.”
“We’re very creatively and spiritually kindred creatures… [The creation of the album] is part of me and Nick Brown’s friendship and joy. The comedy is also really important. The goal was to make the show just as fun as the advertising,” Al-Jamal said.
The band emphasized how important the free squids were for the show, being a piece of free art that attendees would actually want. The money made from selling merchandise allows the band to be self-sustaining, especially when the band treats the artistry of the merchandise with the same importance as the music itself, which enables them to fund projects like this.
Fans—current and prospective—of Nekron 99 will be happy to know that the band will continue to have more shows around the Bay Area in the future, playing tracks from Trapdoor Man and eventually new projects that are currently in the works.
