{"id":11611,"date":"2026-10-25T05:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/?p=11611"},"modified":"2026-10-25T05:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T05:27:15","slug":"bay-curious-aroma-and-frightwig-at-the-chapel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrericsir.com\/blog\/local\/bay-curious-aroma-and-frightwig-at-the-chapel\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Curious, AroMa, and Frightwig at The Chapel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As guitars wailed and the band belted out vocals in the dimly lit venue, I wondered if I might see a ghost. Would the spirits from the great beyond be disrupted by the earsplitting noise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spoiler alert: I did not see a ghost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “Haunted Riot”<\/a> show at The Chapel last night was a quirky conceptual mashup that didn’t entirely blend into more than the sum of its parts. The show, presented by KQED and KEXP, combined two things you wouldn’t normally put together: a ghost story and punk rock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night opened with a surprisingly empty room of “early bird” night owls, with Olivia Allen-Price from KQED’s cheekily named Bay Curious<\/a> recounting a spooky story — a story about the very building we were in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t news to many locals, but the gist of the history is this: after San Francisco evicted the dead and moved the bodies to Colma in 1901, the local funeral homes moved to the Mission District, especially on or near Valencia Street. This was a simple convenience as there was a streetcar line at the time that could be used to move the caskets and funeral guests alike all the way south to Colma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those funeral homes are long gone, but the buildings they once inhabited have since been reused for various other purposes — including The Chapel, a small entertainment venue, which is located inside of a former funeral chapel as the name suggests. (Prior to the venue, it was the home of the since-defunct New College<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supposedly a mysterious figure occasionally appears, sometimes pulling pranks on the bartenders or guests in the bathroom. There was even a video clip of one alleged encounter. Allen-Price ended the story with a warning that the dead tend to appear on nights with a lot of noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with that, it was time for the music portion of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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