Norm!
Nobody was a bigger scenester this past weekend than former Cheers barfly George Wendt. In town for the Alamo Drafthouse premiere of his new movie King of the Ants, the actor showed up at the Chronicle holiday party Friday, where true to character, he seldom strayed from the beer line and even worked the kegs for a spell. The next night, he hit Emo’s to say hi to Rocket From the Tombs buddy David Thomas. Wendt stood down front as Thomas lectured the crowd on proper etiquette (“Don’t throw things”) before stalking off. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and RFTT soon returned to throttle their would-be tormentors with 90 minutes of menacing Midwestern prepunk. Having almost as much fun as Wendt was Sons of Hercules frontman Frank Pugliese, spotted dancing like a teenager during “Sonic Reducer.”
This article appears in December 19 • 2003.