It’s been a rough two weeks for Oakland band High on Fire. Okay, “rough” would be an understatement. On February 22, the hard-rock trio survived a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand — only to show up in Tokyo a couple weeks later, just in time for the 8.9 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Luckily, the three band members were unharmed, though they did experience a huge emotional jolt. “Me being from the Bay Area — I was in Loma Prieta,” frontman Matt Pike told a reporter from NBC news after the Christchurch quake. “So I instantly hugged up against the counter and got underneath it really fast and twisted my ankle doing it. It was kind of a natural reaction.” After witnessing so much destruction, the band members probably look forward to a safe landing in their East Bay home — right on the Hayward fault.
- Taija Horne
- High on Fire
