Sugar & Gold Take To The High Seas

Sugar & Gold Take To The High Seas

Adrift With Sugar & Gold: Aidin Vaziri | For a guy who wears a captain's hat pretty much around the clock, Philipp Minnig doesn't seem to know what he's doing once you actually get him out on the water. No sooner are we set adrift in a rented rowboat in Golden Gate Park's Stow Lake than the singer-guitarist for San Francisco disco-punk sensation Sugar & Gold navigates the vessel into a dry dock, where a gang of angry gulls stares us down. Nicolas Dobbratz, the group's keyboard player and our unofficial first mate for the day, looks on helplessly from the back of the boat. At least he has a good excuse. At 6 feet something, his legs barely fit inside the thing. "Since when does the captain row his own boat?" Minnig complains, steering against the current. We have stocked up on ice cream sandwiches in case we get stranded on the man-made island, which is overrun by weirdo flashers and pushy squirrels. The purpose of our difficult journey is to discuss Sugar & Gold's new album, "Creme," its current national tour with Gravy Train and its forthcoming show with Von Iva on Saturday at 12 Galaxies. And, more important: To get back at Minnig for the time he bolted offstage and humped me in the audience at the Purple Onion while performing with his old garage-rock band Dura-Delinquent. "Oh, so now it all comes out," he says. "I don't care. This is a good workout." Read more.