Osees perform at The Chapel in San Francisco on Aug. 31, 2024. Karen Goldman/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — Even as an established international act, John Dwyer’s Osees have worked to make their shows as punk as possible. This includes setting up their own gear as well as playing multiple-night stints at smaller venues, rather than a single night at a larger room, particularly in San Francisco, the city that birthed the band. But Saturday night’s show at The Chapel even smelled punk.

The olfactory issues began with a problem in the men’s room.

“I love this place, but what is going on with the men’s room?” Dwyer asked the audience as a melange of unpleasant odors wafted over the sold-out room early in the set. Soon after, a lone puker projectile vomited near that stage.

“Is that barf?” Dwyer asked before enlisting a couple of fans’ help in cleaning up the mess.

Ultimately, the various bodily functions were little more than a distraction from more than 90 minutes of epic rock and roll culled from the band’s vast catalog of 29 studio albums.

Osees perform at The Chapel in San Francisco on Aug. 31, 2024.

Because the band set up its own gear, the audience’s first look came as Dwyer and company walked casually onstage, instruments in hand, soon after the opening act broke down its gear. Several bars of Pink Floyd’s legendary “Interstellar Overdrive” served as a sort of final sound check before the band stopped on a dime.

“This song is for your mom,” Dwyer said before playing the opening guitar swirls of “Plastic Plant,” off 2016 album A Weird Exits. The packed crowd quickly became a chaotic sea of humanity.

The band blazed through live standards like the retro rock of “Toe Cutter – Thumb Buster” and “Tidal Wave,” and the spacey-sounding “Warm Slime,” the title track from its 2010 album. At times, attendees surfed over the dense crowd.

Other than the manic punk energy of “Look At The Sky,” the band didn’t play much from its latest album, Sorc 80. Also missing from the band’s live set was “The Dream,” which it often uses as a vehicle for extended jamming. Gotta save something for the remaining three nights,  guess.

“You guys are fucking tired, right?” Dwyer asked toward the end of the set.

Inspecting his drums, Paul Quattrone, one half of the band’s dynamic drumming duo, held up a broken snare drum, and a replacement was quickly procured by Dan Rincon, the band’s other drummer. “This is an old one,” Dwyer said before playing a snippet of the classic guitar riff to Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

Famous Mammals perform at The Chapel in San Francisco on Aug. 31, 2024.

Osees concluded with a long jam on “C,” from 2018 album Smote Reverser. The band’s final jam featured one of many long musical freak-outs featuring Dwyer making noise on both guitar and synthesizer.

“Great job tonight,” Dwyer told all involved as the band left the stage.

Oakland trio Famous Mammals kicked things off with a 45-minute set of noisy, droning rock music that recalled both early Osees as well as The Velvet Underground and The Fall.

The trio, comprised of Amber Sermeño, Andy Jordan and Stanley Martinez, has previously played in a ton of Bay Area bands like Non Plus Temps, Maybe Later and Naked Roommate. Sermeño provided droning violin over Jordan’s throbbing bass lines and Martinez’s noisy and angular guitar. The band’s powerful vocal harmonies on their last two songs,”Comets for Poets” and “Parachute Traction Excites,” added to their formidable wall of sound.