You think of San Francisco and you think of two cities. One is a hippie paradise full of VW vans, weed smoke, and young folks sipping herbal tea while planning progressive action. The other is a tech dystopia with robot-controlled cars clogging up traffic, smog from AI data centers floating all the way up from San Jose, and finance bros buying up the sidewalks under your feet to install ad screens that scream at you while you walk to your job selling $25 lattes.
I think of the secret third thing, the San Fran where the punk scene has survived, having sprung up in the wake of the hippie movement to channel the anger over the city’s continued descent into capitalist madness. The big names in the Bay Area have tilted male — The Dead Kennedys and Green Day, for example — but over the years the scene’s included many female and queer bands, including Tribe 8, Trashwomen, Tess & The Details, and Shannon and the Clams. They play at venues like the Kilowatt and Neck of the Woods, which excel in showcasing emerging femme-fronted punk and DIY lineups.
And if you’re wondering, “Will, what does any of this have to do with Starzdust?”, it’s because Starzdust — the four-piece heavy rock band of Natalia Stardust and Co. — put together the Roseblood Festival at Neck of the Woods back in August 2025. The festival featured what Stardust called the “actual” Bay Area music community: Underground music featuring femme-fronted bands and performers in an environment where women could feel safe and see themselves reflected on stage. A portion of ticket sales went to La Casa de Las Madres, which supports domestic violence survivors in San Francisco. (Read the Bandcamp Daily article about the event here.)
Starzdust makes great punk music, yes, but their continued activism and work toward highlighting other female, non-binary, and queer artists in the SF scene helps them stand out even more. In a time when San Francisco — like other cities — continues to let their underground venues and arts communities fend for themselves, the work of people like Stardust and her band and comrades in the scene remains as important as ever.
As for Starzdust’s new single “How It Ends”, it’s quite good: Stardust sings about the end of a relationship over her fuzzy and precise rhythm guitar riffs, with bandmates Jason Romero on bass and Ted Cook on drums holding up the lower end of the equalizer. Funny how on the track Stardust sings “Baby, I’m rotten to the core”, when in fact — given her work supporting other artists and making a space in an increasingly stifling San Francisco — it seems like she’s got a heart of gold.
Take a listen to “How It Ends” below.
Written by Will Sisskind
