bio | gun and doll show | independent san francisco bay area original rock band

THE GUN & DOLL SHOW is currently one of the most talked about bands in San Francisco.
Combining elements of punk, pop, dance, and rock music with surreal theatrical stage shows in the tradition of The Tubes and Alice Cooper, its act defies description and has to be seen to be believed.

“The show, is in-yourface… There’s sex, there’s sarcasm, there’s screaming … a good rock band can do no more.”
Tony Hicks, Time Out

“Calling San Francisco’s The Gun & Doll Show just another rock band is like calling De Niro just another actor.”
Bill Picture, SF Examiner

“The Gun & Doll Show is SF’s best and most ingenious rock band.”
PJ Corkery, SF Examiner

“The perfect combination of male and female, guns and dolls, guts and glamour. The Gun & Doll Show reminds us that
nothing is what it seems.”
Andrew Lentz

“The Gun & Doll Show is one of the best performing bands in the SF Bay Area, and I am pleased to see them on this historic stage sharing their musical bounty with the rest of the world.”
Ayelet S. Donner, The Fillmore West, SF

Onstage, at a party or over the phone, the Gun & Doll Show's endlessly energetic and outspoken leader spews forth his "truths" as if hosting his very own morning radio show from some remote outpost on the dial to a cult of loyal listeners who call in to their favorite agent provocateur for what MacGeraghty calls his "upside down view of the world." Politics, music, sexuality, people, pets-mention a topic, and Killer's got an opinion and an anecdote. He uses onstage performance pieces to get his point across. And the wiry frontman always makes his point in the most inventive way imaginable-from dressing the co-ed seven-piece rock ensemble up in Mexican wedding outfits, to augmenting it with a 50-guitar orchestra, to performing at the Fillmore wearing nothing at all.

There is no show quite like the Gun & Doll Show, and that's been at the core of Macgeraghty's modus operandi since he started the band "at least 14 years ago." "You couldn't copy the band even if we let you come to rehearsals," Macgeraghty says proudly, "because the personalities in the Gun & Doll Show cannot be copied, and we encourage those personalities to shine."

Of course, the primary personality is MacGeraghty himself. Killer is Evil Knievel riding a guitar. "He's the guy who can jump off the stage and land smack dab in the middle of table in the third row without spilling anyone's drink," says Fortune Records honcho Jim Greer. Macgeraghty's favorite gravity-defying moment happened during a Bay to Breakers performance. "I shimmied up the stoplight pole and somehow managed to stand on top of it playing my guitar," he remembers. "When I looked down there were two cops, and one of them said to the other, 'Just walk away. Anything we do or say will only encourage him further.'

With the exception of MacGeraghty, the entire ensemble has shifted several times, becoming more theatrical with each turn. Killer is definitely king. "Oh yeah, it's a dictatorship," he admits, but Megan McCoul, who has been with the band since 1997, is his capable queen. A talented singer, guitar player, dancer and sometimes keyboard player, Megan enthusiastically embodies and enacts Macgeraghty's Gun and Doll fantasies. She's the bride in the Mexican wedding, the leader of the military cheerleaders and the first female quarterback in the NFL.

None of the aforementioned shenanigans would amount to a pile of panties if the Gun & Doll Show didn't pack the musical heat to back it up. "My favorite thing is being a composer," declares MacGeraghty. In addition to rock and roll anthems, Killer likes to create "greeting card songs," such as the completely original composition "Happy Birthday to You," which he will personalize for a fee, and "Mother's Day," which is a sonic hallmark downloaded more than a thousand times (here) during the month of March alone.

The Gun & Doll Show is first and foremost a rock and roll band, but the music ranges from hip-hop, to jazz, to country, depending on what's compatible with the idea at hand. "American Radio" is the first in a planned trilogy of concept albums where each song represents a different radio station in Macgeraghty's AM imagination, which comes to life through theatrics in what he calls "The Rock & Roll Cirque Du Chevrolet." MacGeraghty is well aware of the dangers of performance art gimmickry, and he walks the line carefully. "It's a fine line between being pretentious and being poignant," he explains. "We weave a lot of politics and a lot of unusual points of view into the staging and the raps. I'm always amazed at what people let me get away with."