Article Contributed by Gabriel David Barkin
Published on November 20, 2025
Samantha Fish | The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA | November 19th, 2025 – photos by Gabriel David Barkin
Samantha Fish is anything but a paper doll. She’s more of a butt-kicking kung fu uber-Barbie fashioned out of reinforced steel reclaimed from a 1965 Pontiac GTO.
Fish dropped by San Francisco’s famed Fillmore Auditorium on Wednesday night, part of her current tour in support of the Grammy-nominated 2025 album Paper Doll. She told the adoring audience, “I’m just so happy to be playing this music for y’all in one of my favorite venues in the world.”
She also reinforced the message from her new record when she played the title cut from the new record early in the set:
“You pin me up just to tear me down. I’m not your paper doll!”
For about 100 minutes on Wednesday night, Fish commanded the stage with her full-throated alto-soprano blues vocal range and pyrotechnic guitar shredding. She played at least eight different electric guitars as the night progressed. She flashed a pick like a machete and wielded a slide on the fretboard like a blender set on puree. (At one point, her guitar tech brought two axes on stage for her to choose from. Apparently, this lady likes having options.)
Fish’s bio says she was born in Kansas City, but the studded black leather pantsuit she wore at the Fillmore suggests she was born right up there on the stage. Where she got the blues I can’t say — but listening to her hoot and howl, I’ve got to believe somebody somewhere must have done her wrong. She’s on a mission to make it right, and she’s having a good time doing it.
Her bandmates Mickey Finn (keyboards), Ron Johnson (bass), and Jamie Douglass (drums) matched Fish’s energy all night, creating a musical maelstrom worthy of a pantheon that includes blues rock outfits like Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, and George Thorogood’s Delaware Destroyers. The onslaught was loud, proud, and relentless. This was blues you feel in your bones. You can’t shake these blues. And you don’t want to.
For the encore, the rock goddess was joined by the equally Olympian Eric McFadden. The two elevated each other’s solos on R. L. Burnside’s “Goin’ Down South.” They left the stage smoldering, smoke rising to the Fillmore rafters.
A paper doll would combust in this inferno. By the time the cast-iron Fish was done sucking up all the oxygen into the room to feed her six-string bonfire, there was nothing for the fans to do but scream.
Opening act Robert Jon and the Wreck gave the early arrivals at the Fillmore a tasty take on southern-fried blues. The quintet hewed close to the recipe developed decades ago by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet – which is to say, comfort food served with a strong dose of heavy-gauge guitar strings and good ol’ boy accents.
You’d never know they’re from SoCal’s Orange County!
The band’s namesake and frontman Robert Jon has a rich, countrified rock and roll voice. Henry James kicked out some wicked guitar jams worthy of the genre invented by the Allman Brothers. The two occasionally stood side by side ripping some dueling leads. Joe-Bob gives them two enthusiastic gumbo-stained thumbs up!
If I ever make a movie that needs a backwoods band for a scene in a bayou bar, I might have to ring these guys up. They’d fit the suit.
