For nearly two decades, Tony Molina quietly plied his trade at the Vogue Theatre, a boutique cinema on Sacramento Street in San Francisco. As part of his duties, Molina worked the concession stand, took tickets, operated the projector and cleaned up after everyone left, frequently working by himself to keep the independent operation running.
“In my experience, pretty much every boss I ever had at the Vogue came from music in one way or another — it was just this kind of weird coincidence,” said Molina, who worked off and on at the at the theater from 2003 to 2019. “Like, my first boss, he saw Black Flag way back in the day. So, I think at first, it was just this thing where they wanted to hire like-minded employees. And it works out well for musicians, because, in all honesty, it’s a very easy job.
“Some of my absolute best friends in life I met at the Vogue,” said Molina, who grew up in Millbrae and started playing in local bands when he was 14 years old. “To this day, I still speak to these guys all the time.” “It was crazy how quickly it came together,” said Molina, who will be releasing his latest solo album, “In the Fade,” on Aug. 12. “When I started connecting with my friends about playing a show at the Vogue, they were all super excited about taking part.”
Still get Ovens songs stuck in my head from time to time