“There were naked people everywhere,” says Lee Williams, drummer for the Burning of Rome. The band played San Francisco’s Exotic Erotic Ball and Expo on October 24. Advertised as “A Celebration of Flesh, Fetish, and Fantasy,” the two-day event included art exhibits, live burlesque performances, body painting and modification, porn-star wine-tasting, a “human petting zoo,” and Danny Bonaduce.

“Really, it was mostly sex-toy manufacturers and companies that make and deal porn,” according to Williams. “All through the room were these stripper poles, and girls would just jump on them and start stripping. And then a hundred guys would appear out of nowhere, with backpacks full of cameras, all drooling and taking pictures.…

“There were naked guys too,” says Williams, “guys who feel good about themselves probably more than they should.”

The show’s highlight?

“In the VIP room, they had piles of free porn DVDs, so we filled up a few bags. We had so many, we were tossing them from our hotel window down to people in the street, like New Orleans or something.…

“Even though we basically just provided the background music to all the bizarre stuff happening, this show probably had the best equipment we ever played through. It was a huge room, with expensive, top-of-the-line gear.”