WHEN I SAW No Doctors live at the Rickshaw Stop recently, all I could think was "This act is double t hott!" Their set made me ache deep inside, like I was hearing the most powerful blues band ever.

For one thing, when I met up with guitarist Elvis DeMorrow and percussionist Clopes the other night for a drink, they assured me that the band don't have anything against the medical profession, per se, and that they were more inspired by the crazy good-times bands on the Freedom From label in Minneapolis, where four of the five members met and formed the band in 1999 before moving to Chicagoland. We moved on to more important topics such as how they were settling into their newfound home, the Bay Area.

On San Francisco

DeMorrow: I think it's very coherent what the scene is.... I feel like we were welcomed with open arms. In a lot of ways it's kind of the opposite in Chicago, where we felt like we were fighting to even meet people to be friends with let alone to just have everything fall into our laps: all these people that we totally agree with and respect what they're doing. It's exciting for us. I give it 100 percent high marks.

Clopes: I just came out to San Francisco last Friday I drove all the way out from Minneapolis in 32 hours....This definitely seems like the ideal city that should just ban cars. Unfortunately, I own two. At this point, it's just equity in something, so ...

On earthquakes

DeMorrow: One thing in our history is we have a tendency to precede disaster. We did our first music video on our first tour in Times Square about two weeks before 9/11, and then we mixed the Hunting Seasons [Go Johnny Go/Cock of the Rock, 2003] record in Ann Arbor, Mich., the day before their worst race riot.

D.G.

No Doctors play with Comets on Fire, Hospitals, and Residual Echo 9 p.m., Feb. 24, Cafe du Nord, 2170 Market, S.F. $10-$12. (415) 861-5016.