Reviews

It's always a good sign when a small venue hosts two indie/alternative pop bands—my favorite genre and a guarantee for a great show. On February 18th, Pretty Jane and Night Cap took the stage at Cafe du Nord, bringing a mix of

924 Gilman was ready for the night. Valentine’s Gay, the annual show created by Middle Aged Queers five years ago, was ready to go. The merch tables were strewn with a wide variety of eye-catching items, kids were giggling and

Jamie XX came to the Cow Palace on Saturday night, January 25th, as part of his In Waves tour, performing his third album of the same name. I’ve loved his music since his days with The XX, captivated by his

The Freight & Salvage is on a little theater alley in Berkeley lined with the jazz conservatory, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and a couple other arts centers. It's the East Bay’s Broadway, in a way. The Freight, a non-profit venue, claims to

It’s Tuesday night at Horsies Saloon, which means Carly Scena takes the stage. She opens her notebook, lyrics penciled in, and welcomes us all into “Tender Tuesdays.” We’re lined up almost single file down the long, wooden bar. In the

To see a show at Rickshaw Stop is to stop at a wall with no sign in the shadow of Davies Symphony Hall, the grand venue down by the Civic Center in San Francisco. The wall is a giant octopus

Primus’ New Year’s Eve show returned to Oakland’s Fox Theater for the first time since 2017, previously an annual affair dating back to 2010. While the two-night event was rebranded as “Claypool Gold” (a nod to both the New Year’s

The KALX holiday party is our Cannes, Met Gala, and Oscars for audiophiles of the East Bay. Celebrities, known by their DJ names, walk the linoleum floor into the venue. They sport their finest looks, mostly band t-shirts.  Inside, 50

After a brisk walk with my friend from one end of Piedmont Avenue to the other, and stepping over the hordes of parked Veo’s (rentable e-scooters), we made it to our glorious UC Berkeley bragging right: the Hearst Greek Theatre.

On November 4th I did an interview with Klaudia Reynicke, the Swiss-Peruvian writer and director of the film Reinas, or Queens (2024). Reinas premiered at Sundance Film Festival and is the Swiss entry for the International Feature Film category at

As the crowd trickled into the Regency Ballroom on a cold Tuesday evening, November 12th, Casey MQ took the stage solo, which caught me off guard. Despite being alone, his performance as the opening act was anything but sparse. His

Robin Pecknold does not deal in charades of passion. On Wednesday night, under the dimly lit arch of The Chapel, San Francisco’s most beanied 30-year-olds convened to witness the singer-songwriter’s first appearance in the city on his solo tour. More

On Saturday, November 30th, I went to Fousheé’s concert in San Francisco at The Independent. From the moment I walked in, the vibes were on point. The theatre had an ambiance with nice overhead lighting and a bar with a

“We are the Rev Trio, thank you for having us. It’s gonna be a night of avant-garde swing, bebop, whatever you’re feeling.” I sit on an old carpet, writing on the menu atop a slab of some sort of oak.

After a day full of rain and frigid, fall air, the clouds momentarily parted for me to make my way into San Francisco to see Kate Bollinger at The Independent this past Thursday, November 21st. Marking the second to last

You may be familiar with Boston-based indie rock band Vundabar if you were on TikTok in 2021, when the opening guitar riff of “Alien Blues” played over alt teenagers’ GRWMs and impassioned lip syncs. But the band has existed long

To watch a show at the Fox Theater in Oakland is to be watched by the twin gods of sound, their golden hands clasping golden bowls, each six feet tall, ten feet off the ground. Their eyes are a luminescent

Lunar Vacation brought their dreamy indie pop-rock sound to The Warfield in San Francisco on November 11th, 2024, opening for Thrice and Manchester Orchestra. While the headliners drew an older crowd, Lunar Vacation had fans at the barricade singing along

After running around the house getting ready for a concert, Blusette and I took an Uber into San Francisco to see The Hellp. We got to the door, and after getting some very large X’s written on the back of

During her solo tour this fall, Julien Baker, the 29-year-old Nashville-born artist, performed three consecutive, sold-out nights at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco. I attended the last of three shows, on October 23rd, and witnessed Baker’s genius as a