Reachin’ through time: Digable Planets at The Fillmore Lucy Gleeson February 8, 2024 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews Touring the 30th anniversary of their first record Reachin’ (1993), Digable Planets returned to the stage once again on Saturday night, after having disbanded in 1995 due to a disillusionment with the music i...
Supporting Local Music, and Why You Should Listen to Gingsu Joshua Morse February 7, 2024 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Interview, Reviews A hush fell over the crowd at the Art House Gallery as sound checks faded into the background. The eager patrons were a mix of young and old, local and outsider, but one feature united us all: our appreciation ...
A San Franciscan Holiday Tradition- SF Ballet’s The Nutcracker Ashley Mauldin January 2, 2024 dance, Reviews Every girl dreams of being a ballerina at some point in their lives, and for me, ideas of ballet started with The Nutcracker and the story of A Very Young Dancer, a book that illustrated the Nutcracker season w...
It’s a basement blitz with the Lemon Twigs! Gianna Caudillo December 17, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Rock, San Francisco San Francisco’s glitter-faced, mini-skirted, tailor-made crowd is alive and well, and the place to find them is in the Castro, clad in cheeky Beatles buttons and stomping through neon-lit basements in velvet ...
Mystical Moments at Cafe Du Nord with Strawberry Guy Ashley Mauldin December 15, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Photos, Reviews A misty haze, a sweaty but excited basement, and a hushed crowd. Strawberry Guy’s presence at Cafe Du Nord Wednesday night enthralled San Francisco. Alex Stephens, known as Strawberry Guy, is a Welsh artist b...
plum blossom (revisited) tour- a reflection into the past Ashley Mauldin December 15, 2023 Album Review, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Photos, Reviews What were you like at seventeen? The answer to that question is often one filled with an awkward pause before replying with some form of “I was naive and didn’t understand love,” or “I was still ...
Chronicles of a Diamond – Black Pumas, an album review Megan Darzynkiewicz December 7, 2023 Album Review, Opinion, R&B, Reviews, Rock The first time I heard the Black Pumas was when their song “Colors” popped up on my Spotify Discover Weekly. Since then, it’s become an absolute star on my playlists, with its building chorus and messag...
P-Funk’s Guide to the Mothership Lex Andersen December 3, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Black Culture, Funk, Oakland, Photos On November 25th, Parliament Funkadelic featuring George Clinton stopped by the Fox Theater on their “Just for the Funk of It” tour, celebrating over 50 years of intergenerational, genre-bending music. Ecle...
The complexity of love and loss in the Beatles’ “Now and Then” Gianna Caudillo November 28, 2023 News, Album Review, Reviews, Rock “One, two…,” counts Paul McCartney, but he is not about to launch into a rollicking, “Well, she was just seventeen! You know what I mean!” This McCartney count-in is more methodical, of lower timbre, ...
“There’s Something About the Women!:” Warmth pervades Irene Young’s book release at the Freight & Salvage Gianna Caudillo November 27, 2023 Reviews, Berkeley, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Contemporary Folk, Jazz, Local, Music History, Women's Music Movement When looking back at my frantically scratched notes in a pocket-sized address book I had brought to the 7pm celebration of Irene Young at the Freight & Salvage on November 19, one sentiment stands out in pa...
The Homeward Road: Miserable Faith Unites Bay Area Chinese-Speaking Diaspora in One Glorious Chorus Yansu Tan November 24, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, International, Rock Again and again Gao Hu, lead singer of Miserable Faith (痛仰乐队), addressed the crowd: “Do not stop my music (不要停止我的音乐)”. “不要停止我的音乐,” I silently repeated. After shoo...
Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees in San Francisco Dorothy Eck November 21, 2023 Black Culture, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, R&B, Rap, San Francisco Friday night at the Chase Center mounted a glorious celebration of Ms. Lauryn Hill’s seminal debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), commemorating its 25th anniversary with the reunion of Lauryn ...
Why you should be digging Dijon: an Absolutely album review Katie Hulse November 19, 2023 Album Review, Columns and Opinions, indie, R&B The electrically honest debut album titled Absolutely (2021) moves in mysterious ways and pulsates with such raw emotion that it feels like the music is bursting free from Dijon’s safekept psyche. With th...
“Shawn-y Came Home”: Shawn Colvin at Sweetwater Music Hall Roxanne Bostian November 16, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews “Please no more therapy, mother take care of me.” This was the original plea that snapped my head around and had me scrambling to shuffle Shawn Colvin’s entire discography. From those first strains of ...
Freak the Freak Out! Nico Chodor and Sophia Shen November 13, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Metal, Rock, Shoegaze Last weekend, right on the heels of San Francisco’s multi-day, multi-venue Psyched! Fest, we crossed state lines for a Pacific Northwestern analogue: Freakout Fest in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. The ...