Post-Election Day we have a panoply of excellent concerts coming to The Bay Area this week. Shows of all kinds. We have shows that are avenging! And dance-y! Secretive! And lemony! Metal! And even including the magic of public transportation.
It’s wonderful that there are so many kinds of shows ’round here and so many buses to take you to them.
Here’s what’s coming up this week.
Thursday, November 6th
Ziggy Marley at The Fillmore, S.F..
Ziggy picked up his father’s trade and has done well with it, which is the opposite of Joe Buck‘s arc. The oldest son of Bob has released both a comic book named “Marijuanaman” and won a daytime Emmy in the “Outstanding Original Song – Children’s and Animation” category. A renaissance mon, if you will.
Friday, November 7th
The Avengers, Bobby Joe Ebola and The Children MacNuggits, Love Songs, Younger Lovers at 924 Gilman Street, Berkeley.
No, it’s not the Robert Downey Jr.-fronted Avengers, it’s The Bay Area’s own Penelope-Houston-fronted Avengers. Our own West Coast Avengers started in 1977 when female-fronted proto-punk bands were once few and far between. And now they’re playing at 924 Gilman! This show is like a punk rock time capsule.
Slowdive, Low at The Warfield, S.F..
No need to make jokes about staring at one’s own shoes – look up and go see one of the English progenitors of what became known as “shoegaze.” Their slow-paced songs dance like egg white in a soup. And Slowdive are paired with Low, the slowcore Minnesotans whose slow-chilled songs of disappointment sound like your youthful vigor leaving your body. Short of a Melvins show, no other concert this year will get the most milage out of going so slowly.
Saturday, November 8th
Bassnectar, Griz at the Bill Graham Civic Center, S.F..
Ooonce oonce oonce OONCE OONCE OONCE OONCE oonce oonce oonce oonce. He’s local. He’s huge. He makes the dance music. Bassnectar plays the Civic Center on Saturday.
Secret Chiefs 3, Atomic Ape at the Great American Music Hall, S.F..
The Secret Chiefs 3 make soundtracks for movies that never existed, their work imagines sun-kissed scenes of Harryhausen monstrosities cavorting across Monument Valley in a widescreen Technicolor vista. Terrifying and stultifying truths unfurl from various lost libraries, citing world-building forbears such as Ennio Morricone, H. P. Lovecraft, and Mike Mignola. Songs from outside of this realm’s sphere peal forth from electrically-amplified guitars worn by men in concealing robes. Music, y’all.
Method Man & Redman, B-Real, Berner, Mick Jenkins, Shiest Bubz at the Regency Ballroom, S.F..
Speaking of marijuana, Meth and Red have been making buddy film-level rap/whatever together since 1994. That’s over twenty years. Adding Cypress Hill‘s B-Real to this concert in our fair weed-friendly environ may lead to difficulty seeing the stage due to what the attending crowd may attend to. It’ll probably be like a fog bank.
MUNI Diaries Live at The Elbo Room.
MUNIDiaries.com has been sharing the highs, lows, and agonies of traveling on MUNI for years. See public transit tales told on stage, no transfer required. Come for the hyper-local storytelling, stay for the “BACK DOOR!” puns. Tales will be told by Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Ronn Vigh, Mat Honan, Josh Cereghino, Kevin Fagan (from the SF Chronicle, not the former 49er defensive lineman), Klee Wiggins, and Jesse James.
Sunday, November 9th
Julian Casablancas + The Voidz, Connan Mockasin at the Regency Ballroom, S.F..
Julian Casablancas, the frontguy from The Strokes has a plural last name, yet his current band ends its plural name with a zed. Let me just say that “Connan Mockasin” better either have a really great explanation for their name or an apology from their parents. Anyhow, poppy garage-y rock.
Lagwagon, Swingin’ Utters, Western Addiction, This Legend at Slim’s, S.F..
Old punks unite (and stand on the edge of the pit)! Bring me your tallest old punks, your shortest old punks – with their mountain of a guitarist and their space-effect lead singer, Lagwagon represents them all! Strap on the skate shoes this Sunday and dance madly to two of California’s finest melodic punk stalwarts. Since the 1990s, Lagwagon have made reasonably smart, reasonably funny, mid-tempo punk rock. In 2008 they released the “I Think My Older Brother Used to Listen to Lagwagon” EP. At this point the truth is prob’ly closer to “I Think My Dad Used to Listen to Lagwagon.” SF’s own Swingin’ Utters open with their rollicking Johnny Cash-blackened working class punk. They’re old too. Here’s to longevity!
Jeff Bridges & The Abiders, Jessie Bridges at the Great American Music Hall, S.F..
Speaking of marijuana again, apparently – actor/photographer/TheDude Jeff Bridges has a band and he’s bringing it to The Tenderloin. Must be nice to have your own band just because, like the guy who owns the New York Knicks.
Monday, November 10th
The Psychedelic Furs, The Lemonheads at The Fillmore, S.F..
“I’ll be right back, I need to set my VCR for tonight’s 120 Minutes.” If you understand the previous sentence, you are part of the target market for this show at The Fillmore. The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando was a big disappointing 1990s crush, right up there with big disappointing 1990s crushes like Luke Perry and Ethan Hawke.
Tuesday, November 11th
Blonde Redhead, Dot Hacker at the Regency Ballroom, S.F.
Blonde Redhead are back with a new LP that sounds named after an old school Godzilla baddie. And more surprisingly, they’re not playing at Bimbo’s!
Wednesday, November 12th
Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Exodus at The Fox Theater, Oakland.
“SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! SLAY-ER! UNNNNNNNGH!” I love a world in which both Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum and Slayer are still touring. Despite tragedy, death, and time’s ravages, Slayer soldier onward. Touring with hat-brim enthusiasts Suicidal Tendancies and Richmond’s own thrash pioneers Exodus (not the Bob Marley song), these two shows at The Fox are sure to leave smiles and bruises upon local metalheads.
