Big shows, little shows, in between shows, there’s a little bit of everything for everyone this week. It’s a great week to go to shows in the bay!
Thursday, June 2nd
Architecture In Helsinki, Hooray For Earth at Great American Music Hall
Despite the name, this band isn’t a group of eastern European architects that play music on the side… Nope, we’ve got a fun, falsetto heavy dance pop band that guarantees a fun night out.
Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) at Rickshaw Stop
Flogging Molly at Amoeba Music – SF
Friday, June 3rd
The Wombats, Wild Party, The Tender Box at Rickshaw Stop
Liverpool power poppers The Wombats were supposed to play a few months ago, but since it seems that it takes an act of god to get a work visa to tour the US. So, the patient persons in the states finally will get to see this wonderful fun band that sounds nothing like the band they pay tribute to in their breakout single “Let’s Dance To Joy Divison.”
The Dead Westerns, Slow Trucks, Pony Village at Hemlock Tavern
Blackfield, Jordan Rudess at Great American Music Hall
Blackfield = Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Israeli Rock Star Aviv Geffen. It will be prog-rock super fun good time night!
Saturday, June 4th
Adele, Wanda Jackson at The Greek Theater – UC Berkeley
This show started at The Warfield, but it sold out in like 30 seconds. So they moved it to the significantly larger Greek Theater in Berkeley. The remainder of the tickets sold out in like 45 seconds. Nobody pulls moves like this in this day & age… Except for this British soul singer that managed to rise above the mid-00’s Brit Soul Revival to be, essentially, the last woman standing. She even managed to pull in at the last minute Elvis Presley’s ex-girlfriend, rockabilly innovator Wanda Jackson to open up the show! She did this by simply being good.Now, if any has a ticket for me, I’d be forever grateful…
Club BFD: Surfer Blood, INNERPARTYSYSTEM, The Vaccines, Geographer at Mezzanine
Live 105, the home of radio friendly alternative rock for the bay area, manages to impress with one heck of a line up for the warm up for their big summer shed show. This is a venerable who’s who of tomorrow’s most popular rock acts. This show compresses all the best of SXSW and Noise Pop into one 4 band show, and for $17.00, you can’t loose!
Earth, Wind, and Fire at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Fishbone, Keno Mapp, Heart Touch at The New Parish
Sunday, June 5th
Live 105’s BFD at Shoreline Amphitheater
I used to go to BFD every year in high school. That was a long time ago… Sometimes I feel that I may be too old for this event, but this year’s line up looks pretty good. Sure, I’m not personally a fan of nu-metallers turn synth goth rockers Linkin Park, but the rest of the bill is pretty solid. We’ve got a few classic acts such as Snoop Dogg and Bad Religion, hipster favorites The Strokes and Biffy Clyro, and a slew of wonderful guilty pleasures like Neon Trees, Manchester Orchestra, and The Airborne Toxic Event. We even have Wild 94.9’s immortal St John- the that really invented the “let’s mash up 100 songs in 20 minutes” way before Girl Talk, and even before we had computers that did it for us. So, yeah, it’s kind of worthwhile treking down to Shoreline to enjoy a full Sunday of fine corporate rock n roll!
Monday, June 6th
David Lowery, Jenn Grinels at Cafe du Nord
David Lowery is the legendary frontman of both Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, two of the most important bands of the alternative rock era. This is a very, very rare solo show. We have no idea what to expect, because he doesn’t do this. We could get an assortment of songs by his two bands, we could a slew of songs that he’s never played live, or this could be a full set of songs produced by David Guetta. I’m really hoping it’s the latter, but I doubt it. I do think that this will be pretty awesome. And remember, Monday nights are the most fun night of the week to go out.
Winter’s Bone: The Original Score as done by the original composers at Great American Music Hall
Tuesday, June 7th
Agnes Obel, Jhameel, Bird By Snow at Rickshaw Stop
The winner for the gentlest show of the week goes to this one. Headlining is Agnes Obel, a stunning songwriter whose brand of chamber pop calls to mind a much more accessible version of Joanna Newsom. Main support is provided by local singer/songwriter Jhameel, a man who is one of the most powerful performers that I have every had the honor to witness perform.
U2, Lenny Kravitz at overstock.com Coliseum
This bloated behemoth of a rock band still puts on one of the best shows out there. Sorry, cynics!
Wednesday, June 8th
Bruno Mars, Janelle Monae, Mayer Hawthorne & the Country at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Bruno Mars is all over the place these days, and for good reason. The man has hooks coming out of every pore! Co-headlining is Janelle Monae, the woman the put out Spinning Platters’ Album Of The Year for 2010 and one of the great performers of our generation. Warming up the whole shebang is garage soul revivalists Mayer Hawthorne & The Country, bringing a well rounded and awesome weekday evening.
Friendly Fires, Wise Blood at The Independent
