WEDNESDAY 6
MUSIC
Caribou
Electronic music whiz Dan Snaith, a.k.a. Caribou, has a spirited stage show. In contrast to the solo job of the albums, Caribou gigs include a full live band and have been known to feature multiple drummers and percussionists (including Snaith himself), plus trippy, projected visuals. For a taste of his knack for polishing 1960s psych and ’70s krautrock weirdness with a modern dance club sheen, check out this year’s Polaris Music Prize runner-up, Swim, or 2003’s excellent Up In Flames. (Landon Moblad)
With Emeralds
9:30 p.m., $18
Regency Ballroom
1290 Sutter, SF
1-800-745-3000
THURSDAY 7
PERFORMANCE
Ralph Lemon
Early in his career Ralph Lemon made intimate, highly formal, nonnarrative dances. Then he engaged in huge, multiyear, multidisciplinary enterprises that took him from Abidjan to Beijing and Kyoto. Now he has come home — sort of. Lemon was raised in Minnesota, but in researching his family he encountered a now 102-year old Mississippian with whom he has worked for the last eight years on How Can you Stay in the House and Not Go Anywhere? The work consists of a performance, film, and visual arts installation — all on one ticket. Lemon’s work has always been well considered and choreographically cogent. No reason to think How Can You? will diverge from the norm. (Rita Felciano)
Through Sat/9
8 p.m., $25–$30
Novellus Theater
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission, SF
(415) 978-2787
MUSIC
Glass Candy
The music industry is a fickle mistress, and when bands take a long time to release material it becomes really easy to forget their past accomplishments. Take Glass Candy: it’s been a minute since the band made any significant waves, instead laying low the past few years and releasing 12-inch singles on trusty record label Italians Do It Better. The band’s style is a mash of disco and contemporary electronics that recall the best John Carpenter scores if they had blasé vocals by Nico. Candy’s singer Ida No remains the group’s greatest asset, and her delivery manages to be silly and sexy at the same time. This show proves that Italians Do It Better understands how to properly conduct a comeback, casting Candy, the label’s biggest successes, as headliners on an all-star bill that includes spin-off outfit Chromatics and, most surprisingly, label owner Mike Simonetti with a DJ set. (Peter Galvin)
With Chromatics, DJ Mike Simonetti, Soft Metals, and DJ Omar
9 p.m., $15
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
MUSIC
Tera Melos
Roseville three-piece Tera Melos storms Bottom of the Hill for a night of loud, mathy, prog-inspired rock ‘n’ roll. With new album Patagonian Rats fresh off the presses, Tera Melos seems poised to make some noise in indie-rock circles all over the country. Guitarist Nick Reinhart possesses a bottomless bag of wildly frantic riffs and finger taps, while the rhythm section thrashes along with shifting time signatures and complex song structures. Tera Melos isn’t the first or only band to make this kind of music these days, but it’s certainly one of the best. (Moblad)
With Skinwalker and Glaciers
9 p.m., $10
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
DANCE
Margaret Jenkins Dance Company
If you are at all interested in seeing out how mature artists — let’s say, with a track record of more than 35 years — keep turning out good work, there is probably no better way than to keep watching the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Jenkins’ MO — she suggests ideas; the dancers come up with responses; she edits the responses — has worked remarkably well, even for San Francisco Ballet dancers, who certainly are not trained along the lines of individual responsibility. This one-night stand offers a return of the wondrous first section of last year’s Other Suns I and a preview peek at Light Moves. Jenkins works for the first time with multimedia artist Naomie Kremer, who creates moving images based on her own paintings. (Felciano)
8 p.m., $18–$26
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
3200 California, SF
(415) 292-1200
FRIDAY 8
MUSIC
Fool’s Gold
Drag rock is very big right now. Who needs authenticity when you can see a band like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros being all folk, as if everyone just forgot about Ima Robot? (Oh wait, we did.) Well, same deal with Fool’s Gold and afropop. Of course, Vampire Weekend tries to do the same thing (it’s also known as Graceland-ing), but Fool’s Gold doesn’t have that annoying ka-ching of a cash register in every one of its songs. With a pair of ’60s throwbacks opening, it should make for a musical voyage through time and space. (Ryan Prendiville)
With Bitter Honeys and Soft White Sixties
8:30 p.m., $12
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell St., SF
(415) 861-2011
MUSIC
“Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze”
Tankcrimes is a resolutely underground Oakland record label, kicking out small-scale, mostly vinyl releases of criminally overlooked punk and metal bands. Focusing on breakneck tempos, DIY values, and that delicious intersection between punk’s manic energy and metal’s lumbering power, the label has nurtured a small stable of unimpeachable acts. “Tankcrimes Brainsqueeze” is a two-day festival celebrating these crossover crusaders, headlined by Richmond, Va., party animals Municipal Waste and Oakland’s own splattercore dungeon masters Ghoul. Hard-punning death metallers Cannabis Corpse will also appear. Look forward to 48 hours of demented double-time, disemboweled corpses, and decimated beer supplies. (Ben Richardson)
With Vitamin X, Toxic Holocaust, Direct Control, A.N.S., Voetsek, Ramming Speed, and more
Fri/8, 7:30 p.m.; Sat/9, 7 p.m., $15–$17 (two-day pass, $30)
Oakland Metro
630 Third St., Oakl.
(510) 763-1146
MUSIC
Davy Jones
As a member of the Monkees, Davy Jones was one of the original teen idols — he sang lead on some of their biggest hits, including “Daydream Believer” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.” Unlike many of the other early pop heartthrobs, however, he has since gone on to a highly successful four-decade (and counting) career in show biz. His many other memorable performances and appearances over the years include a variety of acclaimed stage roles, television cameos (think The Brady Bunch) and solo albums. Expect a little bit of everything at these intimate shows. (Sean McCourt)
Fri/8, 8 p.m.; Sat/9-Sun/10, 7 p.m.
(also Sat/9, 9:30 p.m.), $45–$47.50
Rrazz Room
Hotel Nikko
222 Mason, SF
(415) 866-3399
SATURDAY 9
EVENT
“Behind the Scenes on Treasure Island with Harrison Ellenshaw”
Now considered a swashbuckling classic, Disney’s Treasure Island (1950) was the first entirely live-action film that the studio produced. And one of the people who helped bring the tale of Long John Silver to life was the immensely talented Peter Ellenshaw, who created a series of matte paintings that provided the wondrous sense and grand scope of the various background scenes. His son Harrison, an equally accomplished artist in his own right (having worked on projects such as The Empire Strikes Back (1980)) will be on hand today to discuss his father’s work on the perennial pirate favorite, sharing some of his family’s history and the secrets that went into creating the magic for Walt Disney. (McCourt)
3 p.m., $9–$12;
Screenings, 1 and 4 p.m. daily through Oct. (except today), $5–$7
Walt Disney Family Museum Theater
104 Montgomery, Presidio, SF
(415) 345-6800
MONDAY 11
DANCE
WestWave Dance Festival
Monday nights are livening up this fall during WestWave Dance’s 19th annual contemporary choreography festival. Designed to allow new and established choreographers to develop and present work without the hassles of self-production, the festival presents 20 choreographers from the Bay Area and beyond in four showcases through December. Evening two of the series is an eclectic mix of choreographers hailing from various backgrounds and aesthetics: Viktor Kabaniaev, Tammy Cheney, Rachel Barnett, Annie Rosenthal Parr, and Kara Davis’ project-agora deliver to audiences a sampling of what our rich and unique contemporary dance scene has to offer. (Emmaly Wiederholt)
8 p.m., $22
Cowell Theater
Fort Mason Center
Marina at Laguna, SF
MUSIC
Valient Thorr
Chapel Hill, N.C’.s Southern rocking punks Valient Thorr may sound good on record, but they have to be seen to be believed. Frontperson “Valient Himself” is a bearded lunatic, flying around the stage and spreading the rock gospel with the verbose alacrity of a storefront preacher. The band behind him provides no-holds-barred punk-rock rave-ups with a hefty dose of Southern rock filigree and a dash of unhinged weirdness. New platter The Stranger was produced by knob-god Jack Endino, who thickened the sound without diluting the band’s digressive tendencies. The Thorriors will be cranking it out from atop Bottom of the Hill’s lofty stage, raining down sweat while they do it. (Richardson)
With Red Fang and FlexXBronco
9 p.m., $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 626-4455
TUESDAY 12
MUSIC
PS I Love You
Sure, the White Stripes blew the doors open for guitar drum duos to rock and have mainstream success, but the Black Keys proved that it wasn’t all just a quasi-incestuous fluke. Now all the boys feel comfortable doing it together. We’re not going to try and claim that Ontario, Canada’s PS I Love You is the only stripped down, sticks and picks outfit in town tonight, but if the spiraling, echoing post-pop songs off their just released first album (the single “Facelove” in particular) are any indication, you’d be hard up to find one that gives it to you like this. (Prendiville)
With Gold Medalists and Downer Party
9 p.m., $7
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk St., SF
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