Independent Archives — Page 16 of 90 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Major Lazer showers the Independent with cash, vuvuzelas, dead memes, and a giant bubble

Tony Robles

April 2, 2013

It comes as a surprise to me that Diplo didn’t at least have a cameo in Spring Breakers — the film that takes place in his home state of Florida – considering his penchant for egregious hedonism.

His quest for indulgent nirvana was on full display last Thursday at the Independent, when he and his Major Lazer crew lead a 90-minute uber-bash of trap, electro, dancehall, moombahton, and dubstep.

A Major Lazer concert could arguably be labeled a “glorified DJ set,” due to the lack of a frontperson, the fact that all the instrumentals come from turntables, and because the duo spins other artists’ songs. But despite possessing most of the characteristics of your basic DJ set, Major Lazer’s show had the crowd way more pumped than a standard concert.

The show began with – you guessed it! — two DJ sets from Mad Decent creative director-Diplo’s labelmate Paul Devro and DJ-producer Lunice, who also serves as one half of trap outfit TNGHT, with Hudson Mohawke. Devro and Lunice warmed up the relatively sparse crowd (a good portion of the audience arrived in between Lunice and Major Lazer) with a solid sampling of tracks typically featured on most up-to-date DJ mixes. Major Lazer fans, get your shit together, showing up fashionably late is so passe, just pre-game an hour earlier if you have to. You missed quality openers.

Major Lazer was up next. At Diplo’s side were producers-DJs Jillionaire and Walshy Fire of Black Chiney fame (Major Lazer started as a collaboration between Diplo and Switch, but Switch split in 2011). And this should come as no surprise to those familiar with Diplo, there also was a lone dancer on stage, getting her express yourself on the whole time.

Express yourself isn’t just a music video but also a meme where young women tweet pictures of themselves doing handstands against a wall to Diplo’s music. Even though its novelty wore off within a month, that hasn’t stopped Diplo from cluttering his followers’ Twitter feeds with constant retweets of young, barely-clothed upside down women. (He’ll throw in a guy or two once every thousand retweets.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKaL7WL-onI

From the opening horn sounds to the closing hoots, Major Lazer effortlessly orchestrated a wildly raucous party. Before Diplo even yelled out the requisite “whassup San Francisco” shout-out, the DJ-superproducer-rapscallion, clad in a suit straight from GQ, was standing on top of the elaborate sound system, towering over his bass-hungry subjects.

And after hopping down from his perch, he proceeded to shower the crowd in bills, though your concert reviewer was unfortunately unable to verify the denominations of said bills. But then came the showering of the vuvuzelas! Pretty much anyone who wanted one, got one. And right after that, Diplo got into an eight-foot diameter air bubble and rolled on top of the audience, a move that surely stopped the hearts of the Independent’s management.

But the music was beckoning, and Diplo and crew got to work thrusting the throbbing bass and eclectic grooves of hits such as “Original Don” (Flosstradamus remix), “Listen to your Heart” by Hot Chip (Major Lazer remix), and Major Lazer’s latest single “Get Free” amid a blitzkrieg of neon lights.

After a while, Diplo was back to his old antics. He invited a lucky bro up on stage to have him document a live-action Harlem Shake video (I told you Diplo indulges in dead memes). But the crowd didn’t mind and gleefully engaged in one last Harlem Shake. (Hopefully.)

The biggest non-surprise of them all came when Diplo hand-picked five lucky ladies to come on stage to express the hell out of themselves. He later invited another female audience member up because, why the eff not? This gimmick went on for at least five minutes too long, especially when two of the women looked cravenly exhausted from doing this drunken dancing handstand.

All night long Diplo was unabashedly bathing in the unfettered hedonism of sweat, drink, and bass, and when the set was over, he immediately jet-setted two miles east to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where another throng of beat-thirsty youth was waiting for him.

Live Shots: Flume at the Rickshaw Stop

Tony Robles

March 29, 2013

Every time I’ve been to Popscene in the last few years, and I mean every time, I see the same guy. Deep 30s, clean cut, and so meticulously well-dressed that it’s conspicuous. Particularly conspicuous when he’s gravitating around a pair of black lingerie wearing girls dancing like they can’t drink. But I guess that mix is fairly typical of Thursdays at the Rickshaw Stop, for the weekly event that always brings in a new crowd by being an 18+ dance party, while maintaining a certain following with the promise of seeing an emerging music act that “could be the next big thing.”

Or, as the case was with Australian electronic producer Flume on Thursday night, the next Porter Robinson. As in “OMG, can you believe he’s only 20?” and the additional hype that goes with it. The crowd was sold out and eager to hear him DJ, many in the audience probably choosing the show over more established popular EDM acts playing that night like Major Lazer at the Independent or the Skrillex/Diplo (he’s everywhere) event going on for the video game convention.

“Is everyone excited to see Flume?” Dexter Tortoriello of opener Houses asked, in the cliched end of set mic break, before making the astute observation, “If we were in Australia right now, we’d be seeing him in a stadium, but instead we’re at Rickshaw Stop.” Flume – real name Harley Streten – had a sudden rise that included knocking One Direction off the top chart spot with his self-titled debut.

Sorry to say, despite Tortoriello’s excitement, Houses performance was strangely out of place. I caught what was at the time just a duo of Tortoriello and musical-romantic partner Megan Messina at Public Works in November and, while it had been pretty awkward in a shoegazing sort of way, they showed promise and an underlying energy waiting to get out, particularly with tracks like “Reds.”

Thursday they had the addition of a drummer and a guitarist, and Messina had a lot more to do and seemed less contained by nervousness, but strangely played new, more sonorous, thoughtful, and ultimately indistinct music. It was particularly noticeable as they made a consciously slow start coming off of a pop hip-hop track DJ Aaron Axelson played, causing someone to yell out “Drums!” at the end of their first song. “It feels cold up here,” a guy in a hoodie told his friends, which usually isn’t the case at the event.

Flume came on to the sounds of chopped vocals and faux-Afropop “More Than You Thought” from his album, and I made the conscious choice to not try to get back up front to try and get a picture. The real reason is I wimped out. The aesthetic reason is there are no satisfying photos of anyone in front of Macbooks. But the jealous reason is he’s young* and handsome, as the girls in front of me who have been in love with him for soooooooo long will point out, and doesn’t really need it.

On record, Flume is entirely listenable, a palatable mix of dub grooves, steady hip-hop beats, and jazzy, spacy tweaks that occasionally recall Flying Lotus, perfectly paired with pop vocals from a range of singers. His live show aims to be just as pleasing mixing in recognizable hits like Mos Def’s “Mathmatics” and Biggie’s “Juicy.” A little easy and a little bit too much cultural appropriation for my tastes, but it worked on the crowd.

At one point – the climax of the set really – Flume followed a version of Major Lazer’s “Get Free” (complete with a trance build and dubstep breakdown) with two of his best songs, “Insane” and “On Top.” Featuring lovely, pitch shifted vocals by Moon Holiday and the line “the only risk is that you go insane,” “Insane” is the kind of euphoric track you can get lost in, and the best hints at the depths Flume could delve into in the future.

But the electro hip-hop of “On Top” is the current album’s best statement of where the 20 year old is now. “All that I want in my life is the chance to do my thing,” the chorus says, and it’s entirely aspirational, before the triumphant verses kick in. “The nights forever young, it’s us that gets old,” is basically saying YOLO, but comes off a little closer to “Carpe Diem.” Or whatever is Latin for “night.”

*As his suburban origin story goes, he learned to make music from software he found in a cereal box at an age when people like me were trying to figure out masturbation.

Injured player in the game

March 26, 2013

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC “I have a new respect for people with disabilities,” Bay Area legend Saafir, the Saucee Nomad says, sitting in his wheelchair in the East Oakland living room where he’s temporarily crashing. “I was aware of their plight, but I never imagined how much strength it took mentally to deal with every day, day to day. It’s a cold strength.”

The extent of Saafir’s disability, revealed last month by Digital Underground leader Shock-G on Davey-D’s Hip Hop Corner blog, took the rap world by surprise. I’d heard Saafir was in rough shape, following a 2005 operation to remove a cancerous tumor from his spine, though the release of his unexpectedly religious album Good Game (ABB, ’06) seemed to signify a recovery. Yet a numbness that began in his toes in ’08 gradually crept up his legs to where he can no longer walk or even stand. His inability to work coupled with his medical expenses has wiped him out financially.

Tweeted by Questlove to his two million Twitter followers, Shock’s account went mini-viral over social media and hip-hop blogs. Wanting to interview Saafir, I called Shock, who gave his number but warned, “He’s a little heated ’cause I didn’t clear that story with him and I got some details wrong. But he wouldna let me post it. He’s a soldier.” And it takes some convincing before Saafir grudgingly agrees to an interview, though by the time we meet, his anger at the unwanted attention has largely dissipated into relief and acceptance. He’s allowed Chris Clay, a protégé of Shock’s who’s also a web designer, to set up a site, www.tostandagain.org, where fans can make Paypal donations. He’s even plugged the site in a phone interview on Sway and King Tech’s Wake Up Show (Shady 45 radio).

That the Wake Up Show was the first national music media to reach out to Saafir is unsurprising; the epic battle between Saafir of Hobo Junction and Casual of Hieroglyphics that the show hosted in 1994 when it was on KMEL was arguably step one in a series that leads to Sway interviewing Obama. A high-water mark of Bay Area rap history, Hobo v. Hiero occurred the same year Saafir released his debut, Boxcar Sessions, on Quincy Jones’s Warner imprint, Qwest. Saafir scored the $250,000 deal on the strength of his performances on Digital Underground’s Body-Hat Syndrome (TommyBoy, 1993) and in the film Menace II Society (1993), but even those didn’t quite prepare the world for his surrealistic syntax stretching on Boxcar or the tripped out beats of Hobo producers JZ and J.Groove.

While it became an enduring underground classic, Boxcar dropped at a time when the golden age was giving way to the bland consumer-speak that still dominates rap. After another album, The Hit List (1999), Saafir left Warner only to sign with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath as a member of Golden State Warriors, a supergroup with Xzibit and Ras Kass. But the project ultimately didn’t yield an album.

“We didn’t get held up by Aftermath; we had internal issues,” Saafir says. “We did a lot of high-profile records but we could never push past that level.” Following the group’s demise and his cancer operation, Saafir had just relaunched as an independent artist when he began to experience the first symptoms leading to his present condition.

The whole persona of a rapper is about being extraordinary, but in many ways Saafir’s current situation is typically American, Obamacare notwithstanding. Like any rapper who signs to a major in his 20s, he bought “some dumb shit” with his Warner money and has regrets, but he always set aside money from his deals; he has kids he’s putting through high school, among other expenses. But even with some insurance, he’s lost everything, and it’s impossible for him to make money the way a rapper does— always hopping flights to the next show — when it takes him two hours to get dressed.

After last year’s failed quest for laser surgery, described in Shock’s post, Saafir’s again working with his original doctor to determine the cause of his loss of leg function. If it can be restored, he estimates he’s looking at over $80,000 of uncovered expenses for surgery and rehab. If it can’t, he needs to get himself into an accessible assisted living situation, because couchsurfing in his condition is untenable.

But wheelchair or no, Saafir plans to continue rap.

“I’m a boss but I’m an injured player in the game,” he says. “I’m a very strong injured player in the game and I can still make plays from my position.”

Our Weekly Picks: March 27-April 2, 2013

Andrew Lam

March 26, 2013

THURSDAY 28

“The Secret History of Love”

It’s only four guys, but the quartet manages to call up a whole period in the cultural history of the LGBT community which, until Sean Dorsey put his considerable intellectual and artistic resources into this project, was little known even to its members, not to speak of the community at large. Dorsey, who found his way in a round about manner to dance through theater, has developed a personal language in which words and movement are irrevocably fused, each drawing its energy and expressive power from the other. These performances are a send-off for “The Secret History of Love” which is about to embark on its second national tour. Good to see what these very different dancers bring to this project. They are Dorsey, Juan De La Rosa, Brian Fisher, and Nol Simonse. (Rita Felciano)

Through March 31

8pm, Sat/Sun, 4pm; $15–$25

Dance Mission Theater

3316 24th St., S.F.

SecretHistory.brownpapertickets.com

Anthrax

Fresh off celebrating its 30th anniversary, iconic metal titan Anthrax is back with a new covers EP, Anthems (released last week), paying tribute to some of the songs that influenced it when the band was first starting out. Searing versions of tunes by artists such as AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, and Rush help shed light on the formative recipe that would eventually lead Anthrax to being considered one of “The Big 4” of thrash metal. Scott Ian and company will perform their classic 1987 album Among The Living in its entirety during their headlining slot tonight on the brutal “Metal Alliance Tour,” which also features Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste, and Holy Grail. (Sean McCourt)

8pm, $29.99–$32

Regency Ballroom

1300 Van Ness, SF

www.theregencyballroom.com

FRIDAY 29

“Overturning the Artifice” closing reception

What do shoe shining and art have in common? Very much, according to Jack Leamy, curator of SOMArts’ show, “Overturning the Artifice,” which closes in style Friday evening with free shoe-shining by artist Rachel Leamy. When one shines another person’s shoes, the act is reflective and forms an intimate human connection that uplifts the soul. Art, the curator says, has the same uplifting effect; it raises consciousness “out of the doldrums.” That is an upbeat way to speak about a show that deals with the struggles of being human, but then again, art can act as a powerfully positive force. Come to the show while you still can, to be uplifted — or just to get shinier shoes. (Laura Kerry)

6pm, free

SOMArts Main Gallery

934 Brannan, SF

(415) 863-1414

www.somarts.org

“KUSF-In-Exile’s Blown-Out, Blowout Benefit II”

Benefit is an often overused term, but this one applies for the sake of preserving San Francisco Community Radio (SFCR). As the group Save KUSF transitions into SFCR (its nonprofit identity) the costly legal quest continues with an FCC-level appeal of 90.3 FM’s sale still waiting to be ruled on. So what’s a group of rogue DJs to do when their sojourn on the web waves appears as if it’s becoming permanent? They throw another springtime blowout of mind-melting music to raise cash for their cause. Carlton Melton delivers the psychedelic, stoner-drone, Disappearing People emerges out of Oakland with experimental punk, and from the same neck of the woods, the one and only Yogurt Brain rides in with some catchy jangle and an occasional monster riff thrown in. (Andre Torrez)

With Carlton Melton, Disappearing People, Yogurt Brain, and KUSF-in-Exile DJs

8pm, $5–$10

Lab

2948 16th St., SF

415-864-8855

www.thelab.org

Texas is the Reason

In 1994 Texas is the Reason released a three-song EP that would initially be heard by very few and go on to influence a great many. The band’s only full-length Do You Know Who You Are? remains a touchstone album in the post-hardcore canon and is considered to be one of the primary kick-starters of the ’90s emo movement. Just as the band was about to burst from underground notoriety to a mainstream record label, however, it collapsed due to internal tensions. After just three years of existence and one beloved album, Texas is the Reason was done. Other than a two-show reunion in 2006, this year marks the band’s first and only tour since its disintegration a decade and a half back. This spring, the band unveiled two new songs and a brief tour — its last ever. While it may be cruel to give us hope and a taste of what could have been before disappearing again, I’m not complaining. After nearly 15 years of waiting, I’ll take what I can get. (Haley Zaremba)

With the Jealous Sound

9pm, $20

Bimbo’s 365

1025 Columbus, SF

(415) 474-0365

www.bimbos365club.com

Mano Le Tough

Having proved himself a more than capable in long form (popping up on this year’s Resident Advisor Top 100 poll and a recent Boiler Room set) and short (contributing remixes for Midnight Magic, Roisin Murphy, and Aloe Blacc) Ireland’s Mano Le Tough needed only to release a solid album to complete the producer trifecta. With Changing Days, he’s done just that, and it’s an assured, spaced out collection of deep house and future disco, organic, airy sounds alternating at times with ray-gun zaps. Throughout, Mano expands on the calmly emotive vocal style earlier heard on “In My Arms” and the glistening Stories EP. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Bells and Whistles, Joey Alaniz

9pm, $8–$15

Monarch

101 Sixth St., SF

(415) 284-9774

www.monarchsf.com

SATURDAY 30

Lynne Hershman Leeson’s “The Agent Ruby Files”

The story of the humanoid and the human goes way back — Pinocchio, that relationship between Skywalker and his robot companions. Now, we can add Lyne Hershman Leeson’s Agent Ruby, an online platform in the shape of Ruby, a character based on the artist’s 2002 film, Teknolust, that invites its visitors to converse with it. Over the past 12 years, Ruby has learned, improving her responses as the database has expanded. In a show on view from March 30 to June 2, SFMOMA will present a look at the growth of Ruby. Exhibiting collections of user conversations on topics such as dreams and sexuality, we can expect to see something very human reflected in the non-human. (Kerry)

Through June 2

$18

SFMOMA

151 Third St., SF

(415) 357-4170

www.sfmoma.org

Jonny Fritz

Nashville’s Jonny Fritz has been writing, recording, and touring for the better part of a decade, and looks to be breaking into his own this year after recent stints opening for the likes of Alabama Shakes, Shooter Jennings, and Wanda Jackson. Recently dropping his long-time moniker of “Jonny Corndawg” in favor of his real name, Fritz (who opens for Heartless Bastards tonight) is releasing his new album, Dad Country on ATO Records in April, a collection of slice-of-life tales, sweet vocals, and great lyrics that blend the sounds of his native city with California country and a wide swath of points in between. (McCourt)

9pm, $23

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

Colette and DJ Heather

Around 16 years ago, four young female DJs united to form the formidable quartet known as the SuperJane Collective. Feeding off Chicago’s potent house music scene, DJ Heather, Colette, Lady D, and Dayhota laid claim to being the first all-female electronic DJ group. The groundbreaking foursome have since separated, both musically and geographically, but they are scheduled for a Sweet Sixteen reunion in Chicago in June. In the meantime, Colette and DJ Heather are coming in hot off their appearance at Austin’s SXSW. Expect deep grooves, funkiness, and improvisational live vocals from Colette. (Kevin Lee)

With Pink Mammoth

10pm, $15–$20

Mighty

119 Utah, SF

(415) 762-0151

www.mighty119.com

SUNDAY 31

Dolores Park Easter Celebration with Hunky Jesus Contest

Once you’re done sleeping through the church hours, the best thing to wake up to would be the annual Easter celebration in Dolores Park. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are hosting their 34th birthday party once again at the park, and the “Under the Big Top” theme this year will be sure to charm the inner bunny out of you. The day will start out with family-friendly children’s Easter happenings at 11am, but just after noon the party really gets started. There will be circus tricks, an Easter Bonnet Contest, performances by the likes of our own Honey Mahogany (recently seen on RuPaul’s Drag Race), Sparkle Ponies, and Jane Wiedlin, along with the beloved Hunky Jesus Contest. The Sisters suggest you “bring a picnic blanket, some nosh and, of course, a little libation.” (Taylor Hynes)

11am-4pm, free

Dolores Park

18th and Dolores, SF

www.thesisters.org

Widowspeak

Eudora Welty once said, “Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else.” It is no surprise then that Widowspeak recorded its second album, Almanac, in a 100-year-old barn in the Hudson River Valley. Setting creeps in, the soft singing of frontperson Molly Hamilton ringing like a ghostly whisper from a rural past, which sits in beautiful tension with the sometimes jangly rock instrumentals that seem reflective of the band’s Brooklyn base. At the Chapel show, though, it might be more apt to say that the atmospheric folk-pop of the band creates a setting of its own. (Kerry)

With SISU

9pm, $12

Chapel

777 Valencia, SF

(415) 551-5157

www.thechapelsf.com

Daedelus

“The Willy Wonka of music.” That’s how one clever Internet commentator labeled LA beats producer Alfred Darlington, a.k.a Daedelus. It’s a fitting moniker — the dapper Darlington (often sporting colorful, wide-lapel suit jackets) ushers unsuspecting listeners into his music factory, laden with delicious and dangerous drums. Lick a sample here, taste a vocal there, and suddenly you’re swimming in a bass-filled reimagining of a video game villain’s theme music or hip-hop hacked to pieces and sped up to 130 BPM. All the while, Darlington goes all mad scientist, mashing away at a 256-button device known as a monome from which he can summon all sorts of sweet and sinister sounds. Overindulge at your own peril. (Lee)

With Two Fresh, Ryan Hemsworth, Samo Sound

8pm, $18

Independent

628 Divisadero

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

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Music listings

Andrew Lam

March 26, 2013

Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead or check the venue’s website to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Visit www.sfbg.com/venue-guide for venue information. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 27

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Joey Bada$$ and Pro Era: Beast Coastal Tour Slim’s. 9pm, $16. With Flatbush Zombies, Underachievers, DJ Statik Selektah.

Castle, Occulation, Borrowed Time Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.

Guido vs Joel Nelson Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Head-Boggle, Forest Friends, Take Up Serpents Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Living Colour Fillmore. 8pm, $27.50.

Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Jake Miller, Kalin and Myles, J. Lately Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 6pm, $16-$35.

Night Riots, Beta State, Young Science, New Beat Fund Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

Poolside, Astronauts etc., Ginger and the Ghost Independent. 9pm, $15.

White Magic, Kria Brekkan, Rio En Medio Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Big Bones Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Quinn Deveaux Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Jacqui Naylor Rrazz Room, 1000 Van Ness, SF; www.liveattherrazz.com. 8pm.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com.7-9pm, free.

Yamanaka Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $20.

DANCE CLUBS

Bodyshock Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $7. With Youth Code (live), DJ Blk Rainbow, DJ Crackwhore.

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Cash IV Gold Double Dutch, 3192 16th St, SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 9pm, free.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free. With Vinyl Ambassador, DJ Silverback, DJs Green B and Daneekah.

Full-Step! Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, reggae, soul, and funk with DJs Kung Fu Chris and Bizzi Wonda.

Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.

Martini Lounge John Colins, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 7pm. With DJ Mark Divita.

THURSDAY 28

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Matt Alber and the Cello Street Quartet, Feona Jones Swedish American Hall. 7:30pm, $20.

Anthrax, Exodus, High On Fire, Municipal Waste, Holy Grail Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $32.

Blasted Canyons, Useless Eaters, Nightmare Boyzzz Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $8.

John Elliot, Nels Andrews Amnesia. 7pm, $8.

Everyone is Dirty, Love Dimension, Brasil, Feather Bright Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $8.

Flume, Houses, Blende, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $15-$17.

Fol Chen, Royal Canoe, Sands Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

Haberdasher Witness, Kerry Wing Amnesia. 9:30pm, $7

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Steve Kimock feat. Bernie Worrell, Wally Ingram, and Andy Hess Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $30.

Kingdom Crumbs, DJ Harrison, Javi Santiago, Tamara Davidson Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 6pm, $7-$10.

Railroad Earth, Poor Man’s Whiskey Fillmore. 9pm, $25.

JC Rockit vs Guido Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Ted Savareses and the Tedtones feat. Ralph Carney Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapesf.com. 8pm, free.

Sekta Core, 132, Los Pornos Thee Parkside. 8:30pm, $13.

Woolen Men, Swiftumz Knockout. 10pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Holes Lab, 2948 16 St., SF; www.thelab.org. 9pm, $5-$10.

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Jacqui Naylor Rrazz Room, 1000 Van Ness, SF; www.liveattherrazz.com. 8pm.

Sam Peoples feat. Jacore Baptiste Chez Spencer, 82 14th St., SF; www.chezspencer.net. 7:30pm.

SFJazz Collective SF Jazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $20-$40.

Chris Siebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Katy Stephan Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

Tim Hockenberry Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $25.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Accordion Babes El Rio. 9pm, $7.

KC Turner, Obstacle Course, Pieces, Alex Jimenez 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.localmusicvibe.com. 7pm, free.

Craig Ventresco Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com. 7pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. With Derek Hena, Pleasuremaker, and Oz.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Gridlok, Bachelors of Science, Jamal Monarch. 9:30pm, $5.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 29

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Amor de Dias, Jessica Pratt, Honeycrisp Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapesf.com. 9pm, $12-$15.

B. Hamilton, Eight Belles, Joel Robinow Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

Hightower, Walken, Rock Bottom Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

King Dude, Natural Child, Of the Wand and the Moon, Cool Ghouls Elbo Room. 8pm, $12.

Last Bison, Kris Orlowski, Jon Gunton Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10.

Old Firm Casuals, Pressure Point, Let It Burn, Plead the Fifth Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.

Planet Booty, Super Adventure Club, Spirit Animal Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $12.

Randy, Greg Zema and Nathan Temby Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Seshen, Le Vice, Karyn Paige Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $10-$15.

Vonda Shepard Rrazz Room, 1000 Van Ness, SF; www.liveattherrazz.com. 9:15pm.

Texas is the Reason, Jealous Sound Bimbo’s. 9pm, $20.

Jane Woodman, Foxtail Somersault, Bears! Bears! Bears! Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $10.

X-Static Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Rita Coolidge Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $36; 10pm, $26.

Hammond Organ Soul, Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Allison Lovejoy Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

Jacqui Naylor Rrazz Room, 1000 Van Ness, SF; www.liveattherrazz.com. 8pm.

SFJazz Collective SF Jazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$60.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Richard Bean and Sapo Slim’s. 8pm, $16. Celebrating 40 years of Suavecito.

BeRn Dolores Park Cafe, 501 Dolores, SF; facebook.com/getberned. 7:30pm.

Borinquen Cigar Bar and Grill, 850 Montgomery, SF; www.cigarbarandgrill.com. 10pm, $10.

DANCE CLUBS

Dancing Ghosts Cat Club, 9:30pm, $3-$7. Darkwave dance party.

DJ Audio1 715 Harrison, SF; www.djaudio1.com. 10pm, $10.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

Pow Pow: Bonus Round DNA Lounge. 8pm, $5-$11. 8bitSF with Derris-Kharlan, Doctor Popular, Decktonic, Space Town Savior.

Third Party: G-Stav Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Trap and Bass DNA Lounge. 9pm, $20. With Loudpvck, Tone Sol, Akuma, Collin Whitaker.

SATURDAY 30

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Back Pages Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Fungo Mungo, Victims Family, Gretchen Menn Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $12.

Future Space and Time, Couches, Pony Village, Li Xi Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.

Heartless Bastards, Jonny Fritz Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $23.

Hopi Astronaut Riptide Tavern. 9pm, free.

Matt Jaffe and the Distractions, Cheating Daylight, Empire Slim, Paradox Labryinth Slim’s. 6:30pm, $15.

Once and Future Band, Shotgun Brautigan, Freddie and the Aztecs Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $12.

Point of View, Bad Friend, Voided Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

Quaaludes, Grandma’s Boyfriend, Adam Healton Brainwash Cafe, 1122 Folsom, SF; www.brainwash.com. 8pm, free.

“Radio Valencia Listener Appreciation Party” Speakeasy, 1195 Evans, SF; www.radiovalencia.fm. Noon-6pm, free. With Sweat Lodge, Maurice Tani, Atom Age.

Sevendust, Coal Chamber, Lacuna Coil, Candlelight Red Regency Ballroom. 7pm, $32.

Vonda Shepard Rrazz Room, 1000 Van Ness, SF; www.liveattherrazz.com. 9:15pm.

Sister Sprarrow and the Dirty Birds, Alan Evans Trio Independent. 9pm, $16.

Wax Idols, Mallard, Chasms, DJ Nako Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $8-$11.

White Fence, Meg Baird, Assemble Head In Sunburst Cloud, Muscle Drum Amnesia. 9pm,$10.

Greg Zema, Jason Marion, Chris A. Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Rita Coolidge Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $36; 10pm, $26.

Hammond Organ Soul, Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Mr. Lucky and the Cocktail Party Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Jacqui Naylor Rrazz Room, 1000 Van Ness, SF; www.liveattherrazz.com. 8pm.

SFJazz Collective SF Jazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$65.

Luciana Souza Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness, SF; www.sfperformances.org 8pm, $25-$55.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF: DJs From Mars DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$20. With Entyme, Keri Hanna, Brass Tax.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

“Soul Clap and Dance-Off feat. DJ Jonathan Toubin” Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $8. With DJ Primo.

Sweater Funk Elbo Room. 10pm, $10. K-Maxx Record Release Dance Party.

SUNDAY 31

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bambu, Power Struggle, Rey Resurreccion, Odessa Kane, 6Fingers Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

Daedelus, Two Fresh, Ryan Hemsworth, Samo Sound Independent. 8pm, $18.

Date Palms, Danny Grody, Chuck Johnson Hemlock Tavern. 6pm, $7.

Deleyaman 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 8pm.

Graves at Sea, Aldebaran, Dispirit, Larvae DNA Lounge. 8pm, $12.

Grief Counselors, Roland Finn Thee Parkside. 4pm, free.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Parkway Drive, World Alive, Veil of Maya, While She Sleeps Regency Ballroom. 7:30pm, $22.50.

Tropics, Wave Comission, Wild Ass Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

White Fence, Culture Kids, Break Arts Amnesia. 9pm,$10.

Widowspeak Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapesf.com. 9pm, $10-$12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Jealousy, Centre, A White Hunter, Brian Ang, Sam Weinert Lab, 2948 16 St., SF; www.thelab.org. 9pm, $5-$10.

Marcus Johnson Yoshi’s SF. 6pm, $16; 8pm, $24.

SFJazz Collective SF Jazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$60.

Lavay Smith Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Beats for Brunch Thee Parkside. 11am, free.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep, Maneesh the Twister, and guest Selecta I.E.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 1

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Contortionist, Within the Ruins, I Declare War, Reflections, City in the Sea DNA Lounge. 6:30pm, $15.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAN, Static People, Secret Secretaries Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

Kingdom Crumbs, DJ Harrison Javi Santiago, Tamara Davidson Elbo Room. 9pm, $5.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Ecstatic Music Band, John Davis, Matt Ingalls, J. Collin Lab, 2948 16 St., SF; www.thelab.org. 8pm, $7-$10.

Noah Peterson Coffee Adventures, 1331 Columbus, SF; www.coffeeadventurescafe.com. 11am, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Front Country Amnesia. 9pm,free.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-$5. With Decay, Joe Radio, Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 2

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Ryan Leslie, Nima Fadavi (DJ set), Anya and the Get Down Slim’s. 8:30pm, $26-$31.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Titan Ups Amnesia. 9pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Pendulum Elbo Room. 10pm, $5.

FEAST: 5 stoner cookbooks

Andrew Lam

March 26, 2013

culture@sfbg.com

FEAST If that joint’s got you jonesin’ for some serious grub, look no further. We’ve rolled up the latest and greatest in stoner cookbooks, perfect for any discerning bud lover’s taste test. No, we didn’t include any weed-infused recipes in this list, but hey, feel free to augment the recipes in the brownie cookbook. Whether you’re a marathon midnight toker or a one hitter-and-quitter, we understand your need for accessibility, availability, and general ease in eating after that smoke sesh. But move beyond Pop Tarts — even the most gourmand of pot heads could use some guidelines for grilling up goodies every once in awhile.

THE MAC AND CHEESE COOKBOOK BY ALLISON AREVALO AND ERIN WADE

Get your mac on. Allison Areval and Erin Wade, co-owners and authors of The Mac and Cheese Cookbook dish out 117 pages dedicated to one of America’s most beloved dishes, based on the crowd pleasing specialties dished up in their Oakland restaurant Homeroom. The book is an homage to Homeroom’s endless variations on the classic orange variety. That’s good news if your cravings leave you hankering for a variety of tastes. Basic bechamel sauces figure on the pages alongside smoky bacon, blue cheese, sriracha, and jalapeno poppers. There’s even a section on desserts suitable for your post-mac munch.

Ten Speed Press, $16.99

FIFTY SHADES OF BACON BY JENNA JOHNSON AND BEN MYHRE

This self-proclaimed “erotic” cookbook sinks its teeth into all things bacon. Bacon au gratin, bacon-wrapped asparagus, bacon Alfredo (just to name a few) — this pork-inspired parody cookbook has all the seductive appeal of its sexy, silly source material. But instead of a half baked S&M narrative, Johnson and Myhre’s book gets you off with five different carnivorous sections of easy-to-follow recipes. A seductive succession of events unfolds with chapters entitled “Foreplay,” “Multiple Orgasms,” “Morning Wood,” and “Bondage”, where bacon bits, bacon jam, bacon martinis, and bacon peanut stoke your stoner flames. And even if pig parts don’t get you off, they’ll almost certainly taste better when you’re high.

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, $19.95

TRY THIS AT HOME: RECIPES FROM MY HEAD TO YOUR PLATE BY RICHARD BLAIS

We’ve all done it. Remember that time when you were so high, you thought putting chocolate sauce on canned jalapeños was the most genius concept ever? Until, of course, you made that dream reality and were left with a wounded mouth and sobering regret. It turns out, however, that unlikely pairings aren’t always painful. Top Chef: All Stars winner Richard Blais proves it to us in this cookbook. From root-beer basted lamb-shanks to coffee butter pancakes, the chef’s recipes do flavor exploration the right way — 125 right ways, to be precise. Go forth and concoct creatively.

Clarkson Potter Publishers, $30

MAD HUNGRY CRAVINGS BY LUCINDA SCALA QUINN

Lucinda Scala Quinn takes on take-out. Her mission in Mad Hungry Cravings is to reconcile the almost unbeatable deliciousness of fast food with the nourishment and nutrition that a home kitchen can produce, without a lot of work. Can good for you also be good for munchies? Damn straight. While raising three boys in NYC, where street food beats about anything found in the fridge (particularly if you’re a ravenous adolescent), Quinn had to create home-cooked meals capable of competition with street dogs and shawarmas.

Artisan, $27.95

BRILLIANT BROWNIES AND BARS: 25 FAVORITE BROWNIE AND BAR RECIPES BY COOKING PENGUIN

Stoners, perhaps more than most, know that not all brownies are created equal. If you have ever tried to make a batch of brownies with your favorite herb, you know it requires a careful balance of elements and timing. This book’s sugary-sweet offerings are winners, and recipes are composed with chocolate and without for more innovative pastry pleasure. The pages start with the standards and segue into non-traditional options, like cocoa-avocado, pumpkin pie, and nonpareil brownies. If you’d rather stick to the classics, try whipping up chocolate walnut brownies or Cooking Penguin’s ace pecan blondies.

168 Publishing, $12.95

Get discount tickets to see Karsh Kale

Maria Poblet

March 21, 2013

Karsh Kale live featuring Alam Khan: Classical Science Fiction

“Karsh Kale has established himself as a spokesman for a generation of music that incorporates electronica, dance grooves and classical Indian sound” – SF Chronicle

Classical Science Fiction is the brainchild of producer and multi-instrumentalist Karsh Kale, who breaks down the traditional constructs of Indian classical music while maintaining its emphasis on rhythm, scale, and improvisation. Karsh has put together an all-star ensemble of musicians who are rooted in traditional styles yet creating new paths in Indian classical, electronica, blues, jazz, rock, and ghazal.

Karsh is equally comfortable DJing as he plays tabla with the late sarangi maestro Ustad Sultan Khan, rock icon Lenny Kravitz, or R&B songstress Alycia Keys. He is at home performing with his childhood hero Ustad Zakir Hussain, or as a member of the super group Tabla Beat Science, or orchestrating and composing for Bollywood films. He is considered by many as the face of the emerging independent music scene in India.

With Alam Khan. Follow this link for more info and click here to buy tickets. Use code “SFBG” for 10% off.

Thursday, March 21 at 8pm @ Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness, SF | $50/$35/$25 via City Box Office

Our Weekly Picks: March 20-26, 2013

Andrew Lam

March 19, 2013

WEDNESDAY 20

Mr. Marina Competition

Why would you pay $50 for an hour of hosted Skyy vodka and Peronis? Why, when it’s preceding what may well be the most self-aware (we hope) SF bro moment of the year: the two-year-old Mr. Marina competition. The winner among 10 brah-ly contestants will become VIP at various Marina businesses for 2013 and will be proud that he slapped cancer, as goes the moniker for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society booster club through which this event’s proceeds are donated to fighting disease. Swimwear competition, talent portion, and impromptu question fielded in stereotypically “Marina” outfits will help judges pick a dude-gem. (Caitlin Donohue)

7pm-11pm, $50

Ruby Skye

420 Mason, SF

mrmarina-fb.eventbrite.com

www.slapcancer.org

Chelsea Light Moving

Kim Gordon’s new band, Body/Head, was just here for a Noise pop show, so….let’s just get this out of the way: yes, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore is the guitarist-vocalist-songwriter behind Chelsea Light Moving. And no, Sonic Youth does not have plans to reunite. Chelsea Light Moving is now on its first official tour, in support of its self-titled debut album, which came out March 5 on Matador Records, and has the bloggers buzzing. The post-rock foursome, named for an actual moving company run by Philip Glass and Steve Reich, maintains Moore’s jagged guitar work and tendency towards the fuzz, but some tracks hold a quieter calm, and lean more toward pop than Sonic Youth ever did, which is an interesting departure. San Francisco’s harmonious post-punk trio Grass Widow opens. (Emily Savage)

With Grass Widow

8pm, $21

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

www.slimspresents.com

THURSDAY 21

“Growing Pains: Business of Cannabis”

Where have the federal intervention of past years and the more recent steps forward in legalizing marijuana across the country left us in the fair city of San Francisco? At this talk, hear thoughts from long-haired news contributor to fellow SF Newspaper Company-owned publication SF Examiner, Chris Roberts, and ex-marijuana grower Heather Donahue who yes, also starred in the swervy shots of 1999’s Blair Witch Project. More relevant for the purpose of this blurb, Donahue wrote a book about her experience in small town NorCal weed country, and coupled with Roberts’ knowledge of Bay Area weed businesses, their thoughts should make interesting discussion. If you’ve already got a burning question for the duo, send it in advance of the event to growingpains@sfappeal.com. (Donohue)

6:30-7:30pm, free

RSVP recommended at info@ybcd.org

San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)

645 Mission, SF

www.visityerbabuena.org

Shen Wei Dance Arts: “Undivided Divided”

The Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics presented stunning artistic spectacles (minus that whole unfortunate thing with the lip-syncing scandal), and Shen Wei, their choreographer, played a large role. The Ceremonies offers a good example of the artist’s work, which is known for its bridging of cultures and melding of the traditions of dance with innovative contemporary techniques. Shen Wei comes to YBCA with a long list of credentials — including a MacArthur Award and Guggenheim Fellowship — and a spectacular performance, “Undivided Divided,” that involves dancers moving in grids of different mediums such as sculpture and paint. (Laura Kerry)

Through March 24

8pm, $25

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

701 Mission, SF

(415) 978-2700

www.ybca.org

Mohani

“Chillwave” or “chill-vibe” music. Are those terms en vogue or just plain nauseating? Whatever your opinion, there’s no escaping the fact that this Mashi Mashi Presents show will be an evening of electronic, dream-pop, and synth. When Mohani (Oakland’s own Donghoon Han) unleashes his own brand of K-Pop meets Joe Meek’s version of outer space, the soundscape will in fact leave you mellowed out. (This is his album release show.) Deliciously, atmospheric synth blips will rule this night featuring some truly emerging artists, while a good hook for the sake of song structure will not be forgotten. Keep your ears tuned in between acts as the DJ interweaves some carefully selected tracks to keep things moody. (Andre Torrez)

With Li Xi, THEMAYS, DJ Mashi Mashi

9pm, $7 Knockout

3223 Mission, SF

(415) 550-6994

www.theknockoutsf.com

FRIDAY 22

Murs

This ubiquitous LA-based rapper has eight solo albums out, one in the mix, and a hand in half a dozen side projects and collectives, often featuring in three or four different albums per year. Whether he’s going solo, rapping with Atmosphere’s Slug in their duo Felt, or getting indie-licious with Living Legends, Murs’ smart and surefooted rhymes stand out. He recently stirred up some controversy in the hip-hop community for featuring a gay kiss in one of his videos to highlight his support of marriage equality, a bold move both atypical of rappers and extremely fitting of Murs. He seems to have taken his own advice to heart when he raps on “Everything”, “Be original/Be different/Be the one to stand up and shock this system.” (Haley Zaremba)

With Prof, Fashawn, Black Cloud

9pm, $21

Slim’s

333 11th St, SF

(415) 255-0333

www.slimspresents.com

Ducktails

Ducktails produces summery rock. The band’s third album, The Flower Lane, released this past January, could span a lazy day at the beach; the low-key but bright album opener, “Ivy Covered House,” provides the soundtrack to a short drive with windows down, while the breezy love song, “Letter of Intent,” underscores the last embers of nighttime bonfire. The side project of Real Estate’s Matt Mondanile, what started as a solo act has developed into a tight band that performs upbeat pop songs to full audiences. Ducktails brings to these, along with a bit of premature summer, to the Chapel tonight. (Kerry)

With Mark McGuire

9pm, $15

Chapel

777 Valencia, SF

(415) 551-5157

www.thechapelsf.com

SATURDAY 23

The Specials

Let’s begin with pick-it-up, pick-it-up songs “A Message to You, Rudy,” and “Nite Klub,” and upbeat haunter “Ghost Town” — British two-tone legends the Specials released now-classic ska gems early in their career, beginning in ’79 with their self-titled debut. The band inched up through the early ’80s with followup, More Specials and more danceable two-tone tracks like anti-work anthem “Rat Race” and foggy “Stereotype/Stereotypes, Pt. 2.” Over the decades the band has broken up, gotten back together, gained and lost members, experience shiny revival popularity, and remained that of checkerboard legend. See the Specials live now, while you still have the joint strength to skank in the pit. (Savage)

With Little Hurricane, DJ Harry Duncan

Warfield

928 Market, SF

(415) 345-0900

www.thewarfieldtheatre.com

Christopher Owens

For most singer-songwriters who break big, life becomes a wild ride. For Christopher Owens, the critical and commercial success of his band Girls was just another event in a lifetime of crazy trips. He’s been, among other things, a cult member, a drug addict, a knife salesman, and a punk rocker. With such experiences, he has enough material for a lifetime of therapeutic songwriting. But Owens only seems to be able to write about one thing — love. While Girls tried their hardest to perfect the indie love song, Owens’ new solo album Lysandre tries harder. The record itself is one huge love story about a girl he met while on tour with Girls in France, and the duo’s subsequent rise and fall. The music and the lyrics are earnest, simple, and heart-achingly relatable. While the loss of Girls is a blow to the San Francisco music scene, one listen to Lysandre certainly eases the pain. (Zaremba)

8pm, $25

Palace of Fine Arts

3301 Lyon, SF

(415) 567-6642

www.apeconcerts.com

MONDAY 25

Half the Sky

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s best-selling book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide inspired many of its readers to become activists. Its message has been further shared thanks to a four-hour PBS documentary highlighting international women’s rights issues, with a little celebrity help from Diane Lane, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and others. In honor of Women’s History Month, the Guardian’s own Caitlin Donohue hosts an abridged screening of this important film, followed by what’s sure to be a lively discussion about San Francisco’s role in advancing women’s rights worldwide. (Cheryl Eddy)

7pm, free

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

www.atasite.org

Iceage

This band of young ruffians out of Copenhagen has had a whirlwind adolescence. After two albums and international acclaim, the gents in Iceage are still teenagers at 19-years-old. 2011’s New Brigade and this year’s You’re Nothing add up to one searing hour of punk rock fueled by the sort of unbridled, unfiltered fury that only coming of age can produce. Their particular sound mashes in elements of post-punk, hardcore, and industrial to create a delicious sonic mess. The group recently came under fire after a blogger posted a conspiracy theory-esque article about Iceage’s “chic racism.” Though the claims were unfounded and the research woefully incomplete, the allegations just won’t disappear. But hey, the rage and confusion stemming from this sort of injustice and abuse of modern forms of communication seems like a recipe for a great follow-up album. (Zaremba)

With Merchandise, Wet Hair, DJ Omar

8pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

TUESDAY 26

Caveman

It’s not just that Caveman’s music is dreamy, but it also shares qualities with dreams. The band’s first album, CoCo Beware (2011) simultaneously sounds close and ambiently distant. Caveman’s self-titled second album, released April 2, will build on these effects, which have produced compelling performances and earned the band impressive recognition in the past couple of years. With beautifully pure vocals and beats that are funkier than expected, the band plays folk-pop with a vividness of a daydream or the last images before waking. Get swept up in the momentum of Caveman’s reverie at the Independent. (Kerry)

With Pure Bathing Culture

8pm, $15

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(617) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

Stage listings

Andrew Lam

March 19, 2013

Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

THEATER

OPENING

BAY AREA

The Coast of Utopia: Voyage & Shipwreck Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk; www.shotgunplayers.org. $20-35. Shipwreck previews Fri/22-Sat/23 and March 29, 8pm; March 27-28, 7pm; Sun/24, 5pm. Opens March 30, 8pm. Runs Wed-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through May 5. Voyage previews March 27, 7pm. Opens April 3, 3pm. Runs April 13, 20, 27, and May 4, 3pm. Shotgun Players perform the first two parts of Tom Stoppard’s revolutionary trilogy.

ONGOING

Assistance NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa, SF; www.opentabproductions.com. $20. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 6pm. Through March 30. Over the past three years, things we’ve come to expect from plucky OpenTab Productions — whose annual offerings deal in aggressively contemporary themes such as media spin, business fraud, and job (in)security — include tight ensemble acting, minimal tech, and snappy direction, and in all these regards, Assistance does not disappoint. A crew of desperate office drones whose lives basically revolve around the abuse dished out by their unseen employer, Daniel Weisinger (who may or may not resemble playwright Leslye Headland’s old boss, Harvey Weinstein), hold down their airless fort, fielding calls at 11 p.m. and shirking responsibility whenever possible. Though Headland doesn’t do much to make her emotionally and professionally stunted characters palatable, the capable cast and director Ben Euphrat do manage to wring something resembling humanity out of them. From Nick (Tristan Rholl,) the frustrated slacker supervisor, to Nora (Melissa Keith), the-new-girl-turned-cynical-old-hand, to Justin (Nathan Tucker), the unctuous winner of the title of "last man standing," to Jenny (Michelle Drexler) a pragmatic yet annoyingly bubbly Brit, what stands out in each performance are the perfectly captured quirky nuances and barely-concealed neuroses of people caught in the process of losing their souls. Nothing about Assistance is likely to change your view of the business world, but if you’ve yet to experience the frenetic fun of an OpenTab show, it’s a perfect primer to the madness behind their method. (Gluckstern)

The Chairs Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; www.cuttingball.com. $20-45. Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 5pm. Extended through April 7. In Rob Melrose’s new translation of Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs, an elderly couple sit in the austere parlor of their lonely lighthouse, chortling over a spate of private wordplay and reminiscing of sprightlier times, until their initially frantic and disjointed dialogue settles into a smooth flow, well-polished by decades of endearments and gentle bickering. Possibly the last two survivors of a not entirely explained apocalypse, the isolated nonagenarians (magnificently played by David Sinaiko and Tamar Cohn) nevertheless make it known that important guests are expected to arrive at any moment in order to hear a hired orator (Derek Fischer) deliver the Old Man’s "message," which he has spent a lifetime honing. As the doorbell begins to ring, a jarring squall, and invisible guests and dozens of mismatched chairs begin to crowd their peaceable empire in claustrophobia-inducing numbers, their companionable seclusion is shattered for good. Director Annie Elias manages to coax both gravitas and decorum out of this little-produced, yet influential absurdist relic, imbuing her protagonists with a depth of character that belies their farcical circumstances, while Theodore J.H. Hulsker’s murmuring sound design of crashing waves, angry winds, and the strident doorbell could almost be another character in the play, so thoroughly does it set the tone in ways that Ionesco might not have approved of, but is all the better for. (Gluckstern)

Dead Metaphor ACT’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary, SF; www.act-sf.org. $20-95. Wed/20-Sat/23, 8pm (also Sat/23, 2pm); Sun/24, 2 and 7pm. American Conservatory Theater performs George F. Walker’s dark comedy about postwar living.

Foodies! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.foodiesthemusical.com. $30-34. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrow’s musical comedy revue all about food.

The Great Big Also Z Space, 450 Florida, SF; www.zspace.org. $15-30. Thu/21-Sat/23, 8pm; Sun/24, 5pm. The Rift is coming, and when it does, you’ll have to decide for yourself, will you stay or will you go? But stay for what? Go where? These are just a couple of the big questions underlying Mugwumpin’s latest devised occurrence The Great Big Also, a tour de prophétie, on the conundrum that is survival. Split up from the outset, each audience member must undergo a sort of personal journey through the play, sequestered in a kind of labyrinth of inter-locking white walls (cunningly designed by Sean Riley) that lead equally nowhere, and subjected to the roving attentions of the eight ensemble members, who chatter amiably about their individual pasts and the history of their tenuous confederation — the New Settlers. Punctuated by bursts of exposition coming from above, and the cacophonous underpinnings of Theodore Hulsker’s dramatic sound design, their spirited discourse creates more questions than answers, and random snatches of eavesdropped-upon conversation gleaned from other rooms in the labyrinth only serves to muddle their objectives even more. As the tightly-knit, New Settler community becomes increasingly stretched and frayed, the physical walls of the set stretch too and eventually collapse, (once the audience is seated, somewhat more traditionally in a ring of folding chairs that encircle the wide parameter of the Z Space stage). Interesting resonances abound with FoolsFURY’s production of Doug Dorst’s futuristic Monster in the Dark and Banana Bag and Bodice’s neo-sci-fi melodrama The Sewers, yet Mugwumpin’s exploration of a possibly brave, possibly new world, manages to be both maddeningly cryptic and exuberantly profound all on its own. (Gluckstern)

God of Carnage Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.sheltontheater.org. $38. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through March 30. Shelton Theater presents Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning comedy about upper-middle-class parents clashing over an act of playground violence between their children.

Inevitable SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $20. Thu/21-Sat/23, 8pm. SF Playhouse’s "Sandbox Series," enabling new and established playwrights to stage new works, kicks off its third season with Jordan Puckett’s drama about a woman trying to make sense of her life.

Just One More Game Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.tripleshotprodutions.org. $25. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through March 30. With the rise of the programmer as pop culture hero, it was probably inevitable that we’d start writing plays about them too. In local playwright Dan Wilson’s Just One More Game our programmer protagonist is Kent (Christopher DeJong) whose mission is to find love, and his co-player is Marjorie (Linda-Ruth Cardozo), who wields her own geek credentials like a Mortal Kombat wrath hammer. Where Wilson’s comedy excels is in the witty gamer banter that defines much of their attraction and commonality — references to Zork, Oregon Trail, Dungeons and Dragons, and The Secret of Monkey Island abound, while a series of meticulous video game animations (also Wilson’s) lend colorful counterpoint to the action on the stage. DeJong plays his role of emotionally-inhibited loner with a degree of laconic detachment that unfortunately eliminates all traces of chemistry between him and Cardozo, who is especially good at capturing the cheerfully aggressive awkward of a woman accustomed to being "one of the boys" because there was nothing about "the girls" she could relate to. Both the comedy and pace flag by the time the first NPCs (non-player characters) enter the room, broadly clichéd parents yammering for grandchildren and obnoxious college buddies armed with too many baby photos, who conspire to stunt the growth of Kent and Marjorie’s relationship and wind up stunting the growth of the play. If the quest for love is a game, as the title suggests, it’s one that could use a little more back-end development, and a much greater degree of playfulness. (Gluckstern)

A Lady and a Woman Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson, SF; www.therhino.org. $15-30. Wed/20-Sat/23, 8pm; Sun/24, 3pm. Life wasn’t easy in the South of the 1890s, particularly for single black women, but in Shirlene Holmes’ A Lady and a Woman the focus is emphatically on rising above circumstance. When itinerant hog-cutter Biddie Higgins (Dawn L. Troupe) swaggers into the village inn run by Miss Flora Devine (Velina Brown) and demands a room, sparks fly almost instantaneously, as the two pragmatic and independent women become drawn to the strength they see in the other. A healer and midwife as well as an innkeeper, Miss Flora has endured enough abuse at the hands of men in her life to make her grateful to be able to live without one around, while Biddie, the only daughter in a household of fourteen, has become accustomed to a life of manual labor and clandestine trysts with willing women, never sticking around one place long enough to run out of either, declaring "it’s been easier to live a hard life then a lie." Both Brown and Troupe embody their multi-dimensional characters with grace and backbone, never striking a false note as their tender courtship unfolds and they discover that the greatest strength of all is the ability to love freely. (Gluckstern)

The Lisbon Traviata New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25. Wed/20-Sat/23, 8pm; Sun/24, 2pm. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Terrence McNally’s play, a mix of comedy and tragedy, about the relationship between two opera fanatics.

Sex and the City: LIVE! Rebel, 1760 Market, SF; trannyshack.com/sexandthecity. $25. Wed, 7 and 9pm. Open-ended. It seems a no-brainer. Not just the HBO series itself — that’s definitely missing some gray matter — but putting it onstage as a drag show. Mais naturellement! Why was Sex and the City not conceived of as a drag show in the first place? Making the sordid not exactly palatable but somehow, I don’t know, friendlier (and the canned a little cannier), Velvet Rage Productions mounts two verbatim episodes from the widely adored cable show, with Trannyshack’s Heklina in a smashing portrayal of SJP’s Carrie; D’Arcy Drollinger stealing much of the show as ever-randy Samantha (already more or less a gay man trapped in a woman’s body); Lady Bear as an endearingly out-to-lunch Miranda; and ever assured, quick-witted Trixxie Carr as pent-up Charlotte. There’s also a solid and enjoyable supporting cast courtesy of Cookie Dough, Jordan Wheeler, and Leigh Crow (as Mr. Big). That’s some heavyweight talent trodding the straining boards of bar Rebel’s tiny stage. The show’s still two-dimensional, even in 3D, but noticeably bigger than your 50" plasma flat panel. (Avila)

Steve Seabrook: Better Than You Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 8:30pm, through March 30. Starting April 4, runs Thu, 8pm; Sat, 8:30pm. Extended through May 18.

Self-awareness, self-actualization, self-aggrandizement — for these things we turn to the professionals: the self-empowerment coaches, the self-help authors and motivational speakers. What’s the good of having a "self" unless someone shows you how to use it? Writer-performer Kurt Bodden’s Steve Seabrook wants to sell you on a better you, but his "Better Than You" weekend seminar (and tie-in book series, assorted CDs, and other paraphernalia) belies a certain divided loyalty in its own self-flattering title. The bitter fruit of the personal growth industry may sound overly ripe for the picking, but Bodden’s deftly executed "seminar" and its behind-the-scenes reveals, directed by Mark Kenward, explore the terrain with panache, cool wit, and shrewd characterization. As both writer and performer, Bodden keeps his Steve Seabrook just this side of overly sensational or maudlin, a believable figure, finally, whose all-too-ordinary life ends up something of a modest model of its own. (Avila)

The Voice: One Man’s Journey Into Sex Addition and Recovery Stage Werx Theater, 446 Valencia, SF; thevoice.brownpapertickets.com. $10-18. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Through April 6. Ticket sales for David Kleinberg’s autobiographical solo show benefit 12-step sex addiction recovery programs and other non-profits.

The Waiting Period Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $25-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through March 30. Brian Copeland (comedian, TV and radio personality, and creator-performer of the long-running solo play Not a Genuine Black Man) returns to the Marsh with a new solo, this one based on more recent and messier events` in Copeland’s life. The play concerns an episode of severe depression in which he considered suicide, going so far as to purchase a handgun — the title coming from the legally mandatory 10-day period between purchasing and picking up the weapon, which leaves time for reflections and circumstances that ultimately prevent Copeland from pulling the trigger. A grim subject, but Copeland (with co-developer and director David Ford) ensures there’s plenty of humor as well as frank sentiment along the way. The actor peoples the opening scene in the gun store with a comically if somewhat stereotypically rugged representative of the Second Amendment, for instance, as well as an equally familiar "doood" dude at the service counter. Afterward, we follow Copeland, a just barely coping dad, home to the house recently abandoned by his wife, and through the ordinary routines that become unbearable to the clinically depressed. Copeland also recreates interviews he’s made with other survivors of suicidal depression. Telling someone about such things is vital to preventing their worst outcomes, says Copeland, and telling his own story is meant to encourage others. It’s a worthy aim but only a fitfully engaging piece, since as drama it remains thin, standing at perhaps too respectful a distance from the convoluted torment and alienation at its center. Note: review from an earlier run of the same production. (Avila)

BAY AREA

Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant, Berk; www.centralworks.org. $15-28. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through March 31. Central Works performs Gary Graves’ adaptation of the story-within-a-story from The Brothers Karamazov.

Fallaci Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-89. Tue, Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Wed and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm). Through April 21. Berkeley Rep performs Pulitzer-winning journalist Lawrence Wright’s new play about Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci.

The Mountaintop Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield, Palo Alto; www.theatreworks.org. $23-75. Tue-Wed, 7:30pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm), through March 31. Starting April 3, runs Wed-Thu, 11am (also Thu, 8pm); Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through April 7. TheatreWorks performs Katori Hall’s play that re-imagines the events on the night before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.

The Real Americans Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. $25-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through April 6. Dan Hoyle shifts his popular show about small-town America to the Marsh’s Berkeley outpost.

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

BATS Improv Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Marina at Laguna, SF; www.improv.org. $20. "Theatresports," Fri, 8pm. Through March 29. "Double Feature," Sat, 8pm. Through March 30.

"The Buddy Club Children’s Shows" Randall Museum Theater, 199 Museum Wy, SF; www.thebuddyclub.com. Sun/24, 11am-noon. $8 (under two years old, free). Comedy magician Robert Strong performs.

Caroline Lugo and Carolé Acuña’s Ballet Flamenco Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.carolinalugo.com. Sun/24, 6:15pm. $15-19. Flamenco performance by the mother-daughter dance company, featuring live musicians.

"Mission Position Live" Cinecave, 1034 Valencia, SF; www.missionpositionlive.com. Thu, 8pm. Ongoing. $10. Stand-up comedy with rotating performers.

"New Works by Artists in Residence" CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, SF; www.counterpulse.org. Thu-Sun, 8pm. Through March 31. $20-30. With richien (Rowena Richie and Jennifer Chien) performing Twindependent, and Sense Object (Miriam Wolodarksi) performing Of Limb and Language.

"Ninth Annual Conceptual Public Art Performance: Dance Anywhere" Various locations, SF; www.danceanywhere.org. Fri/22, noon. Free. This worldwide movement presents simultaneous performance art in over 45 countries; check the website for local events and to connect with other participants.

"ODC/Dance Downtown 2013" Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard, SF; www.odcdance.org. Wed/20-Thu/21, 7:30pm; Fri/22-Sat/23, 8pm; Sun/24, 4pm. $20-75. The company celebrates its 42nd season with three world premieres from Brenda Way and KT Nelson.

"ODC Pilot 62: Kinetoscope…This Time With Pictures" ODC Theater, 3153 17th St, SF; www.odctheater.org. Fri/22-Sat/23, 8pm. $15. Rising dance film artists present dance films and live, multimedia performances.

"San Francisco Magic Parlor" Chancellor Hotel Union Square, 433 Powell, SF; www.sfmagicparlor.com. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. $40. Magic vignettes with conjurer and storyteller Walt Anthony.

"Shen Wei Dance Arts: Undivided Divided" Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission, SF; www.ybca.org. Thu/21-Sat/23, 8pm (also Sat/23, 5pm); Sun/24, 2 and 5pm. $10-30. The choreographer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, Shen Wei, also heads up China’s first contemporary dance company; this performance is an installation featuring 18 dancers and multimedia elements.

"Snow White and Her Merry Men" Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness, SF; www.sfgmc.org. Mon/25-Tue/26, 8pm. $15-75. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus and Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon come together for this special joint concert.

"2013 Rhino Benefit Celebration" Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson, SF; www.therhino.org. Sun/24, 7:30pm. $25. Theatre Rhinoceros celebrates 35 years of queer theater with this benefit bash, featuring Connie Champagne, Dave Dobrusky, Mike Finn, Casey Ley, Matthew Martin, and more.

Music listings

Andrew Lam

March 19, 2013

WEDNESDAY 20

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Chelsea Light Moving, Grass Widow Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $21.

H is 4 Hector, Elephant Listening Project, Anju’s Pale Blue Eyes, Gordon Welch Red Devil Lounge. 7pm, $14.

Lee Huff vs Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Ivan and Alyosha, Lemolo, Branches Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $9-$12.

Koruscant Weekend, Y Axes, Curious Quail Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

Mindless Things, John Moremens Floatation Device, Tomorrow Men, DJ Sid Presley Elbo Room. 9pm, $5.

Dawn Richard Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $24.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Trapped Under Ice, Soul Search, Caged Animal Thee Parkside. 8pm, $10.

Yi, G. Green Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Freddie Hughes Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

Transcription of Organ Music, Michael Beach, Michael Tapscott Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com.7-9pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Cash IV Gold Double Dutch, 3192 16th St, SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 9pm, free.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free. With Vinyl Ambassador, DJ Silverback, DJs Green B and Daneekah.

Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.

Martini Lounge John Colins, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 7pm. With DJ Mark Divita.

Soul Train Revival with Ziek McCarter Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

THURSDAY 21

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Aggrolites, Struts, Pinstripes Thee Parkside. 9pm, $17.

Books on Fate, Dandelion War Cafe, In Letter Form, Upstairs Downstairs Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $8.

Gunshy Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Freddie Jackson Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $35; 10pm, $25.

Theo Katzman, Joey Dosik, Caleb Hawley Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $12-$15.

Landmine Marathon, At Our Heels, Apocryphon, Man Among Wolves DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10.

Lonesome Locomotive, Twin Engine Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

Midnite Independent. 9pm, $27.

Rin Tin Tiger, Emily Bonn and the Vivants, Denim Wedding, Dull Richards Hotel Utah. 9pm, $8.

Lia Rose, Arann Harris and the Farm Band Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $12.

Rudimental, Charlotte Church, Kidnap Kid, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $15-$17.

Swells, Torns ACLs, Sunrunners Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Greg Zema vs Lee Huff Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

De Akokan feat. Pavel Urkiza and Ricardo Pons SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $20-$40. John Santos Presents.

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Midnight Flyte Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Chris Siebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

“Accordion Babes Revue” El Rio. 9pm, $7.

Craig Ventresco Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com. 7pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. DJs-hosts Pleasuremaker and Senor Oz spin Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Base: Pezzner, Gabriel I, Quinn Jerome Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $10.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 22

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Hoodie Allen Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $24.

Aloha Screwdriver Knockout. 10pm, $7.

Body and Soul Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Django Django Public Works. 9pm, $20.

Ducktails Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $12-$15.

Finish Ticket, holychild, Ghost and the City, Nikolaus Bartunek Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

Frail, Night Club, Happy Fangs DNA Lounge. 9pm, $12.

Hotel Eden Milk Bar. 8pm, $10.

Freddie Jackson Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $35; 10pm, $25.

Jesus and the Rabbis Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $10.

Lianne La Havas, Jamie N Commons Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $21.

Life Stinks, Sex Church, Shark Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $6.

Moonfox, Cusses, Tzigane Society, Cheers Elephant Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Murs, Prof, Fashawn, Black Cloud Slim’s. 9pm, $21.

Pimps of Joytime, Vokab Kompany Independent. 9pm, $22.

Ponies, Kelly McFarling, Gareth Asher Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $12.

Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, Billy Iuso and the Restless Natives Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $15-$20.

Jeff V., Lee Huff, Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Hammond Organ Soul Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Michael McIntosh Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Connie Sheu Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco Chapel, 1187 Franklin, SF; (415) 776-4580. 7:30pm, $10-$15.

Emy Tseng Red Poppy Art House. 7:30pm.

Papa Vazquez’ “Pirates and Troubadours” SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$50. John Santos Presents.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Baxtalo Drom Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10. Gypsy punk, belly dance, and more.

La Clave Cigar Bar and Grill, 850 Montgomery, SF; www.cigarbarandgrill.com. 10pm, $10.

DANCE CLUBS

Ghostly International Showcase 1015 Folsom, SF; www.1015folsom.com. 10pm, $20. With secret headliner, Com Truise, Shigeto, Dauwd, Heathered Pearls.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

Odyssey Public Works. 9:30pm, $10. With Eli Escobar, Guy Ruben, Robin Simmons.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

120 Minutes Elbo Room. 10pm, $10-$15. With Blue Sky Black Death, Deniro Farrar, Child Actor, DJs S4NtA_MU3rTE, Chauncey CC.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

Twitch DNA Lounge. 10pm, $5-$8. With Lebanon Hanover, Jewels of the Nile, DJs Justin, Omar, Rachel Aiello.

Oliver Twizt, SteelE vs Whitock, Tech Minds Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

SATURDAY 23

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Nigel Bennett Sub-Mission. 8pm, $5-$7.

Benjamin Brown Shine Lounge, 1337 Mission, SF; www.shinesf.com. 8pm, $8.

Peter Case, Deep Ellum Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $18-$20.

Matt Costa, Carly Ritter Slim’s. 9pm, $16.

Deer Tracks, Magic Wands, RXCCXXNS Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Dengue Fever, Jhameel, DJ Vinroc Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $25-$35.

Elektrik Sunset, Copper Tones Thee Parkside. 4pm, free.

Equipto, Michael Marshall, Z-Man, Lroneous, Otavo Dubb Elbo Room. 10pm, $15.

Lee Huff, Greg Zema, Jeff V. Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Jinx Jones Riptide. 9pm, free.

Loose Interpretations, Hookslide Amnesia. 6pm.

Andrew McMahon, Barcelona Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $28.50-$30.

Makeunder, Glass Gavel, Freigher El Rio. 9pm.

Milk Music, Gun Outfit, Neon Piss Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $10.

Moira Scar, Lady Bear and Her Dark Dolls, DJ Necromos, Le Perv, Omar Perez Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $7.

Pimps of Joytime, Vokab Kompany Independent. 9pm, $22.

Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, Billy Iuso and the Restless Natives Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $15-$20.

Specials, Little Hurricane Warfield. 8pm, $37-$47.

Will Sprott, La Luz, Anna Hillburg Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

Steel Panther, Hillbilly Herald Regency Ballroom. 9pm, $25.

Tall Shadows Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Afro-Cuban Jazz Project with Jimmy Branly Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $30; 10pm, $25.

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Hammond Organ Soul Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Mario Flores Latin Ensemble Cigar Bar and Grill, 850 Montgomery, SF; www.cigarbarandgrill.com. 10pm, $10.

Ramshackle Romeos Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

John Santos’ “Filosofia Caribena” SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$65.

Ryan Gregory Tallman, Waxy Tombs, Black Spirituals, IN/S Lab, 2948 16th St., SF; www.thelab.org. 9pm, $6-$10.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF: Request Night DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15. Mashups with A Plus D, Dada, Smash-Up Derby.

David Garcia, Justin Milla Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Opel 11 Year Anniversary Mighty. 10pm, $20. With Felguk, Syd Gris, Melyss, Kimba, and more.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

Re: Edit Underground SF, 424 Haight; www.undergroundsf.com. 10pm. With James Demon, Larry Gonnello Jr., Loryn, and Zenith.

Temptation Cat Club. 9:30pm. $5-$8. Indie, electro, new wave video dance party.

SUNDAY 24

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Nigel Bennett Red Devil Lounge. 9pm, $10.

Dirty Hand Family Band, Vans, Angel and the Badman Bottom of the Hill. 7:30pm, $10.

Hans Eberbach Castagnola’s, 286 Jefferson, SF; www.castagnolas.com. 2pm, free.

“Japan Nite 2013” Independent. 8pm, $15. With Pirates Canoe, Jake Stone Garage, JOSY, and more.

Alexz Johnson, Charlene Kay, Jay Stolar, Misty Boyce Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 7pm, $15-$35.

Low Cut Connie Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10.

“Markscheider Kunst 20 Year Anniversary” Rickshaw Stop. 7:30pm, $40-$50.

Mutilation Rites, Inter Arma, Embers, Wild Hunt DNA Lounge. 8:30pm, $10.

Nile, Insanity Slim’s. 8pm, $21.

Reptiel, Cassowary, Heroic Trio Hemlock Tavern. 6:30pm, $6.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Bone Cootes, Barneys Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Citizens Jazz Red Poppy Art House. 7pm, $8-$10.

Gypsy Allstars feat. Gipsy King Family Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $25; 9pm, $20.

“Switchboard Music Festival” Brava Theater, 2718 24th St., SF; www.switchboardmusic.com. 2-10pm, $20. With Zofo, Subharmonic, Rob Reich Quintet, and more.

Uncommon Time SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$50. John Santos Presents.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Heel Draggers Amnesia. 8pm, $5-$10.

Twang Sunday Thee Parkside. 4pm, free. With Tin Roof Sundae.

DANCE CLUBS

Beats for Brunch Thee Parkside. 11am, free.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep, DJ Theory.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 25

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Cool Ghouls, Meat Market, Buffalo Tooth, Locomotives Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $6.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

James Finch Jr., Night Drives, David and Joanna Bottom of the Hill. 8:30pm, $10-$20. SF Bike Coalition benefit in the memory of Rob Koziura.

French Montana, Chinx Drugz Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $27.

Iceage, Merchandise, Wet Hair, DJ Omar Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $12.

Laura Meyer Osteria, 3277 Sacramento, SF; www.osteriasf.com. 8pm, free.

Today is the Day, Black Tusk, Ken Mode, Fight Amp Elbo Room. 7pm, $15.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Mike Burns Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-$5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Joe Radio, Decay, and Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 26

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

“#BOTH (Aimee Mann and Ted Leo), John Vanderslice Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $20.

Caveman, Pure Bathing Culture Independent. 8pm, $15.

Clutch, Orange Goblin, Lionize, Scorpion Child Regency Ballroom. 7:30pm, $24.

Crashdiet, Crucified Barbara, Snakeskyn Whiskey DNA Lounge. 8pm, $13.

Gravy’s Drop, Acid Baby Jesus, Hellshovel, Primitive Hearts Hemlock Tavern. 8pm, $8.

Hopi Astronaut Riptide. 9:30pm, free.

Off With Their Heads, Roll the Tanks, Sydney Ducks, Hear the Sirens Thee Parkside. 8pm, $10.

Papa Bear and the Easy Love, Quiles and Cloud, Mama D and the Dirty Suns Amnesia. 9:30pm, $5-$7.

Schematic, Treehouse Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $10-$12.

Shannon and the Clams, Paint Fumes, Las Ardillas, Lose Vigilantes Knockout. 9:30pm, $8.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Veronica Falls, Brilliant Colors, Golden Grrrls Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $12-$14.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Boca do Rio Yoshi’s SF. 8pm.

Toshio Hirano Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Scraps! DJ Night Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 8:30pm, free.

Stylus John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, dancehall, and Bay slaps with DJ Left Lane.

Takin’ Back Tuesdays Double Dutch, 3192 16th St,SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 10pm. Hip-hop from the 1990s.

Spring into arts

Andrew Lam

March 19, 2013

It’s true that San Francisco doesn’t really have seasons, per se. We don’t have a snow thaw, or a sudden riot of cherry blossoms, or even a perceptible change in the weather to mark calendar shifts. So grab that lightweight jacket you’ve been wearing since October, and use our selective guide to what music shows to see (dude … Sparks is coming!), gallery and museum shows to hit up, films to catch, and can’t-miss theater and dance performances — including, yep, a fresh take on The Rite of Spring.

MUSIC: SOUL, SPARKS, AND SEVENTIES LEGENDS

“Soul Clap and Dance-Off” (March 30, Rickshaw Stop, SF) After a freak accident in late 2011 (a car plowed into his hotel room), revered New York Night Train DJ Jonathan Toubin is back with his feverish ’60s soul freak out party. The winner of the dance-off gets 100 bones, the guest selector is DJ Primo, and full disclosure, I’m one of the contest judges this time around. www.rickshawstop.com

“Rock See! A Benefit Concert for the Roxie Theater” (April 5, Verdi Club, SF) Support the Roxie by taking in a fundraiser show that’s bursting with local talent, including live sets by John Dwyer’s garage rock superstars Thee Oh Sees, Sonny and the Sunsets, Future Twin, and Assateauge, along with video projections by Barry Jenkins, Jim Granato, and more. www.roxie.com

Sparks (April 9-10, The Chapel, SF) Influential new wave-glam pop duo Sparks hits SF the weekend before Coachella for two intimate concerts, pulling experimental cuts from its 20-plus back catalog of music insider-worshiped albums. www.thechapelsf.com

“CubaCaribe Festival” (April 12-14, Dance Mission Theater, SF; April 19, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF; April 26-28, Laney College Theater, Oakl.) The ninth CubaCaribe Festival offers music and dance performances, lectures, and master classes all based in rich Caribbean traditions. Check out Afro-Cuban modern dance company Teatro de la Danza del Caribe’s first US appearance, Brazilian inspired music and dance company Sambaxé, a lecture by popular local percussionist John Santos, and plenty more. www.cubacaribe.org

Lou Reed (April 14, Warfield, SF) Legendary Velvet Underground songwriter and pioneering solo artist in his own right, Lou “Walk on the Wild Side” Reed pays SF a visit, with memories of his contentious collaboration with Metallica on the Lulu (2011) album (thankfully) fading into the past. www.thewarfieldtheatre.com

Savages (April 18, Independent, SF) When all-female British post-punk group Savages hit the East Coast last year for the annual CMJ conference, the word spread quickly to the West: this blistering quartet is one to watch. All these anxious months later, this headlining show will be Savages’ first SF appearance. www.theindependentsf.com

Big Boi (May 16, Mezzanine, SF) After a disastrous non-set at Outside Lands a few years back (DJ technical issues), rapper-producer Big Boi, a.k.a. one-half of Outkast, returned triumphantly in 2012 with an explosive, quick-tongued performance. Now’s your chance to catch him in a far smaller space in 2013. www.mezzaninesf.com

Fleetwood Mac (May 22, HP Pavilion, San Jose) It’s been 35 years since the release of Rumours. Sure, you can go your own way, but never forget how you got there: after years of touring as solo artists, that classic Fleetwood Mac dynamic (everyone but Christine McVie) is back together, or at least, on tour this spring. (Emily Savage)

VISUAL ART: MUSEUMS

“Lebbeus Woods, Architect” and “Garry Winogrand” (Both through June 2 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) Both are getting lots of attention. Postmodern architect Woods, who just passed away, gets the full retrospective treatment; documentary-style photographer Winograd hasn’t had a retrospective in a couple decades. www.sfmoma.org

“Revisiting the South: Richard Misrach’s Cancer Alley” (March 27-June 16 at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University) Misrach is known for his pristine photographs of blasted and abused environments. The juxtaposition is usually pretty jarring, and I’m a big fan. museum.stanford.edu

“Richard Diebenkorn” (June 22-Sept. 29 at the de Young Museum) New show focusing on abstract paintings from his Berkeley period. deyoung.famsf.org (Matt Fisher)

VISUAL ART: GALLERIES

“Teo González: Recent Paintings” (Through April 20 at Brian Gross) González makes intricate, fastidious paintings, which isn’t such a novelty anymore, except that his match process with subject matter better than most. The show at Brian Gross promises to feature González’s night sky paintings, applying his signature miniscule brushwork to themes of transcendence and chaos. www.briangrossfineart.com

“Evan Nesbit: Light Farming/Heavy Gardening” (March 23-April 26 at Ever Gold) I’m recommending this one based on the overall strength of Ever Gold’s program, which I think it one of the most adventurous in the city — and the fact that Nesbit as an alum of the Yale painting program, which is almost certainly the best in the country. His paintings incorporate real-world woven knits (reminiscent of seat covers, crocheted things, those puffy drawer linings) as the substrate for abstract paintings that manage to combine grid painting, color field painting, and a soft kind of blunt expressionism. www.evergoldgallery.com

“John Millei: Recent Paintings” (March 28-May 11 at George Lawson) Millei is one of Los Angeles’ most virtuosic abstract painters; he usually composes heroic-scaled paintings and projects. His most recent body of work shown at LA’s ACE was from a decade-long project of 200-plus small paintings based on Giotto and Giorgio Morandi. When Millei does historical references, it’s not in the appropriative way that many do, copping motifs and moody lighting effects — it’s in methodically and microscopically breaking down both image and process to reestablish both the image’s dynamic and the role of the artist. For George Lawson, he’s making new works for the tiny Tenderloin space. For my money, Millei is one of the most romantic of living abstractionists. www.georgelawsongallery.com (Fisher)

DANCE: PREMIERES WITH MUSIC, PREMIERES WITH PLANTS

Mago (April 12-14, CounterPULSE) Dohee Lee is that rare creature steeped by inclination and training in a traditional culture — but who is also a completely contemporary artist. She is a singer, a dancer, and a Korean-style Taiko drummer. But she also knows how to weave these abilities into storytelling and ritualized theatrical creations. For Mago, her exploration of the Korean goddess associated with the creation and care of the earth, she adds animation and custom-made instruments to her skills box; it’s a work that integrates her theatrical practice with ritual and Korean shamanism. www.counterpulse.org

Failure of the Sign is the Sign (May 3-5, ODC Theater) The sixth season of Hope Mohr Dance continues what Mohr does so very well: presenting her own very smart choreography but also, through her Bridge Project, bringing in colleagues whose work she admires. This year, it’s Alpert Awards winner Susan Rethorst with the West Coast premiere of her intricate and much-praised Behold Bold Sam Dog. Mohr’s own new work, Failure of the Sign is the Sign, is an installation around the connection between acquiring language and a sense of self. www.odcdance.org

“Ojai North 2013” (June 12-15, Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley) The world premiere of Mark Morris’ Rite of Spring just might be the season’s hottest ticket. In many ways it’s an outrageous idea to rework one of the most famous 20th century scores for piano, bass, drums. Bu that’s exactly what the three jazz musicians of the Bad Plus did. Never mind that 100 years ago at its world premiere, Stravinsky had an orchestra of 110 musicians — not including strings — at his disposal. Morris, a musically sophisticated choreographer, apparently loved it, and is setting it on his Mark Morris Dance Group. He’s been choreographing for over 30 years, and he still manages to surprise us. calperfs.berkeley.edu

Botany’s Breath (July 10-13, Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park) For Botany’s Breath, Kim Epifano works with nine professional dancers as well as a dozen community performers. The piece honors the natural world in dance, music, song, and video and pays tribute to the historically significant Conservatory of Flowers. Collaborating with her are instrument builder Peter Whitehead, musician Norman Rutherford, and videographer Ellen Bromberg. You can expect the show to spill out of the quaint Victorian structure into the surrounding environment. www.epiphanydance.org (Rita Felciano)

FILM: FESTIVALS, REP HOUSES … AND A GIANT-ROBOT FLICK

With Hollywood committed to an array of sequels, prequels, and do-overs (like, how many hangovers, Spocks, fast/furious drivers, Supermen, Iron Men, Wolverines, and Gatsbys do we need, really?), your best bet is to focus on film festivals and rep houses this summer. (Maybe take time out for Guillermo del Toro’s aliens vs. giant robots epic Pacific Rim, due July 12 — now that seems worthy of massive popcorn consumption.)

San Francisco’s spring-summer film fest season includes heavy-hitters like the San Francisco International Film Festival (April 5-May 29; www.sffs.org); the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival (June 20-30, www.frameline.org); the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (July 18-21; www.silentfilm.org); and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (July 25-Aug. 12; www.sfjff.org).

Elsewhere, the Pacific Film Archive unspools “The Spanish Mirth: The Comedic Films of Luis García Berlanga” (March 29-April 17; bampfa.berkeley.edu); the Vortex Room’s latest weekly double-feature extravaganza, “Assault on Vortex 13,” chock full o’ 1970s and ’80s action flicks, kicks off April 4 (Facebook: The Vortex Room); the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts scores with “Thai Dreams: The Films of Pen-ek Ratanaruang,” with an in-person visit from the groundbreaking artist (April 4-21; www.ybca.org); cult-movie series Thrillville celebrates its 16th anniversary with an April 14 screening of This Island Earth (www.thenewparkway.com); and the best documentary about movie obsession ever, Room 237, opens April 19 at the Roxie (www.roxie.com).

Plus! Contribute at least $40 to the San Francisco Cinematheque’s Kickstarter campaign in support of the group’s experimental and avant-garde Crossroads Film Festival (April 5-7; www.sfcinematheque.org), and get a tote bag featuring naughty ‘n’ nice artwork by the late, great George Kuchar — guaranteed to never go out of style. (Cheryl Eddy)

THEATER: VINTAGE COCKETTES, NEW KUSHNER

Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma (March 28-June 1, Hypnodrome, SF) Making good on a promising trend that began gloriously in 2009 with smash hit Pearls over Shanghai, Thrillpeddlers continues its Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival series with more musical-comedy mayhem from the Cockettes, San Francisco’s own tripping glitter-bearded drag queens of legend. With the full-length restored version of 1971’s Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma, the company really pulls out the stops — while stuffing in 14 new songs and roping in, as collaborators and cast members, three original Cockettes: Scrumbly Koldewyn, Rumi Missabu, and “Sweet Pam” Tent. www.thrillpeddlers.com

The Bereaved (April 4-27, Thick House, SF) For several years now my friend John and I have been simultaneously enjoying Thomas Bradshaw’s devilishly smart plays (Purity; Dawn; Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist; etc.) and wondering when someone in the Bay Area would get around to mounting one. In a West Coast premiere, Crowded Fire essays Bradshaw’s scathingly all-American comedy about a family of fevered New York go-getters — gleefully “inappropriate” enough in its wanton send-up of what passes for normal life to be considered a refreshing provocation amid the usual theater fare. www.crowdedfire.org

Storm and Titania (April 7, Noh Space, SF) This one-night-only engagement, co-presented by foolsFURY, offers the Bay Area its first-ever look at the work of Moon Fool, an innovative physical theater ensemble led by UK-based director-actor-musician Anna-Helena McLean, herself a former lead actor with famous Polish experimental theater company Gardzienice. The evening includes Titania, a widely lauded adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream constructed as a solo cabaret; and a work-in-progress showing of Storm, a new immersive, site-specific spectacle based on The Tempest. www.foolsfury.org

The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures (May 16-July 7, Roda Theatre, Berk.) It sounded from its initial reviews like something of a hot mess, but it’s apparently been trimmed and fine-tuned, and anyway there’s no missing the West Coast premiere of a new Tony Kushner play — especially one whose title invokes the decidedly odd coupling of George Bernard Shaw and Mary Baker Eddy. Set in Brooklyn amid the extended family of a lefty Italian American longshoreman, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide promises a fulgurant night of political-philosophical conversation from the stage, bound to stimulate a lot more conversation afterward. www.berkeleyrep.org (Robert Avila)

Angels in Budapest

Andrew Lam

March 12, 2013

arts@sfbg.com

THEATER On two old VHS tapes in the collection of San Francisco’s Museum of Performance and Design you can watch the Eureka Theater’s 1991 world premiere of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, a response to the AIDS epidemic and the reactionary politics of the Reagan era. It’s a low-fi document, with poor sound quality, but it’s completely riveting. Something more than the play’s words and images, as striking as they are, cling to that worn magnetic tape: there’s the electric excitement of a work of art cracking open its historical moment.

A similar frisson passed through the main auditorium of the National Theatre of Budapest last week, where I joined a group of international guests and a local audience for Romanian-born American director Andrei Serban’s production of Angels in America, starring as Prior Walter the National’s celebrated yet politically embattled artistic director, Robert Alföldi, an award-winning international director in his own right and one of the country’s most famous actors.

The production was the capstone of an impressive weeklong festival featuring some of the best work in contemporary Hungarian independent and state-sponsored repertory theater. Presented by the Hungarian Critics Association, in international partnership with Philip Arnoult’s Center for International Theatre Development and the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Hungarian Showcase (March 2–9) encompassed a revelatory range of styles and talents. It also highlighted a theater actively responding to a rising tide of reactionary politics — reminiscent (especially in its overt anti-Semitism, homophobia, and anti-Roma racism) of the ultra-nationalism of the 1930s — even as the arts in general and theater in particular reel under the economic strain of the conservative government’s neoliberal agenda and attempted curbs on free expression.

The National’s production of Angels is just one instance of theater’s critical role in public dialogue in Hungary today, but in many ways it was the most poignant instance encountered. That’s in large part owed to Alföldi’s powerhouse performance in the lead — a muscular, charismatic performance, extremely witty and wrenching by turns — and simultaneously to his history as artistic director over the last five years. Since Alföldi’s government appointment in 2008, something extraordinary has been underway at the country’s premier stage. Previously, Budapest’s National Theatre had been better known for its kitschy postmodern edifice (opened in 2002 and made to resemble a rather gaudy ship aimed vaguely at the nearby Danube) than for the unexceptional productions on display inside. Under Alföldi’s brilliant and maverick leadership, the theater has come to be widely regarded as one of the best — if not the best — in the country, and attendance has grown dramatically, including among younger audiences.

Alföldi’s attempts to make the theater a place of inclusion and dialogue, meanwhile, as well as his lively and provocative interpretations of classic Hungarian nationalist texts like The Tragedy of Man and John the Valliant, have earned the disfavor of rightwing politicians — including members of the ultra nationalist Jobbik party, who were not above demonstrating noisily outside the theater to demand his ouster, and slandering Alföldi on the floor of the Parliament. Alföldi, popular and unprecedentedly successful in the post, has managed to stay on for his five-year term, but the government denied his application for a second term in favor of a well-known director with conservative political opinions.

In Serban’s considerably pared down version, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika together come in at just under four hours, separated by a short intermission. There are naturally some sacrifices entailed. The subplot involving Roy Cohn (played by the National’s brilliant János Kulka), for example, takes a big hit in terms of stage time. But whatever the faults of the production, the exuberant, ironical tone feels aptly knowing, as does the rotating stage set up like a cross between a dance floor and a merry-go-round.

In just one example of the production’s winking conversation with the audience, an announcement over the PA system at the outset of Part II reminds patrons in this former Soviet bloc country that the play is set in a far off land bearing little resemblance to anything close by — only to be followed by the familiar twang of an electric guitar as the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR” creates a musical bridge to a speech by the Oldest Living Bolshevik. Like Prior’s heavenly counselors, the Bolshevik urges a halt to history. The significance of the theme is unlikely to be lost on an audience facing the atavistic return to authoritarian models of the past.

While this isn’t the first time a Hungarian theater has essayed Kushner’s play, enough has changed politically in Hungary in the last few years to make this production, in which Alföldi assumes the role of the play’s cross-dressing openly gay hero, an act of brazen defiance as well as solidarity with all “outsiders” in the right wing’s narrow compass of nationhood.

“The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come,” says Alföldi as Prior. “The great work begins.” In its own call for “more life,” the National’s production captures something of the original life of the play all over again — defining the nation and its theater as a place of empathy and inclusion, of harmony in difference.

Meanwhile, tickets for Angels in America, widely seen as Alföldi’s farewell bow, are completely sold out.

Stage Listings

Andrew Lam

March 12, 2013

THEATER

ONGOING

Assistance NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa, SF; www.opentabproductions.com. $20. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 6pm. Through March 30. Over the past three years, things we’ve come to expect from plucky OpenTab Productions — whose annual offerings deal in aggressively contemporary themes such as media spin, business fraud, and job (in)security — include tight ensemble acting, minimal tech, and snappy direction, and in all these regards, Assistance does not disappoint. A crew of desperate office drones whose lives basically revolve around the abuse dished out by their unseen employer, Daniel Weisinger (who may or may not resemble playwright Leslye Headland’s old boss, Harvey Weinstein), hold down their airless fort, fielding calls at 11 p.m. and shirking responsibility whenever possible. Though Headland doesn’t do much to make her emotionally and professionally stunted characters palatable, the capable cast and director Ben Euphrat do manage to wring something resembling humanity out of them. From Nick (Tristan Rholl,) the frustrated slacker supervisor, to Nora (Melissa Keith), the-new-girl-turned-cynical-old-hand, to Justin (Nathan Tucker), the unctuous winner of the title of “last man standing,” to Jenny (Michelle Drexler) a pragmatic yet annoyingly bubbly Brit, what stands out in each performance are the perfectly captured quirky nuances and barely-concealed neuroses of people caught in the process of losing their souls. Nothing about Assistance is likely to change your view of the business world, but if you’ve yet to experience the frenetic fun of an OpenTab show, it’s a perfect primer to the madness behind their method. (Gluckstern)

The Chairs Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor, SF; www.cuttingball.com. $20-45. Thu, 7:30pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 5pm. Through March 31. Cutting Ball Theater performs Rob Melrose’s new Eugene Ionesco translation.

Dead Metaphor ACT’s Geary Theater, 415 Geary, SF; www.act-sf.org. $20-95. Tue-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through March 24. American Conservatory Theater performs George F. Walker’s dark comedy about postwar living.

Foodies! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.foodiesthemusical.com. $30-34. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrow’s musical comedy revue all about food.

The Great Big Also Z Space, 450 Florida, SF; www.zspace.org. $15-30. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through March 24. Mugwumpin performs a world premiere about creating a new world.

Inevitable SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $20. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through March 23. SF Playhouse’s “Sandbox Series,” enabling new and established playwrights to stage new works, kicks off its third season with Jordan Puckett’s drama about a woman trying to make sense of her life.

Jurassic Ark Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.theexit.org. $15-25. Fri/16-Sat/16, 8pm. Writer-performer David Caggiano’s zany, well-executed solo play centers on a Christian televangelist who is unwaveringly bent on making a big-budget movie about a cowboy-like Biblical Noah, his Ark, and the largely lovable dinosaurs callously left out of the story — a project he sees delivering a decisive blow to the Darwinians, while turning cineplexes across the land into celluloid cathedrals. Brother Dallas and his proselytizing pitch eventually find receptive ears in a trinity of movie-industry heavies, whose collective business acumen demands a few changes to the script. Meanwhile, the intoxicating power of it all leads to a lapse in Brother Dallas’s righteousness and a scandal reminiscent of Hugh Grant’s career. Dallas rebounds from this bout with the Devil and sees his movie made — but surely only he is unaware that the Devil keeps a Hollywood address. Smartly directed by Mark Kenward, this low-frills production relies almost exclusively on Caggiano’s sturdy ability with quick-change characterizations (couched in Dylan West’s modest lighting design and a suggestive soundscape by sound editor–musician John Mazzei). The fitful satire trades in pretty orthodox caricature and, in Brother Dallas, lacks a very compelling or sympathetic central figure; but it unfolds with a very cinematic imagination that, while formulaic, is itself one hell of a movie pitch. (Avila)

Just One More Game Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.tripleshotprodutions.org. $25. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun/17, 2pm. Through March 30. With the rise of the programmer as pop culture hero, it was probably inevitable that we’d start writing plays about them too. In local playwright Dan Wilson’s Just One More Game our programmer protagonist is Kent (Christopher DeJong) whose mission is to find love, and his co-player is Marjorie (Linda-Ruth Cardozo), who wields her own geek credentials like a Mortal Kombat wrath hammer. Where Wilson’s comedy excels is in the witty gamer banter that defines much of their attraction and commonality — references to Zork, Oregon Trail, Dungeons and Dragons, and The Secret of Monkey Island abound, while a series of meticulous video game animations (also Wilson’s) lend colorful counterpoint to the action on the stage. DeJong plays his role of emotionally-inhibited loner with a degree of laconic detachment that unfortunately eliminates all traces of chemistry between him and Cardozo, who is especially good at capturing the cheerfully aggressive awkward of a woman accustomed to being “one of the boys” because there was nothing about “the girls” she could relate to. Both the comedy and pace flag by the time the first NPCs (non-player characters) enter the room, broadly clichéd parents yammering for grandchildren and obnoxious college buddies armed with too many baby photos, who conspire to stunt the growth of Kent and Marjorie’s relationship and wind up stunting the growth of the play. If the quest for love is a game, as the title suggests, it’s one that could use a little more back-end development, and a much greater degree of playfulness. (Gluckstern)

A Lady and a Woman Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson, SF; www.therhino.org. $15-30. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through March 24. Life wasn’t easy in the South of the 1890s, particularly for single black women, but in Shirlene Holmes’ A Lady and a Woman the focus is emphatically on rising above circumstance. When itinerant hog-cutter Biddie Higgins (Dawn L. Troupe) swaggers into the village inn run by Miss Flora Devine (Velina Brown) and demands a room, sparks fly almost instantaneously, as the two pragmatic and independent women become drawn to the strength they see in the other. A healer and midwife as well as an innkeeper, Miss Flora has endured enough abuse at the hands of men in her life to make her grateful to be able to live without one around, while Biddie, the only daughter in a household of fourteen, has become accustomed to a life of manual labor and clandestine trysts with willing women, never sticking around one place long enough to run out of either, declaring “it’s been easier to live a hard life then a lie.” Both Brown and Troupe embody their multi-dimensional characters with grace and backbone, never striking a false note as their tender courtship unfolds and they discover that the greatest strength of all is the ability to love freely. (Gluckstern)

The Lisbon Traviata New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25. Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through March 24. New Conservatory Theatre Center performs Terrence McNally’s play, a mix of comedy and tragedy, about the relationship between two opera fanatics.

The Motherfucker with the Hat San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $30-70. Wed/13-Thu/14, 7pm; Fri/15-Sat/16, 8pm (also Sat/16, 3pm). A fine cast makes the most of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s deceptively coarse, often amusing little play, The Motherfucker with the Hat, which receives its local premiere in a sure and rowdy production from SF Playhouse. Director and designer Bill English’s striking two-tier set almost belies the intimate nature of the quirky story, which concerns a hapless parolee and recovering alcoholic named Jackie (a winningly frazzled, bumptious Gabriel Marin) who retreats to his AA sponsor’s apartment to pine and plot revenge after he discovers a stranger’s hat in the bedroom of his longtime Puerto Rican girlfriend, Veronica (played vividly by an at once edgy and vulnerable Isabelle Ortega). But Ralph, his suave and persuasive sponsor (played with unctuous charm gilded by just a hint of ineptitude by an excellent Carl Lumbly), may not be the guy he wants in his corner. Not that Jackie can see that — he’s got a man-crush on Ralph that dwarfs his already ambivalent affection for much put-upon but stalwart cousin Julio (a sharply funny Rudy Guerrero) and blinds him to the warning signals from Ralph’s own disgruntled wife (a coolly disgusted Margo Hall). Throughout, these working-class New York borough dwellers display their wit and shield their soft underbellies with a rapid-fire barrage of creative swearing. English and cast display a real comfort with this kind of material (this is SF Playhouse’s fourth Girguis play), which drapes its soft heart in the intimations of violence more than the real thing. If the heat and imaginative cursing also seem to cover up for a play with little dramatic purpose beyond a gentle and somewhat pat exploration of loyalty, maturity, and trust, there’s pleasure to be had in the unfolding. (Avila)

Steve Seabrook: Better Than You Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 8:30pm. Through March 22. Kurt Bodden’s San Francisco Best of Fringe-winning show takes a satirical look at motivational speakers.

The Waiting Period Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $25-50. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through March 30. Brian Copeland (comedian, TV and radio personality, and creator-performer of the long-running solo play Not a Genuine Black Man) returns to the Marsh with a new solo, this one based on more recent and messier events` in Copeland’s life. The play concerns an episode of severe depression in which he considered suicide, going so far as to purchase a handgun — the title coming from the legally mandatory 10-day period between purchasing and picking up the weapon, which leaves time for reflections and circumstances that ultimately prevent Copeland from pulling the trigger. A grim subject, but Copeland (with co-developer and director David Ford) ensures there’s plenty of humor as well as frank sentiment along the way. The actor peoples the opening scene in the gun store with a comically if somewhat stereotypically rugged representative of the Second Amendment, for instance, as well as an equally familiar “doood” dude at the service counter. Afterward, we follow Copeland, a just barely coping dad, home to the house recently abandoned by his wife, and through the ordinary routines that become unbearable to the clinically depressed. Copeland also recreates interviews he’s made with other survivors of suicidal depression. Telling someone about such things is vital to preventing their worst outcomes, says Copeland, and telling his own story is meant to encourage others. It’s a worthy aim but only a fitfully engaging piece, since as drama it remains thin, standing at perhaps too respectful a distance from the convoluted torment and alienation at its center. Note: review from an earlier run of the same production. (Avila)

The World’s Funniest Bubble Show Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $8-50. Sun/17, 11am. The Amazing Bubble Man (a.k.a. Louis Pearl) continues his family-friendly bubble extravaganza.

BAY AREA

Fallaci Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-89. Opens Wed/13, 8pm. Runs Tue, Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Wed and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm). Through April 21. Berkeley Rep performs Pulitzer-winning journalist Lawrence Wright’s new play about Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci.

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

“Adventures of a Black Girl: Traveling While Black” Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St, SF; www.brava.org. Fri/15-Sat/16, 8pm; Sun/17, 3pm. $15. Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe performs the second part of her “Adventures of a Black Girl” trilogy, this time taking a look at the impact of African migration on the black diaspora.

BATS Improv Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Marina at Laguna, SF; www.improv.org. $20. “Theatresports,” Fri, 8pm. Through March 29. “Double Feature,” Sat, 8pm. Through March 30.

Caroline Lugo and Carolé Acuña’s Ballet Flamenco Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.carolinalugo.com. Sat/16 and March 24, 6:15pm. $15-19. Flamenco performance by the mother-daughter dance company, featuring live musicians.

“Dream Queens Revue” Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, SF; dreamqueensrevue@gmail.com (reservations suggested). Wed/13, 9:30pm. Free. Groovy drag with Colette LeGrande, Diva LaFever, Sophilya Leggz, and more.

“Ham Pants Productions presents Sketch Comedy and More!” Stage Werx Theatre, 446 Valencia, SF; www.hampantsproductions.com. Tue/19, 8pm. $10. Sketch comedy, music, and “general chicanery.”

Labayen Dance Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, SF; www.dancemission.com. Fri/15-Sat/16, 8pm; Sun/17, 7:30pm. $25. The company, which blends classical and modern dance with Philippine arts, celebrates its 18th anniversary spring season with the US premiere of Enrico Labayen’s Rites of Spring.

“Laughs at the Lookout” Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. Thu/14, 10pm. $10. Comedy with host Valerie Branch and performers Charlie Ballard, Ronn Vigh, Natasha Muse, and more.

“Mission Position Live” Cinecave, 1034 Valencia, SF; www.missionpositionlive.com. Thu, 8pm. Ongoing. $10. Stand-up comedy with rotating performers.

“The Next Generation of Comedy Tour” Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon, SF; www.ngoctour.com. Sat/16, 8pm. $25-65. With Ahmed Ahmed (TBS’s Sullivan and Son), Assad Motavasseli, Raj Sharma, Fahim Anwar, and more. “ODC/Dance Downtown 2013” Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard, SF; www.odcdance.org. Thu/14-Sat/16 and March 22-23, 8pm; Sun/17 and March 24, 4pm; March 20-21, 7:30pm. $20. The company celebrates its 42nd season with three world premieres from Brenda Way and KT Nelson.

“Push Dance March Benefit Performance and Party” Terra Gallery and Event Venue, 511 Harrison, SF; marchbenefit.eventbrite.com. Fri/15, 7pm. $25-50. Dance performances plus a silent auction, culinary delights, and a DJ party.

“San Francisco Magic Parlor” Chancellor Hotel Union Square, 433 Powell, SF; www.sfmagicparlor.com. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. $40. Magic vignettes with conjurer and storyteller Walt Anthony.

“Unturtled” CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, SF; www.counterpulse.org. Fri/15-Sat/16, 8pm. $15. The Goethe-Institut presents a conceptual performance by choreographer Isabelle Schad and visual artist Laurent Goldring. (Artist talk Wed/13, 8pm, free.)

Steven Wright Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness, SF; www.theregencyballroom.com. Fri/15, 9pm. $32-47. The deadpan comedian performs.

BAY AREA

“Incarnating for the Evening with the X-plicit Players” East Bay Media Center Performance Space, 1939 Addison, Berk; www.xplicitplayers.com. Fri/15, 8pm. $8-15. Clothing-optional event with an enactment of audience-participatory performance “Group Body,” plus excerpts from the new DVD, Incarnating for an Afternoon: The Ninth Annual Nude and Breast Freedom Parade.

Unexplored terrain

Andrew Lam

March 12, 2013

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC From David Bowie and Brian Eno’s forays into ambience, to the unrelenting pulse of trance and house, minimalist icon Steve Reich’s propulsive compositions have irreversibly shaped the pop world’s development since the 1970s. Now, four decades into his career, Reich is reversing the formula with “Radio Rewrite:” a new piece adapted from and inspired by the recordings of alt-rock institution Radiohead.

This Saturday, Stanford University is set to host the US premiere of “Radio Rewrite,” performed by acclaimed new-music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, in a program comprised entirely of Reich’s works.

Credited alongside Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and LaMonte Young for introducing minimalism to classical music, Reich is often cited as the most influential living composer. After moving west from his native NYC to study composition at Mills College in Oakland, and finding his voice with a series of groundbreaking, spoken-word tape loops (’65’s “It’s Gonna Rain” ’66’s “Come Out,”), he headed back east to form his own large ensemble: Steve Reich and Musicians.

The sound Reich achieved with this group was refreshing and unprecedented, combining pianos, strings and mallet instruments to create glassy, resonant textures, and mechanical rhythms that mirrored NYC’s industrial, caffeinated soul. His flagship composition, “Music for 18 Musicians,” (1976) showed a remarkable ability to breathe life into rigid structures, resulting in, arguably, the richest, lushest, most approachable recording of the Minimalist era.

Reich is noted for cutting against the grain of classical traditionalism. The percussive drive of his music reflects his beginnings as a bebop drummer, as well his time spent studying West African percussion and Indonesian gamelan. “Music for 18 Musicians” was released in ’76 by ECM, the esteemed jazz label, earning him cultural capital far beyond the confines of the so-called “new-music ghetto.” And, in 2008, Reich premiered “2×5,” his first piece written for rock-band instrumentation, electric guitars and all. Though Reich might be classified as a classical composer, he remains a musical omnivore.

Similarly, guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood has built a reputation over the past decade as Radiohead’s experimenter-in-chief, by employing exotic instruments (Ondes Martenot, anyone?) and imaginative guitar techniques, as well as delving into the classical world with compositions of his own. After testing the waters with “Popcorn Superhet Receiver” in 2006, and penning the acclaimed score to Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, (2007) Greenwood flew to Krakow, Poland in 2011 to take part in Sacrum Profanum: a festival dedicated to Reich’s music, where the two musicians would first meet.

Before Greenwood caught his ear with a solo rendition of 1987’s “Electric Counterpoint,” (a piece written for 14 guitarists), Reich had been unaware of Radiohead. “It was a great performance and we began talking,” Reich told the Independent (UK) recently, in anticipation of “Radio Rewrite”‘s world premiere in London.

“I found his background as a violinist and his present active role as a composer extremely interesting when added to his major role in such an important and innovative rock group,” Reich continues in the Independent article. “When I returned home I made it a point to go online and listen to Radiohead, and the songs ‘Everything in its Right Place’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling into Place’ stuck in my mind.”

In an interview with the Herald Scotland, Reich described his affinity for the two pieces, explaining, “‘Everything’ is a very rich song. It’s very simple and very complex at the same time. What does it mean? Maybe it’s about a relationship, maybe I should ask (Radiohead bandleader) Thom Yorke, but he wouldn’t tell me, I wouldn’t get anywhere with that… For ‘Jigsaw,’ it’s the harmonic jumps of the piece, it’s a beautiful tune.”

Two years later, Reich has re-interpreted both songs as the foundation for “Radio Rewrite.” The five-movement piece takes significant creative liberties, barely resembling the source material at times, Reich explains.

“It was not my intention to make anything like ‘variations’ on these songs, but rather to draw on their harmonies and sometimes melodic fragments and work them into my own piece. This is what I have done. As to whether you actually hear the original songs, the truth is — sometimes you hear them and sometimes you don’t.”

Instrumentation for “Radio Rewrite” consists of flute, clarinet, two vibes, two pianos, electric bass, and a string quartet. Other works included in the all-Reich program are “Clapping Music,” (featuring Mr. Reich, himself) “Piano Counterpoint,” (1985) “City Life,” (1995), “Four Genesis Settings from The Cave,” (1993) and “New York Counterpoint.” (1985)

Debuting the piece is NYC’s Alarm Will Sound, one of the most aggressively modern classical ensembles currently working. Having performed works by Aphex Twin, and collaborated with Dirty Projectors, the 20-piece seems aptly chosen to tackle “Radio Rewrite”‘s inherent genre-ambiguity.

Considering Reich’s enormous influence, the opportunity to witness him approach a younger generation’s music for the first time is a significant one. Implied within “Radio Rewrite” is a collision between two musical worlds, and the exploration of new, unpredictable terrain. Live music rarely seems so promising.

MUSIC BY STEVE REICH

Performed by Alarm Will Sound

Sat/16, 8pm, $25–$60

Bing Concert Hall

327 Lausen, Stanford

650) 725-2787

live.stanford.edu

Music Listings

Andrew Lam

March 12, 2013

Music listings are compiled by Emily Savage. Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead or check the venue’s website to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Visit www.sfbg.com/venue-guide for venue information. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 13

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Adicts Slim’s. 9pm, $23-$25.

American Death Machine, Wild Eyes SF, Hot Nun Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

Richard Buckner Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $15.

Deceased, Gravehill, Insanity, Mortuous Elbo Room. 9pm, $13.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Brian Jordan’s Boogaloo Band Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

James Nash and the Nomads Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

Red Valley Trappers Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

"San Francisco Rock Project performs Yes and Led Zeppelin" Great American Music Hall. 7:30pm, $15.

Todd vs Ben Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Vows, Standard Poodle, Goldenhearts Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Big Bones Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Edwin McCain Acoustic Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $22.

Panique Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com.7-9pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Cash IV Gold Double Dutch, 3192 16th St, SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 9pm, free.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free. With Vinyl Ambassador, DJ Silverback, DJs Green B and Daneekah.

Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.

Martini Lounge John Colins, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 7pm. With DJ Mark Divita.

THURSDAY 14

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Anthem Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Ben vs Todd Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Breakdown Valentine, Geographer (DJ set), popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $8.

Brookhaven, Winchester Revival Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Coast Jumper, Cannons and Clouds, Owl Paws Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

Entrance Band, Holy Shit, Tortured Genies Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $12-$15.

Fantom Mojah, Jah Warri, Zareb, Prestige Slim’s. 9pm, $25-$27.

Fracas, Rebel Spell, Bite Knockout. 10pm, $7.

Lawlands, Disposition, Magic Fight Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$8.

Odd Numbers, RS2 Solid Sound Thee Parkside. 9pm, $5.

Skerik’s Bandalabra Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $10.

Tubes feat. Fee Waybill Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $34.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Mariza SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $25-$65.

Miss Tess and the Talkbacks Starry Plough. 9pm.

Chris Siebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Tin Cup Serenade Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Fishtank Ensemble, MWE Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $12.

Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen Sacred Grounds Cafe, 2095 Hayes, SF; (415) 387-3859. 7:30pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. With DJ-hosts Pleasuremaker and Senor Oz.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Darling Nikki Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 9pm, free. Queer dance party.

Figure, Ill Gates, CandyLand, Sound Remedy DNA Lounge. 9pm, $25.

First Base Rebel, 1760 Market, SF; Facebook: Rebel. 10pm, $3. Old school breaks, disco house, and electro breaks with DJ Loryn, Becky Knox, and guests.

Lions, Tigers, and Queers Underground SF. 10pm-2am, $3. Indie, Electro, and House dance party with resident DJ Becky Knox and special guests.

Nightlife at Cal Academy: LoveTech California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concrouse, SF; calacademy.org/events/nightlife. 6-10pm, $12.

Mods vs Rockers Amnesia. 9pm. DJs and soul bands.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Slap N Tite Park 77 Bar, 77 Cambom, SF; Facebook: SlapNTite. 9pm, free. With Joe Voltron, Sabotage Beats, Jason Awesome.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 15

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

A Wilhelm Scream, Heartsounds, Stickup Kid, I Don’t Wanna Hear It Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.

Back Pages Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Black Prairie, Ashleigh Flynn Bottom of the Hill. 10pm, $15.

Brad Brooks, Jay Trainer, Felsen, Robin Applewood Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

Chop Tops, Slim Jenkins, Tony T. and the Pendletons, Bastard Makers Slim’s. 8:30pm, $16.

Conspirator, NVO Independent. 9pm, $22.

Dub FX, Mago Kingz, Ras Attitude, Jah Yzer Elbo Room. 10pm, $10.

Hogs of Change, Kill Bossa, Trevor Garrod Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

House of Floyd: The Music of Pink Floyd Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $24.

Inferno of Joy, Harry Merry, High Anxiety, Vum Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $12.

Lee Vilenski Trio Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Rue 66, TomorrowMen Make-Out Room. 8pm, $8.

Tartufi, Gaytheist, Tigon Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

Todd, Nathan Temby, Ben Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Twilight Sad, Vir, Sporting Life Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $15.

Martha Wainwright Swedish American Hall. 7:30pm, $20.

Vinyl Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $12.

Wax DNA Lounge. 7:30pm, $12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Hammond Organ Soul Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Mariza SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $30-$70.

SF Offside Festival: Spark Series Cafe Royale, 800 Post, SF; sfoffside.com/spark-series-2013. 9pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Afrolicious, Midtown Social Band, DJ Jeremy Sole Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $15.

Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen Dolores Park Cafe, 501 Dolores, SF;www.doloresparkcafe.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Greensky Bluegrass, Ryan Montbleau Band Fillmore. 9pm, $25.

San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band: Lord of the Rings Symphony Ebenezer HerChurch, 678 Portola, SF; www.sflgfb.org. 8pm. Conducted by Dr. Martin H. Seggelke.

Shoestring Trio Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $12-$15.

Steep Ravine Plough and Stars. 9:30pm, $6-$10.

Chuchito Valdes and Eddy Navia’s Pena Pachamama Band Pena Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.pachamamacenter.org. 8:30pm, $19.

DANCE CLUBS

Get Freaky ft. PANTyRAiD 1015 Folsom, SF; www.1015.com. 10pm, $20-$25.

Heartbeat John Collins, 138 Minna,SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, R&B, reggae, soul, and dancehall.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

Seth Troxler, Dax Lee, Rich Korach Public Works. 9:30pm, $10-$20.

SATURDAY 16

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

A-1, Dregs One, Nat, Sayknowledge Slim’s. 9pm, $15.

Big Tree, Astronauts Etc., Dear Indugu Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $10.

Black Ryder, Young Prisms, Matt Baldwin Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $12.

Brentando Shine Lounge, 1337 Mission, SF; diablamusic.weebly.com. 8pm, $8.

Brilliant Colors, Mantles, Scrapers Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

Hans Eberbach Castagnola’s, 286 Jefferson, SF; www.castagnolas.com. 4pm, free.

Face the Giant Riptide Tavern. 9:30pm, free.

JGB, Melvin Seals, Jay’s Happy Sunshine Burger Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $30.

La Plebe, Blackbird Raum, VKTMS, Fucking Buckaroos, Unko Atama Thee Parkside. 3pm, $8-$10.

PST Live feat. 9th Wonder and Rapsody, Chuuwee, GQ, DJ Sake One Independent. 9pm, $20.

RonKat’s Katdelic Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $12.

Skin Divers Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Nathan Temby, Ben, Todd Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Zoo Station (U2 tribute) Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $15-$20.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Mariza SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $30-$80.

Project Pimento Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Chris Siebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

"Trapeze V: The Big Bass Burlectro-Swing Affair" Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10-$15.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Bareto Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $30.

Chuchito Valdes and Eddy Navia’s Pena Pachamama Band Pena Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.pachamamacenter.org. 8:30pm, $19.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF; St. Paddy’s Party DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15. With Hubba Hubba Revue, DJ Mykill and Destrukt, and more.

Fringe Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, $5. Indie music video dance party with DJ Blondie K and subOctave.

JackHammer Disco with Guy Gerber Public Works. 9:30pm, $15-$20.

Kinky Disko Underground SF, 424 Haight; www.kinkydisko.com. 10pm, $7. Vintage boogie.

OK Hole Amnesia. 9pm.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

Radio Franco Bissap, 3372 19th St, SF; (415) 826 9287. 6 pm. Rock, Chanson Francaise, Blues. Senegalese food and live music.

Saturday Night Soul Party Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-$10. With DJs Lucky, Paul Paul, Phengren Oswald.

Smiths Party Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, $5. Sounds of the Smiths, Morrissey, the Cure, and New Order.

Wild Nights Kok BarSF, 1225 Folsom, SF; www.kokbarsf.com. 9pm, $3. With DJ Frank Wild.

SUNDAY 17

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Buxter Hoot’n, Jess, Em, and Andrew of Fox and Woman, Sean Lee Make-Out Room. 8pm, $8-$10.

Kitty Chow and Fisherman, Gigi and Pop, Pachuco Cadaver, Kitten on the Keys Hemlock Tavern. 6pm, $7.

Dance Party Boys, Parachute on Fire, Belligerator, Commonwealth Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 5pm, $5-$8.

Earthless, Mammatus, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $16.

Gravel Spreaders, Nobody from Nashville Thee Parkside. 4pm, free.

Hobgobelins, Barbary Ghosts Amnesia. 9pm.

Michelle Shocked Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $25.

Steakhouse, Old and Gray, Mortar and Pestle Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $9.

Ticket to Ride Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Mariza SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 7:30pm, $30-$70.

Lavay Smith Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Happy Family Singers Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Beats for Brunch Thee Parkside. 11am, free.

Deep Fried Soul Dance Party Boom Boom Room. 8pm, free.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep,J. Boogie, and Jimmy Love.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 18

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Black Lips, Nightbeats Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $16.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Diesel Dudes, Vankmen, Ryury, Electroass, La Tron Elbo Room. 9pm, $5.

Hive Dwellers, No Babies, Bam! Bam! Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $8.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Craig and Meredith Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9pm, $5-$10. With Decay, Melting Girl, and Joe Radio.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 19

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bajofondo, DJ Luis Medina Bimbo’s. 8pm, $35.

Bent, Love Axe, Out Damned Spot Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$8.

Folkeiis, Mauser, Mundo Muerto, Midnite Brain Knockout. 9:30pm, $8.

Papa Bear and the Easy Love Amnesia. 9:30pm, $5-$7.

Michael Rose, Sister Carol Independent. 9pm, $25.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Tiberius, Weiner Kids, PG13 Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Drizoketto Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

NYJazz Quartet Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $21.

DANCE CLUBS

Brazilian Wax Elbo Room. 9pm, $7. With Pagode Grupo Da Sete, Carioca, and Lucio K.

Alerts

Andrew Lam

March 12, 2013

THURSDAY 14

Building momentum around prison activism 518 Valencia, SF. 7pm, free. Hear from former prisoners, activists and organizers who were engaged in the prisoners’ hunger strike at Pelican Bay. This event, Build to Resist, seeks to promote movement building with a focus on prisoners. Speakers will include Linda Evans of prisoner advocacy alliance All of Us or None, Azadeh Zohrabi of the Hunger Strike Coalition, and others.

SATURDAY 16

Anarchist Book Fair The Armory Community Center, 1800 Mission St, SF. www.bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com, abookfair@yahoo.com. 10am-6pm, Sat/16 and Sun/17, free. The annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, presented by Bound Together Books, brings together more than 75 radical booksellers, independent presses, and political groups from around the world. Speakers will include George Katsiaficas, author of “Asia’s Unknown Uprisings;” Eddie Yuen and Jim Davis, co-authors of The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth; Terry Bisson of the Beehive Design Collective, and more. Visit the website for more events happening that weekend.

SUNDAY 17

Bayard Rustin Birthday Celebration Orbit Room Café, 1900 Market, SF. www.bayardrustincoalition.com. 5-7:30pm, $5–$10 suggested donation. The Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition will celebrate the life and legacy of openly gay African American community organizer Bayard Rustin with this fundraiser, featuring food and a no-host bar. Rustin is widely remembered for organizing the Great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 50 years ago. A teaser for the event reads: “What would Bayard do? Get to work. Get to organizing. Get to making history. Get to creating change. .. and he would party hearty on his birthday along the way.”

Our Weekly Picks: March 6-12

Andrew Lam

March 5, 2013

WEDNESDAY 6

Sixth Annual International Juried Plastic Camera Show

These days, every smartphone-toting amateur can create his or her own hazy vignette to remind us of those groovy days before digital photography. But Instagram and its peers always stop short in their quest for that special quality that only real lo-fi technology — cameras constructed of plastic and the occasional piece of tape — can achieve. In its sixth Plastic Camera Show, RayKo Photo center will exhibit the best 90 photos chosen from thousands of international submissions, with a special focus on Los Angeles-based Thomas Alleman’s black-and-white images that his plastic camera manages to render in a mood that is both cinematic and sordid. Instagram has nothing on these photos. (Laura Kerry) Through April 22 6-8pm opening, free RayKo Photo Center

428 Third St., SF

(415) 495-3773

www.raykophoto.com

THURSDAY 7

University Dance Theatre

Student recitals are just one of a number of campus spring rituals. The University Dance Theatre’s at SF State University is no exception. This year’s program, besides showing new works by alumni, faculty, and advanced students, is very much worth trip out into the fog belt. KT Nelson, Co-Artistic Director of ODC/Dance, with whom State has an ongoing relationship, is setting her Transit on student performers. Transit is witty, wistful, and wondrous; sort of a love letter to harried urban lives. Max Chen’s fantastical, multipurpose bikes also pay tribute to the City’s favorite mode of transportation. Nelson knows that spectacular props can steal a show; she didn’t let it happen. Transit focuses its lively energy on where it belongs — the dancing. (Rita Felciano)

Through Sat/9, 8pm, $8–$15

San Francisco State University

Creative Arts Building

1600 Holloway Ave.

(415) 338-2467

creativestate.sfsu.edu

San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival

To celebrate its 10th year, the San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival is assembling the following: a Cousteau (Jean-Michel, son of Jacques, who will be a special guest at the opening-night gala); a documentary about the first lady of surfing (Brian Gillogly’s Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget); and a shark-themed program highlighted by Steve Dilaridan’s adorably-titled animated short I’m Going to Bite Someone. And that ain’t even taking into account the rest of the over 50 ocean-themed films from some 14 countries. Dive in! (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Sun/10, most films $8–$14 (opening gala, $150)

Bay Theater

Aquarium of the Bay

Pier 39, SF

www.oceanfilmfest.org

FRIDAY 8

The Hush Sound

Chicago’s the Hush Sound was “discovered” in 2005 by Pete Wentz via Panic! At the Disco’s Ryan Ross, but don’t hold that against it. The group’s simple boy-girl harmonies and catchy melodies are at once sincere and whimsical, creating a timeless, folk-tinged pop sound. When the band formed, core songwriters Greta Salpeter and Bob Morris were essentially still children, going to school and lifeguarding, respectively. In the years and three albums that followed, the band mercifully never lost its youthful nature. Now, after a five-year hiatus, the Hush Sound is finally back with a new album in the works — and its ready to relive its youth. (Haley Zaremba)

With the Last Royals, Sydney Wayser

8pm, $15

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

Pickwick

A Youtube comment on the song “Blackout” from Pickwick’s record, Myths Vol. 3, reads “these fucking albums are nowhere to be found.” Though one should usually ignore Youtube comments, in this case we say, Kamelbutiken, you have a point. For the past year, the band has sold out shows in its native Seattle and earned spots in notable festivals, gaining hype only through the release of a series of seven-inch vinyl records and online videos. It’s hard to believe that with all the recognition they’ve earned, March 12 marks the release of the band’s official debut album. While the soul-and-folk-infused rock the band makes is still nowhere to be found, find Pickwick live at the Independent. (Kerry)

With Radiation City, Sandy’s

9pm, $15

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

Melt! with Machinedrum

Futuristic beats producer Travis Stewart, a.k.a. Machinedrum, takes cues as much from hip-hop and jungle rhythms as from the current dubstep/wobble craze. The American-born Berlin resident has produced for rising Harlem star Azealia Banks and counts rhymesayer Theophilus London and UK-based dream-techno star Lone as collaborators. Machinedrum keeps his productions quick and tightly-woven, typically floating catchy melodies and some sonorous vocal samples alongside shuffling beats. The multi-faceted Stewart has also earned respect for his recent reinterpretations of giants in their respective genres, Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada and psychedelic jazzist Sun Ra. (Kevin Lee)

With French Fries, Dark Sky, and more

10pm, $17.50–$20

1015 Folsom, SF

(415) 431-1200

www.1015.com

SATURDAY 9

San Francisco Bulgarian Film Festival

With directors like Cristi Puiu (2005’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) and Cristian Mungiu (whose latest, Beyond the Hills, opens March 15) leading the charge, the Romanian New Wave is a well-established phenomenon. So it stands to reason that next-door neighbor Bulgaria would also be eager to come into its own, cinematically speaking — and the inaugural San Francisco Bulgarian Film Festival is here to share some of the country’s recent triumphs with local audiences. Included in the two-day fest are Bulgaria’s 2011 Oscar submission, Tilt, about friends who dream of opening a bar amid the country’s tumultuous early 1990s; and contemporary drama Love.Net, a hit at the 2011 Bulgarian National Film Festival. (Eddy)

Through Sun/10, $12

Brava Theater Center

2781 24th St, SF

sfbff.blogspot.com

Garry Winogrand retrospective

Legend has it that Garry Winogrand would shoot an entire roll of film in a single block, barely pausing or taking his eye away from his Leica camera’s viewfinder until he reached the end. As a result, his body of work presents barely mediated views of daily life in postwar America. And it presents a lot of them. Winogrand produced so many rolls of film that he never saw an estimated 250,000 images contained on them before his untimely death in 1984. In a retrospective that will travel the globe after leaving San Francisco, SFMOMA will display about 100 of these never-before-seen prints, adding to an already prolific and important collection. We’re lucky to get to see so many streets through Winogrand’s eyes. (Kerry)

Through June 2

$9–$18

SFMOMA

151 Third St., SF

(415) 357-4000

www.sfmoma.org

Flogging Molly

Don’t let Flogging Molly fool you: everything about the band may seem wonderfully drunk and Irish, but like any other illusion, it actually hails from Los Angeles. Vocalist Dave King, however, is a bona fide Irishman, and his thick brogue is the perfect addition to Flogging Molly’s Celtic-flavored punk madness. Whether or not you want to listen to songs about drunken pirates and whiskey in your free time, its live show is a spectacle that anyone could and should enjoy. Though the band has been together and touring since the ’90s, it hasn’t slowed down one iota. That x-factor that makes some live shows over-the-top fun simply can’t be spoken for. Grab a bottle of Jameson and go see for yourself. You can thank me later. (Zaremba)

With Mariach El Bronx, Donots

7:30pm, $32.50

Fox Theater

1807 Telegraph, Oakland

(510) 302-2250

www.thefoxoakland.com

MONDAY 11

Efterklang The Danish band Efterklang first gained international plaudits with its soaring 2007 LP Parades on the Leaf Label Ltd and such triumphant, symphonic battle cries as “Mirador” and “Caravan.” Since switching labels to 4AD Ltd., Efterklang has (somewhat regrettably) corralled that bright energy and fostered a more direct, intimate sound. Legend has it that the Danish trio wandered through an abandoned Norwegian coal mining settlement near the North Pole formerly operated by the Soviet Union. The band’s journey and field recordings became source material for last year’s Piramida, in which frontperson Clasper Clausen drops his voice an octave and embarks on mysterious stories of exploration and melancholy. (Lee)

With Nightlands

8pm, $15

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

San Francisco Moth StorySLAM: Secrets

The Moth: “True Stories Told Live.” Where else could we listen to strangers, alone on a stage with their words, telling fantastical-but-true personal stories of Jewish mobster uncles, family embezzlement, Montgomery Clift’s wishes from beyond the grave, the whiskey-soaked life of a rookie reporter, the cult of Radical Honesty, and sexual awakenings during midlife crises? The NY-born series — in which reading from notes is a major no-no — has been going strong since 1997, with monthly StorySLAMs (open mics) in LA, Chicago, Louisville, and Seattle, among other cities. The San Francisco Moth StorySLAM launches today at the Rickshaw Stop and will continue on the second Monday of every month. The first round’s theme is “secrets” so come prepared to divulge the dirt. And as podcast host Dan Kennedy always notes, “we hope you have a story-worthy week.” (Full of secrets you’re willing to share.) (Emily Savage)

7pm, $8

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

Music listings

Andrew Lam

March 5, 2013

WEDNESDAY 6

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Boats, Catbees, Surgeon Generals Elbo Room. 9pm, $7.

BOY, Gambles Swedish American Hall. 7:30pm, $15.

Brown Shoe 50 Mason Social House, SF; ww.50masonsocialhouse.com. 8pm, free.

Family Stone Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $30.

Marcus Foster, Sean Rowe, Ruston Kelly Bottom of the Hill. 7pm, $14.

Great Big Sea Fillmore. 8pm, $35.

Guido vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Junius, Silver Snakes, Form and Fate, Death Valley High DNA Lounge. 7pm, $13.

Nu Sensae, Synthetic ID, Straight Crime Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $8.

Polecat, Lonesome Locomotive Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

Sam Chase, Cosmic Suckerpunch, Neckbeard Boys Rickshaw Stop. 7:30pm, $10.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Timeflies Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $23.

Simon Townshend, Jameson and Co. Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $15.

Why?, Astronautalis, Dream Tiger Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $18.

Mitch Woods Chapel, 777 Valenica, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 8pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Freddie Hughes Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Reuben Rye Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com.7-9pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Cash IV Gold Double Dutch, 3192 16th St, SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 9pm, free.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free. With Vinyl Ambassador, DJ Silverback, DJs Green B and Daneekah.

Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.

Martini Lounge John Colins, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 7pm. With DJ Mark Divita.

THURSDAY 7

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Assembly of Dust, Strange Folk Acoustic Duo Independent. 8pm, $17.

Darwin Deez, Caged Animals, Marqiss Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

Sky Ferreira, guest DJs from Passion Pit Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $13-$15.

Gunshy Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Chris James and the Showdowns, Mavalour, American Professionals, Emmett Peixoto Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $5-$8.

Rhett Miller Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $26.

Passion Pit, Matt and Kim Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. 7:30pm, $39.50.

Pharmacy, Spyrals, Shivas Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

Subcontinental Drift Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $5.

Rags Tuttle vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Linda Moody, Mana Maddy Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

Chris Siebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Jinx Jones and Jessica Rose Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 8-10pm, free.

Misisipi Mike and the Midnight Gamblers Amnesia. 9pm, $7.

Maurice Tani and Mike Anderson, Aireene Espiritu and Paul Olguin Lost Church, 65 Capp, SF; www.thelostchurch.com. 8pm, $10.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. DJ Pleasuremaker spins Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Nick Curly and Manju Masi Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $10.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Supersonic Lookout, 3600 16th St., SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Global beats paired with food from around the world by Tasty. Resident DJs Jaybee, B-Haul, amd Diagnosis.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

Twitch DNA Lounge. 10pm, $5-$8. With Lie, Koban, and resident DJs Justin, Omar, and Rachel Aiello.

FRIDAY 8

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Niki Bluhm and the Gramblers, Easy Leaves Bimbo’s. 9pm, $20.

Chum (Phish tribute) Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $10.

DJ Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Jah Styles Yoshi’s SF. 10:30pm, $28.

Hush Sound, Last Royals, Sydney Wayser Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $13-$15.

Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Johnny Legend, Girls with Guns, Gaviotas Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $8.

G. Love and Special Sauce Fillmore. 9pm, $25.

Major Powers and the Lo-Fi Symphony, Bend Sinister, Hungry Skinny Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.

New Diplomat, Rags and Ribbons, Via Coma Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $12.

Andre Nickatina, Smoov-E, Mumbls Slim’s. 9pm, $30.

Orchid, Glitter Wizard, Hell Fire DNA Lounge. 9pm, $12.

Parokya ni Edgar, Gloc9, Mocha Girls DNA Lounge. 7pm, $65.

Pickwick, Radiation City, Sandy’s Independent. 9pm, $15.

Stickers, Pony Time Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Jeff V., Jason Marion, Nathan Temby Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Zodiac Death Valley, Down and Outlaws, Disappearing People, Black Cobra Vipers Elbo Room. 9pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Hammond Organ Soul Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Larry Ochs and Nate Wooley Center for New Music, 55 Taylor, SF; www.centerfornewmusic.com. 7:30pm, $10-$15.

Richard Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Lagos Roots Afrobeat Ensemble Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

Quijerema Red Poppy Art House. 7:30pm, $12-$15.

DANCE CLUBS

Gramatik, Russ Liquid Public Works. 10pm, $30.

Heartbeat John Collins, 138 Minna,SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, R&B, reggae, soul, and dancehall.

Hot Mouth Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Indie Slash Amnesia. 10pm. With DJ Danny White.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

Melt Party 1015 Folsom. 10pm, $17.50. With Machinedrum, French Fries, Dark Sky, Tchphnx, DJ Dials.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

SATURDAY 9

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Adios Amigo Hotel Utah. 8pm.

Anna Ash, Song Sparrow Research Amnesia. 6:30pm.

Biv and the Mnemonics Milk Bar. 10pm, $7.

DRI, Zero Bull Shit, Nerv Slim’s. 9pm, $17.

Hans Eberbach Castagnola’s, 286 Jefferson, SF; www.castagnolas.com. 4pm, free.

James Hunter Six, Relatives Bimbo’s. 9pm, $25.

Jaunting Martyrs, Rogers, Victoria and the Vaudevillains Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

KMFDM, Legion Within Independent. 9pm, $25.

La Gente, Locura Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $10.

Little Black Dress Affair (Notorious BIG tribute) Yoshi’s SF. 10:30pm, $18.

Monophonics, Ployrhythmics Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $17-$19.

Rank/Xerox, Violent Change, Pure Bliss El Rio. 9pm, $7.

"San Francisco A Cappella Festival" Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon, SF; www.harmony-sweepstakes.com. 8pm.

Shout Out Out Out, Lenz, Kinship Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Six60 Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $13-$15.

Nathan Temby, Jeff V., Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Top Secret Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Emily Jane White, Ora Cogan Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Kitten on the Keys Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm.

Lavay Smith Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Mischief 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 10pm. Hunny Bunny and Her Hot Toddies, live bands, burlesque, and more.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

"By Daylight" ODC Theater, 351 Shotwell, SF; www.odcdance.org. 3pm. With Gautam Tejas Ganeshan.

Earl Brothers, Trespassers, Emily Bonn and the Vivants Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $12. SF Bluegrass and Old-Time Fesitval.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF: French Kisses with DJ Reno DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15.

Braza! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, $10. Brazilian dance party with Daz-I-Kue.

Club Gossip Cat Club. 9pm, free before 9:30pm, $5-$8 after. With VJs Shon, Low Life, Damon, and more.

Cockblock Seventh Anniversary Party Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $10.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

Phutureprimitive, ill-esha, Archnemesis, Johny5 Inner Mission, 2050 Bryant, SF; Facebook: Smash and Grab. 9pm, $10.

Scotty Boy Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Tormenta Tropical, Shawn Reynaldo and Oro11 Elbo Room. 10pm.

2 Men Will Move You Amnesia. 9pm.

SUNDAY 10

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

"ABBA the Concert: A Tribute to ABBA" Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $45-$59.50.

Blasters, Cash Prophets, Stigma 13, Twilight Drifters DNA Lounge. 9pm, $15. Benefit for Scarlett’s special needs and Rett Syndrome.

Cradle of Filth, Faceless, Decapitated, Agonist Fillmore. 8pm, $26.50.

Karina Denike, Billy and Dolly Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

"Gorilla Music Battle of the Bands" DNA Lounge. 5:30pm, $12. With Hope in Disguise, Nightrail, Ocelot, Trecelence, and more.

Jose James presents "No Beginning No End." Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $17-$20.

Bernie Jungle, Verms, Sister Exister Hemlock Tavern. 6pm, $6.

Letlive, HRVRD, Night Verses Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $14.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Emile Welman Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $15-$18.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Oz Noy, Dave Weckl and Anthony Jackson Yoshi’s SF. 6pm, $16; 8pm, $22.

William Parker and Lisa Mezzacappa’s Bait and Switch Center for New Music, 55 Taylor, SF; www.centerfornewmusic.com. 2pm, $10-$25.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto with Murasaki Ensemble Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento, SF; www.oldfirstconcerts.org. 4pm, $14-$17.

DANCE CLUBS

Deep Fried Soul Dance Party Boom Boom Room. 8pm, free.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep, Ludichris, reggae set by DJ Ren the Vinyl Archeologist.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 11

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Autre Ne Veut, Majical Cloudz, Bago Independent. 9pm, $12.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Efterklang, Nighlands Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $15.

Frightened Rabbit Fillmore. 8pm, $23.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Dawn Oberg Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Toshio Hirano Amnesia. 9pm, free.

Leche De Tigre, Palavra Elbo Room. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-$5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Decay, Joe Radio, and Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 12

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Joe Ely, Joe Pug Slim’s. 8pm, $21.

Goh Nakamura, Kevin Large, Trevor Garrod Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $8.

Great Apes, Bad Liar, Rats Rest, True Mutants Knockout. 9pm, $6.

Carrie Manolakos Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $22.

Papa Bear and the Easy Love Amnesia. 9:30pms.

Benoit Pioulard, Young Moon Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $8.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Kim Walker-Smith, Derek Johnson Warfield. 7pm, $25-$35.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Chris Amberger and Aaron Garner Cafe Divine, 1600 Stockton, SF; www.cafedivinesf.com.7-9pm, free.

Bombshell Betty and her Burlesqueteers Elbo Room. 9pm, $10.

Frisky Frolics Rite Spot Cafe. 8:30pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Stylus John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, dancehall, and Bay slaps with DJ Left Lane.

Takin’ Back Tuesdays Double Dutch, 3192 16th St,SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 10pm. Hip-hop from the 1990s.

Oakland school cop comes forward as a whistleblower

Sasha Cuttler And Mary Magee

February 28, 2013

Two years after his involvement in a police shooting that took the life of a 20-year-old African American man, an Oakland School Police Department officer has come forward as a “whistleblower” in sworn testimony, making allegations of unethical behavior within a department that is already under the scrutiny of federal investigators.

In a deposition delivered earlier this month as part of a civil suit, police Sergeant Jonathan Bellusa gave a detailed account of what transpired just before his patrol partner, Sgt. Barhin Bhatt, fired several rounds and killed Raheim Brown as the youth was positioned in the passenger’s seat of a car outside a high school dance in January of 2011.

Bellusa gave testimony that in the months that followed, he came under retaliatory pressure from within the department and was “uncomfortable” with various aspects of how the investigation unfolded.

An unedited, uncertified transcript of Bellusa’s deposition, which contains some grammatical and punctuation errors because it was transcribed by an automated system, was made public Feb. 28 by a group of activists organized under a project called “Against Hired Guns.” The group sent a detailed summary and analysis of the deposition, as well as the unedited transcript, to reporters. The activists also posted the contents on a website, againsthiredguns.wordpress.com.

Asked who is behind Against Hired Guns, spokesperson Cat Brooks said they are Oakland activists “who have been doing this work either together on campaigns, or separately inside of our own groups, that see strength in numbers rather than apart. We in general are tired of having flashpoint reactions to police corruption or violence, and are interested in bringing as many people or groups together as possible to have a sustained campaign that is focused on eradicating police violence.”

Bellusa is currently on leave from employment at the Oakland school police department, and the Guardian was unable to reach him by phone on the number listed on the OUSD website. “He’s been gone for quite awhile,” OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint told the Guardian when reached by phone. Asked to comment on the myriad allegations raised in Bellusa’s testimony, Flint said, “We’re going to refrain from comment until we’ve seen the actual suit.”

The deposition was conducted by Attorney Adante Pointer of the Law Offices of John Burris, in connection with a civil rights suit that is being filed against OUSD by Brown’s mother, Lori Davis. Reached by phone, Pointer confirmed that he had taken Bellusa’s deposition several weeks ago, and was surprised that its contents had been made public, since it “is not complete yet.” He added, “I’m thinking to myself, who put that out there?” As of press time, Pointer had not returned a follow up phone call.

Brooks declined to answer questions about how the activists obtained a copy of the uncertified transcript.

Allegations of retaliation for whistleblowing

Roughly a month after the shooting incident, Bellusa said in his deposition, former OUSD Police Chief Pete Sarna let out “a boisterous yell with his [fist] up in the air” and seemed “excited” that “we as a department don’t have to worry about anything.” According to Bellusa’s testimony, Sarna had just received word that his “friend” Pete Peterson had “agreed to do the investigation” of the fatal shooting of Brown.

Asked if he felt pressured by supervisors to make statements consistent with Bhatt’s account of the shooting incident, Bellusa stated, “I have felt that if I gave statements that went against the district that I would be thrown in jail for perjury.”

In the months after the shooting, Bellusa testified that he filed a formal complaint alleging that Sarna drunkenly made racist remarks to an African American sergeant in July of 2011. Sarna resigned the following month.

Bellusa also testified that on an August morning in 2011, after he’d filed the complaint against Sarna for allegedly making racial slurs, he overheard a conversation between OUSD General Counsel Jacqueline Minor and Superintendent Tony Smith. “I over heard Jackie Minor… say they were not going to let John get away with this,” he stated.

In another incident, Bellusa testified that a different OUSD officer informed him that “Chief Sarna’s assistant, Jenny Wong, told a bunch of officers something like: ‘Don’t worry, Sarna is going to beat this case. He’s going to fire John [Bellusa].’”

After Sarna stepped down, Bhatt was briefly appointed interim police chief, unleashing an outcry from OUSD parents outraged that an officer would be promoted to the top post after shooting and killing Brown just months before. Alameda County prosecutors had since cleared Bhatt of any wrongdoing in the shooting that resulted in Brown’s death.

In response to the backlash, Bhatt was removed and replaced with Police Chief James Williams in September of 2011. The shooting of Brown, coupled with Sarna’s alleged use of racial slurs, prompted a federal grand jury investigation into the OUSD police force last year. Bellusa noted in his testimony that he had described his experience to federal investigators.

Taken as a whole, Bellusa’s testimony renders a disturbing internal portrait of the Oakland School Police Department, which consists of about a dozen officers and operates independently of the Oakland Police Department as a division of the school district.

The alarming account raises serious questions about internal operations of the department, particularly since it is an independent force operated by the school district at a time when funding cuts have placed the public school system under tremendous budgetary pressure, resulting in recent school closures.

Allegations of corruption

A detailed summary of the transcript provided by Against Hired Guns highlights more disturbing allegations made by Bellusa in the course of his testimony. Among them:

Bellusa asserted that he witnessed Bhatt pour Wild Turkey into a glass while he was on duty. He also said he felt concerned about Bhatt after observing him “clean his firearm for a long period of time.”

Bellusa testified that he “found out” that Sarna and Lou Silva, a former OUSD officer and current district-wide Campus Security and Safety Manager, were “sending their personal cars down to a shop on 16^th Avenue… [and] were overcharging the police cars,” apparently in order to have their personal cars repaired for free or at a deep discount.

Bellusa testified, “I found out that he [Sarna] called another officer [and] told him [not to report] what had happened in front of the African American who is a witness to the … racial slurs.”

Officer-involved shooting

Brown was shot and killed outside a dance at Oakland’s Skyline High School on Jan. 22, 2011. He was sitting in the passenger’s seat of a Honda with a friend, Tamisha Stewart, who was in the driver’s seat. Bellusa and Bhatt pulled up behind them in an unmarked patrol car after noticing the lights of the Honda were flashing. Bhatt made his way to the driver’s window, Bellusa testified, while he flanked the rear passenger’s side of the car.

As Bhatt began a verbal exchange with Stewart, Bellusa testified that he noticed Brown was “fidgety” rather than cooperative, which he interpreted as a “red flag.” He opened the passenger door, crouched into what he described as a “catcher’s stance,” and initiated a verbal exchange with Brown. Shortly after opening the door, Bellusa said he made observations that led him to conclude that the car had been stolen.

When Pointer asked him where his hands were at that point, Bellusa stated, “They were on his lap,” according to the transcript. “Were they holding anything?” Pointer asked. “No,” Bellusa responded. “And so did you ask him to step out of the car when you’re having this conversation with him?” Pointer asked. “Not at that time,” Bellusa answered.

Bellusa said Brown then grabbed a screwdriver and stuck into the ignition of the vehicle, directing Stewart to drive. This prompted a struggle between Brown and Bellusa. According to a summary of the transcript written by the group of activists:

“Bellusa lunged into the car, grabbing [Brown] from behind as Brown was leaned over toward the ignition. …Bellusa tried to hold Brown, and then grabbed him, pulling Brown’s shirt and ripping it. Bhatt, leaning in through the driver’s window, hit Brown with his flashlight. … Brown had not yet made any aggressive move toward anyone, according to Bellusa’s description of events.”

A struggle ensued, and Bellusa testified that at one point Brown bit Bellusa’s wrist, prompting Bellusa to pull his hand away and use his “hammer fist” to strike him. Brown then grabbed the screwdriver from the car’s ignition, and “I believe that the backside of the screwdriver [was what] he used at that point to strike me in the chest,” Bellusa testified.

“As the struggle ensued and neither fighter gave in,” activists wrote, “[Brown] turned the screwdriver around and tried to make contact with Bellusa.”

According to Bellusa’s sworn testimony, “I was afraid that I was going to get stabbed in the throat clear as day.” He told his partner to shoot Brown: “I just screamed shoot him, shoot him,” he testified.

The Against Hired Guns summary describes what happened next. “As Bellusa pulled himself out of the car, two shots were quickly fired through the driver’s open window … by Bhatt before his gun jammed. Raheim Brown, Jr. had two bullets lodged in his body. It took Sergeant Bhatt five to ten seconds to clear the chamber of his gun, during which time he said loudly: ‘Fuck! Fuck!’ By this time, Bellusa was out of the car and at a safe distance, he said in his deposition. When asked whether he thought Brown was still a risk after the first two shots, Bellusa replied plainly: ‘No,’ and said that by this point, he had his own gun out. When asked why he didn’t pull his trigger, he replied: ‘Just like I said my statement with OPD, I didn’t see a threat.’

‘Tell me … about the gun’

Bellusa explained in his deposition that he’d noticed a gun sitting in the side pocket of the vehicle during the incident, but did not alert Bhatt that the gun was there until after the shooting had occurred. When Pointer asked, “And prior to you screaming ‘shoot him, shoot him’ you hadn’t said anything related to the gun?” Bellusa responded: “No.”

Shortly after the shooting, Bellusa testified he had an interaction with Sarna, then-OUSD chief, and Smith, the OUSD superintendent. According to details included in the deposition, this conversation took place at Oakland Police Department (OPD) headquarters, after Bhatt and Bellusa had been separated, prior to any formal interview with OPD regarding the shooting.

According to Bellusa’s testimony, Smith questioned him directly. “He said specifically ‘John, tell me where the gun was. Tell me everything you can remember about the gun and what it looked like.’”

Penetrating the Thin Blue Line

An introductory statement from Against Hired Guns notes that Bellusa “will likely be considered a ‘good’ cop” for publicly airing these allegations and making an unusual break from the code of silence that typically binds police departments.

Yet the activists aren’t willing to let the sergeant off the hook so easily. Asked why they took steps to preempt release of this information, Brooks, the spokesperson for Against Hired Guns, told the Guardian, “We thought that it was important so that the debate could be framed as part of the larger context of police and violence in Oakland, as opposed to this cop has now done something good, which makes him a good cop. … He was still present the night Raheim was murdered.”

Against Hired Guns wrote in an analysis included in press materials, “It has now been over two years since Raheim’s family lost him to the violence of policing. They have relentlessly searched for justice and still do not know exactly what happened to him. At the very least, Bellusa or any of the people or agencies he spoke with, could have explained the context of Raheim’s killing to his family members, who continue to grieve and struggle with the loss of their son, father and lover.”

The activists’ summary frames the issue in this way: “Sergeant Bellusa has now penetrated the ‘thin blue line’ that shields corrupt, abusive, violent police officers and departments. We are releasing this information as part of … a series that places the statements of Bellusa’s testimony in the larger overall context of policing in our society [and] the ‘thin blue line’ that protects officers from any consequences.”

Music Listings

Andrew Lam

February 26, 2013

WEDNESDAY 27

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

A Silent Film, Royal Teeth, Jillette Johnson Slim’s. 8pm, $14.

Ceremony, Terry Malts, Comadre, Permanent Ruin, Synthetic ID Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $12. Noise Pop.

Chi-Lites feat. Marshal J. Thompson Rrazz Room. 8pm, $35-$45.

Coast Jumper, Gold Medalists, All Your Sisters Elbo Room. 9pm, $10.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Fresh and Onlys, R. Stevie Moore, Plateaus, Burnt Ones Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $14. Noise Pop.

Keith Crossan Blues Showcase Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $15.

Lovely Bad Things, Blank Tapes, Lake, Cruel Summer Hemlock Tavern. 8pm, $10. Noise Pop.

Ramona Falls, Social Studies, Harriet, Mahgeetah Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $14. Noise Pop.

Rags Tuttle vs Lee Huff Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Spider Heart Milk Bar. 10pm, $6.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Big Bones Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Dionne Farris and the Russell Gunn Quartet Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $24.

Kitten on the Keys Rite Spot. 9pm, free.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Timba Dance Party Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5.

Toast Inspectors Plough and Stars. 9pm.

“Woodie Guthrie tribute” Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $15. With Country Joe McDonald and special guests.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Cash IV Gold Double Dutch, 3192 16th St, SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 9pm, free.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free. With Vinyl Ambassador, DJ Silverback, DJs Green B and Daneekah.

Full-Step! Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, reggae, soul, and funk with DJs Kung Fu Chris and Bizzi Wonda.

Martini Lounge John Colins, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 7pm. With DJ Mark Divita.

THURSDAY 28

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Anberlin Fillmore. 7pm, $20.

Paul Basic, Supervision Independent. 8pm, $15. Noise Pop.

Bear Mountain, Man Without Country Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $12-$14. Noise Pop.

Biceratops, Americas Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $10-$12.

Chi-Lites feat. Marshal J. Thompson Rrazz Room. 8pm, $35-$45.

Family of the Year, Doe Eye, Psychic Friend, Rin Tin Tiger Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $12. Noise Pop.

Free Energy, In the Valley Below, Miner Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $14. Noise Pop.

Lee Huff vs Randy Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Huntinanny and the Bad Bad Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Method Man, Los Rakas 1015 Folsom, SF; www.1015.com. 8pm, $29.50.

Kelly McFarling, DonCat Amnesia. 9pm.

Psychic Ills, Mike Donovan, Follakzoid, AAN Hemlock Tavern. 8pm, $10. Noise Pop.

Shari Puorto Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Reckless Eric, Micky and the Motorcars, Sturgill Simpson Slim’s. 9pm, $16.

White Arrows, Yellow Dogs, Mallard Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $21-$23. Noise Pop.

XXYYXX, Teebs, Nanosaur, DJ Dials DNA Lounge. 9pm, $20. Noise Pop.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Chris Slebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Angie Stone Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $45; 10pm, $40.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Jascha Hoffman Rite Spot. 8:30pm, free.

Tipsy House Plough and Stars. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. Senor Oz and Izzy White spin Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Sasha Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $5-$10.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 1

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Aquamen, Go Going Gone Girls, Ogres Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony DNA Lounge. 8pm, $30.

Califone, Radar Bros, Dana Falconberry, Black Whales Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $15. Noise Pop.

Chi-Lites feat. Marshal J. Thompson Rrazz Room. 8pm, $35-$45.

Marcus Cohen and the Congress, Naima Shalhoub Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $18-$25.

Crystal Ark Mezzanine. 10pm, $10.

English Beat, Titan Ups Bimbo’s. 9pm, $25.

Galactic, Latyrx Fillmore. 9pm, $31.50.

Damien Jurado, Aaron Espinoza, Peggy Honeywell, Emily Jane White Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 8pm, $15. Noise Pop.

Pennywise, Lagwagon Warfield. 8pm, $23.

Starfucker, Blackbird Blackbird Regency Ballroom. 9pm, $25. Noise Pop.

Sugar Rush Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Nathan Temby, Lee Huff, Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Tenderloins, Dedvolt, Toy Called God, Swillerz Slim’s. 9pm, $14.

Their Only in Dreams, Running in the Fog, Snow Wite, Aloonaluna, Vestals Sub-Mission. 9pm, $8.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Jules Broussard Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

HowellDevine Revolution Cafe. 8:30pm.

David James, Beth Custer Red Poppy Art House. 7:30pm, $12-$20.

David Russell Community Music Center, 544 Capp, SF; www.sfcmc.org. 6pm, free.

Angie Stone Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $50; 10pm, $45.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Canyon Johnson Plough and Stars. 9pm, $6.

Gypsy Flamenco Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno, SF; www.flamencodeloro.com. 8pm, $10.

SankofaAfrica Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 7:30pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Debaser Elbo Room. 10pm, $10. Anniversary party wth DJs Jamie Jams, Emdee, Stab Master Arson.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

Ron Reeser, Adam Cova Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Strangelove Cat Club. 9:30pm, $7. Goth and industrial with DJs Tomas Diablo, Sage, Donimo, and Prince Charming.

SATURDAY 2

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bomb the Music Industry, Shinobu, Wild Bottom of the Hill. 1:30pm, $9.

Bronze, Holy Balm, Screature Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Chi-Lites feat. Marshal J. Thompson Rrazz Room. 8pm, $35-$45.

“Coup’s Shadowbox” Inner Mission, 2050 Bryant, SF; thecoupshadowbox.eventbrite.com. 8pm, $20. With the Coup and Jon-Paul Bail.

DNF, Replica, Ordstro, Stares, Behavior, DJ-QDX Thee Parkside. 9pm, $7.

Doormats, Last Free Men, Deep Space Quartet Thee Parkside. 4pm, free.

Galactic, Latyrx Fillmore. 9pm, $31.50.

Lee Huff, Jason Marion, Nathan Temby Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Insufferables, Urinal Mint Connecticut Yankee. 10pm, free.

Jukebox the Ghost, Matt Pond, Lighthouse and the Whaler, French Cassettes Independent. 8:30pm, $13-$15. Noise Pop.

Nightgown, Sands, Mirrors Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

No Mercy Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Sonny and the Sunsets, Magic Trick, Cool Ghouls, Dune Rats Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $12. Noise Pop.

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Kacey Johansing Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $17-$19. Noise Pop.

Yacht, Tussle, Future Twin, Shock Slim’s. 8pm, $18-$20. Noise Pop.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Jules Broussard Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

HowellDevine Club Deluxe. 4-7pm.

“Voices of Women” Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro, SF; www.sfca.org. 8pm, $30.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, Preservation, Tom VandenAVond Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $10-$12.

Mark Etheredge Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. 8pm, $20.

Melvin Gutierrez and Tim Ferguson Westside Art House, 540 Balboa, SF; westsidearthouse.brownpapertickets.com. 7pm.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15.

Cockfight Underground SF, 424 Haight, SF; (415) 864-7386. 9pm, $7. Rowdy dance night for gay boys .

Foundation Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521.10pm, $5-$10. DJs Shortkut, Apollo, Mr. E, Fran Boogie spin hip-hop, dancehall, funk, salsa.

Haceteria with S/H/A/P/E/S Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; Facebook.com/rancheria. 9pm, $5.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

Saturday Night Soul Party Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-$10. With DJs Lucky, Paul Paul, and Phengren Oswald.

Tall Sasha, Jason Kwan, KS Thant Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

SUNDAY 3

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Ben Miller Band Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $10-$12.

Caspian, Native, Boyfrndz, Dandelion War Bottom of the Hill. 6pm, $12. Noise Pop.

Chi-Lites feat. Marshal J. Thompson Rrazz Room. 8pm, $35-$45.

Demona Mortiss, Reaxion Guerrilla, NPMN, Retconstrict, Divination of the Damned DNA Lounge. 8:30pm, $8.

Electric Six, Gabriel the Marine Independent. 8pm, $16.

Final Last Words, Push, Dance Party Boys Slim’s. 8pm, $15. Benefit for Firefighter Steve Miller.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

King City, Mindi Hadan, Murray, RJK-SKI, and Hill Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $10. Kidneypalooza fundraiser.

Minor Birds, Kat Jones, Parmesans, Misisipi Mike Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$8.

“Tom Fest: Tribute to Tom Mallon” Great American Music Hall. 7:30pm, $25. With Flying Color, Toiling Midgets, Chuck Prophet, and more.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Kally Price Old Blues and Jazz Band Amnesia. 8pm, $5.

Lavay Smith Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. DJ Sep, Vinnie Esparza, McPullish spin roots, and classic dancehall.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 4

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Family Crest, Horde and the Harem, Vandella Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10.

Maserati, Minot, Silian Rail Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

Shannon and the Clams, Meat Market, Pang! Elbo Room. 9pm, $8.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Joe Radio, Decay, and Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 5

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Zachary Blizzard, Shawn Alpay, Hanalei, Sim Castro Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $7.

Creepers, RXCCXXNS, Tear Club Knockout. 9:30pm, $6.

G-Eazy, Skizzy Mars Slim’s. 9pm, $16.

Hey Marseillies, Deep Sea Diver Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $10-$12.

Joshua James, Noah Gunderson Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $12.

Low Hums Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

PAPA, Carousel Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, free.

Papa Bear and the Easy Love, Sufis, Marty O’Reilly Amnesia. 9:30pm, $5.

Spits, Scrapers, Pleasure Gallows Independent. 8pm, $13-$15.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

View, Hollerado Independent. 8pm, $15.

Chris Webby DNA Lounge. 7pm, $15.

Yes Warfield. 8pm, $49-$79.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Jeff Bradshaw Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $21.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

“Jazz Search West” Yoshi’s SF. 7-10pm. Bay Area’s jazz talent search.

DANCE CLUBS

Pendulum Elbo Room. 10pm, $5.

Mrs. Wilsey’s fine art

Andrew Lam

February 26, 2013

rebecca@sfbg.com

A little more than a year ago, Therese Chen, director of registration at San Francisco’s de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, sent an email to another staffer concerning “Mrs. Wilsey’s new Matisse.”

That would be Diane “Dede” Wilsey, the wealthy art collector who is also president of the Board of Trustees of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Chen asked Steve Brindmore, then a museum staff member who also runs a personal art crating business, whether he had a crate for the oil painting, which is titled “The Pink Blouse.” According to records from Sotheby’s New York auction house, the estimated value of this painting is between $3 and $4 million.

“The painting is on an A-frame in the Examination Room,” Chen wrote. “I’m taking the painting over to Dede on Wednesday … for [an event], and then it will come back here to the de Young to be crated for Portland around the week of Jan. 23.”

The exchange suggests that public museum facilities were being used to store and crate a piece of art from Wilsey’s personal collection.

Timestamps show that the exchange happened around 1:30 on a Monday, during museum hours. The correspondence was sent using museum staff email. It’s unclear what, if anything, this task had to do with the operations of a public museum. But FAMSF clearly handled a painting from the growing private art collection maintained by Wilsey, a major donor and key FAMSF fundraiser who loves Impressionist paintings and seems to gravitate toward works incorporating the color pink.

Beth Heinrich, a spokesperson for the Portland Art Museum, confirmed to the Guardian that a Matisse titled “The Pink Blouse” was indeed loaned to the museum from a private collection, and placed on display in its Impressionist galleries in February of 2012.

The email exchange between Chen and Brindmore is just one thread in a trove of correspondence, invoices, and other documentation anonymously submitted to the Guardian. Put together, the information shows museum staff being asked, during normal business hours, to handle, photograph, crate or arrange shipments for more than a dozen different pieces from Wilsey’s personal art collection in just the past two years. The documentation also shows several examples in which museum employees were directed by Chen to digitally reproduce works from Wilsey’s private collection.

It’s not uncommon for art collectors to put private pieces in the collection of a museum, nor it is unusual for collectors to lend out art to other museums. And if the de Young received some benefit from its association with Wilsey’s art, it wouldn’t be surprising (or inappropriate) for the museum to help reproduce or ship it.

On the other hand, if Wilsey is loaning out the pieces on her own, from her private collection, and using museum resources, it could raise conflicts of interest.

The de Young, for example, wasn’t cosponsoring the Portland exhibit where the Matisse was shown. Since Wilsey just bought the Matisse, it couldn’t have been part of the de Young’s collection.

There’s no indication that it was anything but her personal loan of a valuable painting — facilitated by the staff of a nonprofit that runs a city museum.

Invoices show that some staff members were paid separately for assisting with Wilsey’s art collection, in some cases through independent businesses.

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

The Fine Arts Museums include the de Young and the Legion of Honor. Included as charitable trust departments under the City Charter, they are governed by a 43-member Board of Trustees, which is responsible for appointing a director. Wilsey has presided over the body as board president since the 1990s. The bylaws of the board were changed to eliminate term limits for the president, meaning she could stay in the post for as long as her board colleagues want.

The FAMSF has been leaderless since director John Buchanan died in December, 2011.

Though the museums are public institutions, their governance structure is similar to that of a public-private partnership, since a private nonprofit organization called the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco handles museum administration and employs a number of museum staff, including curators and other professionals.

The city contributes some public funding to FAMSF, but the majority of revenue is derived from private sources. Wilsey, a multi-millionaire, contributed $10 million to the de Young, and spearheaded a 10-year fundraising campaign that culminated in 2005 with more than $180 million raised to rebuild the museum.

The socially connected philanthropist, known for throwing Christmastime bashes that attract a roster of powerful luminaries from government and big business to her Pacific Heights mansion, is often the subject of press reports or gossip surrounding San Francisco high society. Her stepson, Sean Wilsey, famously characterized Wilsey as his “evil stepmother” in his memoir, “Oh, the Glory of It All,” which includes an unflattering scene in which she is said to have pinned $200,000 brooches onto her bathrobe one Christmas morning.

She owns a fair amount of art — and apparently moves it around. In August of 2011, for instance, email threads show that Chen, using her FAMSF email address, contacted Jamil Abou-Samra of Masterpiece International, the shipping company, regarding “Mrs. Wilsey’s Degas.” Chen wrote: “I brought the Degas to the de Young last week for glazing. It should be ready for Steve to measure for crating any days [sic] now. Are we still looking at August 30, Tuesday, for pick up?” The thread indicates that the painting was destined for the Royal Academy of Arts, in London.

An Internet search shows that the Royal Academy indeed hosted an exhibit titled “Degas and the Ballet,” which opened in September of 2011. Press reports highlighting the artwork on display include an image of a Degas credited to “Collection of Diane B. Wilsey.”

There is no mention of the de Young or the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco anywhere in the web or press materials discussing the exhibition. Numerous other cooperating museums are identified by name.

When the Guardian reached Abou-Samra by phone, she indicated that she was not at liberty to discuss any of Masterpiece International’s handling of art shipments.

OFF TO PARIS

In February of 2011, email records show, Chen contacted Brindmore on his FAMSF email regarding a crate for a painting by Jean-Louis Forain that was bound for an exhibition at the Petit Palais, in Paris. The Parisian exhibit was launched in partnership with a Forain exhibit at Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis.

“Dede has a Forain painting that needs to be packed and crated … The painting is currently in our storage and [FAMSF staff member Steven Correll] knows the exact location,” Chen wrote to Brindmore. A few weeks later, Chen provided some special handling instructions for the Forain in an email to Samra, of Masterpiece International, just before it was transported to the airport.

There are established professional standards governing the operations of art museums, and the Guardian phoned several experts to determine whether it’s common practice for a member of the Board of Trustees to call upon museum staff members to handle their personal artwork. In response, communications director Dewey Blanton of the American Alliance of Museums highlighted an ethical standard stating, “No individual can use his or her position with the museum for personal gain.”

The code of ethics at the Boston Science Museum put it quite clearly: “When Museum of Science Trustees seek staff assistance for personal needs they should not expect that such help will be rendered to an extent greater than that available to a member of the general public in similar circumstances or with similar needs.”

It’s unlikely that a member of the general public who wanted to ship artworks would have the staff of the de Young at his or her disposal.

The Guardian telephoned a number believed to be Wilsey’s seeking comment, and was greeted with a receptionist who answered with the bright greeting, “Wilsey residence!” After being informed that Wilsey was traveling, we requested comment from her via email, explaining that documentation appeared to show use of museum time to manage her personal art collection. She had not responded by press time.

Ken Garcia, press spokesman for the Museums, told us “there are situations in which the museum facilitates loans to the Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums (COFAM), loans to other museums, and in other ways assists with the care and handling of artworks for private collectors, including trustees when there is significant value to our museum.” He added: “The reasons for museum staff to have handled the board president’s private art collection reflect standard practice for exhibitions and loans.”

He noted: “Reproductions of artworks (2D) are routinely requested by collectors when the loan of a picture conflicts with the lenders need for privacy, represents a potential security issue, or interrupts the continuity of the enjoyment of a collection. FAMSF provides for the photographic reproduction of artworks as an appreciative acknowledgment of the negotiated loan. Mrs. Wilsey has on occasion requested a reproduction be made of a loaned picture but on each occasion has generously assumed responsibility for the associated costs.”

Maybe it’s all perfectly fine and normal, “standard practice.” But there’s a lot of it going on, and some is at the very least curious.

Just chill

February 26, 2013

arts@sfbg.com

MUSIC Four years ago, in the waning days of the aughts, the befuddling adlib term “chillwave” forged in the throes of the blogosphere, accompanied nearly every story about acts like Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Toro Y Moi. For the uninitiated, chillwave is a cheap, slap-on label used to describe grainy, dancey, lo-fi, 1980s inspired music, and most importantly is a disservice to any band associated with it. Luckily for music writers and listeners alike, this term has died a relatively swift death.

Toro Y Moi, the one-man bedroom project of Chaz Bundick, has exponentially progressed since the chillwave era, in addition to his relocation to Berkeley in August 2011. Bundick is currently on a sold-out tour with his live band and will headline two sold-out Noise Pop shows at the Independent this weekend.

His latest LP, Anything In Return, which came out last month on Carpark Records and was recorded in full in the Bay Area, is a fruitful expansion beyond his earlier albums Causers of This and Underneath the Pine, and a shining foray into experimental styles and sounds.

Anything In Return marks an ambitious departure from anything Bundick has done in the past; Bundick describes it to me as a “bigger sounding album, more accessible and poppy.” The result is a fluent and delicate fabrication of funk grooviness, R&B introspection, and swirling pop melodies. The success — and more importantly, the ethos of the effort — is highly indebted to the late sacrosanct hip-hop producer J Dilla. If Anything in Return signifies a reinvention of Toro Y Moi, then J Dilla and his “try anything, do anything” mantra are its guiding light.

Such a transformation can be daunting to some, but as Bundick notes during our phone call, Dilla “makes everything seem like it’s alright to try.” One of the few Dilla tributes outside of the Paid Dues and Rock the Bells festivals.

Though maturation and cheer remain central themes in terms of sound side of things, Anything in Return is loaded with confessions about Bundick grappling with his relationship and the strain the life of a touring musician has placed on it. The gripes are most poignant on tracks like “Cola” and “Say That,” where he laments the state of flux his and his girlfriend’s different lives have placed on their relationship and the resulting insecurities that arise from such limbo.

His new life in the Bay Area — he moved out here from his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina because his girlfriend enrolled in a grad program at Cal — is expectedly represented in Anything in Return‘s character and aural makeup. One of the first and last things heard on the opening track “Harm in Change” is the crisp noise of a BART train accelerating as it leaves a station — most likely one of the three Berkeley stations.

So far Bundick has fluidly adjusted to life in Berkeley and in the Bay Area in general and signals his health as the biggest benefactor of his relocation. Coming from BBQ-laden South Carolina, the recent vegetarian convert is grateful for the Bay Area’s wealth of veggie options; in a recent interview with SFStation, he listed the revered Berkeley institution Cheese Board Pizza as his favorite food joint. And like pretty much anyone who moves here, he’s been biking, busing, and BARTing more and more.

TORO Y MOI

With Sikane, Dog Bite, DRMS (Fri.), James and Evander (Sat)

Fri/1-Sat/2, 8pm, sold out

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

www.theindependentsf.com

Which Noise Pop show is right for you?

Tony Robles

February 21, 2013

It’s all about choice, people. Noise Pop is a well-oiled festival machine at this point — now in its 21st year — cranking out dozens of concerts, nightlife happenings, film screenings, culture club events, photography showings, and all that good stuff we’ve come to expect from the homegrown indie fest. But given all those choices for the week of Feb. 26 through March 3, restless souls such as myself always tend to feel a bit well, overwhelmed.

Do I see headliner Toro Y Moi at one of his Independent showcases, or DIIV at Brick and Mortar Music Hall? (Shouldn’t matter much to most; those are all super sold out by now.) Do I squeeze in a Noise Pop Happy Hour after work, before the cozy Sonny and the Sunsets Bottom of the Hill concert or Kim Gordon’s new project, Body/Head at the Rickshaw Stop? How much is too much booze for one week? I can’t answer them all for you (if you want to see a sold-out show, buy a fest badge), but I can help with those pesky last-minute questions that boil down to which show to choose over another, equally appealing event.

The infographic flowchart for this appeared in this week’s issue (pg. 20 of the Feb. 20 Guardian), but for these purposes, I’ll hook you up with a video for each:

Interested in live music? Are you a “members of” type of fan? Do you prefer distorted guitar?
Answer: Kim Gordon’s newest venture, Body/Head. Body/Head is the newest post-Sonic Youth project for Gordon, who teams up with free-noise guitarist Bill Nace to create noisy experimental mindfucks such as single “The Eyes, The Mouth.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ4axZa5ZFo
With Horsebladder, Burmese, Noel Von Harmonson
Feb. 26, 8pm, $17
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
www.rickshawstop.com

Are you a “members of” type of fan? Do you prefer analog synth?
Answer: Jason Lytle of Grandaddy. The Modesto-born Grandaddy frontperson and singer-songwriter most recently released heart-tugging solo work, Dept. of Disappearance (ANTI-, 2012).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0yMQCcU6NY
With Jenny-O, Will Sprott, Michael Stasis
Feb. 26, 7pm, $14
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
www.brickandmortarmusic.com

Do you like to keep it local? Do you only go to shows if they are free?
Answer: Noise Pop Happy Hour with Golden Void, Wild Moth. San Francisco psych band Golden Void and local post-punk act Wild Moth (check out 2012 EP Mourning Glow, on Asian Man Records) are both acts to know now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJC3u_COifo
With DSTVV
March 1, 5pm, free
Bender’s
806 Van Ness, SF
www.bendersbar.com

Do you like to keep it local? Are you willing to spend a nominal sum on live music?
Answer: Sonny and the Sunsets. By now, the band, led by prolific artist-musician Sonny Smith, is a go-to classic for quality SF garage-pop. And yet, last year’s Longtime Companion (Polyvinyl) pumped up the twang.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbctzd9kW1A
With Magic Trick, Cool Ghouls, Dune Rats
March 2, 8pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
www.bottomofthehill.com

Can you get into some ’90s slow jams?
Answer: XXYYXX. Woozy XXYYXX is the creation of 18-year-old Orlando, Florida producer, Marcel Everett, whose beat-driven Relief in Abstract albums, have gotten props from the likes of Kardashian baby momma/Kanye West and the like. Our very own DJ Dials brings the wunderkind West.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG5aSZBAuPs
With DJ Dials, Teebs, Nanosaur
Feb. 28, 9pm, $25
DNA Lounge
375 11th St., SF
www.dnalounge.com

Extra credit:
There will be a feature story on Noise Pop 21 headliner Toro Y Moi in next week’s issue (Feb. 27). He’s playing two sold out shows at the Independent (March 1 and 2).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0_ardwzTrA

And if you’re able to attend any of the other ticket-less shows, there’s also this great one:
Post-punk Beach Fossils side project DIIV, recent On the Rise act Wax Idols, Sisu (fronted by Sandy of Dum Dum Girls), and Lenz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L702zw6Ilqs
March 2, 8pm, $15 (sold out)
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
www.brickandmortarmusic.com

Music Listings

Andrew Lam

February 19, 2013

WEDNESDAY 20

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Apopka Darkroom. Bleached Palms Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Guido vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Jesus and the Rabbies, Cello and the Beggers Who Give Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $10.

Keith Crossan Blues Showcase with Tom Lindsay Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $15.

Leftover Salmon Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $29-$34.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Shannon and the Clams, Mallard, Blasted Canyons, Swiftumz Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $10-$100. Benefit for 23 Street/Capp fire victim Ursula Rodiriguez.

Sir Richard Bishop Independent. 8pm, $15.

Spell, Rosa Grande, Future Space and Time Elbo Room. 9pm, $6.

Spooky Flowers, Standard Poodle, Big Long Now Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

Freddie Hughes Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Daniel Seidel Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Timba Dance Party Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5. Timba and salsa cubana with DJ Walt Diggz.

THURSDAY 21

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Meg Baird, Daniel Bachman, Luke Sweeney Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

Steve Bernstein/Sex Mob, Deep Space Quartet, Klaxon Mutant Allstars Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $10-$13.

Coheed and Cambria, Between the Buried and Me, Russian Circles Warfield. 8pm, $32.

Robert DeLong, Neighbourhood Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $13-$15.

Doro, Sister Sin, Bottom Thee Parkside. 9pm, $16.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Kid Ink, DJ Jack DNA Lounge. 8pm, $20

Lisa Loeb, Satellite Independent. 7:30pm, $25.

Night Marchers, Intelligence, Mrs. Magician Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $12.50-$15.

Pansy Division El Rio. 8:30pm.

Papa Bear’s Birthday Bonanza with Baby Bear, Easy Love, Mowgli’s, Whiskerman, Sufis Great American Music Hall. 8:30pm, $14.

JC Rockit vs Guido Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Salvador Santana, Scribe Project Slim’s. 8pm, $16.

Chris Slebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

“Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute” Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20. With Alan Iglesias and Crossfire.

Our Vinyl Vows, Pounders, Dangermaker Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Gustaf Sjokvist Chamber Choir Grace Cathedral, 1100 California, SF; www.cityboxoffice.com. 7:30pm, $15-$50.

Gayle Lynn and Her Hired Hands Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 8pm, free.

Tipsy House Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Twang! Honky Tonk Fiddler’s Green, 1330 Columbus, SF; www.twanghonkytonk.com. 5pm. Live country music.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. DJs-hosts Pleasuremaker and Senor Oz spin Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more.

Twista, King Most, Ant-1 1015 Folsom, SF; www.1015folsom.com. 9pm, free with RSVP.

FRIDAY 22

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

ALO, Diego’s Umbrella Fillmore. 9pm, $22.50.

Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones, Marshall Crenshaw Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $22.

Back Pages Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys Elbo Room. 9pm, $18.

Jules Broussard Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Con Brio, Justin Ancheta Band Independent. 9pm, $18.

Funk Revival Orchestra Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $15.

Indians, Night Beds, Cat Martino Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $12.

Limousines, Doe Eye DNA Lounge. 9pm, $20.

Midtown Social, Sufis Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $10.

Sellassie and Rakim 1015 Folsom, SF. 9pm, $20.

Seshen, Guy Fox, Ash Reiter Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10.

Somebody’s Darling, David Luning, Elliot Randall, Andrew Blair Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

“Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute” Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20. With Alan Iglesias and Crossfire.

Tambo Rays, Sunbeam Rd., Thralls Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Wallpaper, Con Bro Chill, Jhameel Slim’s. 9pm, $16-$18.

Greg Zema, Jeff V., Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Baxtalo Drom Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10. Live music, gypsy punk, belly dancing.

Get Offa My Lawn Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Inspector Gadje, Gomorran Social Aid and Pleasure Club, La Dee Da Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $15.

“One Great City: Alexandra Iranfar and Timothy Sherren” Unitarian Universalist Society of SF Chapel, 1187 Franklin, SF; www.tangentsguitarseries.com. 7:30pm, $10-$15.

Trio Troubadour Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 7pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

DJ Sneak, Doc Martin, James What Public Works. 9:30pm, $20.

Hegemoney presents Lil Texas, B. Bravo, Swerve, Trill Team 6, Pyramids/Ka$hmir F8, 1192 Folsom, SF. 9pm, $5-$10.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

SATURDAY 23

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

ALO, California Honeydrops Fillmore. 9pm, $22.50.

Blues Ambassadors Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $22.

Burn River Burn, Disastroid, Fortress Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Foxtail Somersault, Tomihira, Astral, United Ghosts Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

Fusion Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Hammond Organ Soul Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Middle Class Murder, Imperial Pints Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

Permanent Collection, Cobalt Cranes, Legs Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Phenomenauts, La Plebe, Dirty Hand Family Band, Bruises Slim’s. 9pm, $15.

Radical Something Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 6:30pm, $12-$30.

Rangda, Blues Control Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.chapelsf.com. 9pm, $18-$22.

Revivalists, Great White Buffalo, Solwave Independent. 9pm, $14.

Spindrift, Gram Rabbit, Matthew Tow, Pow! Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 10pm, $10-$12.

Tracorum and Sean Leahy Boom Boom Room. 9pm, $10.

Jeff V., Jason Marion, Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Tyrone Wells, Graham Colton, Brett Young Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $18.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Culann’s Hounds Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Sex With No Hands Connecticut Yankee. 10pm, $5.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF: Rihanna Mashup Night DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15. With A Plus D, Smash-Up Derby, and more.

120 Minutes Elbo Room. 10pm, $10. With Venus X, resident DJs S4NtA MU3rTE and Chauncey CC.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

Temptation Cat Club. 9:30pm. $5-$8. Indie, electro, new wave video dance party.

SUNDAY 24

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Brickbat, Hank IV, Hot Lunch, Mitchell and Manley Bottom of the Hill. 3pm, $15. Benefit for Scott Jones.

Bex Marshall Biscuits and Blues. 7 and 9pm, $15.

David Crosby, Marty Balin and Friends, MC Country Joe McDonald Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $50. Benefit for Slick Aguilar.

Judgement Day, Satya Sena, Iron Mountain, Armed for Apocalypse Hemlock Tavern. 6pm, $8.

Spencer Moody, Corey Brewer Hemlock Tavern. 10:30pm, $7.

Morrissey Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness, SF. 8pm, $49.50-$89.50.

Grant-Lee Philips, Garrin Benfield Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $20.

Residents Bimbo’s. 8pm, $35.

Lavay Smith Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Swingin’ Utters, Inciters, Impalers Slim’s. 8pm, $16.

Velvet Acid Christ, Twilight Garden, Vile Augury DNA Lounge. 9pm, $14.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Brazil and Beyond Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 6:30pm, free.

Jack Gilder, Darcy Noonan Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Heel Draggers Amnesia. 8pm, $5-$10.

Twang Sunday Thee Parkside. 4pm, free. With Mad Mama and the Bonafide Few, Rocketship Rocketship.

DANCE CLUBS

Deep Fried Soul Dance Party Boom Boom Room. 8pm, free.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep, Vinnie Esparza, Jah Yzer.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

Scraps! DJ Night Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.chapelsf.com. 8:30pm, free.

MONDAY 25

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Roem Baur Osteria, 3277 Sacramento, SF; (415) 771-5030. 7pm, free with RSVP.

Down Dirty Shake, Mean Streets, Han Cholo, Broonies Elbo Room. 9pm.

Surfer Blood, Grand Rapids, Aaron Axelson Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $10.53.

Touche, Starskate, Teenage Sweater Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $7.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Joe Radio, Decay, and Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 26

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Animal Friend, Turn Me on Dead, Treehouse Orchestra Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

Bobb Saggeth, Killbossa, SFO+H Amnesia. 9pm, $10.

Body/Head, Horsebladder, Burmese, Noel Von Harmonson Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $15.

Butt Problems, Secret Secretaries, Sweat Lodge Knockout. 9:30pm, $6.

John Garcia Band Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Jenny-O, Will Sprott Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $14.

Philistines, Nomad, Control-R Elbo Room. 9pm, $5.

Qumran Orphics, Eye of Satan Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Soul Mechanix Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Stick to Your Guns, Vera Project, Saint Vernon, Murder DNA Lounge. 8pm, $15.

Used, We Came As Romans, Crown the Empire, Mindflow Fillmore. 7pm, $27.50.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Terry Disley’s Mini-Experience Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.mystichotel.com. 6-9pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Brazilian Zouk Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 9:30pm, $5-$12.

Seisiun Plough and Stars. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Stylus John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, dancehall, and Bay slaps with DJ Left Lane.

Takin’ Back Tuesdays Double Dutch, 3192 16th St,SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 10pm. Hip-hop from the 1990s.

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