Reviews

Primus’ New Year’s Eve show returned to Oakland’s Fox Theater for the first time since 2017, previously an annual affair dating back to 2010. While the two-night event was rebranded as “Claypool Gold” (a nod to both the New Year’s

The KALX holiday party is our Cannes, Met Gala, and Oscars for audiophiles of the East Bay. Celebrities, known by their DJ names, walk the linoleum floor into the venue. They sport their finest looks, mostly band t-shirts.  Inside, 50

After a brisk walk with my friend from one end of Piedmont Avenue to the other, and stepping over the hordes of parked Veo’s (rentable e-scooters), we made it to our glorious UC Berkeley bragging right: the Hearst Greek Theatre.

On November 4th I did an interview with Klaudia Reynicke, the Swiss-Peruvian writer and director of the film Reinas, or Queens (2024). Reinas premiered at Sundance Film Festival and is the Swiss entry for the International Feature Film category at

As the crowd trickled into the Regency Ballroom on a cold Tuesday evening, November 12th, Casey MQ took the stage solo, which caught me off guard. Despite being alone, his performance as the opening act was anything but sparse. His

Robin Pecknold does not deal in charades of passion. On Wednesday night, under the dimly lit arch of The Chapel, San Francisco’s most beanied 30-year-olds convened to witness the singer-songwriter’s first appearance in the city on his solo tour. More

On Saturday, November 30th, I went to Fousheé’s concert in San Francisco at The Independent. From the moment I walked in, the vibes were on point. The theatre had an ambiance with nice overhead lighting and a bar with a

“We are the Rev Trio, thank you for having us. It’s gonna be a night of avant-garde swing, bebop, whatever you’re feeling.” I sit on an old carpet, writing on the menu atop a slab of some sort of oak.

After a day full of rain and frigid, fall air, the clouds momentarily parted for me to make my way into San Francisco to see Kate Bollinger at The Independent this past Thursday, November 21st. Marking the second to last

You may be familiar with Boston-based indie rock band Vundabar if you were on TikTok in 2021, when the opening guitar riff of “Alien Blues” played over alt teenagers’ GRWMs and impassioned lip syncs. But the band has existed long

To watch a show at the Fox Theater in Oakland is to be watched by the twin gods of sound, their golden hands clasping golden bowls, each six feet tall, ten feet off the ground. Their eyes are a luminescent

Lunar Vacation brought their dreamy indie pop-rock sound to The Warfield in San Francisco on November 11th, 2024, opening for Thrice and Manchester Orchestra. While the headliners drew an older crowd, Lunar Vacation had fans at the barricade singing along

After running around the house getting ready for a concert, Blusette and I took an Uber into San Francisco to see The Hellp. We got to the door, and after getting some very large X’s written on the back of

During her solo tour this fall, Julien Baker, the 29-year-old Nashville-born artist, performed three consecutive, sold-out nights at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco. I attended the last of three shows, on October 23rd, and witnessed Baker’s genius as a

When I hear the opening guitar riff on “Back In Amsterdam” by Box Set, I am immediately transported back to my living room. It's a sunny afternoon and my mother has just put in her signed cassette of Box Set’s

The duo Royel Otis, known for their unique blend of dreamy indie rock with a nostalgic twist, put on a show that felt like stepping into an inside joke shared between friends— those friends being the embodiment of oddball cartoons

On a Thursday night in San Francisco the Great American Music Hall was packed with good vibes and smiles all around when the lights dimmed and the groovy tones of Roy Ayres' "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" began playing. Happy applause

It was a warm night at the Greek Theater in Berkeley under a full moon — a serene setting for a soulfully charged musical journey. Co-headliner Brittany Howard (formerly of Alabama Shakes) and her 9 piece band took the stage

What are concerts but ephemeral portals through space and time? Music, “the sounds of the universe speaking through us”, the only tool that can allow us to truly express our humanness to one another For one night, a few hours,

As a college student with no car, I rarely get to see live music outside of Berkeley. But as a Bay Area native, I knew I had to show my friends my favorite music venue / Japanese restaurant: Yoshi’s in