Feb. 3
Howard Wiley
SFJAZZ, San Francisco
God bless saxophonist Howard Wiley, who advertised a gospel music show and then opened his set with Ornette Coleman’s “The Face of the Bass.”
Feb. 10
MDC
The Ivy Room, Albany
This San Francisco punk band once squatted inside the giant underground beer vats of the former Hamm’s brewery on Bryant Street, just two and a half blocks from KQED’s current headquarters; at this haywire show, “Born to Die” still sounded tremendous, 43 years later.
Feb. 10
Deltrice
Chris Club, Vallejo
I want Deltrice to sing the hook on almost every Bay Area rap song I hear.
Feb. 22
Cellski with the Top Chefs
Brick & Mortar Music Hall, San Francisco
There is nothing like a whole city turning out to shower love on one of its own, who performed every single song from Mr. Predicter for its 30th anniversary.
March 24
Lil Kayla
Phoenix Theatre, Petaluma
Dear Lil Kayla, I apologize on behalf of Sonoma County that only 85 people came to your show, hope you give us another shot someday.
March 28 (and 31)
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Chase Center, San Francisco
I am not allowed to talk about Bruce Springsteen in public, because eventually someone spins their forefinger around their ear in the universal sign for “this guy’s crazy,” but suffice it to say, he opened with “Something In the Night” (!!) and when I got home I immediately bought a solo ticket to the second show.
April 3
Danny Brown
Regency Ballroom, San Francisco
Opener Alice Longyu Gao bent minds with “Let’s Hope Heteros Fail, Learn and Retire” and Bruiser Wolf melted hearts with “Momma Was a Dopefiend,” but it’s Detroit’s era in rap, and Danny Brown still brought the heat (speaketh the forefather: “My hoe got tats on her face, sell me them cookies from Oakland”).
May 8
454
The Independent, San Francisco
Let us all have the energy of 10 bowls of Frosted Flakes before we bound onstage and bounce, weave, skitter and float about for 40 minutes of unfiltered joy.
May 18
The Piner High School Band
Rose Parade, Santa Rosa
It should be considered cruel and unusual punishment to force high school music students into military marching rituals, and yet I, a former band kid, still felt a strange sort of pride to see my alma mater persisting against brutal budget cuts to public school music programs.
May 21
Too Short
Lake Merritt Bandstand, Oakland
Oakland Is the Most Amazing City In the World, Chapter 3,276: Too Short agreeing to this free afternoon show on the shore of the lake for thousands of people on a random Tuesday … to promote voter registration.
May 29
Los Alegres del Barranco
Juilliard Park, Santa Rosa
There is an attraction in listening to concerts from outside the fence — and just a few nights after watching Los Alegres del Barranco’s norteño corridos through the chain link, my daughter and I stood outside City Hall in San Francisco to hear Skrillex’s set wafting through the nighttime air.
June 9
Gary Bartz
SFJAZZ, San Francisco
Truly (and I imagine guest trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire agrees) all of us can only hope to be one-tenth as funny and creative as Gary Bartz when we, too, are 83.
June 15
Houston Person
Town Plaza, Healdsburg
I played his version of “Young, Gifted and Black” for a week straight afterward.
July 6
Standing on the Corner
SFJAZZ, San Francisco
Across a 13-song set of spaced-out songs like “Angel,” “Get Out the Ghetto” and “Genocide,” Gio Escobar recited original poetry, covered Chuck Berry and showed that New York, though it historically looks down on the Bay Area, has a bit of our experimental, political bent after all.
Aug. 20
X
Guild Theatre, Menlo Park
I danced and danced and danced and danced and danced, and did not stop until an acoustic duet of John and Exene singing “See How We Are,” and only because it rendered my knees too weak to move.
Sept. 1
Fifteen
Arlene Francis Center, Santa Rosa
The lines “I was born a little too late to see the dream that they called America / See I only wanna be a free man but it’s against the law to sleep on the ground in God’s land” felt more relevant than ever after the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision criminalizing camping on public property.
Sept. 3
Smoking Popes
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
They dropped a minute or so of the Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” into the middle of “Gotta Know Right Now,” and I died right then and there.
Sept. 5
Future and Metro Boomin
Oakland Arena, Oakland
While Future isn’t a rap dinosaur by any means, when the transcendence of “March Madness” filled the arena, I had a sobering realization that the song is now nearly 10 years old.
Sept. 16
Pulp
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco
It was a Monday night, tickets on Stubhub were literally $9, and Jarvis Cocker talked about Richard Brautigan living on Geary Street before soaring through “This Is Hardcore,” a perfect song.
Sept. 21
The Linda Lindas
924 Gilman, Berkeley
Perhaps the most wholesome punk show I’ve ever seen; I lost count of how many parents I ran into in the packed crowd, bringing their children to Gilman for the first time.
Sept. 23
Nicki Minaj
Chase Center, San Francisco
I WISH I COULD QUIT YOU NICKI 🤷♂️
Sept. 28
Built to Spill
The Fillmore, San Francisco
The new rhythm section shreds, the transition from “Twin Falls” into “Some” is better than hospital painkillers, and Doug Martsch’s beard has grown capable of knocking over tall buildings.
Oct. 6
Billy Ocean
Graton Casino, Rohnert Park
A very long-overdue show in the Bay Area; Billy Ocean basically has six hits, but they are really, really good hits, and he still has that voice — let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 20 years for him to return.
Oct. 10
Bladee
The Warfield, San Francisco
Two years ago, with ecco2k, Bladee delivered a beautiful, joyful show at Complex in Oakland, and maybe fame really does curdle people, or else Bladee was simply leaning hard into the concept of Cold Visions, because this time around, bleakness reigned.
Oct. 19
History of the Bay
The Midway, San Francisco
The Bay Area has an eternally deep well of unsung rap heroes, which means that as monumental as it is to get B-Legit, Kamaiyah, Souls of Mischief, Rick Rock and Mob Figaz on stage together, it still feels like a mere sliver of talent; shout out to Dregs One for playing the long game and building the history piece by piece.
Oct. 19
D.R.I.
Neck of the Woods, San Francisco
Two people got thrown out, girls crowdsurfed over the pit, someone fell asleep on the stage, and afterward, talking to singer Kurt Brecht with swirling thoughts of 500 things to say, all I could muster was “Thank you for the great art you have given the world.”
Oct. 27
Phoenix Halloween Show
Phoenix Theatre, Petaluma
A classic Halloween-covers night, except this year at the Phoenix, Miss Minor’s insanely elaborate Britney Spears tribute — period-correct in wardrobe, set and choreography — capped the night, along with a giant balloon drop.
Nov. 2
Kirk Franklin’s Reunion Tour
Oakland Arena, Oakland
I went for the Clark Sisters, but the surprise of the night was Yolanda Adams, who, at 63, sent shivers down the spine; meanwhile, Kirk Franklin only had to play two piano notes before a spontaneous mass acapella sing-along of “Silver & Gold” broke out around the arena.
