The best country song about a city will forever be Waylon Jennings’ “Luckenbach, Texas,” but when Noelle started singing “Taos,” her ode to the New Mexico town, I had to rearrange a mental list of runners-up.
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
March 12, The Masonic, San Francisco
Every Gillian Welch fan has their favorite songs, and while she and cosmic-folk guitarist extraordinaire David Rawlings didn’t play mine (“Wrecking Ball,” a beautiful autobiography of life in 1980s Santa Cruz), their set at the Masonic still felt like a big, warm embrace.
Subhumans
April 18, 924 Gilman, Berkeley
Somehow Greg Ginn is getting a ton of press for taking a half-baked “Black Flag” on the road with a bunch of new, young replacements, while the actually newsworthy punk-band lineup story is that the Subhumans have been playing with the same members since 1983!
A Flock of Seagulls
June 11, Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa
To answer your only two questions: no, he does not still have that haircut, and yes, they played “I Ran” (twice).
Pulp
June 14, O2 Arena, London
I was content to ignore the Oasis reunion this year and instead celebrate the true victors of 1990s Britpop, and on their home turf no less, a much splashier experience than seeing them in downtown San Francisco last year for nine bucks.
Rob Clearfield Quartet
June 17, Le Duc les Lombards, Paris
Jazz pianist Bud Powell famously left New York for Paris in 1959, at the height of jazz’s commercial heights; 60 years later, jazz pianist Rob Clearfield similarly left Chicago during its jazz renaissance for Paris, where at this small-club show the audience was very attentive and reverent.
Beyoncé
June 19, Stad de France, Paris
In what’s been the worst year in my lifetime for feeling optimistic about America, I underwent a rare and sustained swell of hope while witnessing Beyoncé’s ambitious tour about our beautiful, injured country in the middle of a rapt European crowd.
Ice-T
June 27, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
Types of Guys You See at an Ice-T show in 2025: guy in the balcony sucking down blunt after blunt nonstop; guy holding up a chess board throughout the entire show; guy wearing a Prince medallion who goes to Paisley Park twice a year; Rappin’ 4-Tay, in better health, thankfully; Santa Claus-looking guy, trying to pick fights; Jello Biafra, on stage, curtsying for the crowd; guy in full-on pimp wardrobe, long coat, matching hat, jewels and a cane; guy on stage with a cane who was not a pimp but just old; guy walking up O’Farrell Street drunkenly reciting “6 In the Mornin’” until interrupted by the sight of the Mitchell Brothers Theatre, which inspired a speech about Nina Hartley; guy wearing an authentic vanity license plate around his neck reading “ICE T SF”; and the guy standing front row center, whom Ice-T eventually just pulled up on stage to be his hype man for the last six songs.
Robert Earl Keen
July 16, Hopmonk Tavern, Novato
This one time in Corpus Christi at age 19 I walked a few blocks down to the bay, drank a Shiner Bock, stared at the water — one of those moments when time slows down a little — and wouldn’t you know it, years later in the backyard of a home for the blind I saw Robert Earl Keen play “Corpus Christi Bay,” a perfect song, and my life has not been the same since.
Mix Master Mike, Qbert and D-Styles
July 19, SF Hip-Hop Festival, San Francisco
I can’t shake the feeling that the geniuses who make up the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, individually and collectively, will go down in history as visionaries who were ahead of their time, space and galaxy.
Devo
July 19, from outside the fence, Oakland
Once a year, one should listen to a show from outside a fence, in the back alley or through the side door, like that “in the bathroom at a party” TikTok trend from 2020.
Kreayshawn
July 20, Mosswood Park, Oakland
It’s a good thing that, by and large, everyone in the Bay gives love to Kreayshawn, who weathered a rotten deal in both the media and the record industry only to emerge at Mosswood Meltdown after a 10-year hiatus stronger and tighter and funnier than ever.
La Gente SF
July 27, Juilliard Park, Santa Rosa
It’s hard to beat free music in the park, especially when you get Rafa Sarria Bustamante freestyling in Spanish about the Mission District over a live-band version of “I Got 5 On It.”
False Flag
July 30, Castro Theater, San Francisco
The punks took over the sidewalk in front of the Castro Theater, and confused and enchanted random passers-by while a crowd of 50 or so smoked weed, drank beer and started small pits under the marquee of the beloved ex-movie palace.
Nine Inch Nails
Aug. 6, Oakland Arena, Oakland
When I am elected president, I will sign an anti-oversaturation bill limiting Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to one motion picture score per year (with more time for Nine Inch Nails tours as a welcome byproduct).
The Jets
Aug. 15, Golden 1 Center, Sacramento
Each every-decade-or-so wave of the ’80s revival has unfairly passed up the Jets, who performed “Crush On You,” “You Got It All,” “Cross My Broken Heart” and “Make It Real” as if no time has passed whatsoever in a nostalgia revue alongside performances by Lisa Lisa, Exposé, the Mary Jane Girls, J.J. Fad, Tag Team and one guy from Color Me Badd.
Con Funk Shun
Sept. 6, Mare Island, Vallejo
Felton Pilate, the secret bridge between Bay Area funk and Bay Area rap, led his tight-as-hell, five-decades-strong band in a jubilant hometown set after receiving an honorary street renaming.
Louisiana Symphony Orchestra
Sept. 11, New Marigny Theatre, New Orleans
Performing on the floor of a small church to five rows of folding chairs (Davies Symphony Hall, how we take thee for granted), this skilled and adventurous ensemble tackled two world premieres, a Florence Price piece, a tango and a Britten suite with gusto.
Kermit Ruffins
Sept. 12, The Blue Nile, New Orleans
“On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “Lovely Day,” “If I Only Had a Brain,” “What a Wonderful Word” — the hometown trumpet legend’s setlist was simply tremendous, complete with an oddly moving “Someday My Prince Will Come” that morphed into “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Buffalo Nichols
Sept. 14, House of Blues, New Orleans
I’d lost my mind the day before, wandering through tall jungleland looking for the juke joint from Sinners; Nichols singing “How to Love” helped me find it again.
The New Trust
Sept. 26, Henhouse Brewing Co., Santa Rosa
Here’s to local bands that stay together for over 20 years and keep turning out exuberant songs.
Lucinda Williams
Oct. 5, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
The edges of Lucinda’s voice are increasingly chiseled with a sawblade, and yet she still readily conjures an immediate peaceful bliss with just the first three notes of a song.
Andre Nickatina
Oct. 16, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
Smokin’, drinkin’, dancin’ — Nickatina’s fanbase is among the most unpretentious in the Bay, and the opener was a blues-playing former pimp from East Palo Alto with an out-of-tune acoustic guitar who sang songs about how we should all love one another.
Dijon
Nov. 6, Fox Theater, Oakland
I love Dijon’s album Baby, and was warmed to see that he assembled a nine-piece band to recreate its strange brokenness, with a semicircle-and-sitting-down stage setup reminiscent of Miles Davis’ 1970s shows.
Too Short
Nov. 9, History of the Bay, San Francisco
