As September blended into October, the city woke up to the hangover of a high-octane night danced out with electronic duo Krewella at The Warfield. With an electric performance that included all the smash-hits from their latest album New World, the musical pair kept the audience on their toes. A couple of days later in the Bay Area live music scene, the mood shifted to adopt a hint of wistful homesickness when alt-rockers Imagine Dragons lit up the Shoreline Amphitheater with a powerful performance – bright lights and air-punching crowds punctuated with a sobering tribute to their hometown of Las Vegas led by frontman Dan Reynolds.
Oakland had the classics covered this month in live music, with 80s hair-metal legends Megadeth followed swiftly by 60s German originals Scorpions at the Oracle Arena, whereas over in San Jose Depeche Mode brought the neon-coated pop of the 80s – in case all that metal was too much.
Damian Marley, meanwhile, took the crowd at the fully-packed Fillmore for a wonderful musical ride that would have done his reggae legend father proud. And speaking of amazing musical acts, how could we not remember Tei Shi’s surreal concert at the Rickshaw Stop?
In other news, it was a great month for new music. A one-two of ground-breaking female artists hit us, with Tove Lo’s new video for “Disco Tits” coming out early this month – a Muppet-starring, R-rated road-trip (really) – followed by Jessie J’s new song “Not my Ex” from her album R.O.S.E. and Bishop Briggs’ brand new single “Dreams”. “Dreams” was co-written by Dan Wilson, and talks about having fears and doing your best to embrace them no matter how strong they may seem. At the other end of a life in the music business came Leon Russell’s posthumous final album On a Distant Shore.
In mid-October, Toronto-based rock band The Beaches released their album Late Show – a title for our times – and then embarked on a North American tour supporting Death from Above. You can catch the tour when the band comes to the UC Theater later in November. Chelsea Wolfe is another artist we’ll be seeing here next month; after the release of her video for “Spun” from Hiss Spun, she’s all set to perform live in the Bay Area at The Regency Ballroom this coming Saturday, Nov. 4.
In future tour news, ZZ Ward announced this month that she’ll also be stopping by here in San Francisco next year, on March 7. Finally, in perhaps the best news we’ve received this month, Noise Pop announced the first phase of its lineup for the 26th annual festival in February next year, featuring a characteristically broad range of acts, ranging from Carla Dal Forno, giving her first-ever performance in the US, San Francisco’s home-town heroes Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Vampire Weekend’s Rostam, LA’s experimental synthist Cuco, and loop-pedal genius of weird Merrill Garbus, also known as Tune-Yards.
The city has some great acts coming up, and October’s been a great month. You can find out more about what’s coming to town on our San Francisco music calendar, or by exploring the rest of the site.
