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Smashing the SoFA The SoFA Music Experience turns up the beat in downtown San Jose this weekend By Sarah Quelland THE SOFA MUSIC EXPERIENCE starts Thursday afternoon (Sept. 14) with a free noon-1pm performance by Stunt Monkey at the SJSU Student Union. Thursday night, METRO presents its sixth annual music showcase and benefit concert, SFMX6, with performances by Joe Buck, Red Meat and the Bootcuts at Agenda Lounge; M.I.R.V., Stitch, Luxt and Los Bastardos de Amor at the Cactus Club; the Wonderbread 5 at Polly Esther's; and Swarm, Venus Bleeding, Dura-Delinquent and the Abductors at the Usual. Doors open at 8pm, and bands start at 8:30pm. Tickets are $10 (available at the ticket booth in the lot at the corner of South First and San Salvador streets) and proceeds benefit the METRO Foundation which distributes funds to local charities. For VIP ticketholders, the Schmooz-a-Palooza party will be held at d.p. Fong Gallery on Sept. 15, 5-7:30pm. Sept. 16, the free SoFAMX Trade Expo will be at the Institute of Contemporary Art, noon-5pm. The SoFAMX conference will be held at various SoFA venues, Sept. 16, 11-5pm, featuring panel discussions on topics like "Metallica is dirty rotten filthy stinking rich ... but do they have a point?" and "I spent $4,000 at Fry's and all I got was this lousy demo." Scheduled panelists include ULTRAViBE's Paul Finck, the San Jose Mercury News' Brad Kava, Live 365's John Jeffrey, the California Recording Institute's David Gibson, Zero magazine's Larry Trujillo and Chris Esparza of GIANT Creative Services and Fuel, along with representatives from Kick.com, Earjam.com, earBuzz.com, Myplay.com, MoodLogic and Xburn/Soundom. ULTRAViBE is hosting the hip-hop event, Underground Sound 2000, on Sept. 16, 11:30am-8pm, at Club 369 with nearly 20 performers including LSP and Tri-Plex, and a party that night at the Cactus Club with Broken Vision, Lica Sto, Trapt, Ellis, Leveler and Soul Aggression. Sunday (Sept. 17) is the ninth annual SoFA Street Festival, 11am-7pm, along South First Street. Bands perform on three outdoor stages, and ULTRAViBE contest winners Atomic Mint, South 85 and Maxx Cabello open each one. The ULTRAViBE Stage showcases Atomic Mint, Floppy Rods, Major Liegue, Insolence, the Brownies and onelinedrawing; the San Carlos Stage features Maxx Cabello, Cabaret Diosa, the B-Side Players, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys and Los Straitjackets; and the Second Street Stage hosts South 85, Dave Andrews, Kristy Thrisck, Live Human and Stunt Monkey. Inside the Cactus Club, catch performances by Manic Notion, Moodfrye, OuttaLine, HBA, Boy Kicks Girl, Curbside, the Odd Numbers, dredg, Salmon, Movement, Reaction 31, 419 and others or watch Keen, Sloe, Dick, Horchata, the Shitkickers, Remoter, Triple 7, Krenshaw and T-Minus-1 play inside the Usual. Agenda hosts Dub FX and features various DJs throughout the day. An ULTRAViBE dance party is hosted by DEEP at Club 369 on Sept. 17 at noon. Visit www.SoFAMX.com or call the hotline at 408.279.1775, ext. #43. Swarm is genuinely buzzing these days. In addition to its performance at SFMX6, the band was also picked to play on Shoreline Amphitheatre's local stage this Saturday (Sept. 16) at the Iron Maiden concert and headline Bottom of the Hill that night. ... After calling off the August show at Shoreline Amphitheatre and rescheduling it for Sept. 15, Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes have announced that they really are canceling the remainder of the tour. Page sustained a back injury earlier and is under orders to take it easy. Tickets are being refunded at the place of purchase. ... Alice 97.3 FM presents the third annual Now & Zen Fest with Beck, the Go Gos, Tonic, Travis and Dogstar. The event will be held Sept. 24, noon-5pm at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park. Tickets are $20 and available at www.radioalice.com, www.ticketweb.com and www.ticketmaster.com. PLAN AHEAD: Breach and others, Sept. 14 at the Gaslighter Theater in Campbell; Flogging Molly, OuttaLine, the Accidentals and Clay Wheels, Sept. 15 at the Usual; Alice Cooper, Sept. 15 at the Warfield in San Francisco; Man or Astroman?, Sept. 15 at the Cactus; Moby, Sept. 16-18 at the Warfield; Ellis and others, Sept. 17 at the Gaslighter Theater; AC/DC and Slash's Snakepit Sept. 19 at the San Jose Arena; EyeHateGod and ManMade God, Sept. 21 at the Cactus; Jewel, Sept. 26-27 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]