The Trims
Jun 8
The Ritz, San Jose | theritzsj.com
Before he started the Trims, singer Gabe Maciel was singing in a bolero group. Though they share little in common with Cuban ballad form, there is an earnest precision to Maciel’s vocals that fans of bolero might recognize. Add that to a little Bloc Party, and just a touch of Joy Division, and you got the Trims. Last January, they released Julian Street, a strong case for them as one of the best young Chicanx bands in San Jose. As a special treat for their headlining show at the Ritz, legendary Bay DJ Chuy Gomez will be spinning through the night. (MH)
Alanis Morissette
Jun 20
Mountain Winery, Saratoga
mountainwinery.com
We’re a long way down the road from 1995, when Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill went supernova on the charts, eventually going 16-times(!) platinum. Now, on the eve of her 45th birthday, the Canadian-born singer/songwriter will perform an acoustic show while, in true woman warrior style, expecting the birth of her third child. She’s also enjoying another exciting stage of contemporary superstardom: Jagged Little Pill: the Musical, set to open on Broadway, later this year.
Wu-Tang Clan
Jun 22
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View
livenation.com
Like a killer bee mid-swarm, time flies. As of this year it’s been a quarter-century since the release of Enter the 36 Chambers, Wu Tang’s mesmerizing first missive from Shaolin. To celebrate 25 years of Wu, the killer bees have put together the appropriately titled “Gods of Rap” tour, an event so packed with hip-hop heavyweights, it’s difficult to fit them all in one blurb. On top of a nearly full Wu line-up (no Method Man), the night includes legends like Erik B & Rakim, De La Soul, DJ Premier (Gang Starr) and the Pharcyde. (MH)
The Slackers
Jun 23
The Ritz, San Jose | theritzsj.com
Set aside what you think about ska music and put on “How it Feels” by the Slackers. The first track on 2010’s The Great Rocksteady Single, “How it Feels” comes 19 years into the band’s career, and showcases exactly what they do so well: write great songs. Six stellar musicians crafting earnest paeans to the sounds of reggae’s early roots, the Slackers know how to hit all the right notes while still keeping things a little loose. Call it a throwback, or call it a classic. Either way, it rocks steady. (MH)
John Hiatt
Jun 28
The Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz
theriotheatre.com
For well over 40 years now, veteran singer/songwriter John Hiatt has managed to escape mainstream stardom, despite an amazing body of work playing in the open spaces between country, rock and folk. The man who famously once sang Adios to California nevertheless returns to Santa Cruz with new acoustic arrangements of the songs from his deeply soulful and self-assessing 2018 album The Eclipse Sessions.
Everclear
Jun 28
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
beachboardwalk.com
What would alt-rock be without the sound of the Art Alexakis “Yeah?” Audible on nearly every one of Everclear’s singlesfrom breakout hit “Santa Monica,” to tormented self-love anthem “Father of Mine”Alexakis’s “Yeah” was always a punctuation mark, the call-and-self-response of a lonely man rocking his way through the pain. While it’s been almost four years since they released Black is the New Black, their latest album, we all know people aren’t coming to hear the new stuff. They just want to see some palm trees. Yeah. (MH)
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull
Jul 9
Mountain Winery, Saratoga
mountainwinery.com
He seemingly emerged out of the forests of Scotland in the late 1960s, like some mad Tolkien elf lord, playing the flute in Pan-like ecstasy and showing the world just how freaky prog-rock could get. As the frontman for the brilliant band Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson managed not only to bring rock-star credibility to the flute but to spin off at least a half dozen of classic rock’s most essential tracks. Tull’s music hasn’t always aged well in a punk/pop/hip-hop world. But at 71, Anderson remains one of rock music’s reigning badasses, which isn’t easy to do playing a flute and wearing a codpiece.
Common
Jul 9
Mountain Winery, Saratoga
mountainwinery.com
Few rap artists can summon the moral authority and political uplift quite like Chicago-born Common. Known for his bigger-picture ideas and his moving social justice narratives, Common reached his fullest power as a recording artist with 2016’s Black America Again, in which he masterfully teased out hope and light from a legacy of darkness. He comes to Saratoga this summer with a new memoir in stores and a new album on the horizon.
Paul McCartney
Jul 10
SAP Center, San Jose | sapcenter.com
Pop music is maddeningly ephemeral, but one man seems to endure above all else. Sir Paul McCartney has maintained a blue-chip popularity and relevance going back almost (gulp) six decades. He’s somehow avoided burnout by keeping in touch with the same animating spirit of the Twist & Shout rock & roll that fired him up back in his Liverpool youth. As if to underscore his eternal youth, Macca’s new tour is called Freshen Up.
Flipper
Jul 11
The Ritz, San Jose | theritzsj.com
A lot of people think that punk is chaotic. Punk is not chaotic. It’s fast, sometimes it’s a little loose, but any chaos created is kept tightly reined to help propel the music forward. Flipper, on the other hand, are chaotic. Noisey, sludgy and confrontational in equal measure, Flipper is one of the Bay’s true originals, an unhinged mess that managed to influence both the Melvins and a little band called Nirvana. Consummate noisemaker David Yow (The Jesus Lizard, Scratch Acid) will be filling in on vocals when Flipper come to San Jose, so, uh, bring earplugs. (MH)
Beck
Jul 16
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View | livenation.com
One day soon, when Generation X finally pulls the levers of institutional cultural power, Beck Hansen might get that black-tie Kennedy Center tribute that he so richly deserves. Since his emergence in the early ’90s, Beck’s freakish, insistently idiosyncratic, consistently groundbreaking career has allowed a million other unique flowers to bloom across the musical landscape. One of those is his latest collaborator, the alt-pop band and fellow Grammy winners Cage the Elephant, co-headliners in this astounding tour dubbed Night Running.
Chicago
Jul 23
San Jose Civic | sanjosetheaters.org
In the 1970s, Chicago was not only a city famous for deep-dish pizza, it was the name of one of the most successful rock acts of the era. The band Chicago’s innovation was to bring R&B-style horns into a rock/pop setting, and the group had an astounding winning streak with hits from the bluesy 25 or 6 to 4, to the more schmaltzy pop of Hard Habit to Break well into the 1980s. They may not have impressed too many rock critics, but these cats sold a ton of records.
The B-52s
Aug 12
Mountain Winery, Saratoga
mountainwinery.com
Forty years ago, when the post-punk movement was dominated by the earnest and the arty, a daffy combo called the B-52s popped up in Athens, Georgia and brought a sense of humor and colorful fun to a scene starving for it. Surviving the early death of their resident musical genius Ricky Wilson, the B’s in middle age attained the status of pop royalty, proving that joy and lighthearted camp is not solely for the young’uns.
10,000 Maniacs
Aug 16
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
beachboardwalk.com
Propelled by the vulnerable and seductive vocals of lead singer Natalie Merchant, 10,000 Maniacs were an alt-rock mainstay in the late 1980s and early ’90s. But Merchant left for a solo career, and songwriter and co-founder Robert Buck died of cancer. It’s been more than a decade now since the Maniacs’ reboot built on the vocals and violin of frontwoman Mary Ramsey. For those nostalgic for the Saved by the Bell era, the Santa Cruz Boardwalk is the place to be this summer.
Smashing Pumpkins
Aug 31
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View
livenation.com
It’s been 24 years since the Smashing Pumpkins’ seminal double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, but in the words of Billy Corgan, “Time is never time at all.” Though the band originally broke up in 2000, Corgan has been consistently releasing music under the Pumpkins name since 2007’s Zeitgeist. As of last year, the band has officially reunited with original guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and even released a new album with the classic lineup, the (perhaps ironically) titled Shiny and Oh So Bright. It might not be “1979” anymore, but with this lineup making new songs, it’s pretty close to 1995. (MH)
San Jose Jazz Summer Fest
Aug. 9-11 Downtown San Jose | summerfest.sanjosejazz.org
It was the first summer after the Loma Prieta Earthquake when music impresario Bruce Labadie set up a stage at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park and invited such jazz heavyweights as Bobby Hutcherson, Hugh Masekela and Freddie Hubbard to perform outdoors at the first-ever San Jose Jazz Festival.
Blink your eyes and, just like that, the eventrechristened San Jose Jazz Summer Festis marking its 30th anniversary this summer in an expanded powerhouse of a festival, with a dozen stages and more than a hundred performers, spread over three days.
Sure, you can lay out top dollar and get VIP seating to watch, up close and personal, some of the most high-octane names in popular music. But there are plenty of free stages and satellite venues to wander as well, as the festival spills out from its epicenter at the Plaza to sister stages at the Hammer Theatre, Café Stritch, the Tabard Theatre and more. Some of the acts haven’t been announced yet, but already booked for the festival are the soul of jazz elegance Dianne Reeves, Love Train hitmakers the O’Jays, the crazy-fun pop band Pink Martini, drumming great Carl Allen’s tribute to Art Blakey, and the Family Stone featuring Sly Stone’s daughter Phunne Stone, among many others.
Straight-ahead, big-band, Latin jazz, New Orleans-style, blues, R&B: This festival puts its arms around all of it. You can’t possibly see it all, but you might have a blast in the attempt.Wallace Baine
