How are we already in December by god.

Quick recap

I didn't end up going to any of the shows I planned for November — a recurring theme this year. Still finding my footing post-surgery, in this new pandemic-shaped world, and in my thirties.

What's next for me?

This month I'm still definitely planning to make it out to O'Flynn and Banksia at Audio! O'Flynn is too good to pass up, and I've been a fan for a long time.

Other shows going on

What I'm not going to, but might if I had unlimited energy... bold shows are ones that I am planning on or otherwise heavily recommend...

December

• Thursday, December 4 — pluko at Brick and Mortar Music Hall
• Friday, December 5 — Motion City Soundtrack and Say Anything at the Warfield
• Friday, December 5 — Fred again.., Hamdi, Oppidan, Clearcast b3b Bad Juuju b3b Vertigo at Cow Palace (registration signup)
• Saturday, December 6 — IN PARALLEL at Monarch
  • I've listened to this DJ set of theirs many times at work this week, so seems like it'd be a fun set.
• Saturday, December 6 — Pattie Gonia at The Warfield
• Wednesday, December 10 — The Mountain Goats at the Fillmore
• Friday, December 12 — Patrick Topping at Audio
• Saturday, December 13 — Sidepiece at the Midway
• Friday, December 19 — Amtrac DJ set at Audio
• Friday, December 19 — FISHER with Chris Lorenzo, Partyboi69, and more at Moscone Center
  • I mean, is this the most novelty venue of all novelty venues?!
• Friday, December 19 — Plain White T's at August Hall
• Saturday, December 20 — FISHER and others at Moscone Center
• Saturday, December 20 — O'Flynn and Banksia at Audio
  • Excited for this show. If you're not familiar, Swiss Sensation is his latest banger and Sunspear is my most-listened-to track of his.
• Friday, December 26 — San Holo at the Midway
• Friday, December 26 — Ape Drums at 1015 Folsom
• Monday, December 29 — Swedish House Mafia at Pier 80 Warehouse
• Tuesday, December 30 — Four Tet and Skrillex at Pier 80 Warehouse

NYE

Lineups are up and out for NYE and boy howdy is it stacked this year...

• Wednesday, December 31 — TOKiMONSTA, Sam Binga, and more at Public Works
• Wednesday, December 31 — Swedish House Mafia at Pier 80 Warehouse
• Wednesday, December 31 — Four Tet at 1015 Folsom (already sold out)
• Wednesday, December 31 — Dillon Francis at the UC Theatre
• Thursday, January 1 — It's a New Day / Breakfast of Champions at the Great Northern featuring Pangaea, Robin S (live), Claude Von Stroke, many more names that I do not recognize, and more TBA.
  • I hear there's going to be a squish stage this time, look out for that one…
• Thursday, January 1 — Fresh Start at the Midway, 888 Garage, and Pier 80, featuring John Summit, Purple Disco Machine, and more TBA.

January

• Friday, January 2 — Nora En Pure at 1015 Folsom
• Saturday, January 3 — CRi at Audio
• Thursday, January 8 — RJD2 at Rickshaw Stop for Popscene
• Saturday, January 17 — Monkey Safari at Hotel VIA rooftop (day party)
• Saturday, January 17 — Guster at GAMH (early show, late show)
• Thursday, January 22 — Dan Deacon at GAMH
• Saturday, January 24 — MxPx at the Fillmore
• Friday, January 30 — ESG and Bush Tetras at GAMH
  • I've never listened to either of these bands before but Peter, Bjorn, and John mentioned ESG a bunch in this podcast episode about the making of their album Writer's Block so.

Beyond…

• Like 20 dates in February I'm not listing them all I'm sorry — Sam Smith at the Castro
• Friday, February 13 — Atmosphere at the Fox Theater
• Saturday, February 14 — bbno$ at the Warfield
• Wednesday, February 18 — Dry Cleaning at the Fillmore
• Thursday, February 19th – Sunday, March 1st 2026 — Noise Pop Festival, featuring:
  • Friday, February 20 — The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Rickshaw Stop
  • Saturday, February 27 — Clipping. at the UC Theatre
  • Saturday, February 27 & Sunday, February 28 — Tortoise at Great American Music Hall
• Friday, February 20 — Romare (DJ set) at Monarch
• Friday, February 20 — Swimming Paul at 1015 Folsom
• Thursday, February 26 — Christian Löffler at the Regency Ballroom
• Saturday, February 28 — Joseph at August Hall
• Thursday, March 5 — Franc Moody at the Regency Ballroom
• Friday, March 6 — DRAMA at the Fox Theater
• Tuesday, March 10 — Aimee Mann with Jonathan Coulton at the Fillmore
• Thursday, March 12 — Miguel at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
• Thursday, March 12 — Whitney at the Fillmore
• Sunday, March 15 — Colony House at GAMH
• Wednesday, March 18 — Amber Mark at the Castro
• Saturday, March 28 — Tycho at the Castro
• Wednesday, April 1 — The Early November & Hellogoodbye at August Hall
• Thursday, April 16 & Friday, April 17 — The Format at the Castro
• Tuesday, May 5 — Chet Faker at The Warfield
• Tuesday, May 5 — Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman at the Masonic
• Monday, May 11 — The New Pornographers with Will Sheff from Okkervil River at the Castro
• Thursday, May 14 — MIKA at the Castro
• Friday, May 15 — Florence and the Machine at Chase Center

Other SF events

If book talks, history walks, music-making classes, or public lectures are more your speed, here's what's going on this month and beyond…

• Tuesday, December 2 — Nicolas Ballet in conversation with V. Vale exploring the new book Shock Factory: The Visual Culture of Industrial Music at City Lights
• Tuesday, December 2 — A Conversation on Writing and AI: Once Upon an Algorithm at the Commonwealth Club
• Tuesday, December 2 — We Will Rise Again / Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, Reo Eveleth & other contributors at the Booksmith
• Wednesday, December 3 — Rewiring Democracy with Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders in conversation with Cindy Cohn at City Lights
• Wednesday, December 3 — Music Fundraiser for Disaster Relief in the Philippines with Kulintang Dialect at Medicine for Nightmares
• Wednesday, December 3 — USF presents: Wordnight at the Booksmith
• Wednesday, December 3 & Thursday, December 4 — Lost Landscapes of San Francisco at Herbst Theatre: "Hidden gems of vintage footage reveal San Francisco's storied history - come see & get inspired!"
• Wednesday, December 3 – Saturday, December 6 — Recombinant Network Editions at Gray Area
  • Day 1 brought to you by: BRUTAL SOUND EFFECTS, whose many festivals cull the deepest experimental musicians from the obscure to the well known, with refined sets at a breakneck pace.
  • Day 2 features 6 performances curated by the Recombinant Media Labs.
  • Day 3 brought to you by: experimental club night Surface Tension with an evening of unheimlich electronics in San Francisco.
  • Day 4 featuring rare appearances of several highly influential underground legends and also commemorates Katabatik's 25th anniversary.
• Friday, December 4 — Producing UK Garage with That Franco & Tripleset at IO Music Academy
• Saturday, December 6 — Dogpatch Holiday Market at AIC on 22nd st
• Saturday, December 6 — Outrider at the Roxie Theater

  Alystyre Julian’s Outrider is the first feature-length portrait of Grammy-nominated, epic poet, performer, and activist Anne Waldman. Filmmaker Alystyre Julian in conversation with Anne Waldman after the show, followed by a booksigning with Anne Waldman.

• Saturday, December 6 — Goldenvoice: Q\&A and live printing session with Caitlin Mattisson and Rebecca Rippon at Haight Street Art Center

  Join us December 6th from 6-8pm for an artist talk with the talented Caitlin Mattisson and our amazing Print Studio guru Rebecca Rippon to learn more about the process of creating a series of incredible rock posters for Goldenvoice.

• Sunday, December 7 — David D. Schmidt on his new book, San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History at Book Passage at the Ferry Building
• Sunday, December 7 — Letterpress Holiday Cards at the San Francisco Center for the Book
• Wednesday, December 10 — Tourmaline: Celebrating the Life of Marsha P. Johnson in conversation with Kate Schatz for City Arts and Lectures at Sydney Goldstein Theater
• Thursday, December 11 — Words in Reverb at Medicine for Nightmares
• Sunday, December 14 — Introduction to the Risograph at the San Francisco Center for the Book
• Monday, December 15 — Singing San Francisco: A Reading and Celebration at Medicine for Nightmares
• Monday, December 15 — Angela Davis & Hilton Als: A Sisterhood: Toni Morrison, June Jordan, Angela Davis for City Arts and Lectures at Sydney Goldstein Theater
• Tuesday, December 16 — Holiday Bazaar at GAMH
• Tuesday, December 16 — Search & Destroy Launch Party at City Lights
• Friday, December 19 — Other Dimensions in Sound presents Subterranean Fire at Medicine for Nightmares
• Friday, December 19 — Holiday Shopping Night at the Booksmith
• Sunday, December 21 — Teach-in On Anti-Imperialist Prison Organizing at Medicine for Nightmares

Music lately

You can always follow me on bandcamp to see what I've bought lately...

I've been all over the map, listening to full albums from back in the day (Stars, Manchester Orchestra, Death Cab) and perusing my way through new releases like Bicep's CHROMA 000, Marlon Hoffstadt's All Yours, the random discovery of tennyson's aka, SWIM's Dear Friend, and Daphni's Butterfly. Eagerly awaiting Tourist's Music is Invisible, due out on Friday.

It's not all albums though—Robyn has a new single out, Dopamine (though before I got the chance to listen I just kept thinking of the Franc Moody song), Joshua Idehen (of "mum does the washing") has a single off his next album called It Always Was that is excellent, and have I talked about Glockta yet? Ricochet is ear-catching.

Other notes

I recently discovered the Life of the Record podcast and listened to the entire episode about the making of Set Yourself on Fire by Stars while prepping the pie filling for the apple pie that I made for Friendsgiving this year. I also learned in the making of Mean Everything to Nothing by Manchester Orchestra episode that the band doesn't wear in-ear monitors. What an excellent album tbh. The Bright Eyes and Peter Bjorn and John episodes are also pretty good.

I also finally finished reading Mood Machine by Liz Pelly... tough to end that book well when the "hopeful" note is basically artist collectives and libraries attempting to build out streaming website alternatives, a reminder that buying music on Bandcamp is the best way to support artists these days, and some notes about legislation to stem the bleeding of royalties through streaming and a plea for universal basic income. Really fascinating deep dives into the particulars of how Spotify has basically implemented so many extractive capitalism tactics in its pursuit of dominance in the music streaming (and now audio streaming) industry. Chokepoint Capitalism by Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin covered music and book publishing as well, with a bit of film and TV thrown in as well. The broader scope lent itself well to a more hopeful-seeming conclusion but which still necessitates a reimagining of power structures that we've inertia-d our way into…

I've been building myself up a bit of a dual syllabus since reading Will Tavlin's essay Casual Viewing for n+1 and Liz Pelly's essay (and book excerpt) The Ghosts in the Machine for Harpers Magazine in the same week.

I'm trying to assess "where are we" and "how did we get here" while at the same time answering the question "why does it matter?" and these are the books I've been acquiring and working my way through in fits and starts. I've only read the books in italics so the groups are vague but it's a syllabus I'm sort of arriving toward...

If you have any recommendations for additions to these lists or similar, please send them on!