Quick recap

I enjoyed O'Flynn and Banksia at Audio — Banksia always puts on a good set and O'Flynn played a bunch of IDs and some familiar tracks too. It was the day of the power outage but I had taken a nap and my power was back on so there was no reason not to go…

I still ended up leaving early. Maybe it's sobriety, maybe it's going solo, maybe it's ennui, but I just found myself dancing, shazamming, and yet wondering why I was there and what I was getting out of being there. I was fully in my head instead of in the moment, so I caught a cab and headed home.

What's next for me?

I'm really reconsidering what showgoing means for me! I have tickets to 1tbsp in March and The Format in April, and that's all I'm committing to for now — they're both shows where I know folks going and that have concert-level set times too, so I am optimistic that I'll enjoy them.

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...

January

• Thursday, January 8 — RJD2 at Rickshaw Stop for Popscene
• Monday, January 12 — Mustard Plug at Bottom of the Hill
• Friday, January 16 — Rodriguez Jr (Live) at Audio
• 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
• Friday, January 23 — Mind Against at 888 Garage
• 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.

February

Superbowl weekend is comin' in hot with a weekend stacked with big names. Not looking forward to the chaos that downtown will become around then, despite the actual game being played in Santa Clara!

• Thursday, February 5 — Fall Out Boy at Regency Ballroom
• Friday, February 6 — Calvin Harris, Diplo, Sonny Fodera, Kaleena Zanders, and Tyson O'Brien at Pier 80 Warehouse
• Friday, February 6 — Blond:ish at a TBD location (presale signup link)
• Friday, Febraury 6 — Tiësto, T-Pain (DJ set), Disco Lines, DJ Diesel (Shaq himself) at Cow Palace Arena for Shaq's Fun House
• Saturday, February 7— Dom Dolla in downtown San Jose
• Saturday, February 7 — T-Pain and Sean Paul at Pier 80 Warehouse (day party)
• 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
• Sunday, February 15 — Del Water Gap at the Masonic
• Wednesday, February 18 — Dry Cleaning at the Fillmore
• Thursday, February 19th – Sunday, March 1st 2026 — Noise Pop Festival, featuring:
  • Thursday, February 19 & Friday, February 20 — The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at Rickshaw Stop
  • Friday, February 20 — Marie Davidson (Live) at Public Works
  • 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
• Thursday, February 26 — Pinback & Bayonne at the UC Theatre
• Saturday, February 28 — Joseph at August Hall
• Saturday, February 28 — Mindchatter at the Regency Ballroom

March

• Sunday, March 1 — Rogue Wave at Swedish American Hall
• Thursday, March 5 — Franc Moody at the Regency Ballroom
• Friday, March 6 — DRAMA at the Fox Theater
• Saturday, March 7 — Bad Bad Hats at Bottom of the Hill
• 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
• Saturday, March 14 — 1tbsp at Regency Ballroom
• Sunday, March 15 — Colony House at GAMH
• Wednesday, March 18 — Amber Mark at the Castro
• Saturday, March 28 — Tycho at the Castro
• Saturday, March 28 — Voxtrot at the Independent

Beyond…

• Wednesday, April 1 — The Early November & Hellogoodbye at August Hall
• Tuesday, April 7 — FKA Twigs at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
• 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
• Wednesday, May 6 & Thursday, May 7 & Friday, May 8 — KETTAMA at Regency Ballroom
  • Quite a comeup from playing the 1015 basement a few years ago as a double headliner. The Fred again.. coattails effect?
• 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
• Monday, May 18 & Tuesday, May 19 — Lucy Dacus at the Castro
• Wednesday, May 20 — Dry Cleaning at August Hall
• Wednesday, May 27 — Yellowcard, New Found Glory, and Plain White T's at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
• Friday, June 26 — Khalid and Lauv at the Greek Theatre
  • Running it back after their Golden Gate Park set in late 2025…
• Friday, July 17 — Bob Moses (and Cannons) at the Greek Theatre

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…

• Saturday, January 10 — David D. Schmidt at San Francisco Botanical Garden to discuss his book San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History
• Saturday, January 10 — Panel Discussion / We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories About Political Protest, Resistance, and Hope at City Lights
• Saturday, January 10 — Make a Zine at Letterform Archive (multiple dates as an Airbnb Experience)
• Sunday, January 11 — Introduction to Analog Risograph Printing at SF Center for the Book
• Thursday, January 15 — Maya Shankar with Michael Lewis - The Other Side of Change at Shack15
• Saturday, January 17 — Full Exposure Cyanotypes workshop at SF Center for the Book
• Tuesday, January 20 — Taleen Voskuni with Laura Marie Meyers & Jessica Joyce - Our Ex's Wedding at Book Passage Ferry Building
• Wednesday, January 21 — Kathleen Boland with Kate Folk at Green Apple Books on the Park to welcome Kathleen Boland for the release of her debut novel, Scavengers.
• Friday, January 23 — Thomas Lennon & Friends sing The Smiths with the Sweet and Tender Hooligans at GAMH
  • One of the friends is Ben Gibbard.
• Friday, January 23 — Opening reception: Who Is America at 250? Artists' Books on the State of Democracy at SF Center for the Book
• Saturday, January 24 — Rewiring Democracy with Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders in conversation with Cindy Cohn on Zoom by City Lights
• Saturday, January 24 & Sunday, January 25 — The Box SF Monthly Artists and Makers Fair at The Box

Later…

• Monday, February 2 — George Saunders with Vendela Vida - Vigil: A Nove at Calvary Presbyterian San Francisco
• Tuesday, February 3 — Curiosity Guild presents Bright Ideas at Public Works
  • The successor of Odd Salon launches!

• Sunday, February 8 — Dead End Market Fest at the Lab

  Since 2023, Dead End Vintage has been building bridges across the subterranean archipelago of art worlders and outlanders. Underground scavengers of stuff and sound implode together one time only for Dead End Market Fest where prized past and sound futures can be yours today! The market is open from 12pm – 6pm, with live performances by Bed Bug Guru, Balloon Time, Cruel Work, Jean Carla Rodea and more at 8pm.

• Friday, February 13 — Depths of Wikipedia Live at August Hall
• Friday, March 26–Sunday, March 28 — Algorithmic Art Assembly v3.0: Talks, Workshops, & Performances at Gray Area

Music lately

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

I've been mainlining the top 100 songs list from Sean over at Said the Gramophone and the resulting new finds/faves:

• Saya Gray
• Blood Orange
• Westside Cowboy
• Lola Young
• Jim Legxacy (this whole album is fantastic)
• Dijon

I'd heard of some of these artists before but have not really invested much time or energy into listening to them. As a result, I'm trying to figure out my pipeline for indie rock discovery. Will it be college radio? Still exploring, we'll see if anything new sticks…

Electronic music discovery is somewhat easier given that you can listen to a DJ set and are handed a list of songs and artists that you didn't know about that you can go and listen to (and listen to one of their DJ sets, and keep going)... rock music… doesn't work like that!

I thought I discovered Djo and his album The Crux through that list but I guess not — after some sleuthing I realized that it must have come from listening to my SoundCloud Playback playlist, which had a bunch of Mk.gee tracks on it. The autoplay after that playlist ended included some Djo tracks, which were so good I dug deeper (and the same or similar autoplay session led me to discover Florence Road's track Goodnight, which is a banger).

Other notes

I'm still working on my Spotify Wrapped reaction post, as well as compiling my favorites of 2025. It feels unjust to compile favorites before the year is up. Hoping to have something up by the end of the weekend — stay tuned!

In sadder news, Bottom of the Hill is closing at the end of this year. I've seen some excellent shows there — Tokyo Police Club, Matt Pond PA, and Smoking Popes (twice!). It'll be sad to lose another independent rock-oriented venue, leaving us only with The Independent (managed by APE now) and the Fillmore (managed by Live Nation now). Bimbo's 365 is still around, and then the UC Theatre and 924 Gilman in Berkeley too. Am I forgetting any? Let me know!