See Moir Music: October 2025
Have a bit more spring in my step lately, despite it being fall...
Quick recap
Ended up getting sick for Bambii and Anz, which was a bummer, but Ben UFO and Surusinghe was a fun reentry into concerts. Going all in at 140bpm for Surusinghe's 1.5 hour set was a bit rough so I didn't make it for Ben's set (but that was my plan all along shhh).
What's next for me?
I'll go to a couple shows here in Berlin (Parcels and Kiasmos) and then I'll see Rilo Kiley and Waxahatchee after I'm back. Looking ahead to the November shows and deciding which of them (if any) I'll have enough energy to make it through!
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...
October
- Thursday, October 2 — Polo & Pan at Frost Ampitheater
- Friday, October 3 — HI-LO at Hibernia Bank (Oliver Heldens)
- Saturday, October 4 — PUP & Jeff Rosenstock at Fox Theater
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Saturday, October 4 — Bushbaby with Dan Frandisco, Nightware, and DJ Staley at Monarch for Garage Access
- Not familiar? Listen to Time of Our Lives, Breaka Breaka, or Roll To The Rhythm. Don't sleep on this set!!
- Friday, October 3 – Sunday, October 5 — Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival at Golden Gate Park with Courtney Barnett, Emmylou Harris, Reverend Horton Heat, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, The String Cheese Incident, Lucinda Williams, and more.
- Monday, October 6 — Mates of State at August Hall
- Tuesday, October 7 — HAIM at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
- Friday, October 10 — Yelle at the Regency Ballroom
- Friday, October 10 — Wolf Alice at the Fox Theater
- Saturday, October 11 — Bonobo DJ set in Napa somewhere
- Saturday, October 11 — Khalid, Lauv, and more in Golden Gate Park
- Saturday, October 11 — Electric Fields with Marques Wyatt and more at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell (Free)
- Sunday, October 12 — Bob Moses (Club set) in Napa somewhere
- Monday, October 13 — Parcels at the Greek Theatre
- Tuesday, October 14 — Bad Suns at Bimbo's 365
- Wednesday, October 15 — Lord Huron at the Greek Theatre
- Thursday, October 16 — Rilo Kiley and Waxahatchee at the Greek Theatre
- I realized I'll be in town for this so I picked up tickets!
- Friday, October 17 — SG Lewis and Sofia Kourtesis at Bill Graham
- Saturday, October 18 — Eli Brown at the Palace of the Fine Arts
- His Love Regenerator project with Calvin Harris was great and I love a novelty venue.
- Saturday, October 18 — LP Giobbi in Napa somewhere
- Sunday, October 19 — Lorde and Empress Of at the Greek Theatre
- Friday, October 24 — The Magician at Audio
- Sunday, October 26 — Alan Dixon at the Hotel VIA Rooftop
- Tuesday, October 28 — Ela Minus at the Independent
- Friday, October 31 — Midland at F8 for squish
- Friday, October 31 — Amelie Lens, Klangkuenstler, Max Gardner, and more at Cow Palace
- Friday, October 31 — MK at 1015 Folsom
November
- Saturday, November 1 — The Faint and Hercules and Love Affair at the Regency Ballroom
- Saturday, November 1 & Sunday, November 2 — Bakermat, WHOMADEWHO, Aluna, Parra for Cuva, Starfari, Spencer Brown, ELIF, Qrion and more at The Midway
- Friday, November 7 — Helena Hauff and more at Public Works for As You Like It's 15 year anniversary
- Saturday, November 8 — DJ Fuckoff & X-Coast at Public Works
- Saturday, November 8 — bullet tooth at a secret underground location
- Not familiar? Listen to George's Groove, or the collab with Y U QT, Technique
- Thursday, November 13 — Cut Copy at the Regency Ballroom
- Thursday, November 13 — Rochelle Jordan at the Independent
- Friday, November 14 — Kryptogram at Audio
- Saturday, November 15 — Booka Shade (Live) at the Great Northern
- Saturday, November 15 — Chris Lake at Bill Graham
- Tuesday, November 18 — Burna Boy at Oakland Arena
- Wednesday, November 19 — Grizzly Bear at Fox Theater
- Friday, November 21 — Jack's Mannequin at the Warfield (MFEO tour)
- Saturday, November 22 — Disco Lines at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
- Saturday, November 22 — Silva Bumpa at Audio
- Not familiar? Listen to When I'm With You.
- Saturday, November 22 — Sam Alfred at Monarch
- Not familiar? Listen to Feel the Friction. I'm not sure the people writing the copy on Eventbrite are familiar either: "Join us for a night of smooth jazz and soulful vibes" 🤨
- Friday, November 28 & Saturday, November 29 — Sara Landry at Palace of the Fine Arts
- Friday, November 28 — MPH at 1015 Folsom
- Not familiar? Listen to Spend the Night.
- Saturday, November 29 — TEED at Public Works
- Saturday, November 29 — Nils Hoffman at the Regency Ballroom
- Sunday, November 30 — Jens Lekman at the Independent
December
- Thursday, December 4 — Lola Young at Bill Graham
- Friday, December 5 — Motion City Soundtrack and Say Anything at the Warfield
- Friday, December 19 — FISHER at Moscone Center
- I mean, is this the most novelty venue of all novelty venues?!
- Friday, December 26 — San Holo at the Midway
Next year…
- Thursday, January 1 — It's a New Day / Breakfast of Champions at the Great Northern
- I hear there's going to be a squish stage this time, look out for that one…
- Tuesday, February 10, Wednesday, February 11, Friday, February 13, Saturday, February 14, Tuesday, February 17, Wednesday, February 18, Friday, February 20, Saturday, February 21 — Sam Smith at the Castro
Other SF events
Some recurring events in the city to check out:
- Inner Sunset Flea Market on second Sundays
- Fridays on Front Street — the next one is on October 10 featuring a bunch of yacht rock cover bands in honor of Fleet Week..
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…
- Opening Wednesday, October 1 — UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
- Thursday, October 2 — J. Hoberman in conversation with Steven Seid on EVERYTHING IS NOW: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde–Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop at the Mechanics' Institute Library
- Saturday, October 4 — Freeway Plan Routes: Never Built, a Panhandle Walk and Talk with Shaping SF
- Sunday, October 5 — Kayak Tour of Mission Creek with Shaping SF
- Tuesday, October 7 — Joshua Clark Davis in conversation with Daphne Muse on the book Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back at City Lights
- Saturday, October 11 — Poetry World Series: Litquake Edition at Make Out Room for Litquake
- Sunday, October 12 — Disaster, with a Side of Noodles with Annalee Newitz, Lee Lai, and Soleil Ho at Mrs Dalloways for Litquake
- Sunday, October 12 — Gilded Rage—Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley: Jacob Silverman in conversation with Alex Hanna at Gray Area for Litquake
- Tuesday, October 14 — Books Not Bans presents: The Transformative Power of Fiction at SFPL Koret Auditorium for Litquake
- Wednesday, October 15 — Introducing The Approach at City Lights for Litquake
"The Approach is a newspaper meets literary magazine meets underground organizing pamphlet focusing on how to approach––thwart, upend, sabotage, survive––autocracy. Due to the urgency of getting offline and gathering in both effort and body, The Approach only exists in print and features the voices of our best thinkers and culture workers on how to navigate our current state of emergency, and what might emerge instead."
- Thursday, October 16 — The Shattering Peace: John Scalzi with Kim Stanley Robinson at the JCC for Litquake
- Thursday, October 16 — Queer Magic: A Charmed Evening with Charlie Jane Anders, Caitlin Starling, and Michelle Tea at The Lost Church for Litquake
- Friday, October 17 — Unbound Translations: A Listening Party with Cuentero Productions & Two Lines Press at CounterPulse for Litquake
- Friday, October 17 — The Enduring Wild: A Journey into California’s Public Lands at KALW for Litquake
- Saturday, October 18 — Ghost Streets of Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle Bike Tour with Shaping SF
- Sunday, October 19 — Murder at the Museum at the Counterculture Museum for Litquake
"Spend a special evening with award-winning crime fiction writers Cara Black, Marcie Rendon, Domenic Stansberry, and Jody Weiner, all spinning murderous tales starring dramatically different protagonists."
- Sunday, October 19 — Read The Room: A Celebration of Books at Kerouac Alley
- Monday, October 20 — Cory Doctorow on Enshittification with Jenny Odell by the Booksmith at Public Works
- Tuesday, October 21 — The Tortured Poets: An Ode to Taylor Swift at Make Out Room for Litquake
"we'll listen as esteemed, if not tortured, poets (and not-so-secret Swifties!) Kim Addonizio, J Jennifer Espinoza, Christian Gullette, Jane Hirshfield, Dean Rader, and Tess Taylor read poems they wrote in response to Swift's songs"
- Tuesday, October 21 — The Tell-Tale Heart: A Rap Adaptation at Z Below for Litquake
"“The Tell-Tale Heart,” adapted by Carlos Aguirre, is a hip hop musical layered with themes like Indigenous erasure, internalized racism, and the price of a guilty conscience."
- Wednesday, October 22 — When Did Reality Become Stranger Than Fiction? at SFPL Koret Auditorium for Litquake
"Join award-winning former New York Times journalist and founder of the Box Sessions, Laura M. Holson, for a dynamic conversation with authors Evette Davis, Sheri T. Joseph, and Julia Vee, as they examine the astonishing ways our current world not only mirrors but frequently surpasses the wildest imaginings of fiction."
- Wednesday October 22 — Nerd Nite on Time Travel, Event Design, + Science of Perceiving the World with the Exploratorium at Rickshaw Stop
- Thursday, October 23 — Racebook: A Personal History of the Internet with Tochi Onyebuchi at Community Hub for Litquake
"In Racebook: A Personal History of the Internet, Onyebuchi traces this history in reverse, examining the precarious place we are now against the rose-colored future imagined by Web 1.0. Does the internet expand our conception of what’s possible? Or confine it?"
- Friday, October 24 — Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile at KALW for Litquake
- Sunday, October 26 — Kayak Tour of Islais Creek with Shaping SF
- Tuesday, October 28 — Litquake Aftershocks: The Everlasting with Alix E. Harrow with Danielle DeVeaux at Gilman Brewing Company
- Opening Tuesday, October 28 — Stereophonic at the Curran Theatre
"The most Tony Award-winning Show of the year. The most Tony Award-nominated Play of all time. STEREOPHONIC mines the agony and the ecstasy of creation as it zooms in on a music studio in 1976. Here, an up-and-coming rock band recording a new album finds itself suddenly on the cusp of superstardom. The ensuing pressures could spark their breakup — or their breakthrough. Written by David Adjmi, directed by Daniel Aukin, and featuring original music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, STEREOPHONIC invites the audience to immerse themselves — with fly-on-the-wall intimacy — in the powder keg process of a band on the brink of blowing up."
November
- Saturday, November 8 & Sunday, November 9 — La Cocina SF Street Food Festival at China Basin Park
- Saturday, November 15 — Freeway Plan Routes: Never Built, a Western Freeway Walk and Talk with Shaping SF
- Saturday, November 22 — Market Street During and After WWII walking tour by Shaping SF
Music lately
You can always follow me on bandcamp to see what I've bought lately…
I haven't been listening to as much because I'm on vacation, but I'm looking forward to SWIM's next album Dear Friend, enjoying Parcel's latest album LOVED, and have the Verses GT album cued up next. Cameo Blush's EP Grace in Motion also has a bunch of favorites and KI/KI's collab with Marlon Hoffstadt, Losing Control, is catchy as hell.
Speaking of SWIM, listening to Tourist's live set at Lost Village where he played many tracks off his latest trance album has me realizing that my music taste is converging pretty hard there. They sound so similar if you listen to them in proximity!
Other notes
I'm very intrigued by this essay in RA, but haven't read it yet: The Great Regression
We've all seen it: Keinemusik's dead crowds, Ibiza VIP platforms, Euro-washed Afro house. 2020s mainstream clubbing is an algorithm-smoothed spectacle that rewards mediocrity. Yet it's booming. Rachel Grace Almeida searches for why.
Lots of thoughts swimming around about music these days, but nothing coalescing yet tbh.