THURSDAY, FEB. 13
SOUL
AUGUST LEE STEVENS
August Lee Stevens has a voice for the ages. Joyful and soulful, the Bay Area singer/songwriter manages to evoke entire worlds of feeling with simple oohs and ahs sprinkled through her piano-driven songs. Her lyrics hit like elemental forces—think sunshine and waves—and she often dances to the horns that complement her lush melodies. She released her debut EP, Better Places, as part of the Local Sirens series this past summer to much-deserved fanfare and described the lead single, “Senses,” as “the culmination of all the emotions I wanted to express finally exploding to the surface” after a tough breakup. – ADDIE MAHMASSANI
INFO: Thu, 5pm, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. $19. 510.318.8400.
THURSDAY, FEB. 13
JAZZ
‘WE INSIST!’
Last year, in honor of drum legend Max Roach’s 100th birthday, Terri Lyne Carrington presented a reimagined version of his epochal 1960 album, We Insist!, a bracing cry supporting the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. By skill and temperament, few artists are better equipped to celebrate Roach’s bold stance. Named an NEA Jazz Master in 2021 at the age of 56, Carrington’s a brilliant drummer, Grammy Award-winning bandleader, producer and outspoken advocate for women in jazz. The band she brings to Yoshi’s features a fellow child prodigy, pianist Aaron Parks, who’s more than lived up to his promise. The project also features bassist Morgan Guerin, rising Spanish trumpeter Milena Casado and vocalist Georgia Heers. – ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: Thu, 8pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $33-$69. 510.238.9200.
FRIDAY, FEB. 14
THEATER
HEART WRENCH
Percolate at a time-bending pace during the San Francisco Neo-Futurists’ special edition of love-laced short plays. In a mere 60 minutes, the speedy cast whips out 30 original mini-plays about romance, friendship and the many games of the heart. If a honeybun isn’t speeding up a lover’s pitter-patter of lust and longing, if a friendship is wonderful or on the wane, if the multiplicity of polyamory holds humor—or horror—these nimble actors know about it. Expect to be moved, laugh and wonder how so few words are packed with so much meaning. – LOU FANCHER
INFO: Fri, 9pm, Shotgun Players‘ Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. $25. 510.841.6500.
SATURDAY, FEB. 15
THEATER
‘UNCLE VANYA’
Chekhov’s play, first presented in 1899, receives a fourth wall-smashing treatment and a lot of shiny talent, with actor Hugh Bonneville in the titular role. It’s family dysfunction on a grand scale and a simple, time-tested tale of characters whose dreams of greatness crumble. Marvelously, the play isn’t all about brooding, boasting, belligerence and rampaging with blinders on; there’s humor heightened by pathos and pain. After pandemic pods and isolation mandates, the idea of people held prisoner within a 19th-century family like this one seems anything but far-fetched. Most intriguing will be sitting close to folks and watching together how chaos ruptures unity, wondering—maybe even finding out—whether it can ever be repaired. – LF
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. $48. 510.647.2949.
SATURDAY, FEB. 15
GARAGE
HUMAN TOYS
Born from the hum of an electrical experiment in 1920s Russia, the theremin was a happy accident of physics, a government-funded foray into proximity sensors that found its true calling in an eerie, ethereal sound, becoming the sonic language of the strange. For vocalist and thereminist Poupée Mecanik, one part of the Parisian duo Human Toys, the theremin is wonderfully versatile; its wavering, disembodied wails blend into the band’s garage-punk sound, managing to evoke both sci-fi and surf rock. Jon Von adds frenetic, rip-roaring vocals and guitar. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $11/adv, $13/door. 510.859.8709.
SUNDAY, FEB. 16
JAZZ
STEPHANIE TRICK & PAOLO ALDERIGHI
Piano Four Hand often occurs in ad hoc settings, at one-off concerts or club dates. Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock toured and recorded as a two-piano duo; Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard’s 1982 collaboration at Keystone Korner surfaced on a live album in 2013; and Marian McPartland played four-hand pieces on her public radio show, Piano Jazz. However, some precious partnerships are dedicated to the practice, making Stephanie Trick and Paulo Alderighi’s duo a rare delight. Playing on two pianos and four hands on one piano, they’ve created arrangements focusing on rags, stride, boogie-woogie and swing-era tunes, with recent projects focusing on standards from the American Songbook. – AG
INFO: Sun, 5pm, Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $25. 510.547.8188.
MONDAY, FEB. 17
INDIE
WORST PARTY EVER
Worst Party Ever thrives on the art of understatement. Hailing from Florida’s indie/emo underground, the four-piece group weaves quiet anxiety and everyday despair into moody melodies that recall the folksy side of early emo revival. Raw, confessional storytelling unfolds in fleeting, lo-fi sketches; many songs clock in under two minutes, subdued by pulses of nostalgia, personal reckoning and creeping malaise. With hushed intimacy, Worst Party Ever fleshes out a relatable bedroom melancholy. – SBB
INFO: 6pm, 924 Gilman, 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. $15. 510.524.8180.
MONDAY, FEB. 17
JAZZ
PARIS CHANSONS
What do France, Russia, Ukraine and Morocco have in common? The answer is the delightful, Eastern European-infused sounds of jazz act Paris Chansons. The eight-piece band features five instrumentalists and three singers from diverse backgrounds spanning Europe and North Africa, and is renowned for performing everything from French classics to contemporary artists. Beyond France, Paris Chansons also performs international standards in diverse languages such as Russian and Italian, making a perfect evening for expanding musical horizons and discovering the ideal soundtrack to impress friends at the next dinner party. – MAT WEIR
INFO: Mon, 8pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $40-$75. 510.238.9200.
TUESDAY, FEB. 18
HARDCORE
WINK
Here’s a brief rundown for anyone who’s missed the giant explosion of amazing hardcore hitting the world in the last half-decade. The Bay Area is one of the major players in a new wave of angry, political, intense music in the wake of the first Trump presidency, Covid, Gaza and, well, everything. For South Bay, the scene’s been lovingly dubbed the “40831” to the anger of Gen Xers and young Boomers and the delight of anyone who enjoys watching people get upset over nothing. While bands like Drain, Scowl, Sunami and the now-defunct Gulch have solidified their place, new bands still pop up to show people how the Bay ever-evolves itself. And Wink is one of those bands. – MW
INFO: Tue, 7:30pm, Stay Gold Deli, 2635 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $10. 510.350.8729.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 19
HIP-HOP
070 SHAKE
If someone blends R&B, gospel, ambient pop and emo, what do they get? The answer is 070 Shake, the enigmatic and mesmerizing rapper making bigger and bigger waves across hip-hop for the past decade. Danielle Balbuena was born into a Dominican family in Jersey, on the outskirts of New York City. Her stage name comes from her participation in the collective 070, which led her to an early-career collaboration with Kanye West on “Ghost Town.” It’s been a raw and vulnerable musical adventure since then, with November 2024’s Petrichor arriving just in time to soundtrack a moody winter. – AM
INFO: Wed, 8pm, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $43-$142. 510.302.2250.
