THURSDAY
BRASS BAND
MARCHFOURTH
Named for Fat Tuesday, MarchFourth is a multi-genre musical microcircus born out of Portland Mardi Gras in 2003. The group combines funk, rock, jazz, Afrobeat and New Orleans street-band swagger with stilt walkers, dancers, acrobatics and extravagant costumes. They’ve paraded through international music festivals, Oktoberfests, smartphone ads, Pixar movie credits and county fairs; perhaps they’ll regale San Pablo Avenue with a raucous and joyful miniature street celebration before they take the stage at the New Parish. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT
INFO: Thu, 9pm, The New Parish, 1743 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $20. 510.227.8177.
THURSDAY
EDM
THE HALLUCI NATION
Tim “2oolman” Hill and Ehren “Bear Witness” Thomas of The Halluci Nation are back on tour in advance of the November release of their two-part EP, The Road To Halluci Mania. Formerly named A Tribe Called Red, the Ottawa-based band has been making waves since 2007 with their innovative blend of First Nations music, dubstep, hip-hop and reggae. The band has a great history, starting at Ottawa’s Babylon nightclub with their Electric Pow Wow nights, providing a festive gathering space for Aboriginal youth. Former member Ian Campeau put it perfectly: “All we really did was match up dance music with dance music.” – ADDIE MAHMASSANI
INFO: Thu, 7pm, Crybaby, 1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $32.
FRIDAY
FOLK
WILLY TEA TAYLOR
Hailing from Oakdale, California—the Cowboy Capital of the World—Willy Tea Taylor walks the walk and talks the talk. The son of a cattleman, Taylor’s bluesy, soulful folk tells the tales of working-class people, everyday struggles and the human journey. And he’s also got a pretty sweet beard. Last year, Taylor released The Great Western Hangover, his most ambitious album to date, in collaboration with the Fellership and a grip of special guests like Jeffrey Martin, the Rainbow Girls, and the Bait and Tackle Choir. The result is a country-fried blues album smothered in Southern goodness. Make sure to get there early for storyteller singer/songwriters Tom VandonAvond and the Sam Chase. – MAT WEIR
INFO: Fri, 8pm, Cornerstone, 2367 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $26. 510.214.8600.
SATURDAY
GARAGE
THE MUMMIES
A lot of amazing bands have come out of the Bay Area music scene in the past 50 years. One band to make the list is the Mummies, San Bruno’s foul-mouthed, rag-and-toilet-paper-wrapped garage rockers that have kept rock ’n’ roll undead and well for the last 36 years. Music critic Mark Deming once called them the “kings of budget rock” and said it was “difficult to imagine” the garage rock revival without the gauze-bedecked foursome, a claim that’s hard to argue. Despite their official breakup in ’92, the Mummies’ spell continues to recast yearly, reviving the rockers whenever the gods of garage see fit to remind the people what real rock ’n’ roll is. – MW
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $30. 510.859.8709.
SATURDAY
POP
CIGARETTES AFTER SEX
Some call the band Cigarettes After Sex shoegaze. Some call them slowcore. Others say dream pop. Founder and lead singer Greg Gonzalez doesn’t get too caught up in labels; he’s just trying to capture a magical feeling of the universe slowing down, like smoking a cigarette after sex. With his androgynous voice and penchant for describing lost love, Gonzales has made music more than worthy of his band’s name. From their breakthrough hit “Apocalypse” to “Tejano Blue,” the lead single of their latest album X’s, the band has created a melancholy blend of romance and nostalgia that many fans feel they cannot live without. – AM
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Oakland Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. $136. 510.569.2121.
SATURDAY
THEATER
‘SLAM!’
Give opera-and-theater director Robert Lepage access to the flips, contortions, acrobatic maneuvers and body slam hijinks of Québécois troupe Cirque FLIP Fabrique, and prepare to be floored. Or at least watch the troupe’s fearless and often funny performers celebrate pro wrestling’s flamboyance within and beyond a rope-bound ring pitched under the spectacle of a full-spectrum light show. Lepage couches the narrative within various fighting cultures from around the world. The 90-minute show is part of Cal Performances’ “Inspiring Joy” series, meant to uplift—and fling, in this case—amaze and entertain audiences of all ages. – LOU FANCHER
INFO: Sat, 8pm, 101 Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. $31-$82. 510.642.9988.
SATURDAY
JAZZ
MATHIS PICARD
His recent album, Heat Of The Moment, may be climate-change inspired, but 29-year-old French-Malagasy pianist Mathis Picard returns to Piedmont Piano to explore a different set of concerns in a solo format. One of the most dynamic and versatile players on the New York scene, he traverses a vast continuum in his program “Stride, Swing, Preludes & Fugues,” exploring signature compositions across centuries of musical evolution. Picard’s pianistic journey visits rambunctious Harlem stride, buoyant swing and European classical music inspired by folk dance forms. On paper it might sound academic, but in person Picard is an effervescent entertainer who makes the most treacherous runs up the keyboard look effortless. – ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: Sat, 5:30pm, Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $25. 510.547.8188.
MONDAY
CLASSIC ROCK
STU HAMM BAND
Bass wizard Stu Hamm has shared the stage with legends like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, but it’s in his solo work that bass aficionados can dig into his genius. In Hamm’s agile hands, the bass is a lead instrument, a lithe vehicle for everything from heavy rock slap-and-tap riffs to Debussy’s “Dr. Gradus Ad Parnassum.” And he’s filling in holes in the bass cannon, developing a suite of solo pieces for the bass guitar that burgeoning bassists can use as practice and audition material. His latest album, HoldFast, has a vibrant, road-tested energy, blending prog rock with alternatively tuned piano. – SBB
INFO: Mon, 8 pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $25-$55. 510.238.9200.
MONDAY
JAZZ
AD ASTRA: BILL FRISELL & PETRA HADEN
Guitar explorer Bill Frisell, a man who knows something about traveling the spaceways, regroups with vocalist Petra Haden, a lustrously cool-toned songstress and violinist. Rescheduled from a trio concert in June, this Freight & Salvage fundraiser presents the singular duo at the Chabot Planetarium, a setting that seems apt for a collaboration that sounds unbounded by the strictures of time and space. With wines donated by Kermit Lynch, the Ad Astra program seems ripe for material from 2016’s When You Wish Upon a Star, a Frisell-and-strings project featuring Haden on vividly reimagined themes from film and television shows. – AG
INFO: Mon, 7pm, Chabot Planetarium, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. $250. 510.644.2020.
WEDNESDAY
FOLK
BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN
Get mellow and sink into Horseman’s immersive American folk music setlist. Since 2018, the band has played to packed houses thrilled by traditional tunes inflected with hints of pop and other contemporary influences. Lead singer of the trio, Anaïs Mitchell, has an unadorned, beautifully earthy tone perfectly suited for songs whose themes spiral and cartwheel through love, loss, hope, sorrow and the vulnerability of family and community relationships. Fellow bandmates Josh Kaufman and Eric D. Johnson collaborated on all but one of the songs, and each track plays out as if created in the moment—original yet intensely familiar. – LF
INFO: Wed, 8pm, UC Theatre, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $32.50. 510.356.4000.
