THURSDAY, OCT.9
GOTH
VOSH
Are they metal? Are they industrial? Are they darkwave? Washington D.C.’s Vosh is a little bit of all of this, so it’s safer just to put them under the all-encompassing “goth” parasol. Take their latest album, Vault Vol. 1. Unlike their 2023 debut, Vessel, Vault was recorded live, giving the listener a taste of what this group brings to the music table. They formed in 2018 but within a year had cut a demo and were playing shows. However, it was the 2020 pandemic and lockdowns that allowed Vosh to hone in on their writing skills. The result is a blistering sound and aesthetic that is one part horror and one part sexual and dark AF! – MAT WEIR
INFO: Thu, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $12-$15. 510.859.8709.
THURSDAY, OCT. 9
JAZZ
LEHCATS
In the late 1970s, El Cerrito-reared saxophonist Norbert Stachel gravitated to Berkeley’s fecund jazz scene, collaborating with composer and multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum’s various iterations of the groundbreaking world jazz Hieroglyphics Ensemble. A mainstay on the New York City scene for the past three decades, he’s returning to the Bay Area for a series of gigs with LehCats—that’s Stachel backwards— the group he co-leads with his wife, flutist and vocalist Karen Stachel. They’re getting ready to release an album they recorded live in San Jose last year with Puerto Rican conga maestro Giovanni Hidalgo. This version of LehCats features a stellar cast with pianist Irving Flores, bassist Aaron Germain and drummer Phil Hawkins. – ANDREW GILBERT
INFO: Thu, 8pm, The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Ave., Berkeley. $25. 510.654.3808.
THURSDAY, OCT. 9
THEATER
‘THE COURTROOM’
It is despicable that this special presentation of The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings, is so supremely prescient. The docu-drama is created from real-life court transcripts from the trial of Elizabeth Keathley, a Filipina immigrant. Arranged by Arian Moayed, the story centers on Kathy’s experience in the United States after arriving on a K-3 visa to live with her husband. After misguidedly voting in a midterm Congressional election due to lack of familiarity with election laws, the error was discovered and the Department of Homeland Security ordered her deportation. Echoing real life, The Courtroom is vibrant with the intensity of living with constant fear of othering and ousting. – LOU FANCHER
INFO: Thu, 7:30pm, Oakland Theater Project, FLAX art & design, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. $10-$60. 510.646.1126.
FRIDAY, OCT. 10
METAL
SLEEP TOKEN
Sleep Token is a masked U.K. collective led by the mysterious figure known only as Vessel. The group moves between metal weight, R&B smoothness, poppy earworms and cinematic swells, creating a sound as intimate and massive as a cathedral confession. And they know how to world-build. Their May 2025 album release, Even in Arcadia, was presaged by a trail of cryptic clues, puzzles and digital breadcrumbs, inviting fans to decode a mythology as immersive as the music itself. Haunting and experimental, Sleep Token seems to sell out more shows the more elusive they become. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT
INFO: Fri, 7:30pm, Oakland Arena, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakland. $185-$746. 510.569.2121.
FRIDAY, OCT. 10
HIP-HOP
LARUSSELL
Vallejo rapper LaRussell is one of the Bay’s most magnetic voices, a full package of sharp lyricism, viral freestyles and an unshakable commitment to community—he’s famously turned his own backyard into a “pay what you want” concert venue. Backed by the Yee Section and CO-LLAB Choir, he’s headlining a Friday Night at OMCA packed with more than music—there’s a beginner-friendly South African Amapiano dance lesson with Tawo and open-ended Gallery Chats beforehand, and a rhythm-heavy set from De Alma afterwards. It’s Oakland’s favorite block party, uplifted into a night of art, movement and collective energy. – SBB
INFO: Fri, 5pm, Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Free. 510.318.8400.
SATURDAY, OCT. 11
ALTERNATIVE
THE JADED LOVERS SALON
Honeychild Coleman first met Shosh Levi in the scrum of a Bluchunks mosh pit at a UC Berkeley show in the early 1990s. About a decade later their paths converged again in the Burnt Sugar Arkestra, with the late Greg Tate conducting. In 2005, Coleman met Bay Area local Laura Hayati in New York when Apollo Heights performed the same day as Hayati’s band the Bedouin Thieves. They all joined forces about 15 years ago in the Jaded Lovers Salon, a New York project dedicated to soulful storytelling, electronic and dub reggae grooves, and post-punk aesthetics—a moveable aural feast that has also been dished out around the Bay Area. – AG
INFO: Sat, 6:30pm, La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $15-$25. 510.849.2568.
SATURDAY, OCT. 11
DEATH METAL
DEAD CONGREGATION
Born from the ashes of crust-punk outfit Nuclear Winter in 2004, Dead Congregation is face-crushing, ear-splitting, blood-spilling, old-school death metal. Although they haven’t put out any new material since their 2016 EP, Sombre Doom, the band is still alive and well, touring North America in a rare instance as this Greek quartet mainly tours and plays festivals throughout Europe. For fans of Incantation, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel, this is for long-haired, boot-stompin’, wall-of-death-forming metalheads. Anyone who prefers their metal with a side of core need not buy tickets. Get there early to see openers Caustic Wound and Corpus Offal for the full effect. – MW
INFO: Sat, 8pm, Eli’s Mile High Club, 3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland. $25. 510.808.7565.
SUNDAY, OCT. 12
CHAMBER MUSIC
ISIDORE STRING QUARTET
Born in 2019 at Julliard, the Isidore String Quartet—violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore and cellist Joshua McClendon—embrace a polished-yet-playful attitude to both classical works and new music, “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” The audience at its Hertz Hall performance will enjoy both, as the quartet plays Haydn’s Sunrise and Dvořák’s Quartet in D Major along with Gabriella Smith’s Carrot Revolution. The quartet reaches out to youth, elders and populations with limited access to live chamber music. “It’s not the manners that count, it’s the appreciation of the music!”— Devin Moore. – JANIS HASHE
INFO: Sun, 3pm, Cal Performances at Hertz Hall, 101 Cross-Sproul Path, Berkeley. $69-74. 510.642.9988.
SUNDAY, OCT. 12
INDIE
TV ON THE RADIO
Which is better, TV or radio? Fortunately, no one needs to decide, because the fast-paced, light-’em-up rock band roars through tracks from their heralded albums: Seeds, Return to Cookie Mountain and Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Appearing in partnership with PLUS1, $1 from every ticket sold goes to Noise for Now and the Ally Coalition’s Voices United 4 Every Body Campaign. Amplify rock and uplift the soul and think twice before frittering away an opportunity to support grass-roots organizations in the Bay Area and throughout the U.S. that protect and defend LGBTQ+ youth, reproductive health and sexual health care. What goes around, comes around, as the saying goes. – LF
INFO: Sun, 7:30pm, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $71-101. 510.302.2250.
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 15
INDIE
LORD HURON
In 15 years of music-making, Lord Huron has grown a loyal and enthusiastic following that supports the band’s constant experimentation. 2015’s Strange Trails featured multi-platinum single “The Night We Met,” which is now one of Spotify’s Top 40 most-streamed songs. Now, just-released The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 includes “Who Laughs Last,” described by New Noise Magazine with the words: “textures collide with a repetitive beat and a spoken-word vocal by actress Kristen Stewart.” Band founder and songwriter/vocalist Ben Schneider never met a mood he didn’t like. World Enders, rev up your dreamscapes. – JH
INFO: Wed, 7pm, Greek Theatre, 2001 Gayley Rd., Berkeley. $83-$222. 510.871.9225.
