From Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan to Jerry Garcia Day to a cat video festival, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.
Here’s a partial roundup.
Two terrific tours headed our way
A pair of fabulous package tours are heading to Shoreline Amphitheatre.
First up at the Mountain View venue is the Outlaw Music Festival Tour on Saturday. Country music’s No. 1 living legend — Willie Nelson — once again headlines this trek. So, that means fans will likely get to hear such country classics as “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” and “On the Road Again.”
Nelson is joined by another first-tier music legend — Bob Dylan, aka, one of the most widely celebrated songwriters in all of music history — as well as Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp. Rounding out the bill is rising country star Brittney Spencer.
Details: 5:30 p.m.; tickets start at $51 (subject to change), livenation.com. The tour also hits Toyota Amphitheatre in Wheatland on Aug. 4.
Following Nelson and company, Shoreline Amphitheatre will welcome the Triple Moon Tour on Wednesday. Multiplatinum rock-pop star Alanis Morissette — known for such smashes as “Hand in My Pocket,” “Ironic,” “You Learn,” “Thank U” and, of course, “You Oughta Know” — headlines the show. She’ll be joined on the bill by the one and only Joan Jett, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, as well as Morgan Wade, whose two studio albums — 2021’s “Reckless” and 2023’s “Psychopath” — rank among the finest full-length country platters of this decade.
Details: 7 p.m.; tickets start at $32 (subject to change); livenation.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Happy Jerry Garcia Day!
The iconic Bay Area personality and globally known musician and founding member of the Grateful Dead was born 82 years ago Thursday. And although he and the original band have been gone for nearly two decades, the musical legacy lives on, especially with spinoff band Dead & Company performing in its extended residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas through this weekend. With its patented sound blending rock, psychedelia, folk, jazz and other genres, and Garcia’s distinctive syncopated and melodic lead guitar runs, the Grateful Dead’s music remains one of the most identifiable of any band in history. The band’s role in creating the San Francisco sound and its part in the lively, if oft-inebriated music scene only add to its mystique.
One aspect of Garcia that isn’t as well known was that he was a prolific artist, having created paintings, drawings, etches and even digital art on a steady basis beginning in the late 1980s. He was known to carry a pad and pen and was frequently seen doodling potential works and ideas. Like his music, Garcia’s art embraced several styles and themes – whatever was flowing through his mind at the time. These works were not just random scribblings, mind you; they drew respectful and even favorable reviews and he staged several museum and gallery exhibitions around the country beginning in the early ‘90s. You can see his works for yourself now in a free exhibit at the Sausalito Center for the Arts running Thursday through the end of the month. All the works, made available by the Jerry Garcia Foundation, will be available for sale (most costing $2,500) with proceeds going toward the Arts Center’s projects to promote art, music and more in Sausalito.
Meanwhile, the 22nd annual Jerry Day celebration and concert kicks off 11 a.m. Saturday at Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park, San Francisco, featuring Melvin Seals and JGB, Stu Allen and Mars Hotel, Grahame Lesh, Elliott Peck, Alex Jordan and more (www.jerryday.org).
Details: Arts Center is located at 750 Bridgeway, Sausalito; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; free admission; www.sausalitocenterforthearts.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Here comes the purrfect festival
Sure, we can all try to immerse ourselves in artistic ventures that reflect profoundly on the human condition or promote compassion and empathy among people in these tense and challenging times. Or we can say “forget it” and spend the day watching cat videos. If you choose the latter (and we are not here to judge), several Bay Area theaters are hosting that touring bundle of furry, purring awesomeness, CatVideoFest, beginning Friday.
Now we understand that some of you may prefer to take in cat videos from the safety and privacy of your own home, but try thinking of it as something you’re doing not because you want to mess off when you should be working, but because you just enjoy the thrill of watching cats who look like Wilford Brumley or who adorably get themselves tangled up in a fresh load of clean laundry and want to share this joy with like-minded fans of feline accomplishment. Plus, CatVideoFest is all about raising money and awareness for various groups that help abandoned cats find homes. Portions of the funds raised at each Bay Area CatVideoFest screening, for example, will go to a local cat rescue organization. The 75-minute, non-rated video collection comes to the Sequoia Theatre in Mill Valley, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the Rialto Elmwood theater in Berkeley and the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco.
Details: Most screenings $10-$15; tickets, schedules and more information is at www.catvideofest.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
Go all ‘Enter Sandman’ at SFMOMA
Metallica is one of the most successful heavy metal bands in history, with scads of Grammys and a throne in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And now you can hear what they’d sound like if their famous drummer was instead a subway bucket drummer, perhaps, or an oleaginous teenager who loves banging to Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters in his garage at midnight.
For one day only, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is allowing anyone from the public to whale on the drum kit Lars Ulrich used in the recording of the 2016 album “Hardwired … To Self-Destruct.” The event is part of the SFMOMA exhibition “Art of Noise,” which gathers unique physical artifacts from the history of sound and music.
To be clear: No musical qualifications are necessary, just the burning urge to rock out without embarrassment. To temper the madness a bit, the museum has booked a few professional drummers who will play on the hour, including Chiyo Nukaga Jacobus and James “Stick Nasty” Small. Time slots for playing the seven-piece, purple-sparkle drum set are limited and sign-ups will be accepted on a first-come basis. And if it needed to be said, Lars Ulrich will not be in attendance.
Details: Noon to 8 p.m.; Floor 4 at SFMOMA, San Francisco; free as part of First Thursday; event tied to “Art of Noise” exhibit that runs through Aug. 18; sfmoma.org.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Desi Comedy Fest marks milestone
10 years ago, Bay Area comedians Abhay Nadkarni and Samson Koletkar decided to try their luck by creating a show spotlighting South Asian yuckmeisters. To say it paid off would be understatement.
As the Desi Comedy Festival returns for its 10-year anniversary, it has logged shows across the country featuring more than 200 comedians, thousands of comedy fans and some gazillion guffaws. OK, we’re just speculating on that last statistic but you get the idea — the Desi Comedy Fest has become a tradition and hopes to stay that way.
The event will stage its Bay Area run with four shows: 8 p.m. Saturday at the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton; 7 p.m. Sunday at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco; 8 p.m. Tuesday at Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley; and 8 p.m. Aug. 8 at San Jose Improv.
Founders Nadkarni and Koletkar are still in the lineup, along with Deeptanshu Jha, Ibhaan Kulkarni, Maryam Moosavi, Maddie Kelly, Abby Govindan, Anu Bee, Deeptanshu Jha, and many more. The goal, organizers say, is “creating a space where laughter knows no borders.”
Details: Tickets are $30 per night; www.desicomedyfest.com.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Classical picks: ‘Don Giovanni,’ pop trailblazers
For opera lovers, August starts with “Don Giovanni,” sung by the artists of the Merola Opera Program. Also this week: The San Francisco Symphony celebrates three beloved female pop/rock icons.
Racette directs at Merola: With the Merola Opera Program in high gear this week, audiences will have a chance to see and hear the elite training program’s rising-star singers in two performances of Mozart’s dramatic masterwork, “Don Giovanni.” Conducted by Stefano Sarzani, the production features stage direction by star soprano Patricia Racette, who started her career as a young singer in the Merola Program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Saturday; San Francisco Conservatory of Music; $10-$65; sfopera.com.
Cabrillo Currents: You can’t get much newer than the music at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music: this weekend’s events include a program featuring the West Coast premieres of works by Vivian Fung and Nina Young, along with a world premiere by Karim Al-Zand; superstar violinist Leila Josefowicz will also be on hand to perform the West Coast premiere of Helen Grimes’ Violin Concerto.
Details: Through Aug. 11; Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz; $30-$82; $295-$360 subscriptions; cabrillomusic.org.
Joni, Carole, Carly: The trailblazing music of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Carly Simon are featured in today’s San Francisco Symphony program, with guest singers Morgan James, Capathia Jenkins, and Shayna Steele lending their voices to some of those iconic songwriters’ greatest hits. Ted Sperling conducts.
Details: 7:30 p.m. today; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $35-$275; sfsymphony.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Marsh celebrates anniversary with laughs
Arguably, there are less risky ways The Marsh founder Stephanie Weisman could have celebrated the 35th anniversary of her organization, which develops and showcases solo theater shows in the Bay Area. The artistic and executive director gambled on creating a monthlong festival dedicated to women and nonbinary-identifying writers and performers.
“Not to sound flippant, but if I waited to be confident or worried about the successfulness of many of my ideas, I doubt I would have started The Marsh or anything else,” she says.
The result: Marsh’s In Front of Your Eyes Performance Festival, running today through Aug. 25 at its venues in San Francisco and Berkeley. Its writers and performers — Laura Jane Bailey, Tina D’Elia, Celina Demos, Elizabeth Du Val, Marga Gomez, Candace Johnson, Pearl Louise, Pearl Ong, Shubhra Prakash, Kathryn Seabron, Ananda Bena-Weber and Weisman — are a mix of first timers and veterans with in-development works.
Weisman her will debut “180 Days. To Die. To Live.,” in which an omnipresent narrator follows two terminally ill characters pondering legal end-of-life options. The piece, onstage in Berkeley Aug. 23-25, was inspired by Weisman’s husband and a mutual friend; both were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
The festival features 12 shows in all.
Details: Aug. 1-11 in S.F., Aug. 14-25 in Berkeley; tickets and passes are $15-$135; themarsh.org.
— Charles Lewis III, Bay City News Foundation
A Summer with the Symphony signoff: The San Francisco Symphony winds up its monthlong series of non-subscription programming this weekend with two live performances of the Oscar-winning score to the romantic 2016 movie “La La Land,” conducted by the man who nabbed the trophy himself, composer Justin Hurwitz. Meanwhile, the film starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and a jazz piano player looking to make it big, plays out over the orchestra members’ heads on a giant movie screen.
The film, which captured 14 nominations total, won six of them, including best actress for Stone and best director for Damien Chazelle, at the time the youngest person, at age 32, to score a win in that category. (Those of us with long memories will recall that the ceremony was somewhat marred when presenter Faye Dunaway, reading from a duplicate card for Stone’s award, mistakenly announced that “La La Land” had also won best picture, leading to several minutes of confusion before the real winner, “Moonlight,” emerged.)
Details: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 3, 2 p.m. Aug. 4 ; Davies Hall, San Francisco. $225-$325; www.sfsymphony.org.
