Awhile back I wrote a blog post saying that if you weren’t seeing live music on that particular night, it was because you had chosen to stay home or have non-musical plans.  Tonight, March 2nd…the story is the same.

So, while you are getting up and drinking your coffee (or other morning beverage) and wishing that you had not decided to have that second beer last night (even though you didn’t finish it — sacrilegious, I know!), I hope you find yourself here, reading my blog. My blog that is going to tell you about the bands that you could see tonight and why I’ve made the choices that I’ve made about tonight. Full disclaimer: some of these shows may have sold out; I didn’t check since I already have my ticket.

*If you didn’t go see The California Honeydrops last night at The New Parish (or even if you did), you can catch them again tonight. Same place! They have been on my list to check out live for awhile. However, much like this time, I wasn’t able to make it happen in the past. So, there they remain on my list. One of these days…

*Joe Jackson is playing at the Masonic. I love Joe Jackson though I’ve only seen him once and it was a L-O-N-G time ago (during my first living-in-SF stint). If I remember correctly, he was a bit curmudgeonly (which most of you know that I love — hello, Jeff Tweedy!) and scolded the crowd for talking. I will ALWAYS love a performer who scolds the crowd for talking. I will NEVER understand why people go to live performances and then talk through them, especially since it’s generally about mundane things like the traffic getting to the show. So, more power to you, Joe!  Keep up the good work!  And if you are one of those people who wants to have a conversation, might I suggest that you go to dinner or to a bar for drinks instead of the show, or at the very least before the show? But I digress… back to why I did not choose Joe Jackson — The Masonic is not one of my favorite venues, making this an easy show to pass over this time. I will be hopeful that I get to see him again in the near future, preferably at a venue that I like more.

*Beirut at The Fox Theatre in Oakland. I enjoyed Beirut when I saw them a few years ago and I would very likely go see them again, but if I were to see them again I’d like to choose a smaller venue (I saw them at a festival in Canadia a few years ago) and I’d also choose a night where there wasn’t a band or performer that I LOVE competing with Beirut for my attention!

*The Shook Twins at Cornerstone in Berkeley.  I have been up and down with The Shook Twins though when I look back on it, I think there was only one performance that I was on the downside.  I most recently saw them in Nashville during Americanafest and I really enjoyed them again. Their outfits are generally matchy (probably because they’re twins) and they have some interesting instruments and a great stage presence.

*Also, The Bob Mould Band is playing at The Fillmore. I have nothing to say about this because I’m not really familiar with Husker Du or The Bob Mould Band, but I have friends who are excited by this and it is the Fillmore so I feel like it deserves a mention.

*Then we have Ben Morrison playing at Bottom of the Hill.  As anyone who knows me knows, Ben is a part of my favorite local band, The Brothers Comatose.  The Brothers are taking a hiatus right now and Ben has put out his own album with a different band and this is the tour to support that album, starting tonight at BotH.  Not only is BotH one of my favorite local venues, but Ben…  I don’t even know what to say about Ben. I love his voice! He’s got a great stage presence. He’s a really nice guy and I really want to support him (Yes I pledged to his Kickstarter campaign.) Also, his fiancee will be singing along on some of the songs (or so he promised on I/G) and she’s awesome. (If you aren’t familiar with her and the T Sisters which is her band with her sisters, you should go see them at The Swedish Hall on Saturday, March 16th.) How am I not going to this Ben Morrison show, you ask?  Well, let me tell you about how this show was not announced until after I already purchased tickets for the band that I chose for tonight’s entertainment. Let me also tell you that I have every intention of darting as quickly as I can from GAMH to BotH tonight in hopes of catching a song or two before the show ends. I may have requested to Ben that he play long to give me time to get there.

*And who is playing at GAMH, you might ask? Who would keep me from going to see the frontman from my favorite local band? Well, that would be Darlingside.  The winner of the HSB 2018 Jammies and the band who I think may be able to heal the world. Okay, I may be setting expectations too high but they have healed my soul in the past and I am not alone. The first time that I saw Darlingside, they were opening for Patty Griffin at The Fillmore. (Thank you, Patty!) They were AH-mazing and so when I went home, I made a note of them as I do for opening bands that I want to see again/more.

When they returned to SF, my friend Renee invited me to see them headlining at GAMH for my birthday.  Of course, I said yes. This was in November 2016.  Two horrible things happened in November 2016 immediately before my birthday.

1. My cousin (technically not my first cousin, but whatevs) Jamie died of a drug overdose. He had just turned 22 and was about to graduate from Temple. While I wasn’t super close to him at this time in his life, I’ve always been very close to his mom who is my first cousin and sort of played the role of older sister to me as we grew up together. I watched Jamie and his sisters, Rachel and Alexa, grow-up. I’ve also always been fairly close to Jamie’s sisters and his first cousins, Caitlin (who has been mentioned in other posts) and Jake. In general, I am fairly close with the majority of my family though I usually only see them once a year. Jamie’s death was a shock and it really fucked me up for awhile.
2. This country completely betrayed me (and woman and non-white people and people with disabilities and… and… and…) and elected an unqualified, misogynist, racist creep to the highest office in our land. I don’t think I need to explain why having a majority of the people in my country choosing to elect someone who openly suggested that it was acceptable to grab women by their pussies would be horrible, but then again I know women who voted for him so maybe I do. Suffice it to say, that if this paragraph doesn’t make you understand how I feel about this, I’m not planning to go into more detail here. This isn’t that type of blog and I would prefer not to waste the time writing about it here since my written words aren’t likely to change anyone’s mind either.

So back to Darlingside…

Renee (who had also just lost a friend) and I met up for the show. Neither of us were in a good place.  Then Darlingside took the stage and started to play their beautiful songs and have their banter and their cute band introductions and Renee and I cried our way through most of the show in the most cathartic way that I could have imagined. I have since seen them several times at festivals and at GAMH and they have NEVER disappointed me (though they don’t usually make me cry). They played HSB last year (as you may have figured since they won the Best of the Jammies award) and I was able to introduce many of my friends to their music. I don’t think there was a single person among us who wasn’t impressed and perhaps, in love.  I am so looking forward to tonight and have been for quite awhile. I honestly am not sure how many tickets I’ve bought for this show because friends kept asking me to pick up a ticket for them the next time I was at GAMH or Slim’s. (Yes, this is a service that I offer to the LOLMs.) Given that, there should be a decent group of us tonight if you’d like to join us. Or maybe you don’t want to join us, but trust me that you should go to this show! If you aren’t going to this show, then you should go to see Ben Morrison (or one of the other shows that I’ve mentioned) because I believe in supporting live music and supporting the things you love.

If you do come out tonight, all that I ask is that you not talk during the performance!

Also, if you’d like to read an earlier blog post for Darlingside, I’ve linked it here.