Fall Arts Preview: 10 live music shows to ring in autumn ears

Just when you thought a summer full of park gigs, fully mobile raves on a converted Muni cable car, and eucalyptus-lined natural amphitheater shows brought you to the supreme blessed climax of “Fogust”… Well, it was all just a snack. Near perfection, that’s what the Bay Area fall concert season resembles. Here are the shows and fests that should be on your plate, and follow our weekly Under the Stars column and Big Week event picks for more great show previews. See more great Fall Arts Preview coverage all week here. Oh hey, have you voted for Best of the Bay?

Portola Festival out at Pier 80 touches down September 26 and 27, with headlining sets from Robyn, DOG BLOOD (Skrillex & Boys Noize), Swedish House Mafia, Zara Larsson, Tiësto (in the Warehouse), Four Tet, Ben UFO, Tove Lo, and Soulwax. Whatever you do, don’t sleep on its supporting cast—sets from performers DJ Shadow and Tricky will round out your weekend. Study up on the lineup here.

Autumn, around these parts, moves with the quickness. Stack up those picture-perfect, sun-kissed days and don’t miss gigs like the KALW 85-year celebration concert on September 29, marking the station’s move into the People’s Studio at Warfield Commons. It will feature legendary groups BADBADNOTGOOD and Digable Planets at the Warfield.

That rapscallion of a venue, the new Castro Theatre, will present DJ and producer Octo Octa on October 4 for the Castro Street Fair afterparty.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass marches once again into Golden Gate Park, and its 26th year is still free for all October 2-4. Los Lobos, Langford, Hogan & Timms, Mavis Staples, Hiss Golden Messenger, and so many other acts will shine in and out of the park. Look them up here.

Here are 10+ other shows that will make your toes curl in the sand.

TUE/8: SAMARA JOY AT DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL

Watch the throne. This Grammy-winning singer, who grew up in the Castle Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, released her self-titled debut album in 2021 and soon after was named JazzTimes’ best new artist. Linger Awhile, her second album released in September 2022, won best jazz vocal album at the 2023 Grammys, where she was also named best new artist. Now, this tour-de-force performer will make her San Francisco Symphony debut.

Grab tickets here.

WED/9: THE KOFY BROWN BAND, SKIP THE NEEDLE, BLACK GOLD SUN AT BOTTOM OF THE HILL

This is by far the triple-beam dream for 360 degrees of Black music in one venue, on one stage, all on one night. KBB is a singer and songwriter pioneering the Bay Area’s hip-hop soul scene—she leads her own band, and has paved the way for other indie artists to trek forth. Her unit has spread the gospel of Brown’s unique style of soul, rock, funk, and more all over North America, Canada, and Europe. The night will feature Skip The Needle, an Oakland-based queer female quartet made up of musical superstars: Brown herself, Vicki Randle (The Tonight Show and Mavis Staples), Shelley Doty (Shelley Doty X-Tet, Jambay), and Katie Cash (Katie Cash Band, Year of the Fist). Together, they make politically astute rock and roll-funk. They’re joined by Black Gold Sun, the poignant Bay Area indie Black girl punk band.

It’s a three-fer on this night that you just can’t miss!

Grab tickets here.

WED/9: SLEATER-KINNEY AND LIZ PHAIR AT THE GREEK THEATRE

Supposedly, the idea of doing a joint tour with Sleater-Kinney was circling around in Liz Phair’s brain for years. The bundling of the fierce post-punk aesthetics of these two artists even has its own name: The Flannel and Fury. With Soccer Mommy playing in support on the bill, expect Brownstein, Tucker, and Phair to bring it—the way it should have happened decades ago.

Grab tickets here.

SEPTEMBER 18: SWEEPING PROMISES AND FAKE FRUIT AT RICKSHAW STOP

A show for which anybody would pay twice the price, due to its double billing of post-punk and indie-rock exceptionalism. We’re not mincing words or kissing asses here—show up, observe, be humble, and watch two of the most impressive bands in the punk multiverse display to everybody how this shit is done.

Sweeping Promises promise to bring it, with their alternative chaos-making selves—namely, guitarist-producer Caufield Schnug and bassist-vocalist Lira Mondal, who understand the importance of call-and-response, even in punk arrangements. They get down to a minimal-yet-powerful song structure built up off a trembling, quivering, shivering, and convulsing drum beat, plus an always-juddering bass work from Mondal.

Nobody out here is bringing that art-rock rambunctiousness like they are. Nobody.

And of course, we have to gush over the evening’s other talented group: Oakland’s own Fake Fruit, who’ve opened for ESG and Dry Cleaning, forever handling their biz. The trio explodes, fueled by apprehension concerning daily struggles, filtered through the clapback snark of the band’s leader Ham D’Amato’s whipsmart lyrics, plus sublime post-punk timing. Fake Fruit remains on my list as the next Bay Area band to make it nationally. They’re just that good—and better.

Come early for System Exclusive playing in support.

Grab tickets here.

SEPTEMBER 24: JACK WHITE AT BILL GRAHAM CIVIC AUDITORIUM

Jack White has very nicely put the White Stripes in storage. Tucking it in that room that nobody goes into that much. He’s pressed on with a very successful post-Stripes existence. While his raw, aggressive, and blues-infused blend of garage rock and punk energy stays fully engaged no matter the project, he yearns to create new arrangements and run a pretty solid record label while still being an anonymous benefactor. Supposedly, he gave The Roxie Theater, right there on 16th Street, next to Dalva, $20,000 during the pandemic to stay afloat.

His live performances still give way more than he charges for tickets.

You should go see him now, this somewhat elder statesman of rock, while he still feels like playing.

Grab tickets here.

SEPTEMBER 27: ERYKAH BADU AND THE ALCHEMIST AT THE GREEK THEATER

Every couple of years, there comes a select group of artists who take a listen to contemporary R&B and say, “WTF? Naah. We got to reset this.” This year it was GENA, the duo of famed Detroit drummer-producer Karriem Riggins and Dallas singer-producer Liv.e. Their collaboration LP The Pleasure Is Yours resonates with that frequency due to their classic Soulquarian production, proper, well-constructed R&B, and thick, viscous low-end factor of bass, frequency, and love.

And now, we need to add Before the World Blows, the Erykah Badu and The Alchemist highly anticipated joint album, to that list of 2026 R&B resetters. Woo-wee! Leave it to Badu to drop knowledge, mysticism, and spaced-out soul funk, and then grab the right producer to make something strangely beautiful that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with corporate sales, promoting a podcast, or branding. This is food for Black folks. Alchemist has been on a heater for the past, well, decade, and specifically on those Larry June albums. Fire.

Just a quick listen to the album’s lead track “I’m a witch doctor, not Tabitha, not Samantha,” and immediately you know where and how this hypnotic, funny, blunt, deeply personal, and impossible-to-categorize project is swinging.

These two live at The Greek? Done deal, baby.

Grab tickets here.

SEPTEMBER 24-27: MARCUS MILLER: “WE WANT MILES” CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT SFJAZZ

Marcus Miller and his exceptional bass work always arrive with that “right place, right time” ethos. His plucky candor meets Larry Graham’s slap bass percussive playing style, which remains forever ingrained in our minds through the evergreen Luther Vandross earworm “Never Too Much.”

1982’s double live We Want Miles record is a document of Davis’s first live performances after his self-imposed six-year retirement, pulled from recordings in Boston, New York, and Tokyo, and featuring two versions of the now-classic tracks “Jean-Pierre,” “Back Seat Betty,” plus the Gershwin standard “My Man’s Gone Now.”

Expect Miller to do those late-era Miles joints, with justice and a bit of swag. C’mon, Mang. It’s Miles.

Grab tickets here.

OCTOBER 11: DERYA YILDIRIM AND GRUP ŞIMŞEK AT THE CHAPEL

If anybody told me I’d be hooked on a band, an outernational one (that’s how they self-identify) with members from Germany, France, and South Africa who take Anatolian folk songs and turn them into evergreen melodies with retro grooves shot through a prism of psychedelia and 70s soul?

I would think they were high. Or that I was. Well, I’m not, but when Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek sold out The Chapel a couple of summers ago, band and attendees immediately connected.

Listen, I didn’t formally know what they were singing about until they explained the tunes were “work songs” of her people. Then I got it all. Plus, the lead singer ran the merch table after the show.

I’ve been hooked ever since. So much good energy and great-sounding arrangements from this special little band whose debut album on Big Crown Records was produced by none other than Leon Michels (El Michels Affair). I’d drive through a blizzard doing 90, backwards to see this ’70s Turkish funk, acid rock, and psychedelic soul band once again. They are just that magical.

Grab tickets here.

OCTOBER 28: MARTIN LUTHER MCCOY AT THE SAN FRANCISCO WAR MEMORIAL & PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

McCoy has returned with Welcome Back Love, his first full-length album in 14 years. This born-and-raised San Franciscan, who was raised in the city’s Lakeview-Ingleside area—with Bayview-Hunters Point helping shape his understanding of community and culture—always arrives at the right place at the right time, moving between worlds with grace.

These days, he’s touring with The Roots one moment, collaborating with artists including Erykah Badu and Saul Williams the next, appearing in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, taking on the role of Jojo in Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe, performing with SFJAZZ Collective, and co-founding Moon Medicin, a multidisciplinary performance project that blends music, visual art, and ritual.

At one of his performances, you can expect a rotating oeuvre that swings through gospel, soul, funk, rock, hip-hop, folk, and social commentary, channeling all the hues of Black American music through his nuanced style and foresight.

You can catch McCoy providing live music for the after-party of the First Responder Support Network (FRSN) inaugural gala. The main function begins at 5:30pm, with the after-party to follow featuring live music, drinks, and dancing.

More info here.

NOVEMBER 6: THEE SINSEERS AT THE FILLMORE

A couple years ago, we asked bandleader Joey Quiñones what fuels and inspires his East LA band. We wanted to know what was behind its heightened neighborhood-feeling moments, like Thee Sinseers’ intimate and unhurried slow dance number that conjures the gymnasiums of Roosevelt and Garfield High. To anyone else who has a pulse and remembers those vulnerable moments from their teenage years, the ones in which that gym became an entry to the wider world, the answer was important.

Turns out, they pull from a lively mix of songs delivered by influential groups such as The Paragons from Kingston, Jamaica, who wrote a little track called “The Tide Is High” that Blondie would cover in 1980. Quiñones mentioned landmark soul jazz from 1963 by trumpeter Lee Morgan, Otis Redding ripping through The Beatles’ “Hard Days Night,” rocketship garage rock from “zoot-suited pachuco soul” by The Midniters, and punk, hardcore, and two-step rhythms from Operation Ivy.

So at The Fillmore, expect a night full of love stories telling so many different truths.

Grab tickets here.

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