Music mayhem: Bay Area spring concert guide
By Molly Gore
Coachella is around the corner, and the Bay Area will be littered with the best bands in the country for the next few weeks. Even when the rush is over, a steady stream of worthy acts will be filtering through San Francisco. Take a look at what's coming, grab tickets to what you love or expand your taste for what you don't. Either way, make this a quarter of great music.
* Leavey Center
Michael Franti and Spearhead
Monday, April 28
8:30 p.m. $16 - $19
In collaboration with the Human Rights Awareness Tour, chill out to the mellow tunes of this politically active musician.
* Bimbo's 365 in San Francisco
Minus the Bear
Tuesday, April 29
8 p.m. $20
This Seattle-based indie rock band has been experimenting and growing for about seven years now, and has emerged with a portfolio of songs that are semi-electronic but littered with acoustic riffs. The result is sometimes a little weird and idiosyncratic, but cohesive. You can catch them if you are going to Coachella, but this is much cheaper and more intimate.
Robyn
Friday, May 16
9 p.m. $20
This Swedish pop chanteuse has just re-broken into the scene in the States after a good career stretch of pop hits in the late '90s. She still has that late '90s uber-catchy pop beat, with just enough soul. Come to dance.
Adele
Thursday, May 22
9 p.m. $15
A native of North London, Adele is a well-known jazz and soul singer in the UK. Dubbed by many critics as the "new Amy Winehouse," her voice is smoky and soulful.
Her songs are less melancholy than Winehouse, but she provides more than enough of the slow and poignant. The show will be laid back, but if the acoustics serve her right, you will be serenely lost in a jazzy daydream.
Yael Naim
Tuesday, June 24
8 p.m. $25
A recent success thanks partially to MacBook Air, Naim's break into the mainstream does not do her talent justice. Her voice is a bit ethereal, and her songs are feel-good bits of acoustic satisfaction.
* HP Pavilion in San Jose
The Cure
Wednesday, May 28
7:30 p.m. $35 - $65
Without need of an introduction, The Cure still resonates across generations. Sure, there will be a handful of people your mother's age there, but the show is about the music, right?
Kanye West
Friday, June 6
7 p.m. $39.50 - $75
Apparently the "Glow in the Dark" tour is quite the show. Come and get your "rap rave" on.
* The Fillmore in San Francisco
DeVotchKa
Monday, April 28
8 p.m. $20
DeVotchKa is a sound for those with particular and adventurous taste. Gracing nearly the entire "Little Miss Sunshine" soundtrack, the sound of the Denver indie rock group is a mix of folk roots and punk, Romani, Greek, Slavic, Bolero and Mariachi music.
As a four-piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble, DeVotchKa fuses the sounds of a dozen instruments and eerie, nearly Western vocals.
Kate Nash
Tuesday, May 13
8 p.m. $23
Kate Nash has a spectacular, elegantly husky voice. Nash has the kind of sound that morphs between edgy with a sprinkle of Ani Difranco and something more soothing and Feist-like.
The Dresden Dolls
Sunday, May 18
8:30 p.m. $28
Darker and much more gritty and bitter than the artists thus far, The Dresden Dolls shows are made of passion, angst and an enormously talented couple that looks like they have just arrived from an alternative burlesque show.
With faces painted white, The Dresden Dolls are part of the underground dark cabaret movement of the early '90s. They urge fans to become part of the show, developing pieces of performance art out of the audience -- with everything from whispers to screams to the harmonica. Check out the music first. If you like it, the show won't let you down.
Contact Molly Gore at (408-551-1918) or mgore@scu.edu.