San Francisco, like any city or scene worth its weight in terms of influence, has always had—and continues to maintain—a renegade musical spirit. The germination and support of what comes next are intricately woven into the fabric of what makes Karl The Fog.
The two most recent Outside Lands festivals in Golden Gate Park averaged of 222,518 attendees—and yes, Tyler, The Creator and Lizzo reeled ’em in—but the real story of our local music industry climbing back onto its feet took place in the smaller and independent venues.
The Bay still holds sway over the world’s musical imagination with a deep bench of historical players—and our palette of talent remains transcendent. This year seemed to see more live concerts, music events, and large scale festivals in 2022 than ever before, including new electronic ones. National stars came to play here, as well as up-and-coming lights that appeal to more esoteric tastes. We embraced Emma Jean Thackray (what a show at Cafe du Nord this summer btw) and Phoebe Bridgers.
Here are our favorite concert moments and impressions from a very full year of live music.
IRREVERSIBLE ENTANGLEMENTS FEATURING MOOR MOTHER, THE NEW PARRISH IN OAKLAND, NOISE POP 2022
And so it was that poet and vocalist Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother) of the liberation-oriented, improvisational quintet Irreversible Entanglements landed their muscular and awe-inspiring Noise Pop performance at The New Parish in Oakland. Moor Mother, with that specific cultural enunciation of hers, stated ‘We have arrived.’ The night’s show had indeed begun, consisting of two albums worth of material coiled into a rigid, terse, and relentless 58 (maybe 72)-minute performance. We got time-hacked by the rocket fumes emanating from the quintet on stage. Without question, this outfit, of fully-possessed stature, in total control, gave a highly-knowledgeable and fully-invested audience Black experimentalism at its zenith.
We asked our friend Guillermo of Sweater Funk what he thought, and he said, “Hmmm. Man, it blew me away. Been a minute since I saw a free-jazz show like that. Really tho, I’ve never seen a show like that. Remember how blown away we were when we left? I felt refreshed yet pensive. Gave me a lot to think about. I don’t leave shows feeling like that often. I still want to go back and listen to that performance. I wish it was recorded.” Read the full review here.
BJÖRK, CHASE CENTER
48 Hills food and music writer Tamara Palmer of California Eating dove into the Icelandic diva’s entrancing show: “Attending such a large indoor show so early in the year was a bit nerve-wracking, but Björk delivered on her promise that her first Bay Area appearance in nine years would be worth the risk. Accompanied by musicians including the Los Angeles choral group Tonality and her all-woman Icelandic flute septet, the 19-song electro-acoustic performance (called Cornucopia) held the audience in quiet rapture.
“Throughout, video sequences articulated Björk’s views on climate action, including a scrolling text message that suggested new realms of thinking: “We have to imagine something that doesn’t exist… let’s imagine a world where nature and technology collaborate and make a song about it, a musical mockup, and then move into it.” Read the full review here.
THE ZOMBIES AT THE CHAPEL
With their 1960s smash songs “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No,” the Zombies, the second UK band after the Beatles to record a #1 hit in America, crowded the venue’s rafters with rapturous melodies, loud purred voices, and ensemble harmonies paired with colorful piano riffage.
Record collector and DJ B.Riate was there with us: “So beautiful to see that many generations in that location appreciating live music after those lockdown years. I didn’t have to like and subscribe to someone’s channel or worry about how many views it got, I experienced it live with real people.
“At that show, it seemed like there were more people listening and taking it in than there were folks watching and recording shit on their phones.” Read the full review here.
DESTROY BOYS AT GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL
Sacramento punk outfit Destroy Boys prefers to be characterized as “what would happen if Blondie fell into a Misfits recording session.” During a sold-out show, band members Alexia Roditis, Violet Mayugba, and drummer Narsai Malik drew a packed house of mostly ebullient young women into fits of semi-controlled delirium. Hundreds shouted intensely along to quotable lyrics like, “Hunting witches has turned into hunting bitches,” from the undeniable earworm “Locker Room Bully.”
When it came time for a nonbinary and trans mosh pit, commanded by this ensemble who act far older than their young years, shit got sorted quickly. Cis-dudes were happily tossed to the side. Read the full review here.
KAMASI WASHINGTON AT THE GUILD THEATER IN MENLO PARK
Just like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, used to elongate, riff, and write new compositions based on standards or show tunes–things in their cultural zeitgeist—Kamasi unleashed the Kraken’s-worth of his own touch points. One moment, it was a chorus from Parliament Funkadelic’s “Flashlight.” I pointed my finger up to the sky immediately, just on impulse—he was referencing Bernie Worrells’ one-man-band creation of a classic. Next, we get the latter part of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme ”updated, recontextualized, aggressive, in an eager sort of way.
Both songs and artists come from two decades’ worth of genius music, ingrained first in African American and later, global consciousness. Hitting those arrangements of notes, teetering between the funk and the spirit, Washington united the room even further, in a 30-second span. Read the full review here.
FOAMBOY AT POSCENE RICKSHAW STOP
A fully developed joy with an extended band—Wil Bakula on keys-synths, August King on key-talkbox (the vocoder-looking thing), Greyfean Eastland on drums, Jarryd Venti on bass, and Chang Park, cutting those brassy lines on trumpet.
Katy Ohsiek’s vocals on the highlight jazzy house meet disco treat “Logout” just drifted on and on with that pounding swing, reconnecting the sturdy audience with the movement of their bodies. Read the full review here.
BRIJEAN AT THE INDEPENDENT
With the cowboy frills on her shirt moving a half-second behind the pace, those congas Brijean Murphy is lighting up are pushing vibration through the sold-out venue. Stuart puts down powerful disco basslines and later funk rhythms, moving in time while mouthing the congo notes his companion Murphy is playing.
Both are in sync, laughing and grinning at one another while delivering this enormous atmosphere that includes house, tropicalia, disco, pop, rich atmospherics, and some Willie Bobo, too. Read the full review here.
LOS BITCHOS AT THE CHAPEL
People, you can’t pretend to have fun. This band, on stage, dishing out all these excellent-to-great party mood swings, wacky groove bombs, and loosely based disco romps were all delivered as if the band was having a good, Nah, a helluva time for themselves, and the audience was simply a circumstance. Running through their 14-song performance that sped by, with songs like “Pista (Fresh Start)” and “Lindsay goes to Mykonos” (their tribute to Lindsay Lohan’s short-lived program about a club in Mykonos) captured all the cheers.
The charmsicle lasted all night. It was just delicious, from unplanned dancing routines and overemphasized guitar postures by Petale, taking a piss I presume outta old-school Eddie Van Halen ax face. Cherry. As loosely advertised in their anthemic debut; Los Bitchos dare you to have a good time in their outer national psyche-bender. Read the full review here.
