Steady at the ready, boppers. Noise Pop Industries has announced dates for its 2024 flagship event, a gathering we locals affectionately dub the all-inclusive, crosstown, downtown, around-town music party that reads vast and feels personal.
Yes indeedy, put that FOMO to the rear because the Noise Pop Festival is back for its 31st year. The event is scheduled to take place from February 22 to March 3. As one of San Francisco’s premier music festival, it not only marks the beginning of the national music festival season, but also serves as a precursor to SXSW. Go to the site for ground-level prices on festival badges.
According to event planners, the multi-venue festival will once again transform Cloud City into a music enthusiast’s interactive playground. With hundreds of shows and concerts happening across 12 venues in just 10 days, along with art exhibitions, lively happy hours (with possible chicken sandos flying in the air?), and exclusive after-hour parties, this is the San Francisco experience you signed up for.
While the lineup has not been announced yet, that reveal will begin in early November. So, let’s play a game.
Let’s name an artist we think is going to perform and name an artist we’d like to see perform—and maybe some event showcases we believe should happen.
Why not construct our own Noise Pop gourmet cheeseburger, right?
Let’s go:
HELADO NEGRO
Recently booked to play August Hall on February 22, it’s possible Brooklyn-via-Florida artist Roberto Carlos Lange aka Helado Negro could open up the festival. After all, he’s a San Francisco favorite. His performance at the Noise Pop Festival in 2020 at Great American Music Hall was such a warm and gentle affair that he transformed the venue into one giant cuddle puddle for a date-night sound bath. So much swooning in that room on that night. Track “LFO (Lupe Finds Oliveros)” is taken from his new album Phasor, due in February.
VINYL DREAMS RECORD SHOP
Let’s build a night or a series of nights at this community center of sorts, which provides local and international DJs with quality electronic music. Lineups could feature the like of international and local hero Jonah Sharp aka Spacetime Continuum, playing alongside former Oakland resident and rhythm czar Afrikan Sciences.
Has San Jose-raised Dave Aju ever shared a night with North Bay resident and Best of The Bay winner from a few years back Eki Shola?
Who knows, maybe Noise Pop could book Eris Drew & Octo Octa B2B for a record store sesh before a larger gig at 1015 or such?
The possibilities are endless when you think forward.
FAST TIMES PRESENTS!
Ashley Graham and musician Andrew St. James, who make up the Fast Times Presents! promotions team, are patched—some would say hardwired—into the nerve center of Bay Area up-and-coming bands.
I’m a witness. I’ve taken in the magic they concoct by pairing the right bands with the proper alternative venue. Maybe Noise Pop turns on the promotions and the cash (always need cash, right?), and sponsors a Fast Times Presents! night at The Balboa or Four-Star Cinema with any of the high-test bands making this city’s official scene, with indie jangle pop driving the bus.
The Umbrellas, Kids On a Crime Spree, Neutrals, Cindy, Lunchbox, Blues Lawyer, Chime School, Peel Dream Magazine, Jeanines, Seablite, Mick Trouble, Boyracer, The Reds, Pinks & Purples—there’s a few options for this dream scenario, just to name several.
That line-up and those promoters? It’d be an all-day cinematic psychedelic experience, that will for sure sell out.
SOUL AND JAZZ at CAFE DU NORD
Again, I’m just brainstorming here, but Du Nord, with its super cozy vibe, seems like a perfect fit for a proper get-down. You know, the kind where you can’t help but lean towards the stage to catch every morsel of goodness the artist has permeating throughout the crowd. Let’s have Yazmin Lacey, Kaidi Tatham, Allysha Joy, and bring Emma Jean Thackray back one more time. While we’re at it, let’s also bring back Irreversible Entanglements and Makaya McCraven. We should also book Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jeff Parker, Theo Parrish, Mndsgn—and definitely Jimetta Rose and the Voices of Creation, for a churchly cleanse at the end. All of these artists would give that 116-year-old spectral cave the right type of warmth on a February evening.
Take it away, Noise Pop—you’ve got the goods.
For more information on the actual Noise Pop 2024, go here.
