Welcome to our new calendar feature BIG WEEK! Each week, our expert Arts & Culture writers recommend the best things for you to do in the best city on earth: Arts, Music, Food & Drink, Theater, Film, Nightlife, and more. Subscribe to our newsletter to get this straight to your inbox.
ARTS
Tons more to do and support right here.
THU/24: A SOUTHERN PANTHER: A BOOK READING WITH MALIK RAHIM Malik Rahim served as the chair of the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Since then, he’s remained active in the struggles for the rights of political prisoners, housing, environmental justice and international concerns. His new book with local author James Tracy shares his wealth of experience provides valuable lessons for today’s organizers fighting against climate disaster and for racial justice. 7pm-9pm, Medicine for Nightmares, SF. More info here.
SAT/26 + SUN/27: SHIPYARD ARTISTS OPEN STUDIOS The annual Hunters Point Shipyard Artists Open Studios weekend not only gets you a peek into the creative environs and spectacular work of more than 100 local artists—you also get to poke around the awesome Shipyard itself, with live music, food, and an art auction in its unique waterfront setting. Tell them 48 Hills sent you! It’s free—reserve a spot here.
SAT/26: INDIE BOOKSTORE DAY Despite the preponderance of the Internet, SF still retains many magical bookstores, from the mighty Green Apple and the fabulous Fabulosa to the triumph of Noe Valley Books, recently resurrected by employees after it predecessor, Folio Books, folded. Go out and support your local indie bookstore and make sure we keep them around. You might just score a celebratory cupcake, too. More info here.
SAT/26 + SUN/27: CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN The deadpan folk-punk band from Redlands has done so much more since their 1980s heyday than “take the skinheads bowling, take them bowling” (including spawning classic alternative band Cracker and swelling the ranks of Counting Crows). This 40th anniversary celebration of their seminal Telephone Free Landslide Victory album will revel in their comfortingly idiosyncratic sound. 8pm, The Fillmore, SF. More info here.
SAT/26: MTT 80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION Michael Tilson Thomas recently announced that he had to cease conducting due to his health—this will be his final performance with the SF Symphony, which has become synonymous with him, and he is going out in dashing style, leading some of his own compositions as well as by his mentor, Leonard Bernstein. He even splashes on some classic camp, with Frank Loesser’s “Take Back Your Mink” from Guys and Dolls. Thank you for all the music, maestro. 7:30pm, Davies Symphony Hall, SF. More info here.
SAT/26: CARMINA BURANA Bay Area choreographer Dana Lawton brings the composer Carl Orff’s classic score to new life inside Grace Cathedral, to “brilliantly explores human resilience and the forces of nature, using the light streaming through the windows”—and add some high visual drama to the cavernous space. 3pm and 5pm, Grace Cathedral, SF. More info here.
SUN/27: ROLLIN’ WITH THE HOMOS It’s doesn’t get much better, or more Bay Area, than drag on rollerskates. Head to Oakland’s Brooklyn Basin for the return of this summer mainstay, with tons of performances and the Third Annual Rollin’ with the Homos pageant—who will win $500 and the coveted title of Mx Gender Neutral Rollin Homos Brooklyn Basin Pageant Winner 2023? 4pm-7pm, Brooklyn Basin, Oakland. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great musical picks every week.
SUN/27: PARIS BLUES In celebration of Duke Ellington’s Black excellence, The 4 Star will be screening a 1961 classic film containing one of his most iconic scores—Paris Blues. It features a storyline that involves American jazz musicians Ram Bowen (Paul Newman) and Eddie Cook (Sidney Poitier) living and working in Paris and falling in love with American tourists Lillian (Joanne Woodward) and Connie (Diahann Carroll). 7:30pm, 4 Star Theatre, SF. More info here.
SUN/27: SARAH AND THE SUNDAYS In a short period, Austin band Sarah and the Sundays have employed their indie and alternative rock roots to explore humanity at its most natural state—drenched in emotion, expressing sensations of love, grief, anger, sadness, and joy. With a scruffy guitar tone, propulsive timbre, and lyrics expressing humanity, Liam Yorgensen (lead vocals, guitar), Brendan Whyburn (vocals, guitar), Quinn Lane (drums), Miles Reynolds (keyboard, guitar), and Declan Chill (bass) offer indie rock that stays with you after the stage show is done. 8pm, Brick and Mortar, SF. More info here.
MON/28: MOGWAI After 30 years in the business of making and touring post-rock for a global audience under the name of one of the creatures from the film Gremlins, Mogwai claims the moniker never really meant anything and they intended to change it, but never quite got around to it. Their blend of shoegaze patterns and hypnotic orchestrations has carved a sweet spot for fans of the Glasgow-based band. Touring in support of their 11th album, The Bad Fire, will keep SF fans closing their eyes and escaping into a different realm. 8pm, Regency Ballroom, SF. More info here.
FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s Good Taste Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork every week.
GROW YOUR OWN GROCERIES! I’ve long gotten joy out of the practice of growing different herbs, fruits, vegetables, and edible flowers on my back stairs and in the living room. Plants I didn’t expect to work in a foggy corner of San Francisco have grown slowly and sweetly here thanks to southern exposure to the sun, including blueberries, strawberries, fava beans, and artichokes. If you’ve been increasingly thinking about getting into growing your own groceries, now’s the time—and one of the best places to get you started locally is Sloat Garden Center‘s 13 Bay Area locations. I frequent the OG Sloat Boulevard location in SF the most, but recently visited one of the two Mill Valley locations (657 E. Blithedale Avenue) and loved looking at what’s in bloom right now. I purchased two heirloom Berkeley Tie-Dye tomato plant starts, and can’t wait to watch the little groovies grow and bear fruit!
FLOUR + WATER PIZZA SHOP NOW OPEN IN MISSION ROCK Last week, Chef Thomas McNaughton opened a cute second location of Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Mission Rock, and I was invited to sample some slices. My favorites are a cacio e pepe white pie, which is McNaughton’s favorite to add toppings to, and the Hawaiian, which has capicola, pineapple, pickled Fresno chilies, and chili crisp. Soft serve is common around town, but F+W’s fior di latte soft serve with brown butter cereal crumble and Italian Amarena cherries is pretty amazing. A great addition to this growing neighborhood, the restaurant is also close to the ballpark and you can quickly order right from your table, so I’d recommend it for your pre-gaming! 1090 Dr. Maya Angelou Lane, SF
MAY 1-3: REEL TASTE FILM AWARDS IN NAPA Next week, CIA at Copia will host Reel Taste Film Awards. Three days of film, TV, and documentary programming, panel discussions, hands-on classes, instructionals, and themed dinners are set to begin with a special screening, talk, and dinner for Netflix’s new Chef’s Table: Legends with appearances from stars Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, and Jamie Oliver as well as series creator David Gelb. Tickets can be purchased for the whole weekend, for two days, or, as they cleverly put it, “à la carte.” CIA at Copia, 500 1st Street, Napa.
STAGE
Charles Lewis III hits up theaters and performance spaces every week for his Drama Masks column.
THU/24: GREAT AMERICAN SH*T SHOW It’s hard to breathe new life into anti-Trump tropes—you’ve seen one Trump Baby balloon, you’ve seen them all—but comedian-actor Brian Copeland can still make you laugh through the tears. His popular one-person show returns for one night only—catch it for some welcome catharsis. 7pm, The Marsh, SF. More info here.
THROUGH SAT/26: KILLING MY LOBSTER’S BAD LOBSTER Examining our sins is the latest topic for the hilarious heathens of comedy troupe Killing My Lobster. In the 20-sketch anthology, head writer April Pascua and director Phil Wong aim to hold the guilty accountable, even if they see the appeal of being naughty. It’s the sort of show where hashtag-activists can tweet their support for an Amazon strike just as their same-day Prime orders arrive; the sort of show where an old yenta can justify having pork dumplings at a Chinese restaurant; where the 8th Deadly Sin is personified as a Gen-Zer named “Cringe.” Eclectic Box, SF. More info here.
THROUGH MAY 4: TWO TRAINS RUNNING August Wilson’s 1990 play, set in late 1960s Pittsburgh, examines the delicate dance between Black capitalism and the bonds of community. This fantastic production by traveling The Acting Company at ACT also fleshes out the human stories bulldozed by urban redevelopment—the varied histories of those driven by racism and opportunity into the Great Migration, and what befell them which they found more of both in the North. As always, Wilson’s language is electric, and many truths are spoken. ACT, SF. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
PINK FLOYD: LIVE AT POMPEII A newly restored version of documentarian Adrian Maben film first released in 1972 hits theaters. The British band plays in the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater—live, but without spectators, and the performances were shot over six days’ course. The half dozen or so songs are each given their own visual strategy, which encompasses psychedelia and some enigmatic posturing but doesn’t approach the silly play-acting of Zep’s later Song Remains the Same. In part because of its conceptual nature, Pompeii remains an almost perfect miniature, at once a time capsule and something out of time entirely. In Bay Area theaters, more info here.
ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO Though it has generous excerpts—including “Come Together,” “Mother” and “Imagine”—from the only full-length concert Lennon did post-Beatles, One to One: John & Yoko is less of a concert film than either of the features above. Instead, Kevin Macdonald’s documentary is a sort of mosaic using the 18 months when rock’s most famous couple first moved to NYC as a framework to view a particular roilsome period in US history. Inhabiting a humble Greenwich Village apartment (before departing to the greater privacy of the upscale Dakota), they dove into political activity at its counterculture peak. Lennon wrote songs in support of political prisoners and the antiwar movement; he and Yoko Ono developed close activist alliances with Jerry Rubin, Allan Ginsberg and others. More info here.
NIGHTLIFE
Marke B. usually knows what’s up.
FRI/25: MERCURY SOUL AT GRACE CATHEDRAL Conductor-composer-DJ-partier Mason Bates has been at the forefront of blending classical with electronic music for years (who else could bring scratching to the symphony stage). His Mercury Soul events take things one step further by dropping both into a multimedia club environment that conjures secret cabarets and underground raves. Now, they’ve let him loose in Grace with Garza from Thievery Corporation, The Grace Cathedral Choir, Mercury Soul Brass All-Stars, SF Contemporary Music Baroque, and many more—plus immersive visuals by Mark Johns. Holy moly. 7:30pm, Grace Cathedral, SF. More info here.
SAT/26: DISCOSTAN One of my favorite traveling parties finally hits San Francisco, mixing vintage Persian-Arabic dance music grooves and embracing a joyous retro vibe with some cutting-edge bangers slipped in for good measure. Along for the ride? Checkpoint 303, led by Tunisian producer SC Mocha, and residents ariB, and together with Arab.AMP. 8pm-11:30pm, the Lab, SF. More info here.
SAT/26: Y2K KIKI BALL The Oakland vogue scene remains off the hook—it better!—and this is your chance to dive in and support the culture while getting a face-full of KITTY KITTY! POW POW! Categories include Beginner’s Vogue, Best-Dressed Streetwear, Cunt vs Cunt, and Shake Dat Ass. 8pm, New Parish, Oakland. More info here.
SUN/27: SUNSET SPRING CELEBRATION A free all-day party in sunny Yerba Buena Gardens with one of SF founding rave crews, with special guests David Harness and DJ Aida? You can bet the OGs (and, I have it on good authority, some very enthusiastic house-music-loving teens) will come out for this one. Of course there will be an afterparty at Monarch club. 11am-7pm, Yerba Buena Gardens, SF. More info here.
