Welcome to our calendar feature BIG WEEK, wherein our expert Arts & Culture writers recommend the best things do. We’re short and sweet this week as the year ramps up!
GENERAL ARTS
Marke B. is in the arts hot seat.
FRI/9 + SAT/10: THE 15TH ANNUAL BOWIE BASH Do not miss this only-in-SF two-day tribute to the fabulous alien of pop. The First Church of the Sacred Silversexual brings together live music, burlesque, drag, and performance art into a cosmic ritual of supreme Bowie adulation. On tap? Full performances of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Station to Station, and Let’s Dance. 8pm, Great American Music Hall, SF. More info here.
FRI/9-SUN/11: SAN FRANCISCO TAPE MUSIC FESTIVAL This trippy annual surround-sound event always brings a surprisingly lively crowd of aural adventurers. The invaluable San Francisco Tape Music Center has been around since 1962, preserving and promoting fantastic sound creations that range from classic musique concrete to full-blown experimental freakouts. Basically, you sit in the dark beneath 24 high-end loudspeakers and engage in some wonderful deep listening, as sound takes shape around you. This year’s three-evening installment features “Twin Peaks” sound design by David Lynch, a major presentation of Bernard Parmegiani’s monumental 1984 masterpiece La Création du Monde, and, on Saturday, “late-night-appropriate works that lean toward ambient and long-form sonic exploration.” Victoria Theater, SF. More info here.
SAT/10: MAKEOUT ROOM 30TH ANNIVERSARY While we weep into our cups at the news that Bottom of the Hill is closing after 35 years, another fantastic venue celebrates three decades of indie resilience. With sets from classic SF faves Mark Eitzel, Flying Color, Tarnation, Music Lovers, and Fantasy. 7pm-11pm, Make-Out Room, SF. More info here.
THROUGH JANUARY 26: ‘RAVE INTO THE FUTURE’ Featuring the work of 10 West Asian artists, this colorful show at the Asian Art Museum “offers a space of joyful connection and community through a blend of music- and dance-inspired video, sculpture, photography, and room-sized immersive installations by women and queer artists from the West Asian diaspora. In recent years, Asian artists, DJs, and communities have been at the heart of a resurgence of electronic music-based dance parties across the globe. Meanwhile, music from West Asia has experienced a surge in worldwide popularity, connecting new audiences with the ongoing dialogue between tradition and innovation in the region’s diverse musical genres.” Asian Art Museum, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great tunes and shows every week.
THU/8: MOONAGE DAYDREAM doesn’t gossip. It’s a two-plus-hour theme park documentary about David Bowie, committed to the essence of performance, in codpieces and kimono wear, tuned up with a big honking noisy rock show swagger, built for IMAX dispensation along with future midnight cinematic runs for years on end, sees director Brett Morgen choosing to use audio clips from the enigmatic all-time rock star to narrate his own feature. Bowie’s mumblecore snippets—sometimes internal dialogue that slips out—take the lead as running commentary interspersed with shifting aspect ratios and film stocks to visually depict the frenetic points and psychological states of Bowie’s creative eras that roar and ping throughout several decades, constantly rubbing up against one another. Happy Birthday, Mr Bowie! 7:30pm, Balboa Theater. More info here.
FRI/9: THE PHARCYDE‘s second album Labcabincalifornia is a significant milestone, taking that golden-era hip-hop group from great to legendary status. This includes Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, De La Soul’s De La Soul Is Dead, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, and Digable Planets’ Blowout Comb. It just moved differently and marked a creative. Produced by the group alongside J Dilla, the album called out false narratives being perpetrated in hip-hop at that time with inventive, jazz-laced tracks that sounded far away from anything else previously made by contemporaries. With Tash from Tha Alkaholiks opening up, I don’t care that it’s sold out. Time to get into activation mode and make it happen in that hand-to-hand hustlin’ way. 8pm, The Freight, Berkeley. More info here.
FRI/9: SUPERCOZE is the first of too many reasons to mention to get yourself down to Bottom of the Hill before it closes its doors at the end of 2026. A self-described queer Oakland music-maker from the Pacific Northwest, Cody Choi is an emerging indie-sounding DIY-pop artist taking to that stage like thousands have since the venue opened in September 1991. Expect chills. They are opening in support of Catnip and Secret Family. 8pm, Bottom of the Hills, SF. More info here.
FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s weekly Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork. Sign up for the new Good Taste newsletter here.
SAT-SUN/10-11: EAT ME! ARTISAN FOOD FAIR A free monthly event with a cheeky name begins this weekend at The Box SF. Candies, condiments, baked goods, and more will be for sale from multiple vendors. While they haven’t released a full list of who will be there, I learned that one of my favorite dessert dynamos will: Oakland’s LGBTQ-owned Mackbox. Load up on the best Filipino Chex mix flavors, delicate entremets, and whatever else the esteemed pastry chef Mckoy Estrada comes up with for this event. Saturday 11am to 5pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm, The Box SF, 1069 Howard Street, SF
BEGINNING SUN/11: SQUARE PIE GUYS x P-LO PIZZA I love trying all the collaborative Detroit-style pizzas at Square Pie Guys, which all benefit charitable causes. When I last wrote about them in August 2024, SPG had donated over $100,000 in just three years of running this initiative. The new collab with Bay Area rapper and producer P-Lo sounds good: rich vodka sauce, topped with longanisa, Italian sausage, red onions, hot honey bomba, spicy ranch, and basil. Proceeds from this pie will go to SF’s United Playaz, an incredible youth development and violence prevention organization. Find it at all Square Pie Guy locations starting on Sunday, including the brand new restaurant at 1991 N. California Blvd. in Walnut Creek.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
THU/8-MON/12: THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB Kaouther Ben Habia’s film is set in a Ramallah call center for the Red Cross-affiliated humanitarian organization Red Crescent on January 29, 2024. Volunteers receive an emergency call from the titular figure—a 5-year-old girl whose family was fleeing a Gaza City under fire when their stalled-out car got shelled by an Israeli tank. She was the only person still alive (or at least conscious), and understandably terrified, particularly as the tank continued to threaten the vehicle. Tunisian production Voice uses the actual recording of the little girl’s panicked cellphone call over the course of three hours, before that connection was terminated—yes, exactly in the way you’d fear. It’s squirm-inducing to hear that actual audio file, and a bit queasy to see professional actors respond to it. Yet there’s also a sense in which the film feels like tragic karaoke, turning real-life horror into a showcase for high-voltage performance. Roxie Theater, SF. More info here.
THU/8 + FRI/9: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA from director John Carpenter likes to poke the bear. His 1986 movie featuring Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall (previous to “Sex and the City,” she still didn’t play a damsel in distress), plopped into a predominantly all-Asian cast, positioned the audience as outsiders, and the initial box-office receipts reflected an ’80s xenophobic movie-going audience. Despite its rocky start, the film found its flock on the VHS market and through basic cable reruns, where viewers could pause, rewind, and appreciate its cheesy effects and comedic brilliance. Kurt Russell’s ham sandwich portrayal of Jack Burton, a character described in the Reddit skreets as an “anti-white savior”, is actually non-suss as the wisecracking truck driver. Some see that person every day, others do not. Perspective, Holmes. Unlike Spielberg’s more formulaic family action-adventure films, Big Trouble in Little China offers commentary on the absurdities of big-budget “decade of decadence” productions, making it an all-timer for the cult-midnight movies circuit. 7:30pm, 4-Star Theater, SF. More info here. (Recommended by John-Paul Shiver)
