Welcome to Big Week, our weekly guide to cool things to do, put together by our expert critics and writers. Hey, have you voted for Best of the Bay yet?
GENERAL ARTS
Marke B. keeps an eye and ear and everything else out.
THU/24-SAT/27: 924 GILMAN BENEFIT Toys That Kill, Fleshies, Hex Pest, Trap Girl, Neighborhood Threat, Brute Pressure, Cross Checked, Attack Dog… the names of the bands might sound aggressive, but all-ages punk hub 924 Gilman still gives us the warm fuzzies when we think of all the young (and not young!) people who have been able to express themselves on that stage, among a supportive community. This blowout benefit brings in more than a dozen bands and spans four nights, let’s keep this invaluable resource going for years to come. 924 Gilma, Berkeley. More info here.
THU/24-SAT/26: 25TH ANNUAL SAN FRANCISCO ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL The Bay Area’s bona fides as a capital of electronic music innovation are unquestioned, but its always terrific to see what’s happening now. Poetic visionary Moor Mother is just one act that will enlighten the conduits here, with others like Rrose, Blevin Blecdom, Seth Cluett, The Gleaners, and more following suit. The Lab, SF. More info here.
FRI/25: DOLLY DAY We are still gutted from the loss of the true President of the United States, but 9/25 (get it? Nine to Five?) we will be celebrating Her Holiness with a free “joyful day of music, rhinestones and remembrance” at Union Square. Throw on those giant wigs and ruffles and join hundreds to sing along to your favorite tunes in our own little downtown Dollywood. Noon-3pm, Union Square, SF. More info here.
FRI/25: LAURIE ANDERSON: THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE The electronic music and performance art guru brings her band Sex Mob to town to perform “a collection of songs and stories about the current state of America, with some history thrown in” that grew out of a two hour talk on the relationship of government and love she wrote for a festival in Vienna last spring. The videos I’ve see from it are tremendous, and yes, you get some of her most familiar songs. 8pm, Curran Theater, SF. More info here.
SAT/26: SAKE DAY 2026 Love this annual tradition at Hotel Kabuki, where you get to taste loads of different sakes and related drinks (more than 300!), meet “cult” craft sake-makers and discover new brands, get your own exclusive 2026 Sake Day tasting cup, and just revel in delicious Japanese culture, perhaps a little tipsily. 4pm-8pm, Hotel Kabuki, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great tunes and shows every week.
SAT/26: KEVIN POWELL W/ KWC COMPLEX JAZZ TRIO I’ve been following, reading, and watching for Kevin Powell for damn near over 30 years. From his appearance on the first season of MTV’s The Real World to his first interview with Tupac Shakur for Vibe magazine—and then the unfortunate cover story on Tupac’s murder for Rolling Stone. As the 30th anniversary of that tragedy just passed, Powell’s clear, honest voice was the ONLY one I wanted to hear. Kevin still observes with cultural nuances I easily understood; that only could come from an African-American perspective. A rarity in the press at that time and now, unfortunately. The GRAMMY-nominated poet and one of the most celebrated political and literary voices in America brings his nationwide book tour for A Poem For Evangeline, and Other Songs to Marcus Books, with a jazz trio in tow. You can expect this author of 17 books, filmmaker, and writer of an upcoming biography of Tupac Shakur to inspire with his sharp transparency. 6:30pm, Marcus Books, Oakland. More info here.
SAT/26: BUZZED LIGHTBEER Let me put you up on the game, paht-nuh. Buzzed Lightbeer is so cool, besides being a high-energy, over-the-top San Francisco slop-rock, garage-punk band that is always on everybody’s lips. They break through. Channeling punk and surf band influences, making videos that are always the shizz, this band got interviewed by PLAYBOY MEXICO, where they talked about the importance of representing the underground and queer scenes in music. As I tell everybody who likes to get in on that action, “Dammit, you have to see this band.” 8pm, The Knock-Out, SF. More info here.
STAGE
Charles Lewis III checks out theaters and performance spaces every week in the Drama Masks column.
SUN/27 THROUGH OCT/11: OAKLAND THEATER PROJECT PRESENTS KING LEAR Yes, it’s true: the Oakland theatre troupe is coming to SF for the next installment of the their “Land of the Free” season. This time, they’re casting their experimental gaze on the Bard’s proto-Succession tale of bloody inheritance and family secrets. OTP co-founder Michael Socrates Moran’s cast includes J Jha as the mad king, with an ensemble made up of familiar faces from the rest of OTP’s season. Will it be as incendiary as those other shows? Only one way to find out. With an original score composed by Paul Dresher. Z Space, SF. More info here.
THROUGH OCT/17: ALICIA DATTNER’S SMALL BATCH ARTISANAL COMEDY If the world is ending, Alicia Dattner’s gonna laugh about it. The comedian returns to The Marsh with another doom-scrolling solo show about trying to find inner peace as the outside world collapses around you. ‘Cause if you can’t laugh at the apocalypse, what can you laugh at? The Marsh-Berkeley. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
OPENING FRI/25: THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE the maker-star of the HBO series “How To With John Wilson” applying the same comically neurotic, endlessly digressive first-person perspective to his first feature. That series having ended, he realizes he needs a new project, so much of Concrete is devoted to trying to set up the film we’re ultimately watching, which Wilson pitches as a doc about the common building material. Somehow this quest leads him to a very random assortment of people and things, including NYC’s one and only “Gum Buster” (a guy dedicated to extracting hard-to-remove gum spat onto pavement); another business preserving tattoos as mementoes of the deceased; 3-D printing, the apparent future of concrete; Buddhism; late rapper DMX; Kim Kardashian; the air pollution concrete recycling creates; and a middle-aged musician named Jack who primarily earns his living handing out free shot samples in Wilson’s neighborhood liquor store. Opening Fri/25 at SF’s Balboa, then Fri/2 at the Alamo Drafthouses in SF and Mountain View. More info here.
NIGHTLIFE—SPECIAL FOLSOM STREET FAIR WEEKEND EDITION
Marke B. usually knows what’s up.
Folsom Street Fair comes this Sun/27, and that means it’s time to whip up some fun. Here are five satellite parties I recommend. One for each finger on your fist! PS if you’re up for some literary titillation, check out our friend Leo Herrera’s filthy and fun new (analog) Cruising: Folsom Edition, which details his decades of naughty adventures! He’ll be signing the book at the fair itself, too.
FRI/25: FRIENDXXX We love the Lookout Bar’s underground feel, and it’s launching you into this weekend’s hunt with some underground flavor: DJs Faited and Brown Amy hit the decks for a friendly entry point into the madness. 10pm-2am, The Lookout, SF. More info here.
FRI/25: BOOF x SQUISH FOLSOM The Old SF Mint will be thrumming with lusty twirlers with this stellar lineup: DJs Cashu, D. Tiffany, Miss Parker, Ehua, John Bryars, Katie Rex, TYGAPAW, and tons more. Old Mint, SF. More info here.
SAT/26: CHUNK FOLSOM—BEAR PLAYGROUND The big boys are coming out to growl to music from some ig underground queer house and techno stars: Shaun J Wright, Marceaux Marceux, Ben Fonik, more. 10pm-4am, F8, SF. More info here.
SUN/27: AIR TIGHT An annual dyke-centered hoedown at the stud with a more extreme side, this edgy party (you can look up the meaning of the name) also boasts terrific music form Kiernan Lavieux, Lonald J. Bands, and Daythief. 2pm-9pm, The Stud, SF. More info here.
SUN/27: DEVIANTS Who wouldn’t want to fill a giant parking garage full of fetish freaks and wild dancers? This official Folsom party is where everyone ends up eventually. DJs Mister Wallace, Jen DM, Fawks, Kudeki, many more. 7pm-2am, SVN West, SF. More info here.
