From a revered NorCal hard rock band to a beloved annual harmonica-thon, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this week.
Here’s a partial rundown.
The Deftones come home
It’s always a wild ride when the Deftones take the stage in their native Northern California.
See what we mean when the experimental metal act — which rose out of Sacramento to superstardom in the second half of the ’90s following the release of the debut “Adrenaline” — performs two big local shows on its 2025 tour.
The Deftones — featuring vocalist Chino Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham and keyboardist/turntablist Frank Delgado — perform a huge homecoming show on March 1 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, and a concert at Chase Center in San Francisco on March 4.
The group has been hard at work in the studio in preparation of dropping its hotly anticipated 10th full-length record. So, fingers crossed that fans will get to hear some cool new cuts alongside all those Deftones classics (“Change (In the House of Flies), “My Own Summer (Shove It”),” etc.) during the Sacramento and San Francisco shows.
Details: Showtime for both concerts is 7 p.m.; tickets start at $46 (subject to change); ticketmaster.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Harp tradition in Berkeley
The 70-year-old harmonica player Mark Hummel has had a substantial impact on the local music scene and blues music in general since settling in the East Bay in the early 1970s. He’s collaborated with such blues icons as Charlie Musselwhite, John Mayall, Elvin Bishop, Country Joe MacDonald, Duke Robillard, Angela Strehli and many more while releasing more than 20 albums under his name and contributing to countless others.
But perhaps his most beloved accomplishment – at least among blues fans – is the annual Blues Harmonica Blowout concert he founded and has been running since 1991. As a widely respected musician who’s a favorite in the blues community, Hummel never fails to attract A-List musicians to the annual Blowout. This year’s edition is no exception: Guest artists include the extraordinary musician and blues/soul singer Curtis Salgado; the acclaimed Alligator Records duo Nick Moss and Dennis Gruenling; Marta Sune, aka Sweet Marta; guitarist Bob Welsh and more. The event returns to the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley this weekend.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Freight & Salvage Coffee House, Berkeley; $54-$59; thefreight.org/shows
— Bay City News Foundation
Match made in creative heaven
Technology and textiles have always been joined at the hip, from the invention of the loom around 5000 BC to IBM’s first computers, said to be inspired by a French “jacquard” weaving machine. A new exhibition in Palo Alto examines the enduring link between the disciplines, featuring almost 20 artists working in everything from 4K HDR screens to 24-carat gold thread to something called “digital weaving.”
“Cut From The Same Cloth: Textile & Technology” pushes the boundaries of what defines a textile. “Emerging technologies in artificial intelligence, data collection embedded in threads and new production methods are currently being applied to the apparel industry,” says curator Christine Duval. “At the same time, weaving and tapestry are making a return as a vital art practice of the 21st century.”
Tara de la Garza weaves together plastic waste strips and LED lights for “Monument to the Plastocene (Tartan),” for example, a commentary on our looming ecological crisis. Guillermo Bert creates functioning QR codes from dyed wool that mimic the textile crafts of Chile’s Mapuche people, and Wendy Chien’s macrame examines gender and the complex mathematics behind knots. In other words, this is fascinating stuff — not your grandma’s knitted socks or quilt wall.
Details: Through April 6; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays; 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto; free, cityofpaloalto.org/artcenter.
— John Metcalfe, Staff
Classical picks: Vienna Philharmonic; ‘Alceste’
Classical music fans have special events coming up; with the Vienna Philharmonic, French soprano Natalie Dessay, and Handel’s “Alceste” on Bay Area stages, here are three performances you won’t want to miss.
Vienna Philharmonic times three: Under star conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the revered Vienna Philharmonic returns to Cal Performances with three programs on the schedule. First, on March 5, comes a concert featuring Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter” and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1; the second program, on March 6, features Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 4, “Tragic.” Pianist Yefim Bronfman joins Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra on March 7 to play Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3; Richard Strauss’s “Ein Heldenleben” completes the program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. March 5-6; 7 p.m. March 7; $120-$275; calperformances.org.
Dessay at Stanford: French operatic soprano Natalie Dessay returns to the Bay Area on March 1 as part of the Stanford Live series. Appearing in Bing Concert Hall with pianist Philippe Cassard, she will sing a program including works by Ravel, Poulenc, Andre Previn and others.
Details: 7:30 March 1; Bing Hall, Stanford University; $18-$100; live.stanford.edu.
“Alceste” around the Bay: The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale has an alluring Handel double bill coming up. Conductor Peter Whelan leads the composer’s opera “Alceste,” featuring soprano Lauren Snouffer and tenor Aaron Sheehan; Valérie Sainte-Agathe directs the Philharmonia Chorale. Handel’s Concerto Grosso in G Major, Op. 6, No. 1, opens the program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. March 5 at Bing Hall, Stanford University; 7:30 p.m. March 7 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; 2:30 p.m. March 8 at First Congregational Church, Berkeley; $18-$132; philharmonia.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Bandshell is back in action
The 122-year-old Golden Gate Park Bandshell, one of the oldest and largest of its kind in North America, is known for a great many things. With its Italian Renaissance architecture, it is one of the most distinctive landmarks in a park that is full of them. It is also distinguished as one of the city’s most valuable gifts: The bandshell is officially named the Spreckels Temple of Music in honor of sugar magnate Claus Spreckels, who donated the $80,000 structure (in 1900s dollars) to the city at the urging of his son, Adolph B. Spreckles who was the city’s Parks Commission president at the time. Mostly, however, the bandshell is known for hosting more than 100 free concerts during the year, ranging in genre from jazz to classical to roots music, rock, R&B and more. This weekend, the bandshell kicks off its 2025 season with a free gig featuring Bay Area jazz/blues/soul singer and activist Christie Aida and her band The Free Press; Afro-Latin band Batuki; ecologically minded singer Anna Karne; NorCal singer-songwriter Ben Lang; and the Stephanie Woodford Duo. Reportedly some or all of the acts will be performing covers of Beatles/Paul McCartney songs, in celebration of the exhibit “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm,” which opens this weekend at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.
Details: Noon to 4 p.m.; Golden Gate Park; More information is at illuminate.org
— Bay City News Foundation
Bad ideas are funny
Endgames Improv is a scrappy San Francisco troupe that offers comedy and improv classes as well as regularly occurring concept-driven comedy shows that are big on audience participation. The company’s overriding goal is to train lots of young funny entertainers and then put them on a stage where people don’t have to pay a lot to hear their comedy. Probably Endgame Improv’s best known regular show is “Your F***ed Up Relationship,” which takes folks’ real tales of relationship woes and uses them as inspiration for improv comedy bits. You can catch the roughly one-hour show at 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Endgames is also serving a once-a-month show that sounds like a blast – “Go Tech Yourself,” in which comedians act out audience members’ descriptions of, as organizers put it, the “craziest, absurd and most unnecessary app ideas” people can come up with.
Details: ‘Tech Yourself’ is 8 p.m. Feb. 27; 2965 Mission St., San Francisco; $17.35; endgamesimprov.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
Downfall of the don
Many of Mozart’s operas are frothy delights, with some semi-serious themes expertly woven in — “The Marriage of Figaro” being a hallmark case in point. But his hugely popular, almost as frequently performed “Don Giovanni” is a different breed altogether — a tragedy in the classic Greek tradition, where the protagonist’s fatal flaw brings about his own undoing, but which is nonetheless shot through with some truly comedic episodes. Livermore Valley Opera brings the composer’s masterwork to life on stage at the Bankhead Theater this weekend for four performances with that duality fully in mind.
American baritone Titus Muzzi III makes his LVO debut in the title role of the swaggering, lecherous nobleman whose proud and stubborn defiance of authority leads to his spectacular and fiery demise. And at his side through much of the opera and providing most of the comic relief is his long-serving servant Leporello, sung by bass-baritone Samuel Weiser, whose hilarious “catalogue” aria about the Don’s multitude of amorous conquests is a decided highlight of the work. Cuban-American soprano Meryl Dominguez sings as Donna Anna, and soprano Cara Gabrielson is Donna Elvira, both making their LVO debuts. Kirk Eichelberger returns to the LVO stage to deploy the thunderous bass that ultimately drags the doomed Don down.
Details: The opera’s run kicks off at 7:30 p.m. March 1, with repeat performances at 2 p.m. March 2 and 2 p.m. March 8 and 9; $25-$110; livermorevalleyopera.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
A crush of lush music
Two highlights of the Romantic era of music are on tap this weekend, as guest conductor Robin Ticciati, the current music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, steps to the podium in Davies Hall to lead the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra through performances of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s popular Symphony No. 2 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s exquisitely beautiful Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major. On the bench for the Beethoven, which was completed in 1806, is Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi, making his San Francisco Symphony debut. Tickets for all three performances are available in limited amounts.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 1, 2 p.m. March 2; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $49-$225; sfsymphony.org and 415-864-6000.
— Bay City News Foundation