SF music

SF music

Fuego is back

Get ready for the jolliest night in SF's music scene, the 4th Annual Industry Holiday Party! This celebration is loved more than Mariah Carey loves December! Expect a night of good vibes, holiday cheer, and incredible company, bringing together musicians, industry insiders, promoters, and the extended community that keeps the scene thriving. Industry Holiday Party Thursday, December 11, 2025 | 7p Underdogs Cantina, 128 King Street, SFFREE - RSVP required

To-Go Adult Beverages: This year, you can sip a to-go cocktail or drink from any of the participating bars and restaurants while enjoying the celebration. Live Music: Death & Taxes Swing Band will perform a rockin' holiday set. Complimentary Photos with Santa Claus Christmas Carolers and Roaming Entertainment Additional Seasonal Events: PIER 39 has many more festive activities planned this season.

Everything is a naked Judeo-Christian reference. There have been plenty of great stories told with Western tropes, but it doesn't take too long before everyone in the entire world feels they've heard the same story ad nauseum. It says something that few noticed how California just become the first to make Diwali an official state holiday -and of course the entire US economy revolves around a Christian holiday at the end of December.

Every Thursday from 9 pm to 2 am at the Cat Club, it's the best of the '80s in two rooms with the coolest music and the best crowd in town. DJs Damon and Mr Washington spin '80s pop, rock, and one hit wonders in the front room, along with DJ Dangerous Dan and weekly special guests spinning the best underground '80s, goth, industrial, synth-pop, electo music and videos in the back with two video screens.

When the drums kick in on "Basil's Kite," singer Tim Kinsella, who is either moderately drunk or just extremely loose, immediately dives into the crowd. Suddenly, five crowd-surfers are joining him, their gum-soled shoes pointing upward like lopsided lightning rods. Kinsella, kept afloat by a small forest of his fans' arms, throws back his head as he howls the words.

In a crowded field of holiday activities and shows, the San Francisco Pride Band's Dance-Along Nutcracker stands out as an only-in-San Francisco tradition: It's part comedy musical, part dance-it-yourself ballet, and part symphonic concert. Each year, the Dance-Along Nutcracker blends Tchaikovsky's classic ballet with a unique theme to create an original musical production. This year, a Wicked Dance-Along Nutcracker takes its inspiration from Wicked, the beloved musical (and, since last fall, widely lauded feature film).

"I want people to think that opera can be performed anywhere," he says. "You don't have to look a certain way... When people hear my voice they're gonna be like, 'What the heck?'"

In 1985, Andy Bell was selling women's shoes when he responded to a newspaper ad looking for a singer. A year later his new band Erasure was celebrating their first hit single, "Sometimes." Of course, Erasure would turn out to be one of the hottest bands in the 1980s with songs like "A Little Respect," "Always" and "Oh L'amour." In 2005 he released his solo debut Electric Blue, further evolving his signature sound.

Diana Gameros put it all down on paper, a detailed musical map designed to flip the script about immigration via a set of classic Mexican boleros she'd sung with her grandmother "and celebratory songs I wrote after finally returning to Mexico," she said. She'd spent more than a decade living in the Bay Area without legal status before procuring a visa that allowed her to visit her family in Ciudad Juárez.

The unbordered reel The Arab Film Festival is back for its 29th year, holding steady after a year of budget stress and community rescue. What started as a scramble for support turned into a surprisingly full program, with films arriving from across the Arab world. In theaters from San Jose to Oakland, the lineup includes five Oscar submissions, three of them Palestinian. Festival organizers frame the work as a gesture toward visibility and belonging, inviting audiences to meet the region's filmmakers on their own terms. Screenings continue in Oakland through the weekend.

And these Orange County rockers - vocalist-guitarist Dustin Kensrue, lead guitarist/keybaordist Teppei Teranishi, bassist Eddie Breckenridge and drummer Riley Breckenridge - just keep getting better and better. The band's latest record, "Horizons/West," is a terrific platter that touches upon the many different modern rock styles in Thrice's deep bag of tricks and treats. Each of the 11 tracks hit hard, although in different ways, and then resonate with the listener long after the album has spun its course.

There's a new hero in the world of opera, one with amazing superpowers, an unstoppable mission - and a tail. "The Monkey King," created by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, hearkens back to the 16th-century Chinese novel "Journey to the West." It's a classic story, but this new opera's premiere Nov. 14 at San Francisco Opera promises to endow the original with an unparalleled fusion of ancient traditions, Eastern and Western-themed music, and jaw-dropping 21st-century stagecraft.

At their San Francisco concert on Monday, Queens of the Stone Age had just finished performing the most obscure track ("Mosquito Song") off their most popular album ("Songs for the Deaf") beneath dense murder-red lights when a screeching burst of feedback punctured through the applause. Frontman Josh Homme laughed it off and remarked: "All these f-king vampires, you have to invite them into your opera house."

Louise Farrenc was a concert pianist and composer who fought for women's rights and would become the only female professor at the famed Paris Conservatoire during the 19th century. Her Symphony in G Minor sizzles with energy and drama. Rarely has there been a virtuosic performer that forever changed the direction of their instrument's technique, as completely as Niccolò Paganini.

Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, Sing for the Cure took the audience on a deeply personal and emotional journey through ten musical movements interwoven with compelling spoken narration designed to inspire and educate. Written collaboratively by ten American composers, the work shines a light on the importance of early detection and the ongoing need for research and support through the stories of individuals, families, caregivers, and medical professionals.