We would like to extend a heartfelt holiday greeting to everyone who chooses to see what the hell Shiver is writing about musically at Under The Stars this week and every week. 48Hills would greatly appreciate your support during this gift-giving season to help ensure this community-based platform continues to exist through 2026. No freakin joke, Mang. So to put you up on game
For the past 15 years Ominous Ruin has been one of the Bay Area's favorite technical death metal outfits. This year they returned with not only a new album- released last May-but they also brought with them a whole new brutal vocalist, Crystal Rose. And something is definitely working as Requiem has received some serious acclaim from underground metal critics and publications.
Lighting it up since 1975, San Francisco celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first giant public menorah outside Israel, a landmark Bill Graham project that went on to inspire thousands of menorahs around the world. This year's eight-night festival brings music, community gatherings, and nightly ceremonies honoring leaders and traditions across the Jewish community. Union Square Menorah Lighting Schedule 2025 December 14-22, 2025 Sunday, December 14 "Bill Graham Menorah Day"
June feels a long way away, but San Francisco's Stern Grove Festival is already cooking up its summer lineup. On Friday, the free concert series announced the first artist of its 2026 roster: Bomba Estéreo is set to play at the grove on June 21. The Colombian band's music fuses cumbia, electronics and psychedelia. Over synthesizers and guitars, lead singer Li Saumet alternates between singing and rapping.
Dive into a multidimensional, multimedia celebration of visionary art, consciousness, and sonic innovation at Twisting the Rabbit Hole, a one-evening-only event produced by the Psychedelic Puppet Show. Taking place on Saturday, December 13, 2025, at Heron Arts, this experience features a psychedelic film festival, a conversation of luminaries, and the world premiere of the new 3D version of DJ Q-bert's trippy 2001 cult classic , Wave Twisters. After the screening, we'll party with DJ Q-bert performing live.
Dubbed "part circus, part carnival, part festival," Shaq's Fun House is coming to the Bay Area for its eighth iteration over Super Bowl weekend in February. The event, which in previous years has tagged along with the Super Bowl in its host city and brought together major stars in hip-hop and the DJ circuit, will be landing at the Cow Palace in Daly City on Friday, February 6, and tickets go on sale this Friday (Dec 12) at 10 am.
Well, hello lovers of music and culture. We are Under the Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases, upcoming shows, and other adjacent items. chokecherry, Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls When I finally caught SF's buzziest band, chokecherry, live and in person back in June, while taking in those rich, velvety atmospheric moments from their previous release, the Messy Star EP. Great name, BTW. Immediately, I got it. Sped-up goth, '90s counterculture grunge with alt-rock fuzz?
Co-founded by arranger, bassist, composer, producer and trombonist Adam Theis, Jazz Mafia is a Bay Area collective of top players, singers, composers, arrangers and even MCs. Launched in 2000, Jazz Mafia has been incredibly prolific, releasing more than 40 albums. The versatile ensemble has the chops and drive to tackle most any style, from the most out-there experimental jazz to traditional holiday favorites.
Shopping for the big Beatles fan in the family this season? Well, we've got a suggestion: Get that loved one (with impeccable musical taste) some tickets to see the acclaimed Beatles tribute act Rain doing its cool holiday show. Yes, it should be a totally Fab (Four) evening when Rain A Beatles Christmas Tribute hits the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco on Dec. 23.
Multiple successive generations received their introduction to jazz through a beloved if unlikely source: the holiday television specials featuring Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts characters. Bay Area-based jazz legend Vince Guaraldi composed and played the music for several of those animated features; among the most treasured is A Charlie Brown Christmas, first broadcast in 1965 (and every year since then). Guaraldi's eminently tuneful and accessible music turned kids onto jazz without their knowing what was happening.
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).
A person was fatally shot early Sunday in San Francisco's Mission District, police said. The shooting was reported at 12:25 a.m. Nov. 16 in the 3000 block of 16th Street, between Mission and Valencia streets. Officers found two victims on the ground with gunshot wounds. They were taken to a hospital, where one was pronounced dead. The other had major injuries.
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.
Get ready to swing in Golden Gate Park every sunny Sunday at "Lindy in the Park," a weekly free event near the de Young Museum, when the streets of Golden Gate Park are closed to traffic and the dancers take over. This in person event resumed June 20, 2021 Lindy in the Park | Free Outdoor Swing Dance & Lessons Every Sunday | 11 am to 2 pm JFK Dr. btwn 8th and 10th, behind the De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, SF FREE
