Soulful troupe The Dip highlights February concerts in the capital region | The Sacramento Beat
We’re getting progressively excited over here at Sac Beat H.Q. about the pending opening of sparkling new venue Channel 24, helmed by Bay Area concert titans Another Planet Entertainment. They’re hosting a job fair at the Clara in midtown from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10 (more info at instagram.com/channel24sac), which screams “we’re getting close.”
At the risk of speculating, so too do the couple of “Venue TBD” Sacramento dates currently floating out there on some enticing tour itineraries. But lest we get ahead of ourselves, here’s what’s up for February.
If you’ve ever had that moment of lament from not getting to a show in time to catch the entire opening act, then you know that feeling I had when The Dip pummeled me with such mid-set regret last summer in Oakland, warming the stage for the Teskey Brothers. What I missed in those first few songs will forever remain a mystery, but assuredly it was more of that oh-so-delicious, captivatingly smoky-sweet soul that oscillates through the upstart catalog of a band assembled seemingly five decades too late (but somehow, right on time). For a group of seven University of Washington students who started gigging in 2013, their debut album flashed a songwriting acumen that belied their youth — chops which they’ve been dragging across the sharpening stone ever since, leading up to 2024’s “Love Direction,” their fourth release. The record bursts with intricately stitched, freshly refined jazz lounge R&B/soul compositions, buttressed by the jubilant rock ‘n’ roll energy so affably and affectionately showcased in their live shows. Harlow’s is the first stop of the second leg of the “Love Direction” tour, carrying over from last year. Ebullient rock/folk/soul merchant Luke Tyler Shelton opens — you know, if you’re into catching openers (8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19. $38.90. harlows.com).
As of this writing, tickets are still available for both Iron & Wine solo gigs in the region: Monday, Feb. 17, at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley and Sunday, Feb. 23, at Ace of Spades. Yes, indie folk legend Sam Beam will indeed twice grace Sacramento-area stages this month, assuredly showcasing songs from his swooning 2024 release “Light Verse,” another bulletproof entry in his storybook catalog.
For the bevy of current acts claiming to have burrowed down into the roots of country music, a good many of them have never actually cracked far enough into the surface of the soil to even plant a dandelion — all the while, Nick Shoulders is busy doing his best groundhog impression. “In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood,” this is pure train-jumping, high plains hitching post country blues and folk, flopping between a cappella howls (see new single “Apocalypse Never”) and slithering saloon-stomping steel twang, harkening back to a time when the only heart you were liable to get on Valentine’s Day was just freshly cut from a steer (7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, at Goldfield Midtown. goldfieldtradingpost.com).
More Valentine’s Day fun over at Old Ironsides (not so much the candy and flowers type, but still plenty sweet, with perhaps a couple of thorns) with Space Sage & the Stars, the current project of crooning madcap local indie artist Sage Cummins. He’s joined by scintillating Sacramento indie folk mainstay Samantha Henson and her band, along with the Speak Low, as well as Night Daddy, a new project from Mateo Wappo, frontman of psych-surf peddlers Bad Barnacles, and featuring fellow Barnacle and local everywhere man Steven Morkert (8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14. $12. theoldironsides.com).
Omaha post-hardcore torchbearers Cursive last year dished up their “imperialistic” tenth full-length record and first in half a decade. “Devourer” is a jagged edge, subterranean romp through a few dark recesses that ultimately peers around the familiar corners that cemented the band’s place in the annals of early-aughts rock. “I am obsessive about consuming the arts,” ever-intensive frontman Tim Kasher says of the record. “Music, film, literature. I’ve come to recognize that I devour all of these art forms then, in turn, create my own versions of these things and spew them out onto the world. It’s positive; you’re part of an ecosystem. But I quickly recognized that the term, ‘Devourer,’ may also embody something gnarly, sinister.” Pile opens the show (8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, at Harlow’s. $32.90. harlows.com).
“I decided to just let myself go — I think I finally came to this acceptance that I don’t have to be perfect,” L.A. indie pop upstart zzzahara says of their new record “Spiral Your Way Out.” The words seem almost at odds with a record that sounds as though it was keenly obsessed over before seeing the light of day, with sun-drenched guitars and zippy coast-cruising bass lines tossed into a particle accelerator, for results to be meticulously analyzed before being fused with emotionally-fraught, love-starved and introspective lyricism. Starling opens (8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, at Cafe Colonial. $23.15. cafecolonial916.com).