Halloween-in-May music show goes all in on body parts | The Sacramento Beat
We caught our first taste of the new Channel 24 last weekend, courtesy of the fiercely enrapturing Sierra Ferrell — and we can tell you that Another Planet absolutely crushed it. Delightfully friendly staff from the crosswalks to the bar, smooth flow, sight lines are, as advertised, stellar at every corner, and a sound system so pristine it’s like a kitten curled up next to your head and started to purr (fear not, it can handle the zoomies as well).
In the immortal words of “The Simpsons’” Barney Gumble: “of course I’ll be back, if you didn’t close I’d never leave.”
Lest we get obsessed over our shiny new toy and its slate of May gigs — which includes two dates from Wallows with local indie act Rosemother supporting, two from Jack White and the likes of Denzel Curry, Madness and Hermanos Gutiérrez — there is much to get to on the local concert calendar this month.
We are well aware that it’s not October, but we are all in on some warm-weather dress-up for the Sac Halloween Show. Here’s how this tantalizingly unique, multi-act DIY event works: culling through 50-plus fan submissions for ideas, event organizers announced in February that the theme for this year’s madcap variety show is “body parts.” From there, the floodgates opened for local musicians to lay claim to donning appropriate costume threads and performing in tribute to a specific musical act, fitting within that theme. That has yielded a sonic cosplay paradise of fabled bands including Talking Heads, the Faces, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth, Radiohead, Heart, Spinal Tap, Wings, Motorhead, Soft Cell and a bevy of other blushing submissions.
But, here’s the kicker: Individual local musicians have chosen which famous act they will perform as, but are now also tasked with assembling a completely unique band roster for the show. So, we can’t tell you which local bands are going to be there, because they don’t currently exist — the entire thing is a beautifully chaotic blank canvas for Sacramento’s ever-vibrant music community to collaborate and mishmash within itself, to forge one-off troupes and local supergroups to tackle these tributes. Check out some reels from last year’s “royalty” themed soiree at instagram.com/sachalloweenshow/tagged (3 p.m. Saturday, May 24, 212 15th St. $15-$20. instagram.com)
A seemingly menacing payload of past demons bears down on Goldie Boutilier’s narcotic 2024 EP “The Actress,” to the point where it feels like the record is riding on its emotional axle — but it is that very weight that causes the shower of sparks to fly. Years of personal low points and bear trap scars from prior stints in the music biz cascade over this fraught six-songer, from the savage showbiz takedown title track to the shudderingly sordid and sultry drug den pop of “The Angel and the Saint.” After a multitude of starts and stops and various alter egos over the past two decades, Boutilier seems in the midst of a cinematic creative combustion with her retro-pop, dingy country and jazz-speckled alt-rock meanderings — a stirring and challenging persona perhaps more unique and genuine to the Nova Scotia native than any of the defunct prior stage names that marked her earliest endeavors (with Sedona. 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at Harlow’s. $26.50. harlows.com).
Davis radio station KDVS-FM (90.3) hosts this year’s 25th anniversary iteration of its Operation Restore Maximum Freedom at downtown Sacramento’s Roosevelt Park, with a frenetic lineup of multi-genre local acts — “indie pop, electronic, experimental, math punk, hardcore, and more.” Slated to perform are Toner, Pregnant, Mastoids, Softie, Quarter Conscious, Tricky FM, Baseball Gregg, Citizen Snips, Sissyfit and Yea-Ming & the Rumours (noon Saturday, May 3, 1615 9th St, Sacramento. $20-$25. instagram.com/kdvs903fm).
From the sweat-drenched, unbridled and carnally primal Motor City garage rock scene of the ’90s and 2000s (which never forgot to lob deserving nods to Motown) rose Detroit Cobras, with their currents of subterranean soul coursing through scuffed amps permanently set on pure rock ‘n’ roll. Tragedy seemed as though it would permanently eviscerate the underground darlings when founding vocalist Rachel Nagy passed away in 2022 — but their current Lazarus act comes courtesy of vocalist Marcus Durant, who joined the band for a one-off memorial show later that year. Durant now anchors the band as they return to the touring world behind last year’s scintillating EP, “Right Now.” Indie rock act King Dream opens (7 p.m. Friday, May 30, at Davis Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second St. $22. eventbrite.com)
A royal court of Sacramento punk rock if ever there was one, venerable California legends 7Seconds are back at Harlow’s, flanked by the recently re-emerged local throwback punk fixture the Snobs, the likewise indelible Kill the Precedent and thrash outfit Whorified (7:30 p.m. Friday, May 16. $32.90. harlows.com).
The Sacramento Bike Kitchen, as it does every summer, has a brimming lineup of local bands lined up for its free Second Saturday concerts — which means music tumbling out of the kitchen while the train track-adjacent parking lot near 20th and I Street turns into a classic Midtown hangout. With all due love for all of the past offerings, this year’s monthly lineups are bangers: Grass Valley grunge-tinged punk act Checked-Out has the honor for week one (Saturday, May 10) alongside Steev & the Bitch Club and Arguments. Subsequent shows feature swirling ambient electronic rockers ghostplay with veteran indie rock staples Desario and Pets (June 14), the aforementioned billowing dreampop act Rosemother with sandy-breezing indie pop rock troupe Dogpatch and A Dream About Home (July 12), jagged-edged rockers Quinine with Mastoids and Loose Choir (Aug. 9), and pulsating psych ruffians the Snares, the indelible Th’ Losin’ Streaks and indie psych-surf standout Bad Barnacles bringing it home on Sept. 13 (instagram.com/sacbikekitchen)
The venerable Mountain Vibe Music Festival is celebrating its 15th year in Calaveras County with its usual slate of more than two dozen acts, spearheaded by skate punk mainstay Authority Zero, the thumping Forrest Day and jazz/blues-flecked indie rock upstart Spooky Mansion. Headlining performers also include False Rhythms, High Flight and Sacramento punk rock veterans Another Damn Disappointment (A.D.D.), which just released their heavy-hearted new record “Bedlam,” an album more than a decade in the making (May 29-June 1 at Blue Mountain Event Center, Wilseyville. mountainvibemusic.com).
Year three of the upstart gem Golden Road Gathering in Placerville boasts a stacked weekend manifest featuring encyclopedic World music titans Thievery Corporation paired with soul/jazz/funk maestro Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe on Saturday. Jam heroes Leftover Salmon, Dirtwire, ALO, Diggin Dirt, New Monsoon and tons more are littered throughout the three-day affair - including another appearance from fabled Tahoe troupe Blue Turtle Seduction, which reunited there last year (May 16-18 at El Dorado County Fairgrounds. goldenroadgathering.com).
Local blues legend Mick Martin’s annual birthday show is this year dubbed “152 Years of the Blues” — a cheeky nod to the fact that both he and returning battery mate Tim Barnes are both turning 76. Martin feels no need to divulge the ages of the members of this year’s iteration of his Big Blues Band: Danny Sandoval, Andrew Little, Steve Utstein, Aj Joyce, David D. Johnson and Jim Caselli, with Annie Sampson, Marcel Smith and Katie Knipp joining as guest vocalists (7 p.m. Saturday, May 24 at the Sofia. $30-$40. bstreettheatre.org).
A quick gander at the list of worldwide cities where UK-based electronic music label Anjunadeep is hosting its “Open Air” events finds West Sacramento residing amongst some pretty exalted company: L.A., D.C., New York, Montreal and London, to be precise. The fabled underground groove merchants are bringing Open Air to the Barn for the first time, with an evening sunset lineup of ethereal EDM performers including CRi (DJ set), HANA, Luttrell, Nils Hoffmann (DJ set) and SOHMI (4 p.m. Sunday, May 25, at the Barn. $72. anjunadeep.com).
Another marquee electronic music event closes out the month: the team from THIS appears determined to leave no stone unturned in this town, having thrown massive shindigs at the Railyards, on K Street and at Cal Expo in recent years. Add Capitol Mall to the portfolio with THIS City, featuring sets from KAYTRANADA alongside Sango, Kitty Ca$h and Lou Phelps (Saturday, May 31. eventbrite.com).