2 days of metal, Mick Martin tribute headline August shows | The Sacramento Beat
The hole in the heart of the Sacramento music scene will long remain wide open following the tragic passing of the legendary Mick Martin — the “standard-bearer for blues music in Sacramento for more than a generation” — earlier in July. Martin was slated to play one of his most familiar haunts, Folsom’s Powerhouse Pub. In his absence, the gig will go on as a celebration of life, with Martin’s longtime bandmates welcoming what figures to be a hefty slate of likewise-crestfallen special guests from throughout Sacramento’s music community gathering. All proceeds from the show are being donated to Martin’s family (3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3. powerhousepub.com/events).
Titanfest has evolved since its 2021 debut into a three-day blowout held at LogOff Brewing. The Rancho Cordova suds merchants will lend their otherwise laid-back taproom to a platoon of more than two dozen regional metal and hard rock acts (and various subgenres within). Local Bullet For My Valentine/Lamb of God-influenced metalcore quintet TITVN are your hosts, organizing all ends of the event and performing headlining sets on Aug. 8 and 9. Each set will focus on different pieces of their catalog, including a full Friday playing of their thunderous and jarringly intense 2024 record “The Human Experience.” Friday’s 10-band bill also welcomes the likes of Beauty is Betrayal, Ezera, Everglade, South Sixth and Enemy of Fate, while a massive 15-act Saturday slate features Desolist, A Moment’s Notice, On Water, Dark Watch, Caved In and more. The party starts on Thursday’s “Day Zero” with a free three-hour set helmed by young musicians from School of Rock (6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8 and Saturday Aug. 9. 3054 Sunrise Blvd. #J, Rancho Cordova. $20 advanced/$25 door per day. titvnmetal.com/titanfest).
SacYard’s music stage is starting to resemble its tap list: mostly West Coast picks and a few from Europe. Croatia’s LHD (forged by ex-members of that nation’s fabled Bambi Molesters) brings a borderline-creepy, scuffed-vinyl approach to instrumental 60’s soul, garage/psych and surf rock. Local ruffians Dangerforce 5 lend support to this “Thursday night surf party,” as they often do when brethren of the genre visit from out of town (Thursday, July 31. 1725 33rd St. Free. sacyard.beer).
An event as indelible as its featured music, Nevada City’s venerable Jerry Bash celebrates its 29th year of paying tribute to the music and life of Jerry Garcia. Standout Grateful Dead stewards Band Beyond Description (members of Phil & Friends, Achilles Wheel, Moody Cat and Deadbeats) take the helm with two full sets. They’re flanked by Painted Mandolin, an acoustic-driven act helmed by Joe Craven and thus known for many of those Grisman/Garcia gems, along with Las Niñas Muertas (the Dead Girls) and the debut of the also-Craven-manned Haphazard String Band (2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, at Pioneer Park, 421 Nimrod St., Nevada City. $30/$35. minersfoundry.org).
We’re up to “Volume 8” of the ever lively Don’t You Forget About Me ‘80s tribute throwdown. Here’s how it works: Ten bands, each assigned a sequential year from the 1980’s, will dish up their takes on songs released that year. Working through the decade (not necessarily in this order) are local standouts and familiar faces to the series Lucky Shots, California Stars, Joe Gibbs & CTX, Larisa Bryski, Sgt York, Natalie Cortez Band, the Girls Rock Sacramento alumni band, Wonderful Drugstore, Poly Holiday and Leaping Blennies. The whole shindig is a benefit for the aforementioned Girls Rock Sacramento. Don’t you forget about advance tickets: This one is a likely sellout (5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23 at Harlow’s. All ages. $26.40. harlows.com).
Color-splashed, mind-bending indie electro-pop architect Geographer (a.k.a. Mike Deni) is celebrating the 15th anniversary of his kaleidoscopic dreamscape of an album “Animal Shapes” with a commemorative tour. He’s released a few live versions of some of the record’s songs on Spotify, as well as a new vinyl version, as companion pieces to the shows. Opening the concert is seminal Sacramento-bred indie artist Rituals of Mine (the brainchild of Terra Lopez), in what will be the hometown debut of Rituals’ new lineup, which finds Lopez backed by workmanlike local groove merchants LabRats. Look for more gigs and a new Rituals of Mine album on the horizon from this provocative and surprising collaboration (8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8 at Harlow’s. $29.40. harlows.com).
While it’s easy to think the overall music industry is “back” after the pandemic , it’s also easy to forget that many artists have still not returned. Some may never. Ohio underground hip-hop standout Blueprint, which has more than two decades in the biz, is finally reemerging in 2025 after Covid upended the release of a new album, “Vessel,” now due on July 29. After offering up a separate LP, “Falling Down” last year, he went back to the studio to finalize a record now a half-dozen years in the making. “I loved the album,” he said of the record, “but knew I could make it even stronger with a couple of small tweaks, so I made those changes and now I feel like it’s a classic.” The first smattering of richly-layered tracks buoy that statement, with introspective spikes bubbling beneath an otherwise evenly-pulsed record of challenging, grasping hip-hop. Sparks Across Darkness, Bru Lei and DJ Detox join the show (8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 31 at Golden Bear. $15/$20. eventbrite.com).
Senior Dog Appreciation Society is not an adoption event where you can foster a 12-year-old border collie — that’s the moniker of the latest project from omnipresent local jazz guitar king Ross Hammond, who feels like he probably writes and records a new album every day before his corn flakes. Joined by bassist Michael Palmer (Mumbo Gumbo, Ten Foot Tiger) and drummer Neil Franklin (Kai Kln, Brubaker), the trio’s all-instrumental debut (out Aug. 1) leans into a gritty brand of soul, blues and sturdy R&B trodding the backroad routes between Muscle Shoals and Stax Records (7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21, at 58 Degrees & Holding Co. instagram.com/ rosshammond.bandcamp.com).
Bootsy Collins playing Magic the Gathering? Black Sabbath trying out a horn section and things get way out of hand? The soundtrack to everything after the sun eventually explodes? We could get weirder and weirder in trying to nail down The Budos Band, and somehow get closer to the point and light years away from it all at the same time — just as these diabolical scoundrels would have it. What we can tell you is that their newest 2025 album “VII” expands their already prolifically-twisted, intricately-cobbled catalog of instrumental rock, funk, jazz, psych, doom, et cetera — tales of eternal damnation and all the fun that led there, as told by brass, fried to a crisp and served hooked to electrodes (with Secret Chiefs 3; 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24, at Ace of Spades. $52.50. aceofspadessac.com).
Finally, we’ll venture just to the outskirts of the concert realm to look ahead to the August installment of the In a Nutshell storytellers series, which welcomes a different collection of storytellers each month to offer their spin on (mostly) true personal tales within a specific prompt or theme — with stories told from the comedian lens, the Moth story telling lens, the one-person-play lens and various experimental approaches. “A fundamental part of being human,” series co-runner Aaron Carnes told the Bee about the event in January. “Being in a room with somebody, it’s so much easier to see their humanity. It’s hard to do that online.” Storytellers for August — where the prompt is “bullies” — include Kathleen Taylor, author and podcast host Brian Copeland (including a pre-event surrounding his new book, “Shadows of Justice”), Kimberlli Joy, niece to the legendary Alice Walker, and Corey Rosen, host of the Bay Area’s Moth Storyslam (7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at the Sofia. $25 bstreettheatre.org).