From Jessica Malone to Crescent Katz: Fair Oaks opening arts center in style
October marks the much anticipated grand opening of the sparkling new Fair Oaks Performing Arts Center & Village Park, which includes the intimate and freshly revamped Veterans Memorial Amphitheater. The kickoff weekend is highlighted by the inaugural daylong Fair Oaks Folk Festival on Saturday, Oct. 11, led by a homecoming (of sorts) from vibrant folk rock darling Jessica Malone and her jubilant nine-piece band. Malone — who wrote three albums while residing at her former digs in Old Fair Oaks Village and cut her teeth gigging at the Fair Oaks Brew Pub — will be joined in the amphitheater by soul/pop/folk/jazz collaborative Solabel for the evening’s ticketed event. Additional free sets sprawling into the plaza and the Bandshell stage from 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (with a ticketed VIP lounge also available for this portion of the day) include Bear Whiskey, Lindsay Gang, Paddy on the Binge, Justin Farren, Silver City and Crescent Katz. A number of other events — including Comedy Under the Stars with Nick Guerra and a community carnival — dot the calendar for this four-day opening bash. Additional concerts at the center are on tap for the coming months, including Hattie Craven Band in November (Oct. 9-12. 7991 California Ave. fairoaksarts.org).
In these Sisyphean times we live in, Portland, Oregon’s the Macks seem happy to take a turn getting dirty and pushing the rock — as long as there’s a cooler of beer and a place to plug in a few amps. “A slice of life — soft, heavy, catchy, heady, fun, devastating, cocky, vulnerable,” the members say of their newest record, “Bonanza,” a chaotically scattergunning anthology of hair-on-fire, garage-rattling psych rock, charging relentlessly up a hill that has no peak and built to absorb the tumble back down. Sisyphus himself lacked the power to proclaim “screw this” when he tired of the grind — the Macks have that card to play, and it’s stitched into this record. The quintet rolls into Cafe Colonial supporting Japan’s psych rock royalty Acid Mother’s Temple, with an opening set from local fixtures Gentleman Surfer (7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, 3520 Stockton Blvd. $23.15/$28.65. cafecolonial916.com).
We’ll start with the music lineup at the annually stellar Peoples Beer Festival in Oak Park, which features sets during the main festival on Saturday, Oct. 11, from SantanaMustDie, local chillwave indietronica gem Inner Nature, prodigious guitar architect Adrian Bellue, jazz/funk/soul everywheremen LabRats and LSB (LoveSomebody). The music is only one piece of the soul of this weekend event, which includes the National Black Brewers Day on Friday, Oct. 10, with rare beer tasting from Urban Roots, a beer pairing BBQ dinner from hosts Oak Park Brewing, and the Peoples Bottle Share event, which boast unique beers crafted by Black-owned breweries across the country (peoplesbeerfest.com).
A lingering question that’s always fair to ask of any “supergroup”: what do its individual members have to say as part of this group that they haven’t yet said on their own? For I’m With Her — the pastoral unification of all-star singer/songwriters Aoife O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins — the answer is clearly “a lot,” even if they each may not have known what those things were when this trio set sail. After roughly a decade of collaborations, they may still be figuring that out, but their stirring 2025 album “Wild and Clear and Blue” teems with possible answers, and even still more questions. It’s a seemingly never-ending spring bloom of wafting vintage folk, with a jetstream of air-tight harmonies that mellow into a gentle breeze blowing toward the horizon. There is an undercurrent of pulsing creative energy that is meticulously refined and barely scratching its surface. Ticket availability is scant as of this writing, don’t dawdle (with Jon Muq. 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6, at Mondavi Center, UC Davis. mondaviarts.org).
“Spooky season” may be the best time to take in the tunes from “Radio Waves,” the most recent ethereal body of work from Jonathon Linaberry, better known on stage as The Bones of J.R. Jones. From the curtain rising boneyard heartwrench of “Car Crash” to the airy-synth heavy “Savages” and onward, the record wafts intently like a thin layer of fog — intriguing, slightly frightening, oddly warming, picturesque and ever mysterious. The tantalizing LP is a provocative flank to his already sterling and often challenging catalog of indie folk rock — and oh my, that stratospheric cover of Tom Petty’s “Walls” is not for the faint of heart. Henry Stansall, half of the likewise titillating duo Ruen Brothers, opens (8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22, at Starlet Room. $28.80. harlows.com)
Do not wait until All Hallows Eve to snag tickets for the second annual iteration of DNL Halloween 2025, a likely-to-sell-out affair that finds a dozen local acts on two stages “dressing up” and performing sets in tribute to fabled bands/artists of their choosing. Joining the fun at DNL Studios — an independent studio with band practice spaces in Citrus Heights — are Inner Nature doing a set of the Killers, Mortality posing as Black Flag, Day Hike (Tigers Jaw), Tashow (Bob Dylan), Carport (the Beatles), Tovidence (Jimmy Eat World), Feature (Bad Brains), eSex (blink-182), Star Crxssed Lovers (Paramore), Denim Nuns (My Chemical Romance), the Pretty Boys (Misfits) and Pulgasari as Red Hot Chili Peppers (6 p.m Friday, Oct. 31. 7825 Lichen Drive, Citrus Heights. $17.85. eventbrite.com).