LabRats album and musical, ‘Jazz & Books’ highlight February music around Sacramento
This is LabRats’ city now — the rest of us are just living in it.
Multiple gigs per week seem the normal workload for the omnipresent jazz/soul/hip-hop explorers, and if you’ve not yet attended their weekly Sunday Sessions at the Torch Club, we’d highly advise seeing what the fuss is about. If you’ve ever experienced music happenings elsewhere that stir up that “we need this kinda thing in Sacramento” envy, we can conclusively tell you that Sunday Sessions is “this kinda thing.”
This month marks the arrival of LabRats’ newest record, “Tiger in the Jungle,” slated to drop on Feb. 13. The release party (that term somehow feels inadequate) isn’t until March, but we’re telling you about it now because of the grandiose scale of this wildly inventive production — that, and there’s only two performances, so a sellout feels inevitable. Get prepped for “Who is Jef Costello,” a hip-hop operatic musical that showcases a “multidisciplinary blend of music, dance, storytelling and immersive visual art.”
“This show represents a new era for Sacramento’s music and performance landscape,” drummer and bandleader Jacob Swedlow said in a press release. “This production was written and arranged independently as a band, from the ground up, and brought together some of the most accomplished artists in the city to help bring it to life.”
Loosely based on the 1967 French cinema classic “Le Samourai” and funded by a grant from the city of Sacramento’s Creative Growth Fellowship Program, the show will find LabRats flanked by a string quartet, choreography from the partnering Sac Dance Lab, standout local poet Diamond Key and musical contributions from the likes of Jakhari Smith, Dogpatch, EGDABEAST, Coco Simone and several others. (2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 21 at Sac Dance Lab, 1807 Tribute Road. labratsband.com; eventbrite.com).
Venerable jazz/blues/soul guitar virtuoso Ross Hammond is rebooting his cozy and endlessly welcoming Sunday afternoon jazz series, with a new bi-weekly, bibliophile-friendly location in midtown. “Jazz and Books” fires up this month and has 4 p.m. every-other-Sunday gigs on the books (zing!) through April, with host Hammond performing an opening set at each, via one of his innumerable projects, before giving way to a featured performer. Randy McKean’s Magnetic Health Theater with Dog Water Trio, and Cross Pollination with Little Blue Bird have the honor on Feb. 1 and 15, respectively. March shows feature Jon Raskin with Neighborhood Jazz Duo (March 1) and the Hammond-guided Christian Brothers High School Honors Band with Mass Appeal (March 15), with Jon Bafus & Jon Raskin Duo with Ross Hammond & Kim Nguyen on April 5 and Maximum Ernst with Christian Brothers House Band on April 19. At this time we can offer no advice on which acts pair best with the “Fourth Wing” vibes — I’ll check with my wife and get back to you (Time Tested Books, 1114 21st St. Free. instagram.com).
In addition to the aforementioned new LabRats wax, we’ve got a number of local artists releasing new music this month, and celebrating accordingly with release gigs. Singer-songwriter (and touring machine) Samantha Henson’s new “When I Think of Love” wafts between tunes like its wistful and heart-tugging title track and the gripping, sprawling folk rock epic “Sunni;” she’s got twanging barnstormers Country Risque and Bad Barnacles barstool blues offshoot Night Daddy supporting (Feb. 21 at Old Ironsides. $15/$18. theoldironsides.com). Longtime garage rock/psych-fuzz duo Pets dish up their feisty latest, “Dig the Skull” as part of a four-band bill topped by local rock titans the Snares, with Portland post-punk act Forty Feet Tall and Sacramento’s BLOUS3 (Feb. 19 at Cafe Colonial. $12/$15. cafecolonial916.com).
Shimmering neon pop rockers Bahena have two area gigs on the release tour for their glossy, frisky debut “Goldilocks EP:” Feb. 21 at Watermelon Music in Davis, and the following night at the Press Club (instagram.com/bahenamusic). Press Club also hosts the debut of “Mixtape Vol. 1,” a covers collection from gritty veteran rock act Cities You Wish You Were From, flanked by fellow local heavyweights Lewd Jaw and Band of Coyotes, who themselves plan to play around with some tributes (Feb. 21. $15/$20. instagram.com/press_club). Standout hip-hop artist Jakhari Smith debuts his soulfully captivating and graspingly introspective “When It All Falls Down” with support from Connor Chavez, Nici Martin, Dre-T and Southdouble06 (Feb. 27 at Starlet Room. $20.40. harlows.com).
It’s Valentine’s Day and it’s a Saturday night — why not stir up a little romance with Slug and Ant? Hip-hop mainstay Atmosphere’s “Winter Carnival Tour” is rolling into town, flanked by the relentlessly effervescent Sage Francis, R.A. The Rugged Man, Kool Keith and DJ set from Mr. Dibbs. The touring machine from Minneapolis is out on the road (as they always seem to be) behind their eye-popping fourteenth album, 2025’s sprawling 26-track behemoth “Jestures.” But, perhaps even more laudable is that 2026 marks the duo’s 30th anniversary — just in case any of us needed to feel our age (7:30 p.m. Sat. Feb 14 at Channel 24. $59.85. channel24sac.com).
Local DIY music space The Red Museum is hosting a fundraising concert for Sacramento FUEL (Family Unity, Education and Legal) Network, a broad coalition of 80-plus nonprofit, legal and community organizations supporting Sacramento’s refugee population. Slated to perform is the New Era (a duo featuring Brandon Mack and Butane Baby) with Mother Venom and Jakhari Smith, with food vendors and DJ’s between sets (7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, 212 15th St. $15 minimum donation). The series also has gigs in Chico at the Naked Lounge on Feb. 19, and in Davis on Feb. 20, with that bill to come (instagram.com/sacfuel).
If you’re like me, you’re going somewhat batty with excitement about the current bombardment of summer music festival announcements — how’s about an indoor one to tide us over? The inaugural Accident Fest boasts a raucously eclectic lineup helmed by the throbbingly macabre “mutant body music” of San Francisco’s Ex-Heir and local standout Pregnant, the madcap backalley indie chem lab of Daniel Trudeau. Electro-pop rock act Strawberry Panic, ghost-core project An Apparition, Rumi Shimada, XAI TEK, Ludic Gal and Lyra Dreamscape round out this sonically daring array (6:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7 at DNL Studios, 7825 Lichen Drive, Citrus Heights. $15, all ages. eventbrite.com; instagram.com/accidentfest).
Speaking of those summer festival lineup drops: Year four of Placerville’s Golden Road Gathering just put the final touches on a banger of a lineup including a two-hour set from funk/soul maestros Lettuce, two sets apiece from STS9 and Leftover Salmon, with Brothers Comatose, Hip Abduction, Chali 2Na & Cut Chemist and tons more (May 15-17, El Dorado County Fairgrounds. goldenroadgathering.com). Winters’ intimate one-day Reggae on the Creek on Putah Creek boasts Fortunate Youth and a return set from Marlon Asher, with Pipe Down, Anora and One Sharp Mind (May 9 at Green River Taproom. reggaeonthecreek.com). The Mountain Vibe Music Festival will welcome headliners False Rhythms, Forrest Day and several others (June 12-14 at Laughton Ranch Event Center, Jackson. mountainvibemusic.com).
The annually bustling, fest-heavy Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley will host the spring Strawberry Music Festival, with an initial lineup featuring Della Mae, Las Cafeteras, Crying Uncle Bluegrass and more to come (May 21-24; strawberrymusic.com) The annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival has Bluegrass Cardinals, kingpin Sam Grisman Project, upstart Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and tons more (June 18-21; californiabluegrass.org).
The Nevada Co. Fairgrounds’ newest face is also one of Northern California’s oldest — our lifelong pals from High Sierra Music Festival are moving to Grass Valley in ‘26 after more than a quarter century in Quincy. There’s plenty of excitement from the “High Sierra Lifers” over the new digs, with vibrations buttressed by a just-dropped lineup featuring supergroup The Word, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Dumpstaphunk, Eggy, festival mainstays Lebo, Scott Pemberton and Steve Poltz and tons more (July 2-5; highsierramusic.com).