April concerts in capital region: Sac JestFest returns, Afroman visits Nevada City

The merriment and sonic bacchanalia of Sac JestFest is back for Volume 3, “another foolish April show” of 11 bands, 21 visual artists (in 2-D and 3-D), aerialist performances and a dozen local vendors. Boasting a razor-sharp indie-pop acumen forever marooned on a desolate, wind-whipped shoreline, Sacramento native beach pop/chillwave act Animals in the Attic is your musical headliner, with this event doubling as the official release party for their swirling fifth record, “Epilogue,” released last week. They’re flanked atop the lineup by the new collaboration between emotively fierce electro-pop/alt-R&B juggernaut Rituals of Mine - also releasing a new EP, “Endure” on Friday — backed by the unstoppable LabRats. Also leading the way are Oakland fuzz-licked punk act Grumpster, with tongue-in-cheek San Jose indie folk artist Pacing (the musical moniker for Katie McTigue) and her bevy of blooming, meandering and sassy ballads.

Red-hot indie pop rockers Loose Choir likewise help to anchor a local-heavy lineup with noise rockers Quinkana, shoegaze/indie artist Roni Jean, grunge metal miscreants Get The Wall, queer alt-punk from Uneasy and alt-rap troupe Youthanasia, with an electronic audio/visual performance art experience “of familiarity and nostalgia fused with tedium and mania” from Fugitive Color, and Melissa Uroff-curated exhibit titled “Funhouse.” New at the Jest this year is the 916 Growth Gigs side stage, which will feature a trio of acoustic sets woven between the main stage acts. The stage hosts The Reverent Marigold, Growth Gigs chief Brianna Carmel (of Blooming Heads, Little Tiny Knife and various local projects) and the triumphant return to Sacramento of former local mainstay Autumn Sky Hall. This year’s gathering moves over to the Red Museum — its third venue in as many iterations — with the whole affair serving as a benefit for NorCal Resist. (3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, April 4, 212 15th St. $23. sacjestfest.com.)

For the second year in a row, luminant Vermont indie folk rock breakout Lily Seabird is kind enough to shoehorn a Nevada City gig into her West Coast touring docket — this year with her full band after last year’s solo soiree. Her mesmerizing, pulsing freakout of a new single, “Demon in Me,” feels like a seamless follow-up to her eponymous, songwriter’s daydream of a 2025 LP “Trash Mountain” — a fresh afternoon’s worth of setting sunrays doing their level best to warm the valley of despair and angst below before disappearing behind the jagged peaks. Nevada City mainstay Will Sprott forges the other half of a delectable pairing (Thursday, April 2, at Sans Backup Plan Records, 748 Zion St. $10-$20. instagram.com/sans.backup.plan).

A celebration is in order for shimmering indie pop veteran veterans Rocketship, with a reissue and tour (their first gigs in eight years) to mark three decades since the release of their jangling, spacey magnum opus, “A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness” — a record worth toasting for its own waves of organ-stitched boppers, but also for the influence the record carries for subsequent generations of likeminded acts. Perhaps Sacramento’s elusive The Frenchmen would hold themselves in that category — they did their own reissue in 2024 to mark 20 years of the ebullient “Sorry We Ruined Your Party,” and join this bill along with Tony Molina (8 p.m. Friday, April 10, at Starlet Room. $26.40. harlows.com).

Somewhat sneakily, Midtown Live — the promised sports pub and entertainment venue marking the latest venture to take over the space of the former midtown Goldfield (née Hamburger Mary’s) on J Street — appears poised for an April opening and has prepped their first live music event. Magnetic Hawaiian-born roots/pop/reggae/soul maestro Mike Love has the honor of smashing the champagne bottle on the revamped stage’s bow — we’ll keep you posted as future voyages are announced (7 p.m. Sunday, April 26, 1630 J St. $33.85. eventbrite.com).

We’ll happily give you a pass for not immediately knowing exactly what was going on with Afroman and his now famed music video after the whole affair went viral in March, flooding social media with images of the rapper draped in American flag garb. According to multiple reports, the veteran artist, best known for the ubiquitous 2001 track “Because I Got High” (and for his titular hairdo), emerged victorious from a First Amendment-anchored court battle in Ohio over the use of security camera footage depicting police activity at his home in 2022 in his video for “Lemon Pound Cake.” With that affair now concluded, back to business for the affable touring artist and activist as he lands on a tour stop in Nevada City (7 p.m. Monday, April 16, at Miners Foundry. $38.45. minersfoundry.org).

The phrase “roots rock” carries a more titillating air when we don’t actually know what those roots will eventually germinate into. Sonic botanists may still be baffled by the weaving and twisting vines of Boy Golden’s 2026 no-skippers gem, “Best of Our Possible Lives.” Give it a few spins and it can feel like different phyla each time, from the country-kissed opening rocker “Suffer” to the lyrically soaring, axe pinging curtain call of the title track — and in between, ‘80s speckled NSFW emotional gut-puncher “Eyes” and a pair of whimsical highway rambling duets, “Cowboy Dreams” and “Moontan,” with fellow Canadian indie darling Cat Clyde. It’s a magnanimously curated indie rock/alt-country treasure chest that had no hope of ever staying buried, marking what feels like a significant arrival — and you won’t want to overlook his 2025 4-song EP “Finding Eden” as a companion piece (7 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, 703 Sutter St., Folsom. $23.76. folsomhotelsaloon.com).

We’d be rather dismayed if one of downtown’s finest patios didn’t host some live music — fortunately, we won’t have to riot! Adjacent to Pipeworks climbing gym, Pintworks Pub at Touchstone Brewing fired up their last Friday of the month concert series in March and has upcoming gigs from Public I, comprised of students from Elk Grove School of Rock on April 24, with country blues rockers Moonshine & Honey (May 29), local fixture Rod Stinson Band (June 26), a pair of rock covers acts in The Seedy Burners (July 31) and ‘90s specialists Inverness95 (Aug. 28) and Americana/roots/blues staple Red’s Blues wrapping the summer on Sept. 25 (instagram.com/pipeworks).

Peeking ahead to summer ... last year marked a seismic metamorphosis for South Lake Tahoe’s The Hangar, blooming from a plush outdoor beer garden with here-and-there music to a full-fledged concert venue. Having now been to a show there (one from which we assume a “no more confetti cannons” rule was likely born), we can tell you that it’s a special place to see a show. There’s just all manner of good juju in the air here folks, and they’re drawing acts that seldom play in such airy and energizingly intimate spaces. The summer season calendar is kicking off with a pair of regal indie psych rock acts in Unknown Mortal Orchestra (May 22) and the vivacious Allah-Las returning to the venue for the second year in a row with Mapache’s Sam Blasucci (May 31). June is highlighted by a stop on the 30th Anniversary tour of the indelible Thievery Corporation (June 7), rambunctious rock/jam troupe Dogs in a Pile (June 5) and the warm-hug indie folk rock embrace of Blind Pilot and John Craigie (June 20). RJD2 swings by on July 18, while August boasts Americana rock royals Old 97’s (Aug. 2) and forerunners Built to Spill (Aug. 31), with Tab Benoit visiting on Sept. 6. We’ll let you know about additional gigs when they’re on the books — meanwhile we’ll be sitting here pondering a summer timeshare down near “the Y” (thehangarlaketahoe.com/music-events).

A slightly shorter trek up Highway 50, the annual summer Folk on the Farm series at the delightfully charming Delfino Farms outdoor stage is packing some major juice. We throw no shade for keeping the term “Folk” in the moniker, but the lineups have long since blown past that genre boundary. It’s a feisty season highlighted by the jazz-rooted psych blues rock bliss of White Denim (July 11), folk darling duo Two Runner (July 17), wistful Southern roots/alt rockers Futurebirds (July 19), country songstress Willow Avalon (Aug. 1), soaring throwback soul troupe Thee Sinseers (Aug. 8), indie champs Whitney (Aug. 20) and grunge-tickled alt-rock upstart Ovven on Aug. 29. These are just a few of the highlights, the whole summer lineup is a heater — as are the pies and wines, for what it’s worth (delfinofarms.com/folkonthefarm).

Looking a little farther ahead to October — we’re not sure how Aftershock keeps doing this, but somehow their lineups seem to stretch stratospherically higher each year, and we’re loving the subtly packaged themes and vibes occurring by day and by stage. The top line headliners speak for themselves: My Chemical Romance, Limp Bizkit, Piece the Veil, Tool, Sublime, Wu-Tang Clan, Danny freakin’ Elfman and overwhelmingly more. But there is some comparable firepower smoldering in the undercards, including Sunday homecomings for Dance Gavin Dance and the first Oleander gig in eight years. We’ve also got the first California gig in nearly a quarter-century from criminally unheralded squad Union Underground, a 25th anniversary performance from Drowning Pool and a two-decade milestone spot from Aussie rock titans Wolfmother — a local makeup of sorts for their canceled July tour stop at Channel 24 (Oct. 1-4 at Discovery Park. aftershockfestival.com).