In 2022, Bay Area music fans have ample opportunity to get their groove back thanks to shows and festivals that have filled their local calendars for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.
On the heels of a dark 2020 and a slow, coronavirus-infected 2021 comeback, big crowds, big tours and marquee moments make the last year for music lovers of all tastes. It helped make it feel a little more “normal”. Highlights include the live return of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the debut of new events such as his Portola Music Festival at Pier 80, which focuses on electronic dance music, and his 50 at Sweetwater Music Hall in the Mills Valley. including his month-long festival marking the anniversary.
This fall, Taylor Swift and her fans saw the giant Ticketmaster crash during pre-orders for the pop star’s 52-day Eras tour, which is set to include two nights at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara next July. Sometimes I could get fresh beef. (Will the Swifties and Ticketmaster get back together again, or will the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Nov. 5 for fans be the start of something much bigger?)
Along the way, the area will see Lizzo buy the platinum flute she needs locally, and Riot Girl pioneer Bikini Kill will play her first local show in 25 years at Auckland’s Mosswood Meltdown this summer. I was able to witness it in action and even spent another night with Sir Paul McCartney in May. Meanwhile, Pavement’s indie-rock icons proved they still have it at his three-night stand at Masonic in San Francisco in September, where the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper’s Kendrick Lamar blew off the roof of Oakland’s Oracle Arena to end the summer.
Outdoors or indoors, rain or shine, the Bay Area’s appetite for live music was ravenous this year. Here are some of the best pop hunger-satisfying moments of 2022.
Stern Grove Music Festival Returns
Bay Area funk legends Tower of Power and Oakland rapper Two Short stop flooding the good vibes that greeted them when they co-headlined the music series at the 85th Annual Stern Grove Music Festival in June I couldn’t stop. It was a make-up show for the grand finale of the 2021 season and was set to feature both artists before a major water pipe broke and caused massive flooding.
But after an estimated $20 million worth of repairs, the beloved San Francisco summer tradition was able to pick up where it left off and unveil programming for 2022.
“This is the real Bay Area. Forests and trees and rain,” Too Short observes at one point in his vibrant, albeit soggy, setting in the woods’ summer drizzle. Did. “It feels good.”
‘Stranger Things’ spurs Metallica’s surge
Whoever oversees the selection of songs for the hit Netflix series Stranger Things has had a year.
First was the unexpected Gen Z revival of Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill.” The song rose like a phoenix from the ashes after being used in a pivotal scene in the series’ fourth season. Released in June, the episode helped Bush’s song reach the top spot on her Spotify’s Top 50 US streaming chart. Then it was the turn of Bay Area heavy metal rockers Metallica.
In July, an episode in which character Eddie Manson (Joseph Quinn) chopped up a blistering instrumental cover of Metallica’s 1986 classic “Master of Puppets” saw the track finally make it to the iTunes rock charts. won 1st place.
In an Instagram post to the band’s official account, Metallica shared that they were “beyond excited” to see their song at the show, writing, “Very well done, too much, some people could guess… Just a few seconds of Joseph Quinn’s hand in the trailer reminds me of this song.”
Metallica turned things around this summer by inviting them on stage for the headliner slot at the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago.
New Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa Valley
With Dave Chappelle on board, it’s destined for a weekend to remember. Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa Valley debut hosted by Comedian and curated with Grammy Award-winning pianist and Festival Artist in Residence Robert Glasper I helped
Adapted from its long-running East Coast siblings, this West Coast iteration invited fans to a three-day celebration of music and comedy at St. Helena’s Charles Krug Winery in July. Joining the controversial comedian were powerful singer Chaka Khan, rappers Talib Kweli and Black His star Yashiinbay, his BJ in Chicago His Kid, and more.
“There’s no place I want to be,” Chappelle said during Friday night’s all-star set, which featured cameos from Snoop Dogg and comedian Katt Williams.
Featuring three musical stages, the festival also had plenty of wine on offer, but most notably, it hosted one hell of a party. Even celebrities like Bay Area actors Delroy Lindo and Gabrielle Union came out with her former NBA All-Star husband, Dwyane Wade, and enjoyed all the fun.
Green Day Turns Local Kids into Guitar Heroes
When East Bay punk trio Green Day play concerts, they like to invite fans on stage to jam with them. In fact, his 10-year-old boy named Montgomery has actually arrived and is ready for the headlining set of the Outsidelands Music Festival in Golden Gate Park this summer with a handmade sign. had a rock.
and it worked!
At their closing set, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong pulled a young Oakland fan out of the crowd and invited him to join the band to play a cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge.” . Armstrong shouted, “Monty! Monty! Monty!”
After this widespread moment, Armstrong signed his white Epiphone Les Paul and gifted it to Montgomery along with a leopard-print lined guitar case.
The night was also Green Day’s first festival appearance, so they were able to tick Outside Lands off their to-do list.
Shannon Shaw overcomes grief with Halloween meltdown
As the front person for Auckland’s Shannon and the Crumbs, Shannon Shaw has made fans of everyone from filmmaker John Waters to Black Keys co-founder Dan Orbach. But in August, just three months before her planned wedding date, Shaw’s fiancée, musician Jo Hener (Gris Gris, Dodos), died in a car accident.
However, despite her immense grief, the show chose to keep her band’s headliner slot at the Halloween Meltdown at Mosswood Park in October. An offshoot of Auckland Festival, it’s a hodgepodge of punk, doo-wop and local legends of all kinds.
As usual, emceed by Jon Waters and directed by Crumb’s emotional introduction, it was an evocative performance that saw Shaw and her bandmates channel all the grief and anger that lay within them. has been superseded by The result is a set that will go down in Meltdown history as his one of the best sets of the festival.
The spirit of Tom Petty returns to the Fillmore
In 1997, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers decided to play 20 shows in 30 days at the Fillmore. The feat led Petty’s right-hand man and guitarist Mike Campbell to tell The Chronicle that they were “probably the best band ever”. Now, 25 years later, Petty’s estate (managed by his daughter Adria and his widow Dana) has taken the recordings from that legendary run and packaged them into a new box set.
Capturing Petty’s ranting sensibilities and appearances from a host of special guests, including John Lee Hooker and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, ‘Live at the Fillmore (1997)’ was released in November. it was done.
