Author: Mark Paniagua

Dead Kennedys  UC Theater Berkeley December 9, 2018  Photos by Raymond Ahner. The DEAD KENNEDYS (DK) showed up at the UC Theater loaded for bear to celebrate forty years of fucking things up. Taking aim at the usual suspects (politics, religion, and society), DK headlined a lineup that was a history lesson of raising a middle finger at the establishment, using punk rock as the platform to do so. Never mind that this was not the version of DK that put San Francisco on the punk rock map in 1978 with incendiary performances throughout the bay area underground (including some legendary shows…

Perry Farrell’s Kind Heaven Orchestra Fillmore Auditorium December 2, 2018 Photos by Elizabeth Gohr.  Rock legend Perry Farrell and his new project Kind Heaven Orchestra (KHO) touched down at the Fillmore in San Francisco for a festive show fueled by music, religion, politics, weed, and wine. For the inaugural Festival of Lights concert, Farrell, whose claims to fame are many (Jane’s Addiction, Porno for Pyros, Lollapalooza), and his crew took a crowd that was already in high spirits even higher by delivering an energetic 90-minute set comprised mainly of new material from Kind Heaven Orchestra. Running at times thirteen deep…

Ministry Warfield Theater November 21, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. It’s been a long and winding road for Industrial metal visionaries Ministry and their mercurial front man and founder Al Jourgensen. From the early beginnings in 1981, emerging from the Chicago underground club scene, to 2018 with the politically charged release of AmeriKKKant, Ministry has continuously led the charge for alternative and industrial music. That charge stormed through San Francisco’s Warfield Theater to remind us of where Ministry has come from and to shine a bright light on where they are going. For both tenses, Jourgensen and Ministry seem intent…

Ghost City National Civic, San Jose November 15, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. Throughout the history of popular music, an anticipation and anxiety has been felt by denizens of unsuspecting towns when ‘dangerous bands’ set up camp for local concerts. The delicious anticipation usually comes from fans who hope to go to these ‘forbidden’ shows and emerge somehow changed from the experience. The creeping anxiety is usually sensed by city authoritarians who cringe at the thought of how the miscreant entertainers will rouse their fans to rise up and challenge established norms on topics like sex, politics, and religion. Because…

Lenny Kravitz Bill Graham Civic Auditorium October 4, 2018 Photos by Pollen Heath. Despite a hiatus away from the music scene that helped to create the mega-media celebrity that is now Lenny Kravitz, he is still every bit the patchouli-infused rock star that burst on the scene back in 1989. The funked-up hippie that drew his musical influences from Prince, Hendrix, and Curtis Mayfield , and his fashion sense from his uptown New York roots and Beverly Hills upbringing, reminded everyone of that very fact on his recent stop through San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic. To some, the…

Clutch Regency Ballroom October 11, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. Clutch is like the character actor that you see in every big movie but can’t name. Unassumingly famous to the point that if it weren’t for the fact that they have their band credentials they would probably be told to wait in line to enter their own shows. Despite writing and re-writing the book of how to be underground rock legends, Clutch still flies under the radar. Though their preference likely is to keep storming ahead as the anti-heroes of corporate rock success, the recent release of Book of Bad…

Ringo Starr and his All-Starrs City National Civic, San Jose Sept 20, 2018 Photos by Aron Cooperman. The marquee of the City National Civic in San Jose read Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band….rightfully so. Being a member of arguably the most important band in music history pretty much guarantees top billing. However, it would have been more accurate if the name were inverted for this evening’s performance, a stew of very different musical flavors, only some of which included ingredients from Ringo Starr. That’s not meant to harsh the 78 year-old former Beatles drummer, but while he was the…

The Eagles AT&T Park Sept 20, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. Typically the only birds sighted at AT&T Park are the scores of pigeons that descend upon the stadium around the eighth inning of a Giants game, looking to take whatever scraps remain from the departing crowd. On this evening instead of looking to avoid the birds at AT&T, an admiring crowd came 40,000 strong because of the birds….in this case to see the legendary Eagles. Playing against the backdrop of a very pleasant next-to-last evening of summer in San Francisco, the Eagles put an exclamation point on a fabulous…

Greta Van Fleet City National Civic, San Jose September 18, 2018  Photos by Pollen Heath. No rock band of recent vintage has created a stir quite like Greta Van Fleet (GVF). The mere fact that their claim to the keys of the rock and roll kingdom is under debate is a win of sorts for the band and for the health of rock itself. But once you peel back the layers of hot flash and hype that currently surrounds GVF, it is apparent that many a rocker wants to pump the breaks on anointing the foursome from Frankenmuth, Michigan the…

Dave Matthews Band Shoreline Amphitheater, Mt. View September 8, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. Of all the stars that shine in the rock music universe, the ones that burn brightest aren’t always the ones you would think. Quick, who currently has the longest streak of consecutive album releases to go to number 1 on the United States Billboard charts?  It’s not U2 or Taylor Swift or Jay Z or any of the other mega-stars that might initially jump to mind….it’s the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). That fact might even be a surprise to the diehard fans that packed the Shoreline…

Jack White Bill Graham Civic Auditorium August 15, 2018 Photos by David James Swanson. Touring in support of his Boarding House Reach album, Jack White started to mess with the audience even before he hit a note. First off, there were no phones allowed inside the concert hall for the show. Phones were ‘checked’ upon entrance, and were only allowed to be used in designated areas outside of the hall. As such, this provided a throwback concert vibe inside. With no devices to incessantly check, people were actually talking to each other. Spread on top of the technological nakedness was…

sWeezer/Pixies Shoreline Amphitheater, Mt. View August 7, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. There is something magical about outdoor summertime shows. The happy alignment of good friends, good weather, and great music tends to leave an indelible mark on our memories, and can lighten the load of our daily burdens. So much so that it may even help you forget (even just for a few hours) that half of the state is on fire. Such was the scene on this warm August evening at the Shoreline, where Weezer and the Pixies were about to offer a brief escape to wax nostalgic…

Taylor Swift Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara   May 11, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. Taylor Swift allowed some 100,000+ fans into her Reputation tour universe as she headlined a sold-out weekend at Levi’s Stadium. This came to the delight of throngs of her fans clamoring to see her, and to the scorn of those frozen in the gridlocked south bay rush hour commute. No matter what one might think of Taylor Swift (or Tay-Tay as some fans call her) it is undeniable that she is one of the most successful and polarizing characters in popular music. To many she epitomizes what…

Dead Meadow The Chapel April 20, 2018 Photos by Elizabeth Gohr. San Francisco is known for its fog, but usually it is the fog socking in the Golden Gate Bridge or rolling over Twin Peaks. On this day however, neither of those classic scenes are the reason for the haze over the city by the Bay.  The reason instead is that April 20, 2018 was the first recreationally legal 420 celebration in San Francisco. Besides the obvious (puff…puff…give), what is be the best way for stoners to spend this landmark day in the city?  Get super-baked and go see Dead…

Judas Priest The Warfield April 19, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner. SFFD was on high alert on Market Street as Judas Priest torched the Warfield just in time for the recent 420 celebrations. The founding fathers of heavy metal delivered the goods to a wall-to-wall packed house of rabid rockers, putting on a heavy duty show with a buzz-worthy anticipation befitting the return of metal god Rob Halford and the current incarnation of the Priest. Touring in support of their latest recording Firepower, Halford and company (drummer Scott Travis, bassist Ian Hill, guitarist Richie Faulkner, and guitarist Andy Sneap) wasted…

Roger Daltrey Fox Theater, Oakland March 15, 2018 Photos by Raymond Ahner Roger Daltrey has always been a rebel, constantly doing things on his own terms. From his early days growing up in London he has chosen to go his own way, back then swerving away from the prospects of higher education and directly into the path of the oncoming freight train of rock history. Fast forward to 2018, the now 74-year old Roger Daltrey still calls his own shots. In a somewhat unorthodox way to break the seal on his 2018 live performances, Daltrey chose to rock out in…

Anderson East The Fillmore March 2, 2018 All photos by Jill Gerstenberger. Anderson East has a pedigree that seems primed for country music success. His girlfriend is acclaimed country singer (and Grammy Award winner) Miranda Lambert, he started his music career in Music City U.S.A. (Nashville, Tennesee), and he has written music with country stars Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson. With that background, it would seem to be a no-brainer that East would forge his fame by tapping into the rich country music passion of his southern roots (he was born in Alabama).  However, given his gift of a powerful,…

Mike Patton The Chapel February 9, 2018 All photos by Elizabeth Gohr. Mike Patton, perhaps the hardest working man in the Bay Area underground music scene, brought his latest creatively eccentric, eclectic, electric show to the stage at The Chapel for a sold-out weekend of hip-hop /electronica weirdness. A bespectacled Patton, sporting a t-shirt that read “Surrounded By Idiots,” strolled onstage with his cut creating cohort (and fellow Bay Area underground legend) DJ QBert to a roar from the assembled crowd. As Bay Area music fans already know, observing Patton onstage is usually a very strange occurrence. Whether it is…

K. Flay The Fillmore Auditorium January 17, 2018 All photos by Jeff Spirer. It is quite an amazing thing to see a burgeoning musical act grow up before your eyes. That is exactly what has happened for those who have watched the rising star of K.Flay, especially after witnessing her tear up the stage at her recent Fillmore performance. It seems like it was just the other day that she was playing Stanford house parties and small clubs for drink money. Then after getting some notice from her self-produced mix tapes and catching the ear of the record industry, it…

Michael McDonald Fox Theater, Oakland November 16, 2017 Photos by Raymond Ahner. From the minute Michael McDonald and his band took the stage in front of an almost full house at the Fox Theater in Oakland it was apparent that all in attendance were in for an intimate ‘in your living room’ type of performance. The usually open floor was filled with comfortable high-backed chairs, and the predominantly 50s and up crowd settled in as McDonald and his 6-piece band began the set with ‘Yah Mo B There.’ With this performance of the 1983 Grammy winning single (penned and recorded…