Regular readers will likely remember my tracking of the ascension of Fortuna’s The Critics, a very skilled and tight pop rock band with a lot of passion and moxy. I have a soft spot for anyone trying as hard as they do with gobs of talent to get into what I discovered in my 20s […]
The Critics
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Music Tonight: Saturday, May 4
Two shows on tonight’s docket, both happening at roughly the same hour of 7 p.m. They are celebrating Arts Alive at Siren’s Song in Eureka with Oakland’s clean and bluesy garage band The Hell Tones, along with local guitar slingers Red Hot Shame. No word on the cover charge as of press time, so bring […]
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Music Tonight: Friday, Nov. 17
As we wind up to next Thursday’s holiday, the gigs get sparse. To correct for this rocky landing, I’m going to double up on shows, starting today and through every day of the weekend, so you can get your kicks one way or another. Tonight’s very different events start at 8 p.m. Over at the […]
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Music Tonight: Friday, Nov. 10
Not long after their local star-studded and sold-out show at the Minor Theatre, The California Poppies will be featuring another presentation of their new record The Holy Rainbow with the aim of gathering even more footage for an eventual live album and concert film. Tonight’s performance will be at the Arcata Playhouse, with support from […]
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Armistice
Last Sunday we had Fall Back, when we retreated to an extra hour of darkness — and for many, sleep — on the clock to adjust to the changing season. Fall back, retreat, ceasefire, armistice … these words flow together in a certain thematic harmony as we reach the last one. Until 1954, we used […]
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Music Tonight: Saturday, Aug. 26
It’s local rock night at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, with a trio of homegrown talent scorching the stage. Starting at 7 p.m., you will find Phosphorus (hence the scorching reference), Drastic Gnarly’s, and the young upstart winners of 2023 Fernstock, The Critics. All of this music for the low price of $10, and half that […]
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The Grateful and the Dead
In Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s Been a Death, in the Opposite House,” the reader is given a glimpse, from the outside looking in, of the social mechanics of death “In just a Country Town.” The narrator/neighbor watches the windows open, a mattress taken outside, and the retreat of the defeated doctor met with the arrival […]
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Music Today: Sunday. June 18
Fernstock, Fernstock, Fernstock! Fernstock 2023 is coming to the Humboldt County Fairgrounds today. Starting at noon, there will be two stages with 15 bands competing for $5,000 and a chance to play at the Humboldt County Fair. In addition to the music, there will be oodles of food and local vendors, tasty local beverages, family […]
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Songs for Summer
As a music-obsessed teen in the late-1990s, I often found myself at odds with prevailing sensibilities, an alienating experience that has actually helped me over the years. How? Well, to paraphrase my cousin Jet, the secret of eternal relevance is a withering distrust of most current popular culture. So while some of my peers were […]
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Music Tonight: Sunday, May 28
It’s tough to pin down the gigs at the Siren’s Song, as my usual methods of relying on press releases, texting, fliers about town, social media (ugh), and a proprietary blend of my own secret Baker Street Irregulars and messenger pigeons has yet to crack the inscrutable booking policy of this genuinely fun venue. However, […]
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You Can’t Fight in the War Room
I’ve always found it kind of odd that we call it Memorial Day, since the American consciousness is generally incapable of attaching memory to reflection in a way that serves as a reliable monument to the past. We tend to expand grievances while bumping out facts in favor of a national mythology incompatible with an […]
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Music Tonight: Saturday, May 20
It feels like only yesterday when I last reported on this event, yet that is the ephemeral and fleeting nature of time; it tugs and curls away from us like wisps of morning fog or lace curtains rustling in the afternoon breeze, brief, halcyon moments guiding us to our end of days. I am of […]