Updated daily. Set times move, call the venue when it matters.
Three heavyweights of postwar blues harmonica and guitar share a stage for a CD release night at FUSION | 708, which puts this closer to a recording-session atmosphere than a standard bar gig. Anson Funderburgh has been one of the most respected Texas blues guitarists since the early eighties, and Junior Watson's phrasing is the...
The Expendables are a Santa Cruz reggae-rock band with twenty-plus years of catalog and a fanbase that treats their shows like a reunion. Launchpad is a small room, which means the floor gets loud fast and the sightlines are genuinely good from anywhere, but get there before the openers finish if you want a comfortable...
The post-Bob Marley touring lineup of The Wailers brings the full roots-reggae catalog to what is almost certainly an outdoor stage at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, not Launchpad's usual...
Los Tigres del Norte, the Sinaloa-born norteño institution that has been recording since 1968, bring their corridos and narcocorridos canon to the Kiva Auditorium. The Kiva seats around 2,300 and has a proper sightline from nearly every seat in the house, so there is no real bad spot in this room. Tickets through Ticketmaster means...
San Diego's The Frights are marking a decade of their debut album with a full tour stop at the Sunshine, one of the few rooms on Central that can actually hold a crowd this size without losing the energy. The self-deprecating tour name is a bit. The band is not: ten years in, they play...
Cambridge psych-doom outfit Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats headlines the Sunshine Theater with Italian doom trio Messa opening, a double bill that earns its weight in riffs. The Sunshine's standing floor suits this kind of music well, the sound hits harder when there's nowhere to sit and nothing to do but absorb it. Tickets are...
San Francisco's Hot Flash Heat Wave brings their hazy, sun-warped indie pop to Launchpad, with local and regional support from Small Crush and High rounding out the bill. Launchpad's sound system punches well above what the room size would suggest, so the dreamy, layered textures this band trades in actually land the way they're supposed...
Iron Lung, the Seattle powerviolence duo who have been doing this longer and louder than almost anyone, headlines a four-band bill that also features Soak, G.A.S.M., and Nyctophagia. Launchpad's room is small enough that Iron Lung's two-piece setup will feel genuinely overwhelming, which is the whole point. Grab tickets in advance because this kind of...
Four bands, one birthday, and a bill that leans hard into the heavier end of the Albuquerque scene. Launchpad's room is built for exactly this kind of stacked weekend show, where the floor fills early and the sound desk gets a proper workout. Tickets are through Hold My Ticket, so grab them before the door...
Bravo The Bagchaser, the Sacramento rapper who built a following through raw street narratives and consistent independent releases, headlines the Nothing Given Tour at one of Central Avenue's better rooms for hip-hop sound. DJ Trill handles sounds between sets, which usually means this crowd stays warm the whole night rather than cooling off between acts....