There are only 76 days until the end of the year.
How to make them count? With as much live music as your babysitter rolodex can handle.
And here’s your cheat sheet: 19 sure-thing shows, from Henry Rollins at the Herbst to a Thom Yorke-backed experience that’ll tickle every one of your senses.
In between? A ton of bands you love and some you need to check out. Plus a couple for the kids (your niece who loves Riverdale already has her Tove Styrke ticket; plan to see her there.)
Get going, before you need to resort to Stubhub.
Because your girlfriend will love you for it…
Hozier at the Fox, October 16
Tove Styrke by Julia Reinhart/Getty.
Because nobody makes dance-pop queens like Sweden (option 1)…
Tove Styrke at the Café du Nord, October 17
Because nobody makes dance-pop queens like Sweden (option 2)…
Lykke Li at the Fillmore, October 17
Because Russian classical music fans are somehow also the most metal…
Mariinsky Plays Stravinsky at the San Francisco Symphony, October 21
Because time hasn’t actually mellowed him that much…
Henry Rollins at the Herbst Theatre, October 25
Because she’s the best advertisement for French androgyny since Betty Catroux…
Christine and the Queens at the Fox, October 26
Because you need someone to bring you up after all that Bon Iver…
Wild Nothing at the Independent, October 27-28
Because a roughly 23-year-old person you love saw Glee at an impressionable age…
Lea Michele and Darren Criss at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, October 29
Because once, you really were that emo…
Jawbreaker at the Fillmore, October 23-25
Milk Carton Kids by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty.
Because sometimes what you want are gentle harmonies played over some equally gentle guitars…
Milk Carton Kids at the UC Theatre, November 5
Because you’re not crazy — they are out to get you…
Big Data at the Chapel, November 7
Because he’s a peerless prophet with the voice of an angel…
Maxwell at the Paramount Theatre, November 8-9
Because these Mercury Award winners are even live better than they were on KEXP…
Young Fathers at the Independent, November 10-11
Because if we had to pick just one of these shows, this would be it…
Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus (a.k.a. boygenius) at the Fox, November 27
Because you might be in the mood for a 2018 honky-tonk version of Z.Z. Top’s “Just Got Paid”…
Whitey Morgan at the Great American Music Hall, November 30
Because he set the music/TV/everything else world on fire this year…
Childish Gambino at the Oracle Arena, December 11
Tor Miller by Mark Horton/Getty.
Because he’s the best thing to come out of New Jersey since Titus Andronicus…
Tor Miller at the Café du Nord, December 12
Because he knows what he’s doing especially when collaborating with “audiovisual composer” Tarik Barri …
Thom Yorke at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, December 15
Because it’s a belated Christmas present from the god of English indie icons…
Robyn Hitchcock at the Chapel, December 27
Main image: Hozier by C Flanigan/Wireimage.
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