Freebie of the week: Portugal. The Man is playing a special concert on Friday that won’t cost you a penny. The band is best known for the 2017 single “Feel It Still,” a catchy, quirky pop-rock number that borrows enough from the 1961 Marvelettes hit “Please Mr. Postman” that Motown’s Brian Holland, one of “Postman’s” principal writers, gets partial songwriting credit.
But Portugal. The Man is anything but a one-hit wonder hanging on beyond its expiration date. The outfit got its start 20 years ago in Wasilla, Alaska, and headed to Portland, Oregon. Through the years, there have been numerous personnel changes, but singer-guitarist-frontman John Gourley and bassist Zachary Carothers have been constants. So has the band’s activism, with members supporting causes ranging from conservation to anti-censorship to Native American rights to the endangered Sumatran tiger.
The band’s wide-ranging sound is built on a foundation of neo-psychedelic indie rock that has plenty of room for flourishes of hip-hop, R&B, dance pop and more. With nine albums to its credit and long history of touring and playing festivals, Portugal. The Man (the name was lifted from the title of a book that Gourley had planned to write about his father) is the antithesis of a one-hit wonder. These musicians have earned their cred. Their free show is at 6 p.m. Friday at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. The Philadelphia soul-funk-alt-rock band Snacktime opens. The concert reportedly came about as an agreement between promoters Another Planet Entertainment and the city of San Francisco. APE wanted to stage another Golden Gate Park show one week after its Outside Lands fest, with the city agreeing to the proposal if APE agreed to stage a free show in the city.
For more information, go to apeconcerts.com.
More free tunes: A number of parties are working to perk up San Francisco’s downtown. Among them is SF Live, a six-month free concert series put on by arts and music producers Illuminate, the S.F. Parks Alliance, Noise Pop promoters and the Union Square Alliance. This weekend on Saturday in Union Square, an all-ages show features electronic dance pop duo GoldFish, consisting of Dominic Peters and David Poole.
The musicians met in Cape Town, South Africa and discovered their love for house music with jazz, pop and Afro-pop. Now located in San Diego, GoldFish has nine albums in its catalog and a reputation for high-energy, irresistible live shows that have made it a major attraction on the festival circuit, with appearances at Coachellla, Glastonbury and more.
Also on the bill are Australian electronic dance-pop duo the Bag Raider and musician and performance artist Mykki Blanco. In case you haven’t noted the trajectory: The event will be a fun, family-friendly dance-pop party. (Scowl at your own risk!) It runs from 2 to 6 p.m.; more information is at sflivefest.com.
Law & disorder: Before he became a hip-hop artist as well as a writer and stage actor, Oakland native Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira spent eight years as a police officer. The job certainly must have afforded him experience in the kind of intense situations and issues he approaches in his two solo shows, 2014’s “Cops and Robbers” and the current “Black Men Everywhere!” at The Marsh in Berkeley.
The hard-hitting “Cops and Robbers” centers on an officer-involved shooting and more generally on the often-troubled relationship between law enforcement, the media, and African Americans. It generated a wealth of positive reviews. Now comes the insanely timely “Black Men Everywhere!,” which focuses on a fictional presidential election between a favored liberal candidate and a far-right flame thrower. In the midst of all the politicking, an unknown person or group is attacking police officers. And as organizers describe it, “As the far right and far left wage war, Black men find themselves caught in the crossfire.” Once again, Ferreira plays a variety of roles to tell a tense, impact-filled story that has elements of humor.
“Black Men Everywhere!” plays at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 12 (no performances Oct. 4-5) at The Marsh Berkeley. Tickets are $20-$100. Go to themarsh.org.
A DYI ‘Ode to Joy’: You have to give conductor Donato Cabrera and his California Symphony a high five for their ingenious marketing strategies. They always seem to have something up their collective sleeve to make each concert program inviting. But the Walnut Creek-based ensemble may have outdone themselves this time. Saturday night’s performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s mighty Ninth Symphony will be preceded by a 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. pop-up workshop and performance with the conductor in a nearby outdoor courtyard at which all amateur musicians at any level are invited to participate in a run-through of the theme from the fourth movement “Ode to Joy.”
The concert that follows at 7:30 p.m. in the Lesher Center’s Hofmann Theater will open with a performance of Louise Ferranc’s Overture No. 2 in E-flat, and the four soloists engaged to sing the famous “Ode” along with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Chorus will be soprano Laquita Mitchell, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, tenor Nicholas Phan and baritone Sidney Outlaw. The performance repeats at 4 p.m. Sunday, without, alas, the free pop-up, which is sponsored by the Amateur Music Network.
Tickets to the concert, $80-$110, are available at californiasymphony.org or (925) 943-7469. Seating for the Saturday pop-up begins at 4:30 p.m. at the Water Light Public Plaza at 1501 Locust St. Participants should bring their own music stands and must register beforehand at amateurmusic.org, where instrumental parts are downloadable.
Cornets and tubas and tenor horns, oh my! Based in San Jose, but calling itself the San Francisco Brass Band, this award-winning ensemble more than two dozen players strong, was founded in 2019 to represent the Bay Area, California and the West Coast in North American British Band competition. (British bass bands, traditionally formed by workers in coal-mining towns dating back two centuries, have a specific lineup of brass instruments with percussion).
San Jose’s version, which advanced from second division to the more difficult first this year and still managed to emerge triumphant in the North American trials in April, will be tooting their own horns, you should pardon the expression, at a “Brass in Concert” performance at Trinity Lutheran Church in Pleasanton at 4 p.m. Sunday.
On the program are Eric Ball’s “Resurgam,” the Celtic standard “Gaelforce,” the compellingly rhythmic “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” a new work by Naomi Styles called “Pandora’s Dance” and “Clear Skies,” featuring cornet soloist Michael Marmarou.
Advance tickets purchased online at sfband.org are $22 for general admission, $17 for seniors and $8 for students. They are also available at the door at 1225 Hopyard Road for two or three dollars more. Children are admitted free.
The post Best Bets: Portugal. The Man, GoldFish, ‘Black Men Everywhere!,’ California Symphony, San Francisco Brass Band appeared first on Local News Matters.