Live Music This Week: Brandon Flowers, Billy Joel, and More

Live Music This Week: Brandon Flowers, Billy Joel, and More

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San Francisco’s set to get a new music venue at the Armory. Color us intrigued and forever welcoming of more havens for live music.


Wednesday: Brandon Flowers at the Fox

Rarely do today’s rock bros reach the heights of Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, the man who introduced the world to Mr. Brightside and wrote stadium anthems in his sleep. Flowers views his own fashion iconography relative to rock history’s greatest fashionistas, and he’s earned the right. He recently spoke sensibly and candidly with Billboard about a rock god’s fashion choices, and dropped a few known comparison points. "Style is a huge part of a musician's image...When I think of Morrissey, I think of his ­pompadour. When I think of Mick Jagger, I think of scarves. Roy Orbison had his Ray-Bans. As for me... I guess time will tell what my trademark will be." Whatever it is, his solo career will further cement Flowers as something bigger than a band’s frontman.

Friday: Neko Case at Saratoga Mountain Winery

PSA: DO NOT MESS WITH NEKO CASE. Last week in Portland, Case abruptly ended a show when an attendee wouldn’t stop filming, despite multiple requests from Case. Sure, the nuclear option is extreme, and innocents were harmed. But maybe if enough musicians do this we’ll all be spared the annoyance of having to bend our necks around a-holes who film entire shows. I say let that be a lesson to us. NEKO CASE FOR PRESIDENT. (p.s. Neko Case is the heart of Americana music and should be included in all supergroups.)

Friday: The Get Up Kids at Great American Music Hall and Saturday at The Independent

Maybe you didn’t hear but emo is back. It’s everywhere, in fact. Every damn Facebook post is basically some version of a Get Up Kids song from back in the day. Love won, love lost, vague political sentiment, vague angst against something unknowable, all in the key of baby whining. But Get Up Kids are sacred, and their legacy forever lasting. The Vagrant Rock emo punk band informed a generation of kids not how to feel, but how they felt: suburban, confused, lovelorn, kinda sad and in the mood to write a letter. Friday's opener, The Hotelier, figures to usher in a next generation of emo — all generations need to learn how to feel, after all. (btw, if you really want to feel old, know this: lead singer Matt Pryor is now 38 and in a kickball league and has three kids.)

Friday: The Hood Internet at The Independent

You love Girl Talk? This is pretty much the same! The Chicago duo mashes indie rock, hip hop, pop and other miscellaneous sounds for palatable Friday night local motion. Get fun.

Saturday: Billy Joel at AT&T Park

Might want to sit down for this news: 66-year old pop icon Billy Joel just had his second child, his first without ex-wife Christie Brinkley. Sixty. Six. Still. Got. It. Of course, Joel’s agelessness and timelessness go hand in hand. The man has Top 40 hits in three separate decades (the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s), and people will be singing “Piano Man” until the earth is ashes.

Follow @ChrisTrenchard for more words like these.

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