It’s time to dance that turkey off. Let’s groove...
Tuesday: Tanlines at Bimbo's 365 Club
We sincerely hope you didn’t miss Tanlines’ sophomore album, Highlights, released earlier this year. Co-produced by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, the album is a stunning about-face, an assured maturation featuring focused electropop with all kinds of pop and rock accoutrements (they think they're Talking Heads or something). The Brooklyn-based duo has made San Francisco a secod home over the years, a regular at local festivals and various venues, but the Bimbo’s headlining gig represents a much-deserved high-water mark for the band, locally.
Thursday: Wild 94.9's Jingle Ball 2015 at Oracle Arena
Is it possible that Selena Gomez is actually underrated? No, seriously. You can hate on her celebrity visage all you want, but her 2015 album Revival was legitimately fascinating. Critics agreed. The Boston Globe called it “a forthright album of pop songs that make it clear she is ready to be honest and even vulnerable in her music.” Rolling Stone noted the “sound of a newly empowered pop artist growing into her strengths like never before.” What a time to be alive and/or Selena Gomez. Other high-profile 94.9 Jingle Ball acts Calvin Harris, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Tove Lo, and more.
Friday: Merle Haggard at Paramount Theatre
In case there was any question about Merle Haggard’s place in the halls of country music history, Billboard recently confirmed his status as the greatest country artist of the modern era. Haggard beat out Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams and Dolly Parton — wow. That's one hell of a feather in Haggard’s cap.
Few entertainers entertain like !!! lead man Nic Offer. Not everyone takes a performance as seriously while also having so much fun. Prepare to dance face-to-face with Offer, and prepare for thighs.
Saturday: The Weeknd at Oracle Arena
In the span of four years, The Weeknd has gone from a laptop in Abel Tesfaye’s bedroom to an internationally renowned concern. The Weeknd’s latest album, Beauty Behind the Madness, has solidified Tesfaye as a card-carrying superstar, if he wasn’t already. The album has earned praise from every corner of the internet, including a particularly poignant review from HipHop DX, “In reaching out and grabbing every pop sound that’s been successful in the past half-century of mainstream pop, rolling it tightly in a blunt and setting them ablaze with Abel Tesfaye’s sonorous vocals, this release gets much higher than most anything else released in 2015.” We'll happily co-sign that.
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