From an ‘SNL’ legend’s standup show to the 1812 Overture and free music in Point Richmond, there is a lot to see and do in the Bay Area this weekend and beyond.
Here is a partial rundown.
Will Spade draw a full house?
Who’s ready to yuk it up with David Spade?
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Hundreds of comedy fans will certainly heed that call and turn out to see the famed funnyman when he performs July 12 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.
Spade is one of the more successful comedians of the last 30-plus years, having come to fame as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” in the ’90s and going on to star in several major films (“Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep,” “Joe Dirt,” etc.)
The comedian — with a style that banks on self-depreciation and sarcasm — also had a long run (1997–2003) playing Dennis Finch in the NBC-TV sitcom “Just Shoot Me!”
Animation fans might know Spade for his roles as Ranger Frank in “The Rugrats Movie,” Kuzco in “Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove” and Griffin the Invisible Man in the “Hotel Transylvania” series.
Spade also has a long history in stand-up comedy — stretching back even before his “Saturday Night Live” days — and should have the crowd rolling in laughter in Saratoga.
Details: Showtime is 8 p.m.; tickets start at $67.77; mountainwinery.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Classical picks: Tchaikovsky, Merola, Carmel Bach
Here are three great events to savor as the summer classical season continues.
“Tchaikovsky Spectacular”: That’s the title of the San Francisco Symphony’s latest in its “Summer with the Symphony” series, which includes an outdoor performance this weekend presented by Stanford Live at Frost Amphitheater, followed by an indoor repeat in San Francisco. Conducted by Stephanie Childress, “Tchaikovsky Spectacular” features Blake Pouliot as soloist for the composer’s Violin Concerto, along with selections from “Sleeping Beauty” and “Romeo and Juliet.” The “1812 Overture” brings both events to a rousing close.
Details: 7:30 p.m. July 10 at Frost Amphitheater, Stanford; 7:30 July 11 at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $15-$150; sfsymphony.org.
Bel Canto Scenes: The Merola Opera program’s Schwabacher Summer Concert has a thrilling lineup in this weekend’s event, with bel canto scenes from Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale,” Puccini’s “Suor Angelica,” and Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” It’s one of the highlights of the annual Merola summer calendar starring the program’s young artists. William Long conducts.
Details: 7:30 p.m. July 10, 2 p.m. July 12; San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco; $18-$68; merola.org.
By the sea: The Carmel Bach Festival has been performing its namesake’s music each summer since 1935, and it remains one of the state’s most respected classical music attractions. With a full roster of artists, events, works by Bach and other composers on the calendar, the festival opens July 12 with a program titled “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” featuring music by Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, and Haydn; events continue with concerts, talks, and lots of Bach through July 26.
Details: Performances at Sunset Center Theater, Carmel-By-the-Sea; $46-$110; www.sunsetcenter.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Gods and paroles mingle at Magic
The match between award-winning California playwright Luis Alfaro and the talented crew at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre/Campo Santo partnership is heaven-sent. And following following Alfaro’s world premiere “The Travelers” on the Magic stage in 2023 and “Oedipus El Rey,” his re-imagining of the Oedipus myth, in 2010, it continues with “Aztlán,” in which he conjures up a world in which mythology and contemporary reality, with all its inherent injustices, coalesce in thrillingly larger-than-life ways.
“Aztlán” (a name referring to the homeland of the Aztecs) begins when a malevolent underworld god (Magic artistic director Sean San José), in a ritual dance, seems prepared to kill our hero, the parolee Aztlán (Daniel Duque-Estrada). Aztlán, who’s on a quest to reunite with his fractious family but must contend with his quirky parole officer (Ogie Zulueta), who tells him: “You used to be a king and now you’re just a Mexican. Think about that and then let’s figure out how you’re going to reclaim yourself.”
By the end of the short (80-minute) we know what that plan is. The action races along, but Alfaro’s mesmerizing story and Kinan Valdez’s bold, full-bodied direction keeps the main focus on the terrific cast, and that’s as it should be.
Details: Through July 13; Magic Theatre, Building D at Fort Mason Complex, San Francisco; $35-$75; magictheatre.org.
— Jean Schiffman, Bay City News Foundation
Acclaimed author draws raves — as a singer
After spending decades becoming one of the pop/rock music world’s most respected authors and journalists, Sylvie Simmons has returned to his first love — singing.
Reportedly dissuaded at a young age from performing by a nasty case of stage fright, Simmons pursued her passion from a different angle. Beginning in the 1970s, the London-born, now San Francisco-based Simmons became an acclaimed rock/pop music writer, authoring everything from essays and reviews to longer profile pieces and books, interviewing such artists as Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Rod Stewart, The Clash, Sex Pistols, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Muddy Waters, Steely Dan, Blondie, Frank Zappa, Tom Petty, Van Halen, Leonard Cohen, and more.
It was during a 2012 tour promoting her best-selling book “I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen,” that Simmons starting performing Cohen songs on stage and learned how to overcome her stage fright. She released her first album, “Sylvie,” in 2014, and a follow-up, “Blue on Blue,” in 2020. Both have drawn rave reviews from both musicians and fellow writers. Simmons will draw from both albums when she performs at The Freight in Berkeley on July 13.
Details: 7 p.m.; $29-$34; thefreight.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Free tunes in the East Bay
We’re at the time of the year in the Bay Area where if you can’t find some fun, free entertainment, you’re just not looking very hard. For one thing, there are more than a dozen free-concert series offered by municipalities around the Bay Area; most of them are running now and last into the fall. The musical artists represent everything from rock and pop to jazz, R&B, soul, Latin and more. Then there are those bands that aren’t wedded to a specific genre, they just play a whole bunch of stuff really well and have a blast doing it.
At the Point Richmond Music concert series on July 11, you’ll find such a band, called Extra Large. As the band declares on its website, “Your booty was meant to bounce,” and we couldn’t agree more. The six-member ensemble deals in funk, reggae, Latin, rock and pop and more, serving up a mix of classic hits and original tunes. Opening the show is Mbira dzaSoko, which specializes in the music of Zimbabwe. The music kicks off at 5:30 p.m. at the corner of Park Place and Washington Avenue in downtown Point Richmond. There are several restaurants in the area offering a wide variety of cuisine, and there will be displays of works by local artists, face painting and more fun activities for kids and, of course, dancing is encouraged.
Details: More information is at pointrichmondmusic.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Fun at the Roxie
San Francisco’s spirited movie house, The Roxie, has brought back its Fraenkel Film Festival fundraiser, which is good news for movie lovers. Running through July 19, the series features 21 films selected by local visual artists associated with the Fraenkel Gallery at 49 Geary St., in San Francisco. Now fear not, just because the film festival is being curated by artists doesn’t mean the selections are hopelessly esoteric – European Bauhaus aficionados droning on about baking soda, or anything by Stanley Kubrick, played backwards! No, the selections are varied and fascinating. On Friday, for example, you can catch Francis Ford Coppola’s classic 1974 film “The Conversation,” starring Gene Hackman (6:30 p.m.) or Jonathan Demme’s creepy masterpiece “The Silence of the Lambs,” starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins (9:10 p.m.).
Other films in the series include “The Little Mermaid” (noon, Saturday), “The Great Dictator,” (6:15 p.m. Saturday), “The End of Summer” (6:10 p.m. Monday), “No Country for Old Men” (8:50 p.m. July 18), and the original “Rear Window” (3:25 p.m. July 19).
Details: All screenings at The Roxie, 16th Street at Valencia, San Francisco; single screenings $16, all-movie pass $200, proceeds benefit The Roxie; roxie.com.
— Bay City News Foundation
Bangles & bovines in Berkeley
If you enjoy catching rock royalty live and in action, head to Berkeley’s The Freight (formerly the Freight & Salvage) on July 11. The headliners represent decades of history and talent. Vicki Peterson, lead guitarist for the Bangles since their 1981 debut (so, yeah, those are her awesome riffs on “Walk Like an Egyptian) is performing with John Cowsill, a singer and drummer for the siblings band The Cowsills (best known for the smash radio hit “Hair,” from the Broadway musical) as well as a drummer for 23 years for Beach Boys. They are also husband and wife, having married in 2023. Peterson’s post-Bangles work with such bands as the Continental Drifters and Psycho Sisters, paired her with Susan Cowsill, John’s sister. And several years before their matrimonial pairing, Peterson and John Cowsill played together in a band called the Action Skulls with Bill Mumy, who’s perhaps best known for playing the youngest member of the Robinson family on TV’s “Lost in Space.” We don’t know if Peterson and John Cowsill will perform any of the theme songs used on that ‘60s TV show (one of which was penned by John Williams) but they are going to showcase their new album “Long After the Fire,” consisting of covers of songs written by John Cowsill’s brothers Barry and Bill, along with classic Cowsills and Bangles tunes.
Details: Show begins at 8 p.m.; $34-$39; thefreight.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Author alert!
“Love, Coffee and Revolution” – all potentially interesting and good things, right? Well, hear Stefanie Leder expound upon that on the afternoon of July 13 when she discusses her new novel by that title at the Book Passage Ferry Building in San Francisco. Dee Blum has her life all planned out for her until she decides to throw over her parents’ ideas and abscond to work on an eco-conscious coffee farm in Costa Rica. Two very different, very alluring men pop into her lives, but Dee starts to have grave doubts about how ethical the operation she is working for really is. How she investigates and resolves those doubts takes her into unforeseen adventures. Ledecker, a TV show runner and writer, will be in discussion with Christina Passariello, the bureau chief for CNBC in San Francisco and Los Angeles who worked previously at the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Details: Leder’s appearance is 2 p.m.; books will be available for sale.
— Bay City News Foundation