Here’s the lineup for the biggest summer street fair in San Jose
One weekend a year, downtown San Jose’s arty SoFA District really lives up to its potential with the SubZERO Festival, a mashup of art, music, food and performance art. It’s like South First Fridays — also produced by Two Fish Design’s Brian Eder and Cherri Lakey — but on steroids and Red Bull, with a dash of pixie dust.
More than five dozen artists, performers and other creatives will fill South First Street on today and Saturday from San Carlos to Reed Street, selling art, playing music and putting on pop-up shows.
Mighty Mike McGee will emcee performances from 6 p.m. to midnight today and Saturday at the Anno Domini stage in front of the California Theatre. Today’s lineup includes Shovelman, Fiction: The Antipop, Pity Party and closes with Los Angeles folk band the Herbert Bail Orchestra. Saturday features For Joris, Death Cheetah, the Pleasure Routine, and Lumerians, the psychedelic rockers from Oakland.
Lagunitas Brewing is sponsoring the beer garden at Parque de los Pobladores at William Street on both nights, but today will be special. Good Karma Artisan Ales & Cafe will curate a selection of beers by more than a dozen regional indie brewers, including Livermore’s Altamont Beer Works, Cellarmaker Brewing from San Francisco, Camino Brewing and Uproar Brewing. Music at the so- called Secret Garden will be provided by EOM Sessions tonight and Common Ground Radio on Saturday.
Hungry? A fleet of food trucks will be on hand, including 3 Brothers Kitchen, Chef Dreams, Creative Sips, Quick Dogs, Rice Rockit, Rolling Dough, Takoz Mod Mex and Twisted Chill.
And if all that isn’t enough, the first night of SubZERO coincides with this month’s regular South First Fridays art walk, so galleries and other venues such as MACLA, Anno Domini, Caffe Frascati and Studio Climbing and SoFA Market will be showcasing local art and performers. You can check out details on offerings, including opening receptions, and get a printable walking map at southfirstfridays.com.
‘MORTIFIED’ MAKES ITS WAY TO SAN JOSE » The insanely popular “Mortfied Live” show, which has sold out clubs in San Francisco and Oakland for years, has its first foray into downtown San Jose Saturday at The Ritz nightclub. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a hilarious form of “embarassment therapy,” with brave souls on stage sharing poems, letters, art and diary entries from their youth.
The 8 p.m. show is 21-and- over — teenagers can be elsewhere making their own embarrassing memories — with tickets priced at $17 in advance and $23 at the door. And because the Ritz has a mix of seating and standing areas, you’ll want to arrive early if you want a seat.
ARTISTIC VIEW OF SOUTHERN CHINA » Pace Gal-- lery in Palo Alto opened a new exhibition Wednesday night showcasing photographs by Chinese artist Hai Bo. The artist’s first solo show in California features selections from “The Southern,” a collection of photographs he made of Southern China.
“I think what is a wonderful touchstone of Hai Bo’s work is that it is very poetic,” Pace Palo Alto Preisdent Elizabeth Sullivan said. “Each photo is almost a poem or a short story; you want to fall into that photo and you see so much more than what is really there, and we can all interpret it in our own way.”
The exhibition is open at Pace, 229 Hamilton Ave., through July 15.