Concerts: Paul Simon, Depeche Mode
It’s a huge week for music in Northern California, with such heavy hitters as Paul Simon and Depeche Mode performing concerts. Here are some top tickets in the San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento areas.
Paul Simon: The acclaimed singer-songwriter, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame both as a solo artist and as one half of Simon & Garfunkel, brings his “Homeward Bound” farewell tour to Oracle Arena on Friday. Don’t miss what might be your last chance to see this phenomenal artist in concert. Details: 8 p.m.; $59.50-$159.50; www.ticketmaster.com.
Depeche Mode: This sensational group, which should have been elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame years ago, is absolutely terrific in concert. Find out for yourself when Depeche Mode performs tonight at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. Details: 7:30 p.m.; $39.50$129.50; www.ticketmaster.com.
Kansas: This underrated progressive rock act, known for such songs as “Carry on Wayward Son” and “Dust in the Wind,” performs Wednesday at the City National Civic in San Jose. Details: 8 p.m.; $45-$95; www.ticketmaster.com.
KBLX Stone Soul Concerts: The two-day fandango is set for Saturday and Sunday at Concord Pavilion. The lineup for Day One is Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Joe, Musiq Soulchild, Stokley Williams, Ro James and Leela James. Day Two brings Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, Zapp, Angela Winbush and Rob Base. Details: Music begins at noon both days; $49.75$144; www.livenation.com.
Modest Mouse: As you might have heard, this Mouse is Modest. So, we’ll do the bragging for them and tell you that Modest Mouse is one of the best rock acts of the last 25 years. See and hear for yourself tonight at the Fox Theater in Oakland. Details: 8 p.m.; $49.50; www.ticketmaster.com.
Amber Mark: The rising R&B-soul star performs Tuesday at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Demo Taped is also on the bill. Details: 8 p.m.; $15-$20; www.slimspresents.com.
Get your ‘Freaky’ on
A stressed-out mom and her angst-filled teenage daughter swap bodies in “Freaky Friday,” a 1972 novel by Mary Rodgers that has been adapted several times for the big screen, most recently in a 2003 comedy starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan (when she was pretty much normal).
Now comes the 2016 stage musical version, with a book by Bridget Carpenter (“Friday Night Lights”) and song and lyrics by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (“Next to Normal”).
Walnut Creek’s Center Repertory Company is staging the musical in its Bay Area premiere, directed by Jeff Collister and starring Rep regular Lynda DiVito along with Olivia Jane Mell.
It’s the kind of madcap yet poignant comedy that Center Rep has proved masterful at staging over the years, and sounds like a great mother-daughter night at the theater.
Details: In previews Friday through Sunday, main run is Tuesday through June 30; Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek; $38-$79; 925-943-7469, www.centerrep.org.
Last call for Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Everybody knows Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” It’s one of the most famous classic rock songs of all time, right up there with the likes of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
Except, let’s face it, “Free Bird” is better than any of those others (especially “Don’t Stop Believin’ ”).
That’s one of the reasons why people have been loudly requesting that song at concerts — basically any concert — for decades. The other reason, of course, is that it was once kind of funny to hear an audience member request that rocker at a cello recital. (Note to audiences: Yelling “Free Bird” stopped being funny in about 1988.)
Every rock fan should see Lynyrd Skynyrd perform that tune at least once in concert. Witnessing those magical dueling guitars, building the song higher and higher, is just something that should not be missed.
Thus, we highly recommend locals catch these Southern rock legends when they bring their “Street Survivors” farewell tour to the Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View on Friday. Who knows? This may be your last chance to see Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert.
Bad Company, Blackberry Smoke and the Outlaws are also on the bill.
Details: 6 p.m.; $29.50-$129.50; www.livenation. com.
Grooving on hardcore salsa
Pianist Oscar Hernandez earned his salsa stripes recording with conga master Ray Barretto in the early 1980s. But he became a major player as music director for the popular Grammy Award-winning band Seis Del Solar, which served as a vehicle for some of Ruben Blades’ most innovative and literary songs.
Looking to rekindle the spirit of hard-hitting New York salsa, Hernandez launched the Spanish Harlem Orchestra 15 years ago, and the 13-piece combo has earned worldwide esteem (and two Grammys) as one of the most exciting salsa bands in the business.
Now based in Los Angeles, Hernandez marks the band’s milestone year with the new album “Anniversary,” which was co-produced by Oakland-reared trombonist Doug Beavers. Touring with the band, Beavers is one of the reasons that the orchestra packs such a wallop, along with a powerhouse rhythm section featuring players like Venezuelan-born timbalero Luisito Quintero.
The outfit lands in Beavers’ turf for four shows at Yoshi’s this weekend.
Details: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday; $29-$69; 510-238-9200, www.yoshis.com.
Recalling 20th century ‘Voices of Witness’
As part of its 20th anniversary season, Music of Remembrance makes a one-night-only appearance in San Francisco tonight. In a program titled “Voices of Witness,” the Seattle-based ensemble, which includes members of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, will present music on themes of Holocaust defiance and reflections on the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Featured works include the Bay Area premieres of “Snow Falls” by composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and “Gaman” by Christophe Chagnard, and a performance of Paul Schoenfield’s “Sparks of Glory,” based on Holocaust accounts. Soloists include baritone Erich Parce and sopranos Roslyn Barak and Ann Moss.
Details: 7:30 p.m.; San Francisco Conservatory of Music; $45-$60 general, $30 students; 206-365-7770, www.musicofremembrance.org.
Robertson conducts SF Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony has welcomed a parade of guest conductors this season, some of whom may or may not become candidates for the post of music director when Michael Tilson Thomas departs the organization in 2020, at the end of his 25th season.
This week, the excellent conductor David Robertson, currently in his valedictory season as music director of the St. Louis Symphony, returns to Davies Hall to lead Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, with pianist Kirill Gerstein as soloist; Haydn’s late-life Symphony No. 102, and Brett Dean’s “Engelsflügel” (Wings of Angels), complete the program.
Details: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $39-$99; 415-864-6000, www. sfsymphony.org.
‘Topdog/Underdog’ plays in Berkeley
Just as Suzan-Lori Parks’ epic new play “Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)” closes at American Conservatory Theater, Oakland’s Ubuntu Theater project offers a look at the play that made Parks the first African-American woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2002.
“Topdog/Underdog” is a marvelously compelling drama about two brothers, ominously named Lincoln and Booth, who had to raise themselves after their parents abandoned them and are now both down on their luck. A former three-card monte hustler, Lincoln now plays his presidential namesake in a boardwalk attraction where customers pay to assassinate him with toy guns, an idea that was also at the center of Parks’ 1994 piece “The America Play.” Booth is trying to learn his older brother’s old hustle, but with frustratingly limited success.
Directed by Kimberly Ridgeway and starring Dorian Lockett and Michael Curry, “Topdog/Underdog” is a late-breaking replacement in Ubuntu’s season for a previously scheduled new adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s “The Lower Depths” by associate artistic director Lisa Ramirez, who’s a little busy right now playing The Angel (and other roles) in Berkeley Rep’s “Angels in America.”
Details: Through June 17; Waterfront Playhouse and Conservatory, Berkeley; $15-$45; www.ubuntutheaterproject.com.