8pm doors, 8:30pm first band. $12 adv., $15 door. 21+
Brigid Dawson and the Mothers Network
Post-genre musical enchantment from chanteuse Brigid Dawson, former vocalist of Thee Oh Sees, whose new band, the Mothers Network, features a cast of local luminaries and ringers.
"Tip-top of our osmosis list is the first quiver of tunes from Brigid Dawson and her newly minted Mothers Network: wise warnings dyed in dark hues, knotted and hard-won torch songs from the edge of a turbulent sea, bittersweet balladry spun in defense against evils familiar and unknown. Lovely though it may seem from a distance, the striation of loss quicksilvered throughout provides weighty balance to her contralto lilt. Those familiar with her harmonic counterpoint from her time in Thee Oh Sees or in OCS know she can belt as well as lullaby but there’s a fresh and smolderingly heavy swing in her step on display here that we mightily dig.” - Castle Face
-----
Dawn Riding
Dawn Riding is the musical project of singer-songwriter Sarah Rose Janko, who was born and raised in Northern California and currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Janko spent her childhood watching blues and rock n’ roll bands in her dad’s west coast bar. Setting out on her own as soon as she could - she traveled around for years, making friends & musical connections at punk shows and back yard fires around the country. Dawn Riding’s songs of love, loss, and friendship, present characters chiseled out of Janko’s own experience & memories, and you can feel it in her intimate, tough-as-nails depictions of American life. Invoking the dark honesty of Lucinda Williams, and influenced by the story songs of Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen, Janko’s songs sometimes feel more southern gothic than country, seasoned with a derelict grit and the tenderness of a weary heart. Dawn Riding’s debut and sophomore records (“Last Spring”, “The Light”) were recorded while Janko was living in Oakland, California, and released by Bay Area record label The Long Road Society. Her newest release, “You’re Still Here,” was recorded on an Otari 8-track during the 2021 pandemic lockdown with Producer Alicia Vanden Heuvel (Aislers Set), and will be co-released by Speakeasy Studios SF and The Long Road Society in November 2022.
-----
Sarah Bethe Nelson
Bay Area singer-songwriter Sarah Bethe Nelson’s multiple albums of balladry and pop chart an emotional wave of the multifarious and sometimes tumultuous changes of the area’s landscape. Her latest is no exception. Enter Mental Picture, a collection of aftershock spectral tunes ghosting in the aura of the recent age spinning out from the contradictions of Nelson's steely reserve and melancholy fragility.