In 2022, Bay Area music fans had ample chances to get back in a groove, thanks to a full slate of shows and festivals filling local calendars for the first time since the pandemic hit.
Following a dark 2020 and a slow, COVID-variant-laden return to form in 2021, huge crowds, big tours and marquee moments helped the last year feel just a little more “normal” for music lovers of all tastes. Highlights included the live return of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the debut of new events such as the electronic-dance-music-focused Portola Music Festival on Pier 80, a month of festivities honoring the 50th anniversary of Mill Valley’s Sweetwater Music Halland much more.
This fall also gave rise to a fresh beef for Taylor Swift and her fans when ticketing behemoth Ticketmaster crashed during presales for the pop star’s upcoming, 52-date Eras Tour, scheduled to include two nights at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara next July. (Will Swifties and Ticketmaster ever get back together, or could a Nov. 5 lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on fans’ behalf be the start of something far larger?)
Along the way, the region saw Lizzo shop local for her platinum flute needs, witnessed riot grrrl pioneers Bikini Kill play their first local show in 25 years this summer at Oakland’s Mosswood Meltdown, andeven got to spend another night with Sir Paul McCartney in May. Meanwhile, the indie rock icons of Pavement proved they’ve still got it during a three-night stand at San Francisco’s Masonic in September, while Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar blew the roof off Oakland’s Oracle Arena to end the summer.
Outdoors or indoors, rain or shine, the Bay Area’s appetite for live music this year was ravenous. Here are the top moments that satiated that pop hunger and defined 2022:
Stern Grove Music Festival makes a comeback
No flood could stop the good vibes that greeted Bay Area funk legends Tower of Power and Oakland rapper Too Short when they kicked off the 85th annual Stern Grove Music Festival music series with a co-headliningperformance in June. It was a makeup show for the grand finale of the 2021 season, which was set to feature both artists before a major water pipe broke and caused massive flooding.
But following an estimated $20 million worth of repairs, the beloved San Francisco summer tradition was able to pick up where it left off and present its 2022 programming.
“This is some real Bay Area s—, with the forest and trees and the rain,” Too Short observed at one point during his spirited, albeit soggy, set amid the summer drizzle in the grove. “Feels good.”
‘Stranger Things’ spurs Metallica surge
谁负责selection of the songs that appear on the ever-popular Netflix series “Stranger Things” is having one heck of a year.
First, it was the unexpected Gen Z revival of the 1985 Kate Bush single “Running Up That Hill,” which rose like a phoenix from the ashes following its use in a pivotal scene from the series’ fourth season. Released in June, the episode helped Bush’s song claim the top spot on Spotify’stop 50 U.S. streaming chart. Then it was Bay Area heavy metal rockers Metallica’s turn.
In July, an episode featuring character Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) shredding a blistering instrumental cover of Metallica’s 1986 staple “Master of Puppets” caused the track to eventually reach No. 1 on the iTunes rock chart.
In an Instagram post to the band’s official account, Metallica shared that they were “beyond psyched” to see their song in the show and further praised the scene for being “so extremely well done, so much so, that some folks were able to guess the song just by seeing a few seconds of Joseph Quinn’s hands in the trailer.”
Fittingly, Metallica brought things full circle by inviting the actor to join them onstage during the band’s headlining slot at Chicago’s Lollapalooza Festival this summer.
New Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa Valley
If you get Dave Chappelle involved, you’re destined to have a memorable weekend. Such was the case for the debut of Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa Valley, which the comedian hosted and helped curate along with Grammy-winning pianist and festival artist-in-residence Robert Glasper.
Adapted from its long-running East Coast sibling, the West Coast iteration invited fans to a three-day music and comedy celebration at Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena in July. Joining the controversial comedian were powerhouse singer Chaka Khan, rappers Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey of Black Star, BJ the Chicago Kid, and more.
“There’s no place I’d rather be,” Chappelle said during a Friday night all-star set that featured cameos from Snoop Dogg andcomedian Katt Williams.
Featuring three musical stages, the festival also included plenty of wine but was most notable for throwing one hell of a party. Even celebrities like Bay Area actors Delroy Lindo and Gabrielle Union, along with herformer NBA All-Star husbandDwyane Wade, came out to revel in all the fun.
Green Day makes local kid a guitar hero
When East Bay punk trio Green Day plays concerts, they like to invite fans onstage to jam with them. They’ve done it so often, in fact, that a 10-year-old named Montgomery actually arrived for the band’s headlining set at the Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park this summer with a handmade sign letting them know he was ready to rock.
并且它成功了!
During their closing set, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong plucked the young Oakland fan out of the crowd and invited him to join the band in playing a cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge.” Armstrong even got thousands in the crowd to cheer him on, chanting “Monty! Monty! Monty!”
Following the moment, which went viral far and wide, Armstrong autographed his white Epiphone Les Paul and gifted it to Montgomery, along with a leopard-print-lined guitar case.
The evening also marked Green Day’s first time performing at the festival, allowing the guys to check Outside Lands off their bucket list.
Shannon Shaw transcends grief at Halloween Meltdown
As the frontperson for Oakland’s Shannon and the Clams, Shannon Shaw has made fans of everyone from filmmaker John Waters to Black Keys co-founder Dan Auerbach. But in August, just three months before her planned wedding date, Shaw’s fiance,musician Joe Haener (Gris Gris,the Dodos), died in an automobile crash.
Despite her unfathomable grief, however, Shaw chose to keep her band’s headlining slot at Halloween Meltdown in Mosswood Park in October. An offshoot of July’s Mosswood Meltdown, the Oakland festival is a hodgepodge of punk, doo-wop and local legends of all stripes — plus tons of incredible costumes.
Emceed, as always, by John Waters, the director’s emotional introduction of the Clams gave way to a galvanizing performance that saw Shaw and her bandmates channel every bit of grief and anger within them. The result was a set that will go down in Meltdown history as one of the festival’s finest.
The spirit of Tom Petty returns to the Fillmore
In 1997, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers decided to play 20 shows at the Fillmore in 30 days, a feat Petty’s right-hand man, guitarist Mike Campbell, told The Chronicle was “probably the band at their best.” Now 25 years later, Petty’s estate (managed by his daughter, Adria, and widow, Dana) have taken the recordings from that fabled run and packaged them up in a new box set.
Capturing Petty’s raconteur sensibilities and appearances from a slew of special guests like John Lee Hooker and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, “Live at the Fillmore (1997)” was released in November.
