This will not be your typical arena concert, oh no. If by now you haven’t seen photos of Kanye West’s stage setup for his current run of shows, the critically acclaimed Saint Pablo Tour (which just recently added a second leg, including a Sacramento date at Golden 1 Center on Saturday, Nov. 19), allow us to clue you in. ‘Ye will not be performing on a fixed stage at one end of the arena (that’s so old school!), instead he’ll be on a suspended “floating” platform that will move over the audience! From photos we’ve seen popping up on our social media feeds over the past couple months, it looks so fucking sick! Frazier Tharpe, a writer for Complex.com, described the show and setup back in September at Madison Square Garden in New York City as, “Riskier, flashier and almost uncomfortably cutting-edge, like everything Kanye does.” If you want in on the Sacramento show, you’ll want to snag tickets ASAP, as it’ll likely sell out well before the event date (a lot of cities are getting multiple shows; he did two nights in Oakland, even six nights at the Forum in Los Angeles!). Visit Golden1center.com or Ticketmaster.com to purchase online, or go to the arena’s box office (500 David J. Stern Walk) to snag yours in person.

Ski and snowboard season are rapidly approaching, and you can get yourself hyped for your impending trips up the mountain at the Crest Theatre for the debut of Warren Miller’s 67th annual film, Here, There and Everywhere. Warren Miller Entertainment has been a pioneer in the field of action sports cinematography since 1949, and their latest film hopes to push the envelope even further. Here, There and Everywhere features prominent skiers and snowboarders, including Truckee, California’s own Jeremy Jones, who you’ll often find on the slopes of Squaw Valley; but it also showcases “a progressive side of snowsports,” according to the film’s press release. You’ll get a glimpse of fat biking, backcountry snowmobiling, pond skimming and other things that we’re probably too afraid to try ourselves. But hey, that’s the best part of films like this: you get to live vicariously through others! Go to Crestsacramento.com for tickets, which start at $15.

The fifth annual Monster Energy Aftershock Festival was one for the books! A sold-out crowd of 50,000 attended over two days, making it California’s biggest rock festival. With three stages, 35 bands, dozens of food options, live art, and tens of thousands of dollars raised for local charities, it’s no wonder why Aftershock is so popular. Check out our photo gallery from day two featuring bands like Korn, Ghost, Puscifer and more.

Parkway Drive

Parkway Drive

Aftershock 2016

Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Motionless In White

Motionless In White

Puscifer

Puscifer

Aftershock 2016

Suicide Silence

Suicide Silence

Suicide Silence

Ghost

Ghost

Korn

Korn

Korn

The fifth annual Monster Energy Aftershock Festival was one for the books! A sold-out crowd of 50,000 attended over two days, making it California’s biggest rock festival. With three stages, 35 bands, dozens of food options, live art, and tens of thousands of dollars raised for local charities, it’s no wonder why Aftershock is so popular. Check out our photo gallery from day one featuring bands like Tool, Slayer, Anthrax and more.

Avatar

The Shrine

Anthrax

Anthrax

Death Angel

Death Angel

Aftershock 2016

Primus

Primus

Aftershock 2016

Slayer

Slayer

Tool

Tool

Tool

Looking to get back into the groove? Hey, this time of year, everyone’s mired in their day-to-day routines, and the holidays (and all the time off they bring) seem as if they’ll never come. Fear not: You’ll be able to take a vacation (for a few hours anyway) at Ideateam’s upcoming CD release party for their new album, Moving Still, on Oct. 28, 2016 at Harlow’s. This Sacramento-based nine-piece ensemble “explores the corridors of groove while flipping through styles like a deck of cards, flowing in and around various genres. Their live sound brings essences of old and new, blended with a few drops of extraterrestrial soundscapes—presented by a group of people who simply love to play music,” according to their website. Does that sound good to you? It should. And so should Moving Still. Submerge got a sneak peak at the album and it’s oozing with juicy beats, sumptuous horns and syrupy-sweet riffs. As an added bonus, roots rock aficionados The Nickel Slots will open what is sure to be a memorable and diverse bill. For tickets ($12 in advance), head over to Harlows.com, and for more on Ideateam, check out their website, Ideateamband.com.

Sacramento on a Monday night. We had just had our first rain of the season, and it was starting to feel like fall. The streets were wet and the air was getting colder by the minute. Inside the warm and dimly lit nightclub at Harlow’s, 80-plus people were crowded together, celebrating the changing of the seasons with singing, dancing and clapping along to soulful alternative folk and indie rock played by out-of-town bands Branches and Before the Brave.

Harlow’s is a not a small venue, but the crowd filled up the space, making it a cozy escape from the cool weather outside.

Before the Brave

Before the Brave, from San Francisco, started off the show with a set full of powerfully dynamic songs, driving drum beats and eerie vocal harmonies. Guitarist Jason Stevens sang lead vocals, which were enriched by strong supporting harmonies provided by guitarist Ryan Devisser and keyboard player Beth Garber. The band members (particularly Devisser) were dancing and moving the entire time. It was easy to tell that the musicians were having fun and were happy to be there. People were laughing and dancing along as soon as the band hit the stage, paving the way for the headliners to follow.

Next up was Branches, who are based out of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Branches is made up of six people, most of whom were introduced to the audience throughout the course of the evening. The frontman is singer/guitarist Tyler Madsen. He had the crowd giggling, singing and clapping all night. Multi-instrumentalist Jacob Montague proved to be a humble performer who, from song to song, effortlessly switched between guitar, banjo and mandolin. (It was his birthday, but we didn’t sing for him because he’d really rather we didn’t.) Last but not least, there was Natalie Nicoles, who captured the audience with her elegant stage presence and all-around musical talent.

“She’s our secret weapon,” Madsen told me after the show, a huge smile on his face.

Nicoles consistently blew the crowd away with her haunting voice and her grasp of the array of obscure instruments that she had surrounding her on the stage. In addition to singing beautiful duets with Madsen, she played the keyboard, the harmonium, the glockenspiel, the tambourine and jingle bells.

Branches plays a lot of love songs, but “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” (a cover of The Darkness song) was probably the most anticipated of the evening. Everyone knew the words, or if they didn’t know them, they caught on quickly. The entire room (or what felt like it, at least) sang the uplifting chorus back to the band, loudly and with conviction.

In case the feeling of love in the room wasn’t strong enough already, the evening ending with a surprise finale that only Branches and a few members of the audience were in on. There was a young couple in the crowd, two die-hard Branches fans who had been introduced to the audience earlier in the evening by Madsen. Before the last song of the evening, the band drew everyone’s attention to the couple once again. In the middle of the crowded dance floor, the young man got down on one knee, pulled out a ring and proposed. (She accepted!) The audience erupted with cheers, and the band topped of the evening with another soul-lifting song from their new album White Flag called “Tomorrow.”

“Here’s to growing old together!” Madsen said, before Branches launched into their final song. Just about everyone in the room got caught up in the moment and were moving, dancing, singing and clapping along.

Then, the show ended (right around 9 p.m., which was perfect for a Monday night) and everyone slowly ventured back outside into the cold to find their cars and make their way home. But everyone in that room took a little bit of love and warmth from the experience with them.

“They were so good!” I heard someone say.

“They were so fun!” a friend responded.

“SO fun!” a third person chimed in.

And that seemed to be the consensus of the evening.

This ain’t your average backyard barbecue, no sir! At the third annual Smoke on the River event, going down Oct. 15, 2016 at Miller Park in Sacramento, you’ll get to taste incredible barbeque from more than 30 of the best pitmasters from our region and beyond. As an official Kansas City Barbecue Society sanctioned event, you just know you’re in for some delicious, smokey goodness. You best come hungry because the event will feature a People’s Choice Award for not only the best barbecue, but also for the best beer and cider from breweries like Sierra Nevada, Dust Bowl, Device, Track 7, Alaskan Brewing and many others. There are multiple ticketing options starting at just $20 going up to $35 in advance (at the door a limited amount of tickets will be available for $40). Smoke on the River is a fundraiser for Sacramento Artists Council, a local nonprofit that raises money for art programs that assist at-risk children, children of homeless families and adopt-a-school art programs for Sacramento Regional Schools. So come out and shove your face full of meats for a good cause! Visit Smokeontheriversac.com or Facebook.com/SmokeSacBBQ for more information and to see a list of the pitmasters that will be cooking up the goods. The event is dog friendly, will run from 1 – 5 p.m. and includes live music from locals Danny Morris and The California Stars.

It may be the Sacramento Kings’ new home, but for two nights this week the Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento belongs to rock royalty. Sir Paul McCartney hosted the first of two concerts at the brand new, half-billion dollar arena on Tuesday night with his “One On One” tour, playing for nearly three hours to 15,000-plus people, sprinkling in tunes that spanned his entire career including instantly recognizable hits from The Beatles’ era, all the way up to newer tunes released just last year.

As the eager crowd trickled in, lines at the many local eateries like Paragary’s and Block Butcher Bar grew long, as did the lines at the vendor stands selling craft beer. So naturally this non-beer-snob bee-lined it to a cart selling “the cheap stuff” and snagged a couple tall cans of Blue Moon in about 30 seconds flat. As I took to my seats on the floor level, Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé was spotted in the crowd shaking hands and giving out hugs, clearly elated that his new arena was about to host a living legend in Sir Paul McCartney.

At exactly 8:15 p.m., after a killer DJ had played tunes to the filling seats, McCartney and his four-piece band took to the stage and busted into “A Hard Day’s Night,” the crowd erupting with applause and singing along with every word. After the third tune—another Beatles hit, “Can’t Buy Me Love”— the charismatic frontman stopped and said, “Gotta take a minute just to drink it all in.” At 74 years old, McCartney is as charming as ever, and while his voice may have had a hint of raspiness on certain tunes, he’s certainly still a beast of a musician, switching off all night from bass, to piano, to guitar, back to bass and then to ukulele, showcasing his many talents.

At some point after about the fifth or sixth song, it became apparent that this tour could just as easily have been branded “Story Time with Paul,” as he shared many personal memories from over the years, including a funny tale about when the late, great Jimi Hendrix opened a show with a ripping version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” just two days after its release. Other notable stories included bits about fellow Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, both of whom received standing ovations upon mention.

For the next hour or so, McCartney and crew continued to rip through hit after hit after hit, including “We Can Work It Out,” “Love Me Do,” “Band on the Run,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Let It Be,” “Live and Let Die,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “Hey Jude” and an epic solo performance of “Blackbird” with McCartney on acoustic guitar standing on an elevated portion of the stage, lifted 20-plus feet above the crowd.

And that was all before the encore, even! After the band left the stage at around 10:35 p.m., the crowd demanded their return, and they kindly obliged. “Yesterday” was the first tune of the multi-song encore, which also included “Hi, Hi, Hi,” “Birthday” and closer “Carry That Weight.” At one point during the encore McCartney brought fans on stage who had been holding signs up all night, including a 12-year-old girl and her family from Truckee, California, and pretty much everyone on stage and the entire crowd were nearly in tears from the touching moment when Paul leaned down and kissed the young fan on the hand, sharing a group hug.

All in all it was a legendary show, but there are a few things I wish would have happened. For one: a live horn section, as hearing saxophones and trumpets played via keyboards just isn’t the same. Same goes for a string section. I think McCartney could have afforded to get some guest musicians up there for a song or two, although I did appreciate his lean, efficient four-piece band, which he waited till the very end to thank. “These boys can play,” he exclaimed.

As the crowd filed out onto the streets and I headed down to Coin-Op for a post-show beer and slice of pizza, I stopped and chatted with a friendly police officer who was smiling ear to ear. She asked me how the show was and mentioned that she and her many colleagues on hand to keep an eye out for trouble had a very smooth night, sans incidents.

Is Sacramento yet a world class city? I’m not sure, I think we’re still working on it. But was that a world class concert? You bet your ass it was, and I look forward to many more large-scale shows happening downtown in our fancy, new state-of-the-art arena.

After creepy-stalking her website and wondering “How the heck does she do that with wire?!” I was nervous to sit down at Identity Coffees with artist Diana Dich as she unpacked her traveling art studio of sorts: a spool of thick wire (acquired at Home Depot), two sets of pliers and a yellow notebook filled with sketches and ideas. The ball of wire sat on top of the smooth wooden table like a snake, the end reaching up and poised to strike at Dich’s glass of iced tea at any moment. Unlike a scene from a Tim Burton movie, it doesn’t move—so I come to think of it like her trained pet; the wire bends when she wills it to. After all, she’s been training it for a decade now.

A South Sacramento native, Dich says she always enjoyed painting and drawing, but she had her lightbulb moment when she was 15.

“One day in art class, the teacher handed everyone a spool of wire and said, ‘Here, make 3D art,’ and I was really the only one that managed to make anything out of it,” she laughs. “I made a dad flying his kid like a kite—you know how kids always want to fly? He was making his kid’s dream come true! Everybody took it the wrong way, though; everyone was like, ‘Why is the dad throwing his kid?’”

Photo by Phillip Tang

This misunderstanding is a common theme within Dich’s work—dramatically rendered faces and figures that always hint at something below the surface, like a thought left unsaid.

After quitting her two jobs and getting out of a toxic relationship that kept her from making art, Dich was inspired to channel her depression and inner turmoil into making her sculptures full-time. She said she spent every day at Insight, sitting and working for hours to create what would eventually be a series of all women’s faces and figures displayed on the walls surrounding her.

“I used to just do men’s faces in my art, so that was the first time I decided to do women,” she says. “It was the first time I really opened up myself within my work. They looked kind of creepy, but it was the only way I could describe what was going on. It’s hard to put emotions into words sometimes.”

One of Dich’s favorite pieces from that show at Insight, which she said epitomized her depression, was that of a woman’s face in the grips of two hands, surrounded by red paper flowers. “I planned to burn it in effigy,” she says, “but it sold before I could do it.”

As with most creative people, Dich used art like therapy: it was there for her when she needed to work through whatever life problems came her way. One day, it was all taken away from her. She became physically ill to the point of losing her ability to walk or use her hands to make art. She says that the doctors misdiagnosed what was initially a minor infection that progressed rapidly into an advanced kidney infection.

“I was in so much pain I couldn’t even move my thumbs, and my boyfriend had to physically pick me up and carry me to bed. That was one of my breaking points because I couldn’t do art for about four months,” she says, “I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know how to make a living.”

The sickness made her lose 20 pounds, and it took her months to build her strength back up to start walking and making art again. She admits that the first solid food she could eat was a childhood comfort: bologna and cheese on white bread.

“It’s funny,” she says, “but that’s when I knew I was getting better—and I swear, one of these days I want to do a piece that is dedicated to bologna and cheese sandwiches.” And speaking as someone who also loves bologna and cheese sandwiches on questionable white bread, it would be a true delight.

Photo by Phillip Tang

After healing from her sickness, Dich hit the ground running with exhibits. First she had work featured at Insight, then went on to have pieces at Blackbird, the Art Hotel and 1810 Gallery for an all-women art show, where she met Mimi and some of the other gals from the Few and Far graffiti collective, and they became quick friends, which she admits is hard to do in a town where the art scene is mostly skewed toward men that don’t often take criticism very well. “There’s no ego there. We’re all just super honest with each other and the art scene and I respect that a lot. Sacramento has great potential.”

In addition to the pieces she creates for her shows, Dich also makes jewelry and custom wire lettering, which can be purchased on her website. For her upcoming show at WAL, Dich hints that her pieces will have a style appropriate to the Halloween season.

“It’ll be a lot of the creepier-style large 3D sculptures, and there will be some single-strand pieces as well,” she says. “I was really excited to go back to the style I started with. It’s going to be a great show.”

And although her show hasn’t opened yet, she’s already eagerly plotting what her next pieces will look like. “I’m working on a Stranger Things-themed piece for a project,” she says, “and I want to do more of the silly ‘sad girl’ pieces. I’m going to make more jewelry, too.”

Perhaps Dich’s most exciting upcoming project involves light. “I want to make light fixtures, too,” she says, like an excited student ready for the next challenge. “I studied abroad in Italy, and I remember walking around at night because it was so hot during the day, and I looked up and noticed the way the light caught this one particular fixture, it was like shadows playing. It was unintentional, I think, but it was just really cool.”

Diana Dich’s wire works will be on display Oct. 7 – Nov. 2, 2016 at the WAL Public Market located at 1104 R St. in Sacramento. The opening reception for the show is Friday Oct. 7, 2016, from 6–8 p.m. You can also find Dich’s work online Dianadich.com.

Los Angeles-based stand-up comedian and actress Erica Rhodes is naturally funny; she has been her entire life. At just 10 years of age she started down her lifelong path of making people laugh out loud when she voiced the conscience of legendary comedian and writer Garrison Keillor on NPR’s live variety show A Prairie Home Companion, a program she’s worked on ever since, granting her opportunities to perform alongside such legends as Meryl Streep and Martin Sheen. Rhodes’ recent TV accolades include regular appearances on one of the funniest shows out right now, @Midnight on Comedy Central, as well as gigs on ABC’s Modern Family, Fox’s New Girl, IFC’s Comedy Bang! Bang! and many others. As a stand-up comedian, she regularly tours the country and has played prestigious festivals like San Francisco Sketchfest; the Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas; the Blue Whale Comedy Festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the Boston Comedy Festival. What does any of this have to do with us Sacramentans, you ask? Good question. Here’s your answer: Erica Rhodes is coming our way to headline Punch Line for four nights in a row, Oct. 6–9, so you should come see how hilarious she is for yourself. Tickets range from $15 to $20 and are available at Punchlinesac.com, where you will also find more info on show times as well as other upcoming comics. Providing support for Rhodes will be Sacramento favorite Johnny Taylor Jr., and hosting will be Ben Feldman. For more info on your headliner, visit Ericarhodescomedy.com.