Many of you already know Chris Tucker as Detective James Carter from the hilarious Rush Hour films. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (and that’s totally cool with us here at Submerge if that is your thing), you’d be hard-pressed to have missed his face. The quick-witted actor is also a formidable comedian whose stand-up bit is equally compelling and convivial. For one night only, he’ll grace the stage of the Sacramento Convention Center Memorial Auditorium for a night of side-splitting comedic fare. If you’ve been looking for a mirthful night out, get out to this frolicsome event with serious speed and expect a capacity crowd. Admission starts at $45.50 and goes up to $55.50 for floor and dress circle seats (the best in the house). “My mom raised me to never have anything control me,” said Tucker years ago. She sure did, Chris, she sure did. For more info, go to Christucker.com or Sacramentomemorialauditorium.com.

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1) Southern California’s FMLYBND is bringing their Make America Dance Again Tour through town on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 with a stop at Goldfield. Their infectious single “Electricity” has hit No. 1 on the Hype Machine Popular Charts not once, but twice. The show also features Olivver The Kid. 8 p.m., 21-and-over.

2) Looking for something a bit heavier? Melodic death metal group The Black Dahlia Murder hits The Boardwalk on Thursday, May 12, 2016 and will play their 2003 Metal Blade Records debut album Unhallowed in its entirety, along with select cuts from the rest of their deep catalog including their new album Abysmal. 7 p.m., all ages.

3) The walls of Fox & Goose will be filled with plenty of traditional Irish, celtic, and folk-infused tunes on Friday, May 13, 2016 when local bands Whiskey & Stitches, The Rattlin’ Bones and Stepping Stone take over. 9 p.m., 21-and-over.

4) Hip-hop rules the day on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at 102.5 Live at Discovery Park featuring E-40, Fat Joe with Remy Ma, Ty Dolla $ign, Nef the Pharaoh and many others. Hopefully you got tickets early, though, because right at press time we learned this show sold-out!

5) Roddy Radiation & The Skabilly Rebels will tear through Blue Lamp on Monday, May 16, 2016. The band features Roddy “Radiation” Byers, lead guitarist of the legendary English ska band The Specials, except in this group he’s front and center. 8 p.m., 21-and-up.

6) On Thursday, May 19, 2016 Requiem Events is bringing back TBD Fest 2015 alumni Jody Wisternoff, a popular English electronic music producer and DJ who is one-half of progressive house duo Way Out West. Opening sets from Cue22, Freddy Silva and more. Badlands, 9 p.m., 21-plus

7) Indie-pop group Musical Charis returns to Sacramento for their first local concert in ages on Sunday, May 22, 2016 at Harlow’s. The show also features the excellent Los Angeles band Dear Left Brain, a project featuring Erik Clabeaux and Jonathan Walker (you might recognize Walker as the former singer from Sacramento pop-punk band Self Against City!). Doors at 6 p.m., all ages.

8) If you want to get irie and soak up some chill reggae vibes, head to Ace of Spades on Saturday, May 28, 2016 to see Katchafire headline a stacked bill rounded out with Mystic Roots, Element of Soul and Dollar$hort. 7 p.m., all ages.

9) Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music headlines week four of Concerts in the Park on Friday, May 27, 2016 at Cesar Chavez Plaza along with Darius Koski (of Swingin’ Utters), Humble Wolf, The Ghost Town Rebellion and DJ Benji The Hunter. 5 p.m., free, all ages.

10) The Fifth Annual Torch Fest is going down on Sunday, May 29, 2016 at Torch Club and will feature more than 10 local and touring bands including Afrofunk Experience, Tracorum, The Nibblers, Felice LaZae, City of Trees Brass Band and many others. 4 p.m., 21-and-over.

As luck would have it, Portland-based Americana/rockgrass act Scratchdog Stringband are releasing their first full-length album and are doing a two-week tour that includes a stop in Roseville’s Bar 101 on May 13. Submerge caught up with James Rossi (fiddle, vocals) to learn more about the show and Three Times Fast, the band’s new album. “We’ve played in Sacramento only once, back in January during a weekend tour through Lake Tahoe, which was massively successful,” said Rossi. “We played Shine cafe to a full and enthusiastic house. So yes, we are fairly new in the area and looking forward to coming back. It took us the first five days of February to record the album at The Hallowed Halls, Portland’s newest top of the line recording studio. We lucked out and recorded with a freelance engineer named Hawkins Wright, who we all quickly came to regard as our very own George Martin. We’ve been together for a little more than a year and recorded all the instruments live and overdubbed all the vocals live, with no additional overdubs, to keep the album true to our developed stage sound, which is what we feel we ended up with on Three Times Fast.” Sound cool enough? This show gets started at 9:30 p.m. and is free as well. Take a listen at Scratchdogstringband.com.

Who’s the Boss?

Talking to rapper Lil Debbie on the phone is like spending a casual hour on your couch talking to a close friend you don’t see often.

When we thought we’d covered everything, like her new, yet-unnamed EP dropping this summer and launching her marijuana business, Kesha’s court case came up and we had to ruminate on that for a bit before discussing women getting treated and paid unfairly and how that’s affected Lil Debbie as she chased her dreams.

The 26-year-old Bay Area-born rapper has been in front of the Internet rap scene for 10 years, first with Kreayshawn and V-Nasty in the White Girl Mob, and later as a solo artist, releasing the EP Queen D in 2013.

That year, the younger Lil Debbie sat down with LA Weekly in her then-typical way: long acrylics, lotta bling, Cleopatra liner, high. She told the Weekly she saw herself flying off to Italy in her own private jet in five years.

Lil Debbie is just as bold and ambitious today, still shooting for that Billboard Top 100, radio play and private jet, but she’s also more comfortable in her own skin, and more of a businesswoman. She’s pared down her Instagram/selfie presence, opting instead for professional photo shoots with visual creatives to put out work “that touches people,” she says.

A day before this interview, she did a photoshoot with Vans, a company she respects. Last month she performed at an all girls show sponsored by Vans at SXSW.

“It’s crazy to be there [at SXSW] because there are five girls to every 50 dudes,” she says of the rap scene at the music festival. “Male rappers are so egotistical. They’re just about who is cool and who is not. Who is on the boat, who is not. I’m a bitch but I’m a bitch that doesn’t care about all that, genuinely. I’m not about to hang out. I’m about self-care and self-preservation. Some of the things I see are very childish. When the rap industry starts supporting women in a more positive way, I’ll come and hang out. I’m one of the most unhyped female artists. I won’t try to hang out with all the newest artists. I do this and it’s a talent of mine and it’s a business. It’s not a show. It’s not about that. Every time I put a project out I’m progressing, visually and lyrically. As long as I’m happy and proud of the work I’m doing, that’s it.”

She is also more aware of the pressure and scrutiny on artists online. It’s bothering her in a very adult way.

“People are disengaged … what’s the word? Desensitized,” she says. “Nothing shocks anybody anymore. ‘Oh you put that out, what’s next?’ It’s unrealistic. People want to see the process but to me the process is a very personal thing. I came up on the Internet with Kreayshawn shooting party videos. It went from ‘they’re changing the world’ to now being desensitized. There’s no shock factor in anything. No excitement.”

Instead, Lil Debbie says she’s scared to pour her heart out on the Internet because she’s watched the public tear apart rappers like Iggy Azalea and Kehlani.

“I’m excited but very confused,” she says about releasing her new album. “I’m a woman, I’m in the middle of my twenties, and as a woman, as a music artist it’s hard. Some of the things I go through personally I can’t put in my music. With the group I’m working with, they might not understand it, they might not get it. Like, ‘Why is she saying this, she’s a rapper?’ It’s hard but also about experiencing and growing as a woman. I’m confident it’s going to be good.”

She hinted the album will be less about smoking weed, like her last EP Home Grown, and more about her being a boss bitch like her fans asked, as well as hit on some serious subjects.

“I’m a rapper but I’m not in the streets at three in the morning selling dope, I’m not riding around with a gun in my car,” she says. “I write about me being a single, independent woman. I want to empower other women. And I am bossy. I talk about the support I don’t get. Talking about how I’ve done this for years and I don’t have support from the radio as of yet. Who knows? It’s a hard game being a woman in a rapper’s world. In a man’s world. Should I be sexual, should I not be sexual? What should I do? Who am I as a rapper?”

Lil Debbie raps about drugs and emotions, and taking care of yourself, another subject she’s not sure will go down easy.

“I went from sippin’ syrup and poppin’ Xanax to only smoking weed,” she says. “I have a weed line and I have edibles and I do my best to put out a good product. Some fans are like, you need to put your acrylics back on. People think Lil Debbie needs to have acrylics. No, Lil Debbie is taking a break and is growing her natural hair back and is growing her nails. So that’s not what you’re gonna get and I’m sorry. I think it’s hard to see an artist come out like that.”

Her first overseas shows are a testament to this raw Lil Debbie. French rapper Wacko brought her out earlier this year to do a song together and play shows in France and England.

“Europe opened my mind, opened my heart,” she says. “I’m enthralled in the romance. People in my world don’t get to experience romance. It’s all pimps and hoes and ‘bitch bitch bitch.’ Just to be around flowers, and roses and the Eiffel Tower, to be around class is a breath of fresh air. It changed my outlook on everything.”

One of the most admirable characteristics of Lil Debbie is her drive to keep trying to change the world she works in, especially for girls, whether it’s in the music industry, in fashion or in weed.

“I want to prove to girls that even though it’s a long struggle there’s a good outcome,” she says. “For me it’s about being happy. I want people to say, ‘She’s innovative, she’s an activist, she’s strong.’ That’s what I want. To just be happy. If I ended up being like Nicki Minaj or Rihanna, that would be a beautiful thing. It scares the shit outa me. But I still want it.”

Some of that drive comes from her upbringing, and the difficulty of making a career in her first love: fashion. Her education includes attending the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.

“I’ll always love fashion and fabric, but that’s as fucking hard as the rap world,” she says. “It’s not fair. I grew up in that shit. My mom was a child clothing designer. She would put me to bed and would work all night while I was sleeping, then finish when it was time to take me to school in the morning. She was selling shit in Nordstrom and she couldn’t make it. This was before the Internet. Having your own fashion line and selling well is truly a blessing. It’s even harder now and things are getting watered down and washed out. But I’ll always love fashion.”

Lil Debbie says the weed industry isn’t any better for women. It took her a year to get a logo and six months to get the packaging done, and she blames it on the lack of trust and interest “the boys” running the industry had in her work.

“It took that long to get someone to trust me and help me grow my weed,” she says, angrily. “Boys love boys. Boys are enthralled by boys. That’s the reality. But I want to grow good weed, and you know what they said to me? They said they could give me a small percentage on my sales, and I was like, what?!”

She eventually found a good group to work with and create her line, and they hope to have both weed and edibles (strong ones, she warns) available at events and clubs this summer.

“It’s a hard market to break into and some people have been doing this for years,” she says. “It’s very different than buying from Joe Blow on the street, buying from the club.”

Judging from her focus and attitude, no matter what Lil Debbie succeeds in, she’ll be in the spotlight, underground or otherwise, for a while.

“I have three or four more hard years to put in before I could think about being a star, especially as a rapper,” she says. “Does Lil Debbie want certain things and gets sad? Yeah. Is she still a boss ass bitch? Yeah.”

Catch Lil Debbie as part of the Califesto Pre Party Friday April 15, 2016 at Ace of Spades, located at 1417 R Street in Sacramento. Tickets for this all-ages, 7 p.m. show—which also features The Luniz, Roach Gigz and more—are $25 in advance ($30 the day of the show) and are available online at Aceofspadessac.com

***UPDATE*** This show has been moved to The Boardwalk, located at 9426 Greenback Lane. All tickets honored, same set times and same lineup!

Though Jello Biafra hasn’t fronted the band for 30 years, three-quarters of the Dead Kennedys’ most relevant members—East Bay Ray (guitar), Klaus Flouride (bass) and D.H. Peligro (drums)—are still carrying the flag along with newest member and singer Ron “Skip” Greer, who has manned his position since 2008. Although the band is anything but prolific, that hasn’t stopped them from drawing sizable crowds to their frenetic live show. Thankfully, fans of the band who only want to hear “the early shit” will be happy to know they’ll get an earful including much of the band’s catalog. From Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980) to Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982), Frankenchrist (1985) to Bedtime for Democracy (1986), nothing is off limits. This show also features New York’s Reagan Youth, Alameda’s Screaming Bloody Marys and Sacramento’s own The Secretions. Secure your tickets ($22 in advance) at Aceofspadessac.com

Weird by Design

If I ever needed to hire a hype group, Tell the Wolves can take all my money. The Sacramento five-piece is as energetic and bright as a crackling fire in rock ‘n’ roll hell.

Offstage, the band is full of welcoming, positive and joyous dudes. Onstage, however, they turn awesomely erratic and sonically chaotic. I sat with vocalist/guitarist Leryan Burrey and bassist Zack Davis to talk about the release of their upcoming EP The Great Design, and how they manage to balance being the extremely optimistic, super nice guys making music that delivers a riveting middle finger.

Tell the Wolves has been together since 2013, and has only added members in their few years of being a band. The band’s name comes from multiple instances of wolves popping up in their lives. The main one being when Davis came across the book Tell the Wolves I’m Home (by Carol Rifka Brunt), and was struck by the ring of it. He went to his bandmates, who had been knocking around band names for quite some time, and presented them with his band-name epiphany, “Tell the Wolves.” Destiny was manifested that day, and the rest is history.

Burrey and Davis first met at Harlow’s, where coincidentally, they will have their first EP release show with their band. “The details are a little murky,” Burrey admits. “We had both had a bit to drink that night.”

At this point in the conversation, they both go back and forth in trying to piece together what happened that night, and how it led to their partnership. The conclusion was: “Essentially, it was a labor of love brought together in a drunken blur.”

Both guys have been long-time musicians in Sacramento, and attribute their accomplishments to local networking. “We wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything. Not Concerts in the Park last year, not any of it,” Davis said. “The Sacramento music community is so supportive and they all like and share our stuff. It has all been a very supported ride.”

The first show the band ever played together was also at Harlow’s, where they played for pretty much just bartenders and girlfriends, “The place was completely dead,” Burrey reminisced. This time, for their EP release show at that same venue on Feb. 6, 2016 things are already turning out much better.

“We have already been selling some tickets, so we are stoked to have the support this time around,” Burrey said.

Zack added that, “Harlow’s and Old I are some of our favorite places to play. Last time we played at Old I, though, we were physically too big for the stage. It’s a bummer because it is our very favorite dive bar. It has such a super awesome atmosphere. And it has the scent of dive bar.”

Tell the Wolves has mastered the art of creating erratic rock ‘n’ roll with a soft spot. They like to emotionally vomit their heart out into song.

“I like bands that do weird things and are not afraid. I appreciate the fact that they take so many risks,” said Davis. “I like feel-good-for-you music that is creative and interesting, but still meaningful. My favorite bands, like Incubus, don’t just make art for art’s sake. They make art so that you feel something. On the other hand, I can honestly say that those guys can shit in a bucket and I would buy it.”

He continued,“You can think of your favorite musicians and pinpoint how their music makes you feel. That’s what it is all about. For example, Rage Against the Machine, who are one of my biggest influences, started out as a couple of young guys who sung about their frustrations with the system. Here we are 20 years later, and what they sang about sadly still matters and is relevant. They used their music as an honest platform, and they are absolutely timeless. Surrounding myself with music like this for years, has rubbed off on me and made want to create similar music experiences.”

Tell the Wolves says that their EP is a “Culmination of everything we have ever wanted to do. EVER.”

“We wanted to make some groundbreaking, beautiful, rock and roll,” said Burrey.

“We had already made all of this music, played all of these shows and had a bunch of fun making our music. This EP seemed to be the only thing missing, and it’s kind of being used to sum up the work that we have done in the past three years,” Davis continued.

“This EP took us a year and a half of fun, fighting, drinking, hangovers, deaths, crying, things we can’t even talk about,” Burrey said.

“And a couple of murders,” added Davis, “This is off the record, right?”

Davis’ overall experience with Tell the Wolves and his music can be summed up with a little help from Justin Timberlake. “We were so excited to write this music, and we are so excited to play it. We have such a good time goofing the fuck off,” he said. “It is so important for us not to take ourselves too seriously. Most of the time, our music is really emotional and serious, but when people see us live or get to know us, they will see that we aren’t like that. Music is our outlet for that. Justin Timberlake once said, ‘I don’t take myself too seriously, but I take what I do very seriously.’ We hope people hear how much we love to create music. I want them to feel our love and the passion that goes into it. The studio is our sanctuary, and it’s where we get to express all of those feelings that are all bundled up. We get to let loose with noise and share it with our audience. This is what music is all about for us.”

The whole album was recorded mostly every Sunday. Saturday night before recording would always turn into ridiculous nights of catastrophic drinking. “My girlfriend affectionately named the Den we would drink at ‘The Den of Bad Decisions.’ And so it was,” Burrey said. “All of the songs on the EP were created through the urgency to express ourselves through all of this craziness in our life. We would have these wild emotional journeys, like my issue with alcohol, that I was really able to deal with through making this EP.”

You can catch Davis and Burrey with the rest of the Tell the Wolves crew at Harlow’s Feb. 6, 2016 for the release of their very first EP, The Great Design. Also performing that night will be Some Fear None and Hero’s Last Mission. Doors open at 10 p.m. for a 10:30 show. Tickets can be purchased in advance through Harlows.com.

Range Life

Scott Kannberg’s resume has a bolded header that slaps you right across the face: Founding member and guitarist of Pavement. There isn’t much need to explain, because that single sentence says a lot of things. But Kannberg is more than one arm of a multi-limbed rock ‘n’ roll giant. Over the years, he’s led solid outfits like Preston School of Industry and Spiral Stairs. The latter (also his longtime alias) is where Kannberg lands in 2016, polishing his first release (Doris and the Daggers) since 2009’s The Real Feel. Produced in Los Angeles by Dan Long, the forthcoming LP will at some point be touched by the hands of San Francisco mainstay Kelley Stoltz, and features well-worn players like drummer Justin Peroff (Broken Social Scene).

Spiral Stairs taps into the brilliantly loose mood that defined Pavement. It’s not sloppy, or undercooked—it’s something more akin to your most intelligent, good-job-having friend that shops exclusively at thrift stores simply because they prefer it. “Cold Change” is a prime example; a song that belongs to Spiral Stairs, yet just as easily could have been on Terror Twilight. And reminding people of Pavement is not a bad thing. It’s actually quite good. For all the ‘90s alt we look back upon with sheepish smiles (Pearl Jam? Soundgarden? Bush??), the lazy rock ‘n’ roll swagger of Pavement still stands tall. And Spiral Stairs, with a looming show at Sacramento’s Torch Club alongside Ian Moore, will showcase just that. Submerge recently caught up with Kannberg, who happens to be good-humored and an all-around nice guy, with a fuzzy recollection of Sacramento lore to boot.

So it’s been six years since the last Spiral Stairs record. Why now?
After the last Pavement tour I moved to Australia for a few years and had a kid and lived on an acre of land and kinda mowed the lawn everyday. I lost track of things and didn’t make a lot of music, so when I moved back to the States I just started doing it.

Has the lyrical focus shifted at all now that you have a family?
It was kinda weird. I had a bunch of ideas for songs. Not really anything about the kid; I’m not singing about my kid like Paul McCartney did, or whatever [laughs]. I guess it’s in there a little bit. But we were all set to record in Seattle last May, and the drummer I’ve had for years, Darius, passed away. Big shock. He just had a heart attack and died. He was 39, four days away from his 40th birthday. And like a week away from seeing the very last Rush show—of course a drummer’s favorite band is Rush [laughs]. So it was quite a shock, and I kinda refocused a lot of the songs [to be about] this guy, and loss and friends; life and death, really.

What’s behind the title Doris and the Daggers?
I’ve always had this fake band name, Doris and the Daggers. It’s like a punk rock, fake band from the ‘80s that you’d see at the Cattle Club. It’s gonna be weird playing Sacramento again. I went to school there and lived there in the early Pavement days. I guess the show got moved to the Torch Club, which is even weirder, ‘cause I used to go to that place when I was like 20 years old.

Is it ever a give and a take being inextricably linked to a name like Pavement? Are there times when you’re grateful and others you’d prefer the anonymity?
No, no, I’ve always been very proud of Pavement. I mean, it was my band, ya know? Over the years it’s become such a bigger thing and you’ve gotta respect that. I love it. It made me who I am today, besides my parents I guess [laughs].

I grew up in the ‘90s, and i think it’s interesting to look back at what was popular at what time, and what holds up and what doesn’t, and Pavement’s a good example of a band that has held up. Do you ever contemplate what it is about Pavement that lasts where say, Smashing Pumpkins doesn’t?
You know, I kinda look at it like R.E.M. and their career. When you really care about every record you do, and every single you do and you kinda have a sense of humor about it; you take it seriously but you don’t take it seriously. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll. And what we always tried to do was respect our influences. We didn’t try to say we were creating the Holy Grail. And I think people respect that and it resonates.

Have you ever come across somebody who turned out to be a big fan that you didn’t expect, and have it kinda blow you away?
We played a festival once in the mid-’90s or something, and I remember Oingo Boingo played. And I remember the guitar player came up to me and was just like, “Man, you’re my favorite band.” And I was like, “That is fucking weird.” [Laughs.] That’s just a random one. Probably the coolest one ever was Nick Cave taking me aside and saying, “I like you guys.”

Do you have any old, dusty Sac stories? Maybe spin a yarn or two?
Geez. So long ago … my memory’s terrible. It’s basically where Pavement kinda started. I mean we did start in Stockton, jamming and recording, but I was living in Sacramento after the first single. We were around that town when there was nothing going on. But there were great shows; Cattle Club was a great club. And then before that, Club Minimal is basically where we grew up. It was where all the punk rock bands came. I did my first stage dive at Social Distortion when I was like 14 years old.

It was a big part of my life, that town. I went to Sac State. I didn’t finish. I was actually about a semester short of finishing, and Sonic Youth called us up and said they wanted us to tour and open up for them in Europe. So Steve [Malkmus] called me up and said, “Can you put off school for a little bit?” And I never went back [laughs].

I think you made the right decision.
I think so too! My urban planning teacher was like, “What are you doing?” I was working at this door and bathroom hardware warehouse, and I remember telling the boss, “I’m goin’ off, I’m gonna be a rock star.” And he was like, “Alright, good luck with that, we’ll see you in a month!”

Spiral Stairs’ tour with Ian Moore comes through Sacramento Jan. 30, 2016 at The Torch Club, located at 904 15th Street. Admission is $15 for this 21-and-up show, with things getting started at 9 p.m. Find more info at Torchclub.net.

Have four quarters burning a hole in your pocket? For those who have two left feet or abysmal dance skills, the cost of these classes can’t be beat. The folks at the The Ballroom of Sacramento will be opening their doors to the public to teach partner dancing. The first class starts at 1 p.m. and focuses on the highly interpretive Latin American dance known as merengue. And while the 2/4 signature rhythms are fast-paced and usually tricky, teacher Andy K. will break everything down step by step. Also on the menu is a beginning waltz course taught by Mark Vangere whose steps will impress your wannabe high-brow friends. Lastly, there is an East Coast Swing class led by Johnny Ochoa for all you hipsters stuck in another time period. Each lesson is 45 minutes in length plus an added 15 minutes to practice what you learned. Anyone 12 and older is encouraged to join this not-so-lazy Sunday soiree, so dress appropriately and bring your most comfortable shoes. After the class is over, you’ll never have to go to a wedding and sit idle for fear of embarrassment on the dance floor. Check out this and other upcoming events at Facebook.com/theballroomofsacramento

Hidden deep in the recesses of Sacramento at the corner of B and 27th streets lies one of our city’s greatest treasures: the B Street Theatre. Christmas time is here, and their talented company of actresses and actors will be putting their skills to the ultimate test. Those who know the traditional holiday story A Christmas Carol will be delighted to know this adaptation changes the storyline around just a wee bit (nudge, nudge). Featured performers include the immensely talented and local actors du jour Greg Alexander as Ebenezer Scrooge, Amy Kelly as the Ghost of Christmas Present and John Lamb as Tiny Tim. The show has already received numerous positive reviews from local papers including (but certainly not limited to) the Sacramento Bee who raved this new version is “[A] sly new version of Charles Dickens’ perennial ‘ghost story.’” The show run started in late November, but thankfully runs through Dec. 27, 2015, with shows Saturdays and Sundays at 1 and 4 p.m as well as several weeknights leading up to Christmas Eve. Tickets are cheap ($15–$20) so you have no reason to be a scrooge yourself. Buy some tickets for the family and experience something new for a change. Find out more at Bstreettheatre.org

The merriest 5k of the year is here! Raid your buddy’s attic, scour a thrift store, check your mom’s closet, do whatever you have to do to find the most hideous holiday sweater ever for The Ugly Sweater Run: Sacramento, going down on Dec. 12, 2015, at William Land Park. Starting at 11 a.m., participants will run, walk, or prance their way through an approximately 3.1 mile long winter wonderland of holiday inflatables, music, hot chocolate and even some nice adult beverages for those of age. Each entry ($40) receives a custom vintage knit hat, kids five and under are free. Dogs and strollers are allowed, and you’re highly encouraged to deck them out with holiday cheer! Visit Theuglysweaterrun.com and click on the Sacramento event page for a link to buy tickets ahead of time. Use the promo code “Submerge” for $10 off!