Weekend Show Roundup for San Francisco Alternative Rock Lovers

Reprinted with permission from The Deli SF

Friday through Sunday nights this weekend you can experience a few of the most buzzed about San Francisco alternative rock musicians today.

Emily Jane White will play the Red Devil Lounge this Friday night with David J. and the Chelsea Set. White has just released her third album Ode to Sentience in Europe, and you can download her single “The Law” in anticipation of the album’s U.S. release. She has received worldwide attention since her debut album Dark Undercoat (2007) was written up in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Spin and other revered publications. Her follow up album Victorian America lamented the losses that resulted from Hurricane Katrina, among other haunting and beautifully delivered topics.

The Fresh and Onlys also play Friday night, at The Independent. Their most recent release, the Secret Walls EP, took the band in a very different direction than their last two major releases: Grey-Eyed Girls and Play it Strange. Their shift in sound is keeping them as popular as ever though—they played Noise Pop Music Festival, and are set to play Outside Lands. They also opened for Deerhunter on their UK tour. Catch them while you can at a small venue like the Independent; and consider if you like their downbeat new songs better, or if the band is already at the point in their career where music nerds can say with confidence “Oh, I’m more of a fan of their older stuff.”

Round off the weekend with the simply beautiful music of Lia Rose at the Cafe Du Nord. Don’t recognize the name? She just released her debut solo album this January, which she has worked up to since her band Built for the Sea formed in 2005. Some may even know her from the band she was in before that, Minipop. “After being on the road with Or, The Whale so much this year, I realized I really like playing shows. I used to get so stressed out but now I’m just loving ’em, starting to play more solo and having a lot of fun collaboarting…”, stated Rose. If anyone caught the Or, the Whale show at the Great American Music Hall this winter, it was clear that Rose is completely at home on stage. For a night of insightful and tender songs, with the music to back them up, make sure to head to this cozy venue to end your weekend. Not to mention the other opening band at the show, Professor Burns and the Lilac Field is also a unique local folk rock act with some great musicians: Professor (literally) Sean Burns, Lathan Baulding, and Adam Kirk (who plays with other talented local artists like Sean Hayes).