THURSDAY 2/20
INDIE
VIDEO AGE
Video Age is the New Orleans-based synth-pop duo of Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli. The two combine myriad influences—disco, indie rock, pop, ’70s singer-songwriters—filtered through their unique sensibilities to create something all their own. Video Age has released four albums to date, with their latest, Away from the Castle, enlisting touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast for an album sporting a more organic band feel. The Umbrellas open. BILL KOPP
INFO: 8pm, Moe’s Alley, 1531 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $18/adv, $22 door. 479-1854.
FRIDAY 2/21
ROCK
EGGY
New Haven, Connecticut, rock quartet Eggy came together in 2016, releasing Watercolor Days in 2019. A full touring schedule followed, with the group playing dates in 40 states. Working with coproducer James Petralli (White Denim), the busy group released its second studio album, Waiting Game, in September 2024. Through it all, a jam band aesthetic applied to concise song craft characterizes the Eggy sound. BK
INFO: 7:30pm, Felton Music Hall, 6275 Highway 9, Felton. $31. 705-7113.
JOE KAPLOW
Everyone around the Santa Cruz music scene knows Joe Kaplow, a musician who has balanced the fine line between rock and Americana, drawing inspiration from his home in Bonny Doon. His music comes from life’s small moments: the pause in excitement, that first sip of coffee, “watching the steam from a horse’s breath in the early morning” (something he knows about, having grown up on a thoroughbred farm). His third full-length, Posh Poodle Krystal and Toe, departs from his previous albums with a full band, giving his songs an extra robust sound. Plus, it’s named after his bandmates’ nicknames, giving credit where credit is due, which is pretty cool. MAT WEIR
INFO: 8pm, Crepe Place, 1134 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $17.70 . 429-6994.
THEATER
PARADISE BLUE
Love and drama with a jazz backdrop enliven Paradise Blue, a musical play by Tony Award–nominated Dominique Morisseau. Detroit-born Morisseau is a Genius Grant awardee and has written nine plays. Adept in many musical idioms, Morisseau wrote Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, which opened on Broadway in 2019. Morrisseau’s Paradise Blue had its world premiere in Williamstown, Mass., and is the second work in a three-play cycle titled The Detroit Project: Three Plays. Morisseau won the prestigious L. Arnold Weissberger Award for the play in 2012. BK
INFO: 7:30pm, UCSC Mainstage, 453 Kerr Rd., Santa Cruz. $5-$20. 459-0111.
SATURDAY 2/22
CLASSICAL
NARROW SEA
New Music Works gathers top area performers and composers into an exhilarating sonic feast. Sheila Willey’s soprano powers Narrow Sea, a work of rare beauty by composer Caroline Shaw. Errollyn Wallen’s “Daedalus,” about one of the best-known tales of Greek mythology, is infused by a pop-adjacent string quartet with cellist Kristin Garbeff, violist Rebecca Dualtre-Corbin and violinists Samantha Bounkeua and Shannon D’Antonio. Cellist Irene Herrmann joins Kenji Bunch’s Apocryphal Dances. Two mesmerizing works by the late, brilliant conceptual composer and performer Larry Polansky include “Kaddish Canon” and “Ensembles of Note.” Le Quattro Volte by Robert Hughes spotlights Yuki Yasuda on koto, Lars Johannesson and Alissa Roedig on flute, plus horns and drone. CHRISTINA WATERS
INFO: 7pm, UCSC Music Hall, 400 McHenry Rd., Santa Cruz. $45. 345-9475.
HARD BLUES
JON SPENCER
Jon Spencer of Pussy Galore and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has raucous virtuosity, sounding like highbrow trash at some times and lowbrow elegance at others. His perfect deep-from-the-chest growl and powerful yelping scream complement the distorted, manic, buzzing noises pulsing from his guitar amp. Spencer and his bands blast their way through a set like Juilliard scholars discovering Bo Diddley’s electric guitar for the first time and fighting over who gets to be the band leader. The point is, it’s noise, and it sounds good! KEITH LOWELL JENSEN
INFO: 9pm, Moe’s Alley, 1535 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz. $25/adv, $30/door. 479-1854.
SUNDAY 2/23
AMERICANA
EYES LIKE LANTERNS
Country and folk once brought forth dark songs telling tales of heavy drinking, depression and working-class struggles. Somewhere along the line, artists like Jason Aldean or the Lumineers borrowed the style and repackaged it in tissue paper and pink ribbons for a consumer market. But the grit makes the music real for Santa Cruz’s Eyes Like Lanterns. Spearheaded by singer-songwriter Josh Cremer, Eyes Like Lanterns isn’t afraid to do the shadow work and stare into the abyss. They played at a sold-out Catalyst Atrium at the end of last year, so a free show at Streetlight Records is a treat. The show is a triple threat with San Jose midwest emo band aprtmnts [sic] and indie group Brother M. MW
INFO: 3:30pm, Streetlight Records, 939 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 421-9200.
TUESDAY 2/25
METAL
TÝR
Scandinavians love their metal, and Týr comes from the land of ice and snow like guitar-wielding Vikings ready to deliver Faroese progressive folk metal at its anthemic best. Fans are sure to sing along, raise their fists, and let that long hair fly every which way as the invading horde of four takes the stage. And, lest their use of runes—the kind Hitler was fond of—make anyone nervous, their song “Shadow of the Swastika” attacks the far right’s appropriation of heathen symbols and images of pre-Christian northern Europe. KLJ
INFO: 8pm, Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. $27. 713-5492.
WEDNESDAY 2/26
AUTHOR EVENT
JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN
Transgender and queer individuals face many obstacles in life, ones that author Jennifer Finney Boylan is quite familiar with. She’s more than a successful transgender author; she’s an activist, writer, spouse and parent. Written nearly 20 years ago, her first book, She’s Not There, discusses how gender affects lives. It was the first bestselling work by a transgender American. Boylan has written a new memoir, Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us. With wit, humor and love, she goes deeper into gender divisions, common grounds and other facets of her identity, helping to provide hope for a more accepting future as more people understand women, men and the space between them. ISABELLA MARIE SANGALINE
INFO: 7pm, Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz. Free. 423-0900.
