A native of Monkton, Maryland, Dennis Jones got his musical start on drums, but by age 13 he had switched to guitar and joined a band. After traveling the world, he landed in Los Angeles, joining Mississippi bluesman Zac Harmon’s band, with whom he won the 2004 International Blues Challenge. Jones’ solo debut, Falling Up, came in 2003. Subsequent albums showcased his artistry and featured guests including Kenny Neal, Guitar Shorty, and Etta James saxophonist Jimmy Zavala. In 2023, Jones was the recipient of the Bobby Rush Entertainer Award. His latest release is About Time, released in June 2024.

Dennis Jones

Wed, Oct 1, 6pm, $13

Club Fox, Redwood City

The iconic sludge metal shredder, Matt Pike, continues to prove why he’s one of the greats with the unrelenting High On Fire. Founded in Oakland in 1998, this sludge metal act is in a league of their own with an armory of heavy albums in their back pocket, ready to melt faces and rot brains. Truthfully, it’s a miracle Pike is still alive with the crazy life he has lived, so for those who haven’t seen him play, this show is a perfect opportunity. Plus, they’re playing with the Motorhead-loving Charger and Bastardane featuring Castor Hetfield, son of Metallica frontman James Hetfield.

High on Fire

Tue, Sept 30, 6:30pm, $28-$32

The Ritz, San Jose

British electronic act Disclosure is very of the moment, but members Guy and Howard Lawrence come from a diverse musical background. Their father played in various rock bands, and their mother worked as a session musician, sang advertising jingles, and even performed for the British Army. This background provided the Lawrence Brothers with the perfect musical education. They started Disclosure in 2010 and quickly scored a record deal for their fresh mix of pop structures and electronic grooves. Since then, Disclosure has taken the electronic and house scene by storm. Not only has Disclosure been nominated for eight Grammy Awards and four BRIT Awards, but the duo’s single “Latch” featuring Sam Smith recently passed 1 billion streams.

Disclosure

Sun, Sept 28, 7pm, $85

Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford

The all-volunteer orchestra, Redwood Symphony, will celebrate 40 years of making music, while also honoring the 100th birthday of their friend, Kirke Mechem, by performing his “The Jayhawk, Magic Bird Overture!” a piece Music Director Eric Kujawsky describes as “If Stravinsky’s Firebird and Woody Woodpecker had a son, it would be the Jayhawk. This is one wacky piece of music!” In addition, the orchestra will showcase superstar soloist, pianist Daniel Glover, as they perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, and they’ll close the festive evening out with Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s much-loved Concerto for Orchestra.

Virtuosi!

Sat, Sept 27, 7:30pm, $35

Cañada College Main Theater, Redwood City

Jorge Luis Pacheco is a pianist, arranger, composer, percussionist, and singer born in Havana, Cuba. His work draws from his Afro-Cuban roots as well as from classic, jazz, and pop. At age 25, Pacheco was the only semifinalist from Latin America in the 2009 Montreux Solo Jazz Piano Competition. He toured the U.S. for the first time in 2011 with Soneros de Verdad. A restlessly ambitious and creative artist, Pacheco has composed for quartet and orchestra. His most recent release, 2020’s The Lockdown Album, was actually released in 2022; it emphasizes Pacheco’s synthesis of jazz and classical forms.

Jorge Luis Pacheco

Sat, Sept 27, 7pm, $30

SJZ Break Room, San Jose

One of the things that brings people into the punk scene is its sense of community. They rally around one another in the good times and especially the bad, and that will be proved once more this Saturday at the Caravan Lounge for the Mark Fredrickson Memorial Show. As the lead singer of American Standard, Fredrickson was larger than life. When he passed away unexpectedly in May, he left behind a wife, two daughters, and a giant hole in the local scene. This weekend, his band will be joined by Local Bylaws and Facekicker for a night of punk rock, cold beer, and good times spent with even better friends to honor his memory.

Mark Fredrickson Memorial Show

Sat, Sept 27, 9pm, Free

Caravan Lounge, San Jose

In the early 2000s, the band Simon Dawes, formed by high school friends Taylor Goldsmith and Blake Mills, brought a Malibu flavor to the solidifying indie rock sound. Once Mills left, it reformed as simply Dawes featuring Taylor Goldsmith and his brother Griffin. It also ditched the “indie” label and settled into a more folk sound, keeping that ocean breeze but incorporating a Laurel Canyon flavor. With each successive release, Dawes’ sound becomes more enigmatic, taking pop sensibilities and flipping them upside down, or at least, sideways with introspective lyrics. The group released the album Oh Brother last year, resulting in an inviting but slightly demanding address to the modern world, full of great melodies.

Dawes

Fri, Sept 26, 8pm, $59

Guild Theatre, Menlo Park

Before the Twilight movies became a global phenomenon, the high-school vampire romance started as a 2005 book written by author Stephenie Meyer. Twenty years later, fans can celebrate the love story’s anniversary with a string of events taking place September through November, including a theatrical re-release of all five films in the franchise, special editions of the original books, and even a Forever Twilight in Forks festival happening in Forks, Washington. There’s also Twilight in Concert, a national tour featuring a screening of the first 2008 film and live performance by a 12-piece ensemble of Oscar-nominated composer Carter Burwell’s soundtrack, illuminated by 1,000 candles on stage.

Twilight in Concert

Fri, Sept 26, 7pm; $80-$85

Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose

Raised by farm working Mexican immigrant parents in Salinas, the members of Clave Especial, including founding cousins vocalist Alejandro Ahumada and guitarist Leonardo Lomeli, took the Mexican regional subgenres they grew up with (corridos, norteño, and banda), added a modern feel, including introspective personal lyrics, and have scored big, streaming in the billions, with this updated take on Mexican and Mexican American music. Last June, they got increased exposure and earned new fans when they played their hit song “Kalashnikov” while escorting interim world champion boxer David Benavidez to the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Clave Especial

Thu, Sept 25, 8pm, $68

San Jose Civic, San Jose

LA-based composer, musician, and performance artist San Cha stars in Inebria Me, a bold reimagining of her 2019 album La Luz de la Esperanza. Inspired by ’90s telenovelas and San Cha’s own youth, this radical opera tells the tale of Dolores, a woman trapped in a toxic marriage. In her darkest moment, she is visited by Esperanza, a luminous genderless being who awakens her courage to escape. Drawing from the divine ecstasy of religious iconography, scored by an electrifying mix of ranchera, cumbia, punk, and classical, this liberation story is co-commissioned and presented by MACLA for one weekend in San Jose.

Inebria Me

Thu, Sept 25, 7:30pm, $30

MACLA Castellano Playhouse, San Jose