Bay Area arts: 11 cool shows and films to see this weekend
From Lee Fields and the Dresden Dolls to Mo Amer and Greg Proops to Jon Nakamatsu, there are a lot of great shows and films to catch this weekend.
Whether you’re looking for a show with which to ring in 2024 or just something fin to do over the weekend, you have have some great options, including great concerts, comedy shows and classical music recitals, not to mention a movie that will fascinate all foodies.
Here’s a partial roundup.
Note: It’s a good idea to check venues’ Covid health policies before heading out.
3 cool concerts to ring in ’24
Here are three shows worth checking out on New Year’s Eve:
Lee Fields: The R&B great has been in the game for a long time, having released the debut single “Bewildered” (with a flip side of “Tell Her I Love Her”) way back in 1969. He’s still going strong more than a half century later, drawing new fans and finding critical acclaim with such efforts as 2019’s “It Rains Love” and 2022’s “Sentimental Fool.” The vocalist ends the year with two shows, Saturday and Sunday, at the Chapel in San Francisco.
Details: 9 p.m. Saturday, $35; 9:30 p.m. Sunday, $75; thechapelsf.com
Big Head Todd and the Monsters: Todd Mohr is a first-rate vocalist-guitarist. He’s also, if we are to take the band’s name as fact, a guy with a pretty large noggin. We expect the former detail to be the more relevant of the two when Mohr leads his platinum-selling Colorado blues-rock band in concert Saturday and Sunday at the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park. Here’s hoping that BHTM plays every single track off its splendid third album, “Sister Sweetly.”
Details: 8 p.m. Saturday, $86; 9 p.m. Sunday, $99; guildtheatre.com
The Dresden Dolls
It’s been a while since we heard from this dark cabaret duo, which released its last full-length album of new material (“Yes, Virginia…”) way back in 2006. Yet, the group — featuring singer-songwriter-pianist Amanda Palmer and drummer Brian Viglione — are back and reportedly working on a new album. More to the point, the Dresden Dolls are set to delight fans on Sunday at the UC Theatre in Berkeley.
Details: 9 p.m.; $100 general admission; theuctheatre.org
— Jim Harrington, Staff
NYE Comedy: More of Mo Amer
It can’t be easy for a teenaged Palestinian American immigrant living in Houston, Texas, under any circumstances. But life for 14-year-old Mohammed Amer took a dramatic turn when his father died. He started skipping school and taking unsupervised trips to Mexico with his friends. Then a teacher stepped in and offered to let him avoid school disciplinary measures if he would perform Shakespeare monologues and then comedy bits in front of his class. Obviously, the teacher recognized something that the rest of the world has discovered – Mohammed Amer has a knack for performing, especially when there is humor involved. What he’s done since then is impressive. Under the moniker Mo Amer, he’s been a hit at comedy clubs around the world, both as a solo act and as part of the Allah Made Me Funny comedy tour. He has starred in a handful of televised comedy specials, including “Legally Homeless” in 2015 (a reference to his undocumented immigrant status), which earned Amer the distinction of being the first Arab American to star in a nationally televised comedy special. He was cast as a recurring character in “Ramy,” the Hulu sitcom starring Egyptian comedian Ray Youssef, and appeared in the DC Comics superhero film “Black Adam” with Hayward native Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Most significantly, he created and stars in the autobiographical Netflix sitcom “Mo,” which is based on his life as an immigrant and emerging entertainer in Houston. The show’s two seasons are available on the streaming site. Amer’s standup career is still going strong, however, and he’ll be performing at San Jose Improv through the New Year’s Eve weekend.
Details: Shows are 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Dec. 29; 7 and 9:30 p.m. Dec. 30, 7 and 10:30 p.m. Dec. 31; $35-$95; improv.com/sanjose
Other New Year’s shows
Greg Proops: The Bay Area funnyman returns to the Punch Line in San Francisco — where he has become a New Year’s Eve tradition. Proops, who was raised in San Carlos and attended both the College of San Mateo and San Francisco State University, is known for appearing on both the U.S. and U.K. versions of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and will be taping a live album during this hometown run, Dec. 28-Dec. 31.
Details: 8 p.m. Dec. 28; 7 and 9:15 p.m. Dec. 29-30; 7:30 and 10 p.m. Dec. 31; tickets start at $32, punchlinecomedyclub.com
Rene Vaca: The 26-year-old SoCal-raised comedian got his break when he won the 16th edition of StandUP NBC Comedy competition. He’s in Pleasanton this weekend for a New Year’s Eve run at Tommy T’s.
Details: 7:30 and 10 p.m. Dec. 29, 7 and 9:45 p.m. Dec. 30, 7 and 10 p.m. Dec. 31; Tommy T’s, Pleasanton; $25-$75; tommyts.com
Cobb’s Comedy Club: The venerable North Beach club hosts a ” Comedy Countdown,” with scheduled performers including Becky Lynn, Debra DiGiovanni, Sandy Danto, Fumi Abe, Abhay Nadkarni, and more.
Details: 7 and 10 p.m. Dec. 31; Cobb’s Comedy Club, San Francisco; tickets start at $52; www.cobbscomedy.com.
— Staff and Bay City News Foundation reports
We’re not Fool La La-ing
One thing folks in the Bay Area can look forward to during the winter holidays besides festive lights and ice skating rinks: Unique Derique.
The longtime and beloved Bay Area clown has made his family-friendly show “Fool La La” part of the winter holiday landscape for years. And it’s back at Berkeley for a short stint that runs through Saturday.
The 75-minute “Foo La La,” recommended for viewers 3 years old and up, serves up a little bit of everything: Juggling, clowning, physical humor, whimsical storytelling and hamboning, a form of body percussion for which Unique Derique is especially well known.
The performer has entertained audiences around the world and shared the stage with Bobby McFerrin, Laura Nyro, Jim Nabors, Sammy Davis Jr., and many others.
Details: Performances are 1 p.m. today through Saturday; The Marsh Berkeley; $10-$100; also available for live-streaming ($20); themarsh.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Feast on a great movie
Foodies will savor every mouthwatering second of living legend Frederick Wiseman’s latest “reality fiction” production, the four-hour “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros.” The epicurean epic peers into the farm-to-table experience at a Michelin three-star French restaurant as well as at two other restaurants the famed Troisgros family operates.
Watching it is akin to having the best seat in the house for a perfectly created five-course meal that runs long into the night.
Wiseman’s 44th feature is another of his languidly paced immersive journeys. It requires a viewer’s patience, since Wiseman, 93, prefers long scenes crafted around exchanges or discussions and are seen through to their natural conclusion. In this time of overused sound bites and gotcha remarks — which then get taken out of context — it’s refreshing, even enlightening and meditative, to soak up what’s being said while watching what’s being done.
True to its farm-to-table theme, the film opens with a committed quest to suss out the best offerings at a farmer’s market and concludes with a sumptuous dinner at Troisgros in Ouches, France, and the conversations that ensue. Wiseman, who filmed over the course of spring 2022, covers every minute aspect of what goes into creating this ultimate culinary experience.
Details: Not rated; screens Dec. 28 and 30 at the Roxie Theatre, San Francisco; 4:30 p.m. Dec. 28 at the Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael; Dec. 29-Jan. 4 at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, Berkeley.
— Randy Myers, Bay City News Foundation
Freebie from SF Chamber Orchestra
One of the great unsung gifts that classical music lovers here get several times every year are the no-admission-fee concerts the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, now under the new leadership of conductor Jory Fankuchen, play in several venues spread across the Bay Area. And the upcoming “The New and the Great” program being presented in San Francisco, Berkeley and Palo Alto over the weekend promises to be an uncommonly rewarding one. “Sketch at Seven,” from Philadelphia-based composer Sumi Tonooka, which receives its world premiere Friday in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, is a work that emanates from some of her earliest self-recorded memories , from “a sketch book of drawings and musical journals that I made when I was very young that was sent back to me after some forty years…..When I opened the sketchbook it was like a doorway into the past and future, mysterious and profound.” Following it is Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, with upcoming artist Sara Flexer as featured soloist. And the “great” part of the program? That would be Franz Schubert’s magnificent Symphony No. 9 in C Major, aka “The Great.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 29 at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Dec. 31 at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church, 3 p.m. Jan. 1 at Palo Alto’s First United Methodist Church; free; www.thesfco.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
Raising the musical glass: The San Jose Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Barbara Day Turner, welcomes in the new year with a “Celebration” program that will include contributions from frequent longtime collaborators, pianist Jon Nakamatsu and clarinetist Jon Manasse, with the latter’s son Alec, also a clarinetist. Works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Johann Strauss II, Vivian Fung, Michael Touchi and Henry Mollicone are on tap, and there will be a sparkling wine reception following the performance.
Details: 3 p.m. Dec. 31; St. Francis Episcopal Church, San Jose; $15-$75; sjco.org, 408-295-4416 or at the door.