Photograph by Matthew Suárez

Low Volts at Casbah on September 11

Photograph by Matthew Suárez

• Phil Keaggy
• at Legacy International Center
• June 27

Built on a locale that formerly hosted a motel and liquor store, Mission Valley’s newest concert venue is part of an 18-acre Bible-themed resort complex that offers a ministry training facility, interactive globe, History Dome Theater, a spa and swimming pool, dancing water fountains, a Tower of Peace, Prayer Gardens, and restaurants including a steakhouse.

Phil Keaggy at Legacy International Center on June 27

Legacy International Center Resort Hotel and Spa

The first show for the 500-seat Pavilion Theater will feature Christian fingerstyle guitarist Phil Keaggy, a longtime regular in local gospel programming and a frequent performer at area churches. Keaggy’s McCartneyesque songwriting and inspirational audience interaction will no doubt be boosted by the venue’s 7.1 Surround Sound installation.

Doja Cat at Pechanga Arena on August 10

• Doja Cat
• at Pechanga Arena
• Postponed (again)

L.A.-based singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer Doja Cat has been making music since her teens. Her second album, Hot Pink, dropped at the end of 2019 and made the Billboard top 20, but plans to tour behind it, as well as a pair of Coachella performances, were cooled by the pandemic. The record has spawned two genuine hits with staying power that should help fill out the former Sports Arena, “Say So” and “Juicy,” with a video streaming online for the latter track that is currently at around 90 million views. Note: This concert has been postponed with a new date TBA.

• Deicide and Kataklysm
• at Brick By Brick
• August 15

Death metal band Deicide is considered among the genre’s founding groups, from one of death metal’s early homegrounds of Florida. Since the release of their last album Overtures of Blasphemy, they’ve scored a new guitarist, Chris Cannella, who’ll make his San Diego debut with the group in Linda Vista.

Deicide at Brick by Brick on August 15

Dark Apostrophe Wikimedia Commons

Sharing the headline slot, the Canadian cacophony of Kataklysm will showcase their 14th studio album Unconquered, which dropped last September. The bill includes New York slam band Internal Bleeding (celebrating 30 years and nearly that many former members) and New Hampshire’s melodic death metallers Begat the Nephilim.

• San Diego Music Awards
• at Humphreys by the Bay
• August 24

The 2021 San Diego Music Awards nominees were announced at the beginning of May, with combatants for Album of the Year to include man of a hundred bands Alfred Howard, rockers Aviator Stash, blues singer Casey Hensley, jazz cat Ed Kornhauser, classic rockers Electric Mud, sometime Rugburn Gregory Page, and jazz-blues singer Whitney Shay. The live ceremony, taking place this year on Shelter Island, always promises a collection of unpredictable stage banter, unexpected upsets, and amusing inebriates.

NoMBe at Music Box on August 28

• NoMBe
• at Music Box
• August 28

30-year-old German songwriter Noah McBeth, aka NoMBe, is one of those ambitious electronica-dance artists who probably owes their career to social media exposure, even if those platforms can hinder as much as help. He had to fight to return his single “California Girls” to the internet due to it sharing a title with an older (by more than 50 years) track. Luckily, his atmospheric, minimalist R&B album They Might’ve Even Loved Me still managed to score airplay and online traction, with songs such as “Freak Like Me,” “Drama,” “Wait,” “Man Up,” and “Milk & Coffee.”

• Transviolet
• at Soda Bar
• September 9

Sarah McTaggart and Mike Panek began their musical collaboration on the internet, as McTaggart relocated from the Cayman Islands, to Toronto, and then San Diego, where she and local multi-instrumentalist Panek finally met up and formed the band they’d later call Transviolet. They relocated to L.A. and began recording in the San Fernando Valley. After attracting the attention of LA Reid and Epic Records, they made the national scene in 2015 with their first single, “Girls Your Age,” followed later that year by their debut self-titled EP and a tour slot opening for Mikky Ekko. Their current Drugs in California Tour supports last year’s Born to Rule album.

Ty Segall at Belly Up on September 9

Ty Segall at the Belly Up

September 9

Ty Segall has been keeping busy with home-sourced projects such at last year’s six-song Harry Nilsson tribute Segall Smeagol, currently streaming free on BandCamp. His recent online Levitation Session performance, an homage to the vintage concert film Pink Floyd at Pompeii, will soon be made available as a live album. Segall will put aside his film scoring, his proto-metal band Fuzz, and recording outfits like Broken Bat, Wasted Shirt, and the CIA, in order to round up his Freedom Band and finally tour in support of his 2019 “no guitar” album First Taste.

LP at Soma on September 10

• LP
• at Soma
• September 10

The career of Long Island-born Laura Pergolizzi, aka indie pop rocker LP, took off when a 2006 South By Southwest appearance sparked a major label bidding war. The opportunity soon arose to become a songwriter for A-list stars such as Rihanna, Cher, Celine Dion, the Veronicas, Cher Lloyd, and Christina Aguilera, with the song “Love Will Keep You Up All Night” appearing on the 2007 Backstreet Boys album Unbreakable. Many got their first earful of LP when the song “Strange” was heard on television in a 2019 Samsung Galaxy Phone commercial. Their Live in Moscow album is due at the end of May.

• Manic Hispanic and Low Volts
• at Casbah
• September 11

They may specialize in comedic covers of punk anthems rewritten to be about Chicano culture, but the players of Manic Hispanic are no joke, with members from respected acts like the Adolescents, the Grabbers, and Cadillac Tramps. Expect to hear “Get Them Immigrated” (refitting the Offspring’s “keep them separated” lyric) and “Brown Girl” (a take on “White Girl” by X). Opening the show will be local electro-blues band Low Volts, fronted by guitarist Tim Lowman, whose great-grandfather J. Warren Lowman (aka Doc Lowman) was a Missouri gospel singer who wrote a book about how he escaped the electric chair.

• Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard
• at Petco Park
• August 28, 2022

The no-longer (if-ever) retired Mötley Crüe’s long-delayed attempt to squeeze a little more juice out of their popular printed autobiographies, comic books, and film bios finds them teaming up with fellow senior citizens of hair metal Def Leppard for a tech-heavy stadium tour. Opening will be Joan Jett, whose 2018 documentary Bad Reputation is only one of many recent film and television appearances. She’s been turning up, as herself and various characters, in movies like Repo The Genetic Opera and Endless Bummer, on TV shows like The Muppets and Steven Universe, and even in an episode of Law and Order.

JMSN at Casbah on September 18

Cameron McCool

• JMSN
• at Casbah
• September 18

Michigan R&B singer Christian Berishaj started off making electro-pop music before adopting the name JMSN and releasing his debut album Priscilla in 2012. He was briefly pseudonymously known as Pearl, which released an album in 2016 but wasn’t revealed to be Berishaj until later. With his most recent full-length being Velvet from 2018, expect to hear the resurgent Little Italy nightclub reverberate to nearly nostalgic radio hits such as “Cruel Intentions,” “Talk is Cheap,” and “Drinkin.’”

• The Monkees
• at the Magnolia
• September 18

Sure, the original Monkees foursome is down to two surviving simians, Micky Dolenz and Mike Nesmith, but the former provided the lead vocals for the vast majority of their 1960s hits, and the latter rarely took part in live reunions until fairly recently (“recent” being a relative term with an act that dates back over a half century). And the songs are forever golden, thanks to writers like Neil Diamond, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, David Gates, John Stewart, Leiber & Stoller, Paul Williams, and occasional latter-day Monkees Boyce & Hart.

Tech N9ne at House of Blues on October 4

• Tech N9ne
• at House of Blues
• October 4

Aaron Dontez Yates, better known as Kansas City Missouri rapper Tech N9ne, has released over a dozen albums since 1999. He got his stage name from a fast-paced vocal style reminiscent of the spitting sound made by a TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun. He has collaborated with everyone from 2pac to D12, Kottonmouth Kings, and Twiztid. His 22nd studio album EnterFear, released last year, featured guests like Krizz Kaliko and Flatbush Zombies.

• black midi
• at Casbah
• October 8

Formed in 2017, experimental British math rockers black midi are touring in support of their sophomore full-length Cavalcade, which premieres at the end of May. “A big thing on this album is the emphasis on third person stories, and theatrical ones at that,” according to singer-guitarist Geordie Greep of the album’s topics, which include a disgraced cult leader, a diamond mine that turns out to be an ancient grave, and vintage cabaret singer Marlene Dietrich. A single is available for “John L” backed with the non-album track “Despair,” as well as their newest single “Slow.”

• D.R.I.
• at Brick By Brick
• October 15

Houston punk-metal pioneers Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, more popularly known as D.R.I., have been around since 1982, so it’s probably no surprise that only two founding members are part of the current lineup, singer Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy. Other than a brief break in the 2000-teens, drummer Rob Rampy has been an Imbecile most of the time since 1990. Their last studio full-length was Full Speed Ahead in 1995, but they’re reportedly working on a new album that should hit the virtual and physical shelves by the time they arrive in Linda Vista in October.

• Brothers Osborne
• at Open Air Theatre
• October 15

Not all well-known performers are as entertaining on Twitter as they are on stage, but seven-time Grammy-nominated country music duo Brothers Osborne keep their fans entertained with vaudevillian tweets such as “Never understood why Revolutionary War armies had a dude playing snare drum. If they had someone playing a bass solo, everyone would have just left.” John Osborne is married to British singer-songwriter Lucie Silvas. Shortly after the release of their third studio album last year, Skeleton, TJ Osborne earned headlines by coming out as gay.

• Soccer Mommy and Emily Reo
• at Music Box
• October 27

Nashville-based Sophie Allison makes music as Soccer Mommy, with a 2020 album called Color Theory that she’s been waiting over a year to tour behind. Released in February 2020, she got to open a Bernie Sanders rally before all touring plans were shut down. The Little Italy show will be opened by Brooklyn noise pop polymath Emily Reo, who writes, performs, sings, records, mixes, and engineers her own releases.

• Alejandro Sanz
• at Open Air Theatre
• October 28

Spanish musician, singer and composer Alejandro Sanz has won 22 Latin Grammy Awards and four U.S. Grammys. A guitarist since age seven who specializes in Flamenco, he first earned worldwide attention for his 2005 collaboration with Shakira, “La Tortura.” His most recent, El Disco, is his twelfth studio album and the source of his most recent U.S. Grammy win, taking home the trophy for 2020’s Best Latin Pop Album.

Jinjer at Soma on October 29

• Jinjer and Suicide Silence
• at Soma
• October 29

Ukrainian hard rockers Jinjer managed to fill some of their pandemic downtime with some socially-distanced European concerts and several livestream performances, as well as recording a follow-up to their 2019 Macro album. The Midway gig is one of their first half dozen live shows since returning to the road. The concert will be opened by Riverside deathcore group Suicide Silence, soon to celebrate their 20th anniversary, and the bill includes L.A. heavy metal band All Hail the Yeti.

Julien Baker at Observatory North Park on November 2

• Julien Baker and DEHD
• at Observatory North Park
• November 2

25 year-old Julien Baker writes openly introspective songs with topics that would seem unlikely to anchor folk-pop music, including mental illness, addiction, and the instinctual spirituality — or lack thereof — that can either inspire or divide humankind. She’s also a member of Boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dascus, but the tour bringing her to North Park is in support of her own recently released third studio album Little Obvious, her first to top the U.S. Folk chart. Opening act DEHD is a three-piece indie rock band from Chicago formed in 2015.

Summer Salt at House of Blues on November 4

House of Blues

• Summer Salt, Breakup Shoes, Covey
• at House of Blues
• November 4

Austin’s Summer Salt earned their bones with their 2014 debut Driving To Hawaii, which set the retro template that now includes performing decked out in floral Hawaiian shirts and playing a poolside punk version of the Bossa Nova. The bill includes Breakup Shoes, a four-piece indie band from Phoenix, Arizona. Opening act Covey is a folk rock project fronted by British multi-instrumentalist and singer Tom Freeman, who relocated to the U.S. in 2010.

Chicano Batman at Soma on November 11

• Chicano Batman
• at Soma
• November 11

L.A.’s Chicano Batman blends psychedelic soul with contemporary funk and classic prog rock. The band is touring in support of their fourth studio album, Invisible People, which reached number 12 on the Billboard U.S. Heatseekers Albums chart. The bill includes Mexican garage punk band Le Butcherettes and L.A. bedroom-pop band Inner Wave.

• Satsang
• at Soda Bar
• November 12

Calling itself a “conscious music collective,” Montana’s Satsang is a power trio known for dressing like 60s folk rockers, singing and harmonizing like vintage soul crooners, and stepping up the pace with electronic hip-hop beats and reggae swagger unheard on the mainstream charts since the breakthrough days of Sublime and the Chili Peppers. A new album called All. Right. Now. is due June 4 via SideOneDummy. Also appearing is hairy Hawaiian singer-songwriter Paul Izak.

• Lucero and Morgan Wade
• at Belly Up
• November 16

Alt-country act Lucero’s When You Found Me Fall Tour finds the Memphis band taking their signature blend of country, soul, blues, garage-punk, and heartland rock to Solana Beach. They‘ve played high profile sets at SXSW, Coachella, and the Van’s Warped Tour, with nearly a dozen albums and a live DVD to their credit. Opening will be 26 year-old Virginia native Morgan Wade, touring in support of Reckless, her debut bluegrass-tinged country pop album.

Beach Bunny at the Quartyard on December 10

TCB Public Relations

• Beach Bunny and Miloe
• at the Quartyard
• December 10

One of the first new bookings for downtown’s Quartyard is quite a coup. At the end of April, Chicago-based Beach Bunny performed their single “Cloud 9,” from their 2020 debut LP Honeymoon, on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The track had already spent seven consecutive weeks on the Spotify Global Viral 50 chart, earning more than two million streams per day with over 100 million total streams. A new version of the song was recently released featuring Tegan and Sara. Opening act Miloe is the Minneapolis musical project of 19 year-old Bobby Kabeya.