Better late than never, right? We’re one week into May, but that doesn’t mean all the great shows are done. There’s plenty of great live music in Marin this month, but here are four standouts to see before the month is over.
Sweetwater Music Hall
Our Pick: Israel Vibration, Duane Stephenson and Roots Radics
May 15 @ 8 p.m., $47.96
See Sweetwater’s full live music calendar here.
Sweetwater reigns supreme as our county’s capital of reggae music, and booker DJ Sep brings another act of old-school legends with the arrival of Israel Vibration. They’re a Kingston group who broke through in the ’70s, opening for artists like Bob Marley and Dennis Brown, and still churn out regular roots reggae tunes. They’re joined by Duane Stephenson and their usual backup band, Roots Radics.
And another pick: John Carroll Kirby
May 23 @ 8 p.m., $37.60
See Sweetwater’s full live music calendar here.
Another standout at Sweetwater this month is John Carroll Kirby, a funky pianist and producer who has worked with artists like Frank Ocean, Solange, Harry Styles and Tyler the Creator. He’s an all-around artist, with some equally funky music videos and a series of shop-talk artist interviews on his web show, Kirby’s Gold.
HopMonk Tavern
Our Pick: Bob Schneider
May 25 @ 6 p.m., $41.97
See HopMonk’s full live music calendar here.
Bob Schneider has made the rounds countless times in the Live Music Capital and his home, Austin, Texas, and now visits HopMonk hot off a performance at BottleRock the night before. Schneider bills his style as “Frunk” — a wombo-combo of folk, rock, rap, funk, reggae, country and whatever else fits in your grabbag of musical influences. If you’re not sure whether to pull the trigger on tickets yet, do a trial run by checking out his Bandcamp. The dude records nearly every show he plays.
Also up this month at HopMonk: You’ll see the return of Fantastic Negrito with opener Anna Moss (May 24), another BottleRock 2025 encore by New Orleans blues rocker Anders Osborne (May 23) and some acoustic roots playing by the Sam Grisman Project (May 26).
Marin Symphony
Hogarth Conducts Firebird
May 31 @ 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., June 1 @ 3 p.m., prices vary
See Marin Symphony’s full season here.
For the symphony’s final performances of the season, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite is the star, with other works by Handel, Prokofiev and Ravel preceding it. In case you missed it: This season was the symphony’s first after former music director Alasdair Neale, who held the post for 22 years, stepped down. So, for 2024–2025, a nationwide search for a successor commenced, and four finalists were tasked to conduct a program each over the past few months. This show is the fourth and final of these performances, and it spotlights candidate Brad Hogarth, an associate professor of conducting at SFSU, the associate conductor of the Monterey Symphony and the music director and conductor of the Art Haus Collective.
Am I missing any awesome concerts in Marin? Shoot me a message at editorial@marinmagazine.com to let me know what’s what.