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Listings are
in the opposite order of appearance: headliner is listed at the top,
next is the support band(s),
and the last band listed is the opener.
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Thursday May 29
2025 7:30PM doors -- music at 8:00PM ••• 21 AND OVER $13 in advance / $15 at the door King Dream (Album release) kingdreamband.com indie psych-rock TBA ... Cave Clove caveclove.com progressive rock soul King Dream -from Oakland. CA -King Dream is an LA based rock ‘n’ roll project helmed by Oakland native Jeremy Lyon, a lifelong songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who crafts dive bar anthems with heart, brains and soul. Hard-rocking yet poignant, his music combines a love for American rock masters like Springsteen and Petty with ‘60s West Coast psychedelia and more contemporary torch-bearers like My Morning Jacket and The War on Drugs — all brought to life by a band of California’s most in-demand players. Lyon has played Outside Lands and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, toured nationally and internationally, and also knows what it’s like to busk on the street. King Dream songs deftly balance hope and world-weariness. They seem wise beyond their years, and they also have a way of sneaking up on you. Their shout-along choruses and searing guitar solos are at home in a darkened saloon, to be sure, but also — you know the giddy, ragged vulnerability that arrives when you’ve been awake for way too long on a road trip? Between the good times and the clinks of beer bottles these songs inspire a wistfulness, deep in your bones, for a place you’ve never been. Glory Daze is King Dream’s first full-length since the band’s 2018 self-titled debut, and it represents a massive leap forward. Ambitious in scale and scope, it clocks in at 24 tracks, divided into three parts. Technically, these songs are a record of Lyon not only maturing as a lyricist and musician — experimenting with different production styles, moving easily between fist-pumping anthems and ballads and electronic and R&B-influenced sounds — but also developing into a self-sufficient producer and engineer, a silver lining to the constraints of the pandemic. But Glory Daze is also unmistakably a full-band effort, and its sound also reflects the group’s confidence and cohesion: What began as a studio band is now a tight-knit collective with decades of experience between them, including Adam Nash (guitar) and Nick Cobbett (drums), as well as Zak Mandel-Romann (bass), a close musical collaborator of Lyon’s since high school. Narratively, Glory Daze traverses vast territory: a period in which Lyon separated from, reconciled with, and married his now-wife (Caitlin Gowdey, Rainbow Girls, who appears on several tracks and plays keys live with King Dream when she can); toured and recorded as a sideman with a slew of Bay Area artists (Whiskerman, the Stone Foxes, M. Lockwood Porter); dealt with the grief, anxiety and loss of community wrought by a pandemic and years of sociopolitical turmoil; and careened into his 30s with a healthy dose of reflection, self-doubt and, ultimately, an audible sense of confidence and satisfaction. The result is an expansive, multifaceted album that invites the listener to climb in, lean back, and trust that getting there’s at least half the fun. “I make driving records,” says Lyon. “And this one’s about an hour-forty long, so I hope you’re going somewhere far.” TBA - - Cave Clove -from Oakland, CA -Cave Clove’s sound is timeless and all their own as they seamlessly combine their shared love of 70’s and 90’s singer-songwriters with progressive rock. They are known for their robust melodies, hooks, arrangements and for their reliably soulful performances. Fronted by songwriter/vocalist Katie Colver, the past 6 years have been a collaboration between Colver, lead guitarist Brent Curriden, and bassist Alisa Saario. They were joined by drummer Harrison Murphy for their 2019 tour dates and for the making of their upcoming full-length album The Muscle and the Meaning (Spring 2022), which is undoubtedly the band’s most realized and compelling batch of songs to date. In many ways, The Muscle and the Meaning, the band’s follow up to 2019’s Dollars to Tokens EP, is like the flip-side of the same coin. Described by Glide Magazine as a collection of “psych-rock infused anthemic stunners brimming with electrifying guitars and a West Coast Americana songwriting sensibility,” Dollars to Tokens centered around the sacrifices that Colver was making to follow her dreams and her prioritization of art and adventure over health and stability. She described the EP as being about “the dance between self-sabotage and self-actualization.” The Muscle and the Meaning is about this same dance, but focuses more on the introspective process of recovery and healing. The “muscle” in this case refers to the daily grind of deciding how to be in relationship with one’s body, past, goals, and interpersonal connections. The “meaning” is found both in and after the muscling through each day while striving to live more authentically. “Great meaning can emerge from this type of work, but you have to do the dirty work first, and that’s why it’s the muscle and the meaning and not the other way around,” Colver explains. The album’s sonic landscape and lyrics all reflect this push and pull of the recovery process, cycling between intimate, sparse, and sacred moments and deeply layered swells of passion and desperation. The live, organic instrumentation gives it a retro feel, but the themes are timeless as recovery journeys are always relevant, whether in a personal or societal context. “New Secret” is a song about holding both the despair that comes from keeping secrets as well as acceptance of oneself despite one’s regrets. “I’ll wait for my time, but I’m not standing on the side. I’ll stand inside the void” Colver affirms, referring to a sense of trust that healing will occur in time, but acknowledging that she must continue to be present with the struggle, even though the outcome and is unknown. Dire Straits-esque guitar riffs and up-close-and-personal vocals that evoke the style of Stevie Nicks and Natalie Merchant give the song a driving-yet-groovy feeling. The song leaves the listener with the sense that everything will be alright even though it may presently feel like a mess. The album spans a spectrum of moods and attitudes, like a day in the life of anyone in recovery. Colver wrote “Test of the Season” in a moment of inspiration and deep yearning to be in better integrity with her values. “Obsidian”, on the other hand, was written at a low point for Colver in which she felt resolved to live a life of self-sabotage. The Muscle and the Meaning is essentially a collection of conversations between true self and personality. “On Witches Brew,” for example, is written from the perspective of Colver’s essence giving a pep talk to her ego. “Go Big,” the surfy, playful final track of the album, conveys opposing sentiments toward the object of one’s addiction, be it a substance, a pattern, or a person. In the first verse, Colver describes the times when cravings are high but she is able to power through and abstain: “I wanted you, I stood by you, you were ready for me, but I wouldn’t have you.” The second verse, on the other hand, is about still wanting something or someone even when it is very clear that it is not good for you: “I battled you, I hated you, you mortified me, but all I wanted was you.” Although the album contains a diverse range of emotions and messages, it is highly accessible and leaves room for the listener to experience the music on their own terms. If what you need is to cry, it will make you cry and if what you need is to dance, it will make you dance. The Muscle and the Meaning is a celebration of human resilience, of caring for oneself even in the darkest of moments, and the light at the end of the tunnel after a long journey toward healing and acceptance. Vocals & Guitar / Katie Colver Drums / Harrison Murphy Guitar / Brent Curriden Bass / Alisa Saario |
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