Sleater-Kinney celebrated New Year’s Eve at the Masonic in San Francisco, with openers The Thermals and a DJ set from Spoon’s Britt Daniel… Continue reading
nob hill
Heart played the Masonic, 9.17.23
Rock and roll legends/luminaries/sisters Heart played the Masonic in San Francisco on September 17th. Continue reading
NEEDTOBREATHE + Switchfoot at The Masonic SF, July 9th, 2015
NEEDTOBREATHE and Switchfoot (along with openers Colony House and
Drew Holcomb) played the Masonic Temple in San Francisco on July 9th. Photo gallery below: Continue reading
Sleater-Kinney @ The Masonic, San Francisco, 05.02.15 REVIEW/GALLERY
The reunited Sleater-Kinney hit San Francisco for the first of two sold-out nights at the Masonic, on Saturday, May 2nd. “Don’t tell Portland, but this is this the first city we fell for,” singer/guitarist Corin Tucker told the crowd. Continue reading
Florence and The Machine @ The Masonic, April 9, 2015
Florence and The Machine kicked off their latest tour with two nights at the Masonic Temple in San Francisco, ahead of the release of their upcoming third record, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful. Continue reading
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue /North Mississippi Allstars @ The Masonic, 12.31.14
The Masonic SF rang in it’s first post-renovation New Year with a funk/blues double bill of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and The North Mississippi Allstars. The New Breed Brass band opened the show after jamming in the lobby, and joined Trombone Shorty on stage at midnight for a balloon/confetti drop. Check out the gallery below.
Continue reading
The 1975 @ The Masonic, 11.18.14
British rock band The 1975 hit San Francisco’s Masonic Temple on November 18th, to the delight of apparently every high school girl in the city. Some fans lined up before 9AM (on a school day!) and apparently figured their love of the Mancunian lads would provide all the sustenance they needed, because several of them passed out and had to be carried out of the crowd before the show even started. Ushers and security personnel handed out water, while all the fans toward the front shot dagger looks and snide mean-girl remarks at anyone with the temerity to get in their way (mostly photographers). The crowd at GWAR was slightly less aggressive. All in all, a fairly crazy happening.
Check out the gallery after the break…
Continue reading
Explosions In The Sky / The New Year @ The Masonic SF, 10.03.14
Modest Mouse @ The Masonic, San Francisco, 09.26.14
Indie rock stalwarts Modest Mouse have been relatively quiet in the last few years, with only an EP and a couple new live songs since their last full length, 2007’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. So it was a pleasant surprise when they announced a run of tour dates this year. Though they began as a trio (with original bassist Eric Judy departing in 2012), the band has swelled to include a second drummer, guitar player, violinist, and a couple of horns.
Modest Mouse are rumored to be working–slowly–on a new record, but the setlist at The Masonic only included three new songs, “Lampshades on Fire,” “Sugar Boats,” and “Shit in Your Cut.” The latter was part of a “shit”-heavy encore that also included “Shit Luck” and “Talking Shit About Pretty Sunset.” The rest of the 20+ song set was filled out by a healthy mix of singles, deep cuts, and b-sides. The highlight, as it is at pretty much every Modest Mouse show, was the incendiary “Doin’ the Cockroach.”
Modest Mouse have been around for 20 years now, and maybe Isaac Brock can’t hit all the high notes anymore, but he doesn’t seem to have lost any energy, enthusiasm, or 90s haircuts. And if you woke up this morning and decided you desperately needed to see almost 50 new Modest Mouse live photos, hey, it’s your lucky day!
Beck @ The Masonic in San Francisco, 9.19.14
Beck opened up the newly-renovated Masonic Temple in San Francisco on September 19th. With the seats removed from the floor and turned into a standing room GA section, the venue looks and sounds great. If nothing else, it was easily the cleanest venue floor I’ve ever seen.
With no opener (which was a major relief) Beck told the audience they’d be their own openers, and started the show with an acoustic, “Pensive Beck” set. He kicked off the show with “The Golden Age” from 2002’s Sea Change (along with the standout from the record, “Lost Cause”), and continued with a good helping of songs from the most recent Pensive Beck album, Morning Phase. After the acoustic set, he broke into some career-spanning greatest hits, including “Loser,” “Devil’s Haircut,” “Black Tambourine,” and “Where It’s At.”