Honey Hills Fest back with 4-day showcase of women-led bands

Yahoo

2 days ago

'Now read it in The Sacramento Bee/Ask your girlfriends and see if they know/Read it in the newspaper.'
Thank you, Jack White, for that little shoutout at Channel 24 last week, in a crowd-amping shakeup of the lyrics to the White Stripes' seminal 'Ball and Biscuit.' We're flattered!
Local artists, message Aaron Davis on Instagram if you have upcoming shows, @adavis_threetosee.
The female-powered Honey Hills Fest is back for its sophomore installment, hopscotching to four different Nevada County venues (three in Nevada City plus one in Grass Valley) over four days. The multi-genre lineup is showcasing regional women and fem-presenting musical acts, and the festival is dedicated to promoting gender equality in the music industry. Razored-edge indie pop colorstorm Spacemoth (the enigmatic project of prolific sonic puppeteer Maryam Qudus, also a member of tingling 2024 Honey Hills headliner La Luz) joins Sacramento's post-punk rockers Clevers, haunted meadow traversing rock duo Witch Dick and Chaos Fiction for night one at St. Joseph's Hall in Grass Valley, while sultry electro-Americana-psych flamethrower (and former Gram Rabbit singer) Jesika Von Rabbit leads night two at the Fern with Everyone is Dirty and scandalously raucous MC5-influenced rock act Theya.
Day three at Stardust Station has wistful cloud-surfing San Francisco rock outfit For Your Pleasure linking up with fellow Bay Area outfits Bad Tiger, Fieldress and Indianna Hale (you'll stop dead in your tracks and crank the volume for her spaghetti-psych diamond 'Hollow the Words'). Whimsical and endlessly captivating foothills folk duo Two Runner and high-desert honky tonk hellcats Noelle & the Deserters lead an outdoor lineup including Anna Hillburg, reverbing Oakland rockers the Stratospheres, Iona Swift and Artemis Arthur to close it out Sunday at Pioneer Park. Check out the fest's delightfully frenetic 'Honey Hills Fest '25 Official Playlist' on Spotify for a sampler platter of what's on deck (June 5-8. instagram.com/thehoneyhillsfest).
Also celebrating its second year is the one-day Pink Bandit Music Fest, an ultra-DIY fest with a loaded local lineup topped by whip-lashing guitar-driven alt-rock/dream pop act Rainbow City Park, which earlier this year offered up feisty five-song EP 'Fruitless.' Manicially sweat-pouring local rock staple the Snares — who scored the opening slot for the first of Jack White's two May Channel 24 shows — join Reno indie rockers Charity Kiss, ethereal hip-hop/pop artist Coco Simone, garage rockers Carport, jazz fusion ensemble Smally Big, Denim Nuns, Slow Pull, Riley Echo, chillwave standout Inner Nature and more to pack this lineup. There's also a side acoustic stage with a half-dozen artists including the likes of Aiko Shimada, Ludic Gal and others. It's free, with donations being accepted to help fund the artist-curated and -executed event (11 a.m. Saturday, June 7 at Auburn School Park Preserve. instagram.com/pinkbanditmusicfest).
While we're looking east, we'll peek further up the hill to South Lake Tahoe — but you barely have to trek past 'the Y' for what we're eyeing. Tree-laden craft beer oasis The Hangar has dabbled in a couple of one-off al fresco shows from the likes of Rayland Baxter and the White Buffalo over the last few summers, so we figured they'd probably sprinkle in one or two more this year. Instead, they've gone absolutely bonkers with it, lining up roughly 20 gigs from big league indie touring talent, to the point where we can comfortably say that this is no longer 'a cool beer joint with occasional good music'... this is a venue now. On tap for June is a sold-out gig from funk-tickled dub reggae troupe Hip Abduction on June 7 and ethereally sprawling folk duo Rising Appalachia on June 8, followed by singer-songwriter and former Pentatonix member Avi Kaplan on June 13. July brings Ecuadorian-born indie artist Helado Negro (July 11), psych-surf darlings Allah-Las (July 19), indie rock heavy-hitters Whitney (July 20) and the dual-ego double bill of vintage soul scorchers The Altons and Thee Sinseers (July 31). Throbbing indie pop stalwarts STRFKR (Aug. 14), hot jazz/juke joint folk collective Dustbowl Revival (Aug. 15), atmospheric harmony-drenched folk duo Hollow Coves (Sept. 5), Arc de Soleil (Sept. 19, pay attention here, Khruangbin fans), Southern blues/roots royalty North Mississippi Allstars (Sept. 21) and more flesh out the balance of an eye-popping summer slate (thehangarlaketahoe.com/events).
Back down the hill, it's lucky 13 for the Davis Music Fest, the mini-South by Southwest-styled weekend festival going strong since 2011 and spreading throughout a smattering of downtown Davis venues — your wristband gets you access to all of the sets. Friday music is concentrated on two stages at Sudwerk Brewing with Gold Souls, Boot Juice, Broken Compass Bluegrass and others, with Sunday set up at Delta of Venus with the likes of Tracorum, Object Heavy and more. Saturday has six different venues open for business with gilded San Francisco funkified brass battalion Mission Delirium and psych-pop miscreants Milk for the Angry, Davis indie folk rock standout Nat Lefkoff, L.A. Americana stalwarts Rose's Pawn Shop and a cavalcade of local favorites including Sacramento pop-punk royalty Dog Party (Jack White's Night 2 guest), Jakhari Smith, LabRats, Boca do Rio, Katie Knipp, Ten Foot Tiger, and tons more rounding out a weekend slate of more than 40 acts — check out their 'DMF 2025' playlist on Spotify (June 20-22. davismusicfest.com).
There has to be a spike in searches similar to 'who are the musicians in 'Sinners'' since Sac State alum Ryan Coogler's roots music-powered 'vampire' flick was released in April. For anyone who was trying to zero in on the bloodsucking yet soul-stirring siren 'Joan' from the film's ominously leeching folk trio, in real life she goes by Lola Kirke — initially an actress by trade, but of late a buried treasure of zesty throwback country and Americana. One could find traces from the film's centrifuge of Mississippi Delta blues (not acquired via fang) in her upstart catalog, but you would need to send feelers out in many directions across the U.S. of A. to unravel it all for the 'Country Curious' singer. Go north to Nashville, up east towards the plush and twanging Appalachians, probably swing over the dust-blowing Southwest, and likely other directions yet to be uncovered by the prodigious maven. Chloe Kimes joins the bill as Kirke tours behind her newest offering 'Trailblazer' (8 p.m. Tuesday, June 17 at Starlet Room. $26.40. harlows.com).
'Swamp preacher' sounds like a C-grade horror movie, but we're sticking with it as an apt descriptor for veteran blues and soul peddler JJ Grey & Mofro, rolling into Sacramento for the first time in four years in support of his most robust work to date, 'Olustee.' His band now bursting at the seams with backing vocalists and brass, Grey over the years has morphed from a keyboard-perched wailer to enigmatic pulpit-leaning leading man, fanning the flames of his ever-maturing breed of humid rock 'n' roll, grimy swamp blues and levitating soul. His take on John Anderson's 'Seminole Wind' will tell you what you need to know (8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10 at Ace of Spades. $64. aceofspadessac.com).
A cheeky tradition always accompanying the delectable deluge of pork belly that is Sacramento Bacon Fest is the Kevin Bacon Fest, where a troupe of bands gathers at Torch Club to perform their renditions of songs featured in, or having connection to, a Kevin Bacon movie (six degrees, or some such). Getting footloose (zing) and fancy free will be locals World Champ, the Legion of Decency, Chase'n the Beat, California Stars and John Neko (9 p.m. Friday, June 6. $15. torchclub.net).
Assuredly, there are myriad possibilities for songs that could overlap both Kevin Bacon Fest and the following weekend's '90's Nite — which is exactly what it sounds like. Hosts Band of Coyotes cobbled a gnarly lineup of locals to offer their takes on '90's hits (if anyone refers to this as 'classic rock,' we're having words!), including Accidents at Sundown, Bad Barnacles, Swan Ronson, Tiger Shade, Moxie Barker, Lewd Jaw, E-Regulars, 33Black, Ruining Everything and Sundazey (8 p.m. Saturday, June 14. $15. torchclub.net).
A mishmash of punk and alternative rock veterans descends on the Starlet Room this month, lead by Dead Bob - the slashing, synth-tinged solo project of John Wright (former drummer of legendary Canadian act NoMeansNo), which offered up its debut 'Life Like' in 2023. They're joined by thundering supergroup UltraBomb, composed of Greg Norton, founding bassist for the generational Husker Du, former Social Distortion and Agent Orange drummer Derek O'Brien, and Soul Asylum guitarist Ryan Smith (8 p.m. Wednesday, June 11. $26.40. harlows.com).
Speaking of Social Distortion and punk rock godfather Mike Ness ... the legendary act is at the doorstep of an almost unfathomable 50 years of virtually nonstop touring, and lands June 14 at Channel 24. The venue also welcomes meteorically rising country/Americana star Charley Crockett (June 8) and veteran country singer/actor Ryan Bingham with the wily Texas Gentlemen serving as his band (June 18, channel24sac.com).