{"id":406662,"date":"2025-11-26T19:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T19:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/406662\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T19:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T19:33:12","slug":"the-three-san-diego-concerts-you-totally-dont-want-to-miss-this-week-san-diego-union-tribune-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/406662\/","title":{"rendered":"The three San Diego concerts you totally don\u2019t want to miss this week \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mdou Moctar, with Patrick Shiroishi<\/p>\n

What happens when an internationally acclaimed electric guitar virtuoso who has been hailed as \u201cthe Jimi Hendrix of the Sahara\u201d sheds his band for a tour?\u00a0We will find Saturday when Niger\u2019s Mdou Moctar performs a solo set here at Soda Bar.<\/p>\n

A left-handed guitarist who also sings, Moctar portrayed Prince in a Muslim film adaptation of \u201cPurple Rain\u201d titled \u201cAkounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai.\u201d (That translates as \u201cRain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It,\u201d because there is no word for purple in Moctar\u2019s native language.)<\/p>\n

His 2024\u00a0 album, \u201cFuneral for Justice,\u201d is a marvel of assouf, the Tuareg style of music that has become known as desert blues.<\/p>\n

Moctar sings in Tamasheq, a language in danger of fading away. His pointed lyrics tackle such topics as ignorance, oppression, failed government policies in his homeland, wanton terrorism, the lasting ravages of French colonialism (which only ended in Niger in 2023), the exploitation of Africa\u2019s natural resources and other timely topics.<\/p>\n

On stage with his band, Moctar mixes rock, psychedelia, blues and traditional styles from Niger on songs that often feature his extended guitar solos. He is now on a solo tour to promote his new album, the largely acoustic \u201cTears of Injustice,\u201d which showcases his impassioned vocals and features new acoustic arrangements of the songs from last year\u2019s \u201cFuneral For Justice\u201d album.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Patrick Shiroishi will open the show.<\/p>\n

8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. $29.87 (must be 21 or older to attend). sodabarmusic.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheThe Grass Valley duo Two Runner will debut at the Casbah on Wednesday. (Casbah)
\nTwo Runner<\/p>\n

Singer, guitarist and banjo-player Paige Anderson was only 9 years old when she began performing with her parents and three siblings in the aptly named Anderson Family Bluegrass.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s 30 now and has been performing in Two Runner for the past three years with violinist and singer Emilie Rose, a 2020 Berklee College of Music graduate.<\/p>\n

This talented duo is steeped in bluegrass, country, Appalachian mountain music and other earthy folk-music traditions that are showcased on their absorbing 2023 debut album, \u201cModern Cowboy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson is an accomplished tunesmith whose well-crafted, fuss-free songs are delivered with earthy conviction and carefully calibrated understatement. She and Rose have a natural rapport that should be even more effective in concert than on record.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping the audience at the Casbah will accord Two Runner\u2019s spare, stripped-down music the attentive listening it deserves.<\/p>\n

8:30 p.m. next Wednesday, Dec. 3, Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., Middletown. $22.68 (must be 21 or older to attend). casbahmusic.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"JonathanJonathan Richman will perform (Drew A. Kelley)
\nJonathan Richman & Tommy Larkins<\/p>\n

An early progenitor of punk-rock-turned-acoustic-troubadour, Jonathan Richman remains a singular artist who seems to live in another, much simpler time.<\/p>\n

The Chico-based troubadour doesn\u2019t have a cellphone or a computer.\u00a0When not making music, he runs Arcane Masonry, a homegrown company that makes bread and pizza ovens, which may have inspired the title of his six-song 2022 recording, \u201cCold Pizza and Other Hot Stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richman\u2019s best songs are marked by a wide-eyed sense of wonder and innocence that one might expect to find in a child, not a 74-year-old man whose only brush with mainstream success came when he was featured as a musical Greek chorus in the hit 1998 film, \u201cThere\u2019s Something About Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Boston native, Richman has an unusually broad frame of inspiration for his work, as evidenced by such song titles as \u201cPablo Picasso,\u201d \u201cAbominable Snowman in the Market,\u201d \u201cNo One Was Like Vermeer,\u201d \u201cLittle Black Bat,\u201d \u201cI Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m Straight,\u201d \u201cOur Dog is Getting Older Now,\u201d \u201cVelvet Underground,\u201d \u201cDavid & Goliath\u201d and \u201cHere Come The Martian Martians.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his 18th studio album, this year\u2019s \u201cOnly Frozen Sky Anyway,\u201d Richman gracefully confronts issues of mortality. He also transforms The Bee Gees\u2019 1977 disco hit, \u201cNight Fever,\u201d into an acoustic campfire jamboree, which is no small feat. You can expect to hear it when he performs here next Thursday with his longtime drummer, Tommy Larkins.<\/p>\n

Next Thursday, December 4. Belly Up, 143 South Cedros Avenue., Solana Beach. $30-$53 (must be 21 or older to attend). bellyup.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Also recommended<\/p>\n

Saturday, Nov. 29:<\/strong> The Mars Volta, Soma<\/p>\n

Sunday, Nov. 30:<\/strong> The Paladins, The Tighten-Ups, Belly Up<\/p>\n

Wednesday, Dec. 3:<\/strong> Almost Monday, Music Box<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mdou Moctar, with Patrick Shiroishi What happens when an internationally acclaimed electric guitar virtuoso who has been hailed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":406663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,171,1370,5424,3549,7264,1072,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-406662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-music-and-concerts","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115617675032221355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}