Iron Maiden performs at Oakland Arena on Sept. 10, 2019. Photo courtesy: John McMurtrie/Iron Maiden. OAKLAND – Heavy metal fans were out in full force on Tuesday at Oakland Arena. Denim was on display, vests were vintage and patches ranged from Sodom to Hirax and all shades of thrash…

Pixies, “Beneath the Eyrie.” The legends of rock are doomed to stand in the shadows of their best work, and Pixies are a perfect example. Towering giants of late-1980s indie rock, Pixies’ influence on underground bands of the ’90s and ’00s is perhaps unparalleled for combining raw punk impetus,…

King Crimson performs in Seattle in this undated photo. Courtesy: David Singleton/King Crimson. OAKLAND — Kings come and go. No amount of grandeur and ruthless ambition can forever stave off usurpers, misfortune and time. But a king who reigns over a golden period lives on in memory. England’s King Crimson sits…

After a band makes a name for itself and subsequently drops off the radar for the better part of a decade, the questions begin. Did the band members run out of money, drugs or both? Did they wake up in a sweaty van, a thousand miles from a gig,…

Herbie Hancock performs at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley on Aug. 23, 2019. Photos: Sean Liming. BERKELEY — The classically grandiose Hearst Greek Theatre played host to a pair of big names in jazz Friday evening: Kamasi Washington (the genre’s biggest success story of the last five years) and Herbie Hancock (one…

Hailing from a formerly dry county in Kentucky, the five sludgecore warriors in Knocked Loose pick up right where they left off with 2016’s Laugh Tracks—slamming ears. For its second LP, the band again teamed up with engineer Will Putney to deliver a crisp artifact of punishing sound. A…