Photos: Alessio Neri OAKLAND — Around the time she began writing her own songs for the first time, Melbourne singer-songwriter Carla dal Forno lived in a house that was supposedly haunted. Her music reflects that haunted feeling, and she put that on full display at her Noise Pop show at the…

Photos: Tune-Yards and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: Jon Bauer. Sudan Archives: Steve Carlson OAKLAND — We live in the future. Sure, people focus on the fact that we don’t have flying cars, and that our hoverboards neither hover nor are boards, but if someone from the…

Photos: Karen Goldman SAN FRANCISCO — Throughout Rostam‘s Noise Pop set at Slim’s Friday, the former Vampire Weekend songwriter made references to to the absence or coming of light. Whether lyrically, such as on the title track of his 2017 solo album, Half-Light—”Baby, all the lights came up”—or on…

Photos: Paige K. Parsons SAN FRANCISCO — With some artists, what you hear on the album is what you hear in concert. It’s either because their songs are written to be played live or because it just works for both; there’s little difference between the two. Others, however, rearrange…

Photos: Karen Goldman SAN FRANCISCO — No one Enter Shikari song is easy to describe; there are no math rock tunes, dance rock numbers, EDM bangers, punk scorchers or thrash screamers. That’s because the London quartet typically includes three or more genres in each one, with jazz, drum and…

Photos: Alessio Neri SAN FRANCISCO — Add Bruno Major to the long list of English crooners who can sing American soul with the best of them. Making his San Francisco debut at a sold-out Noise Pop show at The Chapel, Major came took the soul sensibilities of Sam Smith,…