"Talking Music" Concludes Tonight With Laurie Anderson

City Arts and Lectures' "Talking Music" series concludes it's 2008-2009 season tonight, with multi-talented artist (and Lou Reed spouse) Laurie Anderson. The event is being billed as "in conversation", so we'd encourage you not to expect any music. That being said, Anderson has participated in such a multitude of projects and endeavors over the years, that we'd be hard pressed to guess that this conversation will be anything short of fascinating. If you have an evening to spare, it'll certainly be worth your while.

Talking Music, In Conversation With Laurie Anderson: 8 PM Tonight, Herbst Theater

Okkervil River's Will Sheff Doing Brief Solo Tour, Two Stops In SF

Picture from the HAD Archive

Okkervil River's European tour will be wrapping up at the end of this month. Once they get a chance to settle down to life back in the states, frontman Will Sheff will be embarking on a brief solo tour. The tour will hit only three cities at this point (New York, LA, and San Francisco), and San Francisco has the esteemed privilege of actually garnering two stops. The first will be at The Herbst Theater as part of the "Talking Music" series, while the second will be a more standard solo show at Cafe Du Nord. For those of you that are fans of Will's more emotive, lyrical side: this whole deal is win-win. For a guy who's heart is so on his sleeve in the full band setting, these live shows can only take it to the next level. Tickets to both shows are available now: Talking Music, Cafe Du Nord.

Will Sheff Solo Tour:
12-11-2008 Music Hall Of Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY #*
12-17-2008 Talking Music Series, Herbst Theater, San Francisco, CA
12-19-2008 Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, CA *
12-20-2008 Hollywood Forever Cemetary Masonry Lodge, Los Angeles, CA *^

#: With Charles Bissell
*: With Bird Of Youth
^: With The Tallest Man On Earth

Fall & Winter "Talking Music" Features Sheff, Darnielle, Anderson

Well, we admit, we dropped the ball on this one: Stephen Merritt of The Magnetic Fields kicked off this year's "Talking Music" series on September 11th, and it kind of blew right by us. That being said, the series runs through late April, and there are quite a few more interesting folks in the lineup. Okkervil River frontman (and English major) Will Sheff will be in attendance on December 17th. Mountain Goats frontman (and sometimes blogger) John Darnielle will be interviewed by Tobias Wolff on February 24th, and performance artist (and Lou Reed spouse) Laurie Anderson wraps it up on April 27th. It's also worth noting that both Sheff and Darnielle are appearing in "conversation and song" so there should be some tunage there as well. These all take place in the Herbst theater, which in addition to being a great building, has fantastic acoustics. Should be a fun night out.