Here they are, nine necessary know-abouts for the week ahead. It’s the parade-weekend B9:
➤ There is probably no such thing as the quintessential Santa Cruz band. The town is too marbled with musical subcultures for any single one to exemplify the rest. But if you’re looking for a band that embodies Santa Cruz’s chill coastal NorCal vibe, the first name popping up in my head is The Expendables. For close to 30 years, the reggae-rock band has translated the local surf culture to the wider world. The band’s most recent album, 2023’s “Pleasure Point,” finds them at the top of their game, mixing bounce, beat and mellowness that feels like a sunny afternoon on East Cliff. On Saturday night, The Expendables play The Catalyst, a stage they know quite well. Seeing this band in this venue should be on everyone’s checklist of quintessentially Santa Cruz things to do.
➤ Adorable alert! We can’t guarantee snow, but otherwise downtown Santa Cruz is going to be bedecked in holiday lushness on Saturday morning. It’s time for the annual Downtown Holiday Parade, with more than 1,200 participants, including many students from Santa Cruz County schools. It all begins on Pacific Avenue at Laurel Street on Saturday at 10 a.m.
➤ The celebration of Christmas gets turbo-charged beginning Friday evening with the annual “Music for the Feast of Christmas,” taking place this weekend in the sacred surroundings of Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz. The concert features holiday choral works and familiar carols of the season.
➤ Thursday alert: Santa Cruz native, actor, playwright and restaurateur Ian McRae has composed a love letter to Santa Cruz’s one-of-a-kind surf culture. That love letter takes the form of a play, “There Are No Kooks in Heaven: A Westside Story.” The play, starring McRae, is centered on local surf history. It’s free, and will be presented in three performances — that’s tonight at the Museum of Art & History.
➤ Ebenezer Scrooge-ism is an insidious character ailment, affecting many this time of year. The antidote? A reminder of Scrooge’s moral journey, courtesy of Charles Dickens and, locally, the actors of Santa Cruz Shakespeare. The annual SCS production of “A Christmas Carol” is now playing at the Vets Hall in downtown Santa Cruz.
➤ Looking for a particularly Santa Cruz-flavored holiday tradition? You don’t want to forget the magnificent Lighted Boat Parade at the harbor, taking place Saturday around sunset. The event’s description is right there in its title as decorated sea vessels take to the water. For obvious reasons, there won’t be any viewing from the Murray Street Bridge, so get there early to secure parking and find that best vista spot.
➤ Bay Area-born jazz pianist Benny Green is a familiar name and face in Santa Cruz, having charmed audiences at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center for years. On Sunday, Green makes another visit to town, this one up to campus, performing along with the UCSC Big Band in a concert showcasing tunes by the immortal Thelonious Monk, at the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall.
➤ There is no performer quite like Jonathan Richman. He began his musical career more than 50 years ago as a kind of proto-punk fronting his pioneering band the Modern Lovers. Rather than following the trend into the maw of punk, Richman instead broke off to follow his muse, crafting goofy, often childlike and at times comically innocent songs, a path that made him into a cult hero. He comes to Santa Cruz next Wednesday, Dec. 10, to play live at The Crepe Place.
➤ The tradition of klezmer music owes a huge debt to The Klezmatics, the New York band that took advantage of the roots craze of the mid-1980s to revive the uniquely hypnotic sound of Eastern European Jews. Since then, The Klezmatics have made the sound their own, folding in contemporary influences and socially relevant themes. Check them out Dec. 10 at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.
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