The Wayback Machine will be parked on Main Street in El Cajon Sunday night, between Magnolia and Avocado, or perhaps more precisely between Guyville and Sleater Kinney Road. It’s 2026, but it might feel like 1994.
The “Flannel and the Fury Tour” is bringing Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney to the Magnolia Theatre. As to those wayback references, singer-songwriter Phair announced her presence back in ’93 with the release of her indie-rock album “Exile in Guyville.” Written, Phair said, as a response to the macho Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” album, “Guyville” was regarded by Phair’s newfound fans as a kind of feminist manifesto.
A year before, the trio Sleater-Kinney from Olympia, Wash. — Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss — broke onto the Pacific Northwest rock scene. The band took its name from a Sleater Kinney Road in Lacey, Wa., about five miles away.
Both Phair and Sleater-Kinney (a duo since Weiss left the group in 2019) were associated with the so-called Riot Girrl movement of the time and while their joint tour today is, they say, about honoring the alt-music of the ‘90s it’s more about their mutual admiration society.
Phair has been quoted as envisioning each of these shows on tour as “one night of reckless hope and musical splendor.” She’s always had a way with words. Should you need a reminder, go back and read the lyrics to the “Exile in Guyville” tracks.
Rock music
Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan performs in a concert at the Beacon Theatre. BANG
Going back in time even further than the flannel and fury era, North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in Chula Vista welcomes Deep Purple and Kansas in concert on Tuesday night. For longtime fans of Purple, as their fans call them, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that the band’s greatest vocalist ever, Ian Gillan, is in the fold. The bad news is that original guitarist and founding member Ritchie Blackmore is not. Maybe it doesn’t matter to nostalgists, anyway, as long as they hear “Smoke On the Water.”
Music festival
Audience members dance at a music festival in Idyllwild. SCNG
Who the band members are is not as important as the music and the spirit of community in nearby Idyllwild this evening when the mountain town two hours from San Diego hosts its Labor Day Weekend Music Festival. This free event goes from 1 to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
If you know Idyllwild then you know the quaint Rustic Theatre on the town’s main street, North Circle Drive. The festival happenings take place just behind it. To my mind a trip to Idyllwild is worth it whether or not a free music festival is going on, but this is a bonus.
Powwow
Dancers perform at the 2023 Barona Powwowin Lakeside. Howard Lipin / U-T FILE
This Labor Day weekend also brings the return of the annual Barona Pow Wow, three days in celebration of Native American culture. The setting is the Barona Indian Reservation in Lakeside. This is the 54th renewal of the powwow.
Gourd dancing and drumming are among the planned performances that take place throughout the weekend. The powwow also offers traditional food and arts and crafts for sale. Admission to the powwow at the Barona Sports Complex is free.
Art
Composer and sound artist Ess Whiteley is featured in the sound exhibition “Ess Whiteley: listening materials” at the Athenaeum Art Center in Logan Heights. (Ess Whiteley)
You won’t just see a new exhibition at the Athenaeum Art Center in Logan Heights – you’ll hear it. “Ess Whiteley: listening materials,” which is in the Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery through Oct. 17, was created by Ess Whiteley, a composer and sound artist.
Whiteley has employed sonic waves to animate various materials in the gallery space, cones that contain rocks, clay, gravel, etc. In this way, sound becomes tangible on another level. What the listener experiences while in this environment of course depends on the listener. In any case, “listening materials” sounds like a bold and immersive diversion.
The gallery at 1955 Julian Ave., San Diego, is closed on Sundays and Mondays.