From Bruce Springsteen\u2019s return to a San Jose stage production based on an eventful train ride, here are cool shows to catch in the Bay Area<\/p>\n
Springsteen brings Hope and Dreams to Bay Area<\/p>\n
The Boss is on his way.<\/p>\n
So, let the countdown begin in earnest, as fans from all over the Bay Area and well beyond await the return of Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. The iconic rock outfit takes over the Golden State Warriors\u2019 Chase Center in San Francisco on April 13, as part of Springsteen\u2019s Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living through dark, disturbing and dangerous times, but do not despair \u2014 the cavalry is coming!\u201d Springsteen said in a news release.<\/p>\n
Tom Morello, the phenomenal guitarist who rose to fame as part of Rage Against the Machine, will be joining The Boss onstage for select songs during these shows. And we\u2019re absolutely willing to bet that at least one of those will be the pair\u2019s phenomenal version of Springsteen\u2019s own \u201cThe Ghost of Tom Joad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be rocking your town in celebration and in defense of America \u2014 American democracy, American freedom, our American Constitution and our sacred American dream \u2014 all of which are under attack by our wannabe king and his rogue government in Washington, D.C.\u201d Springsteen said in the news release. \u201cEveryone, regardless of where you stand or what you believe in, is welcome \u2014 so come on out and join the United Free Republic of E Street Nation for an American spring of Rock \u2018n\u2019 Rebellion! I\u2019ll see you there!\u201d<\/p>\n
Details:\u00a0Showtime is 7:30 p.m.; tickets start at $218; ticketmaster.com.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jim Harrington, Staff<\/p>\n Classical picks: SoundBox, Quatuor Danel, more<\/p>\n The April calendar comes to life with music full of adventure \u2014 including new works at San Francisco Symphony\u2019s SoundBox, performances around the Bay by Quator Danel, and a visit to Stanford by two acclaimed Danish groups.<\/p>\n Always something new:\u00a0You can count on it when the San Francisco Symphony\u2019s SoundBox opens its doors. Presented in a cool club atmosphere near Davies Symphony Hall, the action onstage is always hip and innovative. This month, expect a new program curated by Gabriella Smith featuring another surprising lineup of music for adventurous music lovers.<\/p>\n Details: 8:30 p.m. April 10-11 (attendees must be 21 and older); $80 general; sfsymphony.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Quatuor Danel: The French\/Belgian quartet is getting to know the Bay Area \u2014 and we\u2019re getting to know them. Presented by Chamber Music San Francisco, the group established in 1991 is here to play programs from a wide repertoire of string quartet cycles that include works by Beethoven, Franck, Haydn, Schubert, and Shostakovich.<\/p>\n Details: Concerts are 2:30 p.m. April 11 at Lesher Center, Walnut Creek; 3 p.m. April 12 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; and 7:30 p.m. April 13 at Oshman Family JCC, Palo Alto ; mkiartists.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Welcome Danes:\u00a0The Grammy-nominated Danish String Quartet and Danish National Girls Choir join forces at Stanford Live to perform a concert ranging from traditional works to new music by Caroline Shaw and David Lang, whose \u201cin wildness\u201d was co-commissioned by Stanford Live. Come early for a pre-concert talk.<\/p>\n Details: 7:30 p.m. April 15, Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University; $28-$70.20; livestanford.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Georgia Rowe, Correspondent<\/p>\n Poppy Jasper back with indie treasures<\/p>\n The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival marks its 20th anniversary with another impressive slate of indie films from across the globe. The festival runs through April 15 with screenings held in Morgan Hill, San Martin, Gilroy, Hollister, and San Juan Bautista.<\/p>\n The fest will also continue its popular tradition of holding a Mexico y T\u00fa Day on Monday. This year, writer and director Rick Najera and Grammy-nominated musician and artist Eugene Rodriguez, founder of Los Cenzontles Mexican Cultural Arts Center in San Pablo and a member of its namesake band, will be presented with the PJIFF Icon Award. Filmmaker Luis Valdez will be the keynote speaker while the Granada Theatre in Morgan Hill will screen a program of Latino films.<\/p>\n Here are three films in this year\u2019s lineup we\u2019re eager to see:<\/p>\n \u201cCensurada\u201d: Director Mario Garza\u2019s queer-themed drama follows a relationship between a dyslexic teen and another teen whose mother is setting her up to get married. Set during the Franco era in 1969 Spain, it captures what was then considered a forbidden romance. Details: 7 p.m. April 12 at Morgan Hill Community Playhouse.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican Comic\u201d: In this acclaimed mockumentary from Daniel J. Clark, two stand-up comedians (portrayed by Joe Kwaczala, the screenwriter, and Hayley McFarland) go on the comedy circuit. Patton Oswalt is featured. Details: 6 p.m. April 9 at District Theater in Gilroy.<\/p>\n \u201cHoneyjoon\u201d: Lela (played by Amira Casar) and her daughter June (Ayden Mayeri) find themselves in the thick of honeymooning couples while on a trip to the Azores, timed a year after the death of Lela\u2019s husband and June\u2019s father. A hot tour guide (Jos\u00e9 Condessa) gains the attention of June in Lilian Mehrel\u2019s frisky and funny debut feature. Details: 11 a.m. April 12 at The Barn at Mission Farm, San Juan Bautista.<\/p>\n Details: For tickets and full lineup, visit pjiff.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2013 Randy Myers, Correspondent<\/p>\n Time for SmackDown in San Jose<\/p>\n Bay Area sports fans have been busy this year, taking in a Super Bowl and Sweet 16 NCAA men\u2019s basketball games, all the while looking forward to the arrival of the World Cup in June.<\/p>\n So, that\u2019s something for football fanatics, hoops heads and soccer aficionados.<\/p>\n But what about something for the wrestling devotees?<\/p>\n Well, they\u2019re about to get their turn as WWE Friday Night SmackDown comes to SAP Center in San Jose on April 10.<\/p>\n The star-studded card for this event includes the current undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, WWE Women\u2019s Champion Jade Cargill, legendary WrestleMania headliner Randy Orton, former WWE United States Champion Carmelo Hayes, current WWE United States Champion Sami Zayn, seven-time SmackDown Women\u2019s Championship winner Charlotte Flair and two-time SmackDown Women\u2019s Champion Alexa Bliss.<\/p>\n Other names on the bill include NXT North American Championship winners Solo Sikoa and Damian Priest, as well as WWE Women\u2019s Tag Team Champion Nia Jax (who shares the title with her wrestling partner Lash Legend in the team known as The Irrestible Forces). And\u00a0many other WWE stars will also compete in the event.<\/p>\n Details: Friday Night SmackDown begins at 4:30 p.m.; tickets start at $56; sapcenter.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Jim Harrington, Staff<\/p>\n Weaving is believing at Cantor<\/p>\n As a kid, Jeremy Frey learned how to weave natural baskets from his mother and grandmother, members of the Passamaquoddy Native American tribe in Maine. His basket mastery has since taken him so far, he\u2019s exhibited in museums across the U.S., won a 2025 MacArthur \u201cgenius\u201d fellowship and now has a fantastic-looking show at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.<\/p>\n \u201cJeremy Frey: Woven,\u201d organized by the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, arrives at Stanford for its last stop on a nationally touring exhibit. Running until July 20, 2026, the survey presents some of Frey\u2019s most crucial work from the last 25 years \u2014 more than 30 baskets, prints, video art and a large-scale woven sculpture.<\/p>\n The craftsmanship relies on turning materials like sweetgrass, black ash, spruce root and porcupine quills into curvaceous, geometrically astounding baskets. The artist himself has described the survey as \u201cthousands of years in the making,\u201d paying tribute to generations of Passamaquoddy who call the art form a cultural language. As the show\u2019s organizers write: \u201cHis work demonstrates that there is no substitute for the human hand and the power of reclaiming a tradition to create new futures for inherited knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n Details: Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday and Friday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday (closed Tuesday-Wednesday); 328 Lomita Drive, Stanford; free admission, museum.stanford.edu.<\/p>\n \u2014 John Metcalfe, Staff<\/p>\n A momentous train ride in San Jose<\/p>\n Playwright Keith Bunin was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, and might be affiliated most closely with the non-profit New York City stage company Playwrights Horizons, which has staged three of his works. But he has a special connection to the Bay Area, where his most recent work, \u201cThe Coast Starlight,\u201d is getting presented this month by San Jose Stage. <\/p>\n In an interview with The Lincoln Center, Bunin says he came up with the concept for the unique work while traveling in the Bay Area. \u201cInitially, I was staying at a Hyatt House in Emeryville,\u201d the playwright said. \u201cThe hotel was right next to the Amtrak station, and Emeryville is a stop on the Coast Starlight. That\u2019s when the idea for the play began to take shape.\u201d The Coast Starlight, as rail fans know, is a famed Amtrak route from Los Angeles to Seattle. Bunin\u2019s play focuses on a particular ride on the route and upon six passengers whose lives become interconnected during the course of the journey. \u201cThere\u2019s something about being on a train \u2013 about being between destinations \u2013 that allows people to open up in ways they might not otherwise,\u201d Bunin adds. \u201cThe play is really about connection, and the moments when strangers suddenly see each other clearly.\u201d For San Jose Stage Artistic Director Randall King, \u201cthere\u2019s something special about presenting a play in the region where its story first began to take shape.\u201d <\/p>\n Details: Directed by Rebecca Haley Clark, \u201cCoast Starlight\u201d plays San Jose Stage, 490 S. 1st St., San Jose, through April 26; tickets are $34-$84; thestage.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Bay City News Foundation<\/p>\n Albee\u2019s classic comes to Berkeley<\/p>\n \u00a0There are a few reasons why Edward Albee\u2019s Tony- Award-winning, Pulitzer-Prize-finalist play \u201cThe Goat: or Who Is Sylvia?\u201d is the right play for right now. Written 25 years ago, long before \u201cGoat\u201d emerged as an acronym for \u201cGreatest of All Time,\u201d Albee\u2019s stage drama\/tragedy uses a surreal setting as the foundation for examining some of society\u2019s most time-honored staples \u2013 family, morality, love, societal expectations, gender norms, and more. It revolves around a seemingly typical family \u2013 a loving couple and their teenaged son \u2013 that falls apart when the husband\/father falls in love with a goat. Albee constructed the one-hour, 45-minute production like a Greek tragedy, and he invites (maybe demands is a better word for it) audiences to examine their own feelings and judgments about the shocking turn of events. Berkeley\u2019s Shotgun Players is currently presenting the play at its Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Directed by Kevin Clarke and starring William Giammona as the husband\/father, the production just got extended through May 3. <\/p>\n Details: Tickets are $40-$80 and going fast; go to shotgunplayers.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014 Bay City News Foundation<\/p>\n Here are your freebies of the week<\/p>\n \u00a0The Bay Area had a profound effect on the development of two distinctive pop music genres \u2013 psychedelic rock and punk \u2013 and this weekend you can celebrate that history with two free events in San Francisco. From noon to 4 p.m. April 11 at the famed concert Bandshell in Golden Gate Park, which hosts more than a hundred free shows each year, you can catch the San Francisco Neo Psych Fest, featuring the popular Bay Area band Bolero!. The band is known for its \u201cfreak-flag music,\u201d a potent blend of Latin bolero riffs and psychedelic rock. Also on the bill are the Spiral Electric, another Bay Area-based psychedelic band that describes its sound as \u201ca mixture of roaring guitars and orbiting synthesizer not heard this side of the galaxy since HAL 9000 dropped acid with Brian Jones and Tony Iommi in the windmills of your mind.\u201d More info on the concert is at illuminate.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, a concert billed as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of punk music unfolds at The New Farm communal performance space at 10 Cargo Way from 3 to 10 p.m. April 11. Performers include such classic Bay Area punk outfits as No Alternative, The Sleepers, Society Dog, The Dead Sailor Girls and many more. More information is at sf.funcheap.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n A pianist nonpareil in SF<\/p>\n San Francisco Performances is delighted to welcome back Richard Goode, the American-born pianist of incomparable talent who was the first keyboardist from this country to record the complete cycle of Beethoven\u2019 s 32 sonatas (frequently referred to as \u201cthe new testament\u201d of the piano repertoire), which netted him a Grammy nomination. And a Beethoven selection is one of the two monumental works on the program for Goode\u2019s 7:30 p.m. April 10 recital at the Herbst Theatre, in the form of the Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, This massive work the composer labored over for several years, published in 1824, has been compared in its breadth and difficulty to Bach\u2019s famed Goldberg Variations. Franz Schubert\u2019s Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, the final work in a trilogy the composer completed two months before his death, comprises the other half of\u00a0 the evening\u2019s program. <\/p>\n