{"id":458571,"date":"2026-09-09T20:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458571\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:26:11","slug":"rainbow-grocery-brings-tiny-desk-style-concerts-to-the-produce-aisle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458571\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow Grocery Brings \u2018Tiny Desk\u2019-Style Concerts to the Produce Aisle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThe power pop trio Now (from left to right: Oli Lipton, Hannah Forrester and William Smith) performs a song in the produce section at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco. The band\u2019s set was part of \u201cUnder the Rainbow,\u201d a new series in which the collective-owned grocery store highlights local Bay Area musicians.\u00a0(Courtesy of Rainbow Grocery)<\/p>\n

The venue for tonight\u2019s concert<\/a> is the produce aisle at the local supermarket. The power pop trio Now\u2019s<\/a> drummer, who\u2019s set his kit up just in front of the onions and the artichokes, taps out a four count with his sticks. Then the mop-haired guitar player breaks into the opening chords of The Clash\u2019s \u201cLost in the Supermarket<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a winking lead-in to the first song of their set. A single shiny apple sits on top of his guitar amp.<\/p>\n

Behold the first edition of Under the Rainbow<\/a>, Rainbow Grocery\u2019s answer to NPR\u2019s popular Tiny Desk<\/a> concert series. Aldo de la Cruz-Falcon, a member of the collective-owned Mission District staple\u2019s PR team, says the plan is to post these short concert videos \u2014 all filmed on site in the market\u2019s produce section \u2014 on social media every other week. The idea is to highlight Bay Area indie bands while also showing a different side to your friendly neighborhood grocery store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething about Rainbow that\u2019s different from other grocers is that we\u2019re part of the community,\u201d de la Cruz-Falcon says. \u201cWe\u2019re a co-op; we\u2019re not owned by billionaires. We like to do things for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

De la Cruz-Falcon, who also works in Rainbow\u2019s bulk foods department, says he was first inspired to put the project together after seeing a similar concert series at Fiesta Fresh Market<\/a>, a Latino grocery in Delaware, go viral<\/a> earlier this year. He teamed up with coworkers Britta Leijonflycht (vitamins) and Nico DeEulio (herbs), both avid musicians themselves, to organize the first edition of Under the Rainbow, reaching out to local bands to come to the store for an unconventional recording session.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a Saturday night in August, four bands showed up ready to rock: the aforementioned Now<\/a>, the shoegaze-inflected indie pop collective April Magazine<\/a>, gothic cumbia crooner Edgar<\/a> and folk punk singer Ryan Modee<\/a>. Now\u2019s set is the only video that Rainbow Grocery has posted so far. It will release the others every other Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Under the Rainbow does differ from the Tiny Desk series (which in recent months has featured everyone from Shaboozey<\/a> to \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic<\/a>), in a few important ways. Most notably, at least for now, the musicians won\u2019t be playing in front of a live audience, other than a handful of grocery store workers and the other bands in attendance. The logistics of doing a live show inside the supermarket during business hours felt too daunting, de la Cruz-Falcon explains \u2014 especially not knowing how unsuspecting customers might respond, and not wanting to make any other workers\u2019 jobs more difficult.<\/p>\n

\"APunk folk singer Ryan Modee performs with a pineapple on his guitar amp.\u00a0(Courtesy of Rainbow Grocery)<\/p>\n

For the time being, the project will mostly consist of videos shared on Rainbow Grocery\u2019s YouTube and Instagram accounts. For the first session, the four bands \u2014 plus sound engineer Dylan Edrich \u2014 arrived at the supermarket shortly after its 9 p.m. closing time. By the time each band finished playing and recording its three-song set, it was around 2 a.m.<\/p>\n

William Smith, guitar player and singer for Now, says the idea of performing inside a grocery store was immediately appealing and a natural fit for his band\u2019s DIY aesthetic \u2014 they\u2019d done previous shows on highway overpasses and inside vintage clothing stores. (Coincidentally, drummer Oliver Lipton\u2019s father had worked at Rainbow Grocery in the \u201980s, so there was a nostalgic personal connection as well.)<\/p>\n

\"TwoEdgar (left) dances during his gothic cumbia set.\u00a0(Courtesy of Rainbow Grocery)<\/p>\n

Within a couple of days, more than 3,000 people liked the initial trailer for the series<\/a> that Rainbow Grocery posted; nearly 75,000 viewed the video. (\u201cIt\u2019s probably some of the best exposure we\u2019ve gotten,\u201d Smith says.)<\/p>\n

De la Cruz-Falcon says one of the other exciting things about the project is that so many of the worker-owners at Rainbow Grocery are talented musicians, many of whom have their own bands. He hopes some of those bands will play at future Under the Rainbow recording sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next one will happen sometime in October, and the store is in the process of putting an application link up on its website. \u201cEverybody\u2019s welcome to submit,\u201d de la Cruz-Falcon says. \u201cWe would love to have all kinds of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rainbow Grocery will release new Under the Rainbow videos every other Wednesday morning \u2014 full sets on YouTube<\/a> and clips on Instagram<\/a>. The next edition, featuring April Magazine<\/a>, will come out on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n