The winter months mean most concerts are relegated to indoor spaces. And in the South Bay, that can translate into fewer big-ticket shows—since Shoreline Amphitheatre and the Mountain Winery don’t open their doors until the skies clear. Still, if February is any indication, 2017 is bound to be a great year for local shows. Here are 10 of the best bets for the second month of the year.

Bill Callahan
Feb 1 | Don Quixote’s, Felton
For the past 20 years, Bill Callahan has been adored critically for his lyrics and distinctive voice. The Guardian has described him as not so much a songwriter, but a poem singer, and for good reason. His lyrics have an almost Buddhist simplicity that can often catch a listener off guard—with lines like, “the rain ripped the lips off the mouth of the bay,” and “It’s our anniversary. I leave it ajar.” His Oakland show is already sold out, but he is also playing Felton, which seems like the perfect place to catch him.

Run the Jewels
Feb 2 | City National Civic, San Jose
If they were boxers, both El P and Killer Mike would be the two guys no one would dare get in the ring with. Individually, both have been on top of their game since at least the turn of the millennium, and since joining forces as Run the Jewels in 2013, they’ve been on an absolute tear. Every song they’ve released as RTJ has felt like a touchdown dance—from their opening volley, “Run The Jewels,” to the chills-inducing,  Zach de la Rocha-featuring “A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters.”

Camila
Feb 4 | Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose
Chances are you know someone who loves Camila—their first two records topped the charts in both Mexico and the U.S. The smooth and ultra-romantic rock en Espanol group comes to town in early February. The group’s setlist promises to be feature songs from 2014’s Elypse (their first album since stripping down to just frontman Mario Domm and multi-instrumentalist Pablo Hurtado), but they’re sure to play the hits as well. That includes “Todo Cambio”—antes que te ame más, escucha por favor! Consider this an early Valentine’s Day present. 

Lanayah, Dreamspoiler, Moirai
Feb 5 | Local Color, San Jose
Santa Barbara-based Lanayah is both heavy and pensive. In touch with the current movements of metal, they would fit nicely on a bill with Boris, Torche or Deafheaven, as they respect the impossible hugeness of metal music, without all the macho BS. With Lanayah at Local Color is San Jose’s Dreamspoiler, who have that name for a reason. Fans of extreme music should not miss Dreamspoiler’s potent mix of doom, black metal, dark ambient and thrash.

Twenty One Pilots
Feb 10 | SAP Center, San Jose
Does this band even need an introduction? Twenty One Pilots are almost impossibly big, especially considering how strange they are. With their Bauhaus red-and-black wardrobe, frontman Tyler Joseph’s painted hands and neck, and an enigmatic logo they refuse to explain, the Ohio duo have stormed the charts—delivering six chart-topping singles (three platinum singles and three gold). Those are Michael Jackson numbers.

Chicago
Feb 11 | City National Civic, San Jose
Formed in the early ’70s—when too many rock bands decided to name themselves after major metropolitan areas—and shimmering walls of vocal harmonies were demonstrating the possibility of multitrack recording, Chicago are best known for the cryptically named track “25 or 6 to 4.” Recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the band is currently in the midst of a nationwide tour and are the subject of a brand new documentary, Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago.

SJ ZineCon
Feb 12 | Local Color, San Jose
It’s hard to overstate how important zines have been for up-and-coming writers, artists, poets and thinkers over the years, largely because of how community-minded the culture is. The Bay Area has always been well represented in the vibrant global zine community, and in recent months San Jose has been host to a growing number of zine events. SJ ZineCon looks to be the biggest and best-organized yet. The event has an open call for zinesters looking to table, with a special emphasis on people of color and LGBTQ folk. Come and meet creative folks in your community.

Surfer Blood
Feb 14 | The Catalyst Atrium, Santa Cruz
If 2016 was an Empire Strikes Back year, Surfer Blood represent the hope we all have that 2017 will be a Return of the Jedi year. The Florida indie rock group comes to the Catalyst Atrium this Valentine’s Day, touring on their first album since their original guitarist’s tragic death last year. Surfer Blood play what might be considered “classic” indie rock at this point—which is to say they would have fit in nicely during the early ’90s. They keep the formula simple and strong: a little Pavement, a little Echo & the Bunnymen and a lot of hooks.

RiFF RAFF
Feb 15 | The Catalyst, Santa Cruz
Though he wasn’t the inspiration for James Franco’s character from Spring Breakers (that dubious honor goes to Florida’s Dangeruss), RiFF RAFF is often compared to Franco’s Alien, the corn-rowed white-guy party rapper in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers. In reality, RiFF RAFF is an incredibly hard worker who came up hustling home-burned CD-Rs in Houston and turning himself into a viral craze through numerous avenues—including MTV’s G’s To Gents and on the now-defunct micro-vlogging app Vine.

BadBadNotGood
Feb 22 | The Catalyst, Santa Cruz
Though they are divisive among jazz traditionalists, BadBadNotGood are putting a lot of work into keeping the genre alive and relevant in the 21st century. The Canadian quartet is like a dilated pupil, bringing in the light of countless contradictory genres and musical movements and processing them all at once. They’ve worked with rappers like Ghostface Killah and Earl Sweatshirt, and jazz experimentalists like Colin Stetson. This is a group of hard-hustling, actively touring musicians exploring new spaces.

Of all the incredible blues performances Dan Ross has seen in his time, there is one he will never forget. “It was just fantastic when John Lee Hooker came out and basically rocked 3,000 people with his boot,” Ross says, recalling one of the two times the blues legend performed at the Fountain Blues Festival in San Jose.

It was the mid-’80s, and Ross was a 19-year-old San Jose State University student intent on helping build a blues festival for his alma mater. He couldn’t possibly have known back then that the Fountain Blues Festival would go on to become one of San Jose’s best known music festivals.

Not even Ted Gehrke, who was serving as faculty advisor to Ross and the rest of SJSU’s Associated Students—the student-run organization that pushed to start the festival—realized what they had set in motion. “Never in [his] wildest dreams” did Gehrke think the Fountain Blues Festival would grow like it has.

The Associated Students started the Fountain Blues Festival in 1981. According to Gehrke, the students chose to focus on blues because of its mass appeal and because of budget constraints: hiring blues musicians was cheaper than pop or rock artists.

For the first 25 years, even though the festival was free, Gehrke, Ross and others still managed to book top talent—like Hooker, Buddy Guy and Bo Diddley.

The festival did suffer some slow years. Heavy rain forced organizers to reschedule the festival in 1994 and the whole show was nearly halted in 1997 because of financial troubles. However, just like the music it presents, the festival proved tough to kill.

Organizers started charging festival goers in 2005. That same year, they booked Etta James, who undoubtedly helped ticket sales. That year’s Fountain Blues Festival sold out fast.

Today, the fest is produced by the non-profit Fountain Blues Foundation. The foundation is composed of 14 volunteer board members, with Gehrke as president and some of the same 1981 individuals who were a part of the Associated Students team that organized the first Fountain Blues Festival, including Ross. Coming into its 35th year, organizers expect to draw between 3,000 and 5,000 people from all over the South Bay and beyond.

Looking into the future, Fountain Blues Foundation member Amy Anderson says the goal of the festival remains the same as always—but with a twist.

The mission of the Fountain Blues Festival has always been to preserve the history of blues. However, Anderson says, the foundation is currently looking at ways of drawing new listeners into the fold, which means including a variety of artists and bands with different backgrounds—not just the blues.

“We’re trying to diversify the music to broaden the audience,” Anderson says, noting that younger listeners might not even realize how much the popular music they have grown up listening to is influenced by the blues.

As Ross puts it: “It’s a blues festival, but it’s really an American music festival.”

This year’s headliners are The California Honeydrops. Known for their energetic and engaging performances, The California Honeydrops play a mixture of R&B, funk, Delta blues and Southern soul. Their impressive repertoire of performances includes festivals like Outside Lands, Monterey Jazz and High Sierra. 

Returning to the festival this year is Otis Taylor. Known for songs “Nasty Letter” and his version of “Hey Joe,” Taylor has played the Fountain Blues Festival twice before—in 2004 and 2010—and Anderson describes him as “Jimi Hendrix on the banjo.” Taylor’s somber lyrics and stories capture the purest and most authentic form of the blues.

Opening the event is the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. The award-winning choir was founded in 1986 at a gospel music workshop at Living Jazz’s Jazz Camp West. 

The festival still keeps close ties to SJSU by including a side stage where students from SJSU and area high schools showcase performances.

Fountain Blues Festival
Jun 25, 11am, $20-$75
Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose

There are many concerts in the Bay Area to choose from this fall—plenty of them in San Jose and the South Bay. But in between work and checking your Facebook feed, how will you ever figure out which events to attend? Don’t trip, chocolate chip. We got the answers right here in our handy guide to fall concerts. From the C2SV Local Music Showcase and the SoFA Street Fair through the Beyond Wonderland EDM festival and on to Herb Alpert’s two-night residence at Montalvo Arts, we’ve picked the best shows to take you through to the end of the year.

C2SV and SoFA Street Fair
Sep 12-14, SoFA District, San Jose, Free
Kick off your fall with a big rock & roll weekend—jam-packed with San Jose indie talent and national headlining acts. On Sept. 12 and 13, Cafe Stritch will host the C2SV Local Music Showcase, featuring Darto, Dinners and Plume on Friday and No Maps, Breathing Patterns and Li Xi on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, the  “reupholstered”  SoFA Street Fair makes its triumphant return after a 13-year hiatus. Seminal ska/funk band Fishbone is headlining the festival, while three outdoor stages and various surrounding venues will host more than 50 local and national bands, including San Jose veteran ska ensemble MONKEY, Campbell reggae rockers 880 South, and Visalia’s own The Voice contestant, Rudy Parris. (Briana Hernandez)

Symphony Silicon Valley: The Music of Led Zeppelin
Sep 20, City National Civic, $35-$62
Led Zeppelin, the undisputed kings of 1970s psychedelic hard rock—who made a name for themselves by plugging in and turning up—are getting the classical treatment. Merging at the crossroads of blaring rock & roll and instrumental classical, this special concert will interpret the explosive energy of Jimmy Page’s epic riffs and John Bonham’s thundering drums through classical instruments, like the violin, cello and flute. Symphony Silicon Valley will perform behind a full rock band led by singer Randy Jackson (formerly of Zebra), who pledges to stay as true as possible to the searing vocals of Zep frontman Robert Plant. (Alice Yin)

Beyond Wonderland
Sep 20-21, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, $63-$350
Hear about all those krazy (with a “k”) EDM festivals where a bunch of kids die from heat exhaustion and/or drugs? The Bay Area gets one of those too! Just remember: the real danger of drugs is to stupid white kids at raves, and not to the millions of non-white Americans incarcerated on non-violent drug offenses! Ha ha, right?! Anyway, we’re not here for the drugs; we’re here for the music (said all the people on drugs), and Beyond Wonderland brings plenty of it. Trance trio Above & Beyond is headlining Saturday and electro house “hot dad” Kaskade plays Sunday. It being a giant festival there will be more than enough big room and electro house to go around (Krewella, Mercer, Borgeous, Dada Life etc.), but for those that’ve had enough of that noise there’s also trap (Bro-Safari, DJ Carnage), trance (Paul Oakenfold, Dyloot) and good ol’ drum and bass (Pendulum, Dieselboy). (Stephen Layton)

Katy Perry with Tegan and Sara
Sep 22-23, SAP Center at San Jose, $29.50-153.50
All snobbery aside, Katy Perry is said to put on one fantastical show with Vegas-level theatricality. So if you need that extra little push to dish out the big bucks and check out her show, we’d say Tegan and Sara opening is a pretty good incentive. The Canuck twins’ thoughtfully crafted yet cutesy indie-pop songs should be right at home alongside Perry’s girl-powered anthems about growing up, moving on, and y’know, roaring. Besides, if you’ve got tween girls in your household, you can make their year with one big concert and maybe even introduce them to a solid indie band while you’re at it. Everyone wins! (BH)

Thievery Corporation
Oct 1, San Jose City National Civic, $52
It’s been a long and self-paved road for Washington, D.C., electronic duo Thievery Corporation. It didn’t take long for Rob Garza and Eric Hilton to hit it off after being tossed together by the D.C. nightclub scene of 1995. Shortly thereafter the pair formed their own record label, which they used to fuse and experiment with their favorite genres—jazz, dub and bossa nova. After nearly two decades of recording, the pair is finally ready to take that long road back home and revisit their love for bossa nova with their seventh studio album, Saudade. This release is entirely dedicated to the Brazilian genre that united Garza and Hilton so many years ago. (BH)

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Oct 3-5, Golden Gate Park, Free
While the lineup for this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is still pending announcement, the official site has posted a series of medleys featuring artists on the bill. Fan guesses include folk singer John Prine, Canadian rocker Bruce Cockburn and country artist Iris DeMent. From this little taste, one thing is certain—the fest will be as diverse and laid-back as it ever has been, and is sure provide one heck of a family weekend. However, if you’re looking to get your libation on and party like a folk star, you’ll have to bring your own in non-glass containers. There will be no alcohol served in Golden Gate Park for the event, but plenty of food vendors will be available. (BH)

Moon Duo
Oct 11, Cafe Stritch, San Jose, $12-$15
San Francisco’s Moon Duo is made up of keyboardist Sanae Yamada and guitarist Erik “Ripley” Johnson, the latter of droning garage rock weirdos Wooden Shjips (Ships? Shu-jips? Sidge-ips?). Often compared to Suicide, the duo doesn’t get anywhere near as musically antagonistic, though the spirit is definitely there. They’ve got pop sensibilities at bottom, but overlaid with lots of krautrock, drone and weird vibes: the lyrics are usually lost in hazy whispers and fuzzy guitar all propelled by a hypnotically repetitive drum machine. Psychedelic noise-pop ain’t for everyone, but for those with the patience and inclination (and maybe weed) this is one to check out. (SL)

Treasure Island Music Festival
Oct 18-19, Treasure Island, $160-295
If you missed this year’s Outside Lands Festival, think of Treasure Island as a slightly smaller, yet equally boss, consolation prize. Still riding a high wave from their recent reunion after a seven-year hiatus, OutKast headlines alongside masters of trip hop Massive Attack and electro-house DJ Zedd of “Clarity” fame. Treasure Island will be a warm “welcome back” for Brooklyn indie-soul artists TV On The Radio, who are slated to release their first album since the death of bassist Gerard Smith this fall. Smith passed away from lung cancer in April 2011. Also revving up for a fall record release are English electro-rockers alt-J, who recently released the haunting single and video “Hunger Of The Pine.” Must-sees also include Janelle Monáe, The New Pornagraphers, White Denim, and San Francisco’s Painted Palms. (BH)

Jack Yo Lantern
Oct 31, San Jose State University Event Center, $80
EDM hip-hop twosome Flosstradamus headlines this 18-and-over, party-rocking Halloween bash, which kicks the night off at 7pm then turns into a pumpkin promptly at midnight. The bill includes house DJ Madeon and high-energy duo New World Punx. Also on the lineup is Santa Barbara’s Seven Lions, a.k.a. Jeff Montalvo, who has amassed attention from some of the more household names in electro pop including Ellie Goulding and Skrillex, since his 2012 debut EP, Polarize. Montalvo’s background as a punk and metal drummer and admitted love for fantasy is a detectable component in his dreamy nightscape sound. (BH)

LIVE 105 Spookfest
Oct 31, Oracle Arena, $45-75
You have not one, but two, options for 18+ EDM Halloween parties this year. Chose wisely. LIVE 105’s Spookfest opens its doors a little earlier than Jack Yo Lantern and its headliners are definite contenders—including Sweden’s Alesso, electro funk faves Chromeo, trance/house fuser Gareth Emery, and UK techno artist Duke Dumont. If you come for the heavyweights, you’ll have to stay for college bar DJ turned progressive house “it” boy, Henry Fong. Fong’s Florida roots add a hard-hitting Latin flavor to his high-energy club mixes. San Francisco’s buzzworthy Slaptop is also likely to bring a can’t-miss set, with his hipster-friendly, ultra-chill arrangements, surprisingly born from a laptop in a dorm room. And of course, the party would not be complete without LIVE 105’s very own DJs, Aaron Axelson and St. John. (BH)

Herb Alpert & Lani Hall
Nov. 7-8, Montalvo Arts Center, $65-$75
Herb Alpert is an icon. He began his musical career as a songwriter, helping to pen the Sam Cooke hit “Wonderful World,” among other hits, before moving on to front his revered horn group, Tijuana Brass, and co-found A&M Records. Alpert is picking up his trumpet once again to perform two nights at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga. Joining him for the performances will be Alpert’s wife, the vocalist and lyricist Lani Hall (perhaps most famous for singing the theme song for the James Bond film Never Say Never Again). It’s sure to be a hit-packed night. Alpert is one of the most successful musicians in history—holding records for album sales, a number of Grammys and a National Medal of Arts, which President Obama awarded the trumpeter with last year. (Nick Veronin)