They say that a good DJ knows how to read a room. He knows what the crowd wants to hear before they know it themselves. A top-notch selector does more than simply match beats while stringing together a series of current hits and throwback jams. A truly great DJ blazes a path through the night, drawing a glorious, ascendant line—connecting the dots of the culture, playing with the most resonant hooks and turns of phrase, and never dwelling too long upon one song or another.

By the time Diplo unleashed the squawking synth horns of Mac Dre’s “Feelin’ Myself,” he’d already proven himself a master of party-rocking. When the Mad Decent founder and Major Lazer maestro finally took the stage at The Ritz last night, the capacity room was more than primed. The gathered throng went wild as he walked out on stage in a ball cap and long-sleeved T-shirt. It was a heartening sight.

Diplo and his dancehall group Major Lazer had drawn half a polo field worth of screaming fans to a mid-afternoon set during this summer’s Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park. And here he was—playing to a 537-person capacity room in San Jose. This is the type of show that our city has sorely missed over the past decade and a half.

Diplo at The Ritz. Photo by Greg Ramar.

Booking Diplo was certainly a coup for The Ritz for at least two reasons. First, it demonstrated that the SoFA club has the ability to bring top-teir pop talent to an intimate room; historically, San Jose has only been able to draw a performing artist of Diplo’s caliber and cultural currency to the SAP Center. But more importantly, The Ritz drew the crowd to support the show.

At least one young woman, a San Jose resident waiting in line for the bathroom, told me she’d never been to the venue before. And from the looks of it, there were plenty of newcomers to The Ritz last night. If downtown San Jose hopes to build a thriving music scene, it will need to host more shows like this—concerts that entice not just the regulars, but the average Joes and Janes who maybe only take in one or two concerts a year.

Didn’t make it out last night? No worries. Metro photographer Greg Ramar was there to capture the action. Check out his photos below and the full photo gallery here.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Hate him or love him, there’s little doubt that Diplo is one of the biggest names in electronic dance music right now. The Mad Decent founder, Skrillex and Bieber collaborator, and Major Lazer figurehead comes to both the SAP Center and The Ritz on the same night this week; Flux Pavilion leads his outlandish EDM extravaganza, the Circus Three tour at the City National Civic; and comedian and career social climber Kathy Griffintalks about her new memoir, “Celebrity Run-Ins,” and signs copies at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park.

Diplo
Thu, 8pm, $25-$30
The Ritz, San Jose
Hate him or love him, there’s little doubt that Diplo is one of the biggest names in electronic dance music right now. Through his collaborations with Skrillex, Justin Beiber and M.I.A., his myriad pop production credits, and his dancehall group Major Lazer, the globetrotting DJ and producer has played a huge role in shaping contemporary music. The Mad Decent founder comes to The Ritz for a DJ set following his appearance at Wild 94.9’s Jingle Ball at the SAP Center the same night. Bumaye! (NV)

A Classic Rock Christmas
Thu, 8pm, $30+
City National Civic, San Jose
Civic engagement meets rock and roll royalty at this benefit concert. December People, a band comprising members of Boston, Sammy Hagar Band, The Tubes and Greg Kihn Band, will fuse classic rock hits with classic Christmas carols—channeling holiday cheer through the musical styles of Santana, ZZ Top, The Who, U2 and more. Organized by San Jose advocacy group Downtown Streets Team, all proceeds will be deployed by the nonprofit to help secure permanent housing and provide employment to local homeless. This holiday season give the gift of giving while enjoying a night of great music. (JT)

Go Ask Alice
Thu, 7:30pm, Free
Pigott Theater, Stanford
A testimony to the horrors of drug abuse, rape and sexual assault, Go Ask Alice is being adapted to the stage by the Stanford Theater Laboratory. Published in 1971, the best-selling fictional diary details the life of a troubled teenage girl named Alice and her descent into addiction and despair. Derided by critics as overblown anti-drug propaganda, the novel nonetheless captivated millions and captured the zeitgeist of the ’70s. To this day, the author has not been confirmed but is purported to be editor Beatrice Sparks. Directed by Sarah Megan “Go Ask Alice” will explore the intimate story and Alice’s struggles. Runs Dec. 1-3. (JT)

Flux Pavilion
Fri, 8pm, $45
City National Civic, San Jose
Throw out all your notions of conventional music; the circus is in town. Presented by Flux Pavilion and Doctor P, the U.K.-based DJs have curated the last six years of their label, Circus Records, into a 30 track LP as a testament to their world-renowned dubstep sound and artists. Established in 2010, Circus Three will feature artists Cookie Monsta, FuntCase, and DISKORD. The event has already garnered support from other dubstep powerhouses the likes of Dillon Francis and 12th Planet. The LP released on Nov. 18 will kickoff the seven date U.S. tour. (JT)

Geeks vs. Zombies
Fri, 8pm, $15-$20
Pear Theatre, Mountain View
In this far-out take on a holiday play, four friends manage to survive a zombie apocalypse thanks to their gaming abilities and encyclopedic knowledge of zombie flicks. Co-written by James Kopp—with David Rock—the same guy who brought the hit play Super Villain! to the Pear last year. As with all apocalyptic zombie fare, Geeks features philosophical monologues and uses metaphor to tackle modern issues. But it also is packed with plenty of onstage action. The play runs through Dec 18. (NV)

New Spell
Fri, 8pm, Free
Red Rock Coffee, Mountain View
This past summer, Netflix’s smash hit Stranger Things had critics and fans head over heels. Viewers were not only enamored with the show’s excellent Goonies-esque cast and story arc, but also with its nostalgia-inducing, John Carpenter-referencing soundtrack by Austin band S U R V I V E. It would seem that the Texas retro-synth outfit aren’t the only ones who’ve put the work in twiddling vintage knobs in search of the perfectly jagged sine wave frequency. San Francisco indie-electro duo New Spell crank up the old-school Korgs on their propulsive new single “Rain,” which bubbles with an infectiously dark energy. (NV)

Kathy Griffin
Fri, 7pm, $40
Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park
Blending bombast with a razor sharp self-awareness, Kathy Griffin turned her middling celebrity status into a strength—confronting it head-on with her reality show My Life On The D-List, which followed Griffin for six seasons, from 2005 to 2010 as she flailed, failed and forced her way up the rungs of the Hollywood ladder. Along the way, she met plenty of celebs on rungs both above and below her own. In her new book, Kathy Griffin’s Celebrity Run-Ins she details many of them, including a meeting with the president-elect. She will be signing copies of her new memoir at Kepler’s. (NV)

Israel Sanchez
Sat, 4pm, Free
Streetlight Records, San Jose
There’s no doubt that 2016 has been a shitty year. But singer-songwriter Israel Sanchez hasn’t let that keep him down. The local purveyor of “dark acoustic” jams has been on his grind the past 11 months, racking up a total of 105 shows along the way. Fans of his brooding melodies, moody chords and heavy drum loops won’t want to miss show 106, where Sanchez plans to release his brand new LP, The Amaranth. A longtime student of live looping, Sanchez created about 90 percent of the sounds on the new full-length using just his Martin acoustic guitar and an array of effects pedals. (NV)

X
Mon, 8pm, $35-$40
The Ritz, San Jose
Legendary Los Angeles punk rockers X have always distinguished themselves from other bands of their era through the rock-solid drumming of DJ Bonebrake, the guitar virtuosity of Billy Zoom and the poetic lyrics and intimate vocal interplay of John Doe and Exene Cervenka. Doe recently published Under the Big Black Sun, a book exploring the history of the seminal L.A. punk scene. It’s a fascinating read. X is celebrating their upcoming 40th anniversary with a string of special shows this month. They come to town with support from the jangly, SoCal surf-garage outfit Small Wigs. (SM)

Hate him or love him, there’s little doubt that Diplo is one of the biggest names in electronic dance music right now. Through his collaborations with Skrillex, Justin Beiber and M.I.A., his myriad pop production credits, and his dancehall group Major Lazer, the globetrotting DJ and producer has played a huge role in shaping contemporary music. And now he’s coming to The Ritz in what has to be one of the biggest bookings the SoFA club has yet to secure.

Diplo comes to The Ritz on Dec. 1, along with DJ Dials and Rayzaruckus. Check out his Major Lazer’s video for “Watch Out For This (Bumaye)” below:

As SXSW reaches its peak, Austin is getting progressively louder, more crowded and beer-soaked. Highlights from the passed two days include blistering performances from Off! and High on Fire at Thrasher’s Texas Style Death Match Party, hip-hop at the Fader Forth, a strong set by Bass Drum of Death, local blues tunes on Sixth Street and a warehouse party featuring AraabMuzik, Atrak, Questlove and Diplo.

Photos by Chris Ellis unless otherwise noted.

High on Fire at Thrasher's party.

Off! at the Thrasher party. // Photo by Matt Crawford

Blackberry peddler and globetrotting producer Wesley Pentz – Diplo to you and I – has outdone himself this time with “Climax,” a “next level electrosoul” track with R&B superstar Usher and occasional Björk-collaborator Nico Muhly on strings.

A timely release on Valentine’s Day was intentional: via Twitter, the musicians engaged in a bit of mischievous repartee, with Diplo predicting that “in 9 months there are gonna be a lot of new babies that this song is responsible for.”

Always one for explicit PDA, Usher’s ambitions are a little more, *ahem*, ‘playful': “another strip club classic….Magic City, Onyx, Follies, Kamal 21, Strokers, Silent Sound here we come!”

Love in this club, indeed.