The work of Afro-Caribbean vocalist Christelle Durandy is frequently intoxicating. Whether singing dusky jazz numbers evocative of smokey basement clubs, or leading her all-female collective Cocomama over vivacious Afro-Carribean cinquillos, Durandy’s voice grabs listeners and holds on tight. At Mezcal, she’s joined by guitarist David Lechuga, a young virtuoso known for his work in underground rock music as well as jazz, having contributed to albums by awakebutstillinbed and recently performed with Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen.

Christelle Durandy
Fri, 6pm, Free
Mezcal, San Jose

San Jose’s downtown restaurant scene has weathered a lot over the past year, but its comeback story continues with Dine Downtown throughout the month. Participating restaurants—including everything from the fine Oaxacan dining room Mezcal to third-wave coffee stalwarts like Academic Coffee and Paper Moon Cafe—are offering special dishes only available until July 18th. Additionally, some of the city’s finest offerings, including the Michelin-rated Little Portugal phenom Adega, are offering special prix fixe tasting menus. Twenty-seven restaurants in all are participating, including first-timers The Good Spot, Petiscos, Scott’s Chowder House and The Shop by Chef Baca, all of which opened during the pandemic.

Dine Downtown
Begins Thursday
Downtown San Jose

For a city that struggles year in and year out to foster a vibrant local music scene, the SVSX festival—which featured over 20 bands in 9 venues—was a success. Mike Huguenor, who opened the Pagoda Lounge lineup, took a moment during his set to comment on what an incredible event SVSX was turning out to be.

“I’ve lived most of my life in San Jose, and until very recently it seemed absolutely impossible for art to get any kind of foothold in this sprawling, vastly economically imbalanced city,” he said. “A festival like this seemed unthinkable until very recently, and I’m extremely happy to be a part of it.”

His band, which included Bob Vielma (Shinobu) on bass and Hank Richardson (Yulia) on drums, gave his solo material a driving rock edge. Yet, unlike Huguenor’s work with Shinobu and Hard Girls, these songs were notably mellower, while still holding true to his trademark blend of thoughtful lyrics and offbeat chord arrangements.

PHOTOS: 10 Photo Highlights of SVSX

The largely college-aged crowd slowly trickled in as Huguenor played. By the time Fierce Creatures went on, the Pagoda boasted a nice amount of attendees, all ready as Fierce Creatures soared through several of their lush, indie-rock, soul-inspired tunes.

The hip hop lineup at the Blank Club showed a diverse cross-section of rap styles. Antwon and Memphis rapper Cities Aviv were major highlights. Cities Aviv is gaining some buzz music blogs all over the web right now with his fresh, unusual interpretation of rap. As innovative as his album Digital Low is, live, he was on a whole other level of strange. He mixed atonal music, bizarre electronics and outer-space beats with rapping that was heavily processed and mixed at a volume barely above the music, which made for a surreal experience that fell somewhere between neurotic, spastic hip hop and avant-garde performance art.

Antwon took the stage afterword. His music and performance, while not as out-there as Cities Aviv’s, is totally distinct from anything happening in hip hop right now. He’s falls somewhere between nerd rap, stoner rap and hipster rap, yet not fitting into any of these already conceived models. The audience couldn’t decide if they were with him or not. Despite being local, he rarely gigs in San Jose, yet he’s developed an impressive following in the East Bay, San Francisco and all over the Internet (he has +120,000 views for his “Helicopter” video on YouTube).

Dirtbag Dan at The Blank Club // Photo by Alex Stover

Local favorite Dirtbag Dan, who was accompanied by Skylar G and DJ Ichy the Killer, put on one of his best, hard-hitting shows to date to an enthusiastic audience. It wasn’t long ago that Dan toiled in obscurity locally—even while being one of the biggest names in battle rap all over the world. Headlining the SVSX festival to a packed house was a monumental moment for Dan.

Before his actual set, Dan had DJ Ichy the Killer perform a solo DJ routine—the same routine that got him into the DMC online DJ competition finals. He flawlessly mixed different genres, popular songs and obscure beats, using crazy spinning tricks and strange rhythms into six mind-blowing minutes.

With nine venues total it was hard to see everything that was happening, yet there was more than enough people to go around. Johnny V’s was packed, so was San Pedro Square Market and Mezcal restaurant. The other venues did well, too, and the pub crawl element of the SVSX festival was a nice touch. Walking from venue to venue and seeing so many people enjoying good local music—rap, punk, reggae, indie rock, folk—was a nice feeling.

Yeshua & the Hightones and Maxx Cabello Jr. are join forces with Mezcal for a night of great music and great food for Silicon Valley Sound eXperience.

Maxx Cabello Jr. & the Breakdown
10pm, Mezcal
San Jose local Maxx Cabello Jr. is known for his guitar chops, his soulful voice and mixing it up with a wide range of styles. He plays everything from slow soul jams, blazing electric blues and Latin rock. In the case of his video, “My Love,” he digs into old-school romantic soul, a throwback to the days before the style was dominated by drum machines and synthesizers.

A quick Google search reveals footage of Cabello playing accomplished eight-minute blues guitar solos (with touches of Duane Allman-esque slide work on “Heartbreaker”), but the simplicity of “My Love” makes it a good place to start for people new to his music. Like the video, the song is smooth and sweet—just a straightforward love song.

The video holds special significance because it helped Cabello land an opening spot at San Jose’s Jazz Summer Fest this year after submitting it to festival organizers in a contest where people voted for the song they liked best. “My Love” won by a landslide.

Yeshua & the Hightones
10pm, Mezcal
Yeshua Orozco’s dreads are sort of like his playoff beard—he’s been growing them for as long as he’s been in a band, and they seem to be bringing him luck. His seven-piece San Jose reggae group, Yeshua and the Hightones, quickly made a mark on the scene and has been getting the kind of rock gigs that are often off-limits to musical proponents of Jah. Maybe it’s something about the blues and Latin grooves they bring to the island sound. Maybe it’s the talent of the musicians he surrounds himself with, who are clearly versed in musical traditions from the world—and able to cut loose on a mean guitar solo, as well. Or hey, maybe it’s the hair.