This year’s Not So Silent Night—Alt 105.3’s long-running winter music festival—is headlined by two of alternative rock’s most reliable draws: Mumford & Sons and Twenty-One Pilots. Direct support comes in the form of Jack White’s other band, The Raconteurs, along with The 1975 and Mumford’s female-fronted mirror image, Of Monsters & Men. They’re all great, but those looking for the real party would do well to get to their seats early, as show openers White Reaper aim to excite with their bombastic blend of sneering punk sensibility and glam-inflected Thin Lizzy guitarmonies. They might just be the world’s best American band.

Not So Silent Night
Sat, 6pm, $29+
SAP Center, San Jose

What started in 1991 as a small acoustic-only offering by a local radio station has grown over the decades into an alternative rock spectacular. ALT 105’s annual one-day winter show Not So Silent Night features the biggest names in rock and its various sects, and this year’s show at the SAP Center is no different. Featuring Death Cab for Cutie, Bastille, Florence and the Machine, Young the Giant, Chvrches, The Struts and many more, the annual Not So Silent Night festival has become a staple of the musically inclined Bay Area holiday season.

Not So Silent Night
Sat, 6:30pm, $26+
SAP Center, San Jose

The South Bay music scene scores again. Earlier this year, Curious Quail won an opening spot for Live 105’s BFD concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, and now Saratoga blues-rock trio Fritz Montana are the winners for the local band opening spot at the station’s Not So Silent Night concert this weekend at Oracle Arena.

The band earned a spot on the lineup after its bluesy alt-rock song “Say It So” won the most votes among other Bay Area bands.

“Winning the opening slot at Not So Silent Night has been a very humbling experience,” says Fritz Montana lead singer and guitarist, David Marshall. “We could not have achieved this without the support of our families, friends, and fans. Winning this contest is definitely the highlight of our band thus far.”

Fritz Montana will be performing on the first night of the two-day concert on Friday, before Kings of Leon, Vampire Weekend, Queens of the Stone Age, AFI, Arctic Monkeys and Capital Cities take the stage. Saturday night includes headliners Arcade Fire, Phoenix, ALT-J and Lorde among other bands.

The trio claims San Francisco and San Jose as their home towns, with two-thirds of the band actually residing in the South Bay.

Not So Silent Night, a holiday tradition from modern rock station Live 105, returned bigger and better than ever this year with two days of music at Oracle Arena.

Metro photographer Aron Cooperman made the trip to Oakland on Friday to catch sets from Jack White, the Shins, Of Monsters and Men and more.

More than half of the 20 Bay Area bands competing for an opening slot at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night, featuring Jack Whit, the Shins, the Killers,  M83, Tegan & Sara, Passion Pit and more on December 7 and December 8 at the Oracle Arena, are from the South Bay.

As of this this posting, Curious Quail and Light the Rocket are the two South Bay bands with the most votes. They are neck and neck for 3rd and 4th place. The first place position belongs to Livermore group Hear The Sirens. To win, some of the bands are finding creative ways to motivate their fans to vote. Dogcatcher, for instance, is offering all their albums for free online until the voting ends. Curious Quail uploaded a video explaining to their fans all the reasons why they should vote for them.

Other South bay bands in the running include Drop Dead Sixty, Fossil Tree, INFM, Pounders, Touch My Rash, The Mess, The Oarsmen and UP&GO.

More than half of the 20 Bay Area bands competing for an opening slot at Live 105’s Not So Silent Night, featuring Jack Whit, the Shins, the Killers,  M83, Tegan & Sara, Passion Pit and more on December 7 and December 8 at the Oracle Arena, are from the South Bay.

Voting is still open, HERE.