The Cardiff Lounge recently underwent a major facelift and is ready to welcome patrons with its new, mid-century-modern look and a focus on higher end drinks.

Cardiff owner Sam Ramirez has brought in new furniture, refurbished the bar and installed new light fixtures that feel both modern and Mad Men. The dancing and house music DJs will remain.

Though their Yelp page says they are still closed, don’t be fooled. Cardiff has been open for business for a few weeks now during it’s soft opening. But the big party is reserved for tomorrow’s grand re-opening on Thursday, Sept. 15.

Metro photographer Greg Ramar got a sneak peek inside the new Cardiff. Check out pictures below.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

Photo by Greg Ramar.

From San Jose to Palo Alto, people all over the South Bay were thoroughly enjoying the Fourth of July holiday with barbecue, beer, fireworks and live music. Check out our photos from Discovery Meadow, Alviso and Palo Alto. All pics by Greg Ramar.

View the entire gallery here.

The lights went out and the cell phone screens lit up, as Abel Tesfaye—b.k.a. The Weeknd—took the stage at The SAP Center Sunday night. Under a brooding, red-light-district-red spotlight, the mad king of R&B appeared—standing inside a cage and behind a string of velvet ropes—like a cordoned off work of art, or a solitary celeb waltzing up to the V.I.P. entrance of an exclusive club. The room erupted in applause as nearly every person on the floor of the arena struggled to snap a picture.

Though the practice of fans taking photos with their phones at concerts is ubiquitous these days, the collective action felt somehow more appropriate here. It was reminiscent of a crowd gathered around a fiery car crash, desperate to document the conflagration, hoping against hope that they might catch sight of some carnage.

Before Tesfaye and his three-piece backing band had finished their second number, a fight broke out between two women a few rows back from the stage.

Over the next hour and a half, the Canadian singer led the packed Shark Tank to sublime highs and exquisite lows—pausing occasionally to praise the crowd for their support, giving props specifically to San Jose, and pledging to come back on his next tour.

Photo by Jessica Perez.

“I never been here before,” he said a little more than halfway through his set. “But you guys are showing so much love. I don’t think I’m gonna skip this city ever… ever…” Predictably, the arena exploded—demonstrating the acoustic properties of the Tank, a venue known for amplifying crowd noise to ear-splitting levels. “It’s been a really, really fucking good year.”

From there he launched into “Earned It.” The song appears on his latest record—2015’s wildly successful Beauty Behind The Madness, which has earned a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year—as well as featuring prominently on the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.

It was a reminder of just how big a year Tesfaye is having. After self-releasing a trio of expertly produced, guerilla-marketed mixtapes in 2010 and 2011, the man known primarily as the Weeknd has steadily accumulated a following. However, until this year, that following had been largely composed of hip, omnivorous audiophiles—just as likely to be spinning Joy Division and Arcade Fire LPs on their home turntables, as streaming Future and Kendrick Lamar on the commute to work.

His major label debut, Kiss Land, drew a middling response from critics, who weren’t as floored as they had been by the utter newness of his Trilogy mixtape. Kiss Land didn’t catch fire commercially, either—likely due to Tesfaye taking a deep dive into his darker influences. One track sounded as if it sampled the enigmatic and critically loved Portishead.

But then came the Fifty Shades track in late 2014. That was followed this year by “Can’t Feel My Face”—the catchiest song about cocaine dependence ever recorded (sorry, Eric Clapton)—and “The Hills,” the catchiest song about gloomy, blacked-out, no-strings hookups ever recorded.

Photo by Jessica Perez.

Tesfaye saved his two biggest hits to date for the very end of his set, shimmying to “Can’t Feel My Face” and then weaving in and out of a forest of flaming pikes during his climactic rendition of “The Hills”—thus recalling the song’s video, which is little more than a slow-mo tracking shot of the singer, walking calmly away from a flipped-over and on-fire sedan, leaving his two female companions behind to scream in anguish in the early morning light. All of this is to say that those hoping for a conflagration, got just that.

Then the lights went out and Tesfaye left the stage—only to be reminded of San Jose’s love for him, as a deafening roar once again filled the SAP Center. He returned a minute or so later, and, having played all of his biggest hits, did one for the die hards: “Wicked Games” from his debut mixtape, House of Balloons.

The encore was a reminder of where Tesfaye started, and why the Weeknd has climbed so high. Before headlining an international tour, before appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone with his Bob Marley-meets-Flock of Seagulls mane, Tesfaye was just a brooding kid with a great voice. Those very first Weeknd tracks resonated so strongly among critics and the music blogosphere because of the depth they demonstrated.

Tesfaye was using an incredibly diverse musical vocabulary to construct his songs. There were the gooey trip-hop textures of Massive Attack; the chilling, observational lyricism of Nas (and the boom-bap drum kits to match); the sexual tenacity and smouldering croon of R. Kelley; the atmospheric awareness of My Bloody Valentine; and, of course, the soaring range and tone of Michael Jackson.

The Weeknd is all of these things and more, which is why it was so enthralling to witness Tesfaye and his band at work Sunday night. Never hungry for the spotlight, Tesfaye often disappeared into the darkness, allowing the band to pile up shoegazey squalls of cacophonous fuzz, or pausing while his guitarist ripped through smokey, bluesy solos.

In a place many pop stars would fill with backup dancers, Tesfaye relied on live drums and lysergic visuals—including undulating visualizations of waveforms, akin to the cover of Unknown Pleasures; jagged CGI topography, reminiscent of the craggy, digital peaks and valleys filling the liner notes of Kid A; and, perhaps most appropriate, a pulsating orb that resembled both an imminent supernova explosion and an ovum, under siege from millions of gametes.

The graphic served as one final reminder that, in the end, what really makes the Weeknd pop is his unabashed amalgamation of sex and psychedelia. In this sense, the leadoff track on House of Balloons, “High For This,” seems less a provocative proclamation and more a mission statement.

Check out the entire photo gallery, featuring shots of Travis Scott and Halsey. Click here.

Modest Mouse, Twenty One Pilots, Panic At The Disco, Atlas Genius and many more of today’s hottest alternative and indie rock acts played BFD—Live 105’s annual summer festival at Shoreline Amphitheatre—this past weekend. The weather was warm, the beers were cold and the energy was high at the 22nd “big fucking deal.” We sent Metro photographer Jessica Perez to cover the action. Check out some of her best shots below:

View the entire gallery here.

Oh man… We are just crawling out from under of our two-day hangover and checking out all these pictures we took on the Silicon Valley St. Patrick’s Day pub crawl from Palo Alto to Campbell. To us, the whole evening seems like one giant greenish black swimming pool full of Guinness, Jameson, Baileys and questionable decision making. But looking at these photos, we’re pretty sure we actually just had a blast and we don’t have anything to be sorry for.

We don’t have anything to be sorry for, do we? See if the following photos—taken by Metro photographer Greg Ramar at Antonio’s Nut House, St. Stephen’s Green, Lilly Mac’s, Rosie McCann’s, Dive Bar, O’Flaherty’s, Katie Blooms and Khartoum—bring any particularly putrid memories to the surface.

This weekend marked the final curtain call for The Blank Club. After 12 years of booze-fueled, punk rock parties and indie discos, the owner of the San Jose venue, Corey O’Brien, allowed the club’s lease to expire. O’Brien plans to open a new venue in the SoFA district in March. It will be called The Spectrum. We’re sad to see The Blank Club go, but we’re excited for what’s next. Until then, check out these photos by Greg Ramar, taken during the last two nights at the Blank, Jan. 30 and 31.

The Hormones, a Bay Area-based all-female Ramones tribute band, headlined The Blank Club this weekend. The benefit concert was held to raise funds for local Roller Derby teams. Metro photographer Greg Ramar was on the scene to catch the action. Check out the photos below:

The San Francisco-bred indie-psych droners, Moon Duo, drew a sizable crowd to Cafe Stritch in San Jose’s SoFA district on Saturday. The show, booked by the “boutique music and events curator and presenter,” (((folkYEAH))), featured retro, acid test-esque light projections courtesy of Mad Alchemy Liquid Lights and ambient opener Matt Baldwin and the slow morphing synth and guitar grooves of Seventeen Evergreen.

Check out these photos from Metro photographer Greg Ramar:

Up and coming San Jose new wave band The Trims celebrated the release of their new self-titled record, playing to a sold-out crowd at The Blank Club on Friday. The local quartet ripped through a high-energy set of angular, post-punky dance-rock tunes, including their new single, “Now You’re Gone.”

Watch the video for the song below, then click through some of the best photos from the night, taken by Metro photographer Eric Belladonna.

St. James Park in Downtown San Jose was packed with soccer fans on Sunday while the U.S. team took on Portugal in an intense match. Everyone was sporting the USA colors, but unfortunately in the last couple of minutes Portugal tied the game 2-2.

The schedule for future World Cup Parties public viewings:
Jul 4, 2014: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm (Fri)
Jul 5, 2014: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm (Sat)
Jul 12, 2014: 11:30 am – 5:30 pm (Sat)
Jul 13, 2014: 11 am – 3:30 pm (Sun)

Photos by Metro photographer Jessica Perez