This Sunday, music and arts will engulf Downtown San Jose’s SoFA District once more with the return of SoFA Street Fair. After a year’s hiatus, vendors like Streetlight Records, Goddesses, The Swagger Fool and Make Me Holey Body Piercing will once again take over the streets with toys, merch, jewelry, clothing and more. On site food trucks will be serving up waffles, burgers, burritos, drinks and other luxuries, and musicians will be rocking the festival’s stages with music as varied as the wares, with acts like Barely Funktional, the Wet Bandits and Douglas Von Irvin’s Carnival playing hip-hop, jazz, punk, R&B, and just about everything in between.

SoFA Street Fair
Sun, 2pm, Free
SoFA District, San Jose

This year’s fall installment of the SoFA Street Fair marks a number of milestones. It’s the 10th edition since the festival returned in 2014 after a 10-year hiatus. Interestingly enough, the original SoFA Street Fair ran from 1994 to 2004. You can do the math there. The free live music runs until 9pm. With four outdoor stages and 11 indoor venues, there will be no shortage of great tunes to take in. Be sure to stop by the women-powered XX Stage to see a number of great female-fronted San Jose acts, including Soccora, Sweet Hayah, Steely Nash and Chloey Zelma.

SoFA Street Fair
Sun, 2pm, Free
SoFA District, San Jose

The Dangerous—a brand new reggae project started by Edgar Fernandez and Kevin Azavedo, formerly of San Jose’s proggy alternative outfit Citabria—drop their debut, Made of Gold, on 4/20. It’s a seriously kind nugget of kinky upstrokes and eyeball rattling downbeats. As with any great reggae record, the 11-track album is packed with good vibes and heavy riddims. Lead single “Gangsta” is an ode to kicking back and getting into trouble with the homies. Check the music video shot, at the Plata Arroyo skatepark on the East Side, and catch them live at the SoFA Street Fair this Sunday.

The Dangerous
Sun, 5:30pm, Free
SoFA Street Fair, San Jose

Just as sounds of bicycles roaming the streets of downtown San Jose begin to mellow, the SoFA District is poised to come alive with the sound of music. This year’s Viva Calle runs until 3pm, but the fall edition of the SoFA Street Fair keeps rocking with free live music until 9pm. With stages all over South First Street—inside Haberdasher and Uproar, among other venues—and a whole slew of performers, including Steely Nash, Israel Sanchez, The Odd Numbers, Sweet HayaH, Ato Walker and Drawing Heaven, it’s sure to be good time. In between sets, grab a cold brew and a bite.

SoFA Street Fair
Sun, 2pm, Free
SoFA District, San Jose

Local artists, high-flying wrestlers and Silicon Valley musicians will converge with tasty food trucks, cold beer and other creative vendors in downtown San Jose this Sunday, as the biannual SoFA Street Fair returns with its yearly spring installment. This year the spring fling features four outdoor stages and 12 indoor venues—including The Ritz, Forager and Uproar Brewing Co. Pounders, David Brookings, Panhandlers Union, Steely Nash & The Cuts, Love District, Wax Moon, Israel Sanchez, Life Size Models, Super Soul Bros and Boy Uomo are all slated to perform. Plus many more. (NV)

SoFA Street Fair
Sun, 2pm, Free
SoFA District, San Jose

The SoFA Street Fair returns to San Jose’s South First Street arts, culture and nightlife district this Sunday for a day of music, food, beer, art and much more. It marks the fourth such event since festival organizer Fil Maresca brought the party back to life in 2014 after more than a 10-year hiatus.

As has been the case with the past three fall SoFA Street Fairs—and 2016’s inaugural spring event—the focus will be on local bands. However, Maresca says, there is another focus he and his team have been devoting energy to this year: keeping SoFA Street Fair free and putting a little cash in the pockets of local artists.

“All the bands have always done SoFA Street Fair for free,” Maresca explains of the event he began back in in 1991. The festival remained free until 1995, but began charging a $5 cover from 1996 until 2001 to help cover the costs of running the show.

“We want to avoid that this time around,” Maresca says.

In order to avoid charging folks at the gate, the SoFA Street Fair team have turned to the Silicon Valley virtual payment firm Square and their product “Square Cash,” which, like Venmo and other similar apps allows friends to transfer money wirelessly to one another for free.

This year’s SoFA Street Fair will be giving each band what Maresca is calling a “virtual tip jar.” So far 87 are slated to play on 16 stages, and every one of those bands will be assigned a “cashtag”—like a Twitter hashtag, only with a dollar sign preceding the band’s name, rather than a pound symbol.

“I’m really pleased with it,” Maresca says of the system, explaining that at each stage, a band’s cashtag will be displayed. Attendees who have downloaded the Square Cash app, can then use a given band’s cashtag to tip them. Minimum tips are $2, and one dollar from every tip goes to the SoFA Street Fair. The rest goes to the band.

So, for example, Maresca explains, if someone donates $20 to a band, that group will get $20 and the festival will get $1.

This year’s festivities feature four outdoor stages—two for live music, with bands performing staggered set times so attendees don’t have to choose one act over another; one DJ stage, wedged between The Ritz and The Studio rock climbing gym; and, of course, the crowd-pleasing UGWA wrestling ring.

Some highlights of this year’s musical performers include David Brookings and the Average Lookings, who recently released an excellent self-titled LP. They play on the William Street Stage at 2pm. San Jose blues metal quartet ZED, who also recently released an excellent LP, Trouble in Eden, will also take the William Street Stage at 5:30pm, followed by ascendant alt-rock band Citabria at 6:30pm, and then rock-soul-funk sextet Sweet HayaH headlines the stage at 8pm.

Other clubs in town will be getting in on the action as well. Craft cocktail bar Haberdasher will host Mark Arroyo jazzy rock trio at 5:30pm; and at 7:30pm Cafe Stritch will host psychedelic garage rockers The Gentle Cycle—led by local psych-rock celeb Derek See of The Careless Hearts, and, more recently, The Chocolate Watchband.

Scene veteran Chris Landon will perform at the SoFA Market at 3pm and Uproar, a new music and art space taking over the former space occupied by Zero1 will be hosting Wax Moon at 3pm, Mitchell Lujan at 6:30pm and Bird and Willow at 7:30pm.

As for art, The Exhibition District—the local non-profit responsible for putting up large-scale murals all over downtown San Jose, including their most recent piece on the side of Hotel De Anza. Exhibition District leader Erin Salazar was recently profiled in Metro’s Fall Arts issue.

SoFA Street Fair
Sep 11, 2pm, Free
South First Street, San Jose

We walk around with the entire internet in our pockets, calling up ride-sharing services from our mobile devices and perusing menus online whilst en route to our favorite restaurants. The world is at our fingertips and waiting… well, that is so 20th century.

The organizers of the annual SoFa Street Fair certainly have gotten the memo—or email… or, uh… status update? Fans of local art and music won’t have to wait until fall for the return of the SoFA Street Fair, as an abridged installment of the annual festival is slated for this weekend.

The one-day SoFA Street Fair SPRING 16 will feature speakers, bands, DJs, opera, art exhibitions and even a few pile-drivers. And all of it is taking place on South First Street, Sunday, April 24.

With performances at Aura, BackBar SoFa, Café Stritch, The Continental, Haberdasher, Miami Beach Club, The Ritz, SoFA Market and more, there is a whole lot going on in a short amount of time. It’s all free, so the only thing you have to sweat is deciding who to check out. This cheat sheet ought to help with that.

Periscope: progressive, experimental; Heroes Stage, 2pm

Dave Miller & Friends: punk rock; SoFA Market, 2:30pm

No Water After Midnight: R&B, soul covers; San Carlos Stage, 3pm

Andre Hart: local visual artist; Aura Stage, 3:30pm

Julius Papp: house DJ; San Salvador DJ Stage, 4pm

Infinite Sleep: melodic metal, post-hardcore; BackBar Stage, 4:30pm

Jean Jackets: garage rock, indie; Café Stritch, 5pm

Rabbit Quinn: piano-driven, atmospheric indie; SoFA Market Stage, 5:30pm

DJ Dan: breakbeat, funky house; San Salvador DJ Stage, 6pm

Talkie: indie-pop, rock & roll; Aura Stage, 6:30pm

Citabria: progressive, alternative; The Ritz Stage, 7pm

Socorra: mellow indie rock; SoFA Market Stage, 7:30pm

ONOFF: rock & roll; Balanced Breakfast Stage, 8pm

Kwesi Young: alternative hip-hop, trap; Aura Stage, 8:30pm

SoFA Street Fair SPRING 16
Apr 24, 2pm-9pm, Free
SoFA District, San Jose

The SoFA Street Fair is returning for its second straight year since awakening from its decade-long hibernation last September. The Fair’s original reign, which lasted from 1992 until 2001, bookended one of the most exciting eras in the history of downtown San Jose—at least for fans of alternative art, music and culture.

It was a time when the South First Street Area arts district—SoFA—was thriving. The street was home to a glut of music venues, including Marsugi’s, the Cactus Club, F/X and Ajax. Nirvana, Helmet, Sublime, Green Day and No Doubt all played shows in the SoFA district.

But then the dotcom bubble burst, the Twin Towers fell and the SoFA district went into a decline—along with the rest of the country and downtown San Jose. Fil Maresca, organizer of the SoFA Street Fair, turned his attention to different ventures, but he never gave up on the district; he’s always kept an office in downtown San Jose.

Last year, seeing the effects of Silicon Valley’s second big tech boom—the new restaurants, bars and young professionals filling up the newly built apartment towers—Maresca felt that the time was right to “reupholster” his beloved SoFA Street Fair.

His instincts were spot on. With veteran ska-punks Fishbone headlining, and more than 50 local and national acts supporting, the festival was a success—drawing large crowds and garnering favorable press from a number of local outlets.

This Sunday, the festival returns with more than 70 bands performing on three outdoor stages and scattered at 13 venues around town. That’s a lot of music—literally more than any one person could hope to listen to on a given day.

Don’t let #FOMO send you into a tailspin. We’re here to help. Here is our list of six can’t-miss acts at the SoFA Street Fair. Follow this to the letter, enjoy your beer and the total absence of needing to make any kind of decision.

Belle Noire, San Jose
This local quintet is recommended if you like Dredg and Saosin. With echoing guitars, punchy bass lines and heavy breakdowns, Belle Noire expertly navigates a Bermuda triangle of saccharine sweet melody, lush and ambient atmospherics, and powerful riffs.

Cemetery Sun, Sacramento
Hailing from our state’s capital, Cemetery Sun are aptly named, as they find the sweet spot between dark lyricism and sunny vibes—kinda like a bad trip on a beautiful beach. Their current single, “(Hard Drugs) Fake Love,” is reminiscent of The Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather” in the verse before breaking into a Receiving End of Sirens-esque wall-of-sound chorus.

Citabria, San Jose
After taking a few years off to let intra-band tensions cool down, Citabria have returned with a blazing-hot mashup of psych-soul and alt-rock. They recently brought down the house at The Ritz, where they performed most of their excellent new album, Exit Reality. Key track, “The Animal,” absolutely rips with its stuttering, Moog bass line, soaring vocal harmonies and jet-plane guitars.

David Brookings, San Jose
He’s been playing music for 25 years, recorded three full-length records at the world-famous Sun Studios in Memphis, and he has more than 130,000 views on YouTube. How have you not heard of this dude? Hey! Don’t stress. That’s what this guide is all about, remember? Brookings—and his band, the cleverly titled “Average Lookings”—play feel good, catchy rock songs. His 2010 album, The Maze, is a collection of 11 compact and jangly pop gems about everyday life.

Jonny Manak and the Depressives, San Jose
You might say that the Manaks are a musical family. Jonny’s brother, Chris, is also known as Peanut Butter Wolf, the founder of Stones Throw Records. But where PBW is an expert on the ones and twos, Jonny is a punk rock pro—penning lightning-bolt blasts about drinking beer, eating pizza and skateboarding. You’ve likely heard his work on MTV, even if you don’t realize it, as he writes many of the gritty punk-rock tunes used in various Dickhouse productions. Yep, those are the Jackass guys.

Talkie, San Francisco
Their Facebook page says they are from San Francisco, but we know they’re really a bunch of South Bay—or Southeast Bay—boys. Founded in Fremont, Talkie play a jangling and bouncy brand of indie pop.

The SoFA Street Fair is this Sunday, Sept. 13, from 2pm to 10pm. More info.

There are many parallels to be drawn between the return of the SoFA Street Fair this Sunday and the so-called “reunion” of Insolence, who along with Salmon and Maids of Honor will provide direct support to the festival’s headliner, Fishbone. But whatever you do, don’t call it a comeback.

Sure, it’s true that Insolence went on hiatus more than three years ago, but the band never technically broke up, according to Mark Herman, one of Insolence’s two vocalists.

“We just took a little break,” Herman says, explaining that some of the band started families, while others moved outside of the band’s home base of San Jose. “It just got to the point where life happened for some of us. We had never stopped—from 1996 to 2010, we were just grinding, grinding, grinding, and chasing that dream.”

By many measures Insolence have achieved that “dream.” The group has toured the world with its high energy mix of rap, metal, reggae and punk—sharing huge stages with some of the biggest bands of the aughts, including Rancid, Incubus, System of a Down, Jane’s Addiction and Papa Roach. They’ve been signed to independent and major labels, and many of the group’s members have gone on to form other successful acts.

Along with Insolence’s success came many trials and tribulations. During its heyday, the band kept up a grueling touring schedule and was under constant pressure from their record labels—Maverick and especially Warner Bros.—to write material that mainstream radio would play, which was a particular problem for a band like Insolence.

“We’ve always been all over the place,” Herman admits, explaining that the band never had any interest in playing one kind of music. “We were just in a band to have fun.”

According to Willis Rosenthal, the group’s other vocalist, at the time record labels started courting Insolence, their sound was very new. It was the mid-’90s, and rap-rock bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park were only just starting to get traction.

The way Rosenthal tells it, Insolence wasn’t even trying to ride the rap-rock wave. Their hybrid sound was more the result of everyone in the group trying to insert their own influences into each song.

Unfortunately for Insolence, while the aggressive sounds of nu-metal and rapcore initially took the U.S. by storm, by the turn of the millennium, critics and fans began turning on the music that had only a few years earlier been so popular. And they weren’t just listening to other stuff. Bands that combined guitars and emcees were suddenly punch lines.

It was tough time, Rosenthal says, recalling those years. “We thought we were on to something,” he says. “It turned into something that we weren’t really into.”

Insolence’s label started pushing them to sing more, encouraging them to pivot away from rapping, Herman remembers. “But you can’t fake the funk.” Insolence refused to fold itself into any of the prepackaged, marketable options that their labels presented to them. They just kept doing what they wanted to do.

The strong independent streak that runs through the band not only led to Insolence ignoring their record label’s wishes. It also resulted in the formation of side projects. Drunken Starfighter was formed by Rosenthal and Insolence’s DJ, Itchy, back in 2001. And The Whiskey Avengers were formed by Insolence’s bass player, Clint Westwood, and drummer, Kevin Higuchi, in 2006.

Those more intimately familiar with Insolence’s hiatus may know that the increasing attention and energy that Westwood and Higuchi were pouring into the Avengers took its toll—leading to some bruised egos and infighting.

“It’s time to let bygones be bygones,” Herman says, adding that he is just looking forward to getting back on stage, without any of the old pressures that used to weigh on his mind. “I’m super excited, man. There’s no greater feeling than playing music. I just want to get up on stage and have that camaraderie with my friends.”

Herman says he is also pumped that the group’s first show in over three years will be at the “reupholstered” SoFA Street Fair, which is returning after more than a 10-year absence, thanks in large part to longtime San Jose promoter Fil Maresca, as well as South Bay veteran booking agents Gary Avila and Jimmy Arceneaux. He sees it as a sign that San Jose’s local music scene is on its way back.

A new Insolence album is in the works, which Rosenthal describes as a mix between the early rapcore stuff that put Insolence on the map and newer electronic and synth-based sounds. “It’s going to be awesome,” Rosenthal says. After years dealing with record execs, grueling tours and internal drama, Insolence is ready to just chill out and play.

Insolence play the main stage at the “reupholstered” SoFA Street Fair in San Jose on Sept. 14 at 5:30pm. More info.

After more than a decade’s absence the SoFA Street Fair is back. With more than 50 local, regional and national acts on three outdoor stages and a variety of other San Jose venues, the music and arts festival is set to return on Sept. 14.

Longtime community organizer and SoFa Street Fair co-creator Fil Maresca, is excited for the return of the festival, and not only because he anticipates it will be a blast. According to Maresca, the “reupholstered” SoFA Street Fair marks a “genuine rebirth” of the SoFA district. And that bodes well for the vitality of San Jose’s arts scene.

“There was a long time when SoFA was struggling,” Maresca says, noting there were lots of empty storefronts and vacant sidewalks. The South First Area Committee, a committee of the San Jose Downtown Association, dwindled.

But now, with the tech boom surging, Café Stritch booking diverse and interesting shows and South First Fridays drawing large crowds each month, “things have changed,” Maresca says. “There’s a there there now. SoFA is a destination now. It hasn’t been like that since the ’90s.”

The SoFA Street Fair will feature a wide variety of musical acts and other attractions. Los Angeles-based funk/punk band Fishbone will headline the fair. San Jose band Insolence will reunite with original bass player Paul Parry, and a bevy of other bands, artists and vendors will fill the streets.