Audience members at Art Boutiki this Saturday will find themselves transported to another realm by Starover Blue’s ethereal tapestry of sound. Founding members of the Portland-based band met at SJSU, where vocalist Kendall Sallay studied operatic performance—a background made clear through her gossamer soprano. With dreamlike synth melodies, mellow folk guitar and mathy post-rock rhythms, Starover Blue weave together myriad influences seamlessly. The mythical haze may even inspire some to leave the venue with one of Art Boutiki’s many fantasy comic titles, but a livestream of the set is also available for those who prefer to daydream at home.

Starover Blue
Sat, 8:30pm, Free
Art Boutiki, San Jose

For Kendall Sallay and Dirk Milotz, the two core members of Portland-based experimental dream-pop group Starover Blue, home will always be San Jose.

“We’re very loyal to San Jose. That was our band’s home for eight years, and I can’t really imagine not coming back,” says Sallay, the lead vocalist and guitarist in the band. Alongside co-founder and longtime partner Dirk Milotz, who plays synthesizers and sings, the pair have been working together for more than a decade. The two met as music students at San Jose State University in 2007, where they laid the musical foundations for the band’s signature synth-driven waviness.

This summer, their homecoming is particularly special. To celebrate the upcoming release of their second LP, Ordinary Magic, Starover Blue is going on tour across the Midwest and the West Coast, eventually making their way back home for a show in the 408.

Much like Spacegeist, their debut 2016 album, Ordinary Magic is a synth-saturated opus that draws inspiration from classical music, pop and country as well as sci-fi and dystopian speculative fiction. Despite the diverse mix of aesthetic influences, the resulting potpourri of stylistic cues flows effortlessly. Milotz, a classically trained keyboardist and composition major, shows a flair for romanticism with emotionally compelling harmonic colors on tunes like “Ruby (Interlude).” On “Parlor Trick”, Sallay’s moody lyrics are grounded by earthy guitar strumming that highlights their roots in indie-folk.

There’s an airy effervescence to Ordinary Magic, which is at once cerebral and deeply personal. Ethereal vocals whisper over lush synth pads and acoustic guitar riffs, evoking an atmosphere of hazy mystery, but also one of comfortable intimacy. At the core of Starover Blue’s sound—beyond the Stranger Things-esque synth lines and drumming that drives the polyphonic soundscape to loftier energy levels—are heavy undertones of melancholy and longing.

The couple’s songwriting touches on themes of tribulation and alienation, but there’s always a strong focus on growth and perseverance. “Mother” and “Chameleon,” for example, frame difficult narratives about estranged relatives and friends, while others, like “Janeway”—titled after the first female Starfleet captain in Star Trek: Voyager—speak of the duo’s determination to follow their musical dreams.

It’s this determination that brought Sallay and Milotz to Portland in search of better opportunities and a more accessible music scene. San Jose’s dearth of all-ages, midsize venues makes it difficult for any local band to maintain anything other than a tenuous foothold in the music scene. They left San Jose in search of greener—and more affordable—pastures in 2016.

“It was really difficult at first, accepting that we were starting from the ground up again. It was just the two of us,” Sallay says about their early days in Portland. “I remember we were in our new practice space—it was just me and Dirk—and we kind of looked around the room and at each other, and we were just like, ‘Oh my God, what have we done!’”

Despite the initial wave of loneliness, they quickly hired new band members and started making their way around town within their first few months in Portland.

“Up here, you can go see live music at, like, 15 different venues any given night of the week, and chances are they’ll be great,” Sallay says, comparing Portland’s music scene to San Jose’s. “It’s a totally different world up here.” She references the abundance of musicians, bands and venues supporting live music, but also the stronger sense of competition within the scene.

It sounds like they’re making a name for themselves in the City of Roses. Sallay mentions that Starover Blue will be headlining Portland’s famed Doug Fir Lounge for their album release show. This will be the last gig of their tour this summer, which will also bring them home for a show at Art Boutiki on Aug. 30.

“In San Jose, we have a lot of friends from college, co-workers over the years, a lot of different people who have been really supportive of our music  Honestly, that’s the show we’re looking forward to the most on our tour.”

Starover Blue
Aug 30, 7:30pm, $10
Art Boutiki, San Jose

Founded in 2007, Starover Blue grew out of San Jose State’s music department, where core members Kendall Sallay and Dirk Milotz met. The pair have been making music together for more than a decade now. They return to San Jose this week to debut their new single, “Anemone,” a shimmery dream pop tune propelled by a loping combination of live and electronic drumming, vintage synths, glistening guitars and wispy, ethereal vocals. They’ll be joined by original drummer Jerald Bittle and are sharing the stage with local indie rockers Cola and Dokoe.

Starover Blue
Fri, 8pm, $10
Art Boutiki, San Jose

Starover Blue know their music isn’t going to get bottles popping in the club, and that’s fine with them. The dreamy synth pop band got started in San Jose back in 2007, when singer and guitarist Kendall Sallay met keyboardist Dirk Molitz at SJSU. At the time, Kendall was studying opera and Dirk classical piano composition, both of which can be heard in the band’s sound.

“It’s not like fun party music,” Sallay says over the phone. “You have to be in the right mental space to want to get into that specific vibe with us. But making that difference with one person where you connect with them emotionally… if we can make one person feel something, then I think we’ve done our job.”

The band’s last release, 2016’s Spacegeist, is a darkly beautiful album that opens with “Lights of Tomorrow”—a meditative synth piece, which shows off Dirk’s classical training while setting the tone for the songs to come. The title track, one of the band’s strongest, is full of haunting melodies and cascading synth lines, and lands somewhere between Beach House and Julia Holter. In fact, Beach House is a somewhat consistent point of reference for the band, but at times the album recalls Julee Cruise, the frequent David Lynch collaborator (and one of the first performers at the Bang Bang Bar), with Sallay’s ethereal vocals floating over a wash of synths and guitars.

Sallay describes the concept album as “sci-fi” and “dystopian”

“A lot of focus on technology and people’s relationship with that and how it can really destroy things, and what that looks like for our future,” she adds, thinking back on the record. “I think that’s obviously a product of living in Silicon Valley for so long,”

Shortly after the album came out, Starover Blue found themselves on the receiving end of technology’s negative side. After calling San Jose home for almost a decade, Kendall and Dirk had to pick up stakes and move, cleaving the band in half as the rest of the original group stayed behind. Before leaving, the band posted a Dear John letter on their website, explaining the thought process.

“Why are we leaving San Jose?” the post asked. “Any band member who lives in San Jose already knows the answer. The grotesque rent. The lack of mid-sized indie venues and opportunities to support mid-level nationally touring bands. The tech culture that ensures art and music are perpetual side-notes. We couldn’t break through it.”

Though they (rightly) pointed out the lack of available venues in San Jose in their breakup letter, the band still has an abiding love for Art Boutiki, the venue and comic shop run by indie publisher SLG.

“Art Boutiki is one of my favorite venues of all time,” Kendall effuses. The problem, she sees, isn’t so much with what venues we do have, but those we don’t. “We have these two friggin fantastic places—Café Stritch and Art Boutiki—but once you’ve played those clubs, there wasn’t like a mid-sized club above that as a local band to have a chance to open up for a nationally touring indie act coming through.”

Now located in Portland, the band has carried on in the notably more music-friendly city, picking up a new drummer and bassist in their adoptive home. Rather than getting another guitarist, the band opted to rearrange their songs to be played as a four piece and have since been writing with the new members in mind.

“We reduced,” Kendall says. “We essentially took the fifth member’s parts and incorporated them into our own.”

This new version of the band comes to Art Boutiki this Saturday to play their first San Jose show in months. They come down the coast on a short tour with synth-pop group Headwaves, who are playing San Jose for their first time. The Seattle band also places heavy emphasis on synths, but the music skews more towards MGMT and Foster the People than ambient soundscapes, favoring pop hooks and danceable choruses over atmospherics. San Jose up-and-comers Lafayette and Chilindrina round out the bill.

Starover Blue
Jul 8, 8pm, $10
Art Boutiki, San Jose

Alternative rock superstars Coldplay perform this week at Levi’s Stadium behind their newly released full-length record “A Head Full of Dreams.” Also, Rey Res, Ozomatli and Iamsu! rock the inaugural Cukui Music Festival at Great America. Finally, Sonido Clash continues to expand its influence in the South Bay music scene with its Music & Mezcal Fest.

Frankie Valli
Thu, 7:30pm, $50-$130
Mountain Winery, Saratoga
While the musical Jersey Boys has been a smash hit around the world, there’s still no substitute for the genuine article. Frankie Valli—the iconic 82-year-old singer from New Jersey—is still going strong, more than five decades after he first hit the charts with his group, The Four Seasons, whose story inspired the acclaimed Broadway show. Fans should have no problem remembering the words and singing along with favorites such as “Walk Like A Man,” “Sherry,” “Rag Doll,” “Oh What A Night” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.” (SM) 

The Martian
Thu, 7:45pm, Free
Courthouse Square, Redwood City
A surprise dust storm forces a team of astronauts to evacuate the red planet in a hurry. In the ensuing chaos, one man is left behind and presumed dead. Luckily, that man is Matt Damon—or, more precisely, Mark Watney—an innovative and quick-witted biologist who must use his smarts to let NASA know he’s OK, grow potatoes, distil water from hydrazine candles and hack together all sorts of other solutions in order to stay alive long enough to be rescued. Even if you know the outcome, the film will still be fun to watch under the stars in Redwood City’s Courthouse Square. (MH)

Easy Zine Fest and Art Show
Fri, 7pm, Free
Social Policy, San Jose
Ever since the advent of cheap, at-home printing and consumer photo-copying, zine making has been a popular and powerful form of self-expression. And even in a world where Tumblr and WordPress make blogging easy, zines retain a kind of cachet the web can’t match.. Just about anything can be written or drawn up for a zine—from silly little cartoons to seething political screeds. The Easy Zine Fest provides an outlet for zine enthusiasts to buy or trade their DIY publications. Comics by Saoirse Alesandro and collages by Rick Oseguera will also be on display as part of this South First Friday event. (ST)

Blasterjaxx
Fri, 10pm, $20-$25
Pure Lounge, Sunnyvale
Long before Skrillex and Diplo blew up in the U.S., the Northern Europeans were cranking out electronic bangers. Dutch electronic duo Blasterjaxx are known for their many collaborations with EDM producers like David Guetta, Hardwell and Afrojack, to name a few. Their remix of Tiesto’s “United” became the official anthem of the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, and their single “Faith” was a huge hit in the Netherlands and Sweden. In 2015, they cracked the top 20 in DJ Magazine’s top 100 DJ list. (ST)

5 Seconds of Summer
Fri, 7:30pm, $25-$79.95
Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View
The boys of 5 Seconds of Summer came up fast—moving from YouTube stars to providing direct support for One Direction and even landing on the cover of Rolling Stone. Their 2014 self-titled album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and peaked at No. 1 in 13 countries. Unlike other contemporary boy bands, such as The Jonas Brothers, 5 Seconds have cultivated a bad-boy image—posing naked on the cover of Rolling Stone and boasting about casually hooking up with fans on the road. The band is on tour once again in support of their second LP, Sounds Live Feels Live. (ST)

The Guys/Veils
Fri, 8pm, $28-$32
Pear Theatre, Mountain View.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 had an immense impact on America, and repercussions of that fateful day can still be felt throughout the country. In 2010, a wave of demonstrations known as “The Arab Spring swept through the Middle East. Two plays focus on these pivotal moments in history—giving audiences a glimpse into the lives of ordinary citizens impacted by the revolutionary forces surrounding them. In The Guys, the relationship between a journalist and a New York City Fire Department captain is explored. Veils follows Intisar, an African American Muslim student and her roommate Samar as their political and cultural differences collide. (ST)

Starover Blue
Sat, 7:30pm, $10
Art Boutiki, San Jose
With the success of Netflix’s Stranger Things (itself an echo of 2010 experimental film Beyond the Black Rainbow), it’s clear: synthesizers are definitely back in style, and dream pop duo Starover Blue are here to give listeners a synth fix. Though they now hail from Portland, the band started out in San Jose. After posting an open letter about leaving home, they relocated to the Northwest, where the rain and mist have clearly crept into their sound. Opening the show is San Jose power-pop group The Albert Square, whose last record was released on New York-based, pay-what-you-want label Quote Unquote Records. (MH)

Coldplay
Sat, 7pm, $50+
Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
Heirs apparent to U2 and The Police, Coldplay are easily one of the biggest rock bands in the world. And they’re coming to one of the biggest, most technologically advanced stadiums in the U.S. on their current world tour. The British band’s seventh full-length album, A Head Full of Dreams, features collaborations with Beyoncé and Oasis co-founder Noel Gallagher, and is the first since the band’s lead singer Chris Martin engaged in a “conscious uncoupling” with his longtime former wife, movie star Gwyneth Paltrow. Despite A Head Full of Dreams’ tepid reviews from music critics, this is Coldplay we’re talking about here, and the show is sure to be packed with hit after megahit. (NV)

Mini Maker Faire
Sun, 10am-6pm, $3-$15
History San Jose
Nowadays just about anything you need can be easily obtained—whether you go to a store or purchase it online. Yet there exists a community of tinkers who prefer create their own goods from scratch. Members of the maker movement—from computer hackers to traditional artisans—rely on their knowledge and hands to produce new things or turn obsolete items into useful objects. In the past, makers worked alone on their inventions and modifications, but today there are fairs that celebrate their innovations, which allow them to unite and share. (ST)

After playing together for eight years, switching majors, and changing their band’s name in order to prevent their YouTube clips from showing up next to Donald Duck cartoons, the founding members of the San Jose-based band, Starover Blue, are finally starting to feel like they are making headway.

Kendall Sallay and Dirk Milotz founded what would ultimately become Starover Blue in 2007. Both were in the music department at San Jose State University at the time—Sallay was studying opera, Milotz was pursuing a degree in composition. They bonded over Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel and other bands at the dividing line of “alternative” and “indie.”

Back then they called themselves Cartoon Bar Fight, and they played a bouncy brand of indie-folk—not unlike many of their contemporaries. “I don’t know how it happens,” Sallay says, reflecting on the style of music that she, Milotz, and the rest of her band hit upon in the late aughts. “That sort of became the sound of that time.”

But that was then.

Eventually, both Sallay and Milotz would leave the music department. She went into gender studies and he went into engineering and computer science. Both had similar reasons for giving up on music as a major, Sallay says. “It was making the music too mathematical. When you analyze pieces of music in the same way that you would look at a math problem, you inevitably strip the music away.”

It would seem, however, that neither Sallay nor Milotz were able to shake their interest in the technical side of composition. Their forthcoming LP, Spacegeist, finds the band with a new name—taken from a character in a Nabokov novel—and a new sound. Where the group once favored folky instrumentation, acoustic arrangements and 4/4 time signatures, they are now incorporating synthesizers, looking to the Romantic composer Frederic Chopin for guidance on chord progressions and incorporating tricky rhythms.

Now that they have this new spacey sound and a little bit of buzz in the local blogosphere, they are making plans to push their band forward in a city with an appropriately progressive music scene—San Jose.

“We will not be moving to San Francisco,” Sallay says. “I just think it would be really impractical. A lot of musicians are having to move out of the city already.”

Plus, Sallay adds, she’s excited about “being a band coming from an area that’s trying so hard to make something happen.”

“We’re really interested to see how these new clubs opening up in San Jose impact the scene here,” she says. “We want to be a part of that.”

Starover Blue open for The Velvet Teen at Cafe Stritch on Aug. 20. More info.