Sweetwater Music Hall 51st Anniversary Benefit Gala Nov. 17, 2023
Legendary non-profit music venue Sweetwater Music Hall celebrates its 51st Anniversary on Friday, November 17, 2023 with a benefit gala featuring a special performance by iconic San Francisco band The Tubes (featuring Prairie Prince and Fee Waybill) with DJ Logic and a live auction with one-of-a-kind items and experiences. The fundraiser seeks to support Sweetwater’s non-profit arts organization, which is fully committed to advancing education, understanding and appreciation of music, Bay Area music history, culture, and arts, through the presentation of a vibrant and diverse range of performances, exhibits, and arts programming to the general public, with particular focus on youth arts education.
Tickets can be purchased here. A portion of ticket purchase is tax deductible.
The 51st anniversary celebration promises to be a night to remember as The Tubes, seminal to the Bay Area in the 70s and 80s and renowned for their groundbreaking music and live performances, bring their unique blend of rock, punk, and avant-garde theatrics to the stage. They will be joined by DJ Logic, one of the world’s most accomplished turntablists widely credited for introducing jazz into the hip–hop realms.
Watch The Tubes perform “White Punks on Dope” at Winterland in San Francisco on October 31, 1974.
Prairie Prince of The Tubes says, “The 51st anniversary for the sweetest music venue that side of the bridge for us means love and devotion to music of all kinds for all kinds, and the continued legacy for the community and all to share. As The Tubes, a Bay Area band since the early 70s, this evening of anniversary celebration for the Sweetwater Music Hall means so much to us all and to be asked to headline this fundraiser is heaven sent. Keep on keeping on, Sweetwater.”
Since its inception in 1972, Sweetwater Music Hall has been a cornerstone of the vibrant Bay Area music scene, fostering a sense of community and providing a platform for both emerging and established musicians. From film documentaries and live albums recorded at the Sweetwater, to acclaimed roots and rock musicians gracing its stage including Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Jerry Garcia, John Lee Hooker, Huey Lewis, Elvis Costello. Maria Muldaur, Bob Weir, and many others, Sweetwater is an essential cultural institution in SF Bay Area music history.
“We are incredibly excited to host The Tubes at Sweetwater Music Hall for our 51st anniversary celebration,” said Maria Hoppe, Executive Director at Sweetwater Music Hall. “Their music and artistry embody the spirit of the Bay Area, and we couldn’t think of a better way to commemorate over five decades of fostering a love for live music and community engagement. This event is a tribute to the unwavering support of our patrons and the vibrant musical legacy of Mill Valley.”
Often described as a “Jewel of America” by internationally renowned agents and musicians, Sweetwater is among the premier legacy venues in the country. The event will take place at Sweetwater Music Hall, located at 19 Corte Madera Ave, Mill Valley, CA 94941. BUY TIX HERE.
There are a number of ticket packages. GO HERE FOR MORE INFO ON TICKET PACKAGES.
The Tubes formed in 1972 in San Francisco from two bands that moved there from Phoenix, The Beans along with the Red, White and Blues Band. While musically influenced by groups like Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, who actually recorded a song with the group on their third album, their theatrical satire was evident from the very beginning. All these years later, The Tubes still consists of, original members, the irrepressible front man Fee Waybill, world-class drummer Prairie Prince, and virtuoso guitarist Roger Steen. They continue to delight fans across the country and around the world with their iconic live shows.
Led by singer Fee Waybill – known for his classic characters, including the glam-rocking, stackheeled Quay Lewd, the dangerous Mr. Hate or the gnarly punk parody Johnny Bugger – The Tubes released five albums on A&M Records, starting with the Al Kooper-produced self-titled debut in 1975, which included “White Punks on Dope,” dubbed an absurd anthem of wretched excess” later covered by Motley Crue, German chanteuse Nina Hagen as well as set staple, “Mondo Bondage.” “What Do You Want from Life?” was yet another signature song for the band, a prescient satire of consumerism and celebrity culture that calls out Bob Dylan and Randy Mantooth along with “a herd of Winnebagos, we’re givin’ em away”. With the help of Kenny Ortega, they mounted the stage show for which they’re still known, using videos as part of the presentation long before MTV was born.
After Young & Rich (1976), produced by Ken Scott (of Beatles fame) highlighted by the salacious “Don’t Touch Me There,” The Tubes released Now (1977), the live What Do You Want From Live (1978) and the concept album Remote Control (1979) their final album for A&M before leaving for Capitol Records.
Their new label teamed them up with producer David Foster for the group’s most commercially successful (and radio-friendly) release to that point, with two hit singles in the power ballad, “Don’t Want to Wait Anymore” (their first to land in the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart) and the now classic Top 10 Rock radio anthem, “Talk to Ya Later,” a collaboration between Fee, Foster and Toto guitarist Steve Lukather that was #1 in 17 countries.
“David had just produced Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland, and we loved that album,” said Fee about the approach on the very funk-flavored The Completion Backward Principle (1981), which also includes the beach party set piece, “Sushi Girl,” and the Steely Dan-ish “Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman”. Foster then produced the next album, Outside Inside (1983), with the chart topping “She’s a Beauty”.
The Tubes’ current tour set list includes such classics as “White Punks on Dope”, “Mondo Bondage”, “What Do You Want from Life”, “Out of the Business”, “I Want It All Now” and “She’s a Beauty”.
Fee enthuses, “It’s so great that people still love our music and sing along at shows. The best part is, we’re a way better band today than we ever were.”
The theorem of turntablist as musician has been long proven in the capable hands of DJ Logic, whom with jazz as his foundation has become a wax innovator by crossing genres and mixing his sound across the map. As one of the world’s most accomplished turntablists, DJ Logic is widely credited for introducing jazz into the hip–hop realms and is considered by most as a highly-respected session musician and an innovative bandleader.
Since his emergence in the early nineties amidst the Bronx hip-hop scene, the New York City based deejay has been amassing a veritable mountain of collaborations, including a full-fledged band with members of Blues Traveler (The John Popper Project ft. DJ Logic), a trio with Steve Molitz & Freekbass (Headtronics), a jazz project with Georgian prodigy Beka Gochiasvili, and as a member of Grammy-winning Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s The Offense of the Drum album. He also has a long list of other collaborations with artists ranging from the likes of Bob Weir, John Mayer, Medeski Martin and Wood, Christian McBride, O.A.R., Carly Simon, Marcus Miller, Jack Johnson, Vernon Reid, Warren Haynes, Charlie Hunter, Jack DeJohnette, Ben Harper, Mos Def, The Roots, Bernie Worrell, Bill Laswell, Melvin Gibbs, Fred Wesley, Sean Kuti and many more.
About Sweetwater Music Hall
Sweetwater Music Hall Inc is a 501(c)(3) organization that is fully devoted to advancing education, understanding and appreciation of music, culture and arts through the presentation of a vibrant and diverse range of live performances. We operate a state-of-the-art performing arts music venue and administer a music appreciation and education program for youth and adults in various musical genres including residencies and partnerships with local community groups as well as special needs and at-risk youth.
The original Sweetwater opened in 1972, in a rustic, downtown Mill Valley storefront previously occupied by a local watering hole called the Office. On its opening night, the Sweetwater presented an acoustic folk-rock group that played for a crowd that lined up halfway down the block to get in. While the Sweetwater enjoyed a most auspicious beginning, it wasn’t until a decade later that the tiny 90-seat tavern with a stage earned its rightful place in music history.
At the Sweetwater Music Hall, that history continues on today. The once-in-a-lifetime show was a commonplace occurrence at the original Sweetwater. The roster of artists that have crowded onto the club’s little stage reads like a “Who’s Who” of roots & rock music: Bobby Weir, Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Big Mama Thornton, Carlos Santana, Clarence Clemons, Elvis Costello, Etta James, Gregg Allman, Huey Lewis, Jerry Garcia, John Hiatt, John Lee Hooker, Maria Muldaur, Mimi Fariña, Odetta, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Richie Havens, Robert Cray, Sammy Hagar, Townes Van Zandt, Van Morrison, and many more musical luminaries. In the ’80s, the Times of London hailed the Sweetwater as one of the best nightclubs in America.
The reincarnation of Sweetwater as a nonprofit embodies the heart and spirit of the original club and its founders and supporters. Now, as a nonprofit, the board and staff are able to continue feeding the soul of the Bay Area and beyond for years and years to come.
HISTORY
The Sweetwater Music Hall – Mill Valley’s venerable live music institution and one of the most exciting live music venues in Bay Area history – has been serving up sonic brilliance that can go toe-to-toe with big name cities like San Francisco and Oakland for decades.
For more than five decades, in fact.
The legendary venue has spanned multiple physical venues across nearly 50 years and is set to toast its 50th anniversary in November and beyond. That celebration will, not surprisingly, center around some of the biggest names in music in the coming weeks – along with a number of surprise guests. If you have any intention of hitting the blizzard of live music performances that coincide with this anniversary, you better act fast.
“Sweetwater has been a little playpen for San Francisco and Marin musicians for 50 years now,” says Bob Weir. In 202, the venue honored its 50th anniversary throughout the month of November with performances from the likes of Garage A Trois (November 18–20), Big Brother & the Holding Company (November 4), Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (November 30) and Jason Crosby & Friends among others.
In 1972, the space at 153 Throckmorton Ave. became the Sweetwater, drawing music lovers to see a who’s who of stars like John Lee Hooker, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Bonnie Raitt, Sammy Hagar and Carlos Santana, among others. Fred Martin headed the Sweetwater’s first ownership group, later passing the baton to Jeannie Patterson, who transformed the venue into one of the country’s most respected showcases for American roots music.
She turned it over to Becky and Tom Steere in 1999. They closed it in 2007. A group of investors revived it in 2012, converting part of the Masonic Lodge near City Hall into one of the Bay Area’s best live venues.
MORE INFO ON THE SWEETWATER MUSIC HALL.