It’s another big weekend in the Bay Area with STS9 (aka Sound Tribe Sector Nine) making their highly anticipated return to the region with two shows at Oakland’s Fox Theater on 15-16 November. It’s been over a year since the illustrious instrumental quintet’s previous shows in the region, a special two-night stand at the Quarry Amphitheater in Santa Cruz in August of 2023. The group used to play around the Bay Area several times a year, but they’re not touring as heavily in recent years, so each performance has become even more coveted.
There are some heavy vibes in the air, though, in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election on 5 November, as well as the passing of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh at age 84 on 25 October. STS9 are certainly a band with their own sound. Still, when they relocated from Georgia to Santa Cruz around the turn of the millennium, they soon found themselves following in the Dead’s footsteps, becoming one of the top draws at the fabled Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Thus, STS9 became part of the local lineage in the psychedelic rock counterculture, where Lesh was a seminal trailblazer from the 1960s to the 21st century.
Local fans received some catharsis when Joe Russo’s Almost Dead had a synchronistic gig at the Fox Theater on 25 October, delivering an electrifying and powerful show for the ages in Lesh’s honor. But there’s still a sense of loss since it’s only been three weeks, so there’s conjecture as to whether STS9 might play “Shakedown Street” (played on a handful of occasions) or even “Dark Star” (which they’re believed to have played just once, upon returning to the Fillmore for a milestone show in 2016.)
“Darkest Before Dawn” is an early highlight on Friday night, a beautiful tune from the group’s latest Chromalight album that hints at transcending the current political situation. There’s a tight segue into “Metameme” from 2008’s Peaceblaster. This vibrant tune blends ambient layers of psychedelia over a smooth groove before accelerating into a hot drum and bass jam with wicked breakbeats from ever-amazing drummer Zach Velmer. “Real and Imagined” has a mesmerizing trance dance sound, synth psychedelia from keyboardist David Phipps, and spacey lines from guitarist Hunter Brown. The melodies swirl around a tight beat from Velmer and ace percussionist Jeffree Lerner over a pulsing groove from bassist Alana Rocklin. Old-school jams like “Surreality” and “Kamuy” find the quintet hitting on all cylinders.
The second set sees STS9 taking their heady sonic explorations to a deeper level. A spirited “Scheme Reprise” features a vocal sample of famous civil rights activist Medgar Evers speaking about winning “the fight for freedom”. The vibe surges higher still on the powerful “EHM”, an anthemic tune from 2009’s Ad Explorata that merges a menacing tone with an insurgent rebelliousness. The song is a tribute to author John Perkins and his 2004 best-selling book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, an eye-opening expose on Uncle Sam’s global predatory corporate capitalism (see PopMatters’ 2016 interview with Perkins about his sequel, which exposed how the EHM system had come home to roost in the USA.)
“EHM” cranks up the energy level in a big way before the tone shifts on “Just Thanks”, as the STS9 dig into a deep cut with a very groovy melodic jam and funky vibe somewhat reminiscent of another fan fave deep cut, “Muir Soul”, which finally returned to the repertoire in 2023 in Denver and Santa Cruz. The quintet gel for some masterful tone science here, with Phipps mixing nifty piano lines and rippling synths over an infectious groove for an uplifting, feel-good jam as a wave of euphoric bliss washes over the audience. That’s what it’s all about, as it feels like STS9 conjure pure mana for the soul with their wizardly sonic alchemy.
The uplifting vibes continue to flow on “Walk to the Light”, featuring a vocal sample singing the title over a surging chorus section. The song pairs well thematically with “World Go Round” from 2016’s The Universe Inside, another upbeat jam encouraging personal empowerment among the whole tribe. “From Now On” features excellent guitar/piano interplay over the rhythm section’s counterpoint. The outro section feels like everyone is soloing simultaneously yet seamlessly together for a collective sound greater than the sum of the parts to conclude the sensational set. Longtime fan fave “Baraka” brings it all together again for a gorgeous sonic landscape in the encore slot, with Brown’s harmonics over Phipps’ upbeat piano melodies that function almost like another percussion instrument before the whole quintet soars together again.
Saturday, 16 November
The Saturday night show picks up where Friday left off, which is to say, with the tone scientists of STS9 continuing to play at a very high level. It feels like an even more festive vibe out in the audience, and local favorite “Golden Gate” taps into the mood with its shimmering synth melodies and polyrhythmic beats. STS9 even throw in a special tease of Funkadelic‘s classic “One Nation Under a Groove”, with Hunter Brown playing the vocal melody on his guitar: “One nation under a groove, Gettin’ down just for the funk of it, One nation and we’re on the move, Nothin’ can stop us now…” It’s a triumphant moment that elevates the vibe to an even higher level as STS9 signal that this will be a night to remember.
“Abcees” features an extended intro with a groovy swagger that goes deep, before a hot jam on throwback classic “Blu Mood”. The funky beat and melodies ignite more dance party action across the theater, with Rocklin throwing down some monster bass that powers a ten-minute jam with dynamic low end. The psychedelic light show is on point here and throughout the night, synthesizing the classic formula of music, light, and color that powered the psychedelic rock genre’s origins.
STS9 come out blazing in the second set with the ever-exhilarating “20-12” to ignite maximum positive vibes while also serving as an ongoing reminder that we are still in the Mayan calendar’s 2012 era of transformation. STS9 performed a noble service to the music community by ringing in that new Galactic Cycle on the beach at their Mayan Holidaze festival in Tulum, Mexico, on 21 December 2012, and the band have continued to carry the transformative vibrations forward.
“Searchlight” is a new tune from Chromalight that hits home here at the Fox with an upbeat sound that features killer synths from Phipps and polyrhythms from Lerner to generate a cosmic cowboy vibe. “Peaceblaster ’68” into “Peaceblaster ’08” is another combo that highlights the band’s distinctive sound and how the struggle for social justice plays out over the decades. With STS9 rocking on for more than a quarter century, they’ve become part of the soundtrack for the 21st century. Some trippy, arpeggiated synths ripple through time and space over the pulsing groove as the jam soars.” Never, Never” also has interdimensional synths over a groovy beat, with lots of getting down and going down all over the Fox.
“Click Lang Echo”, which debuted in 2014, elevates the set with a vibrant, feel-good jam that artfully nicks the triumphant chord change from the Who‘s “Baba O’Riley”, before melodic piano and guitar lead a stellar 15 minutes of sonic bliss. A frenetic jam about getting down on “Shaky Ground” concludes the set in an energetic, if perhaps too hyper-kinetic fashion. But what comes next in the encore slot is what will long be remembered by those in attendance, as STS9 drop a groovy cosmic funk bomb with their classic “Gobnugget”. The tight, funky groove sets the stage for a transcendent climax as STS9 move into their instrumental arrangement of the Grateful Dead’s prototype psychedelic classic “Dark Star”.
It’s a truly magical moment of catharsis for the community in the wake of Phil Lesh’s passing three weeks earlier, as STS9 signal that the torch will continue to burn. The quintet double down by using “Dark Star” as a platform for a scintillating drum and bass jam that builds off the “Dark Star” melody as the music plays. A pulsing bass line from Rocklin powers an interdimensional jam as Brown and Phipps weave their melodies, while Velmer and Lerner keep the beats flying across the space-time continuum from the 2020s to the 1960s and back. It’s hard to understate how much this moment means to longtime fans of both groups, but STS9 know because these tone scientists have long demonstrated that they always know what time it is.
