877-598-8497
Given the venue's recent multimillion dollar transformation, who better to christen the Masonic for its grand reopening than Beck, the most beloved rock chameleon this side of David Bowie? While there are things about the location that no amount of cash infusion can fix (the Nob Hill auditorium is the only place I've ever had to take a cab to after parking), the new Masonic ditches the hall's old semicircle performance space for a more traditional flat-fronted stage, an open tiered floor, new lighting and sound systems as well as several actual bars to replace the old folding tables from which drinks were once served in the lobby. While Beck got solid notices when his somber, Laurel Canyon-inspired album Morning Phase came out earlier this year, he wisely has been mixing the melancholy acoustic tunes with white-boy funk party starters drawn from his classic albums Odelay, Midnight Vultures, and Guero at live shows. Fronting the reunited crew of musicians who made up his formidable live band from the late 1990s including guitarist Smokey Hormel and wildly afro'd bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Beck takes his fans on an eclectic, career-spanning jaunt through his back catalog when he returns to the Bay Area less than a month after headlining the First City Festival in Monterey.
877-598-8497
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