This Weekend: Albany Gets Loud and a New Voice Debuts on MLK
The back half of July hands the East Bay a weekend built for the small-room devotee — no arena, no fuss, just two very different rooms doing exactly what they do best. Here's where to point yourself Thursday through Sunday.
Start in Albany. On Thursday, July 23, The Ivy Room (860 San Pablo Ave) hosts Bliss Abyss with The Queen & I and stillyouung — a bill of alternative and indie rock that fits the venue's shoegaze-and-scuzz house style like a glove. Doors at 7, music at 7:30, 21-and-up, valid ID or bust. The Ivy Room is one of those jewel-box rooms where the stage is close enough to read the setlist taped to the monitor, and a lineup this reverb-heavy is going to make the most of every square foot. Get there early; the good spots against the stage go fast, and there aren't many of them.
Then swing back into Oakland, where the more intriguing story of the weekend is a beginning rather than a headliner. Vocalist MaryAnne Muglia makes her debut at Eli's Mile High Club. Debut nights are a particular kind of gamble worth taking: no back catalog, no expectations, just a singer stepping up to a hometown mic for the first time in a room that has launched more than a few careers. Whether Muglia is a jazz stylist, a soul belter or something harder to file, the only way to find out is to be there, and Eli's is precisely the low-stakes, high-warmth room where a first show should happen.
That's the beauty of a slow-news weekend in The Town. When the marquee is quiet, the scene's actual engine shows itself — the debut sets, the touring indie bands routing through a bar in Albany, the rooms where tomorrow's headliners are currently forty-dollar door splits. The Fox and the Greek will have their blockbuster nights soon enough (mark your calendar for August; it's stacked). This weekend is for the people who understand that the best show they'll see all year is one they can't yet name.
Two rooms, two neighborhoods, two entirely different volumes. Bring cash. Bring a friend who trusts your taste. And if Muglia's debut lands the way debuts sometimes do, you'll want to be able to say you were in the room.
Sources: Ivy Room show — Bliss Abyss, Jul 23; Oaklandside: This week in Oakland, July 23–26; Ivy Room Shows