From the waves to the redwoods, it's all happening here.

Make the MAH your first stop this weekend with FREE First Friday. Explore all three floors of the museum and see our latest exhibitions, check out our giftshop, and hangout among art and history! Then stay into the night dancing to live music out in Abbott Square. First Friday hours are 12-8pm. See you then!

On August 8th, composer Clarice Assad’s new commissioned work, Kontrol, will premiere at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. The afternoon before, Assad will join D. Riley Nicholson, Executive Director of the Cabrillo Festival, and Pranav Anand, Faculty Director of The Humanities Institute, for a pre-rehearsal discussion about the inspirations for the piece, which explores impacts of AI on musical creation and performance, both now and in the near future. Stay afterward for the final rehearsal of Kontrol before the premiere on the 8th. Free and open to the public.

Free summer block party in Midtown Santa Cruz featuring live music, food trucks, local artists, makers, and family fun.

Offshore Sounds First Friday in Santa Cruz. Late hours at the record shop with local vinyl DJs and new arrivals.

5:30-7:30pm Local Honey is a Santa Cruz-based band that drips with honey sweet harmony and hums with tight, inventive musicianship. Local Honey's repertoire pays homage to some of the the big voices of the last seven decades, including Big Mama Thornton, Rachael Price, Gladys Knight, Stevie Nicks, Grace Slick, and Amy Winehouse, among other divas. They seek out feel-good songs with strong vocals and infectious beats and make them their own. Though Local Honey is a new band, all of them are veterans of the Santa Cruz and Monterey music scenes. Members have worked with Honeytone, Ten O'Clock Lunch, Come Together, Backyard Birds, Menage, and Bay Bop. Over the years they've played in different combinations at many venues, including Michael's on Main, Chaminade, Davenport Roadhouse, Hallcrest Vineyards, Joe's Bar and the Food Lounge.

Fully Charged will be ROCKING the Music Under the Stars Friday night concert series at Four Points by Sheraton in Scotts Valley on Friday, August 7th. The show starts at 5:30 PM. Summer Fun! Party Time! 🥳💃🏼🕺🏻🎸🤘🏽 Great drinks, food, and a beautiful outdoor space to dance the night away! Location is: 5030 Scotts Valley Dr, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 - FULLY CHARGED

August First Friday 8/7/26 Music by Audio 3t7 Art by Edu Cerro Free!! Event runs 6-9pm

Rebecca Coupe Franks / Trumpet Nancy Heth / Vocals and Piano

We are a cover band out of San Jose playing a mix of Jam Band, R&B and Classic Rock. We tend to play songs just off the beaten track but that people still recognize. We cover a very wide variety of artists including Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Stevie Wonder, Hall and Oates, Eric Clapton, Phish, Paul Simon, Jimmy Cliff and more.

Jug band music is often just seen as goofy, but it also has a rich history. It was born in the 1910s in the Southern United States. It blends African, European, and American styles of music. It can be played casually on a corner or a porch or professionally at large events like the Kentucky Derby. The genre even saw a revival in the 1950s. Today jug band music has expanded to include those who play the original jug band songs or people who use homemade instruments to make music. Members of the jug band Trolley Drop, Greg Meyer and Peter Thomas, will be diving deep into this fascinating and colorful history at the MAH. -Isabella Marie Sangaline; Good Times Santa Cruz

Every first and third Fridays at Cat Alley Street, our beat conductors take you on a high-style ride showcasing underground street sounds- Brought to you by Subterrestrials Records. Doors and Bar open at 6pm, Music at 9pm. No Cover, 21+

An outdoor music event held in the plaza, offering a chance to enjoy live performance in downtown Watsonville.

ALO stands for Animal Liberation Orchestra - because music liberates the inner animal, of course. As liberated as they come, Zach Gill, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, and Steve Adams have certainly been at this a long time. The trio met while still pre-teens in Saratoga, California, where they quickly connected through their love of music. In junior high, they got the idea to put together a band for their eighth-grade talent show. Zach recounts the struggle of the emerging artist thusly: “It’s hard to get all the pieces right, you know, you’re chasing a dream and an abstract vision, and you’re going through puberty. It’s kind of a lot.” Lebo elaborates, “We met at a time in our lives where we were coming of age and craving identity. Music, and more specifically, our band, gave us a vessel with which we could ‘set sail’ on the ocean of life”. And the rest is history, but history is always a crooked path. You end up where you belong, but the journey is never quite what you expected when you took the first step. Twenty five years in, Gill (keyboards/vocals), Lebo (guitar/vocals), Adams (bass, vocals) and newest addition, Bay Area drum legend-in-training Ezra Lipp (drums, vocals), have recorded their greatest work to date. Quite simply, this is what happens when a band doesn’t break up – the culmination of a lifetime of shared effort and camaraderie, four master collaborators at the peak of their craft with nothing left to prove, a near-telepathic cohesion. These guys have played with everybody. From royalty like Phil Lesh and members of the Grateful Dead to So Cal surf-troubadour Jack Johnson. If the show happened in California, you’ll almost always find one of them in the corner of the shot and, sometimes, even in the center. But you don’t really hear the band’s magic until you hear them together. And it urges repeat listening, because it’s a rich stew that only fully reveals itself with time, attention, a few tears, and a lot of love. ALO call their music “jam-pop,” and the de

Zach Adleman performs live at Kuumbwa Jazz in Santa Cruz for an evening of music.

Santa Cruz's premier JGB tribute band, Tiger's Tale performs well-known R&B, Motown, reggae, country rock, blues and soul selections from the Garcia-Saunders songbook. Tiger was the name of Jerry Garcia's most-played guitar, and the last one he performed with in the Jerry Garcia Band before he died. What tales would Tiger tell if it were played again? Come hear Tiger’s Tale and find out! Tiger's Tale is: Jim Lewin, guitar & vocals (Edge of the West) Tatiana Peña, backing vocals (Floratura) Diana Zitmanis, backing vocals (Edge of the West) Josh Salesin, keyboards (FunkUrSoul) Sebastian Hegenbart, bass (Redwood Express) Michael Owens, drums (China Cats) Artist sights & sounds: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tigerstale.band/ Facebook: facebook.com/TigersTale Youtube: youtube.com/@TigersTale

Moes Alley presents the soulful sounds of Eric Lindell & The Westside Summer League! Friday, August 7, 2026Doors: 7pm / Show: 8pm$30 in advance / $35 day of the show21+* No Refunds | All sales are final* Avoid scammers! Only purchase tickets from moesalley.com or ticketweb.com* Tickets requested by email will be delivered 3 days prior to the event* Will Call tickets will be available at the door on the day of the event====ERIC LINDELLBorn in San Mateo, California in 1969, Lindell spent countless hours in San Francisco, soaking up the musical sounds of the city, eventually leading him to pick up first the bass and then the guitar and harmonica. With a love of music and skateboarding, Lindell formed a few punky garage bands early on while his musical horizons expanded. He listened to the deep blues of Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Jimmy Reed and Albert King before drifting toward the R&B sounds of The Impressions, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, soaking up the soul and learning how to craft a song. After performing at bars on the West Coast with a few short-lived bands, Eric formed his own group in 1993. He quickly gained a loyal Northern California audience thanks to countless performances and many late-night jam sessions. Established stars like Charlie Musselwhite and Tom Waits attended his shows, as did overflow crowds of music fans.

Zen Meditation. Open to all. Free of charge.

No set up - nothing special just stage space

Learn about the origins and practice of Iranian dance in this talk and performance by Dr. Farima Berenji. She will discuss Iranian rituals and beliefs in relation to dance, as well as how Iranian culture has impacted global music and dance traditions. There will be a short performance and audience participation dance as part of the program. Registration is recommended, and walk-ins are welcome. https://santacruzpl.libnet.info/event/16520725 Rooted in one of the world's oldest civilizations, the traditions of Iranian/Persian sacred dance and music embody the profound wisdom of our ancestors. Observing nature, the stars, and the rhythms of life, they crafted movements expressing love, strength, and spiritual transcendence. These rituals continue to inspire cultures worldwide, preserving a legacy of mysticism and artistic expression. Author Dr. Farima Berenji presents her research upon the evolutionary origins and practice of Iranian rituals, beliefs, and dances, exploring how Iranian culture permeated global music and dance traditions, developing distinctly from its sister nations. All this is explored in her book Companions of the Sun. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Join us for live music, 5 boutique wines & charcuterie at our ridge top winery!

Kanekoa, band of limitless possibilities, is one of Hawaii’s premier live music experiences, selling out shows wherever they perform.

Stax Johnson is an independent rock and blues artist based out of California's Central Coast. With B3 hammond organs coupled with smooth guitar licks and deep rooted back beats, he transcends musical genres while incorporating pieces of the blues, rock and roll, and soul into a style all his own. Stax Johnson and his band have performed at various festivals and venues across the U.S. with artists that include Robbie Krieger of The Doors, Chris Isaak, Leon Russell, The Pointer Sisters, The Guess Who, John Mayall, Charlie Musselwhite, Ratt, Greg Kihn, Blues Traveler, Y&T, and The Blue Oyster Cult. Stax Johnson & Company includes Manny Castro(bass guitar and vocals), Robbie Bohn (lead guitar and vocals), Brad Burchell (drums), and Stax Johnson(guitar, keys, vocals, and harmonica).