Calendar of Events

Unable to make the Stone Temple Pilots/Smashing Pumpkins concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre this week? This Friday, the Catalyst Club has the next best thing: tributes to both of those bands plus a tribute to the most iconic grunge band of all.

The ’90s will be back in full force at the Catalyst with a trio of tributes to grunge, grunge-adjacent and grunge-inspired bands: Elysium, a tribute to Nirvana; Stone Temple Peruvians, a tribute to Stone Temple Pilots; and Pumpkin Heads, a tribute to the Smashing Pumpkins. It is a concert where you can feel free to show up dressed in flannel, torn jeans and Doc Martens — or you may simply come as you are.

The concert is 8 p.m. Friday at the Catalyst Club, 1101 Pacific Ave. Doors open at 7:30. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. This is a 16-and-older concert. For more information, go to CatalystClub.com.

Tribute shows are the theme this week in the Santa Cruz area. Most are rock tribute acts, but Christian Youth Theater Santa Cruz will be going to the world of musical theater to pay tribute to one of its most prolific composers: Stephen Sondheim.

From 1952 until his death in 2021, Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for 19 major productions, including “West Side Story,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Into the Woods” and “Assassins.” Along the way, he won eight Tony Awards, eight Grammys, an Oscar, a Pulitzer Prize, a Kennedy Center Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The show will feature renditions of some of Sondheim’s most timeless works performed by both youth and adult vocalists, and proceeds will go toward youth educational performing arts programs.

The show begins at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave. Tickets are $35 for general admission and $50 for Gold Circle members. There will also be a VIP preshow soiree at 5:30. For more information, go to Cytsantacruz.org/sondheim2023/.

It has been 25 years since the world lost Frank Sinatra, inarguably one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century and still one of the best-selling artists of all time. Nonetheless, his spirit will live on as John Michael & the Chairmen perform a tribute to him at Kuumbwa Jazz titled “Summer Wind” Saturday.

Michael is no stranger to the Santa Cruz music scene, having performed with the Santa Cruz Symphony and the White Album Ensemble, but he has also opened for the likes of the Temptations, Huey Lewis & the News, Third Eye Blind and the Greg Kihn Band. He also has credentials as a Sinatra tribute performer, having played with the tribute ensemble Come Fly with Me. His renditions of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ most famous songs are something audiences will surely get a kick out of.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Kuumbwa Jazz, 320 Cedar St. Doors open at 6:45. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. For more information, go to KuumbwaJazz.org.

Beatlemania is back at Kuumbwa Jazz, as Keith Putney Productions presents an all-star tribute band performing both a landmark Beatles LP and a landmark Wings album.

First up is a complete performance of “Rubber Soul,” the Beatles’ watershed 1965 album that saw a giant leap forward in both songwriting and musical experimentation that the band would continue with for the rest of its career. Following that will be a complete performance of Paul McCartney and Wings’ chart-topping “Band on the Run,” which continued McCartney’s solo streak and spawned the hits “Jet,” the title track and “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.”

The band will even feature former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber as well as John Jorgensen (The Desert Rose Band), Jeff Alan Ross (Badfinger), Bill Cinque (Neil Diamond Band) and Christopher Allis (Mike Nesmith’s First National Band).

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Kuumbwa Jazz, 320 Cedar St. Doors open at 6:30. Advance ticket prices range from $50 to $150. For more information, go to KuumbwaJazz.org.

This week’s calendar was compiled by Nick Sestanovich.

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