Berkeley B-Side

Leaving the concert, my legs had never been more tired from dancing with everyone in the room. My Wednesdays are usually packed with classes from 11 AM to 5  PM, but when Party of Two announced they were going on tour and reached out to Berkeley B-Side for coverage of the event, I couldn’t let it pass me by.

Over a phone call with my dad last weekend, in which we did our weekly tradition of sharing songs with one another, he put on Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga”.

Walking along the walls of The Fillmore made me feel part of something bigger–which is just what I needed amidst finals. Looking at the wall of the Fillmore, I first became annoyed because so many of the concert posters lining the walls had the most illegible fonts. As I continued to stare beyond the fonts, I then became too enamored with the pictures of musical legends and the commemoration of the memories made for so many people to care.

I first listened to Jenny Hval last spring, just a few months before her 2025 release Iris Silver Mist. I had picked up her book in the limited international section of an English bookstore in Lyon, France, while I was studying abroad. Paradise Rot, an English translation of Perlebryggeriet (Pearl Brewery), is Norwegian author and musician Jenny Hval’s first novel.

Now more than ever, it is crucial that we all remain intentional with the media we consume. The way we each move through the world and choose what we watch, read, and listen to reflects the ongoing loss of equitable representation in mainstream media. Too often, characters are written with only surface-level depth. The portrayal of marginalized groups in the media remains shallow and predictable, reinforcing narrow ideas of race, gender and sexuality.

“I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why” are all-too-familiar lyrics to a disillusioned twenty-something trying to get by in the United States. They come from one of the most gut-wrenching songs of all time: “America” by legendary folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. While the song was climbing the Billboard charts some 57 years ago, it seems to resonate over and over with various audiences since its release, with every generation finding a new reason to relate to its meaning.

Exiting the building, my shirt was damp. I’m still not sure if it was my own sweat or the people jumping around me in the mosh pit. Passing over the Bay Bridge from Berkeley into San Francisco felt like traveling through realms. San Francisco shared the same crisp air as Berkeley the night of the Danny Brown concert. I arrived at the Regency Ballroom around eight o’clock. I had recently become a fan of Danny Brown over the summer time when I discovered his vibrant album Hot Soup (2008).