D-Constructed

Storming more than 4,000 stages across the globe, Night Ranger returns to San Diego. (Photo by the author) It didn’t take long for Night Ranger frontman Jack Blades to address the elephant in the room when he greeted the grandstand-filled crowd at the San Diego County Fair on June 17, opening for headliner Bret Michaels. “We played here in 1984 and 1987.

Zinadelphia has opened for Teddy Swims and Tori Kelly, among others. Now she’s headlining her own shows. (Photo by the author) Tucked in the belly of the elegantly restored Lafayette Hotel on El Cajon Boulevard, you’ll find one of San Diego’s most historically significant jazz clubs. And yet, many might not realize that it’s still a thriving music venue today. Built in 1946, the North Park hotel, then known as Imig Manor, became a retreat for Hollywood’s elite.

This year’s fest is expected to attract 12,000 attendees over four days. (Brad Elligood) Each May, Mission Bay trades flip-flops for two-steps as Gator by the Bay rolls in with its signature mix of zydeco, blues and crawfish. For the first time in its 23-year history, the festival is adding a free Cajun Kickoff Party, giving the community an early taste of the sights, sounds and flavors that define this Mardi Gras-in-May tradition.

St. Paul preaches to his flock. (Photo by the author) St. Paul & The Broken Bones delivered a powerful message the day before Easter, filling The Sound on April 4 with one of its fullest houses in recent memory. From the opening chords, the eight-piece band tapped into a higher power, and it clearly resonated with the crowd. After an extended instrumental jam, the first of several throughout the night, frontman Paul Janeway emerged in a white suit, black shirt and eye-catching sequined slip-ons.

Rockin’ the Casbah: Louis XIV reunited in 2025 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its breakout album. (Photo by the author) On April 4, Louis XIV will take the stage at the North Park Festival of Beers, the annual sampling of 80-plus craft brews held in front of the historic Lafayette Hotel. It’s a fittingly unpretentious setting for a band that has spent its entire career being widely misunderstood.

Childhood friends Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald front OB’s Slightly Stoopid. (Sanjay Suchak) When Slightly Stoopid takes the stage at Petco Park on June 13 for the inaugural Field of Dreamz Festival, it will not only mark a major milestone for the Ocean Beach band; it will also quite literally be a dream come true. “Being able to team up with the Padres in your own hometown to put on a festival in the ballpark … I don’t even have the right words for it,” said band co-founder Miles Doughty.

Vote for your favorites in 27 categories through March 31 This week, the San Diego Music Awards (SDMA) unveiled their 2026 nominees across 27 categories. The ballot spans blues, jazz, R&B, rock, alternative, hip-hop, country and world music, underscoring the depth and diversity of our local music scene.

Quick hits in music news THEN: Eagles in the early days. (Courtesy of the band) Eagles Flying High … Into the Sunset After 55 years, the Eagles have never been bigger. As the band prepares to wrap its record-breaking 58-night residency at Sphere in Las Vegas on April 11, its iconic 1976 best-of, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), has been declared the best-selling album in U.S. history, with 40 million units sold. Inside Sphere’s dome during the Eagles’ show.

Gibbons achieves his trademark dirty sound by using a peso as a pick on ultra-light strings and pushing the sound through vintage tube amps. What’s the next best thing to seeing ZZ Top? Catching Billy F. Gibbons and the BFG Band, of course. Gibbons, ZZ Top’s centerpiece and masterful guitarist, launched the side project in 2015, and he’s been known to work a few of his iconic blues-rock band’s songs into BFG’s sets. Anyone at the trio’s Jan.

Yesterday, Olivia Dean received five 2026 Brit Awards nominations, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year. (Courtesy Olivia Dean’s Instagram) I’ve always fancied myself a bit of an A&R guy with an ear for talent. Sure, certain songs appeal to my personal taste, but every so often I get a feeling that someone isn’t just good, but genuinely special, and they’re on the precipice of making it big before they do.