The Monkey House

12/20/2025

12/15/2025

We did it--we raised $1,490! Thanks to the performers who put on such an incredible show Saturday night -- Emily Zisman, Shelley Doty, Maurice Tani, The Erica Hockett Trio, Alexis Harte (and me). You and all the great folks who donated put a lot of food on a lot of plates during a difficult (and COLD) winter. (Our total also includes a $50 check someone wrote..) Everyone present on Saturday night was DAZZLED by the quality and variety of the music -- as well as the experience of coming together to help heal this world in a small but powerful way. Thanks to you all.

12/11/2025

SHELLEY DOTY is a monster singer, songwriter and guitar player—bringing high energy electricity to an acoustic format, with songs that are infectious and yet often sweet and disarming. (You may know her from her off-the-charts band SKIP THE NEEDLE — they play regularly at the Freight.)

ALEXIS HARTE is today’s answer to Nick Drake—moody and profound—but this time with a sense of humor! An impressive guitarist, his instantly memorable songs are delivered with wit and heart, lyrics shimmering with visual detail.

ERICA HOCKETT just played here last Saturday and delighted us all with her incredible vocals and arrangements — transforming songs we already love into songs we love even more. Saturday she’ll bring her most excellent trio and you don’t want to miss it.

MAURICE TANI‘s “wry to romantic” style serves up thumbnail portraits of American life — from late night radio stations to main street ghost towns — crooning and growling through a unique catalog of highly original “country jazz”. These are finely-crafted songs of unusual intelligence and sophistication.

EMILY ZISMAN is yet another tremendous singer on this bill with a voice that’s keenly emotive, delivered in a style that feels instinctive and effortless. Her songs take us from the plains of Nebraska to the depths of the heart — stories of love, loss, and coming to terms with difficult choices.

IRA MARLOWE (a.k.a. “me”) will open the show with two songs about homelessness and hunger, and then perhaps a few about gratitude — for having an actual home and eating way too much during the holidays.

Please join us and pitch in to help others do the same.

Ira

12/10/2025

I REALLY, REALLY hope we get a good crowd for this. All these uber-talented folks are lending their time to this cause and we want to raise enough cash to make up for a bunch of those lost SNAP payments! Come on over!!!

12/03/2025

Reserve seats through our www.themonkeyhouse.org website, or just COME ON OVER!

11/21/2025

Is the Bay Area still the Bay Area? Do we still care about taking care of our own in a very difficult time? I hope this amazing show will be packed to the walls with generous souls.

08/04/2025

Loretta Lynch are spectacular--three amazing women singing three-party harmony, with lyrics that snap and bite and grab on tight to the punk part of cow-punk. They've allowed two fine males into their band and we're all the better for it. Meanwhile, The Slow Reveal lost our second guitarist and have somehow come out ahead--tighter, more focused, and as Nigel Tufnel might add, "ready to ROCK YOU." (We'll also break your heart with some weepers...) Next Sunday afternoon at the only bar in town with a twenty-five-cent pinball machine. NOT A MONKEY HOUSE SHOW. (A Monkey-in-Chief show...)