A very Chico scene

Will there be shade? It’s the eternal Chico question. And last Tuesday night (July 16), it was undoubtedly on the minds of those who rolled up to the Full Moon Series concert at the Hop Yard at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in the 90-plus-degree early evening.

As it turned out, by 7 p.m., when opener Pat Hull took the stage, the venue was already half out of the sun. An hour later, as headliner Surrogate started, the fully shaded crowd was framed by an orange sunset over the brewery, and in the other direction the band played against a backdrop of green hop vines bathed in the last glow of the day in the field behind the stage. With blankets and beach chairs scattered around the yard, and sun-tanned hands around pints of beer, it was a picture-perfect scene.

With so many rain-free days, and a populace that loves to get outside—no matter the temp—and groove at park concerts and music festivals, it’s surprising that Chico doesn’t have a permanent outdoor concert venue.

The Hop Yard isn’t a full-time music spot (yet), but it’s currently Chico’s best-suited option for outdoor shows. It opened in the spring of 2018 as a kind of satellite for the main pub. A bar was constructed from a couple of old shipping containers next to the hop fields, and around it a large fenced-in yard was covered in wood chips and decomposed granite. Tables and outdoor games (corn hole, etc.) were added to create an idyllic spot to enjoy an evening beer during the nonrainy months of the year.

Friday and Saturday nights, there’s also low-key live music (4:30-7:30 p.m., no cover charge) in the yard, and once a month—on full-moon nights—the brewery sets up a large temporary festival-style stage (fully covered and outfitted with sound and light system) for the Full Moon Series concerts. Before last week’s show, there’d been two installments in the 2019 edition—Seattle’s Moondoggies on May 18 (which actually was moved into the Big Room due to rain), and a jam-packed dance party on June 16 with Humboldt funk/reggae crew Diggin’Dirt and Chico’s Smokey the Groove.

Tuesday’s show was a more laid-back affair. Hull is one of Chico’s favorite folk singer/songwriters, yet when he performs or records with a band—as he did on this evening, adding electric guitar, bass and drums to his acoustic guitar—things get more groovy. It’s a subdued, kind of jazzy groove, though, and his light, beautiful vocals are still at the forefront. Highlights included a cappella harmonizing with bassist/vocalist Michael Bone at the end of “Flame,” and the rock-out jam of “Bring Me Closer”—the opening track on his latest album, Sera—to close the set.

Though Surrogate played a much louder brand of energetic rock, the crowd was mostly content to chill in low-back chairs and drink in the beers and the scene.

The longstanding local five-piece’s set was stacked with faves from across its four-album catalog. Singer/songwriter Chris Keene’s songs already are built on infectious hooks and unique and beautiful vocal melodies, but the arrangements and complementary moves by the band—with guitarist/vocalist Michael Lee, bassist Daniel Taylor, keyboardist Daniel Martin and drummer Jordan Mallory added to Keene’s vocals/guitar—make the music all the more impressive, especially in the use of well-placed shifts in volume. The songs are loud, but in a very purposeful way, such as on the incredible “Blank Page,” with push-pull dynamics that get power from the fact that the players aren’t afraid to really punch it as it shifts between sections.

As bassist Taylor explained from the stage, July’s was a full buck moon—a reference to the time of year when bucks are growing new antlers—and as darkness took over, the concert series’ namesake eventually cleared the top of the hop vines and took a spot in the night sky, creating another picture-perfect scene for the evening.

The next full moon happens on Aug. 15, and San Francisco’s Royal Jelly Jive will bring its weird, fun funky, rockin’ cabaret sound to the yard for the series. Also, word is that the brewery is going to test additional, non-full-moon shows in the venue, starting with the Summertime Brews event (featuring New Zealand pop-rockers, The Beths) this Saturday (July 27).