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Close Enemies
No band drama here: These five virtuosos bring harmony to high-energy rock in shows highlighting their respective chops. Led by multiple Grammy Award-winner bass player Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, Close Enemies brings together drummer Tony Brock (The Babys and Rod Stewart), guitarists Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow and Don Henley) and Trace Foster and singer Chasen Hampton, who began his vocal career as a member of the Mickey Mouse Club. Bay Area rockers State Line Empire open
Jan. 9, 8 p.m., at The Guild Theatre, 949 El Camino Real, Menlo Park; $57-$115; guildtheatre.com.
Wax Moon and Ben Henderson
Little Green’s live music series kicks off 2026 with two acts that have deep roots in the South Bay music community. Acoustic duo Wax Moon features Paul Kimball (Careless Hearts) and John Blatchford (The Mumlers, Doctor Nurse), performing folk- and Americana-inflected ballads that soar with their blended vocals. Longtime San Jose songwriter and graphic designer Ben Henderson plays an eclectic mix of spirited, thoughtful tunes. Singer-songwriter Tala Newell is also featured.
Jan. 9, 8 p.m., at Little Green a Plant Bar, 1101 Main St., Redwood City; free admission; eventbrite.com.
‘Light and Memory’
Painter Bruce Washburn captures landscapes and cityscapes with the crisp lines and vivid hues that you might not expect from watercolor works. His paintings offer multilayered vistas, not only through the mosaic of buildings in a skyline or an undulating horizon of mountains and valleys, but in how he plays with a sense of memory in these scenes — both his own memories and sometimes imagined views from the past and future. Many of his works feature familiar scenes from the Peninsula, Bay Area and Northern California, including Edgewood Park, Los Altos, San Francisco, Mendocino and Yosemite National Park, as well as images from the Northeastern United States and Europe. Washburn will be on hand at a reception Jan. 10 and at Meet the Artist days Jan. 14 and 28.
Reception takes place Jan. 10, 1-4 p.m. Show runs through Jan. 31 at Portola Art Gallery, 75 Arbor Road, Menlo Park; portolaartgallery.com.
Keith Raffel
Peninsula resident Keith Raffel has had a career so unique that it sounds like something from a novel — former counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Silicon Valley CEO, Harvard scholar, Congressional candidate — and in fact, he’s a novelist, too. Already the author of five thrillers, Raffel began writing a syndicated column in 2023 that reflects on his time in Washington, D.C. and the current state of politics in the U.S. and the Middle East. Raffel has brought together some of those essays in a new collection, “The Raffel Ticket: Betting on America,” which was published in November. He discusses his new book in conversation with Zack Bodner, author of “Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto For 21st-Century Jewish Peoplehood,” in an appearance at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center.
Jan. 13, 7 p.m., Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto; $25 admission plus book/$15 admission only; paloaltojcc.org.
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