Perhaps it’s up to the artist, then, to decide when they’ve reached the next echelon. For San Diego synth-pop duo Glass Spells, it came down to a moment.

The band opened up Huntington Beach’s Darker Waves Festival in the fall of 2023, performing for tens of thousands of people and sharing the stage with some of the most legendary new wave and post-punk bands, including New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Tears for Fears.

“[I] felt like, ‘Is this real life?’” says keyboardist Anthony Ramirez. “I was blown away. Just being around all the other artists—walking to your trailer and [seeing] all these other musicians, it’s like, ‘Whoa. I never expected to be near these people.’”

Glass Spells’ ascent to this stage, crossing paths with new wave and goth royalty, was a long time coming. Ramirez first launched the group back in 2013 with an entirely different lineup and a somewhat darker sound, leaning heavily on the more pronounced gloom of post-punk groups like Joy Division. (The genre descriptor the band used at the time was “disco goth,” which also became the name of the still-ongoing, seasonal, curated event that they launched.)

But when the members of that version of Glass Spells eventually parted ways, Ramirez saw a new opportunity for the band and asked his friend Tania Costello if she was interested in making music together. After an inaugural trial run in a DIY performance space in San Diego in early 2019, the duo hit the ground running, quickly building up an audience that connected with their goth-tinged, synth-driven pop, carrying the influence of some of their favorite artists from the ’80s. 

“We overlap in our love of ’80s music,” says Costello, the band’s vocalist. “That’s definitely where we connect the most. [Ramirez] comes from more of a Siouxsie and the Banshees background—more punk in a way. And then I’m over here with the Cyndi Lauper, Human League side of the ’80s.”

In 2021, Glass Spells released their debut album, Shattered, a super catchy, beat-driven set of pop songs that pair the immersive melancholy of The Cure with the pop immediacy of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark—or for those born after 1981, a little bit of M83 or Nation of Language. The group followed that album with their 2023 single “Hechizos,” a bright and danceable synth-pop anthem draped in neon and featuring Costello singing lyrics in Spanish. As of yet, they haven’t announced a new album to go along with it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not in the works. “We’re cooking,” Costello says.

And they’ve been busy nevertheless. Despite leveling up to bigger audiences and stages with more impressive square footage, the duo remain almost totally DIY behind the scenes, handling most of their business affairs on their own (though they do have a booking agent), including social media. Their 131,000-follower (at time of publishing) Instagram feed is rife with videos depicting the duo performing their dreamy pop anthems in front of familiar San Diego locales such as Chicano Park and Balboa Park, as well as in cities they’ve played on tour. 

“It’s been a learning experience,” Ramirez says of their do-it-yourself approach. “We didn’t really think about all the admin work that goes into it. It’s a lot of emailing back and forth and messages, and it can get overwhelming on top of trying to play your shows.” 

Fresh off a turn at Pasadena festival Cruel World (where they shared a venue with Siouxsie Sioux), Glass Spells is now embarking upon a headlining tour that will see them deliver a hometown show at the Observatory North Park. The bar for success is likely to creep ever higher, but they’re still taking the moment to enjoy where they are, to savor the memory of that sea of faces at their afternoon set at Darker Waves.

“We didn’t think many people would come out, because, normally, people might think, ‘Oh, I’ll wait until the sun goes down,’” Costello says. “But we looked out into the crowd, and it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger as we were playing. People were singing along in the crowd, and the front row had quite a few fans wearing Glass Spells t-shirts. Even speaking about right now just gives me so much euphoria.”

Glass Spells perform at The Observatory North Park on Saturday, July 20.

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June 6: Father John Misty, Jason Isbell at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre

You’d be hard pressed to find two better contemporary storytellers through music than Jason Isbell and Father John Misty. Each one is a different kind of troubadour; Isbell is thoughtful and reflective, while Misty (whose real name is Josh Tillman) cuts his confessions with potent doses of irony and cynicism. What they share, however, is an unflinching honesty that makes every last verse a gripping one, even when they’re opening up about hitting rock bottom.

June 18: Jamila Woods at The Casbah

Jamila Woods doesn’t have the same name recognition as a lot of the artists featured in this roundup, but listeners would do themselves a massive favor delving into her new album, LEGACY! LEGACY! A singer, songwriter, and poet who’s collaborated with fellow Chicago artists such as Saba and Chance the Rapper, Woods pays tribute to a number of artists—Zora Neale Hurston, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters, James Baldwin—through songs with all-caps titles (“MILES,” “ZORA,” etc.) that take hard-grooving stylistic twists and turns. It’s easily among the year’s best, and the opportunity to see her perform in such an intimate venue probably won’t be around long.

June 26: Anderson .Paak at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre

Back in January I had Anderson .Paak on my wish list of Coachella acts I hoped would make their way a little southwest to grace us with their live show. Well, wish granted! Paak’s been especially productive of late, having released two albums—Oxnard and Ventura—within six months of each other, each of which features his signature feel-good R&B and funk. Still, a set full of standouts from his 2016 album Malibu would be more than enough to convince me to catch this show.

July 20: Beck and Cage the Elephant at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre

Though I don’t often listen to Beck’s most recent batch of records, I still contend that he’s one of the best live acts I’ve seen. He was amazing when I saw him in 1997 on the Odelay tour. And he was amazing in 2002 when he performed backed by The Flaming Lips. Those might be hard performances to live up to in the scheme of things, but at his core Beck is a showman, and he’ll no doubt deliver a killer performance.

August 3: The B-52s at Embarcadero Marina Park South

For some reason The B-52s have proven, anecdotally, to be somewhat polarizing. It might have something to do with the fact that they make music to serve pretty much one purpose: To have fun. I fail to see the problem, personally, especially when songs like “Rock Lobster”  are still as much of a blast 40 years later (or so I’d assume; I wasn’t yet born in 1979). So yeah, there’s plenty of room for serious music, but don’t expect to come to this show—which is part of the San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights series—and have a bad time.

August 8: Carly Rae Jepsen at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay

Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2015 album Emotion was a high point for millennial pop. Though I’ll admit I came to it a little late after requiring some much needed space from 2012’s ubiquitous “Call Me Maybe,” I was stunned to discover that the Canadian artist had created one of the most endlessly playable, fun, and joyful pop records of recent years. She’s releasing its follow-up, Dedicated, later this week, and I look forward to finding out where she goes next. In the meantime, I’m game to hear “Run Away with Me” a few hundred more times. (A bit of advice: Don’t attempt that song at karaoke unless you know you have the range for it.)

August 20: Herbie Hancock at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay

Last year, I spent about a month listening to a significant chunk of Herbie Hancock’s catalog. And let it be known that from 1962 up until the mid-’70s, there’s not a bum note to be heard. He’s one of the most significant players in jazz history, not only releasing his own groundbreaking albums like Mwandishi and Head Hunters, but his name can be found in the credits of literally hundreds of albums, having performed with the likes of Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder. And the jazz pioneer is still going strong.

August 22: Kacey Musgraves at Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre

Kacey Musgraves is another artist I featured on my Localchella Wish List back in January, and since then she won the Album of the Year Grammy for her 2018 LP, Golden Hour. And it’s well deserved. Though she might not be obliterating genre in the same way that Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” is, she’s certainly offering a different and more diverse kind of country that boldly, seamlessly incorporates disco, rock, indie folk, and other styles. She’s a treasure.

August 28: Smashing Pumpkins at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre

Smashing Pumpkins have had a hit-or-miss record over the past decade or so, and up until recently that’s meant a version of the band with few original members other than Billy Corgan. Yet last year the band embarked on a 25th anniversary tour for their classic album Siamese Dream, with a setlist full of hits from their first four albums as well as soundtrack highlights such as “Eye” and even a number of covers. Far be it from me to celebrate a “just play the hits” point of view, but seeing some of the setlists from that tour makes me think this is the ideal way to see the band.

Other San Diego summer concerts to put on your calendar:

Oh Sees at Belly Up (June 14)

Charly Bliss at The Casbah (June 29)

Jackie Mendoza at Soda Bar (July 14)

Jill Scott at Humphreys (August 4)

Snail Mail at The Irenic (August 21)

Chris Isaak at Humphreys Concerts by The Bay (August 28)

San Diego Summer Concert Preview 2019

Kacey Musgraves | Photo: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

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Sunset Poolside Jazz Series at the Westgate Hotel

Photo by Ramazan Benrashid / Raymond Elstad

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