Bailen brings the crowd on a wild ride at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco California August 20 2026

On Thursday, August 20, 2026, I made my way to San Francisco, California to the Cafe Du Nord. The event that night was Bel opening for Bailen and what a show it was.

When Bel hit the stage, there were like 20 people in the room, but by the second song it was packed and getting fuller. It is wild how that happens, but it does. She started with “I Want,” and from there I knew I would be listening to her a lot. She said she was from LA before she started the next song, “Carry Me To Bed”. That song was dreamy in the way it was written, and she played it beautifully. All of her music has that sound that rocks your senses, and the next two songs were awesome in that regard. She played “Read Between” and “Holy Grail,” and the quickly filling up crowd was very supportive with their rounds of applause. For “Fresh Start,” she wanted some dancing to happen, and boy did it. Everyone started dancing, and it was special. When she entered the next song, she said it was an older one called “Lights”.

What a fabulous song it was. Mellow and well written, she got her point across. The next two were “Only Want You” and the wonderful “Parachute”. Those songs were fabulous as she played them to a stunning response from the crowd. The next song was a bilingual song called “Amor,” and it bounced between English and Spanish with the ease of the other English-only songs. It was really special to her and to all of us. “Party Tricks” was up next, followed by “American Dream”. That brought us to the final song. That song was “Are You Okay?” and that song had so much meaning written into it. It really was a heartfelt song asking if we were all okay. It was a song that will go down as one of my favorites.

Setlist

1). I Want

2). Carry Me To Bed

3). Read Between

4). Holy Grail

5). Fresh Start

6). Lights

7). Only Want You

8). Parachute

9). Amor

10). Party Tricks

11). American Dream

12). Are You Okay?

When Bailen hit the stage, everyone was amped for it, and they did not disappoint. This three-piece band played to their harmonies and their abilities on their instruments, all while being brothers and sisters. They started with “Swim!!!” to everyone’s delight. The next song was “I Was Wrong”, which was a huge fan favorite, as you could tell by the applause at the beginning of the song. It was a solid song that they played for all of us in the crowd who had made a mistake along the way. The next song was “In My Name,,” and following that was “Roseleaves”. Two incredible songs that had the entire crowd engulfed in the sounds. From there, they played “BRCA”. BRCA is a gene mutation that makes a person more susceptible to certain cancers. The lead singer, Julia, has it, and the song was about that and how she deals with it. After that heartache song, they punched it up a bit and played “Kansas Tornado,” which was a song about storm chasing.

The line that resonates with me so much is “You Carry Me Away,” which they repeat several times. From there, they had everyone go to Set.live so we could all check in. From there, they entered “Some Things We Can Never Give Up,” a song with amazing harmonies. Their vocals all matched each other and were fabulous, not like anything I’ve heard before. The next song was “Inevitable,” which told us about her apartment in Brooklyn, New York, filled with cockroaches and rats. Her boyfriend wouldn’t stay over, and that inspired the song. The next couple of songs were “Nothing Left To Give” and “Never Gonne Live It Down”. The latter was about high school, and in New York, no matter how old you are, you are always asked what high school you went to. It’s something you never live down.

“Bottle It Up” was next, and then “Eve Babitz,” a song that shouts out to every bisexual in college. You know who you are. The following song was “Send Me Off,” followed by “Going On a Feeling,” a banger of a tune. The crowd showed how much they liked it with the hooting and hollering. They finished up with “Something Tells Me” to a mixture of applause and boos. The boos were because they were calling it a night. It was awesome. When that song ended, they left the stage, and the crowd started chanting “One More Song “over and over. They came back out on stage and started to play “Your Love Is All I Know” to a huge round of applause. When that song was done, they played “Not Gonna Take Me,” and when that song ended, the crowd erupted with applause; the band took a bow, and they were off. Overall, a very good couple of sets from tremendous bands.

Follow Bailen band members on social media

Julia Bailen – vocals, guitar

Daniel Bailen – vocals, bass (fraternal twin)

David Bailen – vocals, drums (fraternal twin)