Tommy Castro & The Painkillers

Tommy Castro & The Painkillers play The State Theatre on Wednesday, November 11, with the opening trio GA-20. Castro is a California-based blues and rock guitarist and singer who's released 17 albums over a four-decade career. He's been signed to Alligator Records since 2009, and this show comes on the heels of his 2025 album, Closer To The Bone, his eighth release for the label. He describes that one as "a real blues record, the way they would have made them back in the day."

Castro's been at this a long time. Born in San Jose, he became lead singer and guitarist of the blues band NiteCry in 1985 before forming The Tommy Castro Band in 1992. That group's 1995 album landed them a stint as the house band for NBC's Comedy Showcase behind Saturday Night Live. He's a regular on the road, playing around 150 nights a year, and the awards have kept pace: he won the 2023 Blues Music Award for B.B. King Entertainer of the Year and has ten Blues Music Awards in total.

Opening the night is GA-20, a trio that plays traditional blues drawing on Howlin' Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor. Between them, you've got two different ways of looking at the blues in one bill: GA-20 staying close to the traditional roots and Castro pulling from four decades of his own work.

Doors open at 7 PM and the show starts at 8 PM. General admission is $20.