30 Fun Facts About Chase Center's December Acts

Monday December 2, 2019

December is an exciting month at Chase Center. In addition to Golden State Warriors games, a variety of entertaining events are on the horizon. To kick off the month, Chase Center will host legendary Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli and the San Francisco Symphony. Comedian Trevor Noah will make his Chase Center debut on December 7 while Dead & Company will close the month out with back-to-back performances on December 30 and 31. In between those two acts, EDM star Illenium and Ariana Grande will rock the Chase Center crowd before the universities participating in the Al Attles Classic take the court. To help prepare for a jam-packed month of entertainment, here is a list of 30 facts about the acts coming to Chase Center in December.

  1. Andrea Bocelli was born with glaucoma and lost his eyesight at the age of 12 following a freak soccer injury.

  2. Despite his condition, Bocelli still participates in activities he enjoys, like horseback riding.

  3. An Italian biographical film about his life titled The Music of Silence was released in 2017.

  4. Bocelli made his Bay Area debut in 1999 at the Oakland Arena.

  5. Bocelli’s performance at Chase Center will be the award-winning artist’s first time performing in San Francisco and his first time performing with the San Francisco Symphony.

  6. At the age of 18, Trevor Noah appeared in Isidingo, popular a South African soap opera.

  7. Noah speaks multiple languages, including African languages Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana and Tsonga.

  8. Noah was the first South African comedian on both "The Tonight Show" (2012) and "Late Night With David Letterman" (2013).

  9. Noah counts Jay Leno, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and Jerry Seinfeld as his comedy mentors.

  10. Noah became the first African comedian to sell out Madison Square Garden when his Loud and Clear tour came to New York last month.

  11. Illenium, aka Nick Miller, was born in Chicago, then lived in Seattle and France before his family finally settled in San Francisco.

  12. The first piece of music Illenium bought for himself was the album Fallen by Evanescence on CD.

  13. Illenium was first introduced to electronic music at a Tiësto show at the Cow Palace, the San Francisco stop for the Dutch superstar’s Kaleidoscope album tour. “The intro to that album I’ll still listen to, because it is really epically dope,” he says.

  14. Illenium gained more exposure to electronic music and the scene surrounding it while he was contributing to a friend’s Colorado-based blog, Big Green Beats.

  15. In 2018, Illenium shared a personal letter to his fans on Twitter where he detailed his struggles with addiction, as well as acknowledging his fans’ reactions to his music and its positive impact on their lives.

  16. Ariana Grande first began her career at age 14, when she was cast in the original Broadway musical 13, back in 2008.

  17. Grande never had any formal musical training. She told Complex, “Music just kind of happened, I never really trained for anything.”

  18. Grande told Vogue that she credits her unique vocal technique to having learned to mimic Celine Dion. “I learned how to make it sound like I was belting and being loud without actually belting and being loud,” Grande explains. “The voice is expensive, and if you’re spending it properly, you’ll be able to keep spending it.”

  19. Grande made history in 2019 and became the youngest artist to ever headline Coachella.

  20. Grande will costar alongside Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix adaptation of the Broadway musical “The Prom.”

  21. The inaugural college basketball showcase was created to honor Golden State Warriors’ legend and Hall-of-Famer Al Attles.

  22. Attles has been with the Warriors in one capacity or another for nearly 60 years. He’s held numerous roles in the franchise including head coach (1970-1983), team executive and ambassador to the community.

  23. The first matchup of the Al Attles Classic features Stanford University facing off against University of San Diego. The game will be only the fifth time the two schools have met.

  24. University of California, Berkeley vs. Boston College will be the second game of the showcase. The BC Eagles are 2-0 all-time vs. the Golden Bears. Each of the two matchups occurred on a neutral court, including a 68-46 win on Nov. 28, 2010, in Orlando, FL in the last meeting.

  25. Session two of the showcase features a matchup between Top-25 University of Arizona and St. John’s University. The two teams have only met once before, with the Wildcats defeating the Red Storm in 2011.

  26. Dead & Company formed in 2015 when Grateful Dead alumni Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann teamed up with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti.

  27. Mayer first discovered the Grateful Dead in 2011 thanks to Sirius. He told Billboard, “I went [on] to know a few songs and started recognizing pieces of songs … I feel like my generation also has SiriusXM to thank. The Grateful Dead station on Sirius is its own experience, especially if you drive.”

  28. According to Weir, the beginnings of Dead & Company go back to when Mayer was guest hosting “The Late Late Show” on CBS in 2015. “He invited me as a musical guest, and we did a sound check. We were supposed to do two songs, and after two hours they unplugged us,” he says with a laugh. “One thing led to another.”

  29. The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon became a fan of Dead & Company after his friend and fellow talk show host Andy Cohen took Fallon to his first-ever live Dead & Company concert.

  30. Mayer used one of the late Jerry Garcia’s most beloved guitars for Dead & Company’s show at New York’s Citi Field earlier this year.

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