1) there is no great mall in concord, great mall is in militias and the mall in concord (forgot its name) sucks
2) best east bay shopping is in walnut creek (a bit more high end) or pleasanton for mainstream, if you're looking for shoes exclusively, then southland, bay fair, and hilltop are fine
3) San Jose is just ok IMO for partying, the police out there are haters for sure, SF has the coolest po po IMO, those dudes used to let us do whatever as long as nothing was getting fukked up. SF has the a good mix of nightlife, from big money, cocaine laced spots like to red room, to strip clubs, to regular hip hop joints. Oakland has a good bar/lounge scene but it's hit or miss. San Jose used to have the good Sunday night parties at agenda (this was like 4-5 yrs ago tho...haven't live in the bay since 08). The one thing I hate about the bay is it isn't really a place where people go out during the week, you can get friends and go to a bar, but don't expect to have fun with a lot of other ppl unless you're in SF.
4) go to taco Tuesday's at nicks in SF, get your tacos nicks way...you won't regret it