Back-to-Cool Music

Howdy boys and gurls, I hope back-to-school season is treating you well.

Let’s dive into the live… live music, that is.

Tomorrow night, legendary concert promoter/booker Dan McCabe (Sudsy Malone’s, Southgate House, MPMF, MOTR, Woodward) opens up a brand-spanking-new music venue in an old German music hall in the historic downtown DORA district of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The venue is called Whiskey City’s Liberty Theater.

The very cool logo was crafted by very cool list member Keith Neltner of Neltner Small Batch (available to work on your brand too!)

You can read more about Dan’s new concert baby on the Cincinnati Magazine website. You might recognize the byline, too! (It was a real treat to tour the venue with Dan and get the scoop! Hardhat tip to list member John Fox for the assignment.)

Allison Kiehl also did a nice article for The Cincinnati Enquirer, complete with Dan doing his best Village Person impersonation:

“It’s fun to rock at the WCLT… ” (Photo credit: Frank Bowen IV/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

Dan’s a great dude and I wish him all the success in the world. Kelsey Waldron will be the headliner for tomorrow night’s debut concert with Henhouse Prowlers and My Brother’s Keeper playing on Saturday. The full lineup of shows is on the Whiskey City’s Liberty Theater website.

And in the interest of saving my hands from carpal tunnel, Whiskey City’s Liberty Theater shall henceforth be known in these posts as Liberty Theater, or the Liberty, or WCLT…

Other Friday shows include:

Deer Tick at Southgate house with Dylan McCartney and Dakota Carlyle also on the bill.
Gable Price & Friends at the Woodward
Sweet Lizzy (no relation to Thin Lizzy) plays the Levitt Pavilion in Dayton.

Saturday shows:

Henhouse Prowlers and My Brother’s Keeper at the Liberty
Crash Test Dummies play Memorial Hall
Riverbend hosts the Ohio is for Lovers Festival (fun fact that I just made up: Jerry Springer coined the phrase “Ohio is for lovers” when he was writing checks as Cincinnati’s mayor.)
Ovation in Newport has the Bourbon Baron Bash with Town Mountain and Kelly Willis (“Enjoy bourbon tastings from local distilleries, a variety of food trucks, and live music. All proceeds benefit The Cure Starts Now to fund pediatric brain cancer research.)
Brad Paisley plays outdoors at the Hard Rock Casino
Arnold’s hosts local Americana band Jim Trace and the Makers

Silversun Pickups play Bogart’s on Monday.

John Legend performs with the Cincinnati Pops at Riverbend on Tuesday.

If you want proof that age ain’t nothing but a number, put on your cheater glasses and look no further then the Outlaw Music Festival at Riverbend on Wednesday night: Willie Nelson Bob Dylan and John Mellencamp top the bill. That’s 91, 83, and 72 if you’re keeping score at home. But you shouldn’t be.

Next Thursday:

Carson Lowe plays a free show at WCLT with Harley Day also on the bill.
Sierra Green and the Giants play the Levitt Pavilion for free. (They’re doing a ticketed show the prior evening at Ludlow, but you wouldn’t want to disappoint John Matarese, would you?)

Calling all Beardos! Calling all Beardos!

This year’s Whispering Beard Festival is next Friday and Saturday (September 13th and 14th) at Carriage House Farm in North Bend, Ohio. The full lineup:

Other shows on Friday, September 13th:

Ruby Vileos plays the Liberty Theater
My Brightest Diamond is at the Woodward Theater
Lung headlines the Indie Friday free show at Fountain Square
Taft Theatre has An Evening with Esperanza Spalding
The Cincinnati Nature Center hosts Music under the Moon with Jam Band Jovi
Jamey Johnson plays PNC Pavilion
Ludlow Garage has 1964: The Tribute (I’m not sure if they’re paying tribute to the Beatles or to the year of my birth and at this point I’m afraid to ask)
Soulja Boy marches into the Ovation
Last but certainly not least, GWAR plays Bogart’s

On Saturday September 14^th:

Kings Of Leon play the Marsha Brady (According to Greg, her sex is on fire, even if her nose is out of whack)
Cincinnati band Sylmar plays WCLT
RiversEDGE in Hamilton host Signs of Life: The American Pink Floyd
Ice Cube plays the Hard Rock Casino’s outdoor stage

STRFKR (spelled just like it sounds!) are at the Madison Theater on Sunday, September 15th, and Saintseneca (punctuated just like it sounds!) plays the Woodward with Strawberry Runners as the opener

Shows on Tuesday September 17th:

Manchester Orchestra plays the Peter Brady
Megadeth, Mudvayne and All That Remains are at Riverbend
Celtic band Skerryvore plays Memorial Hall

On Wednesday September 18th Riverbend hosts the Marley Brothers: The Legacy Tour. (Why yes, Damian IS part of that show… thank you for asking!)

Adding some spice to Pumpkin Season

Neltner’s Farm Fall Fest starts up at the end of this month, with cool bands on the bill every weekend through October. Here’s a brief description and the full music lineup courtesy of Courtney Phenicie at CincyMusic:

I would write 4 U

Sage advice from Seth Godin:

I’m gonna name you “The Concert Keepers” – because:

a. you like concerts, and

b. if you read this hot mess on a regular basis, you’re a keeper!

Makes No Sense at All…

In a budget cut, NBC axed Seth Myers Late Night band, led by Fred Armisen. This was their kiss off/send-off:

Album Covers of the Week(s)

Brother Dave looks like a Fred Armisen character.

I think you can hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner now, EBO!

Rockin’ the ‘tober

Concert Listings, Music

Thank goodness it’s finally Pumpkin Spice Season! (Aw, who am I kidding? It’s been Pumpkin Spice season since July 5th. It’s about commerce, not the calendar.)

Let’s see who’s spicing up the concert calendar…

Matisyahu plays the Taft tomorrow night.

On Wednesday:

Agent Orange plays Southgate (orange like a pumpkin)
Men I Trust play the Bobby Brady
Dark Star Orchestra is at the Ovation
GWAR is at Bogart’s
Coco Montoya plays Ludlow Garage

On Thursday:

Dale Watson plays Southgate, with Matt Hillyer as the opener
Easy Honey is at MOTR (lead singer is a 90s Anthony Kiedis lookalike- see video below)
Bullet for My Valentine plays the Cindy Brady

Also on Thursday, KISS plays the Coliseum, on their 26th and final (for now) “final” tour.

Bob Dylan (Ever heard of him?) plays the Carol Brady on Friday evening. Back in the 90s, my wife was a huge Dylan fan.

That same evening, The Zombies play Ludlow Garage. (We appreciate the Zombies waiting until it was seasonally appropriate to do a tour.) Culture Queer is at Northside Tavern. And the old Annie’s has “Led Zeppelin 2.”

Plenty o’ shows on Saturday:

The Laurelys play Neltner’s Farm Fall Fest in the afternoon (1:30-4:30 p.m.), and Sami Riggs plays the Camp Springs Tavern (across the road from the farm) that evening.
Tommy Emmanuel plays the Taft
Zach Nugent (no relation to the Motor City mouthpiece) plays a Grateful Dead set at Ludlow Garage
Comedian Lewis Black will be at the Hard Rock Casino

Chelsea Ford & the Trouble are at Neltner’s Farm on Sunday afternoon, and Bob Mould plays a solo electric show at the 20th Century Theater that evening, with Jason Narducy as the opener.

The Ophelias and Living Hour play MOTR on Monday, October 23rd.

Messa and Maggot Heart are at the Woodward on Tuesday, 10/24.

Soft Machine will be at Ludlow Garage on Wednesday, 10/25. I love a good soft machine!

The Furious Bongos unleash their fury at Ludlow Garage on Thursday, 10/26, and Ke$ha (it’s pronounced “Key-Dolla-Sign-HA!”… or so I assume) plays the Ovation in Newport.

Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre plays “A Brief History of Tull” at Memorial Hall on Friday, 10/27, and Etta May is at Ludlow Garage. Back in the 70s, I was in love with Etta May.

No, wait, that was Elly May. My bad.

Saturday, October 28th is action-packed:

Ray Vietti, Ben Knight and Stripmall Ballads play Neltner’s Farm in the afternoon, with Stripmall Ballads also playing Camp Spring Tavern that evening.
Donna the Buffalo stampedes into Ludlow Garage
Husbands play Madison Live
Georgia Middleman and Sami Riggs play a “Downtowne Listening Room” gig at 1628 co-working space at 315 W. Court Street. (I feel like they should’ve picked a different name for the space, given the address…)

On Sunday, October 29th, the Tye Dye Band (featuring list member John Sandman) plays Washington Park at 11 a.m. as part of the Fall Fest weekend (full Saturday/Sunday lineup is here.) And Mike Oberst and Justin Cefalu wrap up the musical lineup at Neltner’s Farm.

Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade has a gig at the Jan Brady on Monday, 10/30.

Steve Hackett (no relation to Buddy) wraps up Rocktober with a gig at the Taft on Tuesday, 10/31. That evening also is Halloween.

Which means Wednesday 11/1 is the official kickoff of Peppermint Candy Cane flavor season.

Not suitable for work… or Canada

(Full story from Uproxx is here.)

Suitable for any month of the year

Superchunk’s B-side from 2010 still bangs.

The track is from their forthcoming release Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides & Strays 2007–2023.

Part of this complete Breakfast

Longtime “This Week in Live Music” favorites Japanese Breakfast did a show at Radio City Music Hall recently, and the encore included a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy in New York.”

Fetters plays like a Mother

Rob Fetters has a new album out. You can order it here.

From Rob’s email: MOTHER is a collection of 11 new slightly-warped guitar-pop meditations on relishing life’s ass-kickings—past, present, & future.

MOTHER features contributions from Matt Malley (Counting Crows), Belinda Lipscomb (Midnight Star), Alice Peacock, Bam Powell, Bob Nyswonger, Noah Fetters, and Swany Fetters .

Album Covers for Halloween

Nothing’s scarier than some stereo dynamics…

Actually, a Barbershop Quartet is scarier…

But this guy’s Bond villain vibes really creep me out. And you should never mess with someone named Thelma.

Hot fun in the summertime

97X, Concert Listings, Concert review

First, an apology. List member Mighty Joe Sampson pointed out that our previous post’s headline was a bait-and-switch. You can’t call a post “Cruel, Cruel Summer” without paying it off with some Bananarama. So here you go, Joe:

Oops, my bad. Let’s try that again:

Ah, that’s better. OK, now, on with the show(s).

Thursday:

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band plays a free show (paid VIP tickets also available) at RiversEDGE in Hamilton, with Cristina Vane as the opener.
The TyeDye Band (fronted by list member John Sandman) plays a free gig at Washington Park as part of their Roots Revival series.
Devon Allman and Donovan Frankenreiter play the Madison Theater.
James Taylor & His All-Star Band are at Riverbend

All four shows are guaranteed to be hot, hot, hot.

(Sorry Joe, not gonna add a Buster Poindexter video… )

On Friday:

Sam Bush plays the old Annie’s – it’s an indoor show
Michigander headlines the free concert at Fountain Square
Danielle Nicole plays the blues at a freebie show at Levitt Pavilion in downtown Dayton
ZZ Top (featuring two original members) and Lynyrd Skynyrd (featuring two fewer original members than ZZ Top) play Riverbend, with Uncle Kracker (featuring one original Kracker… or uncle… or both)

On Saturday, the Cereal Killers bring their inimitable brand of vintage punk and new wave music to Big Ash Brewing.

By now, you should know the drill: first beer’s on me.

Other Saturday gigs include Black Flag at Ludlow Garage, Barry Manilow at the Coliseum (not a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram of Black Flag and Barry Manilow fans), and Live with Fuel at the Hard Rock Casino. “Live with Fuel” sounds like a commercial for a drag racing event (non-RuPaul version):

Or “Live with Fuel” could be be a Zoolander scene:

Speaking of fire, Ring of Fire: the Music of Johnny Cash opens at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

Train comes chugging into the Rose Music Center on Tuesday and Pentatonix is at Riverbend. (Pentatonix is NOT a doom metal band… if you go expecting one, you’ll be quite disappointed.)

Wednesday:

The Offspring, Simple Plan and Sum 41 are at Riverbend
The TyeDye Band plays Wunderbar in Covington
tu:NER [“a musical trio comprised of Trey Gunn, Markus Reuter, and Pat Mastelotto, that celebrates the music of the Double Duo era (1998 to 2003) of King Crimson”] is at Ludlow Garage
RiversEDGE has Satisfaction: a tribute to the Rolling Stones and the Billy Rock Band

Darlingside plays Memorial Hall next Thursday (8/31) and Ludlow Garage has an evening with Ottmar Liebert.

Next Friday and Saturday (9/1 and 9/2), Guided By Voices celebrate 40 years with an amazing lineup:

Other Friday 9/1 shows include Los Straitjackets with the Jake La Botz Trio at the Woodward Theater, Modern English at Ludlow Garage, and Union Son doing an acoustic show at Stanbery Park in scenic Mt. Washington.

9/2 shows include Men without Hats at Ludlow Garage, and the Kings of Late Night (Craig Ferguson, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall) at the Hard Rock Casino.

Staind will leave their mark on the Hard Rock Casino on Sunday, 9/3.

Monday, September 4th is Labor Day. Here’s your holiday P.S.A. from Billy Bragg:

Smashing Pumpkins play PNC Pavilion on Tuesday, September 5th. (The W.A.S.P./Armored Saint gig slated for the Cindy Brady has been cancelled.)

Skid Row (featuring a lead singer not named Sebastian Bach) and Buckcherry play the Rose on Wednesday, 9/6.

Bobbing for Tickets

Tickets go on sale Friday for Bob Dylan’s Oct. 20th show at the Carol Brady. Buy ’em at the box office and save on the TicketBastard fees.

Concert review X 2

List member Dave Green raved about Charley Crockett’s gig at the Peter Brady. Meanwhile, faithful readers (all two of them) will recall that the last post from a poorly written, sporadically published, lazily distributed, rarely read blog made this audacious claim:

That prediction was 110% accurate. Or 25% accurate, because it might’ve been the show of the year! The Beths were amazing. Elizabeth Stokes writes some fantastic songs, and the three dudes in the band aren’t just great on guitar, bass and drums but they also contribute strong backing vocals. Great sound, stellar set list, enthusiastic crowd… and an inflatable fish on stage. Perfect! (Opener DISQ was very cool too.)

Mic Drop

It’s yet another sign-off for 97X – list member Dave Tellmann and I wrapped up our “Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast with Episode 97.7. We only had about 13 regular listeners, but they appreciated it:

Dave was hoping that our final episode might earn us some “M.A.S.H. finale ratings” but I told him ours would be more like South of Sunset.

(Look on the bright side, Dave – our show is bigger than Glenn Frey’s!)

Album Cover of the Fortnight

This might be the most unintentionally creepy album cover ever. I’m not quite sure what’s going on here, but I think Rex Allen Jr. might be stalking Billy Barty.

Roll-vember

Concert Listings, Music

Let’s get rolling with the concert rundown…

First, the Melvin Seals & the Jerry Garcia Band show that was supposed to happen tonight at Ludlow Garage has been postponed. But the Del McCoury Band gig at Memorial Hall is still a go, and the Ben Levin Trio plays Dead Low Brewing with special guest Noah Wotherspoon.

It’s gigs galore on Saturday:

The Steeldrivers play the old Annie’s
Silversun Pickups are at Ovation in Newport
Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening rock and rolls into the Icon (see what we did there?)
The Yugos play Bircus Brewing in Ludlow
Last but certainly not least, Styx will be rockin’ the ~~Paradise~~ Hard Rock Casino. No Dennis DeYoung, but Tommy Shaw, James Young and the living Panozzo brother (Chuck).

Oh, and Rob Fetters kicks off another round of “Fetters is Cheap” – streaming live shows from his home. He promises “crowd faves plus more debuts of rarities.” You can tune in via Rob’s website.

Early on Sunday, Ben Levin & Friends will again be playing the Hard Rock Casino from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Davy Knowles and the Noah Wotherspoon Band play the Southgate House, and there’s a Play It Forward benefit concert at the Madison Theater, with my old radio boss Gary Burbank listed as a “speaker”… makes sense, as he was a Pioneer in radio (see what we did there?).

Tuesday is an evening for music legends. Bob Dylan plays the Aronoff, and John Hiatt & the Jerry Douglas Band will be at Memorial Hall.

If he were really “me” he’d still go by Robert Zimmerman

That same evening, someone named TobyMac has a sold out show at Taft. I thought TobyMac was a menu item at Keystone Bar & Grill, but apparently he’s an “American Christian hip hop rapper and singer.”

On Wednesday, I’ll be at MOTR Pub, along with list members Jacqui and Dave Killen (remember their Parlor & Patio house shows? I miss them…). Former Parlor & Patio performer (say that three times fast) Brett Newski and his full band (“The No Tomorrow”… they’re from Milwaukee, you do the math) will be playing at 9 p.m., followed by Adam Flaig (of Mad Anthony). Brett’s a very entertaining dude, and you can’t beat the MOTR ticket price. Join us, won’t you?

Also on Wednesday, The Lone Bellow plays Taft, and the Hooten Hallers are at Southgate.

Thursday, GWAR plays Bogart’s and Dennis Quaid plays Ludlow Garage. Yes, that Dennis Quaid, the actor. Guess he got tired of punching the clock with his fellow actors on movie sets.

Bogart’s and Ludlow Garage are pretty close to each other – fingers crossed that GWAR sits in with Dennis for his encore. Or vice versa… although that might not end well for DQ. Also on Thursday, Neal Francis plays Taft. I don’t know much about Neal’s music, but I know his promo photo makes him a dead ringer for Nigel Tufnel:

Next Friday, November 12th, Gary Clark Jr. plays the Icon, The Wild Feathers play Madison Theater, and Spyro Gyra plays Ludlow Garage. When I was younger, I used to love Spyro Gyra…

Spyro Gyra… no, wait…

Gig Pics

What a fabulous show by the Cereal Killers at MadTree last Friday — including a special guest appearance by our neighbor Amy Hueneman doing vocals on a Pretenders song! Great crowd too, including list members Dave Tellmann, Whit & Barb Gardner, Bruce Roy, Todd Butler, and Dan Bockrath (who brought several of his high school buddies – do NOT attempt to keep pace with them on drinking).

On Sunday morning, I joined Dave & Mindy Tellmann at the Hard Rock Casino for the Ben Levin brunch show with Chicago blues legend Bob Stroger (I misspelled his name last week – sorry Bob!). Bob is 90 years young… amazing voice and great stage presence. Noah Wotherspoon was on guitar too!

Dave, Mindy and I were joined by Dave’s son Joe (of This Pine Box), Joe’s friend Liam and none other than one of Joe’s non-traditional CCM classmates: John Curley of the Afghan Whigs! When you go to live shows, good things happen.

**Two feet from stardom**. I had the French toast… John had an Impossible Burger.

Dave and I interviewed John Curley on our 97X podcast in April of 2020. Just sayin’.

Words of wisdom

And in case you missed it (I sure did), apparently the Mountain Goats song “No Children” went viral on TikTok. (Read more here.) Lead singer John Darnielle has the right perspective on it:

But when people do find it, it affirms for those of us who make indie music that when the broader public is exposed to it, there’s more people who would like it if they get a chance to hear it. The consolidation of radio and the diffuse nature of the media landscape means that there’s lots of good stuff that people don’t generally hear unless it gets a viral moment…
…Our childish dreams of how these things work have value. So when something like this happens in my life, well, that’s a dream come true. We did not tell people, “Check out ‘No Children,’ you’re gonna love it.” No. they took it and they ran with it, and it’s beautiful. If there was more stuff like that in the world, the world’s a better place. Not just for me, but for whoever, because there’s a million fun songs out there for people to find that people do not need to be told by the influencer factory which one to listen to.
John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats in this Variety interview

Watch this

The War on Drugs live in a studio… amazing.

You can see all three songs that The War on Drugs performed on CBS Saturday Morning via the embedded videos in this article.

Random Album Cover of the Week

I don’t need a gym membership, I just need a turntable. Upper arms, waistline and hips don’t lie.

Have a great week!

Reliving the Future

Musical musings from aging hipsters

Bob Dylan