August and nothing after

Concert Listings, Concert review, Music

Well hello there, Stranger! How have you been? Vacay was great, thanks for asking. I know you didn’t miss me – even I didn’t miss me. But it’s not about missing me, it’s about not missing live gigs in the Cincinnati area. Let’s get at ‘er!

Tonight:

  • Ben Levin and Joe Tellmann will join other Pinetop Perkins Foundation Masterclass participants in backing Bob Margolin at the Lebanon Blues Festival. (Ben and Joe will also play with Bob on Saturday. The entire schedule is here.)
  • The Fabulous Thunderbirds roll into Ludlow Garage
  • Tab Benoit plays the Taft Theatre
  • Holy F*ck will be at Madison Live. I think they’re a gospel band.
  • The Actual F*ck plays Northside Tavern. I think they’re a hardcore band.
  • Ray Vietti & The Family Stoned will play a free gig at Carriage House Farm.

On Saturday you can see an Elvis Impersonator.

Wait, check that, I still have vacation brain… actually it’s Elvis Costello & the Imposters at Rose Music Center. Not to be outdone, Fraze Pavilion, the other Dayton area venue, has… Vanilla Ice.

Mr. Van Winkle, the erstwhile Ice, Vanilla, will be joined by a veritable Who’s Who of “Who’s That?” – All 4 One, Rob Base, Coolio, Tone Loc and Young MC. (Name two songs by any/all of those artist and win valuable prizes.)

Also on Saturday evening:

  • Ekoostik Hookah plays the old Annie’s
  • Ludlow Garage has Strangelove, the Depeche Mode Experience
  • Local artists Flying Underground (Brian Lovely) and Nick Kizirnis play MOTR
  • The Greg Brady hosts Dashboard Confessional and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.

Daryl Hall and the Daryl’s House Band plays Timberwolf on Sunday, with special guest Todd Rundgren.

On Wednesday, RuPaul’s Drag Race is at the Mike Brady Center, and the Happy Together Tour comes to Fraze – The Turtles, Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, The Association, The Buckinghams, The Vogues, and The Cowsills. Every orthopedic surgeon in the Dayton area should be handing out business cards at that show.

Thursday shows:

  • The Dead South and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band play Annie’s.
  • Tower of Power and Lettuce (that’s two bands, it’s not the Smoothie/Salad combo at Jamba Juice) are at the Taft.
  • Whitehall plays Southgate
  • Mike Zito is at Ludlow Garage
  • The Casey Campbell Band does the free show at Washington Park from 7-9 p.m.
  • Last, and least, the Motor City Madman Ted Nugent plays the Rose Music Center.

Next Friday:

  • Steep Canyon Rangers are at Annie’s
  • Soul Pocket headlines the free show on Fountain Square
  • The Rose Music Center serves up the Smoothie/Salad combo twin bill of Tower of Power and Lettuce.
Add a shot of wheatgrass for just 50 cents.

Concert Shots

Lucy Dacus and Camp Cope put on a stellar outdoor show at the Burl in Lexington. List member Joe Sampson and I helped bring up the average age.

List members Dan Bockrath, Dave Tellmann and I thoroughly enjoyed the Adrian Belew gig at Ludlow Garage. We also had fun counting the # of old men wearing ponytails.

Classy Ken, your Clifton Concert Concierge

Speaking of the Ludlow Garage, if you purchase your tickets at their box office (open Wed-Sat 4-10 p.m.), you can avoid most of the dreaded TicketBastard fees. List member Ken Laube lives in Clifton, and I’m sure he’d be happy to walk up to Ludlow (quite frankly, he could use the exercise) and purchase the ducats for you.

Always at your service…

Recommended Reading

Pitchfork has a pretty cool interview with artist Steve Keene, best known for his Pavement album cover art.

… my wife and I were on the college radio station when she went to UVA. You’re surrounded by so much creativity—the other DJs are creative, but also the tens of thousands of albums from the past 40 years, all their funky, weird artwork, all their liner notes. It’s just so jam-packed, and 99 percent of them are forgotten. It was sort of this different idea about how, gosh, I’m gonna be forgotten too. So why don’t I have fun with this? And why don’t I make art feel like you’re going to a show, buying a T-shirt or a CD?

Steve Keene in the interview linked above

Album Cover of the Week

This week’s album cover is courtesy of list member Dave Green:

Sayeth Dave: You’d think this would’ve been a “blues” album, but that would be too cliché. My son picked this up for me for $6 since I am a casual jazz fan and previously 80’s Smurf collector (little known fact).

Absolutely Smurftastic, thanks for sharing, Dave!

Nothing to do with music… but funny

Have a great week!

Triple shot of tunes

Concert Listings, Music

Get ready…

We’re about to drop not one week o’ live gigs on you… not two weeks… but three whopping weeks of concerts. Because I’m heading out of town next Friday for a week of fun in the sun. And I don’t want the This Week in Live Music deadline looming over me like the sword of Damocles. Or the sword of the Black Knight.

Let’s get to the bumper crop of gigs, shall we?

Tonight, The Cult, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Zola Jesus play the Rose Music Center, and Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts are at the Reds stadium. (In deference to my good friend Dan Lewis, I shall resist the temptation to make any sort of Rick Allen/Reds pitching staff comparison…)

Saturday, Kississippi headlines the Fountain Square free show… and Air Supply is at the Rose Music Center.

You got that right, Spanky!

On Sunday, list member Mighty Joe Sampson and I will be visiting the Burl.

Sorry, wrong Burl. We’re going to the live music venue in Lexington to see Lucy Dacus and Camp Cope – a great double bill that’s totally worth the trip.

Meanwhile, back in the ‘nati, Elf Power is at MOTR (7:30 show – $10… new album is good) and Frankie & the Witch Fingers play the Woodward.

Pictured: Witch Fingers and Center Square. Not pictured: Frankie.

On Monday, 5 Seconds of Summer, a band that I’ve not even given a single second of my lifetime, plays a sold out show at the Brady.

But the Brady redeems itself the very next night, as Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples take the stage on Tuesday. (The New Yorker just ran a great profile of Mavis… she’s the real deal!)

That same evening, Mary Chapin Carpenter plays Memorial Hall, and The Barenaked Ladies, Gin Blossoms and Toad the Wet Sprocket play Rose… I think that tour is called “97X Throwback Bands.”

The Barenaked-Gin-Sprocket show comes to PNC on Wednesday – it’s sold out.

Wednesday features another 97X Throwback Show: The Psychedelic Furs and X play the Peter Brady. Meanwhile, Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples will be up the road a piece at the Rose.

Plenty of gigs on Thursday:

  • Adrian Belew is at Ludlow Garage – list member Dave Tellmann and I will be there
  • Little Feat plays the Taft, with opener Ida Mae
  • Ricky Nye plays an outdoor gig at the Behringer-Crawford Museum’s amphitheater
  • The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die (yes, that’s a band name) is at Southgate
  • RiversEDGE in Hamilton hosts Completely Unchained: Van Halen Tribute show (this show could set a new world record for jorts… and in Hamiltucky, that’s sayin’ something)
  • Last and least, Jimmy Buffett plays Riverbend, or as I like to call it, Rumspringa for repressed middle-aged Cincinnatians

Next Friday (7/22), Three Doors Down and Candlebox play Timberwolf.

Saturday 7/23, The Drive-by Truckers and Lydia Loveless are at the Dayton Masonic Center… looks like I picked the wrong week to go on vacation…

… and Chicago plays Riverbend for the umpteenth time, this time with Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin in tow.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Los Lobos and Gabe Dixon will be at Rose next Sunday (7/24) and Trouble No More (Allman Bros. tribute band) plays the “Eat a Peach” album in its entirety, with openers Rebirth Brass Band and TWILM favorite Aaron Lee Tasjan.

Tuesday July 26th:

  • Southgate’s Revival Room hosts An Evening with Slaid Cleves
  • Collective Soul and Switchfoot play the Ovation

On Thursday, July 27th, Earth, Wind & Fire play the Rose, and The Outlaws are at Ludlow Garage.

John Moreland is the headliner for the Fountain Square freebie on Friday, July 29th. If I weren’t out of town, I’d definitely be there. Here’s a track from his new album, Birds in the Ceiling:

That same evening, bluesman Tinsley Ellis plays Ludlow Garage.

Saturday, July 30th is jam-packed with live shows:

  • Willie Nelson brings the Outlaw Music Festival to Riverbend – Gov’t Mule, ZZ Top and Larkin Poe will join Willie & Family on the bill
  • Greta Van Zeppelin Fleet are at the Coliseum, this is the rescheduled date from their March postponement
  • Sarah Shook and the Disarmers play Southgate
  • White Denim headlines the Fountain Square freebie
  • Railroad Earth chugs into the old Annie’s, with Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle as the opener
  • Melissa Etheridge plays the Fraze
  • Kansas carries on at the Hard Rock Casino
  • Kool Moe Dee is at Ludlow Garage

On Sunday, July 31st, Rose Music Center has a great twin bill of Buddy Guy and John Hiatt & the Goners (featuring Sonny Landreth)

Roger Waters will finally play his originally-scheduled-for-2020 gig at the Coliseum on Tuesday, August 2nd. The show is called “This is Not a Drill”:

This Is Not A Drill is a ground breaking new rock and roll/cinematic extravaganza, performed in the round, it is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive, and a call to action to LOVE, PROTECT and SHARE our precious and precarious planet home. The show includes a dozen great songs from PINK FLOYD’S GOLDEN ERA along side several new ones, words and music, same writer, same heart, same soul, same man. Could be his last hurrah. Wow! My first farewell tour! Don’t miss it. Love R.”

On Wednesday, August 3rd, Glass Animals (no relation to George Glass… or are they?) play an outdoor gig at the Jan Brady…

… and Joe Bonamassa is at the Fraze (sorry, couldn’t bring myself to use “plays the Fraze” twice in one post).

Andrew Bird, Iron & Wine and Meshell Ndegeocello are at PNC on Thursday, August 4th.

Friday, August 5th;

  • Ben Levin and Joe Tellmann will join other Pinetop Perkins Foundation Masterclass participants in backing Bob Margolin at the Lebanon Blues Festival. (The Festival continues on Saturday – schedule is here.)
  • The Fabulous Thunderbirds roll into Ludlow Garage
  • Tab Benoit plays the Taft Theatre
  • Holy F*ck will be at Madison Live. Yes, that’s what I said.
This was not a drill…

Letters to the Editor

You are correct, Dan! It’s really no way to treat someone who has been nothing but kind to me. But it’s still fun.

Keeping it in the Lewis Family

Dan’s son Cullen has an excellent Substack with a new post every Friday. A few weeks ago he highlighted this great piece from Pitchfork about the perils of music streaming services. Money quote:

When music is so abundant and our attention is scarce, there’s power in adding more intention to your listening diet, more chaos, more risk. The thrill in finding music that is wired to your singular life is not that thousands of other people have found the same thing. It’s that the music becomes something confounding and unique, a true reflection of where you are and where you’ve been. The beauty of the algorithm of your mind is that it makes perfect sense to no one but yourself.

Jeremy D. Larson

Cullen is currently looking for a gig in NYC, having recently been laid off by Landor/Fitch in their latest round of cuts. He’s good people – if you know of any agencies looking for someone with his profile, please let him know. And speaking of a Landor layoff leading to better things…

List member Dale Doyle (the original d2) is now a Grammy voter. Which means we can blame him if our favorite bands don’t win. Or maybe we can just call Dale and pressure him to “find” 10,000 votes for Japanese Breakfast.

Album Cover of the (Three) Week(s)

It wasn’t “free indeed” it was 37 cents at St. Vincent de Paul, but I still passed on it.