*does not apply to the annual summer calendar of shows at Riverbend Music Center (unofficial motto: “where every year feels like 1985”)
Wow, 2024 is almost over!
We still have a few more shows before we make like Bob Seger and turn the page to 2025 (a.k.a. The Year of the Snake Rat Pig… at least in D.C.)
Shows tomorrow:
- Marcus King plays the Hard Rock Casino
- Rumpke Mountain Boys play Annie’s
- Halfway Hammered plays the Liberty Theater, with Wes Shipp opening
- The Wonderlands and Coastal Club have a holiday show within the decidedly un-festive confines of Bogart’s
- Abiyah plays Southgate with Radar
- Northside Tavern has Abandoned Malls of America, Moonbeau, Bear the Moon, and Knavery
- OYOXOYO / Static Falls / Oh Condor triple bill at MOTR
Tinfoil Hat Cowboys play two sets at MOTR on Sunday.
Kate Wakefield has an album release party at The Comet on Monday.
Tuesday is New Year’s Eve (a.k.a. “Amateur Night”). Watch out for all the drunken Dicks out there!
You can ring in the new year with… Rebecca Black?
Yep, she’s at the Hard Rock Casino. Or you can enjoy “Weird Year’s Eve” at the Woodward with Ernie Johnson from Detroit and several other bands.
Madison Theater, Ovation, Ludlow Garage, and MOTR also have NYE celebrations.
[Speaking of balls dropping, New Year’s Eve also is the 60th birthday of your favorite creator of weird concert listing posts. Maybe Chrissie Hynde will stop by.]
On Thursday, Jan. 2nd, list member Keith Neltner and I will be celebrating our BDs (Keith’s is that day!) with a super-casual happy hour gathering at Camp Spring Tavern. Stop by if you’d like. First beer’s on me.
BTW, Camp Springs Tavern has live music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday all month long:
Also on 1/2, Joe’s Truck Stop kicks off two months of “Honky Tonk Thursdays” in the Southgate House Lounge.
Blanche will probably be there…
But Fred and Lamont won’t.
Next Friday, Jan. 3rd, 2025, Lez Zeppelin (“All Girls, All Zeppelin”) plays Physical Graffiti in its entirety at Ludlow Garage.
The Woodward Theater unspools a couple of classic rock docs soon:
- Stop Making Sense on Monday, 1/6
- Don’t Look Back (the Bob Dylan doc by D.A. Pennebaker) on Tuesday, 1/7
The Loon Wine Bar in Northside hosts a Folk Jam Session with Mike Oberst of The Tillers on Weds., Jan. 8th.
On Friday, Jan. 10th:
- Tommy Prine plays Southgate
- Ludlow Garage has the Pink Floyd tribute band Floyd Nation – they’ll be doing a Wish You Were Here-inspired set list and light show.
The Maria Carrelli Band plays the Liberty Theater on Saturday, 1/11, and Warren G will regulate at Bogart’s.
[Oops, my bad, that’s Warren, E (D). She’s also a big fan of regulatin’.]
On Sunday, Jan. 12th:
- The Rabbit Hash General Store’s “Sunday Music Behind the Stove” series kicks off with The Tillers at 2pm – full slate is below.
- The Woods (folk rock trio) and Jonathan Cody White (Cincy singer/songwriter) play a Downtowne Listening Room show at the Historic Boone County Courthouse
On Monday, 1/13, Woodward Theater screens Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story.
(I’ve heard good things about this documentary – here’s the Sound Opinions podcast interview with Redd Kross founders, brothers Jeff & Steve McDonald.)
Shows of Note(s)
- Kim Deal is playing the Woodward on 2/21… that show is already sold-out.
- Robyn Hitchcock will be at Southgate on 3/1.
A screen grab of this Insta (courtesy of list member Whit Gardner) really sums up how I feel about live music:
Reading is Fundamental
Here’s Amanda Petrusich’s year-end list of favorite albums from The New Yorker.
And from that same magazine, this book review/article about Spotify is scary and depressing for true music fans.
Money quote:
The Internet was supposed to free artists from the monoculture, providing the conditions for music to circulate in a democratic, decentralized way. To some extent, this has happened: we have easy access to more novelty and obscure sounds than ever before. But we also have data-verified imperatives around song structure and how to keep listeners hooked, and that has created more pressure to craft aggressively catchy intros and to make songs with maximum “replay value.” Before, it was impossible to know how many times you listened to your favorite song; what mattered was that you’d chosen to buy it and bring it into your home. What we have now is a perverse, frictionless vision for art, where a song stays on repeat not because it’s our new favorite but because it’s just pleasant enough to ignore.
Watch This!
Waxahatchee on NPR’s Tiny Desk… chef’s kiss!
Holiday fun(nies)
(If Baby Jesus had been born in Toronto instead of Bethlehem, he could’ve played “YYZ.”)
Album Cover(s) of the Week(s)
“A dramatic comparison to death.” Geez, that sounds like a really uplifting album. (Or me describing a two-hour “long range planning” meeting at my work.) Can’t we listen to something happier?
Ah, yes, that’s more like it. (Vestal doesn’t realize that the boys are laughing at her hairdo!)
