Matt Berninger

HollyDaze

Concert Listings, Music

However you choose to celebrate the holiday season, please don’t spin any of those overplayed seasonal tunes within earshot of me. It’s not just Mariah, it’s also Andy Williams, Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee… basically the same 12-song rotation that’s been shoved down our earholes since November 1st.

There are good Christmas songs (R.I.P. Shane and Kirsty), but you’ll rarely hear them on iHeart/Cumulus radio stations or in the malls.

Thanks, my spleen feels vented now. On with the shows!

Tonight, Ben Levin plays Schwartz’s Point, and then he’s got his big Holiday Blues Revue on Thursday.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy plays a “Wild & Swingin’ Holiday Party” at the Taft Theatre on Wednesday.

On Saturday, it’s a Sophie’s Choice for the stoners:

  • Afroman’s “Merry Spliffmas” is at Annie’s
  • Hyryder (Grateful Dead tribute band) plays the Madison Theater

After those smokin’ Saturday shows, all is calm, all is bright… two adjectives that my school teachers never used to describe me.

Things pick up a bit after the fat guy heads back to the North Pole.

On Friday, December 29th, Sylmar and Bendigo Fletcher play the Woodward, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra trots out their usual holiday tuneage at the Coliseum.

Saturday, December 30th is a very busy night for concerts:

  • Jess Lamb & The Factory (featuring Siri Imani) plays MOTR
  • Rumpke Mountain Boys kick off a two-night stand at Annie’s
  • Root Cellar Extract plays Plain Folk Café in Goshen
  • Tickled Pink (Scott Covrett, Bob Nyswonger and Bam Powell) plays the Pub in Rookwood

On Sunday, December 31st:

  • The Rumpke Mountain Boys ring in the new year at Annie’s
  • Foxy Shazam plays the Foxy Carol Brady
  • Your favorite writer of a semi-coherent, sporadically-published list of Cincinnati-area concerts will celebrate his birthday… by attending the wedding of one of his wife’s co-workers.

Coney Island Baby

Did you hear the news that MEMI is draining the Coney Island Sunlite Pool for good, and building a concert venue in its stead?

Oh goody, a state-of-the-art venue to host those cutting-edge Lynyrd Skynyrd/Kid Rock double bills!

Best Coast, best advice

Bethany Cosentino from the band Best Coast put out a really good solo album this year… and not many people heard it. She talked to Stereogum about her disappointment. Money quote:

I just genuinely think the record I made is really fucking good, and I love it. And again, that’s what matters. I guess maybe at the heart of this message is: If you really love something, do it. Don’t give up. Don’t overthink it. Don’t say, “Well, I should just do the other thing that works already.” No. Do the think you wanna do. Make the thing you wanna make. You know what? If it doesn’t work out, that’s OK.

And the story has a bit of a happy ending, thanks to the dumpster fire that is whatever Twitter is called now.

Album worth a spin

I’m really digging the new release from a UK band called Witching Waves.

Read an interview with the band members here and check out the album below:

Matt & Dave

Cincy meets Indy when Matt Berninger chats with David Letterman.

Hot Ticket Alert

Alvvays plays Bogart’s on Friday, 4/19, and Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew bring the Remain in Light tour to that same venue on Friday, July 26th. (The Bogart’s box office is open Mondays and Fridays from noon-5, and it opens two hours before showtime on the nights of a show — purchase your tickets there to save big on fees.)

Favorites of 2023

Steven Hyden of Uproxx has it right:

Before I share my list, I need to repeat my regular “year-end list” disclaimer. If you already know the drill, feel free to skip ahead.

1) Ranking albums is dumb … We all know this. Art isn’t a competition. I can’t really distinguish between my 13th favorite album and my 15th favorite. This is all talk. None of it really matters.

2) … but it’s kind of fun … Of course it is! Because it’s about sharing music recommendations. And I do mean share — make your own lists and show them to me, especially if you’re the sort inclined to complain about lists. Put yourself out there and let me complain about you, too!

3) … because it’s really about discovering an album or two (or possibly more!) that you might not have known about otherwise. Exactly!

Now, let’s rank!

Steven’s list is here. Other lists:

And this site compiles several “best of” lists into… you guessed it… a list!

If you care to share your 2023 favorites, post them in the comments.

Album Covers of the Week(s)

Slim and Rampal not only know how to rock, they also know how to rock a gorgeous robe!

Merry, Happy, etc.

This Week in Live Music: January 20-26

97X, Concert Listings, Music, podcast

Can’t go wrong with that gif, amiright? Let’s get to the tunes.

Monday is a holiday for most folks… including touring bands, it appears. Also, please note that the Yola show originally slated for Tuesday in the Taft Ballroom has been rescheduled for Sunday, June 14 due to “unforeseen scheduling conflicts.”

On Tuesday, Cheryl Renee plays Bluesday Tuesday at Arnold’s and the Mynah Tones play the Comet.

On Wednesday, Grace Potter plays a nocturnal show (without the Nocturnals) at Taft Theater. Mipso is at the Woodward Theater, with Bridget Kearney (of Lake Street Dive) and Benjamin Lazar Davis (of Okkervil River) as openers. There are a couple of notable local gigs on Wednesday also:

  • Ben Levin plays the Phelps/Residence Inn downtown. List member Howard Cohen has informed me that it’s a Great Lakes Brewing Company Pint Night from 5-8, featuring Dortmunder Gold Lager, Conway’s Irish Ale, and the new beast in town, Bierwolf Dunkelweizen. A tasting flight is only $10. Ben plays starting at 5:30.
  • List member Mark Celsor’s band Left of Center is opening for the Blue Eyed Bettys at Urban Artifact. Mark doesn’t work for a beer company, but he will work for beer.

Thursday, 20th Century Theater hosts An Evening with Mike Gordon, he of Phish Phame. All those smelly hippies in Oakley should bring housing prices down at bit.

Sure they misspelled “hobby”… but it’s still phunny.

On Friday, Turkuaz plays Madison Theater, Shiny Old Soul is at Big Ash Brewing, Todd Lipscomb is at Arnold’s and Ben Levin plays BrewRiver.

Saturday shows:

  • Olivia Jean plays Southgate’s main room, and Ben Levin is in the Lounge
  • Noah Wotherspoon plays a gig at Band of Helping Hands in Covington
  • KY Myle is at Camp Springs Tavern
  • Fretboard hosts ‘Nati Dread Day, with the Quasi Kings as headliners.

On Sunday, The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars play… The Comet.

Action Photos

That’s list member Dale Doyle (the original D2!) on the right, hanging in Cali with Matt Berninger of The National (in a 97X t-shirt!). Dale is doing the artwork/design for Matt’s solo album. The story of how these two hooked up is pretty cool – you can read it on the website here.

Hot Ticket Alerts

Ludlow is hosting “a night of music and conversation with Rodriguez” on Valentine’s Day. Paul Thorn is coming to Memorial Hall on Saturday, May 2nd (Derby Day!) with Angela Perley as the opener.

Shameless Self-promotion

The most recent episode of the “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast features Rob Ervin, who worked at 97X, co-hosted the Chris & Rob Late Night Talk Show on WAIF for years, and worked on the Gary Burbank Show for a decade-plus. You can listen on the website here, or catch all the episodes on Spotify, Apple Music or Podbean.

Oh, and if you enjoyed the annual 97X “Modern Rock 500” countdown back in the day, a listener crunched the data from each year of the countdown to create an overall “Top 500″… check it out here.

Tweet of the Week

Videos

Have a wonderful week!

97X shirts last forever – so do West Side connections

97X, Music

Here’s a cool photo of Matt Berninger of The National, sporting a vintage 97X t-shirt:

The story behind the shot is even cooler. Next to Matt is my good friend Dale Doyle, with whom I worked at Landor in Cincinnati for five years. Dale and I share similar musical tastes (“impeccable” you might say), and we’ve been concert roll dawgs for decades.

Dale’s an extremely talented designer/creative director. After 23 years of dedicated, faithful service to Landor, he was unceremoniously laid off about 18 months ago. So he started a small design studio called Holotype with two other Landor refugees.

Dale’s also a native of the West Side of Cincinnati, as is Matt Berninger. Several months ago, Dale made a “typical West Side move” comment on one of Matt’s Instagram posts. Intrigued, Matt checked out Dale’s personal Insta profile, which was linked to the Holotype account. Amazingly, Matt reached out to Dale and asked him to design some icons… then invited Dale to The National’s concert in Mexico City, with a photo and backstage pass.

Photo credit: I’ll give you three guesses…

That’s where Dale finally got to meet Matt in person after working with him via email/text for months. Their bromance blossomed, and Matt asked Dale to do the artwork for his first solo album.

The morals of the story:

  1. Instagram stalking can pay off.
  2. Getting laid off by a corporate behemoth can be the best career move ever.
  3. You can check out of the West Side any time you want, but you can never leave.