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.

Spring has sprung… and sung

Concert Listings, Music

How-dee!

Let’s take a gander at that there Koncert Keeper, shall we?

Jukebox the Ghost plays the Woodward on Wednesday. Jukebox the Ghost: not as cool as Casper, but way cooler than Casper’s cousin Spooky.

On Thursday, Keily Connell plays the Cincinnati Zoo’s “Tunes & Blooms.” Admission is free after 5 p.m. and the music starts at 6.

Also on Thursday, The Blue Wisp Big Band plays Bircus Brewing in Ludlow, KY, and Lucy Wainwright Roche plays Southgate’s Revival Room. Lucy is the daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Suzzy Roche of The Roches, so she’s like the folkie version of Prince Harry, only with talent.

Hyryder plays the old Annie’s this Friday.

Saturday night live:

Nickel Creek at the Cindy Brady
Rob Fetters plays another livestream from his website
The Menus play Bircus
GZA of Wu-Tang Clan plays Ludlow Garage

When I was growing up in rural Arkansas (explains a lot, doesn’t it?), our shotgun shack had well water with a nasty aftertaste, so the only way I could stomach it was to mix it with Tang. Basically, I was a founding member of the “Woo, Tang!” clan.

This Sunday, Memorial Hall has An Evening with The Petersens. I think George Petersen is part of that group.

That same evening, The Weight (featuring members of late-era The Band and the Levon Helm Band) plays Ludlow Garage.

Lewis Capaldi plays the Bobby Brady next Monday (4/17).

The Tony-winning musical Hadestown, written by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, is at the Aronoff April 18-30th. I hate to brag, but I’ve picked up several Tonys myself.

Tuesday, April 18th is Tax Day.

On Wednesday, April 19, Sunny Day Real Estate is at Bogart’s, and Marc Broussard plays Memorial Hall.

You’ll find some Hot Tuna at the old Annie’s on Thursday, April 20th. And by “Hot Tuna” we mean the band fronted by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady from Jefferson Airplane, not some stolen cans of Star-Kist… although you could probably find that at the flea market in the parking lot.

Other 4/20 shows:

Scott Miller (nee V-Roys) plays Southgate’s main room and Rachel Baiman is in the Revival Room
Carriers at the Cincinnati Zoo for Tunes & Blooms

On Friday, April 21st, The Robert Cray Band plays Memorial Hall, The Band of Heathens is at Southgate, and Clutch is at the Carol Brady.

Carol wins the car accident court case vs. Uncle Fester. Now that’s clutch!

On Saturday, April 22nd, Cereal Killers play an outdoor Earth Day gig at Fries Cafe.

By now, you should know the drill for a CK gig: show up and drink up – first beer’s on me.

Other shows on 4/22:

Snarky Puppy at the Tiger Brady
Strangelove (Depeche Mode tribute) at Ludlow Garage.

On Sunday, 4/23, Steve Poltz plays the Woodward Theater

See you later, Seymour

Lest we forget, legendary A&R man and record label owner Seymour Stein — who died on 4/2 — got his start at King Records in Cincinnati. He talks about it in this Fresh Air interview:

Album Cover of the Week – for real!

Not doing a goofy album cover this time around – it’s the new album from Gladie called Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out. My daughter ordered it for me (#proudDadMoment) and there was a delay in delivery due to vinyl pressing challenges. This handwritten note warmed my heart:

Time marches on. So do tunes.

Concert Listings, Music

Great news: our Presidents’ Day sale on subscriptions has been extended to the end of the month! It’s sorta like a BOGO (buy one, get one) sale. In the case of This Week in Live Music (an ill-fitting name due to my laziness), we’re having a GOGO sale – get one email and get obnoxiousness free!

Let’s get to the gigs while the getting is good…

Tonight, Silversun Pickups play Bogart’s, Faux Frenchmen play the Mansion Hill Sanctuary, and Rob Fetters teams up with his ol’ pal “Bad Bob” Nyswonger for a live stream available here.

Let’s talk Mohawks!

Uh, actually, it’s the old Cincinnati hockey team. List member and hockey-head Eric Weltner has created a movie about how the Cincinnati Mohawks dominated the IHL in the 1950s.

You can catch a screening of The Mohawk Monopoly tomorrow and Sunday at the Woodward Theater. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. and the movie starts at 1:30 p.m. both days. On Saturday, DJ Mr Keith McLenon from Detroit will be spinning tunes before and after the screening, and former players will in attendance.

Let’s talk Ludlow

Y’all need to check out the cool “Cabin Fever” music and arts festival going on in scenic Ludlow, KY tomorrow. Proceeds benefit Music Fund Cincinnati, which was started by list member and porch picker John Sandman – get tickets at the Music Fund website and learn more about what they do.

Tomorrow night:

Brainiac is at the Woodward
500 Miles to Memphis, Kentucky Struts, The Nightbeast and Backalley Brujas play Southgate
a Black Sabbath tribute band plays Ludlow Garage and Bogart’s hosts an ABBA-inspired disco dance party. I hope the Sabbath fans and the ABBA fans show up at the Clifton Skyline after the gigs. It could go down like this:

Elle King plays the Marsha Brady on Tuesday. [Fun fact: Elle King is the daughter of former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider, who was barely funny when he was on the show (basically the male Victoria Jackson) and is almost totally humorless now.]

On Wednesday, Wishbone Ash plays Ludlow Garage. (Fun fact: Wishbone Ash is also the least popular salad dressing ever.)

Thursday gigs:

Beth Harris (of Hiders/Heartless Bastards) kicks off her March residency (every Thursday 8-11 p.m. – free!) at the Listing Loon in Northside, with special guest Ali Edwards (Ruby Vileos). The full list of March events at the Loon is here.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country sets up camp at Ludlow Garage
Country superstar Carrie Underwood plays the Coliseum

Next Friday (3/3) :

Red Wanting Blue plays Southgate, with Angela Perley as the opener
Crash Test Dummies are at Ludlow Garage
Colony House plays Bogart’s
Taft Theatre hosts “The Fab Four – the Ultimate Beatles tribute”… don’t settle for “The So-So Four: the Mediocre Beatles tribute”… or these guys:

Gigs next Saturday (3/4):

Matt Nathanson and Stephen Kellogg play Memorial Hall
Ernie Johnson from Detroit plays Woodward, with Electric Citizen and the Harlequins
Katie Toupin (formerly of Houndmouth) plays Southgate
Highly Suspect headlines the 96Rock anniversary show at Ovation (anyone remember Bender & Fingers in the morning on 96Rock?)
Speaking of radio stations, The Sklar Brothers bring their comedy to the Lawrenceburg Event Center. Check out this bit about a rock station in St. Louis:

On Sunday, March 5th, Skillet and Theory of a Deadman play the Alice Brady.

On Wednesday, March 8th:

Taft has “An Evening with Dawes”
Dylan LeBlanc and David Ramirez are at Southgate

Friday, March 10th shows:

Bonnie “Prince” Billy is at the Woodward, with Planchette
The Lemon Twigs play Southgate
Michael Martin Murphey is at Ludlow Garage

On Saturday, 3/11, Southgate has a local band benefit show:

That same evening, the Ark Band (reggae) plays a Bob Marley tribute at Ludlow . That event is BYOS – bring your own spliff.

After the smoke clears from the Ark Band show, Nektar will play Ludlow on Sunday, 3/12. It’s a 50th anniversary show of their album Remember the Future… the title seems more fitting now.

Hot Tickets Alert!

Tickets on sale today for:

Richard Thompson plays a solo acoustic show at the 20th Century Theater on Wednesday, May 10th. I already got my tix!
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit play a two-night stand at the Bobby Brady on April 28-29. Pro tip: buy at the Brady box office to save a boatload on fees – it’s open 11a-3p today.
Tedeschi Trucks Band with Ziggy Marley at PNC on July 18
Dwight Yoakam with the Mavericks at PNC on Aug. 4
And for list member Dan “Reds single game tickets on sale now!” Lewis, who is a huge Debbie Gibson fan: she’s playing the Taft on 6/24.

Dan Lewis has this magazine cover framed

New Order Order

The National’s new tune “New Order T-shirt” is strong:

And you can place a new order for a New Order t-shirt from The National:

Old (but good) News

At long last, John Fogerty got back the rights to his CCR songs. Here’s the article in Billboard from back in January.

“I’m the dad [of these songs]. I created them. They never should have been taken away in the first place. And that hijacking left such a massive hole in me.”
John Fogerty

Oh Canada

Alan Thicke writing and performing the theme song to Alex Trebek’s first American TV game show… a Canadian tag team nearly as good as Geddy Lee joining forces with Bob & Doug McKenzie.

Album Cover of the Week

Your humble scribe is often mistaken for this artist. List member Dan Lewis’ wife is always asking him “What’s the website that has the live music posts that Dick Feller wrote?”

I love music… and you!

Concert Listings, Music

Howdy! With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I want you to know that you are the Porter Wagoner to my Dolly Parton, and I will always love you.

If you think I look nothing like Dolly, you haven’t seen my moobs lately.

Or maybe I’m the Ralph Wiggum to your Lisa Simpson, and you choo-choo-choose to read this rag because you feel sorry for me.

Let’s take a loving look at the shows coming to the Tri-State Area, shall we?

We covered this in our last missive, but just in case you missed it:

There’s quite a grab bag of shows (and venues) on Saturday, Feb. 11th:

Blackberry Smoke plays the Lawrenceburg Event Center
Joe’s Truck Stop, Willy Tea Taylor and Jordan Smart play Southgate’s Revival Room
The Judds (featuring one original member!) are at the Nutter Center in Dayton
The Coliseum hosts the Legendz of the Streetz Tour (in case you hadn’t guessed from the use of the “z plurals” — there will be hippin’ and/or hoppin’ at that show. Per the show description, it will be “an interchanging ensemble of some of the most Iconic names in Hip-Hop including Rick Ross, Jeezy, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, Jadakiss, Cam’ron with Special Guest Jucee Froot”
Last, and most incongruously of all, Michael Bolton will be at the Hard Rock Casino. (Which might be the first time that “Michael Bolton” and “Hard Rock” have been used in the same sentence.)

On Sunday, Ben Levin plays Schwartz’s Point.

Then there’s a whole lot of nothin’ until Valentine’s Day is over.

On Thursday, The Gibson Brothers play Southgate.

Joshua Redman plays Memorial Hall on Friday.

Gigs next Saturday (2/18):

Ana Popovic is at Ludlow Garage
Dave Mason plays Memorial Hall
Ben Levin plays the Hilton Netherland for the first time
Bogart’s hosts “That Arena Rock Show”:

If they don’t play some Ratt, I’m gonna demand a refund…

If you’re more into “That Used-to-Be-Opening-Act at an Arena Rock Show,” Jackyl plays the Blue Note in Harrison.

Gaelic Storm is at the Taft on Tuesday 2/21.

That’s Fat Tuesday, by the way.

Blues-rock guitarist Eric Gales plays Ludlow Garage next Wednesday, 2/22, and if you’re up for a wild road trip, you can go to Kentucky to see Canada. (Cody Canada plays The Burl in Lexington.)

On Friday, Feb. 24th, Silversun Pickups are at Bogart’s, and Rob Fetters plays another “Fetters is Cheap!” home live stream with special guest Bob Nyswonger:

And a couple of Saturdays from now (Feb. 25th), the remaining members of Brainiac (R.I.P. Tim Taylor) will play the Woodward. (The New York Times did a nice article about the tour.)

Or you could observe the Sabbath:

They’ll be at Ludlow Garage that evening. After sundown.

Say it ain’t so, Joe Jon

Longtime This Week in Live Music favorite Jon Wurster is leaving Superchunk.

Sure, he’s still the drummer for The Mountain Goats and Bob Mould, and he’s still part of The Best Show… and he’ll still be hilarious on Twitter and Instagram.

But he’ll be missed in the ‘chunk. Oh well, as list member Mighty Joe Sampson said, “we’ll always have our Sudsy’s memories”… including the Superchunk show at that venue when an overpowering acrid smell nearly cleared out the room — and I used that as my opportunity to get closer to the stage.

Breaking news: Ticketmaster still sucks

I don’t know much about the band Lawrence, but kudos to co-lead Clyde Lawrence (great name – his sister Gracie is also in the band) for testifying before the Senate about the ridiculous monopoly that is Live Nation/Ticketbastard:

I hope the $25 towels were extra fluffy.

Summer festivals: coming soon to a venue (not so) near you

Ticket info for this Columbus festival here: https://columbus.resetconcertseries.com/

Speaking of boygenius, they recreated the iconic Nirvana Rolling Stone cover.

Nice interview feature too.

Philly + Minneapolis = Detroit?

War on Drugs and Craig Finn covering Bob Seger…

Won’t you be my Valentine?

Speaking of the ‘mats, Paul’s got more style than Styles, because he wore it first, and better:

Yes, it’s from Jon Wurster… he’s the best!

Album Covers of the Fortnight

Nothing says “love” quite like belly dancing and Jerry Wallace.

New Year’s Rockin’ Eve

Concert Listings, Concert review, Music

Wow, can you believe it’s almost New Year’s Rockin’ Eve? Neither can I!

Now that Dick Clark has gone to that great big Bandstand in the sky, I can rightfully claim his former title of “World’s Oldest Teenager.” Just call me Lil’ Dick… wait, strike that.

UNITED STATES – SEPTEMBER 13: AMERICAN BANDSTAND – 2/26/1976, Host Dick Clark (left) chats with Cheech Marin (center) and Tommy Chong of “Cheech & Chong” during the “Rate-A-Record” segment of American Bandstand. , (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

Er, let’s just get to the gigs, shall we?

Tomorrow evening, Old Crow Medicine Show plays the Taft, with Molly Tuttle as the opener.

On Friday, Goose kicks off a two-night stand at the Alice the Housekeeper Brady Center.

That same evening:

Jeremy Pinnell and Justin Wells play Southgate, with special guest Adam Lee
Afroman’s “Merry Spliffmas” is at the old Annie’s (this is a rescheduled date from the Snowpocalypse)

Saturday is New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Or New Year’s Rocking Eve if you only have one apostrophe.

On the cusp of a new year:

Goose plays Night #2 at the Carol Brady
Arlo McKinley is at Bogart’s
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is at Southgate, with Joe’s Truck Stop and The Hammer & The Hatchet (not Molly Hatchet… that would be flirtin’ with disaster)
Mad Anthony and A.M. Nice play a free show in the Southgate Lounge
Rumpke Mountain Boys play the old Annie’s
Rob Fetters hosts another “Fetters is Cheap” online show starting at 9 p.m.
Noah Smith’s Big Ol’ Family New Year show is at Big Ash
The Almond Butter Band (local Allman Bros. tribute outfit) plays Fretboard
The Newbees and Chalk Eye play the Village Theater in Ft. Thomas
The Hard Rock Casino has a NYE party hosted by… Joe Mixon? Shouldn’t he be studying the Bills defense?
Your favorite publisher of sporadic concert updates turns… Joseph Ossai’s jersey #.

Then there’s a bit of a live music drought. (I blame climate change… and the ghost of Dick Clark.)

You’ll have to wait until Friday, January 6th before the shows crank up again:

Pure Prairie League (“featuring one original member!”) is at Ludlow Garage
The Menzingers play Bogart’s
Diamond Rio is at the Taft

Then there’s another mini-drought until Friday the 13th… but we’ll chat again before then.

R.I.P. D.R.B. Fare thee well, Dan.

Local music legend David Rhodes Brown (Warsaw Falcons, 500 Miles to Memphis) passed away in early December. Cincinnati.com story is here.

Dan Hamilton’s family hosted a celebration of life for Dan at Little Miami Brewing’s event center last night. It was a fine send-off for a great dude, capped off by Dan’s longtime Spookfloaters bandmate Mike Holmes playing the Grateful Dead’s “Eyes of the World” and Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” for Dan.

Dan, a soulful and whole-hearted musician, was a beloved and dedicated father, life partner, son, brother and friend to many. He had a giant, magnificent heart as wide as the ocean. He was a kind soul to friends and strangers alike. Whether you were in the audience watching him play, working with him or were lucky enough to call him family or friend – Dan had a way of making you feel seen and heard. He was the personification of love, light, art, kindness and humor.
from Dan’s obit

Royal Crescent Mob rules once again!

Fantastic show by the RC Mob at the Madison Theater on 12/17.

It was great to see them on stage again, and great to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. (CincyMusic photo gallery of shots from Jon Calderas is here.)

A special shout-out to 97X superfan David Groff (the one who looks like he’s a foot taller than I am in the photo above), who rented a party bus to take him and his Miami U. friends and their spouses to the show:

I’ve got a mailbag in my trousers… or a Trouser in my mailbag

The PR folks at Trouser Press must have a Google Alert set up… that’s the only possible explanation for how they came across the 97Xbam.com website post that mentioned them.

Why yes, I’d be happy to mention your books, available here.

The Ira A. Robbins Music in a Word three-volume set looks pretty cool, and you can get all three books for $48. Not too shabby!

Best of the Best of 2022

This website compiles a boatload of “best of” lists (Pitchfork, NPR, Stereogum, NYTimes, et al) in one handy-dandy location. It’s like American Bandstand‘s Rate-A-Record on steroids.

Hat tip to list member Cullen Lewis, of Bourn Yesterday fame, for the “best of” link. Cullen’s latest post is “22 Great Songs from ’22.”

Album Cover of the Week

Perfect for your New Year’s resolution!

I hope 2023 is really rockin’!

Super. Love. Music.

Concert Listings, Concert review, Music

What a great time to be in the Cincinnati area. This Sunday, the local NFL team, owned by the Browns (in more ways than one), has a chance to take home the ultimate prize: a trip to Disney World!

(Oh, and a shiny trophy too.) This town is going bonkers for their Bengals!

Then on Monday, it’s VD for everyone! Let me wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Always remember that I love you, even if I forgot to get you something… wait, sorry, that’s the note for my wife. Although sometimes I DO get her a gift and she’s still upset.

I have no idea why…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before we get to the Super Bowl and the Super Love, we have an action-packed weekend of hard-hitting rock and/or roll.

Tonight, Lucy Dacus plays the Ovation, with Indigo De Souza as the opener. Should be a stellar show – hope to see you there.

This just in… if Lucy has back-to-back back pain, she might be crooning from a couch, like she did last night in the Motor City:

Saturday, Foxy Shazam plays the Peter Brady Icon Music Center.

That same evening, Manor House in Mason hosts The Cincy Winter Blues Experience, Rob Fetters kicks off Season #6 of his “Fetters is Cheap” live streams, and the Tri-State’s smelly hippies find themselves with a tough choice:

Local jam band Spookfloaters (feat. my wife’s cousin Mike on guitar and vocals) plays the event center at Little Miami Brewing Co. AND
Runaway Gin (a tribute to Phish) is at Annie’s.

I guess they’ll have to take two trips that night.

The Peter Brady mustache really makes the outfit.

On Super Sunday, Stay Outside and Leland Blue play Southgate.

Monday, in addition to the aforementioned hug fest that is Valentine’s Day, Langhorne Slim plays Southgate.

Southgate House has two shows on Tuesday:

The Pine Hill Haints play the main room (Sanctuary)
In the upstairs Revival Room, you can enjoy An Evening with Clem Snide – I may hit this show, could be really cool.

Wednesday, Dream Theater plays the Marsha Brady Icon Music Center.

Iconic football scene.

On Thursday, Cary Morin plays Southgate’s Revival Room.

Next Friday, John Scofield will be at Ludlow Garage.

Tickets on sale today

The Who at TQL Stadium on May 15th… yes, Quadrophenia fans, that’s 5:15…
Idles at Ovation on September 12th
“Mickey Dolenz celebrates the Monkees” at Icon on April 9th
Engelbert Humperdinck at Taft on May 6th.

Trick question

Live shot

The War on Drugs put on a stellar show at Ovation this past Sunday. The venue is similar to the Mike Brady Icon Music Center, although it only has a single wraparound balcony instead of two. The sound was very good, sightlines were decent, I just wish they had more exits for post-show egress.

Album Cover of the Week

Your collection of the best Soul music isn’t complete unless you have Hutch in your hutch.

I promised you Superlove music, so here it is:

Ass Ponys covering the Afghan Whigs… it doesn’t get any better than this.

Jingle (Is)bells

Concert Listings, Music

Before we get into this week’s gigs, I’m providing a holiday shopping public service announcement for those with teenage daughters (and for list members who are “still 16” like Amanda Woodly – more on her later): Tickets for Olivia Rodrigo’s April 22nd show and the Haim show on May 19th go on sale today at 10 a.m. (Both shows are indoor gigs at Icon, which is punching well above its weight… time for Ovation to up its game.) If you’d like to “try before you buy” on Olivia Rodrigo, check out her Austin City Limits appearance (her band is all-female, which is pretty cool)… and of course stick around for the Phoebe Bridgers portion of the show.

OK, on with the shows…

It’s Friday, and Jason is in town!

Wait, my bad, I meant Jason Isbell.

Jason Isbell’s superb band, the 400 Unit, is named after a hospital psych ward. So maybe Jason Vorhees will be here in spirit? I know I’ll be at tonight’s show at the Icon (in the flesh… but wearing pants for a change), along with about half the folks on the “This Week in Live Music” mailing list. (The other half will be at Saturday’s show.) Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives open up both shows. A good time will be had by all.

The jaunty ascot… who wore it best?

Other shows this evening include Multimagic at the Woodward, and An Olde English Christmas With Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone at Ludlow Garage. I hope they do the theme song from the 80’s Olde English TV commercial – that song rocks!

On Saturday, it’s a Jason sequel…

Meaning it’s Night II for Jason Isbell/Marty Stuart at Icon. (Don’t forget to get a Marty Stuart ascot at the merch booth!)

Meanwhile, Them Dirty Roses are at the old Annie’s, with The Josephines as the opener. Our ol’ pal Rob Fetters wraps up another round of his “Fetters is Cheap” free livestreams – accessible via his website. And Emaline will sing the Christmas classics at Ludlow Garage.

Ludlow can keep the (Christmas) lights on, because on Sunday you can enjoy Christmas with the Celts at that venue. If you prefer goth garb to kilts, you can check out Evanescence and Halestorm at the Coliseum. If you’d rather boogie-woogie in the morning, Ben Levin’s playing the Hard Rock brunch, with special guest Lil’ Jimmy Reed. Now that’s a winning combination!

Ben’s got a solo gig at Arnold’s on Thursday, but other than that, the rest of the week is kinda light on gigs. I blame the supply chain. Everyone else is doing it!

But then next Friday the scene really heats up… all the way up to 98 Degrees! They’re playing the Hard Rock Casino – sounds like a classic lose/lose proposition to me.

If you’d rather see a better band with local connections — and much less boy band baggage — Over the Rhine kicks off a three night stand of their annual holiday show next Friday at Memorial Hall.

If you’d rather see and hear a facsimile of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham instead of real-life Karin and Linford, head to Ludlow Garage for Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute.

Sorry Linford, but Lindsey’s hair is better. Actually, it WAS better.

Or you can shop local and hit the Motherfolk Christmas show at Bogart’s, with Sylmar as the opener.

Favorite albums of 2021

Today’s the last day to vote for your Top Ten of this year on KEXP’s website.

But there’s plenty of time to add your faves to the TWILM list here. Grammy-nominated artist Dale Doyle (the original D2) chose these slabs o’ wax:

Black Keys – Delta Kream
Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend
Slowthai- Tyron
Weezer – OK Human
Leon Bridges – Gold-Diggers Sound
Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
Fleet Foxes – Shore
Taylor Swift – Evermore
Low – Hey What
Lucy Dacus – Home Video
Kanye West – Donda (Just kidding)

While list member Amanda Woodly decided to chide me for my document choice (“this should be an Excel file”) before listing her top tunes o’ the year:

Snailmail- Valentine
Japanese Breakfast- Jubilee
Lucy Dacus- Home Video
Olivia Rodrigo- Sour (I’m still 16)
Doja Cat- Planet Her
Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
Tyler, The Creator- Call Me If You Get Lost
Kacey Musgraves- Star Crossed (Cincinnati’s newest #goodwife)
I wish I could put the new St Vincent album here, but…

Sorry to let you down, Amanda. I like to think outside the box, and Excel is nothing but boxes.

Friday Funnies

We mocked the GMC holiday commercial last week, so this week it’s time for some Lexus holiday commercial fun:

Tico the Parrot is a dead ringer singer for Axl Rose:

He does a pretty good Bon Scott too:

Tweet of the Week

Cover of the Week

Courtesy of list member Michael “Rico” Carrico who said “Covering Mr Waits. Phoebe at her best.” (We agree wholeheartedly!)

Album Cover of the Week

It’s the Holiday Houseguest from Hell. Crazy Otto is back in town. Looks like he flew Allegiant. And he brought sheet music.

Have a great week!

Go-vember

Concert Listings, Music

It’s time to GO to a gig.

And you’ll have several opportunities this week. Tonight, Gary Clark Jr. plays the Icon, The Wild Feathers play Madison Theater, and Spyro Gyra plays Ludlow Garage.

Saturday, you can head to Memorial Hall for the North Mississippi All-stars with the Rebirth Brass Band and Cedric Burnside. The show sounds pretty cool:

For one special night, these three artists will be playing their own favorite selections as well as collaborating throughout the show on an array of great songs, exploring the musical connection between the Mississippi Delta and Bourbon Street… right down Highway 61.
From the Memorial Hall website

If you fancy a bit of a road trip, you can catch Hamilton Leithauser and Kevin Morby at Headliner’s in Louisville. If you’d rather stay home, Rob Fetters is streaming another house show on the YouTubes.

Sunday has a few gigs of note:

Ben Levin & Friends are doing the boogie-woogie brunch at Hard Rock Casino
Tab Benoit is at the Taft with Alastair Green
Carl Palmer plays Ludlow Garage
Sebastian Bach will be at Bogart’s for a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of Skid Row’s Slave to the Grind. Maybe 20 years from now he’ll do an anniversary tour of the time he sang “Hollaback Girl” on Gilmore Girls.

On Monday I’ll probably be at MOTR Pub enjoying the sweet song stylings of Lydia Loveless, with Amber Nash as the opener. It’s a rare ticketed show for MOTR (most are free), but $15 is cheap for that gig. Doors at 7, show at 8.

Tuesday Southgate House has Alice Peacock with Tim Grimm and the Family Band: A Concert to Benefit The Music Resource Center.

Hayes Carll plays Southgate on Wednesday with the splendid Caroline Spence as the opener, and David Cross will be at Bogart’s. No word on whether any other members of Dr. Fünke’s 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution will be there.

Ben Folds (hold the Five) is playing Taft on Thursday. That same evening, Olivia Jean and Leggy are at Southgate, and Edwin McCain plays Ludlow Garage.

Ludlow will be hosting Shovels & Rope next Friday, November 19th.

Dr. Shovels, with the Rope, in the Garage

Hot Ticket Alert!

Lucy Dacus (her latest album is one of my 2021 faves), will be playing Ovation (the PromoWest venue in Newport) on Friday, February 11th, 2022. Tickets go on sale today at noon (and yes, the “convenience fees” are redonk). Ovation also recently announced a Bon Iver show on June 21, 2022, with Bonny Light Horseman as the opener. The PromoWest lineup of shows had been rather underwhelming thus far, but these tasty gigs give us hope that, as list member Ken Laube put it, “maybe we’re finally getting out of concert jail.”

Gig Pics

Brett Newski and the No Tomorrow played a thoroughly entertaining set at MOTR on Wednesday. Then the band stayed at the home of list members Dave and Jacqui Killen – the same place where Brett played a Parlor & Patio gig pre-pandemic. Now that’s hospitality!

Brett had a “virtual tip jar” set up at his merch booth – take a page from the book of list member John Sandman: if you’ve been listening to a band’s music on Spotify, why not Venmo them some $ (or give them some cold hard cash… that’s still a thing) to make up for what you would’ve spent on an album? That little bit of extra moolah — and the occasional free “bed & breakfast” from friendly hosts — goes a long way for up and coming bands.

Words of wisdom

“Punk taught me that music didn’t have to express consensus. You could use music as a way to set yourself apart from the world, or at least some of the world. You could find something to love and something—perhaps lots of somethings—to reject. You could have an opinion, and an identity.”
Kelefa Sanneh in his new book Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres (Hat tip to list member Cullen Lewis for the reco)

Watch this

The Sparks Brothers, the new documentary about the band Sparks (streaming now on Netflix) is delightfully entertaining. Well worth a watch.

As they point out in the doc, Sparks really invented the “Molly Ringwald” Breakfast Club style of dance. It’s merely one of many examples of the ways that Sparks blazed the trail for others musically and stylistically.

Random Album Cover of the Week

The John Denver-meets-Miami-Vice vibe is entertaining enough (as advertised), but the inscription really seals the deal:

I think ol’ Jim might be confused about how the whole brother-sister thing works. It’s not like she had a choice.

Have a great week… GO to a gig!

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!

Rob Fetters is Cheap. Free even.

97X, Music, podcast

In this coronavirus “Local Lockdown Lixx” bonus episode of the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast, singer/songwriter/guitarist Rob Fetters (The Raisins, The Bears, psychodots and solo releases) talks about the free house concert live streams he’s been doing every weekend, provides some Zen guidance on how to cope during COVID craziness… and tells the tale of a time long ago when Ted Nugent brought him from darkness to light. [Back then Ted called himself “The Motor City Madman” but was semi-sane. Now he’s a batsh*t crazy, gun-totin’, Trump-votin’ nutjob. – Ed.]

You’ll find links to Rob’s upcoming house concerts via his website, RobFetters.net. (His next show is Saturday, May 2 at 9 p.m. EDT.) You’ll also find links to the YouTube recordings of previous shows, and a great video for his song “Not the End” — also posted below.

(Due to scheduling conflicts, Dave couldn’t participate in this interview. You’re stuck with the schmuck, Damian.)

Bonus content for the bonus episode: Here’s Rob talking about how the “Not the End” video came together rather quickly a few weeks ago.

Rob’s been writing songs, playing guitar and singing for a looooong time. Adrian Belew produced The Raisins self-titled debut back in 1983. That platter featured the song “Fear is Never Boring” – a perennial 97X favorite. Here’s the original video:

Here’s the same tune, performed at the psychodots farewell show (with Bam Powell sitting in) back in November of 2018. (Shot/edited by Robert Mills, the same guy who did the “Not the End” video.)

2018 Psychodots- Fear is Never Boring from millsfilms on Vimeo.

But Rob was even in bands before the Raisins. In his teens, he was in a band called the Red Hot Tots… which would also be a great name for a side dish at Applebee’s.

Legendary Mad magazine illustrator Mort Drucker, who died on April 9th, did the album cover art for The Bears self-titled debut album. Here’s a CityBeat article about how that happened.

Rob’s house concerts are most assuredly NOT hippie-strumming-acoustic-guitar affairs…

Rob is plugged in and amped up (in more ways than one… the energy of that guy!) and can add backing tracks via his studio-like wizardry. Check out his most recent show below and you’ll see what we mean.