Spinal Tap

It’s Turkey Week! (Or in my case, Tofurkey Week.)

I’m thankful for tasty tunes and good friends like you! Before we get to this week’s gigs, I must say Elvis Costello & The Imposters were stellar at the Taft last week. Lots of TWILM list members in attendance too…. on a school night! (7:30 show time, no opener… it’s a dream come true for folks of my vintage.)

OK, here’s the Turkey Week lineup:

On Tuesday, Cloud Nothings are at Woodward, with Leggy as the opener. That’s a nice double bill. Jackyl is at Bogart’s, in what feels like a standing monthly gig since 1991.

Wednesday, Dawg Yawp is at Woodward, with Ruby Vileos and Bendigo Fletcher. (Nice to see back-to-back concerts at Woodward… must be a slow week for wedding receptions.) Memorial Hall hosts “Abbey Road: a 50th Anniversary Beatles Celebration.” The complete Abbey Road album will be performed live by The Newbees with the Bee Strings and the Horn-Its.

The Tillers have a cool gig at Arnold’s on hump day too. Here’s the blurb from Arnold’s Facebook page:

We partnered up with Neltner Small Batch, Otto Printing and Mus-i-col Records to give offer a handmade, one-off, limited edition 7” vinyl record. The album is two live versions of the Tiller’s songs The Boatman’s Dance, Hickory Jack and Down at the Bottom. The records will also be pressed on transparent green vinyl to look just like a Jameson bottle. The awesome part? It’s free! That’s right, we are giving them all away. We have 250 total pressed on transparent hunter green vinyl to hand out and they will be first come first serve.
.
Drink and Menu Specials run all day, The Tillers take the stage at 9. The Records will be available at 8pm.

Also on Wednesday, Ben Levin plays the lobby bar at the Phelps/downtown Marriott from 5:30-8:30.

Thursday is a day to take a break from the live music and spend time with family… even if they drive you nuts.

On Friday, Pomegranates play… holy crap, the Woodward. Three shows in one week! Sylmar and Grand Ace are also on the bill.

That same evening:

Frontier Folk Nebraska have a record release party in Southgate’s Revival Room
Joslyn & The Sweet Compression play Ludlow Garage
Jordan Smart plays Camp Springs Tavern
Static-X is at Riverfront Live (formerly Annie’s)
the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has two shows at the Coliseum (presently Some-Bank Arena)
Ben Levin performs at BrewRiver
Freekbass plays FUNKsgiving in Southgate’s Sanctuary. That’ll shake you out of your tryptophan coma.

Saturday:

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band plays Southgate’s Sanctuary. Amen to that! Col. JD Wilkes (of Legendary Shack Shakers fame) opens up.
Sierra Hull is at Memorial Hall
Anna Stine plays Ludlow Garage
Stolen Faces noodle a Grateful Dead tribute at Stanley’s
Fretboard Brewing hosts an “Americana Gives Back” show starting at 5, with RootCellarXtract, Hickory Robot, Jeremy Francis and John Ford. Please bring a gift to donate to Toys for Tots.

Also on Saturday, Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant are at the Coliseum, which I mention merely because it gives me a convenient excuse to play this fantastic tune by the Young Fresh Fellows:

I saw the Young Fresh Fellows opening up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Bogart’s eons ago. Which gives me a handy excuse to do a callback to the Abbey Road mention earlier in this post:

Where was I? Oh, live gigs, right…

Sunday, the Ludlow Garage features Poco. The current lineup is sans Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Timothy B. Schmidt and Randy Meisner… but Rusty Young is playing.

The Aronoff Center features “It Was 50 Years Ago Today”… which is billed as “an All Star Tribute to the Beatles White Album – featuring Christopher Cross, Todd Rundgren, Micky Dolenz, Jason Scheff (Chicago) Joey Molland (Badfinger) – performing their greatest hits along with songs from the White Album.” Wow, Christopher Cross, Todd Rundgren and a Monkee together, whodathunkit? Of course, mentioning the White Album merits a shout-out to this:

And now you know how my brain works (or rather, doesn’t work).

Hot Ticket Alert

The lineup has been announced for The National’s Homecoming festival at Smale Park on May 8-9, 2020 and it’s very strong. I got tix for both days.

Video of the Week

The Drive-by Truckers’ new song mentions Cincinnati.

Kids these days (Part II)…

List member Lisa Collins, who works at Great American Insurance, mentioned to her 20-something niece Morgan that Jon Bon Jovi was playing Great American’s annual holiday party, and Morgan asked “What’s the difference between Bon Jovi and Jon Bon Jovi?”

(The one and only time I attended a Great American holiday party was eons ago when Carl Lindner Jr. was still around and apparently picking the entertainment, because the musical guest was… drumroll please… Wayne Newton!)