The National

June’s tunes

97X, Concert Listings, Music

Wow, is it June already? June: our favorite month AND our favorite Johnny duet partner.

I know I’ve been slacking on keeping you abreast of the live local gigs. May was a bit busy. Really!

We had one kid graduate from O.U. (“Oh yeah!”):

[Peter was a triple major (Data Analytics, Finance, and Business Information Systems) and graduated summa cum laude. If you help him find a job, I will pay a finder’s fee (out of the savings on my healthcare plan and grocery bill).]

Lest I forget, our youngest, Andrew, also put on an overpriced robe, as he graduated from Walnut Hills High School:

This fall, he’ll be wearing ugly candy cane/barber pole overalls at Indiana U.

Since we last chatted, there was a fabulous 97X book event at the Mercantile Library.

Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker from Wussy played my house yet again!

And Inhailer Radio trotted out the 40th anniversary of the 97X Modern Rock 500, an event that garnered a lot of publicity.

My podcast pal Dave Tellmann and I even made it onto Channel 12, where we were interviewed by former 97X Breakfast Club intern Jen Dalton… and I wore a headset that made me look like the spitting image of noted Hollywood heartthrob Clint Howard:

But the really rewarding part of the whole Modern Rock 500 was stuff like this:

OK, the May madness is over. Let’s turn to June’s tunes. (BTW, I’ll be covering a full month’s worth of concerts, as our whole fam-damily will soon be off to Alaska to see the glaciers before they all melt.)

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band plays a free gig at Levitt Pavilion in Dayton tonight.

On Friday:

  • Damien Jurado plays the Woodward Theater (good dude, just bad spelling of his first name)
  • Caitlin Rose and Andrew Combs are at Southgate
  • The Harmed Brothers play as part of the free Fountain Square “Indie Fridays” concert series (full summer lineup is here)
  • Zac Brown will perform after the Reds-Brewers game at GABP. (Look for list member and Reds sales all-star Dan Lewis in the front row – he’ll be the shirtless guy with “I ❤ Zac” painted on his chest.)

Saturday has a whole slew of gigs:

  • Wussy plays a house concert in Dayton, KY (of course I’ll be there, I’m a stalker)
  • Barenaked Ladies (not to be confused with Shirtless Dan Lewis) play PNC, with Semisonic and Del Amitri also on the bill (Del Amitri – that’s the band that was on Late Night with David Letterman when I was in the studio audience!)
  • Adrian Belew and Jerry Harrison are doing a “Remain in Light” concert at Newport Music Hall in Columbus
  • Sawyer Point has a free concert featuring Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass, Jake Speed, and Henhouse Prowlers
  • .38 Special and Loverboy play the Fraze in Dayton. If you enjoy cheesy 80s videos, this one is tough to top:

Dallas Moore has an album release show at Southgate on Sunday, with Ricky Nye also on the bill.

On Tuesday, June 6th, All Time Low plays the Newport venue that has reached an all-time low with its god-awful corporate name… which is why we still call it the Ovation.

On Wednesday, June 7th, Rose Music Center has the Kenny Wayne Shepherd “Backroads Blues Festival” with Eric Gales and King Solomon Hicks. That same evening, The Minks play Southgate.

Next Thursday, 6/8, Sylmar and Electric Indigo play the free “Rockin’ the Roebling” show at the Moerlein Lager House in Smale Park. (Full summer schedule is here.)

Hank Williams Jr. and Old Crow Medicine Show are at Riverbend on Friday, June 9th.

On Saturday, June 10th, Cereal Killers play Big Ash Brewing. Tell a buddy, bring a friend, but don’t you dare miss this big show! First beer’s on me.

Recent text reply from a friend/list member when I mentioned the Cereal Killers yet again:

Maybe, but I don’t know if I can amply express how damn good they are. If you enjoyed the 97X Modern Rock 500, you’ll love this gig.

I feel duty-bound to mention the other shows that evening, albeit whilst holding my nose:

Fraze has the “I Love the 90s Tour” featuring Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath, Treach of Naughty by Nature, Kid N Play, All-4-One, 2 Live Crew, DJ Kool, and Color Me Badd. And Ludlow Garage hosts Bronson Arroyo’s tribute to Pearl Jam. It’s kinda like “pick your poison”… only without any members of Poison.

Sunday, 6/11 Jim Lauderdale plays the Southgate, with Lillie Mae.

Dead & Company make their final tour stop in Cincinnati on Tuesday, June 13th.

That same evening, Pat Metheny is at Memorial Hall.

The Pixies play the Mike Brady on Wednesday, June 14th with Franz Ferdinand and Bully – great triple bill!

On Thursday, 6/15, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Dex Romweber (Flat Duo Jets for the win!) play Southgate. Love the gig poster:

That same evening, The John Doe Folk Trio plays a free gig at the Levitt Pavilion in Dayton — and they play a ticketed show on Friday, 6/16 at the Woodward, with Chuck & Lisa (Wussy Duo…. tired of playing my house) as the opener.

Other 6/16 shows:

  • Lyle Lovett & his Large Band play Ovation
  • Bruce Cockburn (“it’s pronounced ‘COE-burn’!”) and Dar Williams are at Ludlow Garage
  • The Rebirth Brass Band plays Memorial Hall
  • Matchbox 20 is at Riverbend

On Saturday, June 17th:

  • Jimmie Vaughan plays Ludlow Garage
  • Ben Folds is at the Rose
  • 500 Miles to Memphis plays a 20th anniversary show at Southgate

Counting Crows and Dashboard Confessional are at PNC on Sunday, June 18th.

W.I.T.C.H. and Death Valley Girls are at the Woodward on Tuesday, June 20th. Also that night, Mike Gordon is at Madison Theater and Young The Giant and Milky Chance play the Jan Brady.

Gigs on Wednesday, June 21st:

  • James Taylor & band are at Riverbend
  • Peter Frampton plays the Rose
  • Ludlow Garage has a 70s Rock Revival Troubadour Project
  • Tracy Walker plays a free concert in Burnet Woods (7pm start)

On Thursday, June 22nd:

  • The Chris Knight Duo and Mic Harrison (V-Roys, Superdrag) play Southgate (American Aquarium has a Southgate date listed on their website, but it’s not on Southgate’s site… guess you’ll have to go and see who shows up)
  • Peter Frampton comes alive at the PNC Pavilion
  • Ally Venable plays Ludlow Garage
  • Stripmall Ballads and Ray Vietti play the Washington Park “Roots Revival” freebie (full summer schedule is here).

On Friday, 6/23:

  • AJR is at Ovation
  • Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band play Ludlow
  • Sloan plays a freebie at Fountain Square (at least according to the Fountain Square website… it’s not listed on Sloan’s website). Don’t sleep on Sloan, they are great. I’d definitely be at that gig if I weren’t watching glaciers melt.

Saturday, June 24th:

  • My Morning Jacket plays the Ovation
  • The SteelDrivers are at the old Annie’s with Stringus Khan and the Restless Leg String Band
  • Woodward Theater has Victoria Victoria featuring Charlie Hunter
  • The Surfrajettes and The Nailers play Southgate
  • Richard Marx plays the Fraze
  • Debbie Gibson is at the Taft. I wonder how her kid is now…

Legendary bluesman Buddy Guy plays the Rose on Sunday, June 25th, with next gen blues legend Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Ally Venable on the bill as well. Also, Jesus Jones will be “Right here, right now” if the “here” is Ludlow and the “now” is 6/25.

Toad the Wet Sprocket plays Taft on Monday, 6/26, with Marcy Playground as the opener. That show is “bring your own sex and candy.” That same evening, the Doobie Brothers play the Rose.

Best What’s Happening!! episode ever!

What’s that you say? You’d love to see some bonus What’s Happening!! music content? Your wish is my command:

Santana plays the Rose on Tuesday, June 27th. Or maybe it’s Cheech Marin from Cheech & Chong… I always get those two mixed up.

On Wednesday, June 28th, The Deslondes play Southgate with Esther Rose as the opener (strong double bill!) and Earth, Wind & Fire (strong triple elements!) are at the PNC.

And June goes out with a bang on Friday the 30th:

  • Dave Alvin & the Guilty Ones play a free show at Levitt Pavilion in Dayton (I’ll be at that gig)
  • Greensky Bluegrass plays the Rose
  • The Steel Wheels are in Southgate’s main room
  • Maurice Mattei & the Tempers play a free show in Southgate’s Lounge (10pm)
  • Ambrosia is at Ludlow Garage

Homecoming when I’m not home

The National announced their lineup for this year’s Homecoming Festival.

I’ll be out of town when it’s going on, and to be honest, I’m not overly distraught that I’ll miss it.

“20th Century” is right… and I’m alright with that

JBM is booking shows at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley once again. The acts tend to skew toward an older demographic, but this old man is cool with that. I saw two great shows from septuagenarians in May – Richard Thompson and Junior Brown.

Up next, the young whippersnapper Bob Mould (a mere 62!) on October 22nd.

Oh! You Pretty Things

Book publishing guru Jane Friedman tipped me off (in her free Electric Speed newsletter) to this cool site called Album Whale where you can create visually appealing lists of albums to share with friends.

Album Covers of the Month

Listen your way to that beach body you’ve always wanted.

Gigs and Books

97X, Concert Listings, Music, podcast, woxy.com

I let you down yet again (you should be used to it by now). I’m tardy with my list of gigs so I didn’t get to tell you about the New Pornographers show at Memorial Hall last night. That said, the show was sold out. Besides, I don’t know why people need New Pornographers, the old ones still work just fine.

Tonight, Southgate House is hosting The Nude Party. (It’s a band, get your mind out of the old pornographers gutter.)

OK, let’s focus on the future. The Future of Rock and Roll, that is. Robin James wrote the book about 97X, and thanks to Northside’s Downbound Books and Shake It Records, she’ll be talking about it with a couple of knuckleheads at the Mercantile Library this Thursday. If you’re one of the faithful 200 who registered for this event, you can hear from Robin, get a book signed and enjoy some tasty Great Lakes Brewing Co. beverages courtesy of our ol’ pal Howard Cohen (Cereal Killers… more on them later).

If you can’t attend in person, you can stream the event on Crowdcast here. (Great Lakes Beer not included.)

Tomorrow night, Richard Thompson plays a solo acoustic show at the 20th Century Theater. I’ll be there, of course. Forget about King Charles III, to me, King Richard is the Brit who rules.

KT Tunstall and Martin Sexton are also playing a double bill tomorrow, at Memorial Hall.

On Thursday, if you can’t make the Merc, Memorial Hall is hosting An Evening with the Cowboy Junkies.

Wait, wrong sort of Cowboy Junkie…

Friday night, Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker from the band Wussy are playing at my house. (Apparently they didn’t learn their lesson from the first time I hosted them back in October of 2022 and totally fanboyed out.)

John “Don’t call me Cougar” Mellencamp also kicks off a two-night stand at the Aronoff on Friday. And The Comet hosts BurritoFest 2023 on Friday and Saturday.

The Taft Theatre has some interesting shows lined up:

  • An Evening with Natalie Merchant on Sunday
  • The Wood Brothers with Shovels & Rope on Tuesday, May 16th
  • David Cross on Thursday, May 18th

Roger McGuinn does a “Songs & Stories” gig at Memorial Hall on 5/18.

On Friday, May 19th, Cereal Killers play at MadTree Brewing in Oakley. 7-11 p.m. First beer’s on me.

I won’t be dressed like that… unless you ask nicely.

That same evening, Frank Turner plays Bogart’s and Leo Kottke is at Ludlow Garage.

On Saturday, 5/20, Dopapod is at the Madison Theater, Steve Goodie and Eric Gnezda play a comedy music show in Florence, KY, and Fountain Square hosts the KISS tribute band Strutter.

The Gem City shines

Dayton, Ohio (birthplace of flight… and the Deal sisters) has some really nice freebie shows coming up this summer at the Levitt Pavilion downtown, including Dave Alvin, John Doe, Tab Benoit, Ernie Johnson from Detroit, and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. The first gig is The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band on Thursday, June 1st. Check out the full lineup here.

Mailbag

List member Mighty Joe Sampson, a resident of a posh Cincy suburb, wrote:

This longtime subscriber is formally objecting to your slanderous comment about Madeira aka “the friendly town.”

You’re right, Joe. Madeira is very accepting of strangers… as long as they follow the instructions to leave the DoorDash food delivery on the front porch.

Reading Room

Amanda Petrusich profiles The National in The New Yorker.

Sweet Swag

Inhailer Radio has a nice t-shirt to celebrate the 2023 Modern Rock 500, coming to their airwaves May 22-29.

You can order yours here.

Shameless self-promotion

The latest episode of the “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast features the woxy.com crew (Shiv, Mike Taylor, Joe Long, Bryan J and Brian Niesz) talking about their rollercoaster ride on the interwebs from 2004-2010.

Album Cover of the Fortnight

Those wacky Brits… I don’t know how in the heck you can guard a horse when your helmet obstructs 70% of your field of vision and your “chin” strap is well above your chin. But… “tradition!”

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.

This Week in Live Music: November 25-December 1

97X, Concert Listings, Music, podcast

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.
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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!)

Shameless self-promotion

The most recent episode of the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast features an interview with Mark Griffin, a listener who so loved the station that he created 14 hours worth of playlists featuring songs that got airplay on 97X back in the mid-80s.

Have a happy week!