Take me to the River

I hate to start out with bad news, but since you’re such a fan of great music, you should know:

That’s right, kids (I mean kidz), your favorite show of the summer is no more. Here’z hoping you get over it. I mean, you can still see Hoobastank.

They are playing “the old Annie’s” (a.k.a. Riverfront Live) tomorrow night, along with Everclear, Living Colour and Wheatus. The old Annie’s also has Phil Vassar on Friday and Hyryder on Saturday (all are indoor shows).

Take me to a different part of the river… and a different river

But enough about Riverfront Live, and there’s no need to even discuss Riverbend. Instead let’s focus on another river perspective: RiversEdge. It’s an outdoor amphitheater in Hamilton! Ohio. And this Friday, they have a great double bill of S.G. Goodman and Aaron Lee Tasjan. Not familiar with them? Check out their latest releases below.

Do not sleep on this show… because it starts at the old-person-friendly time of 7 p.m. And even better, general admission on the lawn is FREE!

Yours truly will be there (weather permitting – fingers crossed), along with list members Todd Butler and Todd Quincy (who is part of the RiversEdge committee). It’s always a good time with a Todd or two.

Come join us, won’t you? If you can’t make Friday’s show, RiversEdge has a few more ace shows up their sleeve. Wait, check that, it’s Hamilton, so they are probably in a sleeveless Harley shirt…

Anyhoo, Arlo McKinley plays RiversEdge next Friday, July 23rd, The North Mississippi Allstars are there on August 7th, The Infamous Stringdusters & Sierra Hull play on August 21st, and JJ Grey and Mofro are booked for September 3rd. (Other than the JJ Grey gig, lawn admission is free.)

Speaking of gratuitous shows (of the non-Hoobastank variety), I need to profusely apologize to you for not alerting you to the recent freebie shows at Fountain Square. Cracker was there on July 3rd (several list members were in attendance, including at least 50% of The Cereal Killers), and Red Wanting Blue played there on July 9th (list members Whit and Barb Gardner were there). Needless to say, list member Dan “The Reds are in in to win it” Lewis was not pleased with my recent lack of concert communication, as witnessed by his email to me on June 29th:

Sorry to let you down, Dan. The full list of Fountain Square Friday and Saturday gigs is here…. I highly recommend the Brett Dennan gig on August 6th. And I know you’re a big fan of The Mavericks (Taft on 9/24) and Todd Rundgren (Icon on 10/30), so please make a note of those dates. By the way, have you considered a corporate partnership with Warren Beatty?

Other gigs in the near future

The Casey Campbell Band plays a freebie at Washington Park this Thursday night, and the Reverend Horton Heat & Hackensaw Boys are at Southgate on Sunday, July 25th.

Venting my spleen

How is it that the Cincinnati area has two brand new indoor/outdoor venues opening when every friggin’ band in America is jonesing to tour, yet we still cannot manage to book more than a handful of decent shows? Case in point – Phoebe Bridgers is playing the PromoWest venues in Pittsburgh and Columbus on consecutive nights, yet is NOT playing the PromoWest venue in Newport… she’s also playing Indy and Louisville, so our Bermuda Triangle status remains in full effect.

Notable Names in the News

List member Gil Kaufman made the New York Post… but not Page Six. He’s quoted in this article about how MTV stopped playing music and jumped the shark.

 “I have two teenage kids, and they know that I worked for MTV, but they’ve never seen MTV,” said Kaufman, who, after working at the network for 15-plus years, is now a senior contributing writer at Billboard. “They wouldn’t even know where to look for it.”

And Dan McCabe (co-owner of MOTR Pub and The Woodward Theater) talks about the struggles of local music venues in this Cincinnati Business Courier article.

“Survival happened. We’re certainly not whole,” McCabe said.” But we owe people money. Survival costs a lot of money. Then there are repairs that need to happen. These are both old buildings. A year and a half without maintenance shows up.”

List member Dave Tellmann and I interviewed Dan about that same topic on our 97X “Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast several months ago. Speaking o’ the podcast, all 65 glorious episodes are available on Podbean, Spotify , Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn , iHeart Radio, Pandora and Apple podcasts. It’s never been easier to tune in… or to completely ignore us.