Like an agitated monkey, I’m about to fling some poop at you.
But you should be used to it by now – I do it every few weeks! If you can navigate around the verbal shite, you’ll find some cool concerts to check out.
Shows on tap for tonight:
Henhouse Prowlers and Moonshine Drive at the Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg
William Elliott Whitmore and Dave Hause at the Woodward, with Micah Schnabel opening
The Screaming Orphans at Ludlow Garage
Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is at the Coliseum
Saturday shows:
Sylmar does two sets at MOTR
Buffalo Nichols plays the Liberty Theater
Southgate hosts the Newport Music Roots Festival (doors 3 p.m.) – details below
Woodward Theater has “Play for L.A.” – a benefit for fire-impacted musicians. The lineup includes Rae Fisher, The Montvales, Jess Lamb, Siri Imani and more.
Mike Detmer and Adam Gilliam play the Lost Bridge Beverage Co. in North Bend
Christine Harvilla Duo with Colleen Clark plus Sami Riggs at the Boone County Courthouse
Annie’s hosts Grateful River III (a benefit for Down Syndrome) – details below
On Sunday, Ben Levin Blues Band is doing the Rabbit Hash Music Behind the Stove Series at 2 p.m., and the band Lawrence plays Bogart’s in the evening.
Woodward has An Evening with Yo La Tengo on Tuesday. I’ll be at that gig, along with several other list members. Because Georgia, James and Ira are badasses!
Shannon McNally plays Southgate on Wednesday.
Thursday gigs:
Shadowgrass in Southgate’s main room, and Jake Blocker in the Revival Room
“Sons of Cream” (Kofi Baker, Malcolm Bruce and Rob Johnson) play Ludlow Garage. (Maybe they should call themselves “Half & Half”?)
Liberty Theater has a Comedy Night featuring Adam Minnick
Concerts next Friday, March 28:
The Blind Boys of Alabama with Shemekia Copeland at Taft Theatre
Chicago Farmer & the Fieldnotes at Southgate
The Outlaws at Ludlow Garage
Cody Ikerd & the Sidewinders Album release show w/Joe Clark at Liberty Theater
Little Miami Brewing’s event center has “Night Moves: The Ultimate Bob Seger Experience”
Blue Note in Harrison hosts The Prince Experience (pancakes not included)
The slate on Saturday, March 29:
Liberty Theater has a Rebel Whiskey tasting (4 FREE tasting!) from 5-7, followed by the Lowdown Brass Band
Blackhawk at Ludlow Garage
Lily Rose at Bogart’s
Bumpin’ Uglies at Madison Theater
Willi Carlisle at Southgate in the Revival Room
Annie’s has the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band Zepparella
Blue Note features “Midnight Blue” (Foreigner Tribute) with One Way to Rock (Sammy Hagar tribute)
Shows on Sunday, March 30:
The Star Devils play Rabbit Hash in the afternoon
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers are at Liberty Theater (I plan to go to that show)
JD Simo and Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars) at Southgate
Ricky Nye will be tickling the ivories as only Ricky can on Monday, March 31 at Memorial Hall, and Taft has The Faint with Plack Blague.
Shows on April Fools’ Day:
The Surfrajettes with Black Widow at Madison Theater
Al Stewart & Livingston Taylor at Memorial Hall
The Righteous Brothers “Loving Feeling Farewell Tour” makes a stop at Taft. (If you’ve lost that loving feeling, see your urologist!)
Wednesday, April 2 is another WEENsday at The Columbia in the East End (4311 Eastern Ave.) and this month’s featured WEEN album is Chocolate and Cheese… so they’ll have some chocolate-covered cheese to share.
I plan to attend that event. You should too – The Columbia is a very cool space (with a vintage jukebox in the basement), and WEENsdays are free and you can BYOB!
Tunes & Blooms kicks off at the Cincinnati Zoo on Thursday, April 3. Moonshine Drive and Pickin’ Pear will be on the T&B stages. The full April lineup is here. That same evening, right down the street, you can catch The Seven Wonders (yes, yet another Fleetwood Mac tribute band) at Ludlow Garage.
The Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg has a Record Fair April 4-5.
Shows on Friday 4/4 include Judah & the Lion* at Bogart’s and Eaglemania “The World’s Greatest Eagles Tribute”** at Ludlow Garage.
* If Bogart’s says their bathrooms are clean, they’re lion… er, lyin’.
**Pretty sure the world’s greatest Eagles Tribute is playing the Sphere in Las Vegas.
On Saturday, April 5:
The Young Dubliners play Ludlow Garage
John Waite is at the Taft
Queensrÿche plays Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana
Patterson Hood is at the Whirling Tiger in Louisville, with Lydia Loveless as the opener
Sunday, April 6, Ludlow Garage has The Phil Collins Experience (warning: contains no Phil Collins).
We love it live!
MJ Lenderman and Wild Pink at the Green Lantern Bar in Lexington KY was off-the-charts amazing (set list is here). A Top 5 all-time show for me, thanks to list member Frank B.
“Once music and work and money all become the same thing, it gets hard to do it casually. But that was the reason I was able to do anything meaningful in the first place,” he admits. “You can see that through my whole life, just being able to go to a friend’s house and make something and not worry about what it is.”
Now hear this!
The new album from The Tubs is top-notch. Richard Thompson meets Hüsker Dü.
Speaking of Richard Thompson, Bandcamp has a great feature about his influence on younger artists. Sayeth Mary Timony:
“His tone is always amazing, but here’s the thing—most importantly—his songwriting is great. He’s kind of the total package, in that he does both songwriting and playing guitar very well.”
The concerts coming to our area this month are radical, Dude! Almost as radical as this thrift store Tony Hawk display:
What could be more radical than a Handsome Dick? And tonight, Handsome Dick Manitoba sings Dictators songs and other punk classics in the Sanctuary at the Southgate House. Other totally tubular gigs include Chloe Kimes at Liberty Theater and Paul McDonald upstairs in the Southgate Revival Room.
On Friday night, I’m going to see MJ Lenderman — with Wild Pink as the opener! — at a small club show in Lexington, KY. For free!
My ticket is courtesy of list member Frank B., who snatched up a couple o’ tix before MJ blew up. Smart man (other than inviting his boorish neighbor to a show when he could sell his other ticket for $500)!
Shows closer to home on Friday night:
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives are at Memorial Hall
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country plays Taft
ekoostik hookah will be at the Liberty Theater
Twain and Esther Rose play Southgate
Bockfest also kicks off Friday. It’s the one time of year you can hang out with a goat and not get arrested.
On Saturday, Ace Frehley lands his spaceship at Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana. Seems fitting.
That same evening, Armchair Boogie and The Montvales play the Liberty Theater, July For Kings plays MOTR, and Southgate House hosts the “Rockn’ Revival” fundraiser with a slew of local bands:
On Sunday:
Anthony Ray Wright has the afternoon gig at Rabbit Hash
Clem Snide plays Southgate’s Revival Room
The Steel Wheels roll into Ludlow Garage
The Turkeys play two sets at MOTR as part of Bockfest – 8 p.m. free show
On Tuesday, Marc Broussard plays Memorial Hall and the Taft Theatre has the “Experience Hendrix” Tour featuring Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Devon Allman and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.
Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles will be at the Aronoff on Wednesday… or you can catch “The Fab Four (USA Meets The Beatles) next Friday (3/14) at the Taft.
Other, less derivative shows on Friday, March 14:
Town Mountain plays Memorial Hall
Frontier Folk Nebraska and Lee Bains play MOTR
Scotty Bratcher plays Liberty Theater with CFG & the Family
Kyle Eldridge and the Honky Tonk Wrangers are at Southgate
Agnostic Front rocks Madison Live
Simply Queen (a tribute to… you guessed it… Queen) at the Little Miami Brewing Events Center
Jeremy Short plays Southgate – kudos to Jeremy’s publicist, who penned these lines:
“With an orange mustache, golden voice and cherry red Gibson ES-335, Eastern Kentucky Space Funk artist Jeremy Short has quickly risen to the top shelf of must-hear players on the scene.”
When I grow up, I want to be a Space Funk artist.
Shows on Saturday, March 15:
Tower of Power plays the Hard Rock Casino
Them Coulee Boys are at the Liberty Theater
The Ark Band plays a Bob Marley tribute at Ludlow Garage
Sunday, March 16:
TopHouse plays Madison Theater with The Wildwoods
My Brother’s Keeper and The Foreign Landers are at Liberty Theater
Mike Farris plays Ludlow Garage… I loved him on M*A*S*H!
Oops, my bad, that was Mike Farrell
Monday, March 17 is some sort of holiday… Irish I could remember which one.
Todd Lipscomb plays Arnold’s on Tuesday, March 18.
Gigs on Wednesday, March 19:
The Dollyrots at Southgate
Dream Theater plays a sold-out show at the Marsha Brady
Bogart’s has one of the 27 Fleetwood Mac tribute bands
Thursday, March 20:
The Travelin’ McCourys play Ludlow Garage
Buckethead is at Bogart’s
Liberty Theater has a free Songwriters in the Round show with Adam Gillam and Ryan Brewer
The Brant Bjork Trio (no relation to Björk, unless someone stole their umlaut) and Moonbow (no relation to Moonbeau) play Southgate
We love it live!
Kim Deal’s show at the Woodward was fantastic. Horns! Strings! Backing vocalists!
The Cabin Fever Festival in Ludlow, KY is the best off-the-beaten-path festival going, and a great way to see local, regional and national artists in cool settings… like seeing the leader of Carriers in a funeral parlor!
Robyn Hitchcock at Southgate House this past Saturday was absolutely stellar! Two sets (one solo, one featuring vocals from his partner Emma Swift) with a fantastic set list.
My non-fandom of the Beatles is well-documented, but when Robyn strolled through the entire crowd during the encore, strumming his guitar and leading everyone in a singalong to “A Day in the Life” that was pretty damn cool! Great to see list members Dave Tellmann, El Blanco, and Ken “The Lobby Boy” Laube (Fridays 11a-3p on Inhailer) too.
Mailbag
We love the recent comment from Victor Garcia-Rivera about the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush episodes where we interviewed Dan “Danny Crash” Reed. They were both in Chem-Dyne together. (The pod episodes: Part 1 and Part 2.)
Love the ‘mats story – very on-brand for them!
And here are the two Chem-Dyne songs Victor mentioned in his comment:
The Highwaymen later moved to Austin and became Loose Diamonds… I miss that band. Here’s a cool documentary about them.
Lead singer Troy Campbell gives a shoutout to 97X at the 2:40 mark.
Album Cover(s) of the Week(s)
I believe in America too. I miss it. I also believe that we’ll come back. We just need a plumber to get rid of the orange turd and the DOGE-faced boy that are messing up our system of checks and balances. If it doesn’t happen soon, I’ll be just like Dean Friedman: reading the news, drinking booze, and getting sadder by the minute.
[This would probably be a good time to mention that if you receive this post via an email, you can unsubscribe at any time.]
