97X

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!

This Week in Live Music: November 4-10

Concert Listings, Music

Welp, our Ragnar Relay from San Francisco to Napa was a bust; it was cancelled due to wildfires. Some may blame global climate change, but I know the real culprit is Michael Martin Murphey.

The cancellation actually worked out pretty well for our 12-person team. We got to skip the tired, sweaty, smelly, trying-to-sleep-in-a-van parts, and just did the fun tourist parts. On Friday, we did a 6-mile run from the beach at Golden Gate Park, along waterfront cliffs and across the Golden Gate Bridge. That was pretty cool.

You know what else is cool? Live music! Let’s get to the gigs.

Sunday, November 3rd, John Cusack will be at Taft for a screening of the movie Say Anything, followed by a live conversation. Not bad if you enjoy paying a minimum of $52.75 (plus fees) to watch a 30-year-old movie.

On Monday, 11/4, The Japanese House plays the Taft Ballroom, and list member John Sandman’s Tye Dye Band appears at The Lounge in Anderson. (If you’ve never been to The Lounge, it’s the Anderson Township equivalent of the cantina in the original Star Wars.) John was the captain of our Napa relay team and did a great job making lemonade out of the lemons we were handed.

John’s in the center of the photo above, in the tie-dye shirt and the unicorn headgear. If he wears that ensemble tomorrow at The Lounge, he’ll fit right in.

Tuesday, 11/5 is election day, so you need to rock the vote.

After the polls close, you can enjoy any of these gigs:

  • Lucy Dacus plays Woodward, with Liza Anne as the opener (check out her fun cover song at the end of this post)
  • Tool is at Riverfront Coliseum, with opener Killing Joke
  • Icon for Hire plays Top Cats
  • Madison Theater hosts An Evening with Billy Corgan

Wednesday, 11/6 has a crowded concert menu too:

  • Joan Shelley plays Southgate
  • Dream Theater is at Taft
  • The California Honeydrops play Riverfront Live
  • The Kingston Trio plays Memorial Hall. Perhaps the opening acts will be Mitch & Mickey, The Folksmen and The New Main Street Singers.

And last but not least, list member Mark Celsor’s new band Left of Center is at Urban Artifact on Wednesday. Here’s a blurb from Facebook event page:

Join us for the sweet taste of victory, or the haunting solemness of defeat, the day after this year’s election with the modern folk, labor and protest music stylings of Left of Center as they perform new and classic American folk songs.

On Thursday, November 7th, you can see Kung Fu at Ludlow Garage. [NOTE: This does not mean you’ll watch the movie Kung Fu Panda with an actual panda… although I’d pay $52.75 for that!) Ben Levin plays BrewRiver that evening, too.

Friday (11/8), Ricky Nye and Paul Ellis play Wiedemann’s taproom, Marcus Miller is at Ludlow Garage and Bogart’s hosts Yacht Rock Revue, which is absolutely nothing like this:

Saturday, 11/9 is a musical buffet of the non-Jimmy Buffett variety:

  • Wilco will be at Taft. List member Joe Sampson and I saw Jay Bennett-era Wilco at Ripley’s in Clifton back in February of 1997. Killer show, complete with Cheap Trick and Replacements cover songs and a few Uncle Tupelo tunes (setlist is here). Hard to top that one.
  • The Amy Helm Band plays Miami U-Middletown
  • Katie Toupin (formerly of Houndmouth) is at MOTR
  • Shemekia Copeland plays Memorial Hall
  • Mayday! is at Top Cats
  • Randy Steffen plays Camp Springs Tavern
  • Ben Levin plays Overlook Kitchen & Bar at the Summit Hotel in Madisonville.

On Sunday, November 10th, the Outlaws will be at Ludlow Garage. List members Whit Gardner and Professor David Reid will be in attendance, and I may join them. Also, The Wood Brothers play Taft with Nicole Atkins, and Bogart’s has a quadruple bill of Newfound Glory, Hawthorne Heights, Free Throw and Jetty Bones, and King Buffalo will be at MOTR.

Hot ticket alert

Primo songwriter Jimmy Webb is playing a cool gig at Memorial Hall on Saturday, March 21st, 2020:

JIMMY WEBB: THE GLEN CAMPBELL YEARS highlights some of the 100+ recordings from the Webb/Campbell songbook, pulling the audience in with various accounts each night of the personal side of generational touchstones like “Honey Come Back,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston” and more from decades of shared musical memories.

Hot ticket turned cold ticket alert

The Jesse Malin show at Southgate on 11/15 is no longer listed on Jesse’s website or the Southgate website. I was really, really, really looking forward to that gig because Jesse’s a fantastic performer and his new album Sunset Kids (produced by Lucinda Williams) is a gem. However, this is not the first time that a Jesse Malin show was scheduled at Southgate and then vanished. #FML

Shameless self-promotion

Check out the newest episode of the “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast, where Dave Tellmann and I chat with intern-turned-record label exec Aaron Borns. Episodes are on this website, and also available on Podbean, Spotify and iTunes.

I also try to update the song and video on the top of the 97Xbam.com home page every couple of weeks, and you’ll always find fresh news from the website Under The Radar in our RSS feed, including a “best songs of the week.”

Tip o’ the cap

Thanks to my cousin-in-law Mike Holmes for putting us on the guest list for the Spookfloaters sold-out show at Dead Low Brewing (near Riverbend) on 11/1. Their acoustic set was outstanding, and Dead Low has a nice layout which includes a big patio and an indoor stage. I’m looking forward to hearing more live music from local bands there.

Answers to our poll question: what’s your favorite hidden gem cover tune?

Dan “2020 Reds season ticket packages are on sale now” Lewis picked Dwight Yoakam covering the Rolling Stones:

Marc Allen got very specific, selecting Jason Isbell joining Widespread Panic for an incendiary live version of J.J. Cale’s “Ride Me High” back in 2016:

Bruce Frasure didn’t pick a cover, he was just glad to find a fellow Syd Straw fan, and mentioned this fantastic tune from her and some dude named Michael (who has been in the news of late).

Speaking of covers, here’s Lucy Dacus (at Woodward Theater this Tuesday) doing a rockin’ version of an Xmas evergreen:

Have a great week!

Episode 14: Jae Forman

97X, podcast

The Extended Remix

Jae Forman ruled the evening shift in the early to mid 90s, and also served as the music director during the grunge era, a pivotal point in the station’s history. She also was the Queen of 97Xtrabeats, bringing her club DJ skills to that popular Saturday evening show. Dave and Damian chat with Jae about how she got the job, the grunge explosion, picking songs as music director, her first in-studio interview with a band, life after radio and… yes, Dave’s favorite topic: butt coolers.

Jae and Dave with a record rep (center) enjoying the butt cooler at Lollapalooza
Jae interviews Kim… no big Deal.
Swag galore!

Episode 13: Robin Plan

97X, podcast

Return to Planet X

There were dozens if not hundreds of DJs at 97X/woxy.com over the years. Robin Plan was easily the most unique. A free-spirited person who took freeform radio to a whole new level, every evening after midnight, Robin transported 97X listeners far, far away from the ordinary, to an entirely different universe, and a magical place called Planet X. Dave and Damian talk to Robin about how she pushed the limits throughout her radio career, and what the station meant to her.