Geez, I was so busy going through my Signal chats that time got away from me and I missed a couple of days of Ye Olde Koncert Keeper. Well, they weren’t MY Signal chats, per se, but somehow I got included on them.

Maybe it’s a signal that I should stick to concert listings. Let’s take a look.

Saturday night:

• Los Honchos play a free show in the Southgate House lounge
• The Laurelys play at the Lost Bridge Beverage Co. (Carriage House Farm)
• The Aristocrats are at Ludlow Garage
• Madison Theater hosts Greggie & the Jets: A Tribute to Elton John

On Sunday, Joseph Huber and Sean Geil (The Tillers) play Southgate

Tuesday gigs:

• Blues rocker Beth Hart plays the Bobby Brady
• Memorial Hall hosts “Our House: The Music of CSNY”
• Woodward Theater has Season to Risk, Sofa King, and Old City*

*Old City was the original name of Del Boca Vista

Thursday is May Day!

That evening:

• The Mystery Lights (garage/psych band from Brooklyn) play the Woodward, with M. Ross Perkins and General Baxter also on the bill.
• Tinfoil Hat Cowboys play a free gig in Southgate’s Lounge
• Liberty Theater has a free Songwriters in the Round show with Dave Lacy and Jaden Decker
• Lissie is at Ludlow Garage.

Lissie fun facts: Lissie has recently appeared in TV shows Twin Peaks and Loudermilk, as well as co-owns the music genre-themed popcorn company Otts Pops Indie Pop and is involved with land conservation.

Next Friday (May 2), you get Five for Fighting.

Uh, it’s the band Five for Fighting, not the hockey penalty. They’re at Ludlow Garage. Other shows that evening:

• Mosant at Liberty Theater
• Brie Salmena at Southgate
• Runaway Gin (a band “inspired by Phish”) at the old Annie’s
• Madison Theater has Jump: “America’s Van Halen Experience”

(I thought Van Halen was “America’s Van Halen Experience”… )

Shows next Saturday (May 3):

• Camp Springs Tavern hosts “Jam on the Creek” with Ralph Martin, Dave Webster, South of Sin, and Northern Kentucky Derby
• Michelle Robinson has an album release show at Liberty Theater
• Noah Wotherspoon plays Fretboard in Blue Ash
• Dead Centric and Plazmatic are in Southgate’s main Sanctuary
• Carrie Nation & the Speakeasy, Dead Man String Band, and Run Rabbit Run play upstairs in the Southgate Revival Room
• Spyro Gyra at Ludlow

Next Sunday is May the Fourth!

That evening, Jackie Venson will set her guitar phasers to “stun” as she plays Southgate’s Revival Room.

The band Knotts will open for Jackie. Some people claim that the band members are half-siblings fathered by Mr. Furley with Cindy Snow and Terri Alden.

Monday, May 5 is Cinco de Mayo!

That evening, The Dirty Grass Players and Mama Said String Band will play the Liberty Theater

On Tuesday, May 6, Nashville indie-pop artist Genevieve Hayward plays a free show in the Southgate House Lounge.

Shows on Wednesday, May 7:

• Anvil plays Southgate (main room) – don’t tell Wile E. Coyote

• Matthew & the Atlas and Foreign Fields are in the Revival Room
• Matisyahu plays Ludlow Garage
• The Columbia in the East End hosts their first Wednesday “WEENsday” playing Ween’s Golden Country Greats album. (I went this month – it’s a fun hang!)

Thursday, May 8:

• Son Volt plays Trace and pays tribute to Doug Sahm at Ludlow Garage (I’ll be there!)
• Rhiannon Giddens & The Old-Time Revue at Memorial Hall
• Carriage House Farm in North Bend hosts the second Thursday live broadcast of BlackFork Radio

On Friday, May 9:

• Rumpke Mountain Boys are at the old Annie’s
• ekoostik hookah plays the Liberty Theater
• Josh Radnor plays the Woodward
• Bendigo Fletcher is on the Madison Theater rooftop, with Producing a Kind Generation
• Ludlow has Live at the Filmore (Allman Bros. tribute) and Broken Arrow (Neil Young tribute)

Saturday, May 10 is action-packed:

• Kaleta & the Super Yamba Band at Liberty Theater
• Mason Jennings with Lydia Shae at Southgate
• The old Annie’s has Fillmore On The River, with an Allman Brothers tribute band (Nathan Jenkins Band) and a Grateful Dead tribute band (I Dig Pig)
• Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons play a “The Last Encores” show on the lawn at the Hard Rock Casino
  

Phillip-Michael Scales plays the Liberty Theater on Sunday, May 11. Can’t wait to see ol’ Tubbs!

Wait, my bad, that’s Philip Michael Thomas. But my mistake gives me a convenient excuse to subject your eyeballs to this:

Shows on Tuesday, May 13:

• Bruce Cockburn plays Memorial Hall (when I worked at 97X, his albums had a sticker on them with “it’s pronounced ‘Coe-burn'”… I appreciated the help.)
• The Arcadian Wild plays The Woodward Theater with River & Rail opening
• Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass play the Taft – that show is BYOWC (Bring your own whipped cream)

• Insane Clown Posse plays the Ovation – that show is BYOF (Bring your own Faygo)

We love it live!

There’s no way Alejandro Escovedo is 74… he tore it up at Southgate, even coming into the audience to do a couple of unplugged tunes. Great songs, great stories!

It was fun hanging with Steve “El Blanco” White too, but we missed our friend Dave Tellmann, who is on injured reserve for a bit. Get well soon, my friend!

Kevn Kinney, the opener for Alejandro, did a fine job too!

And list member John Kennedy was in the house too. But our former co-worker Dan “Reds in 2025” Lewis was nowhere to be found. Rumor has it that since he retired from the Reds, “Disco Dan” spends most evenings cutting a dashing figure on the dance floor and showcasing his killer moves at the hottest nightclubs.

Gone but not forgotten

R.I.P. Clem Burke

And R.I.P. David Thomas (Rocket From the Tombs, Pere Ubu). Choice quote from the Guardian tribute:

We’ll leave you with his own words, which sums up who he was better than we can: ‘My name is David Fucking Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best fucking rock and roll band in the world.’”

Best Commencement Speaker Ever!

Album Cover(s) of the Week(s)

The woman on this album cover – model Dolores Erickson – is the same woman who appeared on the cover of the Herb Alpert Whipped Cream & Other Delights album.

Erickson, who wore a bikini with the shoulder straps pushed down and hidden, was for the most part surrounded by cotton batting and many cans’ worth of shaving cream because actual whipped cream turned runny and smelly under hot lights. The real thing was used only on her head and on the index finger she touched to her lips.  Adding to the not-really-very-sexy-at-all atmosphere was the fact that Erickson was three months pregnant with her son, Brett.

Who needs mariachi when you’ve got marinara?