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.]
Some folks like to trick you with nasty Halloween candy:
But I’m going to treat you to two weeks’ worth of concerts, which will take us right up to the eve of All Hallows Eve.
It’s OK, Charlie Brown, we all gotta rock.
On Monday, JD Pinkus (of Butthole Surfers and the Melvins) plays Southgate House.
Local H is at Top Cats on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Madeleine Peyroux and Paula Cole play Memorial Hall and Illuminati Hotties play Top Cats.
Thursday:
Freedy Johnston is at Southgate
Jeff Beck rocks the Greg Brady
The Cadillac Three play Bogart’s
Baby Jake is at Top Cats
Bumpin Uglies are at Madison Live
The shows this Friday really run the gig gamut:
Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives play Memorial Hall (I’ll be at that show)
Joslyn & the Sweet Compression are at Madison Live
John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band… also part of the backing band for Steve Martin’s “King Tut”) and the Circle Band play Ludlow Garage
GWAR (the band that thinks every day is Halloween) plays Bogart’s
Saturday’s a busy day for live music as well:
The Redemptioners will be at Neltner’s Farm Fall Fest in the afternoon
The Record Company is at Madison Theater
Gogol Bordello plays Bogart’s
Joe Satriani is at Taft
Acoustic Alchemy plays Ludlow Garage
Ramble On Bros (Grateful Dead tunes) play Carriage House Farm
Next Monday (10/24), Judas Priest and Queensryche play the Mike Brady.
American Authors play Madison Live on Tuesday, 10/25. Our favorite American author is Franklin W. Dixon.
A riveting tale of Joe Hardy’s heroin addiction. Or not.
On Wednesday, 10/26, Corb Lund is at Southgate, and Michael Martin Murphey is at Ludlow Garage. Ol’ 3M can no longer play the west coast because “Wildfire” is a dirty word out there. However, he did compose the state ballad of New Mexico, “Land of Enchantment.”
Next Thursday, 10/27, features some fun band names on the bill:
Puddles Pity Party and Piff the Magic Dragon play Taft
Squirrel Nut Zippers play Ludlow Garage
Next Friday, 10/28, I get a real treat: Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker of Wussy play my house!
List members Ken Laube, Dr. David Reid, Dave Roberto, Jay Stowe and Matt Fellerhoff will be in the house too.
Next Saturday, 10/29:
The Lone Bellow plays Memorial Hall
EXTC is at Ludlow Garage
Paul Anka plays the Hard Rock Casino… talk about an oxymoron!
Jordan Smart is at Neltner’s Farm
Michael Schenker plays Bogart’s
The Newbees and Bad Ass Brass host the Flower Power Ball, a benefit for Shriner’s Hospital.
Dropkick Murphys play the Cindy Brady
On Sunday, October 30, Randy Steffen and The Poor Hours wrap up the Neltner’s Farm Fall Fest.
Guided by non-sucky Voices
A fun interview with Robert Pollard is herein the Sydney Morning Herald. And I totally agree with him about Sting:
Before we get into this week’s gigs, I’m providing a holiday shopping public service announcement for those with teenage daughters (and for list members who are “still 16” like Amanda Woodly – more on her later): Tickets for Olivia Rodrigo’s April 22nd show and the Haim show on May 19th go on sale today at 10 a.m. (Both shows are indoor gigs at Icon, which is punching well above its weight… time for Ovation to up its game.) If you’d like to “try before you buy” on Olivia Rodrigo, check out her Austin City Limits appearance (her band is all-female, which is pretty cool)… and of course stick around for the Phoebe Bridgers portion of the show.
OK, on with the shows…
It’s Friday, and Jason is in town!
Wait, my bad, I meant Jason Isbell.
Jason Isbell’s superb band, the 400 Unit, is named after a hospital psych ward. So maybe Jason Vorhees will be here in spirit? I know I’ll be at tonight’s show at the Icon (in the flesh… but wearing pants for a change), along with about half the folks on the “This Week in Live Music” mailing list. (The other half will be at Saturday’s show.) Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives open up both shows. A good time will be had by all.
The jaunty ascot… who wore it best?
Tony the Tiger
Marty Stuart
Thurston Howell III
Other shows this evening include Multimagic at the Woodward, and An Olde English Christmas With Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone at Ludlow Garage. I hope they do the theme song from the 80’s Olde English TV commercial – that song rocks!
On Saturday, it’s a Jason sequel…
Meaning it’s Night II for Jason Isbell/Marty Stuart at Icon. (Don’t forget to get a Marty Stuart ascot at the merch booth!)
Meanwhile, Them Dirty Roses are at the old Annie’s, with The Josephines as the opener. Our ol’ pal Rob Fetters wraps up another round of his “Fetters is Cheap” free livestreams – accessible via his website. And Emaline will sing the Christmas classics at Ludlow Garage.
Ludlow can keep the (Christmas) lights on, because on Sunday you can enjoy Christmas with the Celts at that venue. If you prefer goth garb to kilts, you can check out Evanescence and Halestorm at the Coliseum. If you’d rather boogie-woogie in the morning, Ben Levin’s playing the Hard Rock brunch, with special guest Lil’ Jimmy Reed. Now that’s a winning combination!
Ben’s got a solo gig at Arnold’s on Thursday, but other than that, the rest of the week is kinda light on gigs. I blame the supply chain. Everyone else is doing it!
But then next Friday the scene really heats up… all the way up to 98 Degrees! They’re playing the Hard Rock Casino – sounds like a classic lose/lose proposition to me.
If you’d rather see a better band with local connections — and much less boy band baggage — Over the Rhine kicks off a three night stand of their annual holiday show next Friday at Memorial Hall.
If you’d rather see and hear a facsimile of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham instead of real-life Karin and Linford, head to Ludlow Garage for Rumours: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute.
Sorry Linford, but Lindsey’s hair is better. Actually, it WAS better.
Or you can shop local and hit the Motherfolk Christmas show at Bogart’s, with Sylmar as the opener.
Favorite albums of 2021
Today’s the last day to vote for your Top Ten of this year on KEXP’s website.
But there’s plenty of time to add your faves to the TWILM list here. Grammy-nominated artist Dale Doyle (the original D2) chose these slabs o’ wax:
Black Keys – Delta Kream
Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
Wolf Alice – Blue Weekend
Slowthai- Tyron
Weezer – OK Human
Leon Bridges – Gold-Diggers Sound
Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
Fleet Foxes – Shore
Taylor Swift – Evermore
Low – Hey What
Lucy Dacus – Home Video
Kanye West – Donda (Just kidding)
While list member Amanda Woodly decided to chide me for my document choice (“this should be an Excel file”) before listing her top tunes o’ the year:
Snailmail- Valentine
Japanese Breakfast- Jubilee
Lucy Dacus- Home Video
Olivia Rodrigo- Sour (I’m still 16)
Doja Cat- Planet Her
Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
Tyler, The Creator- Call Me If You Get Lost
Kacey Musgraves- Star Crossed (Cincinnati’s newest #goodwife)
I wish I could put the new St Vincent album here, but…
Sorry to let you down, Amanda. I like to think outside the box, and Excel is nothing but boxes.
Friday Funnies
We mocked the GMC holiday commercial last week, so this week it’s time for some Lexus holiday commercial fun:
Tico the Parrot is a dead ringer singer for Axl Rose:
He does a pretty good Bon Scott too:
Tweet of the Week
Cover of the Week
Courtesy of list member Michael “Rico” Carrico who said “Covering Mr Waits. Phoebe at her best.” (We agree wholeheartedly!)
Album Cover of the Week
It’s the Holiday Houseguest from Hell. Crazy Otto is back in town. Looks like he flew Allegiant. And he brought sheet music.
