I hope and trust you’re all adequately nursing your hangovers from either Comfest or staying the hell away from Comfest. This week is appropriately lower key but time doesn’t stop and neither does my incessant need to recommend, cajole and remind. So let’s get to it.
Music
June 29: Flogging Molly, Gogol Bordello and Mariachi El Bronx. Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, 405 Neil Ave.
Dave King of Fastway’s punk-roots Celtic project Flogging Molly has shown a lot of stamina over the years. There’s no reinventing the wheel here but they are one of the most joyous and consistent live bands you’re likely to see in any genre. I saw them turn the usually staid Celtic Rock tent at our annual Dublin Irish Fest into a full-bore rock show which is no easy task. King’s writing stays true to his inspirations but also his wide-ranging curiosity and the 7-piece band behind him are loose and tight in all the right ways.
The bill is filled out with two other bands that personify a complicated, roiling electric joy. Gogol Bordello is a band that screams “New York” the way the Pogues screamed “London”. Ukranian-born Eugene Hutz fit right in – and often swapped members – with similarly eclectic NYC bands like Firewater in the late ’90s and has, against all odds, found an audience willing to embrace such gleefully weird and simultaneously traditional and ripped-from-tomorrow’s-headlines music. I was lucky enough to see them at Bernie’s with the astonishing band Throw Rag on a day their tour mates Flogging Molly were playing the aforementioned Irish Fest and to this day it’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Mariachi El Bronx is a side project of Matt Caughthran’s LA punk band The Bronx and his use of traditional mariachi rhythms played with that fiery punk energy reminds me a lot of the Texas Tornados or later Mavericks which is about a high a compliment as I can give a band.
You’d be hard pressed to find a lineup better suited for the sloping green lawn and the warmth of the LC’s outdoor stage and you’d be remiss to miss this.
Doors at 6:00pm. Tickets and more info available http://promowestlive.com/events/853
June 30: Ximena Sariñana. The Basement, 391 Neil Ave.
Sarinaña broke through in the US – after a long career as a popular actress and singer in her native Mexico – through her collaborations with the Mars Volta leader Omar Rodriguez-Lopez but she’s hit a stride with her 2011 self-titled record and last year’s No Todo los Puedes Dar. She writes and sings moody, thorny dance music and torch songs ballads with a voice you can’t get out of your head, the closest comparisons I can come up with are Shilpa Ray and Nicole Atkins but it’s very much her own thing. Seeing this in the intimate confines of The Basement is a treat and a privilege.
Dominican up-and-comer Alex Ferreira opens and brings with him rock-solid songs that range from the glittery new wave homage of “Cambio” to keening acoustic ballads like “Me Pierdo Contigo.” Get on this before they’re both selling out stadiums.
Doors at 8:00pm. Tickets and more info available at http://promowestlive.com/events/971
June 30: Ana Popovic. Woodlands Tavern, 1200 W 3rd Ave.
Ana Popovic, Belgrade native, is one of the most highly hyped and sought after younger blues singers working now. She has a gritty howl that’s unafraid of the higher reaches of her register and assured guitar playing that’s comfortable in the fluid soloing contemporary blues fans are looking for but I’m most impressed by her confident, second-nature rhythm playing. This is the kind of show that’s a perfect fit for Woodlands’ big stage and world-class PA.
Doors at 8:00pm. Tickets and more info available at: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=5956255&pl=wood
July 3: Thee Tsunamis. Cara Bar, 115 Parsons Ave.
Bloomington’s Thee Tsunamis are a burst of classic girl-group punk energy and swing. They bring an infectious enthusiasm, a righteous stage show, and, most importantly, songs you’ll dance yourself sick to and walk out into the night – and probably the still-swelled downtown crowds after the fireworks – singing to yourself.
The lineup of locals on the bill more than hold their own. Reverbalines start the evening out, the new project of David Banbury and Eva Owen from Nom Tchotchkes, with those solid songs and harmonies given a significantly higher-octane engine with the addition of Matt Benz (The Sovines, The Beatdowns, Sin Shouters) on lead guitar and Jason McKiernan (Grafton, The Bygones) on drums. Pretty Pretty are romantic pop-punk that seems firmly in the Exploding Hearts vein – short songs in short sets with spiky guitars and no shortage of hooks. The Goners recall, for me, the Replacements scrappy eclecticism and seem to walk that same borderline between the wistful and the anthemic especially in frontman Alex Mussawir’s gnarled, yearning voice and grimy guitar; their sound is given heft and dynamics thanks largely to Catherine Ericson’s powerhouse drumming.
Doors at 9:00pm. Free.
July 5: Kevin Gordon Band. Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza, 5601 N High St.
Since the opening of Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza, Columbus has been the beneficiary of often being on the way to or from Fitzgerald’s legendary American music festival in Chicago the weekend of Independence Day. And while Butch Hancock (Natalie’s on Saturday) is the biggest name and certainly worth your time, I think the real gem – and especially the real surprise – is Kevin Gordon appearing with a band for, I believe, the first time in Columbus.
Gordon’s got an MFA in poetry and the eye for detail in his lyric writing that promises. He’s also got a keen eye for arranging and a taste for a wicked guitar lick. I saw him at a Twangfest around 10 years, when his Come Look at the Burning record had just come out and I was blown away, one of the most original voices in that time-honored subgenre I can think of. While he’s great solo – the format he generally tours in and he’s been brought to Columbus previously in (most recently opening for Todd Snider earlier this year) – seeing him with a band is a special experience. If you like classic juke-joint rock and roll with lyrics you can sink your teeth into, a la Dave Alvin or Scott Miller, you should not miss this under any circumstances.
Screen of Distance 