Tag: Hey Fred

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Things I’ve Been Digging – 09/21/2020

A grey sky and a choppy sea, like I’ve been feeling

It feels like not a week goes by that doesn’t give most of us a reason to go, “It’s a dark week. Things look bleak.” Losing Justice Ginsburg was one of the hardest of those hits in this fucked-up time. A beacon of how to live, passionate about your work but also the greater world and your friends and your greater community and a way to harmonize all of those things I constantly strive for and frequently fail at. One of the best of us and another reminder to keep trying. Keep working.

As always, one of the biggest things that pulls me back from those whirlpools of despair is art. The other is friends. I hope you’re also finding something that gives you light in this darkness and my sharing this is always tied to the hope you’ll share those things with me and your own community.

From left: Wayne Shorter, John Patitucci, Teri Lyne Carrington, taken from livestream and edited

Music: Wayne Shorter Quartet at SFJAZZ.

I’ve waxed rhapsodic here a few times about SFJAZZ’s essential work and their breathtaking pivot to digital with their site closed due to the pandemic. Their monthly Wayne Shorter tributes have been a key part of this – the first four monthly, featuring a different frontline each time backed by Shorter’s rhythm section of Danilo Perez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drums were all special. 

This week, they ended with maybe even more of a bang: a 2017 performance of Shorter with his quartet featuring Teri Lyne Carrington on drums instead of Blade. Shorter’s universes beguiled me almost since I knew what music was, his intricate compositions that feel like nothing I’ve ever heard at the same time they feel as familiar as the blood in my veins, his ability to write for specific band contexts that still work generations removed. 

This presented an example of one of the great working ensembles with that uncanny communicative empathy that jazz is based on, that conversation so many of us use as a metaphor for collective improvisation, everyone building up a situation by listening to one another and finding a new angle on whatever’s happening. 

As Herbie Hancock said in the YouTube chat (if I haven’t mentioned it before, one of the excellent things SFJAZZ does is engage artists and listeners in the chat while the video plays) during their hypnotic dive into Arthur Penn’s early 20th century standard “Smilin’ Through,” there’s a great, shifting parallel quality with Patitucci and Carrington dialoguing on a related but separate plane to Shorter and Perez. A rich, swirling take on the Fairport Convention-popularized folk standard “She Moves Through the Fair” detonated landmines of surprise and delight. The entire set beguiled and charmed and sometimes baffled me in the best way.

Kate Hutchinson, Lonnie Holley, Immeasurable Explosions – taken from Livestream and edited.

Music: Immeasurable Explosions (Knoel Scott and Marshall Allen), Chiminyo, Lonnie Holley, and Kate Hutchinson, from the Boiler Room with Night Dreamer and Worldwide FM.

The Boiler Room – known for hard-hitting, cutting edge DJ nights – has become a vital livestream player in the last few months and is always something I’m glad to see pop up on my YouTube subscription reminder. This week’s was a truly delightful surprise. On a sunny afternoon with the first chill of the season in the air – anyone who knows me knows how much I love Fall – they put together the perfect lineup for straddling these seasons. 

Kate Hutchinson kicked off the night with a perfect DJ set hitting on light reggae, tropical house, throwback disco, horn-drenched drama, electro hip-hop… summer beats with just enough of a chill. Just enough dashes of melancholy, enough grit in the oyster (or cynar in the fizzy champagne) for a tribute to the sunshine and the long shadows. Hutchinson also contributed excellent, insightful introductions to the broad spectrum of artists.

Lonnie Holley gets a lot of praise for the spiritual, incantory quality of his work, and the use of the materials of his life in a way that merits comparisons to his work as a sculptor; all of that remains true and was clear here. But there’s also an autumnal quality, a sense of honoring people around him and the people who’ve gone before, the changing of seasons in a lot of senses, that felt rich in this short set. Anytime I see him, even over a screen, I feel like I’m bullshitting and need to try harder.

Chiminyo previewed a marvelous record out later this week – I Am Panda – with a combination of tracks and live percussion: light dub, classic spiritual jazz, and early 80s synth textures flow together into roiling, stormy anthems. Sun Ra Arkestra alums and longtime friends and collaborators Knoel Scott and Marshall Allen teamed up for a mix of poetry and multi-instrumental duets that recalled nature and cracked the thought of nature open to the “Other worlds they have not told you of” in their old bandleader’s parlance.

Aoife O’Donovan, taken from livestream and edited

Music: Aoife O’Donovan at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Barrytown, New York, presented by Dreamstage

Anyone who’s ever read any of my writing – best of lists, etc – knows what a massive fan I am of Aoife O’Donovan. This stream, on a new-to-me platform called Dreamstage, took excellent advantage of a gorgeous-sounding church in the Hudson River Valley that let her voice and guitar (and piano on a couple numbers) breathe.

O’Donovan might be our finest current songwriter of the key decision, that moment when a character is on a precipice that will change their life. She has a fine eye and ear for those details when everything about to change, how it feels in the moment and how it feels when recollected. Prime examples of that here were the opening one-two punch of “Hornets” with its cautious reassurance “I’ll be there to have and to hold you” on the chorus but also the verse, “Turning back’s the only way to go;” and “Porch Light,” maybe my favorite of her songs, with the weary, imploring taunt “You want to live a life of loneliness? Baby, so do I. I want to sit under the porch light and watch the yellow moon rise.” Just a devastating as the first time I heard both those songs, maybe more, as her voice has found new contours and places to shine the light in a few years of touring them.

She also hit songs from previous bands of hers: a lovely, rippling, Sometymes Why tune, “Clover,” and two standards she did with her first widely known band, Crooked Still, “Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down” and “Lakes of Ponchartrain,” in new arrangements. That knack for rearrangements also shone in her settings of Peter Sears poems, “Night Fishing” (dedicated to the late Justice Ginsburg) and “The Darkness.”

The centerpiece of this dazzling hour of music was two of the lustiest songs in her catalog. “Ryland,” which she performed in the supergroup I’m With Her, with its silky chorus  “Just let me lie, under the apple tree, I planted for my love and me.” She segued that – with a laughing, “Of course I pair the song about apple cider with the song about bourbon,” – into the aching, affectionate standout from Fossils, “Oh Mama,” with its infectious sing-along chorus: “Oh Mama, sing me a love song, pour me some bourbon, and lay me down low.”

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“Hey, Fred!” 08/17/15-08/23/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

Visual Art

August 21: NSATSAT&A. MINT, 42 W Jenkins St. 

MINT’s one of the new loci for the experimental art and music community in Columbus. This new group exhibition, subtitled “surveillance + security + sexuality” has me incredibly intrigued. This feels like a show you don’t want to miss in your town.

Karen Azoulay, from Toronto now based in Brooklyn, works in a variety of media whose forms seem to hover around a sensuous, ecstatic, apocalypse. When Glenn Ligon wrote about a New York exhibition of hers he said, “Suffused with humor and melancholy her work reveals an interest in mythology, literature and alchemy as well as Las Vegas spectacles, the work of Yayoi Kusuma, opera and Renaissance painting.”

Angela Jann, returned to Columbus after getting an MFA at Pratt, is a painter who deals in a knives-out surrealism leavened with a winking pop art absurdity.

Ann Hirsch, based in Los Angeles, works in video and performance interrogating how technology shapes gender and human relations. What I’ve seen gives me a strong Laurel Nakadate vibe which is high praise, Nakadate’s made my visual art of the year list at least once and barely missed it a few other times. Maybe the artist I’m most interested in checking out.

Kathryn Shinko recently finished her MFA at Kent State and works in textiles which is a medium I’ve been ravenous for since the Wexner Center’s Fiber show finally opened up my half-dead eyes.

Beny Wagner is based in Berlin. His moody, intoxicating, textured work in video and installations has gotten heavy praise from Artforum, Kaleidoscope, and other sources.

Opening 7:00pm-10:00pm. Free.

Music

August 19: Alanna Royale. Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St. 

I doubt it’s a surprise to anyone who’s ever sat with me in a bar with a jukebox for 20 minutes, much less read this column for a week or three, that Alanna Royale’s right up my alley. Catchy, sultry, sweaty retro soul with an immediately identifiable voice and songs that hold their own against history.

If you like The Right Now, Robin McKelle, or I’d even wager to say JD McPherson or St. Paul and The Broken Bones, this is a must-see. The kind of Wednesday night that makes however much you hurt on Thursday worth every bit.

Local funk-inspired jam band The Floorwalkers close the night.

Doors at 8:00pm. $10 tickets available at http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6010225

August 21-23: VIVO Music Festival. Garden Theatre, 1871 N High St.

More than once I’ve lamented that the biggest gap in Columbus’s musical landscape is contemporary classical (new music, whatever term you feel you want to use). We’ve got decent symphony and chamber orchestras but despite two very fine music schools Columbus doesn’t get the same kind of flood of young, excited players doing exciting, new programming out of the classical realm as we do with jazz.

So I’m very excited by the prospect of this first year of the VIVO Music Festival. Organized by violinist Siwoo Kim and violist John Stultz this has the potential to be the exact kind of antidote I (and at least a few others I could name) have been hungry for. Partnering with the Johnstone New Music Fund they’re putting on three shows at the Garden Theatre.

Friday, 8:00pm: 8 Strings, 9 Tails. This program presents Dvorak’s Terzetto, Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings and John Zorn’s Cat O’ Nine Tails (Tex Avery Directs the Marquis De Sade), the latter of which was a massively formative experience for me. I remember the day I bought Zorn’s String Quartets at Shake It Records and put it on my friend’s stereo in college. I was hooked, my friends.

Saturday, 8:00pm: In the Dark. Performed in the Garden’s smaller Green Room space, this program features Georg Friedrich Haas’s String Quartet #3, “In iij, Noct,” played in complete darkness.

Sunday, 4:00pm: Unstrung. This program experiments with a conductorless chamber orchestra of some of the most promising classical musicians in town. The repertoire includes Bach’s Third Brandenberg Concerto and one of my favorites, Astor Piazolla’s  Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

A terrific interview with the artistic directors is available at WOSU and $15 reserved tickets for Friday and Sunday (Saturday is free) as well as more info are available at http://www.vivofestival.org/

August 22: Dave Holland Tribute. Dick’s Den, 2417 N High St.

A quartet of our finest younger jazz players including maybe our hottest rhythm section – Max Button (drums), John Allen (bass), Zakk Jones (guitar), and Danny Bauer (piano) team up to take on the oeuvre of maybe the finest straight-ahead jazz composer since the ’70s, bassist/bandleader Dave Holland.

Holland’s one of the few artists of any stripe I think I can literally say I’ve never heard a bad record by. He writes ballads that will make your wine taste sweeter and you fall in love more with the world, uptempo ragers that will make you bounce off the wall or ruin your pants, and abstractions you can get lost in for days. And this is a perfect group to play those perfect songs. Watch summer start its fade over a nice glass of rye whiskey while the music takes you somewhere else and also plants you back in yourself.

Starts at 10:00pm. $4 cover.

August 23: Publicist UK with Young Widows. Spacebar, 2590 N High St. 

Publicist UK hit my radar when I saw they had guitarist David Obuchowski from Goes Cube who I loved. Fronted by Zachary Lipez of Freshkills with a rhythm section held down by David Witte (Municipal Waste) on drums they merge a young Nick Cave delivery to pummeling almost metal drums and bass for charcoal drawings of a scorched Earth I find intoxicating.

Rounding out the bill are Louisville’s Young Widows who plow the fields of a clench-jawed shadowy ecstasy that reminds me most of Swans. If you dread Mondays anyway, come to this show and let your darkness come out of your pores and join the vibes in the room. Locals Hadak Ura, with whom I’m not yet familiar, open.

Doors at 8:00pm. $12 cover.

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“Hey, Fred!” 08/10/15-08/16/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

Music

August 11: Frau with Birds of Hair and Katherine. Cafe Bourbon Street, 2216 Summit St.

Frau from London are a breath of fresh air, taking classic punk tropes and stylistic signifiers and injecting enough acid in their veins that they feel brand new. Great songs that break into wild, unpredictable noise, this is the kind of show Bobo excels at.

Birds of Hair are one of my favorite, favorite bands that almost never plays. Marcy Mays from Scrawl and Night Family on guitar and vocals, Sarah Yetter from Frostiva and El Jesus de Magico on bass, and Jen Burton, now mostly known in town as an entrepreneur for The Barrel and the Bottle and Seventh Son Brewing but with a long history of fascinating music with bands like Face Place, on drums. A noisy, riotous band that reminds me of everything I love about rock and roll.

Katherine were one of those bands I wished I saw more in town, great songs and an earnestness that never got cloying. One of the two members is moving to Philly very soon so this is both a reminder that nothing gold can stay and that you should get out and see the bands you love while they’re playing because you don’t know when it’s going to stop, but mostly this will just be a great show.

Doors at 9:00pm. $5 cover.

August 13: Danny Bauer. Dick’s Den, 2417 N High St.

Danny Bauer, recently profiled in JazzColumbus, has over the last couple years established himself as one of the city’s most versatile pianists, a first call for a lot of musical situations. I’m very intrigued to see this new group he’s suggested (in the above interview) skews toward the avant-garde.

Bauer’s assembled an incredibly strong lineup of players. John Allen, rapidly becoming one of the finest bass players I’ve ever seen in town and Ryan Folger who’s worked a lot with those two and Zakk Jones combine for what should be a tight, swinging rhythm section. Aroh Pandit on trumpet astonished me with John Allen’s quintet at Dick’s not long ago. Justin Dickson on saxophone from that Capital University axis I haven’t seen as much but I’ve heard great things. The most intriguing x-factor for me here is the addition of Annie Huckaba on vocals who blew me away in CATCO’s brilliant production of [title of show].

Show begins at 10:00pm, $4 cover.

August 14: Maceo Parker. Scioto Mile, 25 Marconi St.

Popular music of the last half of the 20th century would look a hell of a lot different if it weren’t for the great Maceo Parker. A key player in the JBs and the best lineups of Parliament-Funkadelic, his unmistakable gritty tenor sound has enlivened records from Keith Richards to Dee-Lite to Prince without even getting into all the samples.

Maceo invariably has one of the best live bands touring. I still talk about that joint tour with Ani Difranco in the late ’90s as one of the five best shows I’ve seen of any genre. Funk/rock/pop royalty doesn’t get any higher than this and you’d be a fool to miss a chance to see one of the true, unassailable living legends.

August 15: Nots. Dude Locker, 527 E Hudson St.

Nots is one of the most exciting rock bands I’ve seen in years. Based out of Memphis and led by Natalie Hoffman and Charlotte Watson, when they take the stage it’s a torrent of sparks and heat and acid. They put out a record on Goner last year I can’t stop listening to. They blew the roof of the tent off at 4th and 4th a few weeks ago and we’re very blessed to have them back in town so soon.

This is also the 7″ release party for one of the best bands in town, Raw Pony, making this even more of a don’t-miss for anyone who likes rock and roll. The bill’s rounded out by the spacier rock of Sex Tide and elder statesman Mike Rep.

https://youtu.be/ubrrJWGvo3o

August 16: Eric Taylor. Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza, 5601 N High.

I’m not sure I can think of a better songwriter than Eric Taylor – I know for damn sure I couldn’t name more than five. His ability to zoom in from universal aphorism to the most perfect of details and, in turn, reveal the universal in that, bringing Blake’s the world in a grain of sand to life, is the kind of dazzling writing that makes me want to work much, much harder.

Taylor fuses a deep empathy for his characters to heartrending earworm melodies. He can say more in a couple lines – like the opening to “Big Love”, “I found your name and number / On a pack of matches / Thought that I might call you up / And talk about myself” – than most people ever do in whole books or records. Do not miss this. I can’t recommend anything higher.

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“Hey, Fred!” 08/03/15-08/09/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

Music

August 4: Gramps the Vamp and Urban Tropic. Brothers Drake, 26 E 5th Ave.

Gramps the Vamp refer to what they play as “doom funk” and it’s definitely an ominous but sensual sound. The closest comparison I can make is to Budos Band’s recent turn toward ’70s soundtrack influences on their record Burnt Offerings and the snaky brass definitely recalls that but the country could use more bands like that, not fewer. I missed them on their last trip through town during June’s Gallery Hop but I’ve got no intention of making that mistake this time.

Locals Urban Tropic open.

Show starts at 9:00. Free show.

August 5: Ursonate Guitar Quartet. Huntington Recital Hall, Capital University, 1 College Ave, Bexley, OH.

The Ursonate Guitar Quartet, named after the famous Dadaist sound-poem by Kurt Schwitters, brings together four of the finest guitarists in town. Well, three still in town (Larry Marotta, Aditya Jayanthi, and Dennis Hodges) and one visiting expat (Aaron Quinn). These four have all done work blending jazz, classical, eai, and noise and I can’t wait to see what this configuration brings in the beautiful sounding Huntington Hall at Capital.

Show starts at 6:30. Free show.

August 5: Polikarpa y Sus Viciosas. Legion of Doom, 1579 Indianola Ave. 

Legion of Doom is that rarest of things, an elder statesperson in the world of house shows. Through a combination of a forgiving landlord and good taste in residents who genuinely want to preserve this tradition – the disallowance of alcohol and drugs at the shows probably helps – it’s a rock in a scene where sometimes venues barely last a season.

Even more impressive, Legion continues to book interesting acts more commercial venues probably wouldn’t touch. This week it’s Colombian agitpunks Polikarpa y Sus Viciosas. Names for Policapra Saliverrieta, a legendary figure who was executed in the name of Colombian revolution, this group has been making fiercely political, vital music since the mid-’90s full of hard drumming and catchy, abrasive hooks. The bill’s rounded out by Philly’s Ramones-inspired Dark Thoughts and locals Surfin’ Safari.

Doors at 8:00pm. $5 donation strongly encouraged.

August 7: Locusta. Ace of Cups, 2619 N High St.

Locusta is one of my favorite metal bands in town – dense, atmospheric songs that shift from mood to mood and tempo to tempo without ever going in so proggy a direction that it loses that visceral crunch. Their blistering live show hasn’t been seen in town for over a year so expectations are high they’re going to explode on Ace of Cups’ bigger stage and strong PA.

The undercard’s not shabby here either. Lexington’s Tombstalker do some of the best punky black metal around right now, caked in grime with huge, bone-rattling riffs. Locals Fever Nest plow a different intersection between black metal and punk rock, built around mood and tension – even sporting a great Birthday Party cover. Discrow’s a little earlier in their development but I hear lots of potential in their grind.

Show starts at 9:00pm. $7 cover.

August 8-9: Festival Latino. Bicentennial Park.

Festival Latino might be my favorite festival all summer – certainly of the mainstream mass appeal fests, nothing else even comes close. The best food and the widest range of interesting music.

Especially for a total Latin music dilettante like me, I always walk away exposed to some things I really love.

Highlights from my early research I’m looking forward to:

Saturday:

3:00pm, Al Son del Iya: This Columbus-based act led by percussionist/bandleader El Negro Tino Casanova does smoking, sultry salsa in the Fania records mode with a repertoire that hits the classics like Willie Colon, Ruben Blades, and Celia Cruz and plays them with a remarkable fire.

4:00pm, Jose Peña Suazo y La Banda Gorda: Peña Suazo’s Banda Gorda out of the Dominican Republic plays blistering-fast merengue with extra Caribbean flavor but without losing that light, high touch. I’m not sure there’s a better band to see on a summer afternoon.

6:45, Luis Vargas: Bachata’s having a moment in the mainstream US press right now with lots of articles and think pieces about Romeo Santos, Prince Royce and Aventura. The Dominican’s Luis Vargas might not have the name recognition of those aforementioned artists but he’s wildly popular and boasts a haunting, sexy, unmistakable voice that reminds me of Raul Malo and Roy Orbison. This is not to be missed.

Sunday:

2:30pm, Ritmo Ondas featuring Zancudo: Rachel Sepulveda, known largely as one of Columbus’ finest jazz singers (see Jazz Columbus’ terrific interview) has always also worked in Latin forms. Ritmo Ondas is a versatile band that can hit a range of styles – I heard nothing but raves about their “From Cuba to Brazil” program at CityMusic earlier this year – and augmented by Victor Zancudo, one of this town’s fastest-rising Latin singers, this should be magical. Sepulveda’s leaving Columbus for grad school soon so don’t miss one of the last chances to see one of our finest talents.

4:15. Banda Machos: Banda music is also having a moment breaking through to other audiences, though in a smaller, more underground way than bachata discussed earlier. Banda Machos, out of the Jalisco area of Mexico, helped forge a modern style of banda through fusion with cumbia and ranchera styles. Some of the best, hardest hitting dance music you’ll see.

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“Hey, Fred!” 07/27/15-08/02/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

Literary

July 30: Four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse. Wild Goose Creative, 2491 Summit St.

This benefit for the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio brings together four fascinating artists and personalities to riff on apocalyptic themes through their true stories.

Amy Turn Sharp, local poet and organizer of Word Church, speaks about Pestilence. Amy Dalrymple, designer and proprietor of Made by AmyD, talks about War. Emily Toney, from ARC Ohio and the Greater Columbus Arts Council, discusses Famine. Amee Bell Wanzo, frontwoman of garage rock band Trachete, wraps it up with Death.

Show starts at 8:00pm. Suggested donation of $5.

Music

July 29: Aaron Lee Tasjan and Lilly Hiatt. Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza, 5601 N High St.

Columbus expat Aaron Lee Tasjan’s songwriting has exploded through his stints as a vital player in NYC’s roots-rock scene – including work with Kevin Kinney, Keith Christopher, and Pat Green – and more recently in Nashville. It’s heartfelt, surprising work with big hooks and an eye for detail that reminds me of Robert Earl Keen and Jon Dee Graham and a voice that’s more his own every time I hear him.

If an occasional return of the prodigal son isn’t enough to get the roots fans out to this, the other side of that coin should be: Lilly Hiatt. Hiatt’s second album, Royal Blue, is one of my favorite discoveries of the year reminding me of early Amy Rigby with a contemporary sheen of synths and big, dark drums wrapped around rock-solid songwriting. The kind of show Natalie’s does better than anywhere else in town.

Show starts at 9:00pm. $10-15 tickets available at Vendini

July 29: Liver Quiver. Brothers Drake, 26 E 5th Ave.

Another favorite expat – of more recent vintage – also returns home this week, jazz and classical guitarist Aaron Quinn. One of my favorite of his groups, Liver Quiver, a trio with Alex Burgoyne on sax and Seth Daily on drums reunites at Brothers Drake for a Jazz Wednesday.

Liver Quiver has a unique empathy that almost reminds me of some of Chris Speed’s groups, partly because Seth Daily does the best drumming in a Jim Black mode of anyone in recent memory. It’s a little spikier and a little edgier than that free Wednesday series usually gets, drifting into both chamber music and free improv territories, but it should be as refreshing as a cold gin drink while the sun melts away through that big open door.

Show begins at 8:00pm. Free.

August 2: Natalie’s Anniversary Celebration: Bobby Floyd Trio. Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza, 5601 N High St.

I think it’s pretty clear from the volume of these writeups that I think Natalie’s has added something really special and really needed to the Columbus scene. So consider this me raising a glass to Natalie’s and to having many more anniversaries.

The whole weekend is packed with Columbus favorites that showcase the breadth of the room’s interesting booking but, and again, no surprise, I’d steer you toward our finest organist Bobby Floyd and his trio with Derek DiCenzo on guitar and Reggie Jackson on drums. As good an example of classic organ jazz as you will hear anywhere – New York, Chicago, LA – and not playing as often as they used to with both Floyd and Jackson touring with Dr. John these days. Two birds with one stone and one of the best pizzas in town.

Show starts at 8:00pm. $10 tickets available at Vendini.

August 2: Richard Thompson. Dublin Irish Festival, Perimeter Drive, Dublin, OH.

The Dublin Irish Festival is one of those things it’s easy for locals to take for granted. It’s huge – one of the biggest Irish heritage festivals in the country – and has all the problems that come along with that, but it’s gotten that huge because its organizers have spent many years and no small amount of money turning it into a well-oiled machine huge acts love to play and love to come back to.

One of the best-sounding festivals I’ve ever been to, which will be doubly important when it hosts a return appearance by British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson. While talked about more as an electric guitar virtuoso, I’ve seen him in both guises a number of times and my favorite shows are solo acoustic where he’ll highlight the newest records (the new, very good, Jeff Tweedy-produced Still and the even better Buddy Miller produced Electric from a couple years ago) but he’ll dip into his extensive catalogue, he’ll dust off surprising covers. It’s as close as I’ve ever seen a singer-songwriter come to walking on a wire (if you’ll excuse the borrowing or even if you won’t). If you love songs, storytelling, guitar playing, this is an example of the very highest peaks of those arts.

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“Hey, Fred!” 07/20/15-07/26/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five [Anne Courtney Birthday Edition]

The overarching thing this week is, of course, my better half’s birthday. Happy birthday, Anne Courtney! I love you, baby. In conjunction with that, there’s a greater chance you won’t see me at these shows with the commensurate wining, dining, and fête-ing. So get out there and mix it up on my behalf. Secondarily, this continues the summer of rocking retro sounds with both some classic shit and some new artists plowing those still-fertile fields.

Music

July 21: The Rezillos with Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Senor Citizen and the Border Patrol. Ace of Cups, 2619 N High St.

Scotland’s The Rezillos burst into the first wave of UK punk with their barbed hooks, stop-start grooves and ominous B-movie sheen. Their first record, 1978’s Can’t Stand the Rezillos is a stone classic with a similar place of pride in that early Sire Records lineup as the Dead Boys’ Young, Loud and Snotty and Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ Blank Generation. They reformed for periodic tours a little over a decade ago and word from everyone I’ve heard is it’s still a funny, sharp, intense show.

Rounding out Ace of Cups’ terrific coup in booking this are Columbus ’90s heroes TJSA and manager Aleks Shaulov’s Senor Citizen and the Border Patrol who are steeped in this same kind of late ’70s raw rock and roll. A rare chance to see full-stop, no-qualification-needed, legends at play in a sweaty club. Fuck what you’re doing Wednesday.

Doors at 8:00pm. $12 tickets available at http://aceofcups.ticketleap.com/rezillos/

 

July 22: Alice Bag with Sex Tide and Raw Pony. Cafe Bourbon Street, 2216 Summit St.

Also starting in 1976, The Bags were part of maybe the most diverse punk scene of the first wave, LA. They only put out a handful of singles and compilation tracks, most notably on Dangerhouse Records, but those few songs sent shockwaves through the nascent underground scene. And – in a “Did you love well what very soon you left” way – they continued to reverberate with band members going on to be integral parts of 45 Grave, The Gun Club, Sisters of Mercy, and Catholic Discipline.

In the intervening years, frontwoman Alice Bag wrote one of the best rock memoirs, Violence Girl. This tour bringing her to Bourbon Street finds her promoting her second book, Pipe Bomb to the Soul, culled from journals she kept on a trip to Nicaragua in 1986. This stop promises a mix of readings and songs.

Supporting Bag are two of the finest rock bands in Columbus right now, Raw Pony and Sex Tide.

Starts at 9:00pm. Alice Bag scheduled to read/play first. $5 cover.

July 24: James Cotton. Scioto Mile, 25 Marconi Blvd.

James Cotton is one of the few living links to the purifying groundwater from which most American music post-WWII sprung. Very few people still touring can say they played with Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters at the height of those two legends’ powers, which is not to discredit Cotton’s own stellar work starting in the late ’60s, especially his work with pianist Otis Spann. From Sun Records through working with Johnny Winter, Cotton’s the real deal.

An unmistakable stylist, his harmonica has been copied by almost everyone to pick up a harp since but never as well. You can hear his using the harp to lead a horn section echoed in The Blasters and his throaty conjuring of other sounds in Charlie Musselwhite. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still see the real thing while you can. At 80 years old, there may not be many more chances.

Starts at 8:00pm. Free.

July 24: Pigeons with Crystalline Roses. The Summit, 2210 Summit St.

NYC’s Pigeons make a blend of introspective rock that slips between signifiers. Led by Wednesday Knudsen’s voice, guitar and occasional reeds, Galaxie 500 seems like a heavy touchpoint for this band but I also hear Spanking Charlene’s mellower moments and even some of Husker Du’s mournful aggression. Their new record, out in May, The Bower, is revelatory. Summer songs heavier on the melancholy of memory (or maybe the melancholy of memory).

Massachusetts’ Crystalline Roses is a throwback to the best stuff I heard at the height of the freak-folk era – PG Six, In Gowan Ring, B’erith, Sharron Krauss. Great, echoey songs that use their twists and turns, that use mystery, to keep that spark in them alive instead of using it to obfuscate some lack of meaning, some thing not thought through.

Doors at 9:00pm. $5 cover.

https://youtu.be/R0SeHRy2W7Q

July 26: JD McPherson. Park Street Saloon, 533 Park St.

JD McPherson might have the best shot of crossing over of any roots-rock act I’ve seen in many years. A great-looking guy with an intense charisma and a live show that’s nothing short of incendiary. With his new one Let the Good Times Roll, he also finally has a record that’s as good as he is.

I saw him at Woodlands Tavern a couple years ago with a rhythm section anchored by Teen Beat from Los Straitjackets doing a set of Specialty Records-style vintage R&B and early rock and roll – despite the lazy writing you might have heard, while rockabilly’s in his toolbox, it’s not most of what he does – and it might have been the wildest, most ecstatic crowd I’ve ever seen in that club. He had that audience – especially the ladies – eating out of the palm of his hand for a set that, honestly, might have gone a little long for me but there was the very real danger he’d be torn apart if he stopped playing. I walked out of there with my shirt sticky and translucent and definitely a believer. Maybe the best dance party of the summer but, even though it’s in the more spacious Park Street Saloon this time, I wouldn’t expect it to be any less packed. Come ready to move.

Jake La Botz, Chicago blues of a more recent stripe than James Cotton referenced earlier, opens.

Starts at 9:00pm. $18 tickets available at http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=5806335

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“Hey, Fred!” 07/13/15-07/19/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

This is a stacked week befitting the beginning of the hottiest, stickiest parts of summer. A big chunk of the word-count here is dedicated to Columbus’s best-rebounded festival, the Jazz and Ribs Fest. Growing up, I saw amazing things at this fest including David Murray and Oliver Lake, but there was a long period where it basically cratered, locked into a morass of midtempo, smoothed-out mediocrity. I’m happy to say it’s come back to the point where – while not on the level of Detroit or Chicago – it’s a damn fine festival again that brings in interesting acts we wouldn’t likely see otherwise and provides a fantastic showcase for our local talent.

Visual Art

July 18-19: SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo). Northland Performing Arts Center. 4411 Tamarack Blvd.

Bob Corby (Back Porch Comics) is one of those not-sung-enough heroes in town whose names I try to make sure I call out. He saw a gap and a way to capitalize on all the independent comics creators in the region and he saw a market for another comics show that wasn’t beholden to superheroes and non-comics-celebrities, a lower-key Midwestern riff on MoCCA, SPX, and APE and by God he did it. One of my favorite events in town where I’m constantly inspired by the talent and the plethora of voices making vital work.

This year’s going to be a little bittersweet for many of us in the local arts – and particularly comics – community because we’ve so recently lost Valerie Starr (referred to last week). She and Talcott sold their whimsical, funny, wise work at the show every year. So that should be an extra reason to go out and spend some money. Find something new. Talk to someone you might otherwise not have.

10:00am-6:00pm Saturday. 10:00am-5:00pm Sunday. $5 per day, $8 for the weekend. Exhibitor List and more information available at http://backporchcomics.com/space.htm 


July 18: A Celebration of Life: Aminah Robinson. Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E Broad St.

Aminah Robinson was one of the finest artists to ever call Columbus home. Work that was striking in its first blush but kept revealing new information and new sensual pleasure. Soulful, rich, intense, and thoughtful paintings, murals, and other media.

Columbus Museum of Art has a strong collection of her work and it’s only fitting they’re hosting a celebration of her life on this Saturday. Her work is on display in their Forum gallery and a presentation including speeches and music by Columbus institution Arnett Howard starts in the Cardinal Health Auditorium at 3:00pm.

Music

July 15: Kate Wakefield and Rural Carrier. Used Kids Records, 1980 N High St.

Kate Wakefield, opera singer and cellist from Cincinnati, has been amassing a strong critical buzz. She builds songs from loops but in a way that reminds me more of William Basinski and Antony and the Johnsons with elements of early Owen Pallett than the showy way that kind of technique often comes across. It’s haunting, gripping work and should be a wonder in Used Kids who have really stepped up their show game over the last few years.

Wakefield’s on tour with Rural Carrier, Jacob Koestler from Cleveland’s project built around shaky, unstable tones and drones rising up through the cracks. It’s beautiful, meditative work.

The locals on the bill I’m honestly not familiar with – Field Sleeper and Slime Scapes – but if the bookers were confident to put them on this bill I’m in.

6:00pm-9:00pm. Donations encouraged.

July 16: Wolf Eyes. Mint, 42 W Jenkins Ave.

Wolf Eyes are a shining example of a band not burning out and giving in after their moment of mainstream attention – epitomized by two records on Sub Pop – and at the forefront of what felt like a new American noise zeitgeist has passed. These Detroit heroes doubled down on their blend of cathartic, ritualistic throb and continue to make some of the best records to come out of this amorphous scene. Their dubbed-out, narcotized abstractions over the years have made one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen.

The rest of the bill is nothing to ignore, either. Rev//Rev is a new industrial project from members of Lafayette’s TV Ghost, one of the most exciting rock bands of the last several years, and people I trust have been raving since their last trip through town. Muscle Puzzle and Melted Man are two sides of the still-vital Columbus noise scene.

Doors at 9:00pm. $10 cover.

July 17-19: Jazz and Rib Fest. North Bank Park.

As stated above, this has reclaimed its place as one of my favorite summer festivals in Columbus. This year’s particularly special since it’s the first time – I think – Red Baraat have ever played Columbus. They played after my pal Mike Gamble’s wedding in Hudson, New York, and I can’t wait to see them again. Below is a smattering of personalized – as is the wont of this column, I won’t talk up what I can’t get behind – recommendations:

Friday:

1:00, North Bank Park: Keigo Hirakawa Trio. Dayton’s Keigo Hirakawa has an interesting approach to the piano that is clearly coming out of the post-Monk school and in the same vein as Brad Mehldau and Ethan Iverson, there’s also an appealingly rough rhythmic touch that reminds me a little of Borah Bergman. If you have the day off or if you work downtown, take a late lunch and see this.

3:30, AEP: James Gaiters’ Muv-Ment. Anyone who’s read this blog at all knows I think Gaiters might be the best drummer in town. Muv-Ment is still the best vehicle for his soulful, fascinating compositions. We haven’t seen a lot of Muv-Ment shows in town since the release of his great record Exodus last year partly because Lovell Bradford no longer lives in town so this is a reunion you should do everything in your power to check out. Also playing Natalie’s Saturday night with special guest Pharez Whited.

5:00, AEP: Rad Trads. NYC’s Rad Trads are a party band who are part of the same scene with Hot Sardines, Bria Skonberg, and Bombay Rickey, younger folks carrying the torch of institutions like the Nighthawks. The best writeup on them in town is friend Andrew Patton’s writing for Jazz Columbus. They fuse classic small-group territory orchestra swing with ’60s and ’70s growling soul and funk a la The Meters and the JBs. Get your weekend started right with this set. Also playing Brothers Drake Saturday night.

7:00, North Bank Park: Pharez Whitted Sextet. Pharez Whited was the first local jazz player – other than people who already had a national/historical rep like Gene Walker or Hank Marr – whose playing I ever loved. His sharp, metallic, post-bop trumpet tone cut through a smoky bar, a fine restaurant, or a concert hall like nothing I’d ever heard before. Beyond that, his writing was top notch and he played with the most exquisite players (including a young James Gaiters). It was fire every time he got on a bandstand and the crowds went crazy. He’s gone on to greener pastures in Chicago now but it’s always a treat when he comes back through town and this might be one of the highlights of the whole festival.

9:30, AEP: Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Septet. Eddie Palmieri is one of the absolute legends of Latin jazz. From his ’60s work with Cal Tjader to his soul-salsa blends of the ’70s and ’80s to his hard driving work today there’s never a bum note or a bad choice when Palmieri’s behind the piano and his bands are never less than excellent. One of the cultural highlights, not just music, of the year.

Saturday:

11:00a, Jazz Cafe: Tom Davis Quartet. Tom Davis might be my favorite jazz/classical guitarist in town right now, certainly my favorite guitarist on the rise – so no slight to Brett Burleson or Larry Marotta. He’s got a mastery of tone that most people would envy, you can tell it’s Davis on stage within three notes even if you’re between two loud barflies trying to order a drink and on the far other side of the bar. His trio work’s great but when he adds another melodic voice, whoever it is, it’s seismic, stratopheric, and enthralling.

2:30, North Bank Park: B Jazz and the Jazzhop Movement. B Jazz (real name Brandon Scott) is a keyboardist and songwriter with a gift for infectious R&B melodies. He first hit my radar through the Liquid Crystal Project (with J Rawls) and really got my attention through his work with Talisha Holmes. I’ve never heard a bum note he’s played and his writing is astonishing.

3:00, Jazz Cafe: Zakk Jones’ Screeching Owl. Zakk Jones is one of the fastest-rising guitarists in town and he’s grown by leaps and bounds in the couple years he’s been on my radar. His main project, Screeching Owl, put out a fantastic album earlier this year with bouncy melodies and harmonies – especially among the horns and vibes – that just glisten. Great review of this record by Andrew Patton here: http://www.jazzcolumbus.com/zakk-jones-screeching-owl-dreams-of-yesterday-ep/

5:00, AEP: fo/mo/deep. Fo/mo/deep inhabit a rich, funky fusion that’s melodic enough for the smooth jazz fans but can shake the walls on a regular basis. Their Headhunters vibe is big and intense like a summer thunderstorm, this is the perfect bridge between day and night.

5:00, North Bank Park: Carsie Blanton Trio. Carsie Blanton has a rootsy torch song quality with a voice steeped in history but a fresh voice that flashes like a hidden stiletto. If you like Eleni Mandell or Cassandra Wilson like I do, this is a set definitely worth checking out.

7:00, North Bank Park: Willie Jones III Quintet. Willie Jones III is one of the finest bebop drummers in that classic style, having played with Horace Silver on late tours and Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as on a couple fantastic Cedar Walton records and recently with tenor revivalist Javon Jackson. His bringing his own quintet which recently has included Eric Reed, Jeremy Pelt and Dezron Douglas so don’t sleep on this.

9:00, Jazz Cafe: The Admirables. The Admirables are one of the most buzzed-about Cleveland funk bands right now. A righteous live show with great songs both original and repertory. Going to be a drenched, funky good time on a Saturday night.

9:30, North Bank Park: Red Baraat. This is my personal highlight of the festival. Sunny Jain’s ragtag virtuoso A-team Red Baraat played the afterparty for my great friend Mike Gamble’s wedding to Devin Febboriello in Hudson, NY, a couple years ago. It was the kind of sweaty, righteous party to finally cracked the shell of my hangover and made me feel gloriously, hummingly alive again. They’re touring behind their best record yet, Gaadi of Truth, which at this midpoint is a strong contender for my records of the year and while Columbus expat Jon Lampley isn’t joining them on this set word is he’ll be in the house and so should you. If you love world rhythms, catch call and response, and music that reminds you how good it is to be alive, don’t miss this no matter what else you do.

 

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“Hey, Fred!” 06/29/15-07/05/15 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

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

https://youtu.be/7YpnSbHtHDg

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.

https://youtu.be/vEGZqmnV29E

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.

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“Hey, Fred!” [COMFEST EDITION]

Even as it annoys me sometimes, Comfest is still a supernova in my summer and this year’s lineup looks stronger than the last couple. I’m posting this a week early so there’s plenty of time to check out my suggestions and leave your own in the comments. I included media when there was something easily embedded like bandcamp or soundcloud.

You may not see me at all these sets – in fact, you might not see me at all on Saturday because I love Comfest more when I don’t deal with Saturday crowds – but there’s nothing here I don’t stand behind or that hasn’t been on my list to check out for a while. Let’s get to it!

Comfest

Friday

12:00, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Screeching Owl. 

Zakk Jones is one of the fastest-rising guitarists in town and he’s grown by leaps and bounds in the couple years he’s been on my radar. His main project, Screeching Owl, put out a fantastic album earlier this year with bouncy melodies and harmonies – especially among the horns and vibes – that just glisten. Great review of this record by Andrew Patton, personal friend, friend of the blog, and the best writer about jazz in town here: http://www.jazzcolumbus.com/zakk-jones-screeching-owl-dreams-of-yesterday-ep/

Expect this to be the perfect way to ease into your Comfest with your first still-cold beer and tikka masala wrap in the bright June sun.

12:45, Offramp Stage: Corbezzolo.

Corbezzolo were one of my favorite discoveries last year when I saw them open for Jason Ajemian at Double Happiness. The duo of Marie Corbo singing and switching off between guitar and bass and Noah Demland drumming cut through the noise in the crowd and the noise in my head until I couldn’t not pay attention. A beguiling mix of fragile and powerful, introverted and intense, songs that grab you by the collar.

2:40, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Tom Davis.

Tom Davis might be my favorite jazz/classical guitarist in town right now, certainly my favorite guitarist on the rise – so no slight to Brett Burleson or Larry Marotta. He’s got a mastery of tone that most people would envy, you can tell it’s Davis on stage within three notes even if you’re between two loud barflies trying to order a drink and on the far other side of the bar.

Davis has assimilated the history of jazz guitar and come out sounding perfectly like himself – playing in situations as diverse as Vaughn Wiester’s big band, free-improv freakouts, or Pete Mills’ straight-head bebop and killing them all. Beyond that, he puts together great, great bands – his tribute to the Jim Hall/Paul Desmond Quartet about a month ago at Dick’s was so beautiful I almost cried – so while there’s no word on who he’s bringing this time, I guarantee it’ll be worth seeing..

4:50, Live Arts Stage: Najla and Muziki.

Queen Najla is one of the finest local proponents of African dance, percussion and storytelling. One of our most jaw-dropping artists. Every time I’ve seen her on stage I’ve had chills all over my body, the craft is undeniable and her spirit is infectious and true. I’m not sure who/what’s accompanying her as muziki (the Swahili word for music) at this performance but I guarantee you won’t be disappointed whoever it is.

5:45, Offramp Stage: Betty Machete and the Angry Cougars.

In the last few years, Betty Machete and the Angry Cougars have cut their jokier songs and refined their lineup in a way that resembles – as a friend said about another band’s guitar player change a few years ago – adding extra fingers to a fist. While I miss Matt Reber’s more melodic bass playing and Fes Minck’s gnarled, wild lead guitar, the current lineup of Heather Lazor – maybe my favorite drummer in town – in lockstep with Matt Campbell (Gasohol) on bass laying down the rhythm behind Pat Dull and Chris Casella’s guitars and Linda Dull’s roar feels like a more unified, sharpened thing. Some of the most fist-pumping fun in this town right now.

5:55, Gazebo Stage: Slick Andrews and the 3-C Grifters.

Slick Andrews is Columbus’ finest honky-tonk singer and his 3-C Grifters lineup is a 30 years strong rootsy supergroup. His voice will melt steel, break glass and stab you right in the heart. And his band, anchored by guitar hero Matt Newman, will blow your hair back. Bring whatever dancing shoes you think will survive the mud.

6:55, Bozo Stage: The Dewdroppers.

The Dewdroppers are one of the most gleefully fun bands in this town –  if your dancing shoes don’t need re-cobbled after Slick Andrews at the Gazebo, they damn sure won’t survive an hour of this. A tight band comprised of some of the brightest lights in Columbus music: Counterfeit Madison, Adam Nedrow, Benny Brennerman, Jake Huffstetler, Joe Gilliand, Trent Sampson. They have great taste in material touching on Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, ’50s doo-wop and ’60s pop-soul, and a fistful of originals, played tightly but with their eye mostly on fun. This show comes on the heels of their record release so expect them to explode on that big stage.

7:15, Offramp Stage: Salvage.

Brian Simakis is best known in town as one of our finest soundmen but his band Salvage is remembered very fondly by some of us, not least of all me. A hard rock band touching on all styles under that umbrella but beholden to none, with a tight rhythm section – Chris “Spanky” Hughes on bass and Chrys Cornetet on drums – and catchy, funny songs (“Soundman” is still maybe the best “tribute” to that beleaguered profession). Honestly, I didn’t realize they were still a going concern until I saw them on the Comfest schedule so I’m very excited to see this return in the flesh.

7:55, Bozo Stage: Comrade Question. 

Comrade Question is one of the freshest-sounding rock bands with some of the best songs to appear in town in a while and it’s a pleasant surprise to seem them on deck for the big stage. A mix of the Velvet Underground’s minimal drumming and drone bass with psych and surf tendencies in their three guitars and killing harmonies between Lee Mason and Katie Baillie.

8:00, Offramp Stage: Sin Nombre.

The best current band of Arturo DeLeon (saying something given his prolific nature). Sin Nombre is everything good about raw ’80s metal – Overkill, early Anthrax, even a little southern groove like Eyehategod or Pantera – with none of the fat or the annoying tendencies. With Artie on guitar and vocals, Scott Corney on second guitar, and the killer rhythm section of Jeff Plavcan on bass and Scott Sprague on drums, this might be the hardest the Offramp rocks all weekend.

8:50, I Wish You Jazz Stage: James Gaiters’ Soul Revival.

I texted some close friends who would be amenable to this – I hope – that this is my new favorite band in town, regardless of genre, and it may well be. James Gaiters is my favorite drummer in town and one of my favorite composers, and this stripped down and sideways take after his sextet Muv-Ment merges soul jazz and classic King/Fortune style R&B into a raucous, thoughtful, swinging party. This is helped by the fact that he’s got the best players in town. Eddie Bayard, who sets everything he touches on fire, on tenor saxophone; Jon Eshelman on organ; and Craig McMullen who played second guitar on Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly soundtrack. Do not miss this.

8:55, Bozo Stage: The Girls!. 

The Girls! are a story in how to keep going after loss everyone should learn from but no one should have to, with the way they came up swinging after their original guitar player Joey Blackheart passed away last year. Joe Rosenblum stepped up admirably and before long they were back with the best powerpop songs in town anyone’s written in years and one of the best live shows. At previous Comfests they’ve filled the Offramp tent until it was almost bursting and I can’t wait to see what they do with the big stage when the sun goes down.

10:15, Offramp Stage: Whiteouts.

The Whiteouts are a rare – and grand – choice to close the Offramp this year. Frenetic songs played to within an inch of their lives by a handful of the best players (and friends) in town with a healthy dose of the anarchy and the wildness that’s been sorely missing from Comfest the last couple years. Grab the flashes of chaos while you can and hold on.

Saturday

11:00, Bozo Stage: Bloodthirsty Virgins.

Nikki Wonder’s one of my favorite singers and entertainers to ever walk across a Columbus stage. For a few years in the early ’00s, her band Jack Neat with their blend of torchy vocals, noir twang guitar and a swinging rhythm section, were my favorite band in town. Her new project, Bloodthirsty Virgins, features a stellar cast of musicians backing her including Scott Gorsuch on guitars, Keith Hanlon on drums and percussion, and James Wooster on bass. I finally caught them a few months ago and it delivered on all that promise and history in spades. Start your Saturday – and scour off your hangover – with something that really has teeth.

12:00, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Insane Jazz Posse.

This combo, led by bassist Ben Johnson, took a while to win me over with the jokey name and the arrangements of contemporary pop songs, But win me over they have, with an uncanny empathy between Johnson and Ryan Jewell on drums and Alex Burgoyne on reeds and Alex Schrock on guitar. There’s great, gritty writing there and real, surprising beauty.

1:45, Offramp Stage: Trachete.

Trachete, a supergroup including members of much missed bands like Rosehips and Di Di Mao, led by Aimee Bell-Wanzo’s ripping howl, might be the best meat and potatoes garage rock in town. Thick grooves, grimy guitar and soaring harmonies. As close to a sure thing as Comfest Saturday has.

3:30, Gazebo Stage: Barry Chern and Company.

Barry Chern plays almost anything with strings and has played with a wide cross-section of people in town. My first exposure to his current bag was Comfest a year or two ago and it was the first time I’ve ever thought of comparisons to Pentangle or Incredible String Band at the Gazebo stage. If you know me, you know what high praise that is. Go see this and see the way the sunshine dances over those strings and the crowd in this set.

4:10, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Columbus Liberation Music Orchestra.

Michael Van Der Does is one of the unsung heroes of Columbus, in his various capacities as poet, leader of the Jazz Poetry Ensemble, booker of astonishing fire music acts, and instigator of improvised happenings. This year for MLK Day he organized the first outing of the Columbus Liberation Music Orchestra – including such astonishing players as Brett Burleson, Roger Hines, and Randy Mather – tipping the hat to Carla Bley and Charlie Haden’s own liberation music – in a program called Blues for Ferguson. I missed that performance but heard wall to wall raves from people who did go and this is not to be missed.

4:15, Solar Stage: John Schnabel.

I saw John Schnabel recently on a bill with his son Micah (co-leader of Two Cow Garage) and it was some of the finest smart, wry heartland storytelling I’ve heard in song in a long time. Comparisons to John Prine are not wrong nor do they overstate it.

5:10, Live Arts Stage: Doctah X.

One of the finest practitioners of dub reggae and avant-garde electronic music in Columbus. Doctah X should be seen as a national treasure but until he is, we’re lucky enough to have him at Comfest every year.

7:00, Bozo Stage: Mojoflo.

MojoFlo have been killing it of late, heavy touring and Columbus gigging have made their stage show a can’t miss and their material gets tighter and tighter. Amber Knicole’s one of our finest singers and entertainers, as riveting on a ballad as on a call and response chant. George Barrie’s guitar is perfect, never overplaying and while he understands stretching for the dancers, he never over-complicates the lines, there’s a sense of space and purity in his playing. The horn section, too, cares more about space than making sure you know how much they can technically play on every line. That goes double for the rhythm section anchored by Doni Jai on drums and a rotating selection of bassists. Great songs, a great show, something I never regret seeing in town.

7:10, Offramp Stage: Dominique Larue.

Dominique Larue’s a damn star. One of our best, most engaging rappers with a fiery live show. Expect the Offramp tent to shake and be full to the bursting for this.

7:55, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Tony Monaco.

I miss Tony Monaco being the very last act at Comfest on Sunday as he was for many years, but closing out a Saturday night isn’t a bad consolation. Keeping the Jimmy Smith soul jazz flame alive with consistently great players including Derek Dicenzo or Josh Hill on guitar and Jim Rupp or Reggie Jackson on drums, you should be able to see the steam rising off this stage for miles, even in the dark.

Sunday

12:00, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Vaughn Wiester Big Band. 

One of my favorite Comfest traditions. The best big band leader and arranger keeping that flame alive in town, trombonist Vaughn Wiester, leading a group to kick off the final day of Comfest and blow the dust off bedraggled, sozzled ears, and bloodshot eyes. While the last couple years have seen him moved to the jazz stage and other things starting at 11:00, this is still the beginning of my Comfest Saturday.

12:00, Gazebo Stage: George Barrie Band. 

Barrie, co-leader of Mojoflo described above, channels his non-funk impulses into his eponymous band. A tasteful, razor-sharp guitar player and a fine singer, this has been on my list to check out for a while.

12:25, Offramp Stage: Time Lords.

Beth Hunter has led some of my favorite bands in town including Thee Pistol Whips, Stits, and Dirty Biscuits. With her Time Lords project, she channels and pays tribute to her forebears in raunchy, grimy blues rock with a rotating cast of players.

1:55, Offramp Stage: Haynes Boys.

I raved about this early Tim Easton project above in the run down of Friday’s afterparties but it all holds true. The first time I ever saw them, I think, was an outdoor festival and there’s a nice symmetry in seeing their return in that mode.

1:55, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Daddy Romance.

The near-east side of Columbus legendarily had a thriving organ driven soul-jazz scene from the ’60s through the ’80s which was sadly under-recorded and aside from big names like Hank Marr and Gene Walker is rarely spoken of these days. One of those legendary names was Alvin Valentine who went by “Daddy Romance” – I’m 95% sure this is not the same Alvin Valentine who made vocal records for Brunswick, but please correct me if I’m wrong – and Jim Maneri’s quartet to pay tribute to Valentine is the best kind of raging party music. Along with Maneri’s keys,the band features Joe Crump on sax, Jimmy Castoe on drums and vocals, and Roger Hines on bass. It’s highly recommended you soundtrack your third or fourth fish boat of the weekend with this.

2:40, Offramp Stage: Drift Mouth.

Drift Mouth have some of the most interesting songs in town and have carefully carved a sound-world for these songs to live. They remind me most of a darker Souled American. Slowed down, narcotic murder ballads through the gravel-snarl of singer Lou Poster (Grafton, The Ferals) in a wash of guitar with Craig Davidson’s (Righteous Buck) almost-psychedelic lap steel and Mark Spurgeon’s (Greenhorn, Big Back 40) razor-sharp leads backed by one of the best rhythm sections in town with Josh Draher on upright bass and Brad Swiniarski on drums and backing vocals.

2:45, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Gene Walker Tribute.

Much of the jazz stage this year has a tribute theme and no tribute is more deserving or more likely to bring out the creme de la creme of Columbus than this. Walker was one of the great tenor players who played with Sam Cooke, The Beatles, King Curtis, Jimmy Reed, but also Jimmy McGriff, Elvin Jones, Hank Marr and Dave “Baby” Cortez. Here in Columbus he’s almost as well known for his work with students, including teaching at OSU for 20 years and continuing to lead a weekly jam session until not long before his death. He cast a long shadow and was loved by any musician who mattered that I can think of, so the intersection of a tribute to him and the gathering of the tribes at Comfest (where Walker’s childhood friend Rahsaan Roland Kirk headlined the first year) should be something to see.

3:00, Gazebo Stage: John Turck Trio.

Over the years, John Turck, Danny Cashin, and AJ Barnes have built up a language as a trio that’s something special. Turck’s songs can still go a little soft for me but he’s got a keen, glowing gift for a melody and the last few times I saw them there were moments that left me breathless. If you like softer, Laurel Canyon-infused rock dappled with sunshine, I think they’re worth checking out.

3:40, I Wish You Jazz Stage: From the Five Jazztet.

This space has talked quite a bit about Mark Flugge who Columbus tragically lost last year. One of the greatest tributes to his legacy has been the continuation of one of his most flexible and beloved quintets, the From the Five Jazztet, featuring all musicians he played with regularly. This version includes Dave DeWitt on piano, Derek DiCenzo on bass, Aaron Scott on drums, Randy Mather on sax, and Kim Pensyl or Rob Parton on trumpet and it’s some of the best, most invigorating bebop you’re going to hear in town.

4:55, Offramp Stage: The Kyle Sowashes.

Kyle Sowash is one of the handful of people who almost single-handedly carries Columbus on his back and has since he moved here. His eponymous band has refined themselves and his songs into a lean, well-oiled machine and he’s been on a streak of unassailable records for the last three or so, the newest of which, this year’s Everybody, might be the best one yet. In keeping with the earlier talk about the elegiac or tribute nature of the jazz stage, the new album also serves as a tribute to Brett Helling, long term bass player and great friend to so many people in this scene, who died too soon this year.

5:05, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Nicole Sherburne.

Sherburne’s another artist who I feel like has really come into her own in the last few years. She got my attention working with local funk party band The Fabulous Johnson Brothers but her work has gotten darker and knottier and thicker in texture. I haven’t checked out this quartet yet but her tone with Adam Smith on drums, Phil Maneri on bass, and Jason Branscum on trombone should be something to see.

6:00, I Wish You Jazz Stage: Turtle Boat.

One of the most interest repertory bands in town. Guitarist Aditya Jayanthi on his return to Columbus assembled Turtle Boat to primarily grapple with Paul Motian’s oeuvre. Paul Motian passed away in 2011 and is widely recognized as one of the greatest drummers of the 20th century – I know I deeply treasure the three times I saw him play – but he’s still underrated as a composer. Turtle Boat’s taken up that mantle, intriguingly putting special focus on Motian’s Electric Bebop Band. And Jayanthi found the perfect cast of players for this journey – including Max Button, Brett Burleson, and Alex Burgoyne. One of the sets I’m most looking forward to.

6:20, Live Arts State: Is Said and the Advanced Party 

Is Said has long been an inspiration in Columbus as a poet, as a playwright, as a teacher, and as an example of living an actuallized life. I remember the first time I saw him perform and later the first time I saw one of his plays like it was yesterday. This Last Poets-inspired format is my favorite way to see Is Said, and in the sunshine of Comfest he serves as a link to its activist past and a reminder of how good it can be.

7:00, Gazebo Stage: Erica Blinn and the Handsome Machine.

Erica Blinn is one of the hardest working people in town. While I wasn’t in love with her first full length, Lovers in the Dust, it had a handful of terrific songs. More importantly, she followed it up by touring relentlessly and opening for the best Americana acts working today, honing her five-piece band The Handsome Machine into a well-oiled classic rock machine. She’s been hard at work on her followup record so expect a few new songs. But definitely look for an explosive, swinging good time at this set to end your Comfest and send you out smiling.

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“Hey, Fred!” 06/15/2015-06/21/2015 A Biased and Idiosyncratic Top Five

Literary

June 20: The Art of Storytelling 2. Wild Goose Creative, 2491 Summit St.

Local writer/rapper/ organizer Searius Add has almost infallible taste and both the contacts and the passion to put together some of the most interesting bills in town. Case in point, this week’s special Father’s Day edition of his intermittent Art of Storytelling series in the intimate confines of Wild Goose. There isn’t one element of this that’s less than stunning.

This Art of Storytelling is hosted by JG the Jugganaut (aka John Gibson) who’s one of our most dynamic poets, making noise and touring regularly. An intense, charismatic, funny performer whose writing has an astonishing eye and a rhythm that engages the whole body.

The undercard of authors is a pair of intriguing voices I’d bet on hearing more about very soon. Rayshawn Wilson is a local therapist and motivational speaker who, in 2014, put out a memoir, Lionheart: Coming Where I’m From which has received rave reviews including this one from the School Library Journal: http://blogs.slj.com/adult4teen/2015/01/05/inspirational-memoirs/ Quartez Harris released his first poetry collection, Nothing But Skin, last year and I’ve heard nothing but good things about both his writing and his performance.

The headliner, Scott Woods, probably needs no introduction to readers of this blog because I’m a shameless, unabashed fan of the man and his work. He was the first person to take teams of Columbus poets to the National Poetry Slam, eventually serving on the board of PSI (the organization that throws said NPS) and has put out many books and records. He’s one of the most vital, necessary voices in Columbus art right now and maybe literature period and he’s one of the few artists I’ve seen in any genre or town who keeps leaping out of his comfort zone, swinging for the fences, and and consistently getting even better. Any time he does a feature set, anyone in any creative field – or anyone who loves words – should take notice.

Live music is provided by Matt Seward II, son of local R&B/gospel legend Matt Seward who brings a tenor voice and guitar that reminds me of a young Terry Callier.

6:30-8:30pm. Tickets available here.

https://youtu.be/ghply_J2nR4


Music

June 15: Drainolith with Mike Shiflet. Double Happiness, 482 S Front St.

Over the last few years they’ve been open, Double Happiness has quietly turned into a primary home for some of the most interesting booking in town. Things that might otherwise pass our city by or fall through the cracks get a home with an almost built in audience and some of the best sound in Columbus.

Mike Shiflet, since I first saw him in Sword Heaven, has plowed a fertile field of richly textured abstract noise. As he’s added more guitar of late, the textures have gotten both harsher and more sensual, as seen on his recent collaboration with Jerry DeCicca (Black Swans), Walks on the Beach, and any solo show in town is going to be rewarding.

The headliner, Drainolith, is the new solo project of Alexander Moskos, formerly of noise rock juggernaut AIDS Wolf. A collaged, abstract take on depressive singer-songwriter music that feels incredibly fresh. This solo work uses guttural blues signifiers a la Will Oldham but arranges them with noise and static threading the elements together.

Doors at 8:00pm. $8 tickets available at http://www.doublehappinessohio.com/event/848617-drainolith-columbus/

June 17: Bobby Floyd Trio featuring Brian Olsheski. Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza, 5601 N High St.

Bobby Floyd’s principal gig in Dr. John’s band keeps him on the road a lot so anytime Columbus’s finest keyboard player is back in town it’s cause for jubilation. But this show is special even above and beyond that.

Floyd’s regular trio with Derek DiCenzo on bass or guitar and usually Reggie Jackson (also touring with Dr. John) on drums have an uncanny empathy and the unshakable confidence of people who can do anything musically, and special guest Brian Olsheski on tenor sax has a similar musical bond with Floyd that I’ve seen take the roof off many a bar or concert hall. If you love jazz, do not miss this.

Starts at 9:00pm. Tickets available at http://www.vendini.com/ticket-software.html?t=tix&e=d1e364c99068f524e1b639c96f04fb42

https://youtu.be/tgSCfvpZ09o

June 19: Tink and Kim Joyce. Park Street Saloon, 525 N Park St.

Chicago rapper Tink’s collaboration with Tazer, “Wet Dollars,” is a convincing early contender for song of the summer 2015. Buzz for her upcoming record executive produced by Timbaland, Ratchet Commandments, is blisteringly hot and the couple singles out so far are dancefloor monsters. Her voice doesn’t need more than a few bars to get stuck in your brain and not let go and the choice of beats is top notch.

Local Kim Joyce opens with her modern blend of edgy, sensual R&B – great songs put across like her life depends on it.

This interesting booking merges the live music aesthetic of Woodlands’ management with the clubbing past of Park Street Saloon and promises a sweaty good time. Doors at 9:00pm. Tickets available at Ticketweb.

June 19: A Tribute to Camu featuring Da Intalec, Metro, Copywrite, Tame One, and C-Chan. Double Happiness, 482 S Front St.

Camu Tao’s loss is still felt in Columbus and underground hip-hop in general. Much like the Mark Flugge tribute we talked about here last week, this is an astonishing lineup full of people who knew and collaborated with him that speaks to the depth of feeling he and his music gave us all.

This tribute features Da Intalec, often referred to as a mentor to Camu Tao and many others, still making vital, virbrant music. A collaborative set between Metro (who worked with Camu in the still-underrated party rap group SA Smash along with work with Cannibal Ox and many more) and Copywrite (who needs no introduction except to say he’s been making some of the best music of his storied career in the last few years). A set of Tame One (in The Weathermen with Camu along with collaborations with Del tha Funkee Homosapien, KRS-One, and Mos Def) and fellow Jersey rapper C-Chan. Held together and held down by DJ Bombay spinning before, between, and after the other acts. This would be a great show no matter what but as a tribute, it’s almost unparalleled.

Starts at 9:00pm. Tickets available at http://www.doublehappinessohio.com/event/864439-tribute-camu-columbus/