Since the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, we in the NoC music department have had some difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality. Sorry.
Wednesday, November 23
Freekbot
Cosmic Charlie’s; 388 Woodland. 10 P.M.
Those who command magic are to be praised or feared, depending on how they choose to wield their talent, for they are powerful beings and at a whim can aid or hinder the causes of common folk such as you and I.
On rare occasions, magic users choose to join forces for a common goal, and the combined power is, more often than not, greater than the sum of its parts. Such is the case with Freekbot: the unholy union of Freekbass and Tobotius. The former is well known for the qualities he draws from the electric funk bass; the latter, for the deft manipulation of a pair of chloride-vinyl acetate discs in a sonically invigorating fashion. The magic they emanate is strong, and is known for instigating spastic, seemingly random movements of the feet, torsos, arms, and posteriors of those who stand witness to Freekbot’s machinations.
Friday, November 25
The Nick Stump Band with Kelly Richey
Natasha’s; 112 Esplanade. 8 P.M.
At the cross roads, sits the
player. No drum, no umbrella, even
though it’s raining. Again, and we
are some how less miserable because
here is a hero, used to being wet.
One road is where you are standing now
(reading this, the other, crosses then
rushes into a wood.
5 lbs neckbones.
5 lbs hog innards.
10 bottles cheap wine.
(The contents
of a paper bag, also shoes, with holes
for the big toe, and several rusted
knives. This is a literature, of
symbols. And it is his gift, as the
bag is.
—Amiri Baraka, from “A Poem for Willie Best”
Saturday, November 26
Drunk & Sailor / Loose Cannons
Al’s Bar; 601 N. Limestone. 10:30 P.M.
As the opportunities for a young man of adventurous disposition to find his fortune and glory on the high seas have diminished in recent years, many a hale chap, who might otherwise find employment on a three-master seeking cargo of Eleuthera’s pineapple and Dominica’s rum, has instead turned to the bardic arts.
And so it is with Drunk and Sailor, two intrepid lads from around our own County Fayette who forsook cutlasses for cutaways and have of late sung for their suppers at local taverns and houses of ill repute. On this night, the night in question, Drunk and Sailor will perform a set of the ballads and shanties for which they have earned reknown, then welcome to the stage the Loose Cannons, a motley bunch of ne’er-do-wells who play something the commoners call “pirate punk.”
Sunday, November 27
The Tall Boys
Lynagh’s; 384 Woodland. 10 P.M.
Applied to the band members’ physiognomy, the name is a slight misnomer; Tallish Boys would be more fitting. But applied to their musicality, the name is indeed descriptive. For with instruments in hand, these men are giants. They tower over the Lynagh’s stage every Sunday night, as they have for a very long time, and as they will for a long time to come.
Friday, December 2
I Like You
Green Lantern; 497 W. Third. 8 P.M.
Deep underground, far beneath the bright lights and shrill noises of our planet’s surface, there exists a community of dreamers and aesthetes who shun our society’s blind allegiance to the corporate kings and rigorously test-marketed musical appetites. They are a pale but fierce race of humans, who use both words and fuzz boxes to speak truth to power, and avoid bland, common sentiment in favor of the arch and the incisive. Come then, weary traveler, and witness another chapter in the great struggle between the might of the brutish pocketbook and the dexterity of the awakened mind.
Saturday, December 3
Lucero
Buster’s; 899 Manchester. 8 P.M.
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
Bright star—lucero. The moving waters of the mighty Mississip’ bring to us six troubadors, tumbled and polished from years of drifting by those muddy banks, who sing the songs of earth’s human shores with earnestness and pleasure, so that we may, at last, after so many centuries of strife and struggle, come together as one. For fans of: Taliesin, Kevin Kinney, Myrddin Wyllt, John Hiatt.
Monday, December 5
Billy Joe Shaver
Cosmic Charlie’s; 388 Woodland. 9 P.M.
We immerse ourselves in these shiny electronic worlds, in which we live virtual lives of adventure and enterprise. But here comes a man who has actually done what we, plucked from our plush chairs and booted out the front door, would never dare. A man who has been to hell and back and has no problem sending you there to see for yourself. An outlaw. An original. And what are you? Afraid?
—Buck Edwards
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