Two Great Shows this Friday!



Two amazing shows will be happening this Friday... unfortunately I won't be able to make either of them.

The first is Evan Dando at the Grog Shop... you know... the former Lemonheads singer. I didn't know a damn thing about the Lemonheads except it was one of the most sold-back CD's when I worked at Finders Records.

I saw Evan at the Grog back in January '04. I was just researching up coming shows, saw he was going to be at the Grog and checked out his website. He was streaming his entire album on his site, and the music was mellow, insightful and un-like anything I was hearing at the time. Since that show, his CD "Baby I'm Bored" had become one of my favorite CD's of the last couple years. I highly recommend checking it out. Here's my favorite track from the album.



Also on Friday is the show at the Beachland Tavern. It's Blanche, with Roger Hoover & the Whiskeyhounds and Good Morning Valentine. Now I can't say a damn thing about Blanche, but I can tell you that the show that night would be MORE than enough with just the two openers. As you know, I've seen both of these bands before and they blew me away. You can read about a prior experience with Roger Hoover here. And then you can scroll down to hear about when I just saw Good Morning Valentine open for Martha Wainwright, or click here.

If I didn't have a friend coming into town that night, I think i would probably be driving back and forth between the Grog & the Beachland on Friday night.

Below I'm putting the promo text from both the Beachland & Grog's websites. Go!

Evan Dando / Judd & Maggie / Dave Rich (Houseguest) / Nebraska - 9pm $12
Lemonheads singer/guitarist/songwriter (and sometimes drummer) Evan Dando was one of alternative rock's publicized artists during the early '90s, before drugs derailed his career and nearly killed him. Born on March 4, 1967, and raised in the suburbs of Boston, MA, Dando had gravitated towards such influential '80s punk outfits as Hüsker Dü and the Replacements, which led to the formation of the Lemonheads by the mid-'80s. The group's original lineup consisted of Dando, Ben Deily (vocals, guitar, drums), and Jesse Peretz (bass), and was featured on the 1986 EP Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners, which the band put out on their own. With full-time drummer Doug Trachten now on board, the Lemonheads signed on with the Taang! label, and issued such further releases as 1987's Hate Your Friends, 1988's Creator, and 1989's Lick; the latter of which contained a rough and tumble reading of Suzanne Vega's "Luka," which received moderate success on MTV and college radio. A rift between bandmembers grew with each successive release, leading to Dando eventually being the only original member left in attendance by the dawn of the '90s. Subsequently, Dando retained the Lemonheads name and signed on with Atlantic Records.

Blanche / The Whiskeyhounds / Good Morning Valentine - 9pm $8
In the fair city of Detroit, nestled among the garage-rock nooks and country crannies, lurks the music of Blanche. Husband and wife Dan and Tracee Miller trade intense and haunting vocals over an uneasy sea of pedal steel, banjo, raw guitar sounds, and sparse, driving drumming. The sound combines the intense desperation of the Gun Club, the sincere sadness of the Carter Family, and the creepy playfulness of Lee Hazlewood. Blanche has come together from the well-preserved ashes of singer-guitarist Dan John Miller's previous two bands. The seminal country-punk band Goober & the Peas released two acclaimed albums while touring incessantly throughout the U.S. and Europe, with artists such as Morphine and Uncle Tupelo. Next, Miller shed the 'Goober' moniker and teamed with Jack White (now of the White Stripes) for the country-garage collaboration, Two Star Tabernacle. In Blanche, the band resembles a dolled-up meeting of the Stepford Wives and a Lawrence Welk gospel special. Live, the band kind of lulls the audience into their dark, awkward world, and gradually builds intensity toward a frenetic finish. Among others, the band has played with 16 Horsepower, the Handsome Family, the White Stripes, Wilco, Loretta Lynn and Calexico. The Whiskeyhounds are an Akron, Ohio foursome built around front man, Roger Hoover. Their sound is seductive, rural, classic, founded on their roots and injected with the right amounts of flawless rock, heart and soul. Roots range from early blues and country, '60s rock and folk, but The Whiskeyhounds aren't indie-rock, alt-country or garage. Roger Hoover's distinctive rasp and range are delivered in much the same way as that of Van Morrison, yet there's more to this voice; in Roger's case it evokes the world of lovers, losers, lifers and nine-to-fivers that form the underbelly of Roger's songwriting. Goodmorning Valentine's Americana sound melds Motown with 60's rock, 70's songwriters, and the more contemporary sounds of Belle and Sebastian and Wilco.

Posted: Tue - July 26, 2005 at 10:09 AM           |

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