"Hey, Fred!" 06/05-06/11/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Shellshag | Kyshona | Laura Sanders | Columbus Arts Festival | 10th Annual Mark Flugge Tribute Concert
Music
06/05/2024
Shellshag with Spooktober and Didi
Cafe Bourbon Street, 2216 Summit St
June 5: 6 pm doors
$10 at the door
Their website calls them “Brooklyn’s answer to Dead Moon” and I’m not sure I can improve on that. The riveting two-piece Shellshag - Shell’s slashing guitar and smoky croon blending beautifully with Jen Shag’s perfectly ragged drumming and occasional backing vocals - return to Columbus on the heels of a couple of singles this year (the yearning stained glass sculpture of “The Other Side” and the wistful groove of “Take My Town”) that are among the best songs they’ve put out, in a career of great songs.
I don’t know much about Athens’ Spooktober, but I checked out their record Puketober as I prepped to write this, and I was charmed by its hooks, catchy riffs, and nervous momentum. Columbus’s Didi open, and the advance tracks off their new record, feel it enough, have enough of the crunchy noise wrapped around sweet harmonies that make them a perennial favorite in town, and an expansive taste for soundscapes.
Kyshona with Paisha Thomas
Natalie’s Grandview, 945 King Ave
June 6: 8:30 pm
$20 Tickets Available at https://nataliesgrandview.com/events/kyshona-2/
I was a little late to the party on Kyshona - she hit my radar with a breathtaking feature on Adia Victoria’s "You Was Born to Die” - but her 2024 record Legacy is a strong frontrunner for my favorite record of this year as we get to the halfway mark. It’s a beautiful, richly textured record that grapples with family and musical and spiritual lineages and how we build our lives and communities out of narrative. Kyshona engages some well-chosen collaborators from soul-blues legends Keb’ Mo’ and Ruthie Foster, rising gospel singer Nickie Conley, and actor-singer Chris Pierce, all of whom bring a special flavor to the record but never overpower Kyshona’s blending of voices and histories.
Paisha Thomas, one of Columbus’s finest songwriters and interpreters, opens this highly recommended show.
06/07/2024
Columbus Arts Festival
Various Downtown Stages
June 7 through 9
Free
Map, Schedule, and More Info at https://www.columbusartsfestival.org/
The Arts Festival was a gateway to a lot of the Columbus music that inspired and influenced me well before I could even bluff my way into a bar - as a kid, my Mom loved an outdoor festival. For my taste, the 2024 lineup of musicians/poets/dance/theater is as strong as I can remember, full of some of my favorite acts and troupes of the moment and just as full of people I’ve barely heard of or are unknown to me, which is always exciting.
The whole schedule linked above is worth diving into but here are a few things I’d draw attention to:
On Friday, electrifying rapper/writer Ebri Yahloe rocks the lunch hour at 12:00 pm on the Bicentennial Park stage; two companies high on my list to check out are back to back in the early afternoon on the Genoa Park Main Stage: WhirlWind Dance at 1:15 pm and Aetherial Jest at 2:45 pm; heavy psych band The Rough Touch set the air on fire on 4:15 on the Big Local Arts Stage; our finest soul singer Talisha Holmes brings her sharply honed brand of torchy introspection to the Bicentennial Park main stage at 5:30 pm followed by excellent singer-songwriter and bandleader Lily Bloom at 6:15 pm; Columbus’s best garage rock band (which also shares members with Rough Touch) Garbage Greek rock Big Local Arts at 6:45 followed by the vibrant powerpop of Smug Brothers at 8:00 pm; 9:00 pm features two pinnacles of their forms to close: Angela Perley’s justly beloved Americana on Bicentennial Park stage and rapper DrippDaDon on the Genoa Park main stage.
My personal/aspirational Saturday starts with irreverent brass from NACHO Street Band on the Bicentennial Park stage at 10:30 am; diVERSES presents a live podcast on the Word Is Art/Acoustic Stage at noon, and I have to say I’ve learned as much from Geoff Anderson - especially those poetry reading workshops he led in person before COVID - as anyone else and I studied with some greats (Kathy Fagan, Andrew Hudgins, Angie Estes); at 3:15 on the Genoa Park main stage, some of our finest actors and singers present their TBD: An Improvised Musical; funk/hip-hop collective The OG Players promise to turn the Word is Art acoustic stage out at 4:00; two great and different takes on classic funk and R&B on the Bicentennial Park stage with Soulutions Band at 6:30 pm followed by The Deeptones; killing hip-hop triple bill closes the Big Local Arts stage starting with Trek Manifest and the Aye-1 Band at 5:45 pm and continuing through Dom Deshawn debuting a set with live band backing, culminating in Joey Aich and The Head Band; the cherry on top is a rare appearance of the Writers’ Block Poetry Night, hosted by Scott Woods, closing the Word is Art stage at 7:30 pm.
Sunday starts for me with the jazz-inflected art pop of Gault on the Bicentennial Park stage at 10:00 am; Ballet folclórico Xochihua at 10:45 am on the Genoa Park main stage; rising Americana star Mery Steel at 11:15 am on the Big Local Arts stage, followed by Big Fat Head, both of whom put out killer records this year and promise to be the perfect hangover cure for those of us who need it; Starlit Ways, who continue to grow into their own perfect blend of influences and gorgeous vocal bend with every sharper songs, bring an uncanny beauty to the Word is Art acoustic lounge at noon; Quan Howell’s Gospel Hour rocks the Bicentennial Park stage at 1:30 pm; and Joe Peppercorn’s chamber-rock ensemble The Whiles close the Genoa Park main stage at 2:00 pm
06/10/2024
Mark Flugge’s 10th Annual Tribute Concert
Clintonville Woman’s Club, 3951 N High St
June 10: 7:30 pm
$15 at the door, $10 with student ID
I’m not alone in finding so much jazz through pianist Mark Flugge, who put on a master class - and damn entertaining at the same time - in any context he ever took on, from deep repertory dives into the work of Miles Davis, Monk, or Horace Silver, to weekly residencies at places like Dow’s on High or Hyde Park Steakhouse. He was a force of nature, gone too soon.
I love that the tradition of tribute concerts continues into their 10th year, and I’m excited about the move to the more intimate confines of the Clintonville Woman’s Club for trombonist Vaughn Wiester’s weekly residency of his Famous Jazz Orchestra. One of my favorite parts of this tradition is new arrangements of Flugge’s spellbinding compositions and that tradition persists with Lucas Holmes’ arrangement of “Truth” featuring Lisa Jelle on flute. Other guest stars include saxophonist Michael Cox on his own arrangement of “Familiarity.” Highest recommendation.
Visual Art
06/06/2024
Laura Sanders: Her Habitat
Contemporary Art Matters, 243 N 5th St
June 6 through July 12
Opening June 6, 5-7 pm
Free
When Rebecca Ibel had the space named for her in the Short North, it was consistently my favorite gallery in town. I’m overjoyed she’s back in this particular piece of the game with the new-ish downtown gallery Contemporary Art Matters. This new exhibit, Her Habitat, by painter Laura Sanders, looks like a barn burner. One of our finest writers, Maggie Smith, wrote a beautiful essay I can’t come close to. Read that, but definitely, absolutely, without question, see this work for yourself.