"Hey, Fred!" 07/03-07/09/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: 12th Year of Columbus Black Theatre Festival | BLU and Bru Lei | Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters | Kendra Morris | L'Eclair
Theater
07/05/2024
Columbus Black Theatre Festival 12: Calm Within the Storm
Van Fleet Theatre in CPAC, 549 Franklin St
July 5 through 7 pm Friday, 3 pm and 7 pm Saturday, 4 pm Sunday
$12 Tickets available at https://mine4godproductions.com/cbtf-theatre-festival
I talked with the Artistic Director of the Columbus Black Theatre Festival, Julie Whitney-Scott, for a feature in Columbus Underground, so I’ll let that do most of the talking. But I will say, as a townie—someone who grew up here before kindergarten and whose great-grandmother came here from Sicily in 1909—what I love about Columbus, what embodies the promise of this town? Julie Whitney-Scott is one of the few faces/names that immediately come to mind.
I touched on it a little in the interview, but in addition to everything else she’s done - actor, poet, playwright, director, not to downplay her many years as a counselor - she has really cultivated a legacy of giving people their first shot, who go on to great, great things. The CBTF is important in many ways, I’m sure some I’m not even cognizant of, but it’s also one of the best showcases for actors and directors you haven’t seen yet - but we’ll be talking about for a while.
Music
07/06/2024
Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters
Natalie’s Grandview, 945 King Ave
July 6: 9:00 pm
$30 Tickets Available At https://nataliesgrandview.com/events/amanda-anne-platt-the-honeycutters-2/
Asheville-based band Amanda Anne Platt and the Honeycutters hit a particular sweet spot for me; Platt’s nuanced lyrics have an attention to detail and a deep care for people, in general, and in specific, with enough bite to keep them interesting, and the band plays with a gritty care for those songs; building up settings for the songs without overpowering them, but also without being too precious. I got turned onto this band by my pal Claire Badger, and I’ve written about them in the past - they made my Best Songs of 2022 list with “Eurydice,” but it was extremely hard to pick just one tune off their staggering The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea record.
2x2 Fest and Grant Gatsby Present
Every Body Else’s Entertainment 20th Anniversary with
Blu, Bru Lei, Nova & pRODUCT, Jeremiah X, Reese Dude
Classic’s Victory’s, 547 S High St
July 6: 8:00 pm doors
$20 Tickets available at https://allevents.in/columbus/blu-west-by-midwest-tour/80002712814462
Classic’s Victory’s—at the edge of downtown and the brewery district—has built up as a dance and live music venue to be reckoned with over the last few years, and this show is a prime example. 2x2 Crew, who brought Columbus a vital hip-hop festival for years and now book all over, and impresario/standup comedian/radio host Grant Gatsby team up to bring underground LA legend Blu to the top of this stacked bill.
Blu’s crisp, warm, and subtle flow sprawls over an extensive discography, including collaborative albums with Exile, Oh No, Madlib, and more, plus a plethora of albums under his own name that aren’t tied to a single producer. Look for this to be a masterclass in the various flavors of West Coast hip-hop.
The undercard here is also choice. Bru Lei, a Columbus expat who goes back to the Spitball days, is lined up to perform all of his 2009 classic DJ PRZM collaborative EP Shroom Crumbs. Nova - who put out an acclaimed EP He Exists earlier this year, check the preview article from Matter News. Reese Dude put out a terrific, introspective record Bucknell Rd, earlier this year. Couldn’t find as much about Jeremiah X - no Soundcloud or Bandcamp I could find - but if the rest of the lineup is any indication, he’s worth getting there early to check out. Local producer/DJ Mayh3m! provides sounds between sets.
07/07/2024
Kendra Morris
Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St
July 7: 6 pm show
$16 Tickets available here: https://www.columbusrumbacafe.com/event/?event_id=13495034
I got hipped to Kendra Morris through her work with one of my favorite rootsy New York singer-songwriters, Julia Haltigan, and was hooked the minute I heard Morris’s own songs. I’ve stayed a fan since, from her couple of records on the Wax Poetics label to her more recent work on Colemine-subsidiary Karma Chief. Her newest album, last year’s I Am What I’m Waiting For, co-written and produced by Little Shalimar, is probably her best, most fully realized record.
L’Eclair
Natalie’s Grandview, 945 King Ave
July 7: 7 pm show
$16 Tickets available here: https://nataliesgrandview.com/events/leclair/
Geneva, Switzerland’s L’Eclair makes floating, atmospheric grooves that nod to the ‘70s - their press notes call out David Axelrod, Can, Air, and William Onyeabor, and I can hear all of that in the two records I think first released in the states last year - Cruise Control and Polymood. Should be a beautiful way to ease out of the holiday weekend.
Brooklyn-based Girl Named Golden opens, and the work of hers I’ve checked out seems to draw on a shared era with L’Eclair, similar taste in atmospherics and textures with a little more of a singer-songwriter/post-VU pop sensibility.