"Hey, Fred!" 07/31-08/06/2024
Goings on in Columbus, OH: Clickbait and Disintegration | Scott Miller | Eve Essex | Ohio Players and Midnight Star | Greg McGill's 50th Birthday Show
Music
07/31/2024
Clickbait with Disintegration, Son of Dribble, and Nothin’
Cafe Bourbon Street, 2216 Summit St
July 31: 7 pm Doors
$10 at the door
The desert-dry rhythm section of Chicago band Clickbait - bassist Jen Lemasters and drummer Nick Mayor - shaded in mutant disco and ‘70s Manchester and even a little krautrock - is one of those things that evokes a Pavlovian response in me. I started moving in my chair even revisiting it to write this paragraph. Perfect snapping guitar from Kelsey Henke and Sandra Yau are the other crucial piece of this puzzle. In town supporting their terrific new record At Your Leisure, recorded and mixed by Caulfield Schnug from Sweeping Promises who I feel confident suggesting if you like that, you’ll like this.
I’ve been hearing a lot about Cleveland’s Disintegration, a power trio featuring Haley Himiko (Pleasure Leftists), Noah Anthony (Profligate), and Christopher Brown (Cloud Nothings), that also plays with post-punk textures but layers in the edgier bits of synthpop. Reminds me of Soft Cell’s The Art of Falling Apart, the noisy first Human League, and Clock DVA’s synthetic film noir, without aping any of those things. Two EPs out that have me excited both for the first full length and to see them live.
Perfect local openers here - Son of Dribble, who twist oblique lyrics into undeniable hooks over pounding grooves, and the slashing, rust-dappled rock of Nothin’.
08/01/2024
Scott Miller
Natalie’s Grandview, 945 King Ave
August 1: 8:30 pm show
$25 Tickets available at Natalie’s
One of the great - if sometimes wearing the crown uneasily - godfathers of contemporary Americana, I came to Scott Miller through his late ‘90s/early ‘00s band The V-Roys when they were signed to Steve Earle/Jack Emerson’s label E-Squared Records. Adding to that fin de siecle ambiance, I saw their name in a Steve Earle interview (I think in No Depression magazine) and bought both records available from Miles of Music (RIP curated online record stores). Huge fan immediately and got to see them once before they broke up - then saw both offshoot bands, Mic Harrison and the High Score, and Scott Miller and the Commonwealth, as often as they trekked up here from Knoxville (“up here” includes seeing them in Chicago, Cincinnati, St Louis).
Scott Miller’s first record with the Commonwealth - harder rocking than what was usually on Sugar Hill Records - Thus Always to Tyrants after his home state’s motto is still a high watermark for that kind of jangly roots-rock for me, and he matched that bar while adding new textures again and again. Also one of the great communicators on stage - whether solo or with a band. I just saw him in March at Pittsburgh’s Club Cafe, playing alongside his old friend and fellow statesman of alt.country (whatever that is), Robbie Fulks, in March, and there’s a damn good chance I’ll be at the Natalie’s bar for a second 2024 dose.
A little playlist of some personal favorites: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/76353570-f4ec-45ca-bdee-fec45e7923ba
08/02/2024
The Ohio Players with Midnight Star
Ohio State Fair, 717 E 17th St
August 2: 7:30 pm show
Tickets starting at $23 at Ticketmaster
Two towering Ohio funk/R&B legends on a summer night feels like exactly the kind of show the State Fair was made for. Dayton’s Ohio Players roll in roughly 50 years after their first Top 10 hit with a catalog of sweaty, surprising hits full of twists and turns, still gripping no matter how well you know them.
Midnight Star formed in Kentucky, but I think of them as orbiting the Cincinnati funk/post-disco scene of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. I saw them in the early days of Kemba Live - still called Promowest Pavilion - and not only did classic jams like “Freak-a-zoid,” “No Parking on the Dance Floor,” and “Midas Touch” get the packed lawn on their feet, but ballads I didn’t even know (many I should have, especially “Slow Jam”) had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. They handily took a show that included other heavyweights, Slave, Dazz Band, and the Bar-Kays. Unmissable.
Eve Essex with Jacoti Sommes and Dang Olsen
No Place Gallery, 1 E Gay St
August 2: 8 pm doors
$10 at the door
Brooklyn-based perfomer-composer Eve Essex comes through town in the wake of her second record this year, the majestic and beguiling The Fabulous Truth. Alternating between vocal-featuring songs that, if I can steal the reference, “tell the truth, but tell it slant,” and undulating soundscape compositions, with featured artists taken from across the experimental music spectrum - from Baltimore guitarist jenghis to Luke Moldoff from Violence Jazz to downtown New York trombone legend Peter Zummo. Someone picking up the Arthur Russell gauntlet - at least hitting that sweet spot for me - and building sound worlds that encompass the same kind of beautiful hungry curiosity, but made for today and a little bit of tomorrow (hat tip to John Logan).
The locals on the bill are also top-notch. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen synth wizard Jacoti Sommes. I’ve been a fan since he helped hold down the classic lineup of cartoon rock provocateurs Hugs and Kisses and an even bigger fan once I got hip to his solo work. Dang Olsen, I only knew as a visual artist, but I’m digging the ambient textures of their “Dream Tape,” Zonk, as I listened to it researching this.
Fifty Year Old Man…And I Like It
Featuring The Exhausted, Feral Housecats, and Bed Wet Pills
MadLab, 227 N 3rd St
August 2: 7 pm Doors
$5-10 suggested donation at the door
I first knew Greg McGill as an actor and jack-of-all-trades around Columbus’s MadLab Theatre. He was also one of the very first people to say nice things about my theatre criticism when I started writing for Columbus Underground—and it wasn’t even for praise of something he was in. That was at least a decade ago, so never let anyone tell you kindnesses are forgotten.
His 50th brings rock and roll back to the MadLab space - I love that they’ve gotten so much demand for their primary purpose of hosting theater troupes that there’s no room for it, but I miss the era when I saw great shows there, including nmperign, Yat-Kha, Jim White, and Acid Mothers Temple - with three of his own bands. It’s not Marc Ribot playing with six acts for his 70th, but it’s goddam impressive nonetheless.
Feral Housecats fuses a sly wit and taste for rock history to chunky post-punk rhythms and no shortage of the Johnny Thunders/Chuck Berry riff axis. Every time I see them, they impress me more. The only time I’ve caught The Exhausted (in which McGill plays guitar but doesn’t sing), they were fun, churning class-of-77 punk which I always enjoy. And leading the charge is (I think) the first band I ever saw McGill in for a Fall Tribute show: Bed Wet Pills. A great time to support a great presence on the cultural scene here in town.