"Hey, Fred!" 09/25-10/02/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins | Jason Carter Band | Paisha Thomas | Gumby's Junk, Pateka, and Oft Dreamy
I'm doing a shorter round this week using what was already on my calendar because I’m heading to Memphis for Gonerfest on Thursday, but everything written up here is highly recommended and something I’m sorry to miss.
Music
09/27/2024
ProMusica Chamber Orchestra: The Seven Deadly Sins
Featuring Storm Large and Hudson Shad on vocals
Southern Theatre, 21 E Main St
September 27 and 28: 7 pm show
Tickets Starting at $18 available at the ProMusica Site
If you’re a Kurt Weill fan, this autumn is an excellent time to be in Columbus. ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, one of our treasures, officially starts their 2024-25 season with a killer double bill under the steady baton of David Danzmayr.
They pair the intriguing colors of Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 with the final collaboration of poet Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, the satirical song cycle The Seven Deadly Sins. Handling the lead vocals, made famous by the great Lotte Lenya, is Storm Large, who brings a wealth of theatrical experience —including a run as Sally Bowles in Cabaret and her own cabaret show—and touring band experience (including recently in the long-running neo-lounge act Pink Martini). In a recent article for the NY Stage Review, Elyse Gardner praised Large’s “Lustrous, rangy instrument, with a rasp worthy of Janis Joplin but also a limpid beauty that extends from her lower range to a piercing belt.” That’s rounded out by Hudson Shad, designed as heirs apparent to the Comedian Harmonists of the era when The Seven Deadly Sins premiered, and have been touring this work with Large for a while.
In March, at the benefit featuring Joshua Henry, and last year with Rhiannon Giddens, I was reminded how powerful that orchestra is with vocals and this feels like a perfect meshing of material and strengths.
Jason Carter Band
Woodlands Tavern, 1200 W 3rd Ave
September 27: 7 pm Doors
$25 Tickets Available at Woodlands Site
Jason Carter, at the very top of first-call fiddlers lists, gained widespread recognition in the toughest but also most joyful bootcamp for traditional playing applied to the height of contemporary songwriting, the Del McCoury Band, including their collaboration with Steve Earle, The Mountain, that turned me onto the McCoury band, and their offshoot the Travelin’ McCourys. In recent years, he’s been a crucial contributor to bluegrass legends of long-standing like Tony Trischka and newer jacks like Billy Strins and Molly Tuttle.
In 2022, he released a stellar solo record, Lowdown Hoedown, singing lead instead of his trademark glistening harmonies. It missed me at the time, but catching up while checking out this week’s calendar has been a pure delight. This show is unmissable if you’re interested in old-time or bluegrass traditions. If you’re even a little curious about those genres, this looks to be a perfect introduction.
09/28/2024
Paisha Thomas’s Birthday Show
McConnell Art Center, 777 Evening Street
September 28: 8 pm show
$30 Tickets available at MAC Site
I’ve always been a fan of Paisha Thomas’s voice, but in the last couple of years her songwriting’s grown into the equal of that instrument even as she’s broadened her horizons into writing books and organizing, doing all of it well. I saw her opening for the great Nashville singer-songwriter Kyshona a few months ago - one of the great voices working right now touring a wrecking ball of a record - and Thomas more than held her own. Every time I see her, she kills me. This show celebrating both her birthday and her sobriety journey should be an immensely moving spectacle.
09/30/2024
Ian’s Birthday Show: Gumby’s Junk, Pateka, Oft Dreamy
Needle Exchange Records and Tapes, 4290 Indianola Ave, Suite 201
September 30: 6 pm show
Donations accepted for touring bands
I’m on record with what a force for good I think Ian Graham is in our town, and his record store Needle Exchange is a vital component of that: not new-release-focused and also a real community connector with things like Magic: The Gathering tournaments and an increasing slate of shows with both locals who might fall through the cracks and touring acts he’s become friends with over the years who might not get booked elsewhere.
This birthday show is a prime example. His avant-pop duo Oft Dreamy, who I finally got to catch in June and blew me away, opens for two out of towners plowing the same hooks-at-an-angle terrain without sounding like one another. Pateka conjures an interesting avant-lounge feeling with some great songs. Gumby’s Junk build energetic, beautifully disjointed collages, then smash them with ecstatic glee.