So long as we’re all still here, right?
1. SAY HAPPY 15TH TO KUPPAJOE
All-ages music club Kuppajoe celebrates its 15-year anniversary tonight with a hard rockin’ show featuring Phinehas and many others. Check out my feature on Kuppajoe’s anniversary. [More]
A club in the sky, live music, beer glasses with mustaches and a rap dude a hookah lounge. Let the fliers below be your guide. For more, head to Post No Bills.
Alt-rock/Christian band Project 86 visits Fulton 55 tonight, fresh off the release of “Wait for the Siren,” its latest album. It’s been a while since we’ve seen them in Fresno, and this time, the SoCal-bred rockers are playing with San Jose rockers I Am Empire and Fresno band Session. Get your tickets here. Or, if you’re the first person to leave a comment saying you want to go, we’ll get you a pair of tickets from promoter Love the Captive. You’re welcome. Just be sure to leave a valid e-mail address so we can contact you. An since this tonight, be close to your e-mail.
Tonight two local band and two bands from Fresno’s cool, older, more-put-together cousin Portland combine at Audie’s Olympic. Portland bands Animal Eyes and Fanno Creek come to town, while Achievement House and Fast Car help them out. It’s going to range from wordly and chill (Animal Eyes) to raucous and punk (Fast Car). Get tickets at LoveTheCaptive.com or at the door.
Singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons and his epic beard make a tour stop tonight at Fresno’s Starline.
Fitzsimmons plays gentle folk music with a little electronica on the edges now and then. You might recall that he played in Fresno previously at Frank’s Place.
Tickets cost $15 and you can get them in advance from Love the Captive. It’s an all-ages show, which means Starline won’t be serving booze. But you can pop next door to Starline Grill and grab one if you’re old enough to imbibe.
A big shout-out on the illustrated flier. Diggin’ it very much. I hear it’s the work of Jordan Wiebe and Neighbor Collective, which also did one for the upcoming Black Milk show. Bravo!
Local concert promoter Johnny Q seemed like a natural fit for 7Qs. If only for the Q in his name. So we met up at P*DE*Q to talk about local music — his Love the Captive crew has a big weekend ahead — eats and more. We’re joined by Baby Oz, who also has a lot to say.
Lots to do this weekend. It’s hard to pick just five. A shout out is also due to local bands Poor Man’s Poison and Motel Drive for becoming the first local bands to sell out Hanford Fox Theatre for their Saturday night show.
1. LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER
It’s Mardi Gras time! Sunday is the Tower District is Fresno’s annual parade. The rest of the afternoon should be filled with happenings in Fresno’s most happenin’ part of town. You can catch tunes at Audie’s Olympic (Dusty Buns will be out there too!) or party it up at Starline later in the night.
SF psychedelic rockers Howlin’ Rain arrive in Fresno on Sunday with a bunch of momentum — the band just released its new album, “The Russian Wilds” on Valentine’s Day. It was produced by the uber-famous Rick Rubin.
Sunday’s show is also cool because it includes local bands Strange Vine and Fay Wrays, plus it’s a good way to cap off the Tower District’s annual Mardi Gras parade.
You can buy tickets at lovethecaptive.com — $8 in advance, or $10 at the door — or you can win a pair from your Beehive buds.
Leave a comment below telling us your favorite artist Rick Rubin has worked with and you’re entered to win. Deadline is 2 p.m. Friday. We’ll draw a winner at random and notify them via e-mail — so please leave a valid e-mail address and please check it. Complete rules (and some Howlin’ Rain goodies) below.
It’s one of those out-of-the-ordinary Monday nights where the live music scene is hopping. The choices for tonight: An indie rock vet or an up-and-coming pop/rock singer.
FRUIT BATS: This Sub Pop Records group — fronted by Eric Johnson, formerly of The Shines — hits Audie’s Olympic with The Parson Red Heads. Doors at 8 p.m. Cover: $10. Worth a note: It’s a Love the Captive production, one of the first touring shows from LTC in a while. Head honcho Johnny Q was working at Fulton 55 for a while, but is now back on his own.
JERAD FINCK: Speaking of Fulton 55: Pop/rock singer Jerad Finck makes a stop there tonight. He’s an on-the-rise guy whose music fits nicely on Y101 and on TV shows. But he’s also pretty committed to being an DIY musician. Check out his best-known song: “Runaway” for an example. Doors: 9 p.m. Cover: $8. Abigail Nolte opens.
While you’re figuring out that last-minute Halloween costume.
1. LIVE LIKE A NEANDERTHAL
Neanderthals — one of Fresno’s favorite party bands in the late ’80s — has a reunion gig Saturday night at Fulton 55. If it’s anyting like that Wild Blue Yonder reunion, you can expect a big ol’ crowd. [Tickets]
There’s no doubt that Fresno concert promoter Love the Captive had its most ambitious year to date in 2010. It booked shows at Starline and Audie’s Olympic, had its own venue called The Captive for a short time and was the chief promoter behind the resurrection of Frank’s Place this summer.
Acts such as Mayer Hawthorne, A Place to Bury Strangers, Avi Buffalo, Dan Black, Designer Drugs, Admiral Radley and many others came to Fresno in 2010 because of Love the Captive. And LTC also organized a big local benefit concert for Haiti.
Well, not everything penciled out for Love the Captive, so it has put together a benefit dinner for Dec. 27 at Veni Vidi Vici. VVV’s head chef Tony Briceno is preparing a four-course meal that starts with appetizers at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $32 and are available in advance via Ticketfly.
Writes LTC’s head honcho Johnny Quiroz:
In the 6 years of our existence, we’ve worked with some great bands and met some amazing people. Unfortunately 2010 had its share of hardships and trials, thankfully we made it through the year alive. It has always been a pleasure helping bands chase their dreams, to me that’s what LTC is all about. And, for the first time in six years, LTC is crying out for help. This dinner is designed to help us pay off a few LTC bills that are over our head.
Money raised, he says, will help Love the Captive recover from 2010 and plan for 2011.
NEWS: Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown star in, “The Battle for Fresno.” [The Bee]
LONG READ: Here’s the transcript from their debate. Bring you own claws. [The Bee]
NEWS: The big city has an eye on all our medical marijuana woes. [L.A. Times]
HE’S NOT FUNNY ANYWAY: George Lopez flakes on celeb golf tourney [News Blog]
BLOGGINGS: All other Wednesday night events should fear Pub Quiz. [estewartartist]
WELCOME: HiS Magazine finally gets on the Internet. [HiS Magazine]
BLOGGINGS: The 100 Days of Yoga blog hits day No. 100. Woot! [100 Days of Yoga]
BUY LOCAL: Urban Salvage, a new downtown store, has lots of cool stuff. [The Bee]
GO TO THIS: Hipsters take over Storyland this weekend. [Love the Captive]
BLOGGINGS: Weird Fresno visits Fright Night Scream Park [Weird Fresno]
FREE SH*T: Win tickets to a screening of “My Soul to Take” [Dumb Drum]
[photo: Craig Kohlruss / The Bee]
UPDATE: Congrats to our winner — Jason Encinia. Thanks to everybody else for playing.
ORIGINAL POST: Fresno is in for a treat on Saturday night when Mayer Hawthorne comes to town for a gig at Frank’s Place.
For the uninitiated: Hawthorne is a white guy from Michigan who makes soul music like it’s still the Motown era.
Sure, after Amy Winehouse, it’s a tad gimmicky, but there’s no arguing with his great debut album, “A Strange Arrangement,” which was one of my person faves of 2009.
To make this whole thing even sweeter — one lucky Beehive reader will get in FREE. Yep, a sweet night of soul music and no cash out of your pocket. You can double thank promoter Love the Captive, who is bringing Hawthorne to town and giving up the free tix.
Of course you want to enter, so just leave a comment below and tell us your favorite soul song of all time. Easy enough, right? Deadline to enter is 4 p.m. Friday. We’ll pick one winner at random and notify that person be e-mail, so leave a real one and check it. No repeat comments please. You’re ineligible if you’ve won something in the past 30 days.
Complete rules — and one of my favorite Hawthorne jams — are on the jump.
UPDATE: Our winner is Cyndi. Congrats! Thanks for playing everyone.
ORIGINAL POST: Wednesday night, Frank’s Place hosts folk singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons. It’s not going to one of those nights of indie music where the sweaty kids are dancing and jumping around.
No, it’ll be a little more mellow. Fitzsimmons is one of those performers who demands your attention — maybe it’s because of his jumps-right-at-you beard, or his hauntingly evocative songs.
Tickets to see him cost $15 … or, you can win a pair here courtesy of show promoter Love the Captive. Just comment below to enter yourself into our random drawing.
Deadline to enter is 10 a.m. Wednesday. Winners will be notified by e-mail, so leave a real one and check it. No repeat comments. You’re ineligible if you’ve won something in the past 30 days. Rules are on the jump.
Looking to up your hipster cred? The cool show to be at tonight is the Memoryhouse and Baths performance at Frank’s Place.
Memoryhouse has had a busy summer, sharing stages around the globe with a few people you might have heard of — Grizzly Bear, The Arcade Fire and some dude named Jay-Z.
Memoryhouse is a Canadian duo that plays a pretty mellow and warm mix of indie and electronica. Pitchfork has an interview with the band, who it pegged as a “Rising” talent.
Also on the bill is Baths, which is a little more in the electronica realm. Maybe we can call Baths “digital pop,” or something like that.
Show is at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $8. Hit up Love the Captive for more info.
How cool is Avi Buffalo? Cool enough to be playing upcoming concerts with My Morning Jacket, Wilco and Sonic Youth. Cool enough to get signed by uber-cool indie label Sub Pop Records.
Not bad for a band fronted by a just-out-of-high-school kid from Long Beach.
Avi Buffalo (named for frontman/kid Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg) makes its Fresno debut tonight, playing at Frank’s Place with the ever-buzzed about local band Fierce Creatures starting things off. (Avi Buffalo played Visalia last year, you might recall).
And yes, it’s at Frank’s Place but don’t worry, it’s not those promoters. This is a Love the Captive show and they take good care of Fresno.
Also, because it must be said — awesome flier!
Another rad show is happening tonight at Frank’s Place, courtesy of your music-pushing friends at Love the Captive.
San Diego-by-way-of Germany singer Maren Parusel and her band headline. Check out “Dear Love,” on her MySpace page. I’m digging it bunches.
Also on the bill is Arizona indie/folk group The Wild Complete. If you wanna give them a listen, Spin Magazine has a stream of their entire debut EP. They sorta remind me of El Olio Wolof, for you local folks who dig them.
If you can’t make it tonight, know there are some more interesting LTC x Frank’s Place gigs coming up, including Ana Tijoux
(Sunday), Avi Buffalo (7/21) and Memoryhouse/Baths (7/28).
ELSEWHERE
There are fliers below for some other stuff happening tonight, including an appearance by 2 a.m. Orchestra at Audie’s Olympic. I’ll have more on that show in a bit.
Well, it looks like Neighborhood Thrift Store in the Tower District has cemented its place as the hippest thrift store in town. In addition to its mural (yep, it’s still there), word is that the store’s newly opened cafe will serve as an all-ages music venue.
It fits about 150 people and shows will probably be weekly through the summer, says Joey Lynch, who has been working with Neighborhood Thrift to get live music happening. Lynch plays in local band Buffalo Guns and is part of local promoters Love the Captive.
Love the Captive and fellow show bookers Religious Appeal will be cycling the music through Neighborhood Cafe. Per Lynch, you can expect an assortment of indie rock, folk, acoustic and rock on the calendar.
The first show is Friday, with a couple of touring bands headlining — My Heart To Joy (from Connecticut) and Satie (from Tijuana). They’ll be joined by locals Mane Horse and Buffalo Guns. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Cover is $6. To get an idea of what the space looks like, check out the slideshow on Neighborhood Thrift’s site.
I told you a couple weeks back about the end of “Indie Tuesdays” at Starline. Tonight is the first Tuesday in the new era, under the thumb of promoter Art Silva rather than Love the Captive.
In general, Silva’s offerings are often of the harder rock variety compared to Love the Captive’s indie rock. So we’ll see how his Tuesdays progress. Though tonight’s show — which is local-heavy — is pretty diverse.
Rock bands From the Fallen and Die on the Vine are on the bill, as is acoustic act Melina May and a few others. As usual, it’s an all-ages show, with a bar for the 21+.
If you’re into planning, here’s the flier for next Tuesday’s Starline show, which is headlined by Say Swear.
On many a Tuesday night, you’d see me here writing that Starline was the place to be for local music lovers. Over the past five or six years (I’m estimating here), Tuesdays at Starline had been become “Indie Tuesday.” That was something of an honorary title. It wasn’t something you saw on fliers. But it was one that was earned by consistency.
Vince Corsaro, the drummer from Sleepover Disaster, used to book the Tuesday nights, putting together a healthy mix of local bands and regional independent or on-the-rise bands. A few years back, the night was handed over to local promoters Love the Captive, who further established “Indie Tuesday.” From time to time, another promoter — like Numbskull or Tim Gardea — would even bring in a bigger name touring band.
Point is: Tuesday nights at Starline had become a pretty regular meeting place for hipster music fans, local band lovers and those seeking out new and interesting bands.
It’s a big weekend, Fresnans. Lots to do. Here’s some of the best stuff. Be sure to check out today’s Post No Bills in a few hours for a more complete look at weekend happenings. Hopefully you get out there and have some fun.
1. FIND HIPSTER HEAVEN AT FRANK’S PLACE
There’s a lot of hype about this weekend’s shows at Frank’s Place, the music club next to Warnors Theatre (and below Star Palace). This weekend is pretty much its coming out party.
Promoters Love the Captive will have a strong hold over that place in the coming months, and their first batch of shows is this weekend — with indie rock band Radar Bros. tonight and a big Saturday show with electro-rock band Head Like a Kite and girl pop group Smoosh. The shows are open to all ages.
For more on the venue, read this post over at Love The Captive’s site. Also, check out my story from today’s Bee on why all this matters.
So NoTown Roller Derby’s weekend battle against Modesto and Bakersfield didn’t go exactly as we hoped. NoTown lost both bouts, though the main event against Derby Revolution of Bakersfield came down to the final seconds.
NoTown was down 121-119 with nine second lefts on the clock and speedy skater Betty Rocker coming up to jam. Things looked promising. Then, without explanation, it was announced the game was over, no final jam, and that Bako had won. I’m not super keen on all the derby rules, so I still don’t what happened. Any NoTown folks care to explain?
I will say it was the best roller derby bout I’ve seen — close the whole way through with both teams playing (and hitting) hard. NoTown jammer Hari Kari, in particular, deserves some props. She was getting walloped all night long, but she kept getting up every time.
One last thing: We were sitting next to a big group of loud, rude Bakersfield fans. And let’s just say they lived up to some of the stereotypes about their city. Until next time, Bako …
ELSEWHERE THIS WEEKEND
Another much-buzzed about weekend happening was the A Place to Bury Strangers show at Audie’s Olympic. All the chatter indicates it lived up to expectations. If you want a taste, there’s a really nice video from Joymode on the Love the Captive site, and The Fresnan has some really nice pics that were taken by Kara Lee.
YOUR TURN
Do anything fun this weekend? Tell us about it in the comments.
Fresno, you’re getting another shot at Mayer Hawthorne. Or Mayer is getting another shot at us — however you’d like to look at it. Hawthorne, the retro soul singer hip in tuned-in music circles, was supposed to play Fresno last September. The show was nearly sold out, then he canceled because of strep throat, on the day of the show.
Word comes today that he’s coming to make it up for us — playing Aug. 21 at Frank’s Place. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $15 at the door. They’ll go on sale next week at lovethecaptive.com.
MORE SHOWS: Check out my most recent Concert Watch for news on shows for Straight No Chaser, Bruno Mars, E-40, 4 Troops, Faster Pussycat and more.
British electro/pop singer Dan Black touches down in Fresno tonight for a show at Starline. Black is another catch-him-while-you-can type artist playing a Fresno club show.
Yesterday, Black performed at Bay Area radio station Live 105′s annual BFD concert, which is a strong endorsement of his rising-star status.
He’s also playing Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits festivals later this year. He’s also going on tour this summer with Robyn and Kelis.
So props go to Love the Captive for scoring a Fresno date with Black. Doors open at 9 p.m. tonight. Robopop and Picture Atlantic open. Tickets cost $15 at the door, or $10 in advance.
To get you warmed up, here’s Black’s best known song, “Symphonies,” which features a guest spot from Kid Cudi.
TONIGHT
Check out rockers Buffalo Guns at Veni Vidi Vici tonight. It’s free and organized by your pals at Love the Captive.
IN THE WEEK AHEAD
All that and more, in the fliers below …
