This didn’t make today’s GO! Magazine because the venue was up in the air for a while, but it looks like it has solidified: Tonight, a bill of punk and metal bands — three from the Bay Area, and two bearing classic-cinema-referencing nerd-pride names — will play The Warehouse at 1330 N.E. First St., in Bend. (That’s Necktie Killer headquarters, if you know it that way.)
Jedi Scum is a throat-shredding doom metal band with “Star Wars”-themed song titles such as “I Used to Bullseye Womp Rats in My T-16 Back Home.” Venkman is named after Bill Murray’s character in “Ghostbusters” and is heavy, too, in a more hardcore/thrash sort of way. The Connies are a garage/punk band from the Bay Area; their name doesn’t seem to be a movie reference, but they have a great logo. And Gotama is a (relatively new, I think?) local stoner metal band.
Cost / time details are below. Organizers will be collecting nonperishable food and clothing donations for The Loft, a transitional living program for teens in Bend.
– Seattle-based hard-funk ‘n’ soul band The Staxx Brothers returns to town Saturday night for a show at Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom. My colleague David Jasper spoke with frontman Davin Michael Stedman about the band’s in-progress music video, which revolves around a guitar made in Bend.
Elsewhere in the music section: Keb’ Mo’ will play to a sold-out Sisters High School auditorium as part of the Starry Nights series, Couches brings classic indie rock to The Horned Hand, The Quiet American will do a ukulele concert and workshop at Kelly D’s. Plus, the lineup for the 2013 Deschutes County Fair!
Tickets will be free and available all over Central Oregon, but you must pay admission to the fair to go to the show. Find more info at www.expo.deschutes.org, and of course we’ll have more in GO! Magazine as the fair gets closer.
At noon today, I drove by the Midtown Ballroom in Bend and noticed one kid sitting in a lawn chair by the door, presumably waiting to get into tonight’s Tyler, the Creator show.
Doors to the show open at 8 p.m.
At 2:30, I drove back by and the kid was still the only person there. So I pulled over and chatted with him.
His name is Grady MacMillan. He’s 14 years old and a student at Cascade Middle School in Bend. In part because he missed a previous Tyler show thanks to an appendectomy, his parents, Terry and Courtney, let him skip school today to get in line for the show, which he did at 10:30 a.m.
From left, Hobbs Magaret and Mark Ransom perform at Church of Neil last year at Pakit Liquidators.
Organizers of the Bend Roots Revival, a popular three-day celebration of local music and art, are planning to stage the 2013 version of the festival at Pakit Liquidators, a construction material resale shop at the corner of Southeast Ninth Street and Southeast Armour Boulevard in Bend.
Earlier this week, Roots founder Mark Ransom and his partner, Jesse Roberts of the humanitarian nonprofit Rise Up International, said they had not yet applied for the necessary permits to hold the event at Pakit, but that Matt Korish, who owns the place, is on board with hosting Roots.
Ransom said Pakit — known for its massive and labyrinthian piles of, um … stuff — has an atmosphere that fits nicely with the spirit of the Revival. That became clear during last year’s Church of Neil concert, an annual, underground celebration of the music of Neil Young.
“We did Church of Neil there last year and everybody realized what an amazing space it was,” he said. “Matt had already been thinking about renovating the space, clearing it out and being able … to make use of the buildings.”
Roberts attended Church of Neil, too, and said the same thing.
“It had this very artful vibe, almost like a barn party kind of thing. Half of it was kind of cleared out, there were bonfires going outside,” he said. “And we were like, ‘Man, imagine this. This kinda has the spirit of Roots.’”
Here’s your weekly roundup of what’s in today’s section!
Eilen Jewell is an Idahoan, a former Bostonian, a spitfire and an ultra-cool roots-rocker. (She is not, however, an Eileen.) Jewell returns to Sisters Wednesday, and my colleague David Jasper caught up with her and talked about what folks can expect at The Belfry.
“Our live show is a mix of songs from various albums. I don’t tend to stick to just one album, it’s not just the latest one,” she said. “There’s usually some from every one that we’ve released so far, including side projects like the Sacred Shakers. Usually we’ll throw in a Loretta Lynn song (or two). And Jerry Miller, the lead guitarist in my band, has a solo project out, and we’ll do one or two from his brand new record.
“We give every show our all,” Jewell said. “We’re real excited to get back out West.”
Aesop Rock performs last weekend in Bend. Photo by Joe Kline / The Bulletin.
In Feedback, I reviewed last weekend’s Aesop Rock show at the Domino Room in Bend. It was good, but Aes spent a lot of time sharing the spotlight with his buddies. I would’ve liked a little more of the headliner doing his own solo stuff.
He delivered, eventually, ripping through “Skelethon” singles “ZZZ Top,” “Cycles To Gehenna” (with its wonderful third act set to stark, somber piano) and “Zero Dark Thirty.” The latter’s roller-coaster melody and skittish beat stood out among the bass-drenched rumbles that overwhelmed other songs’ subtleties.
In the end, Aes gave the people what they want, doing fan-fave oldies “Nightlight” and “Daylight” and then reaching way back for “No Regrets” from his classic 2001 album “Labor Days.”
It all sounded good. The performers performed well. I enjoyed myself, truly. And the medium-sized crowd seemed to do the same.
I just walked out of the Domino Room feeling like I’d bought a ticket to an Aesop Rock show but ended up seeing a stop on the Aesop Rock & Friends Present The Traveling Rhymesayers Revue Tour.
Elsewhere in the music section: Week of Wonders headlines a garage-y bill at The Horned Hand, The Black Lillies come to McMenamins, the Central Oregon Songwriters Association holds its annual Song of the Year awards show, The Northstar Session returns to The Sound Garden, Tracy Grammer plays The Belfry in Sisters and Danny Barnes will fill McMenamins with his banjotronics sound, plus a couple of good, local Cinco de Mayo options (Chiringa and Moon Mountain Ramblers) and a benefit concert featuring three local faves (Tony Smiley, MoWo and Keez).
Newsy night on the local music scene last night. Since I have to get tomorrow’s GO! Magazine out the door, here’s a quick recap:
– The Bend City Council took the first step toward approving changes to its noise ordinance. Those changes are designed to clean up and clarify language that a judge deemed too vague late last year as he dismissed a noise-code violation citation against the Colorado Avenue music venue The Horned Hand, which was issued last August.
– Before approving those changes, though, the council made two additional changes to the law, both of which seem to favor event promoters and venue owners: Police are now required to use decibel meters before issuing a citation to a business that has received a noise complaint, and the fine for a first offense is now $250, down from a maximum of $750.
– Before the votes, The Horned Hand’s owner, Wesley Ladd, announced that he is closing the venue “within two months.” Initially, he mentioned the “strife” caused by the noise code and other issues as a reason, but after the meeting, he clarified to The Source Weekly, saying something I’ve been hearing him talk about for a while now:
At one point on Wednesday night, Ladd told the council he was closing The Horned Hand in part because of “strife” related to issues like the noise ordinance, but clarified later that the city, particularly the police department, has been very easy to work with and that the closure was more related to the difficulty of operating a music venue with a young family.
Over the past several months, Ladd (among others) has been working to open Nectar of the Gods Meadery. Coincidentally, the council also approved a liquor license for the company’s facility on Second Street in Bend Wednesday night, shortly before discussing the noise ordinance.
This morning, Bend’s community radio station, KPOV, debuted The Point, a new daily program covering local news, arts/entertainment, recreation, politics and more. The 30-minute show airs at 9 a.m. every morning, and you can read more about it in this mid-April column by my colleague Lily Raff.
I’m bringing it up because yours truly will be providing The Point’s weekly segment on the live-music scene in Central Oregon, which we’re calling Radio Frequency. Every Thursday, shortly after 9 a.m., I’ll join the show’s hosts to talk about what’s happening locally, music-wise, over the coming week, and where you can read lots more about it all: GO! Magazine in The Bulletin, of course.
So tune in tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and hear me try to figure out what I’m doing on the fly. KPOV is at 88.9 FM on your radio dial, and also streaming at the station’s website.
Indie-hip-hop kingpin Aesop Rock played the Domino Room in Bend Saturday night, and I’ll have a full review of the concert in Friday’s GO! Magazine.
In the meantime, please enjoy these moving pictures that I shot with my easily-overwhelmed-by-bass Flip camera. Two feature songs from dude’s newest record “Skelethon” and one is a rework of an old track from 2001′s classic “Labor Days” album.
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