Concert Review: Fishbone at Crossroads KC

I attended my first Fishbone concert at the Outhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, on November 1, 1986.  During the influential band’s free show at Crossroads KC last night, I realized that I’d changed a lot more than Fishbone in the last 30 years.  Older but not wiser, Fishbone remains gloriously raw.  Partly because I had yet to absorb Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain, I felt as if I’d been transported to a different planet at the 1986 show.  On Thursday, I couldn’t stop analyzing song structures. I recall ducking for cover as Angelo Moore swung from the wiring on the ceiling of the Outhouse.  As the front man showed off with cartwheels and roundhouse kicks last night, I evaluated the troubling new ache in my right ankle.


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I reviewed a concert by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

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I wrote an extended preview of A$AP Ferg's return to the Midland.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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Fishbone, Montgomery Gentry and KT Tunstall headlined free concerts in the Kansas City area last night.  The perpetually beleaguered owners of live music venues have it rough.

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The Kansas City garage rock band Psychic Heat released a video for ”Elixir”.

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Steve Gunn’s Eyes On the Lines is RIYL Richard Thompson, indie-rock guitar heroes, Television.  ”Ancient Jules” is pretty great.

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The Brad Mehldau Trio reminds listeners that it can play mainstream jazz with exquisite nuance on Blues and Ballads.  RIYL: the Bill Evans Trio, beauty, Ahmad Jamal Trio.  Here’s ”Little Person”.

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Peter Bjorn and John’s Breakin’ Point is RIYL Paul McCartney, unadulterated pop circa 1975, Paul Carrack.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Volbeat- Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie

The boy can’t help it.  I just can’t get enough of Volbeat’s Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie.  The Danish band’s sixth studio album gives me the same sort of cheap thrills I get from big dumb rock albums ranging from ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres and Def Leppard’s Hysteria.  It’s as unchallenging as it is gratifying.  ”The Bliss” is representative of the simple-minded fun.


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I reviewed Roy Ayers’ appearance at the Blue Room.

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I discussed the Kansas City jazz guitarist Matt Hopper on KCUR.

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I analyzed M83’s concert at the Midland.

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I reviewed the incongruous triple-bill of Barenaked Ladies, OMD and Howard Jones.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

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I put my faith in Cheptoo Kositany-Buckner of the American Jazz Museum in an essay at Plastic Sax.

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I examined the work of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis in an extended preview of the duo’s return to Kansas City.

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Dave Swarbrick has died.

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The Kansas City rock band the Philistines made a video for ”A Twitch of the Death Nerve”.

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The Kansas City duo Tidy Hippy has a video for ”French American Spanish Whatever.

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William Bell’s This Is Where I Live is a nice late-career statement by the soul veteran.  RIYL: Solomon Burke, made in the U.S.A., Charlie Rich.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: 1349 at the Riot Room

The malevolent sound of 1349 wasn’t the scariest thing at the Riot Room last Thursday.  Repugnant odors were far more horrifying than the music of the Norwegian black metal band.  Combined with the acidic smell of dry ice, the stench of dank hair that filled the air as hirsute members of the audience began headbanging to 1349’s opening selection “I Am Abomination” caused me to involuntarily retch.  The rancid funk couldn’t prevent me from grinning at the band’s face paint and the ostensibly evil hand gestures made by some of 100 or so fans and thrill-seekers who paid $15 to see the show.  It looked and sounded a lot like this.  Jackson May wrote a more respectful account of the show for Mills Record Company.


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I reviewed last night’s Winter Jam festival at the Sprint Center.

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I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine. 

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I reviewed Matt Hopper’s First Love at Plastic Sax.

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Strange but true: a band named Agoraphobic Nosebleed created my favorite song of January. "Not a Daughter" floors me.

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The self-titled album by Bloodiest is RIYL: Tool, rawk, Big Black.

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On paper, Tortoise should be one of my favorite bands.  I admire the theoretical impulse behind the music.  The reality is quite different.  Like most other Tortoise projects, The Catastrophist does little for me.  RIYL: the lack of swing, Stereolab, soullessness.

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Dave Mustaine sounds like he’s running for office on Megadeth’s Dystopia.  He doesn’t have my vote.  Here’s the title track.

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I suppose I’m obligated to have a take on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “White Privilege II”:  I prefer to atone in private.  Tying oneself up into knots in public is bound to backfire.

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Paul Westerberg and Juliana Hatfield are charming as the I Don’t Cares on the modest Wild Stab.  RIYL: The dB’s, demos, Alex Chilton.

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Adrian Younge’s Something About April II is kitschy fun.  RIYL: Isaac Hayes, blaxploitation flicks, Honey Cone.

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If Yes had been a black metal band, it would have sounded like Borknager.  Winter Thrice is RIYL: Game of Thrones, pomp, Coheed and Cambria.  The title track is glorious.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)