TheState.com: Music

Nightclubs, May 16-22

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:49 EDT

Friday, May 16

BILL’S MUSIC SHOP AND PICKIN’ PARLOR: 7:30 p.m. open stage and bluegrass jam session. 710 Meeting St., West Columbia; (803) 796-6477

BUFFALO CREEK GRILL: Flip Flops. 850 Marina Way, Prosperity, Lake Murray; (803) 364-9233

DANO’S: The Bandits. U.S. 378. (803) 348-6376

LIBERTY TAPROOM AND GRILL: 10 p.m.-2 a.m. DJ Perry. At Lincoln, Gervais streets; (803) 461-0063

Contemporaries ready to roar again

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:58 EDT

Youth, fashion and art rarely converge more harmoniously than at the Contemporaries of the Columbia Museum of Art Black and White Ball.

The event, in its third year, has become an evening of significance for young, hip art lovers, much like what fall Saturdays are for college football fans. (Well, fans of some teams anyway.)

This year’s ball will invoke the spirit of the 1920s, a decade marked by Model A Fords, Black Tuesday and the Great Depression, Prohibition and gangsters.

American culture was being stretched by skyscrapers; Gershwin, Ellington and big-band jazz; and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance.

The style of high fashion: flapper dresses, high-waisted suits with lapels, hats and, if you revel in old gangster movies, Tommy guns.

Otis Taylor: Jazz as a language; harmony that’s sunny side up

Fri, 16 May 2008 10:51 EDT

EXCHANGE RATE:

The Chicago Luzern Exchange, a four-piece free improv jazz band, presents its polyharmonic power through unfiltered tones.

“We’re not afraid to be jazz musicians. We’re not afraid to be free improvisation musicians. It’s truly sound for sound’s sake,” said Josh Berman, the band’s cornetist. “It’s not dogmatic in any way to any rule.”

Berman, along with saxophonist Keefe Jackson, drummer Frank Rosaly and tuba player Marc Unternahrer, make up the band, whose aesthetic has been called conversational. Berman agrees with the characterization, but “we don’t mean to make it so literal.”

“The idea is improvisational exchange,” he continued. “You can call that conversational.”

Crawfish festival was a tasty treat

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:16 EDT

REVIEW: Could the weather have been any more perfect at the Rosewood Crawfish Festival?

I had the thought while sitting on Rosewood Baptist Church’s lawn working on my farmer’s tan and listening to Sunshone Still. I didn’t wish for a chair, as so many festivalgoers had.

The question of the day: Have you ever eaten crawfish? It was the festival’s third year but my first experience, and I can now answer yes.

And the hand-washing stations — what a great festival feature.

The bathroom lines might have been longer in Publix than on the festival grounds, as several folks admitted using the store’s cleaner facilities.

Radiohead: So very special — or just ‘OK’?

Wed, 07 May 2008 19:21 EDT

IF YOU GO

Radiohead, with Liars

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 9

WHERE: Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, off I-485 Exit 33

TICKETS: $30 and $55

Crawfish farmer knows how to appease your palate

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:07 EDT

Tony Goudeaux, a crawfish farmer who works on the outskirts of the southern Louisiana town of Fenton, will bring — and cook — the star of the Rosewood Crawfish Festival, which features music by bands including Cracker. Here’s what Goudeaux told us about farming, selling crawfish at a festival and why his are the best.

Crawfish farming: I’ve been in this business for eight years. I own property that we raise the crawfish on. We start the first week of December and run through the middle of June.

Fishing: It’s a pyramid trap that we run, and we run these traps everyday. Per day, I’m running 10 boats and we cover 2,000 acres a day.

You can’t get big crawfish like that here: Most of the large crawfish are consumed in a three-state area — Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. The small ones get shipped.

Selling out. (He did the last time he cooked at the festival two years ago.): If the weather is beautiful, we should sell out.

A cold, hard look into rapper’s life

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:07 EDT

WAR REPORT: “The rules are blurry, and that’s why there’s funny music coming out,” Fat Rat Da Czar told me when talking about hip-hop.

He says it more ferociously on “Da Cold War,” a mix tape hosted by DJ Shekeese Tha Beast. Fat Rat, an imposing presence physically and lyrically, is known for his menacing, chrome-handled flow.

He’s won two Non-Stop Hip-Hop Live freestyle battles with his gruff delivery. In his 10-year-plus career, Fat has chronicled the antics of young men getting schooled on Southern corners and stoops.

What’s remarkable about this disc, an appetizer for Fat’s debut, is the maturity and intimacy of the lyrics. Just about every rapper has stories about hustling, getting money, spraying shots, mackin’ girls and getting arrested. But how many really let you peek into their lives?

Fat lets us know what it’s like to raise his son, Solomon, who appears in the “Intro,” which is eerily similar to the opening of GZA’s“Liquid Swords.”

LeAnn Rimes: Little girl no more

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:36 EDT

She’s heard Kenny Chesney’s shows in Columbia are “nuts,” but she’ll still be here for the party.

No, not Gretchen Wilson. It’s LeAnn Rimes, the girl with the big voice who, if you haven’t noticed, no longer is a girl.

She’s a woman with a big voice now, but she’s still shedding the image longtime fans have of her.

“It’s taken a long time for people to let go of that little girl that sang ‘Blue,’” Rimes said. “I tried to push out of it. Not that I’ve tried to be overtly sexy.

“I’m changing. I’m a married woman, and I’m 25.”

As stadium show looms, Bryan braces for butterflies

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:18 EDT

IF YOU GO

“Poets & Pirates Tour 2008”

WHEN: 4 p.m. Saturday, April 26

WHERE: Williams-Brice Stadium

TICKETS: $89.50, $69.50, $49.50 and $15

Fashion fest not a total runaway hit

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:18 EDT

JUNK SHOW:Runaway Runway, the April 17 fashion show of garments made from recycled material, was a hit, if the crowd’s size was an indicator of success. The atrium of the Columbia Museum of Art was crammed, as was the staircase leading to the second floor. And the second floor’s balcony.

The outfits made from industrial egg cartons, CDs, tablecloths, coffee filters and ties were a fantastic and colorful blur when presented in the opening promenade. But when presented individually, most were less spectacular. Some were just plain boring, not meeting the sense of creativity seen in Norma Jeane Lippmann’s first-place strapless gown made with water-bottle wrappers, coffee filters and wrapping paper.

The crowd, a compelling mix of drag-queen fans, gays, hipsters, crusty punks, preps and folks of a certain age, was peppery. If one devalues the cultural quotient of Columbia, one obviously doesn’t know where to look.

TheLady Chablis, a beguiling entertainer, opened and closed the show with a performance less tame than what can be seen at PT’s Cabaret. Chablis, if you didn’t know, is a star, one who can sign a poster and charge $20 for you to take it home.

I attended the Headliners Fashion Showcase in December, and, by comparison, Runaway Runway has to strut a bit more before it is as fabulous. First up: Make sure you’re clear about the show’s start time, especially if it’s two hours after the doors open.

Elsewhere in Columbia ...

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:18 EDT

Not into Kenny Chesney? You still don’t have to stay home:

Cedric the Entertainer plays essentially the same role on stage, TV and in movies: He’s a funny guy who gets himself into funny situations and makes them funnier.

Cedric, one of “The Original Kings of Comedy,” currently appears with Keanu Reeves in “Street Kings.” He recently starred in “Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins,” “Code Name: The Cleaner,” “Johnson Family Vacation” and the “Barbershop” franchise.

But at The Township on Saturday night, April 26, he’ll do what made him famous: stand-up comedy. Let’s hope it will be the kind of humor that made his “Def Comedy Jam” appearances on HBO legendary. And maybe he’ll get around to singing, too.

The show is at 8 p.m. The Township is at 1703 Taylor St. $43.50; (803) 783-2222

Catch a rising star

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:17 EDT

IF YOU GO

Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 18

WHERE: Time Warner Cable Arena, 333 E. Trade St., Charlotte

TICKETS: $75, $49.50 and $29.50

Outdoor leg of Indie Grits festival made Vista vibrate

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:17 EDT

INDIE GRITS: The portion of The Indie Grits Film Festival held in the old fire station lot April 11 bounded beyond my expectations. The collision of art, music and community was especially gratifying because it took place outdoors, in an overlooked nook of the Vista.

And it clearly was well-received by others, as a vibrant cross section of cinephiles, hipsters, parents and arts lovers convened for a cool, exuberant evening under the stars. (The smartest of the attendees came with folding chairs.)

As people walked by the space on Park Street, many peered through the fence’s links.

Who wouldn’t want to know what was going on inside? And, if you were there, who wouldn’t want to be a part of it again?

ACCUMULATING COMPANY:Orgone Accumulator, the shoe-gazing band with melodies that prickle like car-door static, played its last show at The Garage in July 2006.

Record store memories

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:11 EDT

Best Buy, Wal-Mart and iTunes have made music-buying an almost insipid experience, if one could even call shopping at those stores an experience.

Real record stores — we’re talking businesses that sell CDs and records — are a dying breed, said Manifest of Columbia manager Phoenix Prewitt.

But Saturday, April 19, there’s a resuscitative event: Record Store Day. Hundreds of independently owned stores will celebrate a culture now overlooked — or lament the good ol’ pre-MP3 file-sharing days.

There’s an inherent authenticity found in record stores — the feel, the vintage poster-decorated look — that sell more than the top 40. And the staffs typically have an intellectual relationship with music.

“We’re more than salespeople,” Prewitt said. “We’re historians.”

Review | R. Kelly leaves crowds wanting to hear more

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:36 EST

R. Kelly spoke eloquently when he said you can’t have R&B without the R. - or, as he pronounces it, Ar-ra.

Kelly, the singer who seems to take music seduction to a more deliciously deviant extreme with each song he releases, brought his “Double Up Tour” to the Colonial Center Saturday night. And though he’s far from a nostalgic act or a performer who is past his prime, Kelly’s show played like a greatest hits collection.

To do so, though, he had to perform medleys, thus he never engaged a song fully. And some were left out completely.

There were the hooks Kelly has made for others like Snoop Dogg’s “That’s That,” Fat Joe’s “We Thuggin’,” Cassidy’s “Hotel” and Twista’s “So Sexy.”

Dug from Kelly’s exhaustive 17-year career tomb included “Fiesta,” “Thoia Thong,” “Snake” and the club-appropriate “Feelin’ on Your Booty,” the latter of which inspired, let’s say, slow dancing not appropriate for a prom.

I Nine's almost to 10

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:48 EDT

I Nine’s homecoming last Saturday at Headliners was splendidly unrestrained, tense and riveting.

The band of Orangeburg natives has been working on its major-label debut for, if you’re a follower, what has seemed like a decade. In an interview with vocalist Carmen Keigans and guitarist/cellist Brian Gibson last week, I was told the album will be released early next year.

I was also told that Clive Davis, the chairman of the RCA Music Group, which owns I Nine’s label, J Records, is ecstatic about the band’s potential.

And why not? I Nine exudes confidence and lip-smacking incandescence. Keigans, who looked angelic in her long, flowing white dress, shoelessly twirled to the band’s romantic, swirling movements.

Keigans’ voice is angelic, as well, but what makes her voice remarkable is how forcibly large it can get. Emotion isn’t always conveyed in the quiet moments of songs, as witnessed by the Keigans’ on-pitch yells when the band was at its heaviest.

It’s not over...yet

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 09:44 EDT

Looking at the line of eager and faithful Daughtry fans snake through the Headliners parking lot and down Gervais Street two hours prior to Tuesday’s scheduled door opening, I had this thought: “Where were all of you people and your cell phones the night Chris Daughtry was voted off ‘American Idol?’

As the night wore on, however, it became clear to me that despite what happened on that fateful night in season 5, and perhaps because of it, this crowd was determined to show up in force.

Daughtry, the name of Chris’s band, was the main attraction at the sold out show on May 29, bringing together an eclectic mix of college students and 30-somethings. Headliners has all the makings of the quintessential rock club. This is the kind of venue that Daughtry fans envisioned him singing in the first time they heard his raspy, rock-fueled voice.

As the faithful filed in and staked their claim on the perfect viewing spot for the night, the excitement of the evening was palpable. Every few minutes or so, spontaneous calls of “Whoooooo!” and “Yeah baby!” would rise above the cacophony.

Make no mistake, we were there to rock and be rocked. Promptly at 9 p.m., the first of two opening acts took the stage - Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Day of Fire. The guys completely decimate any preconceived notions of what a Christian rock band is supposed to sound like.

'Idol' Tracker | Sparks triumphs in final round

Wed, 23 May 2007 07:36 EDT

'Idol' Tracker | Variety night

Wed, 16 May 2007 07:45 EDT

Irish, if only for an evening

Fri, 11 May 2007 13:15 EDT

Few places in Columbia can promise the thrills of St. Patrick’s Day every day of the year. Delaney’s, however, is a collage of Irish novelty and decor that epitomizes the best of the famous holiday.

And on April 12, local band Sullivan’s Roof brought some great acoustic rhythm to the pub and eatery.

When you enter Delaney’s, you literally leave all sense of national identity at the door. It’s like an exodus into Ireland, and you either become Irish for an evening or hit the road.

With Sullivan’s Roof performing, it was easy to adopt the hip nuances of the Irish, as the band is 50 percent Irish.

Lead vocalist Tim Hollohan and brother Sean Hollohan, the band’s rhythm guitarist, provide the Irish element for a band that also includes Jason “Slim” Hudson on lead guitar and Robert Gunning on bass.