“And if you feel that you can’t go on. And your will’s sinkin’ low/ Just believe and you can’t go wrong/ In the light you will find the road/ You will find the road/ Oh, did you ever believe that I could leave you, standing out in the cold/ I know how it feels ’cause I have slipped through to the very depths of my soul/ Baby, I just want to show you what a clear view it is from every bend in the road/ Now, listen to me.– “In the Light” by Led Zeppelin from the album Physical Graffiti Dear concertgoers, some relevant musically related items follow. Physical Graffiti was released just over 40 years ago. Some dudes in the music industry celebrated the fact by re-issuing the landmark album. There’s a smattering of darkness and of light on this last great album by Zep (take my word for it, the penultimate Presence and last stand In Through the Out Door don’t even compare) but the parts about light are pertinent to this week’s column. For one thing the light of spring has returned. Secondly it’s easy enough to apply the lyrics printed above to your weekly show-attending frenzy. Believe. Step into the light and get a clear view of what awaits. In this case it’s four awesome, upcoming concerts.
Show Up! Thursday
Love Cop
Courtesy of artist
On Thursday, March 12, Townie Productions takes the former home of Watson Custom Builders to new depths. The joint has been renamed The Mountain (319 Mountain NW) and will play host to an awesomely arresting performance by a rocanrol duo called Love Cop . Portlandia’s passionate police Duffy Rongiiland and Chill Phil twist their sonic output into a jangly, glitchy and synth-laden stream of dark intentions and bright outcomes with tunes like “Seeing Other People” but can still rock it hard and heavy as evidenced by “Mars Attackz.”San Francisco lo-fi alt-popsters Emotional , whose meandering millennial paean to lost causes “She Dropped Out of College” got stuck in my ear last weekend, share the bill. Local luminaries Lady Uranium (Mauro Woody) and Brides , an experimental rock unit featuring members of REIGHNBEAU, Train Conductor and Small Flightless Birds, opens up the proverbial can of earworms that will no doubt infect listeners that evening. All this new music can be witnessed for only five bucks. It’s an all-ages affair that takes flight at 8pm.
Show Up! Friday
Ian
Courtesy of artist
In the light that figures so prominently this week, it’s almost certain El Lay will come up. It’s always sunny there, sabes ? And what better example of that can there be but Ian , an angelic power trio playing at The Tannex (1417 Fourth NW) on Friday, March 13. Driven by a daydreamy aesthetic punctuated by plaintive guitar antics and wispy, ennui-engendered vocal stylings, Ian will probably knock your socks off and cause you to run barefoot toward the nearest beach with songs such as “Born Good” and “I Don’t Care.”Burque’s Bone Forest begins the night’s procession into glowing goodness with a set of power jams designed to give pause to your sunny and shoeless later-day inclinations. And you may attend this all-ages extravaganza for a measly five Washingtons. It all begins at 7:30pm at the edge of Barelas, yo.
Show Up! Saturday
The Lymbs
Courtesy of artist
Speaking of the lower extremities, Sister (407 Central NW) plays host to the CD release party of progressive blues battery The Lymbs on Saturday, March 14. Gage Bickerstaff and Jeff Bell take on a diverse set of influences ranging from the blues and classic rock (add your own Led Zeppelin reference here), revisioning it loudly and intricately for our sunny desert clime. Both of these dudes have chops out to there: Bickerstaff studied with UNM guitar maestro Michael Chapdelaine and Bell undertook drum lessons with local uber-percussionist Jeff Cornelius before deciding rock and roll music was a plausible answer to all the questions they had been asking.Supporting acts at this uniquely rocking exhibition of the power of local music include Sit Kitty Sit and Timestable . There will also be an opening performance by School of Rock student Allison Sherrill , as well as a guitar raffle by the fine folks at Music Go Round (I’m not entering unless the axe in question is a Rickenbacher 360). Anywho, per custom, it will cost you five dollars to get into Sister that night for a 21-plus show that begins at 9pm. The doors open at 8pm.
Show Up! Sunday
Consider the Source
Courtesy of artist
Consider The Source , a far-out instrumental trio of intergalactically tuned-in and spaced-out musicians from Nueva York, makes an appearance at Low Spirits (2832 Second Street NW) on Sunday, March 15. Guitarist Gabriel Marin plays a fretless, double-neck guitar with MIDI capability; bassist John Ferrara slaps a Fodera bass and percussionist Jeff Mann employs classical tala techniques in his quest for a higher sense of order amidst the sonic chaos unleashed by a trio as equally influenced by metal as it is by fusion, Middle Eastern musical traditions and the jazz of John Coltrane. Muscular, poly-rhythmic and suitably intense for Sunday evening, Consider The Source fucking rocks. Pherkad , a progressive post-metal quintet from Pistoia, Italy whose work literally screams with complexity and references to the deepest metal underground, opens the show. Pherkad’s output balances science and mysticism whilst in the midst of a sonic overdrive guaranteed to cause involuntary head-banging while you question the very nature of the universe and its beginning and end. This 21-plus trip to the land of pulsating guitars and thundering rhythm sections will cost the average listener seven bones. The doors to this other world yawn wide at 7pm and the music begins at 8pm.
Show Up!
Listen to me: After this weekend of mighty musical indulgence, you pretty much have to go on. Don’t worry though, your will be augmented by the experiences to be had here in Burque concert-land. Since spring is well on its way, you can also forget about being left out in the cold. Oh, and the light, stay in it; stay in the light.
