People who read send me emails wanting to know things like did I see their band open? Those two old-school, funkalicious hippies sounded totally groovy when covering “Sugar Magnolia” but weren’t so confident in execution when the kids at this or that brewery expected a DJ with glitch and flow, yo?I did and I’m glad you’re playing out again, by the way.Anyway, what I have seen of this town—from great dark halls filled with the skinny jean and chucks crowd to the aforementioned patouli-scented masters of 6/8 time dwelling ubiquitously like true royalty at any number of powered mixers set up in a million different brewhouses in this town by the river—indicates we have a helluva music scene in Burque.But trying to figure out what show I’m going to be at ahead of time or even encouraging me to get to a certain gig—I’ve got some Jägermeister if that’ll help—will always be a dicey affair. I could be everywhere. Or nowhere at all. That sorta mystery gives me an opportunity to really listen, so I can truthfully report the following. File this under August’s favorite shows, 2017.• Having Alcest play at Sister (407 Central Ave. NW) on Friday, Feb. 10 was certainly an arch idea. By the end of that wintry night, the only things or beings that weren’t hot and bothered in the joint were Neige’s own frigidly virtuosic visions of the moon.• Bestial Mouths, featuring the luxuriously listless Lynette Cerezo, played at Sister on Tuesday, April 4. They brought a sense of art-damaged, fashion-forward doom and consequent deliberation—interspersed with the curiously awkward danse macabre of an audience on the verge of ecstasy—to our little town on that otherwise quiet night.• I talked to Exene a few days before her band X, jammed it in the Duke City on May 1 at the El Rey Theater. I’ve seen them before. John Doe always buys me a beer. But this time, Kansas City next-gen punks Skating Polly opened, thrilling with youth and hardcore intensity; then X killed it 35 years after I saw them on film at Don Pancho’s Art Theater as a slouchy 16-year-old.• I went to a show on Sunday, July 23 at the Launchpad that was supposed to be all about the pop-punk-emo stuff I naturally hate more than Morrissey. It turned out to be a rocking good time, featuring an outfit from Phoenix called Rozwell Kid and some really badass local bands including Crime Lab, which features the son of local rock wizard Carl Petersen playing the guitar. This one made me feel old and young at the same time which is okay in the summertime when I don’t have to wear shoes.• This one may create some controversy, but what the hell. After spending the summer checking out the local hip-hop scene, I must say that Summon is still the most interesting and musically/poetically engaging of the local rappers. His performance at Leo’s Night Club on Friday, Oct. 27 frightened the hell out of me as it crushed and crushed again; but that’s just fine, because now I’m more focused than ever.• Last night, Thursday, Dec. 21, by my accounting (remember it’s up to a week later for you, dear readers) Sundog, Chicharra and ICUMDRUMS played a gig at Sister. I missed it because that’s my time to write stuff like this. I’m sure it was the best concert ever because those are currently the town’s top three rock music ensembles, okay? Anyway, my agents tell me it was a magical, heart-pounding, low-register evening to remember.
Aural Fixation: A Million Concerts
One Dude To See Them All
4 min read
