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Ska
Brawl Tour
Valentine’s,
Thursday
The
prodigious kings of the American ska scene, the Toasters,
will arrive in the Capital Region this week for a stop on
their international Ska Brawl Tour. (It’s international because
they’re going to Canada, too.) Now in their 24th year, the
Toasters continue to stay true to their Rude Boy Ska roots
despite the countless transformations the genre has gone through.
Also on the bill are the Boston-based reggae-ish Westbound
Train and some local favorites, Public Access, Honeycreeper,
and Hollywood Funeral. So put on some tight jeans and uncomfortable
shoes and let everyone know that ska’s not dead. (Feb.
24, 7 PM, $10, 17 New Scotland Ave., Albany, 432-6572)
The
Static Age, Mommy & Daddy, Eyes Like Knives
King’s
Tavern, Thursday
The
Static Age hail from Burlington, Vt., a place not immediately
associated with a thriving punk scene, but advance word lends
some credence to the claim. The band brew together a punk
spirit with a dark melodic sense that’s been described as
reminiscent of the artsy postpunk of the Psychedelic Furs.
It’s not exactly Black Flag, but taking a look at just a small
sampling of some of the band’s influences and pleasures—Social
Distortion, Judas Priest’s “Heading Out to the Highway” and
Shaun of the Dead—gives us a warm, spikey punk kind
of feeling. Also on the bill, Mommy & Daddy and Eyes Like
Knives. (Feb. 24, 241 Union Ave., Saratoga Springs, $5,
9 PM, 581-7090)
 New
York Voices
The
Egg, Friday
Good
jazz vocal groups like New York Voices are as rare as they
are strange—and we mean strange in a good way. Unlike solo
singers, who can vary the way they improvise with every performance,
jazz singing groups need tight arrangements to best show off
their close harmonies and rhythmic dexterity. This makes what
they do more akin to big-band instrumentalists than jazz singers—strange
territory indeed. New York Voices have been doing this since
the founding members met at Ithaca College in the late ’80s,
and their sound is in the great tradition of the Boswell Sisters,
Lambert Hendricks and Ross, and the Manhattan Transfer. There’s
something odd but undeniably compelling about three or four
voices swinging in harmony at breakneck speeds, then slowing
down to croon a bluesy ballad. And New York Voices can pull
this off, effortlessly. (Feb. 25, 8 PM, $24, Empire State
Plaza, Albany, 473-1845)
Travis Sullivan’s Björkestra
Iron
Horse Music Hall, Friday
Björk
Gudmundsdottir has become one of this generation’s most interpretation-worthy
artists, and her songs having been covered by acts ranging
from Death Cab for Cutie to the Twilight Singers (not to mention
the requisite string quartet tribute), but it’s never been
done like this. Pianist-arranger-conductor Travis Sullivan
has taken a vision that screams kitsch—full on, no
bullshit, 18-piece jazz ensemble (plus vocalist) arrangements
of some of the Icelandic pixie’s best-loved, erm, standards—and,
by playing it absolutely straight, turned it into something
completely viable and vital in its own right. So, when the
big band roll into into Northampton on Friday night, they’ll
be worth checking out just to see if they can fit the whole
shebang on the smallish Iron Horse stage, but also to see
how they might reimagine the voice-only arrangements of Medulla—bass
clarinet and fluglehorn, perhaps? (Feb. 25, 10 PM, $13,
20 Center St., Northampton, Mass., 413-584-0610)
Otep, American Head Charge, Candiria, Blood Simple, Last
Call
Northern
Lights, Saturday
On
their Web site, Otep offer their fans a suggested reading
list; it includes Plath, Ginsberg, Baudelaire and Rimbaud.
If Baudelaire were alive, we think he’d say something like
this about Otep, “Otep est la merde, yo!” Dead poets dig death-metal.
“Je voudrais beaucoup de cowbell!” American Head Charge just
came out with a new album, The Feeding. Mmm . . . feeding.
They claim it is guaranteed to scare the hell out of your
parents. If your ’rents start jamming out to it, you better
let the band know what’s what. If you get a charge from their
stuff, get a double dose and see them live. These guys are
touring together and making deadly, angry, loud-ass poetry
together. You can snap your fingers over your head, or just
give them the horns, whatever works. (Feb. 26, 7:30 PM,
Route 146, Clifton Park, $12, $14, 371-0012)
Steven Curtis Chapman
Pepsi
Arena, Sunday
This
one raises something of a dilemma. According to that there
Bible, God himself clocked out on the seventh day. Can’t blame
Him—He got a lot of shit done those first couple of days,
and needed a bit of a breather. The O.G. even went so far
as to say that we should follow His lead and take the day
off—to worship, dummy, not to drink beer and watch Nascar.
And therein lies the conflict: Sundays have become as synonymous
with dressing up for church as they have with David E. Kelley
shows. So what’s a good Christian to do when five-time Grammy-winning
contemporary-Gospel artist Steven Curtis Chapman comes to
town this seventh day? The message is in the right place,
but would the Big Guy want you to pay six bucks for lite beer?
And those service charges—oy vey! Chris Tomlin and Casting
Crowns will also perform at Sunday’s God-rock throwdown. (Feb.
27, 7 PM, $27.50-$33.50, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany, 476-1000)
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Noted |
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Chuck
Costa
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Santa
Cruz-based group Sound Tribe Sector 9 will
do the jammy-electronica thing at the Calvin Theatre
in Northampton, Mass., today (Thursday); John
Brown’s Body will open (8 PM, $23, 800-THE-TICK).
. . . Speaking of jammy electronica, or jazz-fusion,
or what have you, Medeski, Martin and Wood
will play the Egg tomorrow (Friday, 8 PM, $23.50,
473-1845). . . . Get your spicy groove on with
Steve Riley and the Mamou Players, a new-era
Cajun dance-band, at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington,
Mass. on Friday (9 PM, $18-20, 413-528-3394).
. . . King’s Tavern will play host to Saratoga
expatriate Jes Hudak on Friday; Chuck
Costa and the Winter Sleepers are also
on the bill (9 PM, $5, 581-7090). . . . Friday’s
show at the Van Dyck will be a homecoming of sorts
for knotworking, as bandleader Ed Gorch
has been shacking up in Brooklyn as of late; Five
’Til Midnight and Brian Bassett will
also perform (8 PM, $5, 381-1111). . . . At Valentine’s
on Saturday, power-poppers Gobhi and the
Day Jobs will both make their returns,
along with Charmboy, a new band featuring
singer-songwriter Eric Halder (9 PM, $5, 432-6572).
. . . The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown,
Mass., will host an afternoon showcase of Berkshires-based
musicians on Saturday; the lineup includes Adam
Rothberg, Pamela Wyn Shannon, and the
Flying Garbanzos, among others (1 PM, free,
413-458-2303). . . . Saratoga Winners will be
the place for a hard-rocking Saturday night with
Untamed, Paynes Hollow, Sorrow,
Kult Recruitment (8 PM, $8, 783-1010).
. . . There’s still a lot of work to be done,
so Revolution Hall will put on another tsunami-relief
concert on Saturday night; this one features the
likes of Jerkwater Ruckus, Lo Faber,
Peter Prince, Brian Kaplan Band,
Dana Monteith, School Bus Yellow,
and—could it be?—Conehead Buddha (8 PM,
$15, 273-2337).
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