The Flutie Brothers Band

Albany Riverfront Park, Thursday

Doug Flutie officially set down the football in May when he announced his retirement. When asked what he was going to do now that he is out of the NFL, he responded with, “play in the baseball league, watch [my] daughter’s dance recitals and be more involved with [my] foundation.” What he neglected to add was that he was going to pick up a pair of drum sticks and tour with his band, called the Flutie Brothers Band. The band consists of six men, only one of which is his actual brother, guitarist Darren Flutie. Rumor has it that a reason for the formation of the band was so that NFL brothers Doug and Darren could have a place to blow off steam in the off-season. Whatever the case, the Fluties’ rock & roll cover band (with songs ranging from bands such as Lynard Skynard to the Barenaked Ladies) will be straying from their normal fund-raising and football-field gigs tonight when they head to the Albany Riverfront Park to play Alive at Five’s classic-rock night. (June 22, 5 PM, free, Albany Riverfront Park, Albany, 434-2032)

aly & aj

Aly & AJ, Jonas Brothers

Northern Lights, Thursday

Sisters Aly & AJ Michalka have a lot to celebrate. Their first album, Into the Rush (Hollywood Records) was released in the fall and recently reached gold status. Their first single, “Rush,” has been added to playlists on Top 40 radio stations nationwide, and the girls just signed a deal with Disney that in cludes an Ally and AJ pilot on the Disney Channel. If that weren’t enough, the blonde duo recently finished filming their first movie, called Cow Belles (look for this, too, on the Disney Channel). But enough with all that, let’s get back to the music. The girls’ Web site says that “their brand of melodic rock is refreshingly unique in today’s musical landscape, harkening back to a time when rock music ruled the radio.” The accuracy of this assertion we’ll leave up to you, the listener-reader-concertgoer, to decide. Another giant in the world of Radio Disney, the Jonas Brothers, will open the all-ages show. (June 22, 7 PM, $25, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park, 371-0012)

Jack Harlan

Moon & River Café, Friday-Saturday

Jack Harlan was going to be a funeral director. That’s right, after performing music for years, the Alberta native set his guitar down and went to the Western School of Funeral Service to earn his government license as a funeral director and embalmer. However, Harlan felt that music was his true (well, his first, anyway) calling, and got back into the swing of things full force, headlining a string of “folk noir” shows, and releasing his album, Carnival of Mystery, on Nettwerk Records. His music (Harlan considers himself a blues musician, although some critics have labeled him alt-country and folk) is said to “walk the hypnotic journey traveled by the likes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake.” Harlan will play four shows this weekend in Schenectady. Tomorrow (Friday) night, his openers will be Hannah Imbesi and Blue Wilder; on Saturday, the bill will include Steve Moss and Brittany Searl. (June 23-24, 7 and 9 PM, 115 S. Ferry St., Schenectady, 382-1938)

Elana James & the Continental Two

Club Helsinki, Sunday

Singer, songwriter, and perhaps most importantly, violinist Elana James (formerly of Hot Club of Cowtown, who broke up in 2005) will bring her new band, the Continental Two (made up of Beau Sample and Luke Hill), to Western Mass. this weekend. The brand-spankin’-new trio made such a splash when they formed in their hometown of Austin that they were voted into a Top 5 position in the Austin Chronicle’s Readers Poll for 2005, even though they didn’t play their first gig until October 2005. James says on her Web site that she’s created a “new multifaceted and intercontinental swinging sound for the 21st century.” Check out the new outfit on Sunday when they swing into Club Helsinki. (June 25, 8 PM, $15, 284 Main St., Great Barrington, 413-528-3394)

Blue Cheer

Pearl street, Tuesday

Sharing their name with a former popular laundry de tergent, the 1960s hippy-metal gods Blue Cheer will bring the “summertime blues” to Massachusetts on Tuesday. Grateful Dead backer Owsley Stanley, an underground chemist, helped contribute to the moniker Blue Cheer (the band named themselves after a variety of Stanley’s LSD). Influenced mostly by the blues, but also containing psychedelic and “very loud” power rock, Blue Cheer revived a ’50s Eddie Cochran song, their only hit, reaching No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. A Hell’s Angel known as Gut managed Blue Cheer early in their career; he once described their live show thusly: “They turn the air into cottage cheese.” Kinda like the water-into-wine thing, we’re thinking. So, if you want to experience that, we suggest you see them this week in Northampton. Also on the bill: Drunk Stuntmen. (June 27, $15, $18, 10 Pearl St., Northampton, Mass., 413-584-0610)

	Send A Letter to Our Editor
	Back Home