Hey y’all. Been a bit of an ominous week hasn’t it? That being said this was a great week for shows on North Avenue as every night brought with it some fantastic bands of all shapes and sizes to sonically annihilate our pizza-scarfing brethren. Let’s cut to the action, already in progress -
1/16/17 - Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones // Jimmy Swope // June Star
Joe’s hosted the rare Monday show to accommodate the touring schedule of road warriors Lara Hope & The Ark-Tones, who had just kicked off a cross country winter tour. They brought with them their excellent take on rockabilly and western swing - complete with Brian Setzer-esqu guitar lines and swagger of Wanda Jackson - bringing the crowd to their feet and moving them toward the dance floor. Joining Ms. Hope and her Tones was local guitar-smith Jimmy Swope who opened with some fantastic original music and 6-string country chops, as well as the now-quartet June Star who closed it out with their punchy electric power pop.
I must have eaten something bad because I started to feel pretty sick very quickly somewhere during the second set and blew chunks in the bathroom. I managed to finish the show and thought I’d just go home and sleep it off, but that’s not what the fates had in store for me. Drunken roomies and a band crashing at the house meant the hootenanny would continue into dawn - the first event in what ended becoming a very strange week to say the least.
1/21/17 - Dwellingville // Portfolio Day // Copper Marmalade // The Dark Yesterday
I seriously wish every show was like this. All four bands were actual human beings who were nice, easy to work with, setup and broke down quickly, and performed interesting music. I think this is the third time I’ve seen Copper Marmalade, and this was by far my favorite set of his - introspective low-fi synth that accompanied Mr. Graham Crisler’s impressive falsetto vocal. The Dark Yesterday powered through a set of 80’s-synth goodness complete with covers of Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, and Camouflage, followed by the hybrid project Portfolio Day who returned to the pizza basement with for some delay soaked electro-rock. Dwellingville closed the show with some space rock that was as strangely catchy as it was odd. Definitely looking forward to seeing all these bands again!
Copper Marmalade
1/22/17 - Tomason // The Ward // Silver Gulls // Endless Mike & The Beagle Club
Sunday rounded out what was seriously a great week of shows. Endless Mike opened the show with an acoustic set of folk-punk speaking on the the state of modern politics and economics, followed by The Ward who blasted through riff after Sabbath-worshiping riff. Tomason laid down a great set of female-fronted alternative chunk, followed by new band Silver Gulls who ended the night with some excellent fuzzy sing-a-longs.
That does it for me. Next week I’ll be back with even more of the madness whatever it may be so stay tuned, and sayonara!
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