Asheville has been lucky to play host to half of the band Arizona for the past few years. But it looks like the long distance relationship with the other two members in Brooklyn has taken its toll. Arizona announced a couple weeks ago that they are now on “indefinite hiatus” (we all know what that means).
2.) Given all the drama surrounding the state of Arizona lately, it’s probably a good idea to distance yourself from the word.
3.) Nick, Alex, and James are all remaining here and have started a new band named Wages.
I got a preview of them when they opened for These United States a couple weeks ago and recommend checking out their new EP, in Sun.
They are also having a CD release show this Saturday at LAB (10pm $5). Just walk past all the people wearing Ed Hardy to the inconspicuous door in the very back. The room is actually quite pleasant with $3.50 LAB beers.
I was a little worried when the show started. The Peel was empty. The opening group was a rap cliche (“Yo yo yo, where the bitches at?”) with a DJ who looked like the kids I went to Hebrew school with seems to spend more time smoking blunts than using this old Dell Latitude.
I began to wonder if I had the wrong idea of Rhymesayers, but after a break Brother Ali came out an introduced this 21-year-old phenom named Fashawn. The crowd swelled and moved to the stage and Fashawn proceeded to kill it. Lyrical, hard-working, honest, and brilliant.
Then Brother Ali took over the stage. He’s a self-described fat, bald, bearded, albino, Muslim rapper, but he transcended all those label. He was able to get the crowd moving like I’ve never seen in Asheville before, “There is not a concert. At a concert, there is a performer, an actor up here on stage. Out there is the audience and we don’t interact. But this isn’t that. This is a party and I came here to fucking party.”
I left around midnight, but the party was still going strong.
In amazing WTF concert news, Gillian Welch (and we’ve heard Dave Rawlings) are playing a last minute show at The Grey Eagle on this upcoming Monday night. Tickets are $25 and available at Harvest Records, Orbit DVD, Grey Eagle, and online.
On a personal note, my wife and I have officially moved back into town after a misguided attempt to live somewhere else. There are a lot of amazing shows coming up and I’ll be at most of them. They’ll be a lot more posts coming. Get ready.
Lost in the Trees, a folk orchestra from Chapel Hill, is playing the Rocket Club tonight. From a quick listen they remind me of a film score to an quirky indie drama directed by Tim Burton that doesn’t actually exist. This promises to be an interesting show to say the least.
While the Rocket Club predictably has little information about the show, the dude on the phone said the show would start around 10pm and cost about $8.
Bowerbirds are back tonight at The Grey Eagle. Since they were last in town, they came out with an amazing album, Upper Air. The new songs seem fuller and more intimate, but lack some of the rawness I liked about Hymns For A Dark Horse.
Jagjaguwar artist Julie Doiron will open the show. I don’t know about her, but the couple tracks I’ve heard sound good, she collaborated with Mount Eerie (ex-Microphones) in 2008 on Lost Wisdom, and her 2007 album, Woke Myself Up, was nominated for a Polaris Prize!
You’ve probably got at least $7 to your name so you should go see Those Darlins at The Grey Eagle tonight (Thurs, Jan 7). The bio of these ladies suggests that they like to defy convention and labels, but I’d call it country-twinged garage rock and they are suppose to put on an awesome live show.
If you miss them tonight, you can come with me to see them at Down Home in Johnson City on January 28th.
Also appearing tonight are locals Kovacs & The Polar Bear and If You Wannas. I’ve somehow missed seeing either of them before, but they both sound like a welcome addition to the night.
The Dodos last migration to AVL was a year ago March where they played a pretty full Harvest in-store. This year they got upgraded to The Grey Eagle and the show was packed. It’s nice to see great bands gain a local audience that quickly. Yeah, we <3 our town like that.
First up was the Durham band of brothers, Megafaun. Brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund used to be in a band with Justin Vernon (you know, that Bon Iver dude). Now that Bon Iver has gone on hiatus, we hope that Megafaun gets the spotlight. They’ve got awesome harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and a dynamic live presence often jumping into the crowd to finish their songs. I preferred the live show to the record and even then preferred when they left the electronics out of it.
Indie pop New Zealanders, The Ruby Suns, were up second and they gave me a good opportunity to get another PBR and some delicious bread pudding from Twin Cousins.
The crowd swelled and welcomed The Dodos. It was hard to get anywhere near the front, but standing on our toes on a chair in the back, we could see that they expanded from a minimalist two-piece to a stage busting three-piece with that addition of a second percussionist, Keaton Snyder. There is a complete lack of pretension with these guys who were just rocking the t-shirts and hoodies and I mean rocking. High energy, killer show. See them next time when I’m sure they’ll be headlining at The Orange Peel.
The Dodos at Harvest Records. Holy shit. Thursday, March 27th. The Dodos are my current obsession. You should check out their new record Visiter out on March 18 before the show.
