I spent Thursday night between Hang Fire and The Jinx, bouncing back and forth from corpse paint and black metal to indie rock and youthful energy.
Wet Socks was the only full set I caught at the Dad Joke production, and, as always, they ripped. You’d be crazy not to catch the garage/surf/psych/fuzz duo at the coming-up-oh-so-quickly Savannah Stopover. Hunter Jayne and John Zimmerman play The Jinx Saturday, March 7 at 9 p.m. You won’t be disappointed.
First off, I guess it’s worth noting that Savannah Stopover isn’t going to be critically impacted by the loss of Moon River Brewing Company‘s beer garden as a venue for the 3-day indie music festival on March 5-7. There are other venues that can be relied on a little more heavily, and, given the chilly weather last year for a few shows, some might be perfectly happy to see more shows inside.
But Moon River was a pretty sweet venue for acts like Hurray for the Riff Raff. The beer garden is comfortable, large, and well-designed, and the space provided a nice break from the local clubs.
Why is Stopover not using Moon River? From the Stopover website:
The venue change was precipitated by a request from the city for a written agreement between the neighboring News Place Condominium board, Moon River and Savannah Stopover due to prior noise complaints from condominium residents. The terms of the agreement requested by Savannah Stopover were rejected by the condo’s board and the city would provide no assurance that the shows would not be shut down.
Festival Founder/CEO Kayne Lanahan released this statement. “We are disappointed in this outcome given that the music planned for Moon River was scheduled to end by 9:30pm and focused on folk, americana, bluegrass and all ages, family-friendly music. We bent over backwards to make this work for everyone. In the end, our commitment remains to the bands and festival attendees that these artists are allowed to perform without threat of interruption or cancellation and we are grateful to the support from Moon River throughout this process and from our other venues in accommodating these changes.”
News Place extends from Whitaker to Barnard streets along Bay Street. All these are busy roads and busy areas for tourist activity in a city with pretty mild weather much of the year. Moon River’s beer garden is across Whitaker Street from the building, and only a portion of the News Place condos even have windows on that side.
Noise issues are tricky, and I often find myself siding with residents in noise disputes about all manner of distractions — from overnight train horns to unnecessarily loud bass from a nearly empty nightclub. But theses owners know that they’re living in condos — or renting them out via sites like Airbnb — in an active downtown district with lots of restaurants, bars, and clubs, including ones with outdoor areas. If a festival like Savannah Stopover that’s doing so much good for the city and a low-key business like Moon River can’t have outdoor music until 9:30 p.m. on one of the busiest weekends of the year, then we have some serious problems in this town. This is ridiculous.
Hey guys,
As usual, there is a lot of good music coming up this weekend. There are several interesting-looking shows, but my pick of the week would be City Hotel’s CD Release Party at Southbound on Friday. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of their new disc, Dogged Days, last week, and I have been humming songs from it ever since. One of my criteria for liking a disc is that I prefer it to sound like the band sounds in concert, and I thought they captured their “live sound” quite well. Just in case no one has been paying attention, there have been several exciting recent CD releases by local bands in the last few months. The Accomplices, Train Wrecks, American Hologram, and Wet Socks all immediately come to mind, but I am sure there are lots more (sorry about those I forgot, it doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, it means I’m old and my memory is shot).
Here are some more recommendations for the week.
Thursday 26th
1349 (Norwegian aural hellfire), Origin (Kansas death shred), Wolvhammer (death metal)- Jinx ($15)
Blackrune (Sav’h dream drone) – Sentient Bean
Eric Culberson Band (Sav’h blues) – Bayou Cafe
Morning Fatty (funk reggae rock band), Chris Stalecup & The Grange (Atlanta Americana) – Barrelhouse South
Giving Up, Life Partner, Curbdogs, Wet Socks, DIP, Boyfriend – Hang Fire (9:15, $5)
Main Street Trio – Ampersand (10p)
Friday 27th
City Hotel (Sav’h bluegrass) CD Release Party – Southbound Brewery (8p, $20)
Alex Raffray (Forced Entry frontman), Jeff Zagers (Sav’h electro-acoustic), Hot Plate (Sav’h instrumental progressive rock), Dope Sandwich (Sav’h hip-hop) – Hang Fire
Bottles & Cans (Sav’h blues) – Jazz’d
Dirt Queen (Philly rock), Waitress (Athens rock) – Jinx
Lovely Locks (Sav’h rock) – BarFood
Stereo Reform (Greenville dance-a-funk-a-rock-a-tronic) – Congress Street Social Club
Whitley Deputy (Hilton Head rock) – Barrelhouse South
Woven In (Florida sappy surfy love songs), Whiskey Wednesday (Sav’h dixie punk blackgrass), Sunglow (Sav’h electronica), Denedra Bloodbath – Graveface Records (6:30-10p)
Saturday 28th
Ben Keiser Band (Sav’h rock) – Rocks On The Roof
The Congress (Richmond rock) – Barrelhouse South
Crazy Man Crazy (Sav’h rockabilly)- Tybee Social Club
Hooten’ Hallers (Columbia, MO blues, soul, rock), Hurly Burly, Savannah Sweet Tease Burlesque – Jinx ($10)
Incredibly Tall People – World of Beer
Reckless Abandon (NC rock) – Congress Street Social Club
Velvet Caravan (Sav’h gypsy-jazz) – Jazz’d
Sunday 1st
Anna Chandler, Crystina Parker, Brit Scott, Thomas Oliver – Savannah Songwriters Series – Johnny Harris Restaurant (6p, free, all ages)
Tuesday 3rd
Payne Bridges (Sav’h singer-songwriter) – Foxy Loxy Cafe (7p)
Redneckromancer – Sentient Bean (7p)
Here is another of my A-Town Get Down 2015 posts, and I’ve saved headliners Blind Boys of Alabama for last, but most assuredly not least. While I may be a bit biased, having performed at the event for the third year in a row with Waits & Co., I’d have to say that this year’s festival was not only my favorite, but the best that I’ve attended yet. The weather held out, the music lineup was spot-on, and the hard working volunteers made the day a special and cohesive one for artists, musicians, and the attendees alike.
Blind Boys of Alabama
Blind Boys of Alabama
Blind Boys of Alabama
Blind Boys of Alabama
Blind Boys of Alabama
Those ever cool shoegaze cats in Creepoid have recorded some brand new tunes.
The Savannah-based, Philadelphia transplants just released a 33 second teaser of their next album, which was recently recorded with veteran producer Peter Mavrogeorgis at Dollhouse Studios in Savannah, and is due out in June of this year.
They’ve also announced they are teaming up with Collect Records (Sick Feelings, Thursday, Black Clouds, Vanishing Life) for their third studio album. They released the EP Wet Bread with Graveface Records here in Savannah last year.
Creepoid continues their “on tour forever” circuit, just finishing eight dates with Against Me! They are currently on a 15-date swing with A Place To Bury Strangers that ends at South by Southwest. (See the full tour schedule below).
They last played Savannah with Ex Hex and King Tuff at the Savannah Stopover Pre-Party at Hang Fire (What a great show!)
Also, here’s a friendly reminder to get your tickets for Stopover, and a handy link to do so: ticket’s link
Here’s some pictures from various hissing lawns’ contributors who were at that show, which was just about all of us! (Shameless self-promotion: here’s a link to my review of that show.)
from a Creepoid show at Graveface …
Tour dates!
Here’s the second of three posts I’ll be making from A-Town Get Down 2015. This post features photos of Swamp Cabbage.
Swamp Cabbage
Swamp Cabbage
Swamp Cabbage
Swamp Cabbage
Swamp Cabbage
Swamp Cabbage
If you missed The Jinx’s Halloween celebration this year, well you definitely missed out on one of the biggest parties around. Tons of good people and great bands made for an awesome night. It’s not often that the bands from the Jinx’s annual celebration reprise their cover band status for the night (except those nerds in The Ramoneagains), but every so often one band shines so much that they have to. Case in point: Ambrose as Blouses. Savannah’s premiere Prince cover band, at the request of friends of theirs from Savannah Sweet Tease Burlesque Revue, once again donned their garish outfits and glitter (so much glitter) to deliver one last encore to the people. Things got a little weird, but in a good way, just like one would expect from an actual Prince performance. Check out some shots below and if you see a Sweet Tease around town, make sure to thank them for one last night of partying like it’s 1999!
Savannah favorite American Aquarium rolled through The Jinx again Saturday night, this time supporting their excellent new crowd funded album Wolves. The show was sold out (rightfully so), the new songs sounded great live, and the band was the kind of tight that only comes with playing a few thousand shows together. Really, really, excellent, to the surprise of no one that has seen them in the last couple years.
Coy Campbell’s new project, Nightingale News, impressed, too. Coy’s songs had a little more “bite” live than the excellent Bell Rope recording, fleshed out by resonator guitar played lap steel style by Stu Harmening, upright bass courtesy of Rachael Shaner, and the drumming of Markus Kuhlmann. I’m very much looking forward to seeing them on a regular basis and getting more familiar with the songs. Super stuff.
I caught just enough of opener Don Chambers to get one decent pic.
More photos after the jump. Continue reading →
Coastal Rock Productions, spearheaded by Timothy Walls, has programmed some great shows in all-ages venues over the past few months. The shows definitely tend toward the heavy side, but Coastal Rock is clearly interested in promoting both establish bands and up-and-coming bands, acts that fit neatly into specific genres like metal and punk and acts that defy easy categorization.
Now Coastal Rock Productions has announced A.U.R.A. Fest 2015 — that’s All Underground Rock All Day — on April 25th at Bigshow’s in Statesboro (about an hour from Savannah). (Click here for some of the history of A.U.R.A. Fest, which Coastal Rock produced for a number of years over a decade ago.)
The lineup includes Lazer/Wulf, Me and the Trinity, Bear Fight!, SHEHEHE, The Apprehended, Solomon’s Ghost, Seagulls, A Call for Kylie, Vatican, and Spray Tan.
Check out the announcement video:
Not surprisingly, we’ve posted some pics of a few of these acts here at hissing lawns. Click on through for a selection. Continue reading →
