Before you know it, final exams will hit our student readers and holiday shopping will predominate the schedules of everyone else… Before all of that stress and hassle hits you, it’s vital to find some solace (or maybe blow off some steam) via the outlets of live music venues, where you can encounter creative, strange, charming, and energetic performing artists.
FRIDAY
1.)
It’s the final First Friday of 2017 in Ypsilanti. Bona Sera will have a new art exhibition on display. Later in the evening, one of my favorite elastic-blues/psych-rock explorers, Stormy Chromer, will be performing two sets of sweet proggy jams in that venue’s Underground space. MORE INFO
2.)
Dreamland Theater is an optimal space to experience music that’s more out-of-the-ordinary. Extraordinary? Superb ambiance, and progressively minded cultural programming that doesn’t shy away from the avant-garde (or at least the realms that go beyond indie-rock). Friday night features sounds of rap, electronica, house, noise-experimentation, and more, with Cousin Mouth and Circument from Detroit, Lame Duck Sessions from Lansing, Ann Arbor’s Dayggs, and Jay Tubbs from Ypsilanti.
MORE INFO
SATURDAY
1.)
Going back into that prog-vibe that Stormy Chromer will be laying down on Friday, we head into Saturday with funk-fusionists like Act Casual, jazz-fired rockists like Desmond Jones, and the electronica-soul-jams of Broccoli Samurai. Act Casual (pictured above) will be releasing a new EP this Friday, so we’ll take a listen to one track from that self-titled release.
2.)
And then we head back to Dreamland…
…for more out-of-the-ordinary…and something truly theatrical… (and loud!) The Music & Arts Guild has curated a lineup of valiant intensity, built around a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic-rock-n-roll narrative.
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” imagines a world where rock ‘n’ roll has been banned on planet Earth, near the end of the 22nd century, by Admiral Krampus. Performing punk music is an offense punishable by death; only Christmas music is permitted to be broadcast. That’s why attendees to this show should “disguise” themselves so as to avoid being found out by the “global music police.” It’s a yuletide time of galactic revolution
Local punk outfits Cig Butts and Gruesome Twosome are on the lineup, with a pair of equally feedback-fired/fast-tempoed outfits from Detroit, namely Sros Lords and Dear Darkness. MORE INFO
Jeff covers music for Current, posting weekly show previews and highlighting new bands in the area.
