Nightspots
The Blind Pig
208 S. First St. [map]
996-8555
blindpigmusic.com
This local music club features live music 5 nights a week, with a varied assortment of local and out-of-town rock 'n' roll, blues, reggae, and dance bands, 10:30 p.m.:30 a.m. (unless otherwise noted). Also, occasional early shows, usually 7-10 p.m. Karaoke on Mon.; closed most Sun. If there's an opening act, the headliner usually goes on stage between 11:30 p.m. and midnight. Cover (except "Showcase Night"), dancing.
September 1: Baron Knoxbury
Local DJ duo that plays quirky noise-rock records. Opening acts are the Ypsilanti rock band Scared to Death, the local Gary Numan-inspired electro-pop singer-songwriter Charlie Slick, and Lot’s Wife.
September 2: Darrin James Band
Brooklyn (NY) blues-inflected folk-rock quartet. Opening acts are the experimental jazz quintet Dan Bennett’s Dream Work, the talented local singer-songwriter Chris Bathgate, and Balkan-flavored originals by I’m (the stage bane of singer-songwriter singer-songwriter Dan Schmieding.
September 3: Ann Arbor Soul Club
Classic soul music by the local DJ duo of Brad Hales and Robert Wells.
September 4: “The Classic”
A benefit for the March of Dimes with Heroes on Parade, a local teen pop-punk band, and Pato Margetic, a Detroit R&B and soul singer-songwriter.
September 7: “Showcase Night”
With 4 different young local bands.
September 8: Biz Markie.
Veteran hip-hop MC. Tickets are free but available only fm98WJLB.com and channel955.com. 8 p.m.-12:30 a.m.
September 9: Cornmeal
Popular progressive bluegrass jam band from Chicago. "With all five members furiously jamming on their instruments, the harmonies intertwined in a roaring cascade of electric jamgrass,” says the Indypendent (NYC). "Each song stretched from a steady lead-in to an explosion of frantic dialogues between banjo, guitar, fiddle, drums and string bass." Opening act is Down the Line, a soul-inflected acoustic country-rock quartet from Chicago. Advance tickets: $12.
September 10: The Hard Lessons
Nationally acclaimed Detroit trio fronted by vocalist Korin Louise Visocchi that plays soulful, swaggering guitar- and organ-driven rock ’n’ roll. Opening acts TBA Advance tickets: $8 ($12 includes Sept. 11 Secret Twins show).
September 11: Secret Twins
Local garage punk quartet that tonight celebrates the release of its new CD, Ill Fit. Opening acts are The Javelins, a Detroit indie rock trio, and Minutes, a Kalamazoo punk-rock quartet. Advance tickets: $8 ($12 includes Sept. 10 Hard Lessons show).
September 14: Toubab Krewe
Asheville, North Carolina, instrumental quintet whose music fuses West African, Caribbean, and African American roots music. Instrumentation includes kora (21-string harp-lute), kamelengoni (12-string harp-lute), soku (Malian horsehair fiddle), African percussion, and rock guitars and drums. “Instead of freeform, jam-band leads, the guitarists expanded the songs with African-style patterns, circling and subtly shifting,” says New York Times critic Jon Pareles in his review of the band’s performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. “The six- beat grooves sneaked up on listeners but then they took hold; midway through one song, two, then four, then dozens of dancers were suddenly bobbing to the music.”Opening act is Orgone, a funkified Afrobeat ensemble from North Hollywood. Advance tickets: $15.
September 15: Pharoahe Monch
Veteran Queens hip-hop MC known for his complex delivery and internal and multisyllabic rhyming. Opening acts are the NYC hardcore hip-hop ensemble Boot Camp Clik, the Chicago hip-hip trio Kidz in the Hall, and Brooklyn (NY) hip-hip MC Skyzoo. Advance tickets: price TBA.
September 16: School of Seven Bells
This Brooklyn (NY) trio--guitarist and synthesist Benjamin Curtis and identical twin vocalists Alejandra and Claudia Deheza--plays a brand of otherworldly psychedelic pop that BBC music critic Reef Younis, in a review of the band’s new CD Disconnect from Desire, calls “lucid, breathless music of inexorably beauty.” Opening acts are Active Child, an L.A. singer-songwriter who creates soaring, ethereal soundscapes that take their inspiration from 80s synth-pop bands like Tears for Fears and Joy Division, and Shigeto, a Detroit-area progressive rock one-man band. Advance tickets: $12.
September 17: The Mighty Diamonds
Celebrated Jamaican roots reggae harmony trio most widely known from its 1982 international hit cover of “Pass the Koutchie.” Opening acts are Yellow Wall Dub Squad, a world-music- oriented reggae quartet from Kingston, and King Jazzy, a Detroit reggae-inflected hip-hop MC. Advance tickets: $20 ($22 at the door).
September 18: Tickled Fancy Burlesque Co.
Popular local postpunk burlesque troupe. Opening acts are the Chelsea-based Nomadic Jewels Tribal Bellydance, the Grand Rapids troupe Super Happy Fun Time Burlesque, and electro-house DJ Body Rock.
September 21: Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s
Critically acclaimed chamber pop-rock sextet from Indianapolis. Opening acts are The Lonely Forest, a Seattle-area postpunk pop quartet fronted by the passionate vocals of singer- songwriter John Van Deusen, and Cameron McGill & What Army, a Chicago psychedelic folk-rock trio. Advance tickets: $12 ($14 at the door).
September 22: The White Ravens
Indie rock quartet led by local siblings Amy and Will Bennett. They recently released the CD Gargoyles and Weather Vanes. Opening acts are English the Band, a local pop-rock band, and another band TBA.
September 23: The Ultraviolet Hippopotamus
Progressive-funk jam band from Big Rapids. Opening acts TBA.
September 24: Tobacco
Hip-hop-inflected electronic musician, the alter-ego of Tom Fec, the frontman of the Pittsburgh experimental pop band Black Moth Super Rainbow. Opening acts are Junk Culture, an R&B- oriented electronic musician from Mississippi, and Dreamend, a Chicago experimental pop singer- songwriter, the alter-ego of another Black Moth Super Rainbow member, guitarist Ryan Graveface. Advance tickets: $12.
September 25: The Bang!
Dance party with this local DJ collective that plays garage and 70s rock.
September 28: !!! (Chk Chk Chk)
Acclaimed postpunk polyrhythmic dance-pop septet from Sacramento now based in Brooklyn (NY). Pitchfork reviewer Brian Howe praises the band’s 2007 CD Myth Takes for its “incendiary disco-punk raveups” and singles out the antic theatricality of frontman Nic Offer as at once. “ridiculous, extravagant, and totally awesome.” The band has a brand-new CD, Strange Weather, Isn’t it? Opening act is Fol Chen, an L.A. indie pop band. Advance tickets: $15.
September 29: One Be Lo
Local hip-hop MC also known as One Man Army.
September 30: BMM
Detroit industrial rock band. Opening acts are the Chicago industrial rock bands Negative Red and Cyanotic and the Jackson industrial rock band Elude Fearra.
October 1:
TBA.
October 2: Mustard Plug
Opening acts are Gunday Monday, a local reggae- grindcore band, and Superdot, an 11-piece ska band from Ypsilanti. Advance tickets: $10.
October 4: Ra Ra Riot
Syracuse chamber-pop sextet. “The lyrics here are secondary to the gorgeous melodies, but if and when you decide to look deeper, you’ll find, once again, upheavals about love and loss, sketches of romantic memories, shades of dreams,” says Pop Matters in its review of the band’s new CD The Orchard. Opening acts are Chikita Violenta, a Mexican indie rock band, and We Barbarians, a Long Beach ambient band. Advance tickets: $15.
October 5: “Showcase Nights”
With 4 different young local bands.
October 6: The Slackers
All ages admitted. Ska and rocksteady by this popular New York City band that fleshes out its sound with everything from the traditional horns to pedal steel guitar and violin. “The Slackers are perhaps the best and the brightest of American ska to date; they reinvent their sound with each album, keeping the music fresh, alive, and relevant,” says All Music Guide reviewer Margaret Crandall. Opening acts TBA. Advance tickets: $14. 8 p.m.
October 7: Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers
All ages admitted. Popular acoustic trio from Massachusetts led by singer-songwriter Kellogg that plays impassioned, radio-friendly pop-rock. “Stephen is a classic songwriter with a thoroughly modern approach: literate, melodic, passionate, and fresh,” says Rosanne Cash. Opening act is Roy Jay, an L.A. Americana folk-rocksinger-songwriter. Advance tickets: $15. 8 p.m.
October 8: MC Frontalot
New York hip-hop MC discusses his career and introduces a screening of Nerdcore Rising, a documentary about his debut national tour as the “Godfather of Nerdcore,” this New York musician is a proudly nerdy hip-hop MC who wears a tie and a pocket protector and raps about Web comics, computer games, blogs, and picking up chicks at Star Wars conventions. Advance tickets: $12 ($15 at the door).
October 9: Dead Again
Grateful Dead cover band from Detroit.
October 10: The Brew
Amesbury, Massachusetts, pop-rock quartet. Opening acts are Kinetix, a progressive funk-rock quintet from Denver, and Roster McCabe, a jazz-inflected reggae-funk quintet from Minneapolis Advance tickets: $10.
October 12: “Showcase Nights”
With 4 different young local bands.
October 13:
TBA.
October 14:
TBA.
October 15: The New Deal
Very popular progressive electronica (aka livetronica) dance trio from Toronto. Opening acts TBA. Advance tickets: $20 ($23 at the door).
October 16: The Macpodz
Immensely popular local jam band that plays an invigorating mix of R&B, soul, rock, and hard jazz it calls “disco bebop.” Opening acts are Belikos, a New York-based quintet, originally from Ann Arbor, that plays Latin-spiced hip-hop/funk, and Celsius Electronics, a local hip-hop ensemble that tonight celebrates the release of its new CD, Mundai. Advance tickets: $10.
October 19: “Showcase Nights”
With 4 different young local bands.
October 20: Signal Path
Big-beat electronica duo from Missoula (MT). Opening acts TBA. Advance tickets: $10 ($12 at the door).
October 21:
TBA.
October 22:
TBA.
October 23: Deals Gone Bad
Chicago ska band. Opening acts are The Beat Down, a Montreal reggae-ska band, and Matt Wixsom, a local ska band Advance tickets: $10.
October 26: “Showcase Nights”
With 4 different young local bands.
October 27: One Be Lo
Local hip-hop MC also known as One Man Army.
October 28: The Soft Pack
L.A.-based pop-rock band. Opening acts are Kurt Vile, a psychedelic folk-rock singer-songwriter from Philadelphia, and another band TBA. Advance tickets: $10.
October 29:
TBA.
October 30: The Bang!
Dance party with this local DJ collective that plays garage and 70s rock.
