Indietastic! We were disappointed to find out our favorite comedian NEIL HAMBURGER would be sharing the bill with indie darlings DANIELSON last Wednesday at The End. When we saw him last year at the same club, he was headlining. Now, the club would be packed with Pitchfork zombies—after all, Danielson’s latest CD, Ships, received an astronomical 9.1 from the arbiters of cool just a couple months back. But it was a blessing in disguise, because the only thing funnier than seeing Neil Hamburger do a set is seeing Neil Hamburger do a set for a crowd largely unfamiliar with his, um, unique brand of humor. “Why did Vice President Dick Cheney shoot Texas attorney Harry Whittington in the face?” Hamburger asked the crowd. After a pregnant pause, a few anemic shouts of “Why?” surfaced from the audience. “It was payback for the Biggie Smalls murder.” A twenty-ish girl with a Reality Bites-era Winona Ryder hairdo turned to her MySpace-poster-boy companion dumbfounded, and muttered, “What? That doesn’t make any sense.” And though much of the crowd was in on the joke—hey, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to see that a guy with the world’s biggest comb-over just might be puttin’ you on—Posh-clad kids (who’d spent hours trying to make it look like they hadn’t spent hours mussing their hair just right) looked at each other quizzically as they got impatient for Danielson. Led by renaissance man and indie prophet Daniel Smith (who boasts Sufjan Stevens as an acolyte), the quintet took the stage wearing matching faux-military uniforms with nametags on the chests and hearts on the sleeves. Smith’s idiosyncratic wail was ecstatic and expressive, adding a delightful jaggedness to their bright, complex sounds. The Spin gives this eclectic bill a 9.1—and Hamburger a 9.2 for getting an entire Nashville crowd to say “cranberry sauce” in unison. Nothing Orton-ary here There are musical moments that you know are going to be great: Skynyrd doing “Free Bird,” Nirvana Unplugged, Radiohead at Bonnaroo. Then there are those that sneak up on you and punch you right in the gut. After LIGHTNING 100 had finished taping British songstress BETH ORTON’s wonderful set, she came back out to play a couple of old favorites by herself. Now for a little background: about seven years ago we simply wore out Orton’s second record Central Reservation. Before there was emo, we had Orton and her melancholy, defiant electro-folk tunes, and with the opening chords to “Stolen Car,” there it came. Not only is the song beautiful for beauty’s sake—with lines like “Some may sing the wrong words to the wrong melodies / It’s little things like this that matter to me,” delivered in her distinct quiver—but the tsunami of nostalgia left us shaken. Oh the powers of music. For most of her set, Orton was backed by a full band and played songs from throughout her decade-long career. Her brand of folky pop has just enough quirk to it, and she held the packed house in her sway. She was casual, charming and even funny, telling the crowd, “We went swimming in a guitar-shaped swimming pool today. I think it was the silliest thing I’ve ever done.” During an interlude, a small group shuffled past the stage toward the exit and Orton said quietly, “I never liked you anyway.” Beth, don’t worry, neither did we. Don’t stop believin’ Ever since their acrimonious split in 1998, it’s almost as if the members of JOURNEY have been determined to prove to former lead singer Steve Perry that anyone can do his job. First they replaced him with sound-alike Steve Augeri. Last year, they let each band member sing a track on their Generations album. And when a throat infection hit Augeri just as the group was gearing up for a summer tour with fellow ’80s hit-makers DEF LEPPARD—which arrived at Starwood Amphitheatre on Sunday—vocalist JEFF SCOTT SOTO was drafted to replace the replacement, at least temporarily. Then they handed vocal duties on several tunes in the show to drummer DEEN CASTRONOVO. Take that, Perry! The sold-out Starwood crowd didn’t seem to mind the last-minute switch too much. In fact, the surprisingly high-energy Journey set and the overwhelming heat left the audience perhaps a bit wrung out by the time headliners Def Leppard hit the stage. The Leps charged gamely through hit after hit nonetheless, barely stopping for breath, except when lead singer JOE ELLIOTT pointed out how “fucking hot” it indeed was. Alas, the group’s well-earned pre-encore bow was upstaged somewhat by the mass migration of the KEITH URBAN-NICOLE KIDMAN entourage toward the backstage area. All-Star Cram GLOSSARY celebrated the release of For What I Don’t Become last Saturday night at The Basement with the help of AARON ROBINSON’s new band THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS and longtime cohorts SLACK. Slack’s set started out strong enough; the first song was killer and the band was energetic. After that it became a guitar-optional affair. For two songs CHRIS SLACK’s guitar cut in and out at the most inopportune moments, leading bassist BEN SLACK to openly voice his frustration while the culprit was found—a faulty instrument cable. The band valiantly picked up the speed, but not without losing a significant chunk of steam. At the set’s end, Glossary bassist BINGHAM BARNES insisted on another song, climbing onstage to plunk on the bass, launching into a solo and jam session that was messy, loose and amusing, then awkward, then amusing again. Just as the whole deal was threatening to become directionless, Ben Slack grabbed his bass back and the band managed to turn the whole fiasco into an arena-rock ending. When we remembered that Glossary had played a CD release show the previous night at Grand Palace in their native Murfreesboro, we were a little worried that they might not have much left for Saturday. The back-to-back shows might have hurt them a bit at the door, but the adrenaline rush produced by the release of their fourth record carried them through a raucous set. Glossary played their roots-rock loud, their rich sound bombarding the crowd in a way that was physically satisfying (though merch-man SEAN MALONEY did mention that he could feel himself going deaf). Playing mostly songs off that new record, they sounded polished, confident and tenacious. After closing out with a couple old songs, it seemed like the evening was at a close, but Barnes was having none of it. He called back most of his band as well as members of Slack and the Young Professionals to join him for an impromptu encore. People grabbed whatever instrument they could find: Chris Slack grabbed a guitar, Slack’s bassist took on the tambourine, Jason Moon Wilkins snatched up a maraca. While Glossary frontman Joey Kneiser took up the drum kit, drummer J.D. Reager grabbed another guitar and sang lead for a group rendition of “Keep on Rocking the Free World” that sounded much better than it had any right to. At the end, with so many guitars playing the same notes, they finally hit a frequency that made our brains squirm, but it was worth it for a rare night of local rock that had the courage to venture off the set list. The All-Nighter Say what you want about DWIGHT YOAKAM, but on his latest trip through Nashville Sunday night at City Hall, the veteran of countless tours was doing anything but resting on his laurels. In a two-and-a-half hour set spanning 26 songs and two decades worth of albums, Yoakam showed yet again why he should be placed among country music’s all-time greats, including his mentor and muse, Buck Owens, who died earlier this year. Not only did Yoakam pay homage to Owens by playing “Big City” and two other heartfelt renditions of his songs, he also dedicated “Long White Cadillac” to him and even honored Bonnie Owens, Buck Owens’ former wife who died a month after Buck. With so many songs to play, Yoakam chose to flaunt his virtuosity, moving from rock-inflected songs (“I Want You to Want Me”) to mainstream country (“A Thousand Miles From Nowhere”) to Johnny Cash-style country (“Home of the Blues”) without a misstep in tone or tempo. The concert was anything but seamless, however. Yoakam’s affinity for high-volume monitors produced at least six ear-piercing squeals, the loudest of which occurred during an otherwise flawless performance of “The Distance Between You and Me.” The squeals are nothing new. Yoakam had the same problem when he played the Ryman last November. Even so, it was difficult to walk away from Sunday’s show unimpressed. Yoakam’s voice itself is worth the price of admission and his veteran band easily handled the tempo changes his live shows demand. A male fan actually gave a worship bow as Yoakam played “This Time” midway through the concert. Overkill? Sunday night it didn’t seem like it. Americanitis

Don’t miss WILL KIMBROUGH’s in-store at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Grimey’s in support of his newest Americanitis. The official CD release show is Saturday, July 29 at The Basement.

Email news, gossip and sightings of local music writers playing maracas to thespin@nasvhillescene.com.