Tonight we have a veritable buffet of options before us. What are you going to stack onto your plate? Prototypical arena rock? Grounded folk? Ambient folk? Metal? Follow me after the jump to see your options for the evening.
Up first we have an arena-rock blowout at our friendly neighborhood enormodome — KISS with Def Leppard, a double-barreled blast of outsized, sequined, late-middle-aged party rock for which staffer Adam Gold penned the following Critic's Pick:
Sometimes opposites attract. When you really think about it, though both bands share an audience of steadfast heshers and pop-metal devotees, KISS and Def Leppard make a pretty odd couple for a co-headlining bill. The former is perhaps the quintessential P.T. Barnum-inspired American rock band, while the latter is about as British as spotted dick and bad hygiene (not the same thing, BTW). While recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees KISS have weathered their fair share of kriticism and kontroversy over a decade-or-so-old decision to sack co-founders Ace Frehley and Peter Criss while costuming imposters in their iconic makeup, Def Leppard is undoubtedly the most loyal rock act of all-time, keeping their drummer in the band after he lost an arm. And musically speaking, while KISS, consummate showmen that they are, were never known for note-perfect musical execution, slightly more earnest Def Leppard’s slick, fastidious blockbuster arena rock is essentially synonymous with superproducer Mutt Lange. What the two titanic bands do have in common, however, is — from “Pour Some Sugar on Me” to “Lick It Up — a catalog of top-shelf rock radio classics to make one helluva debaucherous double-header. ADAM GOLD
That one starts at 7 p.m. at Bridgestone, and
ticketsare still available for as little as $50.
Up next we have Alynda Lee Segarra and Yosi Pearlstein's Hurray for the Riff Raff, who will play Mercy Lounge alongside Nashville-transplant rock 'n' rollers Clear Plastic Masks. Jewly Hight did the pick thing on that one for us. Take it away, J:
One thing Hurray for the Riff Raff has in common with Clear Plastic Masks is that both groups cut their latest albums — Small Town Heroes and Being There, respectively — here at Andrija Tokic’s Bomb Shelter studio. Beyond that, the jagged hook-wielding guys in CPM actually made the move to Nashville (a couple years ago, as the Scene’s Claire Dodson reported back in May) while Alynda Lee Segarra and Yosi Pearlstein, the sole constants in an evolving HFTRR lineup, have strictly passed through and hung out a bunch. There was a time when Segarra and Pearlstein would crash on the couches or floors of friends in East Nashville, on their way to play the trans music fest Idapalooza at a rural Tennessee commune, and even last year you could catch them playing an intimate acoustic show at The End. Those days are gone now that the word’s out about Segarra’s wholly compelling new vision for rooted folk, informed by personal conviction, postmodern self-awareness, DIY initiative and retro pastiche. It’s worth experiencing, no matter the size of the room. JEWLY HIGHT
Starts at 9 p.m., and costs $18 at the door.
Now over to The Stone Fox, where ambient folk songstress Marissa Nadler will be joined by fellow folkie, Nashville's own Stone Jack Jones. Staffer Steve Haruch picked that one:
Considering that Bostonian Marissa Nadler once sold all her instruments and vowed never to work with a record label again, it’s a miracle of sorts that she ended up releasing July in February. We’re better for it: July is an excellent and worthwhile album — at once darker and denser than her previous work — and every now and then, you can almost make out the contours of some forgotten hill melody below the spectral vocals and echoic production. (Her music can be kind of like a cathedral built on an old country cemetery that way. She’s also shouted out Willie’s Roadhouse in interviews.) The hauntingly spare “Firecrackers,” the inspiration for the album’s summery title, wrings more emotion from a languidly strummed guitar and heavily reverbed vocals than most could, given the same simple tools, and the harmonies almost sound like they’ve been beamed from golden-age Nashville — by way of purgatory, maybe. Likeminded atmospheric folk rambler Stone Jack Jones opens. STEVE HARUCH
Starts at 9 p.m., costs $12.
And finally, let's talk metal. Philadelphia doom bands Sadgiqacea and Hivelords will lay waste to Springwater this evening, and locals Across Tundras and Black Tar Prophet are also on the bill. Sean L. Maloney wrote that one up for us. What say you, Maloney?
While I’m prone to ignoring pretty much all my Facebook event invites — sorry pal, I won’t be attending your open mic in Mooseknuckle, S.D. — I couldn’t ignore the one including the phrase, “divebar doomfest in the black heart of summer!” Sure, I love summer and I love sunshine (don’t tell my cult-buddies), but there’s just something about the slow, churning rumble of some righteous metal that makes me want to spend my time cloistered inside when the rest of the world is embracing the great outdoors. Hell, I’m so ready for some metal that I’ll go just about anywhere — as long as there’s air conditioning, of course — to see Philly doom outfits Sadgiqacea and Hivelords. With occult leanings and bludgeoning riffs, both acts peddle the kind of cosmic horror I was convinced existed only in my brain. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who thinks these sorts of evil thoughts in the middle of summer. SEAN L. MALONEY
That one costs $5 and, well, it's at Springwater, so it starts at rock o'clock.
Click here to poke around in the rest of our listings.
