Bloglander

As a part of the Pepsi Outdoor Summer Concerts, Darius Rucker will be performing at Northern Quest Casino on August 4th at 7 pm. Don’t have your tickets yet? Can't stand the thought of missing Hootie (from the former blowfish)? We've got you covered.

Click here to win four free tickets. Contest ends August 1. Drawing Aug. 2. 

This just in: The Used will return to play a show at the Knitting Factory on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Tickets go on sale — $26 bucks a pop — this Friday (July 27) at 10 am at ticketfly.com.

TONIGHT!

KING TUFF

You know what’s nice to hear? No post rock. No doom. No sub-genre this, or splintered genre that. But some good old rock and roll. That’s what you’ll get from King Tuff — a Sub Pop rock band we can thank Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party for trickling over this way afterward. The guitar-based band shows a great macho/innocent juxtaposition on songs like “Bad Thing,” using cutesy boy toy vocals and garage-tough guitars. And, of course, there’s a great 1960s vibe to them. “Sun Medallion” has great lines you don’t hear much anymore — where girls get compared to beautiful automobiles: “She’s a mean green Chevrolet, I felt the engine turning.”King Tuff plays with the Coathangers, Jaill and the Vicious Things at 10 pm. $10. Gotta be 21.

Other notable shows worth checking out:

- The Hague (read out profile of the band, mostly made up of Coeur d'Alene natives, here) with Drag Like Pull and Diamond Speedboat at Carr's Corner. (21)

- Ian Miles (punk/singer-songwriter) at Jones Radiator (21)

- Cathedral Pearls with Terrible Buttons (indie/folk) and Cedar & Boyer at Nyne. Read Terrible Buttons diary of their Alaskan summer tour here. (21)

SATURDAY!

Your best bet for a great time? BBBBandits with Team Growl at Jones Radiator (21)

It’s time to bust out your hairspray and dust off your platform dancing shoes: Earth, Wind & Fire is coming to a casino near you. Merging jazz, R&B, soul, funk, rock, and yes, even disco, this legendary band has been together since 1969 and is still touring internationally. They are renowned as one of the most successful bands of all time, earning 20 Grammy nominations, and five members of the group are recognized in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. But, being a big fan, you probably already knew that, right? Catch the show tonight at 7 pm at Northern Quest Casino. Tickets: $30-$60

The Chris Issak concert slated at Riverfront Park has changed locations “due to extreme heat and poor air quality” Issak’s press people claim. Looks like there will be no fainting women in Spokane...(at least due to the heat that is).

Now, the concert featuring the country crooner will be held at The Fox Theater in downtown Spokane. Catch the performance on July 25 at 7 pm. Tickets: $35-$55. Call: 624-1200 Click here to purchase tickets online.

Caution: While sultry, this video is still PG compared to today’s erotic standards (see Fifty Shades of Grey)

Concert with a view? Check. A handful of Spokane’s most talented bands? Check. Prize giveaways? Check. Party with a good cause? Check. The folks at the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga have your Thursday night plans covered with their benefit concert featuring MisHap@57, Sunshine Disaster, Tim Blood and the Gutpanthers, who we profiled here, the Camaros, and the BBBBandits, who we profiled here.

The rooftop concert at the Saranac building benefits the non-profit organization that provides meals to low-income seniors, after school programs, youth shelters, and homeless men and women in the Spokane. Check out their show tonight from 6 pm-close. Tickets $10 advance, $12 door. Purchase your tickets here. 

The latest installation in our Bands in Vans series, local singer-songwriter Liz Rognes writes us from a tour through the Midwest — where she lived for years and got her start in music. She checks in from Minnesota.

Since I left Spokane almost two weeks ago, I’ve driven just over 2,000 miles by myself in a car stuffed with a guitar, a folk harp, a PA system that feels like it weighs a million tons (and that, consequently, has left me with a very literal pain in the back), a few mic stands, boxes full of my brand new album, and a haphazardly filled laundry basket full of clothes. I drove from Spokane to Okoboji, Iowa in three days, and in the middle of that drive, I played an impromptu house show in a hostel in the Black Hills for an unlikely audience which consisted of at least one church lady and a guy on some kind of practice ride for Sturgis. One never knows when a guitar will come in handy.

Not counting the church lady/Sturgis thing, I’ve played two official shows on this tour so far: one in a backyard with half grownups, half kids; and one in a bar with half modestly drunk people, half people in sobriety. One show featured 90 degree outdoor Midwestern heat (today there’s a heat index of 105), humidity, mosquitoes, and a rogue four-year old who kept sneaking up to my harp for a strum; the other show featured a drunk lady sitting nearly on the stage, telling me, “Mama liiiiike,” when I sang. But both shows, first and foremost, featured an audience of many supportive friends and family whom I love and a strong feeling of celebration about the release of this new album. There were people at these shows from many different parts of my past — I am so lucky to have the kind of support that I have!

I played the backyard show completely solo, which was fun because I haven’t played a solo show in a long time, and a lot of kids I used to teach and old friends were there. But the show on Saturday night was with my Minneapolis band: Dan Zamzow, Jake Staron, and Bethany DeLine. How lucky am I to get to have two bands? I have a band in Minneapolis, and a band in Spokane. I’m immensely lucky. These Minneapolis bandmates are some of my best friends in this city, and they are all multi-instrumentalists, so there was a lot of shuffling happening onstage as we swapped instruments, or as Bethany put on her tap shoes. Tap shoes? Yes, there was a tap dancer in my band on Saturday night! Here’s a video (by my friend Charlie McAnulty) of us performing, “What I Can’t Have,” at Acadia Café in Minneapolis, featuring Bethany DeLine’s tap dancing.

These release shows have also required the generous help of my sister. She lives in Mexico, but she’s in the Midwest right now, and she spent the weekend with me, helping me load gear, hanging out at band practice, helping me transport my tap dancer, and playing a highly undervalued role: post-show comic for the musician. She won’t be able to head West with me as I tour back to Spokane and on to Seattle and Portland in the next couple of weeks, and I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do without her help.

Anyway, my sister’s antics are what kept me seated at Pizza Luce in St. Paul, MN on Friday night after the backyard show for like two hours in the air conditioning, eating vegan pizza and laughing up tears. My friends and I watched my sister avoid the path of busy servers carrying hot pizza and pints of beer as she crawled on all fours across the floor of the restaurant at midnight. I think she was a little tipsy from boxed wine at the outdoor pre-release show, and she (obviously) was imitating an adult male gorilla. This might seem like bizarre behavior from an adult woman person, but this kind of triple digit heat index and humidity brings makes us all feel a little like monkey-ing around.

I’m taking a little break this week, over the 4th of July, to visit my parents in Iowa again (where, apparently it’s even hotter), and then I’ll be heading West. My next album release tour show is in Livingston, Montana, with The Old Tire Swingers, a bluegrass band I met in Denver a few weeks ago, when I tagged along on a tour with four guys in a rock and roll band (Spokane’s Buffalo Jones), but that’s another story.

Stay cool, Spokane. I miss you.

The following is the latest installment of local band Terrible Buttons' road trip diary, written by keyboardist Sarah Berentson. 

The final stretch of tour was a whirlwind. We headed back to Denali to pick up Reed Lakes, all still a little confused about the events in Fairbanks, and headed to Talkeetna — which seemed to be our Alaskan home - to play a show in the busiest bar in town. The place was packed, and fully equipped with hula-hoopers and a rowdy crowd. The energy was through the roof. Leaving Talkeetna was bittersweet, and it meant that we were heading to our last show.

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We left for Anchorage in the afternoon and were met with familiar faces. Many people who had come to other shows drove out for our last show in Alaska, pleasantly surprising us. Better yet, they all brought new friends to share our music with. We had several people approach us telling us that a friend had called them and insisted they come. It felt good to be so supported in a state we had spent less than 2 weeks in. Needless to say, Anchorage was a good way to close our tour, and we were ready to take the Alaska-Canada highway back home.

Unfortunately, the van still had a broken radiator, the only thing between us and the road to Spokane. We drove her to a radiator shop, hoping for a quick fix, but instead we waited on the curb outside a potato chip distributing company for 8 hours. Shaun, our trusty radiator hero, came out to tell us that he wouldn’t be done until the following afternoon. Morale was at the lowest it had been all trip.

We walked, heads down, towards the van and retrieved our backpacks, pillows, and sleeping bags, and started to brainstorm a plan for the evening. A man who worked at the distributing company had approached Kris earlier, worried that we were planning on camping in their yard. Kris told him what was going on, and assured him we wouldn’t try to sleep in front of their business. Moments later, Gary emerged from the building with a box full of food, saying “Here, this should hold you over. Good luck.”

We didn’t know what to do, so we headed down the street in hopes of finding a bar. We walked into a sports bar three blocks later with our backpacks, sleeping bags, and pillows. We were quite the sight.

By a stroke of unexpected luck, Evan (the great man who booked our tour) informed us that the owner of The Brown Bear Saloon, where we had played earlier in tour, would put us up in a cabin behind his bar for the evening. Evan came and picked us up in his big blue van. So instead of spending the night on the streets of Anchorage we played pool, drank beers, and had somewhat of a slumber party in a cabin in the woods.

The next day we reluctantly forked over the cash for our van repairs, and were on the road for fifteen minutes before we turned back to the radiator shop. Something just wasn’t right. Shaun, though unhappy to see us, provided us with a quick fix, and she was finally running like a dream. We were on the road, 24 hours later than previously anticipated, and we couldn’t believe it.

About an hour into the drive we stopped at a gas station. Ryan Georgioff, keyboardist and vocalist for Reed Lakes, was catching a ride back to Spokane with us, but in a moment of impulse, he decided to hitchhike back to Talkeetna. Moments later, KB was informed that her childhood dog had died, and seconds later we received a phone call about the police shooting in Spokane. We were feeling strange and sullen, but continued to drive. As the drive progressed and grew in beauty, we regained our energy, and our spirits.

The drive home did not affect us mentally at the same intensity as the one to Alaska. We were anxious to get home. Once we entered Canada, it seemed like we were in a zoo. We saw herds of Bison, adults and babies, and the same for mountain goats. A small black bear in the middle of the road, indifferently approached our van, and we even saw a cub.

We approached the border to enter into the United States, and for the first time, had our van searched. As we were inside, the border patrol asked us how much alcohol we had in the van. We replied, “Only a few shots.” He raised his voice, in a tone that could have either intended humor or intimidation, “I don’t care how much you have in your bodies! I want to know how much you have in the van.” During the inspection the men inside put on “Mother’s Medicine” from our album, and we all felt a little relieved - until they mentioned the tour video blog.

The last three hours of the drive were the longest, and anxiety to get home turned quickly into insanity. We sang, yelled, laughed, and impatiently awaited the lights of Spokane. We’ve all rested up, and are reminding ourselves what life is like in Spokane. It’s good to be home.

Oh! You must be wondering about total the bear count. We ended up seeing a total of 28 bears on the way home, making the bear count a grand total of 36: equaling roughly three and a half naked runs around the van, but that information will remain between us and the Yukon.

We entered Girdwood in high spirits. Reed Lakes, the band we’re touring with, introduced us to their friend Gator who owns The Grind, a specialty gift store/coffee shop with old arcade games and we promptly turned it into our living room. We played our first show there on the back patio of The Silvertip to a smaller, but engaged and intimate crowd.

The next night was the night of the house show. We had heard stories about house shows in Girdwood, and especially house shows with Reed Lakes. According to the head of the agency that booked the tour, they are legendary in Alaska for their house show romps, and they did not disappoint. Gator brought over an army parachute, and Bradley (guitarist for Reed Lakes) cut down a tree with an axe to prop it up over the deck. When it comes to house shows in Alaska, people are ready to do whatever it takes to create the best environment, even if they have to chop down a tree.

The night was rowdy, so rowdy in fact that a massacre occurred. When everyone had cleared out of the house, Kent and Ryan started a covert mission to slaughter every single mosquito that had nestled on the walls of our sleeping quarters. We all know by the welts on our arms that mosquitoes suck blood, but we didn’t realize how much. With each blow came a squirt of blood on the wall, and by the end it truly looked like a massacre had occurred. The next day they took rags to the walls to hide the damage.

Due to a mix up in booking, we had the next night off and fled to Talkeetna to Greg’s (Reed Lake’s drummer) property in the woods to camp. We each took turns shooting a .22 rifle at beer can targets, collected birch bark for fire fuel, and making bets on how quickly items would burn in the fire.

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The Buttons headed out alone to the northernmost venue on our trip, The Marlin in Fairbanks. We had no idea what to expect without our Alaskan experts, but even they could not have foreseen the events that took place.

There were over 200 people at the show, and the majority didn’t come for us. One man bought $44 worth of buttons, and was our biggest buyer of the night, topping the charts of most buttons ever sold. A middle aged woman aggressively bought us shots, and kept approaching my keyboard during our set, and eventually was dragged out of the bar by her g-string and her hair, slammed against the wall, and thrown outside. This all occurred during “Divorce Papers,” certainly our most rowdy of songs.

We met a wonderful man named Nick who graciously put us up. Unfortunately we didn’t realize he lived pretty far out into the woods. We were lost on the world’s worst dirt road, and arrived around 5 am after getting mauled by mosquitoes. I personally made the mistake of peeing outside the van, on a dirt road, surrounded by marsh. Needless to say, I received bites close to places I can’t even write about. When we finally arrived, Nick was waiting with OJ and a smile.

I left the room after introductions were made, and returned five minutes later to Jon saying, “ Yeah, I want the outline of Alaska! Can you do it?” Nick got out his tattoo gun and 45 minutes later Jon Kielbon had a tattoo of Alaska on his bicep. Tour is full of surprises.