Music Blog

After successfully shoehorning myself into two shows of the three I sought to attend this weekend, I'm left with one burning question: are all these ugly people getting laid? No, I kid. My real question is: how do you draw a crowd in this town? Begging? Milking social media? Lap dances?

Friday night I thought I'd head over to Dub Land Underground for the Alexander Street joint's swan song, its ride into the sunset, its big adios. Apparently a million people had the same idea, as roughly 300 of them were piled up in line up the stairs and out to the street just to get in the door. I got to wondering -- if this wasn't the club's last night, would all those people have stormed the place? If they had done that routinely, would this have had to be the club's last night? It seemed too little, too late. It's a shame that Dub Land was the one of the last -- possibly the only -- remaining bastions of live music in this supposed entertainment neighborhood.

I swung over to Abilene, which provided a little more room with its leftover-from-happy-hour-crowd. They were all pumpin' and sweatin' to The Ghost Peppers' funky soul as the band stood on shaky ground and rocked it.

The Three Heads Brewing 3rd Annual Homegrown hootenanny at Lovin' Cup Saturday was totally off the hook as a ton of bands rocked a huge crowd. I suggest waiting a few months when it's warmer and move this event outside, as it was impossible to move indoors. I caught sets by Moho Collective, which didn't just play a set of music, but took listeners on a salaciously seething, sonic sojourn. The band's wonder and thrill was shared by the audience -- shaking asses, dropped jaws, and all of that. Subsoil followed and absolutely killed it; the horn section, the interwoven MCs, the funky bottom end all were just perfect. Best show I've seen in a while. That's how you get a crowd, sweetheart.