Gonzalez boasts silky-smooth voice, guitar
Jose Gonzalez — 9 p . m . Saturday in the Wexner Center for the Arts performance space , 1871 N . High St . ( 614-292-3535 )
Gonzalez, born in Argentina and raised in Sweden, has made waves with his velvety voice and lilting acoustic guitar. The combination yields a pastoral folk sound.
His debut album, Veneer, might be sparse on instrumentation, but it bursts with melody and emotional depth.
Tickets cost $12 at the Wexner/Mershon box office and Ticketmaster outlets.
• Ben Kweller — doors open at 7 tonight in the Newport Music Hall , 1722 N . High St . ( 614-358-7625 )
On Ben Kweller, the former Radish frontman takes matters into his own hands. Kweller composed and played everything on the album. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter is maturing into his own delightful niche, taking inspiration from Bruce Springsteen and Brian Wilson in creating sunny yet complex pop songs.
Tickets cost $20 at the Newport box office and Ticketmaster.
• Kid Kongo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds — 9 p . m . Friday in Skully’s Music Diner , 1151 N . High St . ( 614-291-8856 )
Kid Kongo Powers — a Nick Cave associate, a former Cramps and Gun Club guitarist and the man the New York Post called “the coolest-looking guy in New York” — leads the Pink Monkey Birds, a New York band that operates in the middle of garage rock and the blues.
Admission is $5.
• Grafton ( compact - disc release ) — 10 p . m . Friday in Cafe Bourbon Street , 2216 Summit St . ( 614-268-9377 )
Grafton bridges a Columbus rock-scene standby — twanglaced bombast — and the fashionable sounds of crusty noisepunk.
The power trio’s latest salvo, Jumpstart Wire, is as dirty and gritty as the West Virginia coal town from which the band takes its name. The album, however, features a louder, tighter and angrier Grafton.
Times New Viking and the Patsys will also play. Admission is $5.
• Drive - By Truckers , the Drams — doors open at 8 p . m . Friday in the Newport Music Hall , 1722 N . High St . ( 614-358- 7625 )
If you want declarations of Southern small-town pride, tales of barroom bravado and don’t-tread-on-me boisterousness, look to Montgomery Gentry.
If you want poetic, meticulously handcrafted, literate lyrics in songs that rock, check out the Drive-By Truckers — the pride of Athens, Ga.
The Drams — equally Southern, equally rocking — will also play.
Tickets cost $15 at the Newport box office and Ticketmaster, $18 the day of the show.
• The Wrens — doors open at 8 p . m . Friday in Little Brother’s , 1100 N . High St . ( 614-421-2025 )
New Jersey’s the Wrens took eight long years to surface their proper sophomore album, The Meadowlands. Although it was lauded as a glorious comeback and an indispensable addition to college-radio playlists, that was more than three years ago. The group is milking its subtle masterpiece for all it’s worth.
Dayton’s Swearing at Motorists will also play.
Tickets cost $12 at the club and Ticketmaster, $14 the day of the show.
• Dr . Duke Tumatoe — doors open at 7 p . m . Friday in the Blues Station , 147 Vine St . ( 614- 884-2583 )
Despite having a name that Dr. Demento would love, Tumatoe is no novelty act. The surly, humorous blues singer and guitarist has the chops and pedigree. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago, was a member of REO Speedwagon and recorded an album produced by John Fogerty.
Despite all the yuks on his new outing, Tumatoe delivers some mighty-soulful blues grooves and a few dizzying solos. On the title track, You’ve Got the Problem! Tumatoe chastises his woman for telling him he drinks too much while insisting it is she who doesn’t drink enough.
Tickets cost $8.
• Icebox Music Series : Bloom — 9 p . m . Saturday in the Milo Art Building , 617 E . 3 rd Ave . ( 614-397-6185 )
Avant-garde jazz band Bloom consists of pianist Thollem Mcdonas, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Rent Romus and percussionist and “found-object” player Jon Brumit.
Mcdonas is classically schooled and bent toward anarchy, having performed in diverse ensembles worldwide.
Brumit has presented his work in many countercultural venues.
Romus provides the forum for the group via his label Edgetone Records, which has recently released the band’s debut, a sometimes-disorienting tour of world music, atonal and freeform structures, and off-thehook improvising.
Admission is $5 to $10.
• Eric Metronome ( CD re lease ) — doors open at
6 p . m . Saturday in Little Brother’s , 1100 N . High St . ( 614-421-2025 )
Eric Rottmayer, former member of the now-defunct Columbus rock band Tiara, has always released songs as “Eric Metronome,” but You Should Be Happy is his first batch of tunes to ditch the lo-fi aesthetics and delve into an assortment of beautifully arranged singersongwriterly dispatches from the basement.
The Randys and Megan Palmer will also play. Admission is $3 to $5.
• Earwig ( CD release ) — 9 p . m . Saturday in Cafe Bour bon Street , 2216 Summit St . ( 614-268-9377 )
Guitarist-singer Lizard McGee, bassist-singer Matt Wagner and drummer Justin Crooks are Earwig, and the Columbus band’s third independently released album — and its best — is Center of the Earth.
Additional Columbus personnel on the record include Brad Swiniarski (keyboards), Jess Faller (keyboards), Dan Gerken (cello), Justin Riley (electric piano) and Marcy Mays (vocals).
At Center of the Earth’s core is a trio that writes superbly crafted, taut, three-minute rock songs. Lots of bands write such songs, but few are written that anyone wants to hear more than once. The rhythm section packs a wallop and swings like a monster. McGee’s voice delivers lyrics that avoid cliches. His strings of words are of the smart, multilayered variety that reward listeners.
The Rosehips and the Proper Nouns will also perform. Admission is $4.
• Lisa Germano — doors open at 6 p . m . Sunday in Little Brother’s , 1100 N . High St . ( 614- 421-2025 )
Germano, who fiddled in John Mellencamp’s band for seven years, recently released In the Maybe World on Young God Records, a label that has put out music by psychedelic-folk man Devendra Banhart.
In addition to releasing albums that ought to appeal to fans of Cat Power, Joni Mitchell and Tori Amos, Germano remains an in-demand touring and session musician; a shortlist of the who’s who includes David Bowie, Calexico, Eels and Iggy Pop.
Tickets cost $10 at the club and Ticketmaster, $12 the day of the show.
The Flex Crew will perform its weekly reggae show at 10 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $7.
• Trivium — doors open at 6:30 p . m . Sunday in the New port Music Hall , 1722 N . High St . ( 614-358-7625 )
The thrash band Trivium borrows heavily from Metallica — the Metallica that made And Justice for All and Kill ’em All.
In the lyrics department, the group cribs from what seems to be someone’s overwritten sociology thesis. On the opening track of The Crusade, which was released Tuesday, the band is concerned with “the children” and modern “homophobia” and “ignorance.” The group always tackles the big picture, which doesn’t work with three- and four-minute metal songs.
No matter. Put the words out of your head. The band’s musical skills will drop jaws.
Sanctity, the Sword and Protest the Hero will also play. Tickets cost $15 at the Newport box office and Ticketmaster, $18 the day of the show.
• Gitogito Hustler — doors open at 9 p . m . Sunday in the High Five Bar & Grill , 1227 N . High St . ( 614-421-2998 )
Gitogito Hustler — the Ramones if the Ramones were always-smiling women from Tokyo instead of hooligans from New York — recently released Love & Roll on Gearhead Records, home of the Hellacopters, the Hives, New Bomb Turks and other rough-andtumble garage-rock acts.
The ladies sing in Japanese, but the music is so loud and involves so many Ramones-like chants that no one could possibly care what they’re singing about.
Admission is $3 to $10.
• Amy Annelle and the Places — 8 p . m . Tuesday in Used Kids Records , 1980 N . High St . ( 614- 294-3833 )
Annelle, who has toured with the Decemberists, played her only other concert in Columbus with one of Lucinda Williams’ idols: singer-songwriter Michael Hurley.
Having spent time as a carnival worker, forest ranger, chambermaid and all-around scrappy laborer, the roving singerguitarist has accumulated many experiences to draw from when writing songs. Annelle will showcase tunes from her latest album of leftfield folk-rock, Songs for Creeps. Admission is free. The phone number for Ticketmaster is 614-431-3600. Compiled by Aaron Beck, Kevin Elliott and Curtis Schieber abeck@dispatch.com
