As part of the Broad Ripple Music Festival – Beta Male performed last Saturday at Birdy’s in front of a very enthusiastic crowd. This particular show was brought to us by The Midwest Emerging Artists.

Beta Male
http://www.myspace.com/betamale

Check out an interview Zaptown did with Beta Male prior to the festival below:

Band Spotlight: Beta Male

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All photos taken by Rachel Rubenstein.

Girl Talk

Girl Talk

Starfucker

Starfucker

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Belly Dancer for Beats Antique

Health

Rahzel

The Dandy Warhols

The Knew

Redman and Method Man

Redman and Method Man

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down

Roadside Graves

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

Chromeo

Passion Pit

Woodhands

Phoenix

Two weekends ago marked the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana. I spent a day in New Orleans and tried to capture as much of the Lower 9th Ward and the French Quarter as time would allow. This is part III of the series – and is also the final installment.

Also check out:

New Orleans 2009 I
New Orleans 2009 II

The MUDKIDS had a CD release show last night for their newest album ‘MKEP’ at the The Vollrath Tavern in Indianapolis. Emily Wells opened up and was really impressive. Check out the photos below!

Emily Wells
http://www.myspace.com/emilywells

MUDKIDS

http://www.myspace.com/mudkids

John Orr’s first ¡La Vida Variety! was hosted at Radio Radio in Indianapolis this past Friday. It was one of the most entertaining shows on so many levels that I have been to this year. I really hope John continues this event – be sure to let him know how great this show was!

Magician Taylor Martin
http://www.indymagicmonthly.com

Lord of the Yum Yum
http://www.lordoftheyumyum.com/

Comedian Phil Kijak

Creme De Les Femme
http://lenoreevermore.com/

The Last Domino
http://www.thelastdomino.com/

On an otherwise drab and uneventful Monday evening, My Old Kentucky Blog brought long-time indie-punk-rockers Cursive to Fountain Square to liven things up a bit. With a dance floor packed tighter than skinny jeans on a hipster and heads banging in the air ‘til the very last note, Radio Radio was unquestionably the place you wanted to be Monday night.

At the fault of no one but their own pitiful selves, the crowd lacked personality and friendliness. A little girl in a purple tank top tapped me on the shoulder and defied, in her snottiest voice, “Oh cool! You stole my spot!” as she nudged me out of the mass and into the aisle way. Countless couples were in attendance, apparently for the pleasure of public groping instead of live music. Perhaps most frustrating is that the whole audience knew the music and they knew it well, evident by the mass sing-alongs that transpired during much of the concert. But, with the exception of Cursive’s most rowdy songs, the energy was low and the fans appeared to be exactly opposite of just that.

Musically, Cursive is an acquired taste. Lead singer/guitarist Tim Kasher is their unique identifier, with a vocal range as wide as the color spectrum. His style is comparable to Modest Mouse and Ugly Casanova leader Isaac Brock, laced with slight Dr. Dog inspiration. As his songs disintegrate into wails that splinter and shriek like an adolescent in puberty, one of two things happen to the listener: instant discredit as a result of talentless vocal training or immediate memorization through the beautiful, other-worldly sounds created by a single soul. We all chose the latter.

The entire band gives it their all, though, and aids equally in the crude, vigorous sound. The leopard print carpet covering the stage where bassist Matt Maginn and guitarist Ted Stevens stood could only have been saturated in sweat at the show’s conclusion.

They’re not all fast tempo and yelling, however; Cursive also has a delicate, tranquil side. Most notable of these moments was the closing number prior to the encore set, What Have I Done from their latest album, Mama, I’m Swollen. What began as a seemingly standard song precipitously morphed into something unexpectedly grand. Riding the fence between spoken word and song, in What Have I Done Kasher reflects on life’s accomplishments both from the past and future. The song begins with heavy emphasis on lyrics (“So is this my destiny? From starlight into eternity, the gods must be laughing down at me.”) and light musical background. As it progresses, however, Kasher’s vocals are backed first by a steady bass line and percussion beat, then by building layer after layer of stately sound from the entire band. He rounds out the song wailing, rather than singing, in that sweet, beautiful voice of his.

The encore set was long, almost a mini-concert in itself, leaving one in awe of Cursive’s intensity and endurance. Again, the audience was presented with an equal mix of up-beat tunes and mellow rock. A tired and perspiring crowd clapped with gratitude and patted the band on the back as they exited the stage, closing the best Monday that most of us had experienced in a long, long time.

Cursive @ Radio Radio
http://www.cursivearmy.com

July 27th, 2009
Indianapolis, Indiana

(All Photos By Gary Mead)

A few friends and I hopped downtown to catch The Antlers play at The Vollrath Tavern on their way to Chicago for Pitchfork Music Festival.

The Antlers
http://www.antlersmusic.com

I was fortunate enough to see We Are Hex play live in Indianapolis again. The band played at The Vollrath Tavern, which is fast becoming a really popular spot to see live music.

We Are Hex (Indianapolis)
http://www.wearehex.com

*Boom!*

That’s the sound that should have been made when that vehicle ran into the pole almost mowing over members of Deastro. And maybe it did, but inside, the sounds of bottles clinking, music playing, and people gathered around a table to pick at pizza offered by Hot Box Pizza was all we heard.

If it wasn’t for people running in and out of The Vollrath, and potential gawkers outside, along with Randolph Chabot’s enticing story that he told wrapping around a tale about driving straight from Los Angeles to Indianapolis just to play here before heading back to Detroit, we would have never known about the chaos that was going on outside.

As Louisville-based band Invaders opened up, followed by the dance-frenzy sounds of Deastro, people got a taste of a rare afternoon show at the historic club. So what if it felt like a movie matinee with added cigarette smoke and booze, Deastro rocked and overall was in good spirits despite the slight pre-show scare.

- Andrew Duncan

Deastro
http://www.myspace.com/deastro