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RECENT SIGHTINGS

It was an exceptionally great night for a Monday. It started with my first foray to the regular Monday Night Blues Jam at fabled Buddy Stewarts Rock Shop and Rhythm Museum (Washington and N. Acadian, starts rolling at 10 p.m., no cover, cheap drinks and great food cooked out front.) In the hall festooned with countless pictures and relics of Baton Rouges glory days of rhythm and blues, keyboardist Pharoah Johnson led the house band in a sweet juicy mix of blues, pop standards and soul. A highlights was a perfect rendition of the recently departed Lou Rawls Youll Never Find Another Love like Mine by Manchac Jazz Trio member Otis Johnson. Another was houseband guitarist Richard Bewleys sizzling leads in Herbie Hancocks Watermelon Man turned here into a punchy funk blues powerhouse by drummer Jerry Johnson and a bass explorer named Miguel. This is a decidedly funkier variation on the blues jam, but as Bewley explained, If it offends blues purists, it does say rhythm museum on the sign above the door, so we are covered.

Later on, I ventured into the world of underground hip-hop as Seattles Grayskul made a whistle stop at the Spanish Moon along with co-conspirators DimMak (the fabled "death touch" of martial arts lore), Fresnos Coley Cole and Barfly. In sheer velocity and agility, Coley Cole wins the spirit stick for his mindbender strafing runs and his funky interplay with Barfly, but Grayskul clearly owned the evening. Grayskul is a collective fronted by Old Dominion members Reason, the serious foundation layer and Recluse, who provided the flavor to the show, backed by some deft scratch action by DJ Wicked and a live bass player. Its hard to pull off a great hip-hop show, especially to a small crowd, but they made it happen.

Highlights were a scratch breakdown of Public Enemys Fight the Power and the vocoder enhanced The Skul. Carefully walking the balance between too serious and too goofy, Grayskul sidesteps the pratfalls that keep underground hip-hop artists from really flowering. This can be said of their album Deadlivers as well, references ranging from mass genocide, Sherlock Holmes and The Amityville Horror swarm by in a matter of seconds. It rocks in a hungry, strapping way mainstream hip-hop just doesn't anymore. I predict 2006 will be the year that underground hip-hop really enters the public consciousness, probably making it not underground anymore and messing the whole thing up. But thats OK, it will be a fun ride.

MUST SEE

Thurs Feb 2: Legendary singer songwriter Stephen Forbert appears at the Manship Theatre and later that evening, members of Galactic converge with Simon Lott as the Super Jam at SoGoLive

Sat Feb 4: Atlanta-based raunch-n-roll hellions Nashville Pussy bring their no holds barred hard rock to the Spanish Moon. If you like foxy women in varying states of undress that can tear off an ungodly wicked guitar solo (and who doent like that?) this is the pick of the week.

Mon Feb 6: Big Head Todd And the monsters wheel their revival show into the Varsity Theatre, with all original members and fresh material along with their 80-s alternative hits.

And finally, keep you fingers crossed, as the crew form Chelseas tries finish up their new home under the Perkins overpass in time to open sometime this month.