225BatonRouge.com - Blogs

Last Friday saw the candle of Gas Food Lodging lit with simultaneous shows by the city’s finest, Elsah and The Eames Era. So the difficult coin toss pointed me to the Red Star to let Ashlin Philips and her Eames crew bedazzle me with shimmering pop goodness. The downtown club was packed with enough of the beautiful people for it to technically qualify as a Myspace node.

First up was intrepid Red Star sound engineer’s band The Mike Pinter Four, who I’d probably dub equal parts Ryan Adams (like from around “Gold”) and Bryan Adams (from the “Cuts Like a Knife” era) with a liberal does of sturdy Midwestern alternative rock thrown in. The songs all mesh together like the great college rock songs of the late 80’s do; they included a Split Enz cover just to underscore it.

The Eames Era was in full flower. Ashlin proclaimed at one point that “This is the only crowd that makes me want to put on my party clothes.” The Eames Era is tight. They deftly wedged ba-ba-bah backup vocals in the precise spots needed in their twin-guitar interplay. The band tore through most of their recorded material of the evening, with all the ladies in the front mouthing every word.

Ashlin is a distinctive frontwoman. She’s is willing to be joyous and goofy and rock out with the band. The finest moment came when the band trotted out a new song, and something clicked. The sound was fuller, the beat was more internalized and threaded throughout the songs, and it carried through for the rest of the evening. One always wonders if a band can pull off a second album after a juicy first, but I think the Eames Era has a handle on it. “Could Be Anything” wins the spirit stick at this pep rally, and the band is clearly a crowd favorite as well. It’s great to see this band not only keeping up with an auspicious start, but growing too.

That night of indie pop excellence contrasted with the dark night of the soul reeled out by North Carolina songwriter Malcolm Holcolmbe at the Red Dragon Listening Room on Saturday March 11. Holcolmbe was swept up in the alternative roundup performed by Geffen in the 90’s but issues derailed his promising major debut. His recent self-produced CD "I never Heard You Knockin" offers up a clear picture of this difficult but rewarding singer. To say his voice is rough and road-weary is like saying pudding is enjoyable to children. His cigarette-addled vocal chords are like the smack of a loose barn board in the wind, abrupt and powerful. His only accompaniment is his guitar, which he varies by assaulting with line-snapping power and beautiful tranquil fingerpicking. His rambling stage banter took to forming inside jokes with the audience, and was a nice way to bookend his tales of lost souls and spent love. His hard luck story is not one searching for pity, but a maze of realization and redemption; a beam of light shooting through a clean spot in a dirty window.

Personally, this is how I like my singer-songwriters. I like the whiskey straight without a lot of unnecessary cleanup. It’s neither pristine or low-fi, it’s just laid bare and honest. The best performances of the evening were “Kiss Me While I’m Sleeping” and “Doin’ His Job” which tethered their angry dog menace with almost baroque guitar work. Guys like this follow on the thread of singers like Townes van Zandt, Richard Buckner and Billy Joe Shaver, all meeting the cruel world head on.

Plus, the Red Dragon is such a weirdly comfortable place to experience this music. The regulars treat each show as a polite social occasion, bringing snacks and free drinks (the cover usually hovers around $10, and all proceeds go to the artist) and then they assemble in the limited seating main room to have an itinerant soul spilled out before them. Holcolmbe comes in a close second to the Myshkin show I witnessed a couple weeks back, but really, each show at the Red Dragon is a powerful event if you are in tune with it.

DON’T BLOW IT

Gas Food Lodging gains its momentum this week, so get out and see some shows. You know nothing on TV is going to hold up after Sunday's Sopranos anyway.

Tuesday, March 14: Six Parts Seven, Celebration (who appear in the 225 March issue) and The Rogers Sisters, rock it monkey-style at Red Star, Elf Power with Man Man at the Spanish Moon.

Wednesday, March 15: Magnolia Electric Co , with the Heavenly States and Harlan at the Spanish Moon. This is the one show you are just blame foolish if you miss. Really. I might have to come after you.

Thursday, March 16: Neo garage disciples the Woggles kick out the jams at Red Star; TJ Black puts on an art show along with performances by his Souls of Blues Revival and new band The Great Everything unfold before you at SoGo. And for the sturdy of heart, Six Feet Under, a metal supergroup featuring Chris Barnes of Cannibal Corpse, Allen West of Obituary and Terry Butler of Death, will unleash holy Hell early in the evening at the Darkroom.

Friday, March 17: The flood of funkiness from SoGo continues when members of Galactic participate in the ever-evolving Super Jam

Saturday, march 18: Thunderbirds are Now! land at Spanish Moon

Monday, March 20th: Very excited to go see the latest big shot on the weirdy-beardie avant rock troubadour circuit Wodden Wand appear at the Red Star with They Shoot Horses.

Where is Chelsea's in all this? Still tacking up sheetrock and beer signs to open in time for the a St Patrick’s Day parade rolling right by its new location.