The week of Thanksgiving has become one of the best times of the year for fans of Greater Cincinnati’s original music-makers. The Wednesday before the holiday has established itself as The Biggest Bar Night of the Year, so local music venues often have good shows that night. Besides most people being off of work/school Thursday, clubs benefit from the influx of people who’ve moved away, but are home visiting. And that can also mean that musicians who tour a lot are in town. All of this has resulted in the string of good local shows stretching into the post-Thanksgiving weekend.
Here are some solid options for live, original local music this week:
• The best “band-bang-for-your-buck” Thanksgiving Eve show is all about local music — and lots of it. The “Get Stuffed on Local Music” event takes over the three stages at Southgate House Revival (111 E. Sixth St., Newport,
southgatehouse.com ) Wednesday, showcasing more than 15 of Greater Cincinnati’s finest, playing various shades of Rock and Roots music. Slated to appear:
Frontier Folk Nebraska ,
Mad Anthony ,
The Warsaw Falcons ,
Mark Utley and Bulletville ,
Daniel In Stereo ,
Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound ,
Wilder ,
The G. Burton Story ,
Jared Schaedle ,
Harlot ,
The Debtors ,
Doctor Bombay and The Atomic Bachelor Pad ,
Ben Knight and The Well Diggers ,
Dead Man String Band ,
Sweet Ray Laurel and
Pete Dressman and the Soul Unified Nation .
The show begins at 8 p.m. and the first 100 people through the door receive a free compilation CD with music from the night’s performers. Admission is $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
• The folks who run MOTR Pub (1345 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, motrpub.com) and its across-the-street counterpart, Woodward Theater (1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, woodwardtheater.com), are presenting a double-venue bash Wednesday. The shows at both clubs are free. At MOTR, unique Indie/Post Rock group Us, Today headlines, celebrating its fifth anniversary, while Dark Colour opens the show at 10 p.m. Things kick off at 8:30 p.m. at the Woodward, which hosts Season Ten, Common Center, Moonbeau and Orchards.
• The annual charity concert “Thanksgivin’ Rockin’ Eve” returns Wednesday for its third year to the 20th Century Theater (3021 Madison Road, Oakley, the20thcenturytheater.com). The show collects monetary and non-perishable food donations for the Oakley Community Emergency Food Pantry; a donation gets you $2 off the $15 admission at the door (tickets are available in advance through cincyticket.com for $12). Rockers Lemon Sky headline the 8 p.m. event; Jamwave and The High Definition are also on the bill.
• Cincy Funk great Freekbass and his band, The Bump Assembly are gearing up for the national release of their debut album for the Ropeadope label (home to releases by artists like Antibalas, Snarky Puppy, Phish’s Mike Gordon and Medeski Martin & Wood). The full-length, titled Cincinnati, will be released to the rest of the world Dec. 11, but local fans can get an early jump on the street date. Freekbass & The Bump Assembly (which tours so much, hometown shows are rare) play an album-release show this Friday at Newport’s Southgate House Revival, where copies of Cincinnati will be available publicly for the first time.
Here’s the album’s first single, “Put It In a Letter”:
The Almighty Get Down opens the show at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 the day of the show.
• Another Cincinnati band that spends a lot of time on the road, heavy rockers Electric Citizen (which has toured with artists like Fu Manchu, Wolfmother and Pentagram over the past two years), will play its first hometown show in several months. The band headlines the Woodward Theater Saturday, with Pittsburgh’s Carousel opening at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 through cincyticket.com or $7 at the door.
Earlier this month, Electric Citizen finished mixing its second full-length at Easy Eye Sound, Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach’s studio in Nashville, Tenn. The group recorded the album with Cincinnati’s Brian Olive, who also produced its debut, 2014’s Sateen. California’s RidingEasy Records is releasing the album, which is due this spring.
Music video for Electric Citizen’s Sateen track, “Light Years Beyond”:
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2015.