• Tonight at Covington’s Madison Theater you can catch two of the the best and most influential Roots Rock bands of the past 20 years. Drive-By Truckers and Old 97’s might not have had the expansive, obvious influence of, say, Wilco or My Morning Jacket (who also joined forces to tour this year, joined by some guy named Bob Dylan on the summertime Americanarama tour), but it would be foolish to overlook the impact these two bands have had on aspiring artists.
While both groups recently announced the completion of new albums, their current tour together finds each act promoting some refurbished older material. The Old 97’s released the Old 97’s & Waylon Jennings EP in October. The release includes a pair of tracks recorded in 1996 with the Country legend (they were some of Jennings’ final recordings before he died), plus a few unreleased demos. Drive-By Truckers also did some vault-digging, reissuing a remastered version of the band’s third album, the long out-of-print 2000 live effort, Alabama Ass Whuppin’. (Read CityBeat’s Truckers preview here.)
Tonight’s show at the Madison starts at 8 p.m. and is open to all ages. Tickets are $27 at the door.
Here’s one of the Old 97’s’ collaborations with Jennings, “The Other Shoe”:
• A pair of Detroit-area MidPoint Music Festival veterans — Jeecy and the Jungle (which played the Cincy fest this year) and Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas (who played in 2012) — return to the city tonight for a great double-bill at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. Showtime is 10 p.m. and there is no admission fee.
Both bands have varying elements of R&B, Funk and Soul, which they spin with their own distinct magic. Jeecy and the Jungle go for a gritty, spiky take on R&B reflecting the Garage and Soul spirits of Detroit’s rich musical history, while the Deltas make uniquely broad, evocative Alt/Indie Pop/Rock driven by Hernandez’s phenomenal vocals, which show a fantastic Soul influence.
Hernandez & the Deltas have a new EP called Demons that is officially released next week, though you’ll be able to pick up the CD version at MOTR tonight. Paste magazine recently debuted the material; check out a track below:
• Seems like the Cincinnati area has become a favorite stop for touring artists from the exploding “live Electronica” scene. Arpetrio is a Knoxville, Tenn.-based, improv-happy guitar/bass/drums trio (with each member adding Electro ornamentation) that has been lauded for its trippy, Jazz-like take of live EDM, which touches on Trip Hop, Trap, Trance, Dubstep and other modern Electronic music elements. The group’s This Side Up EP is available as a free download here; get a sample below:
Arpetrio performs tonight at Corryville’s The Mad Frog. Showtime is 9 p.m. Also on the bill is Ethosine, a Cincinnati quartet featuring members of Skeetones, Bubble Life and The Jive Turkeys. The group also has a free EP you can download — click here or on the player below.
• Nashville Indie Pop Rock crew The Features, which has built up a nice following in Cincy (and appeared at this past summer’s Bunbury Music Festival), returns to the area tonight for an 8:30 p.m. show at the Taft Theatre’s Ballroom. Locals Justin WW and the Even Tiles open the show. Tickets are $15.
The Features’ danceable, highly melodic sound is on glorious display on their most recent album, a self-titled affair released through Kings of Leon’s Serpents and Snakes Records this past spring. Here’s the music video for the album’s “This Disorder,” a clever song about the effect of modern technologies (i.e. smartphones) on our society:
• Classic Country Rock band Poco was formed in 1968 by Richie Furay after his band with Stephen Stills and Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, called it a day. Despite a lineup that has revolved pretty much since the band began, Poco experienced great success in the ’70s and beyond; its debut, 1969’s Pickin’ Up the Pieces, is considered one of the greatest Country Rock releases of all time. This summer, Poco — now led by co-founder Rusty Young — released All Fired Up, its first album in over a decade.
The current edition of Poco performs tonight in Northern Kentucky at the Newport Syndicate. The pre-show dinner buffet (included in the ticket price) begins at 6 p.m., with openers Kinsey Rose and Laurel Kincaid beginning at 7:30 p.m. Admission ranges from $35-$70. Click here for details.
Here’s the title track from Poco’s most recent LP:
Click here for even more live music options in Greater Cincinnati tonight.
