I hope you get to enjoy your weekend. I’ll be buried at It’s Evansville headquarters. Have a drink on me.

Friday

• Wired has a show tonight at 7PM. featuring Gentlemen & Scholars, Pensive and Slick Nicolas.
• Boney June’s has a show at 8PM featuring Third Man Down, Fighting Through and Interrupted By A Nightmare.
• Quarter Note has Bob Ballard at 8PM.
• Nathan Mowery is at Ri-Ra at 8PM.
• Club Royale has The Beat Daddy’s at 8:30PM.
• Muzaic is at Deerhead at 9PM.
• JEB is at The Duck Inn at 10PM.
• Uno Yoko is at Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• Andy Norvell is at Fox & Hound at 10PM.
• Stompbox 40 is at O’Brians at 10PM.
• Panacea is at Lanhucks at 10:30PM.
• Little Cheers has Bosko at 10:30PM.

Saturday

• It’s open mic night at Wired starting at 7PM.
• Boney Junes has a show at 8PM featuring Walt Whitman, The Burial Gorilla Monsoon and Zombie Chickens from Outer Space.
• Bob Ballard is at Quarter Note at 8PM.
• Ryan Gibbens is at Ri-Ra at 8PM.
• Club Royale has The Beat Daddy’s at 8:30PM.
• Namasté is at Deerhead at 9PM.
• Quasimojo is at Smitty’s at 9PM.
• The John Hussman Trio is at Chilly Willy’s at 10PM.
• Fast Eddy’s has Six Hills Giant at 10PM.
• Stompbox 40 is at O’Brians at 10PM.
• Panacea is at Lanhucks at 10:30PM.

Movies

Opening this weekend.

• My pick: Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan in Gone Baby Gone.
• Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro in Thing We Lost In The Fire.
• Josh Hartnett starring in 30 Days Of Night.
• Rendition featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon.

If you have an event you’d like to tell us about, either email us a tip or post it on Upcoming.org

photo courtesy of Bosko

Sorry for being behind today. Let’s go out, drink and listen to music to make up for it.

Friday

• The Angel Mounds Music Festival is going on right now. Go check it out.
• The Winner’s Circle, First Class Prodigy and Oh So Obvious are Wired at 7PM.
• The Osmond Brothers are at Hoosier’s Lounge at 7:30PM.
• Light Travels Faster, Quin The Eskimo, Justin Waddington and Onward to Iowa are at Boney June’s at 8PM.
• J Cameron is at The Jungle at 8PM.
• Nathan Mowery is at Ri-Ra at 8PM.
• The Hog-Maw Blues Band is at Deerhead at 9PM.
• Cheap Date is at Smitty’s at 9PM.
• Uno Yoko is at Time Out at 9PM.
• Bonepony is at The Duck Inn at 10PM.
• Static is playing Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• The Osmond Brothers are playing again at Hoosier’s Lounge at 10PM.
• Six Hills Giant is at Woody’s at 10PM.
• Nocturnal is at Cecils at 10PM.
• Panacea is at Lanhucks at 10:30PM.
• Bosko is at Little Cheers at 10:30PM.

Saturday

• The Angel Mounds Music Festival picks back up at noon.
• There is a show at 1123 at 7PM featuring Modern Life Is War, Trap Them, Trash Talk and Hollywood Handgrenade.
• The Osmond Brothers are at Hoosier’s Lounge at 7:30PM.
• ZZ Top and Travis Tritt is at Roberts Stadium at 7:30PM.
• Carl Rodenberg is at Tommie’s Place at 7PM.
• A Promise Worth Dying For and 4-Seamer are playing Boney June’s at 8PM.
• The Evansville Philharmonic presents the “Classical Mystery Tour-A Tribute to the Beatles” at 8PM at the Victory Theatre.
• Ryan Gibbens is at Ri-Ra at 8PM.
• Pieces of the Day is at Deerhead at 9PM.
• Cheap Date is at Smitty’s at 9PM.
• The John Hussman Trio is at Chilly Willy’s at 10PM.
• Nocturnal is at Cecils at 10PM.
• Rich Hardesty is at The Duck Inn at 10PM.
• Static is playing Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• The Osmond Brothers are playing again at Hoosier’s Lounge at 10PM.
• Pfreak Show is at Woody’s at 10PM.
• Nocturnal is at Cecils at 10PM.
• Panacea is at Lanhucks at 10:30PM.
• Bosko is at Ri-Ra at 10:30PM.
• Scott Winzinger is at Little Cheers at 10:30PM.

Movies

Opening this weekend:

• Sean Astin in The Final Season
• Evan Rachel Wood in Across The Universe. Cool soundtrack. Subpar movie.
• Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg star in We Own The Night

photo courtesy of First Class Prodigy

One of the things I’m envious of bigger cities for is the various music festivals that seem to happen every weekend. Evansville is having its own slice of that fun this weekend with the Angel Mounds Music Festival. The Angel Mounds Music Festival is a two day festival of jam music, camping and art at Newburgh’s Angel Mounds State Historic Site.

The goal of the music festival is to bring awareness to the outstanding regional music and art community we have. It’s also used as a way for Angel Mounds to highlight its efforts to preserve its land and history. Food and beverage will be available for purchase, or you can bring your own cooler.

Gates open at 2PM on Friday and admission is $15. You can camp overnight at Angel Mounds or come back the next day for more music and festival fun. It’s Evansville is a sponsor of the event, because we think it’s something we need more of. I hope you can make it out.

After the jump is a listing of the bands that will be playing with a link to their Web or MySpace page.

Be sure to check out our interview with Namasté lead singer Stephen Horning from a few months ago

Continue reading Angel Mounds Music Festival This Weekend…

The weekend is here, and there is a lot of live music and events happening this weekend. Get out of the house and do something.

Friday

• The Newburgh Fiddler Fest starts tonight at 5PM.
• Jazz For A Cause is at the Evansville Museum at 6:30PM.
• There is a performance of King o’ the Moon at the Evansville Civic Theatre tonight at 8PM.
• Sassafras Bluegrass is performing at Deerhead at 9PM.
• Deliver Us From Evil & Soldier of Scrape are at the Duck Inn at 10PM.
• 2 For Flinching is at Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• Andy Norvell is at Fox & Hound at 10PM.
• Nocturnal is at Cecil’s Bar at 10PM.
• Woody’s has Pieces of the Day at 10PM.
• Bosko is at Little Cheers at 10:30PM.

Saturday

• There is a Mustang & Classic Ford car show at Mesker Zoo from 9AM to 4PM.
• The Newburgh Fiddler Fest opens at noon today.
• Steven Curtis Chapman is at The Centre at 7PM.
• There is a performance of King o’ the Moon at the Evansville Civic Theatre tonight at 8PM.
• Namasté is at Boney June’s at 8PM.
• You can watch the UFC pay-per-view at Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters or Jillians starting at 9PM.
• Pieces of the Day is at Deerhead at 9PM.
• Nathan Mowery is at Sportsman’s at 10PM.
• The John Hussman Trio is at Chilly Willy’s at 10PM.
• Photis 4 is at The Duck Inn at 10PM.
• 2 For Flinching is at Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• Gonzo’s Toybox & Six Hills Giant are both at Woody’s at 10PM.
• Bosko is at Ri-Ra at 10:30PM.

Movies

Opening this weekend:

• Dane Cook and Jessica Alba in Good Luck Chuck. How anyone finds Dane Cook funny is beyond me.
• Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: Extinction
• My pick of the week: Eastern Promises.

If you have an event you’d like to tell us about, either email us a tip or post it on Upcoming.org

photo courtesy of Nocturnal

When I was growing up, I had an unhealthy obsession with Oreo cookies. Like most kids, I loved dunking them in a glass of milk and eatting the soggy, transfat-filled treats. While my Oreo consumption has dropped off drastically in the past decade that doesn’t mean others aren’t still dunking their cookie treats. Nabisco is running a contest that asks people from around the world to create and sing a new jingle about the cookie.

Newburgh native, Mike Allen, and two friends created a jingle and are heading to New York for a chance to win the $10,000 prize. Allen and his two friends are known as the acapella singing group Vox5. They actually had their start at Purdue as part of the glee club. Allen and the rest of Vox5 head to NYC next week to perform and find out if they are the winner. Besides the $10,000, they’ll also have their video blasted on the jumbotron in the middle of Times Square.

I’m really not a good judge of jingle and acapella singing quality. It’s really not my style of music, but I’m voting for them based on the Evansville connection. Good luck!

via Courier & Press

We at It’s Evansville are fans of original music being performed around town. While it’s comfortable to hear a cover band playing the songs you’ve known for 10 years, it’s nothing that is going to be memorable or expand your musical boundaries. With that in mind, I was excited to hear that Nashville-based Old Union would be in town this weekend for a show. Old Union has an energetic southern rock sound that pays homage to bands like Cream and The Allman Brothers. Old Union releases their new album, Motels and Highways, in Nashville tonight, and we got a hold of guitarist (and Evansville native) Steve “Spotty Dog” Swertfeger to ask a few questions about the bands history, music and future.

How long has Old Union been together?

We got together in 2001. I met some of the guys at a bar in Nashville, and we decided to get together for fun and started playing. After a couple of different lineup changes, we found the right chemistry and have been going strong since.

What are the band’s musical influences?

We are all big southern rock fans. That’s the one thing we all have in common, but our influences range far and wide: funk, jazz, rock, old school country. We like anything with soul. The Allman Brothers is probably the common band between all of the Old Union members. We often get told that we sound like the Allmans. A lot of that is because there are a lot of guitar harmonies in our songs.

Where did you find inspiration for your new album?

From everywhere. Our last album was put out in 2003. We’ve been chomping at the bit for several years to put out something new. From our fans, each other, family and friends, the music we listen to, it really comes from everywhere.

What took so long to get the new album out?

I think the main reason is money. We tried to do the same thing last year with John Carter Cash (Johnny’s son) producing it. We did 3 songs hoping to catch the attention of some major record labels, but nothing panned out. Our budget for the album with John Carter was $25,000, which we didn’t have and nobody wanted to give us either. Music is a cut throat business. The album we have now is as good as anything we’ve ever done. I am really proud of this one!

What’s your favorite song off the new album and why?

I think my favorite song is “Ragged Blue”. It’s the only song on the album I play slide on, and the whole over all feel of the song is epic. But with that said, I’m really proud of everything on this album.

What’s the goals for the band heading into 2008?

Our first goal is to pay off the album, but the main thing we want to do as a band is get out on the road more this year. We also will hopefully get signed to a good record deal. I guess the main thing is getting as much exposure as we can get right now.

Old Union will be playing The Duck Inn Saturday night at 10PM. If you’d like to get a free copy of their new CD, Motels and Highways, go up to the band and tell them you saw the interview on It’s Evansville. They have a few copies reserved for our readers.

It’s difficult to see how Chris Daughtry comes from the same “American Idol” empire that produced Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken and Jordin Sparks when you watch him perform.

His mainstream rock sound does not blend with the pop and country artists “Idol” has been known for to produce over the past six years.

Daughtry, a Season Five contestant on the popular Fox reality show, brought his band to The Centre on Monday night for a sold out show in front of 2500 fans ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s.

Daughtry and their opener, The Sunstreak, played on a no-frills stage. There was no stage show or giant video screen to take away from the musicians and their songs. Instead, a single row of lights hung above the stage to shine light on the performers and audience at appropriate intervals.

The Sunstreak’s set included a mixture of songs from their self-titled album and other unreleased tracks in their catalog. They have a sound that mixes industrial beats with vocal harmonies and a pop-punk sound that resembles The Starting Line and Taking Back Sunday. The audience politely clapped with each performance, but not much more since the band is unknown around here.

Each song was interspersed with promotion of their MySpace page, custom ringtones and cell phone backgrounds. The music was nothing memorable and neither was their stage presence. The majority of the band stood stationary while lead guitarist Jack Flynn ran from one end of the stage to the other during more up tempo songs such as “Lives At Stake.”

After a 40-minute intermission, the curtain rose and Daughtry took the stage. The band opened with a solid and energetic performance of “Crashed” that set the mood for the rest of the evening. From there, Daughtry performed 90 minutes’ worth of true to form renditions of favorites such as “What I Want,” “Used To Be” and the self-admittedly overplayed hit “It’s Not Over.”

The band also covered Alice In Chain’s “Nutshell” and dedicated it to the band’s late singer, Layne Staley, a musical influence on Daughtry. The song was well performed, but not well received by the mixed audience. Anyone under the age of 20 or over the age of 35 didn’t know the song and used it as a mini-intermission.

The band closed the show with their mega-hit “Home” and a hybrid version of “There And Back Again” which had a hard hitting interlude of Filter’s “Hey Man. Nice Shot.”

Chris Daughtry has the stage presence of rock frontmen of old with his arrogance, swagger and look. The music is nothing groundbreaking in the rock genre, but it is a welcomed change in a town that is overwhelmed with country and aging rock concerts.

Originally published in the Evansville Courier & Press. Photo courtesy of Kelli Rhiannon.

The weekend is here! Get out of the house and do something!

Friday

• Hi Five, Backseat Goodbye, Ladybug Landslide and Throne of Lions are all playing at Wired tonight at 7PM.
• The Otters have a game tonight at 7PM.
• WWE is in town tonight at 7PM. I was totally going to go but I think the only major talent there tonight is Cena and Randy Orton.
• Nathan Mowery is at Ri-Ra at 8PM.
• Byron Rohrig is at the Gersthaus at 9PM.
• JEB is at the Duck Inn at 10PM.
• Andy Norvell is at Fox & Hound at 10PM.
• Six Hills Giant is playing at O’Brians at 10PM.
• Gonzo’s is at Woody’s. 10PM.
• The Metal Mascarade Ball takes place at Bullock’s at 10:30PM tonight.

Saturday

• The Dogs & Suds BBQ & Beer Garden is at the Newburgh Old Lock & Dam at 5PM. Featuring live music with Troy Miller & Quasimojo.
• Got $20? Head to the Evansville Museum for a night of jazz, fashion & wine tasting.
• Jane Harmon is playing at Quarter Note at 6PM.
• Junior Revolution, Novella and Until the Last are at Wired at 7PM.
• The Otters have a game tonight at 7PM.
• Bob Ballard plays Quarter Note at 8PM.
• Ryan Gibbons is at Ri-Ra at 8PM.
• Mock Orange is in town playing at Boney June’s.
• It’s Evansville favorite, Namaste is at Deerhead at 9PM.
• The John Hussman Trio is at Chilly Willy’s at 10PM.
• Tommy Womack and Chad Harvey are playing The Duck Inn at 10PM.
• Fast Eddy’s has Lieutenant Dan’s New Legs at 10PM. Best. Band Name. Ever.
• Gonzo’s is at Woody’s. 10PM.
• The Metal Mascarade Ball takes place at Bullock’s at 10:30PM tonight.
• Bosko is at Ri-Ra at 10:30PM.

Movies

Opening this weekend:

• The Invasion starring James Bond and Keith Urban’s wife (wait for the DVD).
• Raunhy teen comedy Superbad (my pick of the week)
• If you’re into british comedy’s, Death at a Funeral might be playing in town.

My brother, and It’s Evansville biggest promoter, Cody, checked in with his report from last week’s Grill for the Thrill festival and concert. Between the BBQ, car show and Dierks Bentley show, it sounds like it was a fun event.

If you attend a local show or event, send in your report (tips@itsevansville.com) as well as a few photos from the event. If I like it, I’ll publish it on the site.

Here’s his report and photos.

As a avid car show attendee in Evansville I got out to Roberts Stadium for a full day of cars, BBQ and music. I will say that this year’s car show portion of the festival was disappointing from last year. With no entry fee I would have expected a lot bigger turn out from the previous year of about two hundred cars. I doubt there were 30 cars total. Sure, it was 100 degrees out that day but under a blue pop-up tent it wasn’t too bad.

The car show wasn’t the only thing going on that day there was plenty of other activities. The live music throughout the day really wasn’t my taste but the older crowd really seemed to enjoy it. By the time 3pm rolled around the started serving up all the BBQ you could stomach $7 dollars.

Continue reading Show Report: Grill for the Thrill 2007…

Friday

• Ri-Ra has live music with Nathan Mowery from 8 to 10PM.
• Troy Miller is playing at Lamasco starting at 8:30PM.
• Larry Neale, Kristi, and Sam the Man are playing at Club Royale at 9PM.
• Andy Norvell is playing at Fox & Hound starting at 10PM.
• Nocturnal is playing at Cecil’s at 10PM.
• Six Hills Giant plays at Club Baja at 10PM.
• The Tunestones are at Crawdaddy’s at 10PM.
• Gonzo’s Toybox is at Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• Bosko is playing at Little Cheers at 10:30PM.

Saturday

• The annual Ducks on the Ohio Goodwill benefit is down at Dress Plaza today at 2PM. Buy your duck for $5.
• There’s an ice cream social from 4PM to 7:30PM at the West Side Christian Church.
• Carl Rodenberg is playing at Tommie’s Place at 7PM.
• Ryan Gibbens is playing at Ri-Ra from 8PM to 10PM.
• Hoosier Daddy is playing at Club Royale starting at 9PM.
• Nocturnal is playing at Cecil’s at 10PM.
• Six Hills Giant plays at Club Baja at 10PM.
• Nashville’s Old Union is in town to play at the Duck Inn at 10PM.
• Gonzo’s Toybox is at Fast Eddy’s at 10PM.
• Bosko is playing at Ri-Ra a 10:30PM.

Movies

Opening this week:

• My pick of the week: The Bourne Ultimatum
• If your looking for your teen, they probably went to see Bratz
• J-Lo and M-Ant in El Cantante
• That stunt movie Hot Rod
• Underdog: a live action version of the cartoon.
• Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane

photo courtesy of Old Union.