The acoustic guitar turns into a wizard’s wand in the capable hands of the Alabama-born, Texas-based guitar virtuoso Monte Montgomery. There’s a reason why he was named Best Acoustic Guitar Player for seven straight years by the Austin Music Awards. And Guitar Player Magazine saw it necessary to name Montgomery to its list of the Top 50 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2004. Monte Montgomery visits Sticky Fingerz, and the opening act is to be announced, but the music will start at 9 p.m. with tickets $10 advance and $12 day of show for the 21-and-up show.
The O.D. (Part 4) returns, this time at Cornerstone Pub for a night of real rap hosted by local hip hop artist Epiphany with DJ KP on the turntables. The music starts at 9 p.m. with cover $10 for the 21-and-up event with ladies getting in free until 10:15 p.m. The music lineup includes Da Saw Squad, Bully Gang, The E.O.S., BWare, Mike Streezy, Arkatext, Southwest Boaz and Shea Marie.
Two local heavy rock acts are joining forces at Downtown Music for a Benefit for Maddie, a 4-year-old girl who lives in Pine Bluff and has been diagnosed with brain cancer. Presented by Leg Up Promotions, the music is from the pride of Osceola, Finding Jimmy Hoffa, a five piece concerned with creating hard-charging slices of heavy rock-flavored Southern grunge, and Land of Mines, a Little Rock heavy rock act. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $5 cover.
Cornerstone Pub will be ground zero for hip hop in central Arkansas with a Rep Tha Roc Rite Nite, featuring the music of Klean Kut Records, Down South and Dirty, Itz Twizt, Player Tim, Mike Streezy, 4X4 Crew, Parker Brothers, Mr. Big Shae and AG, Big Drew and North Rock. It’s also DP of the Parker Brothers birthday so there’s another reason to party. Doors open at 9 p.m., and the music starts at 10 p.m. for the 21-and-up event.
It’s been 10 years coming, but DJ Chaos will re-enter the halls of Discovery to face off against friend/nemesis and one-time resident counterpart DJ Big Brown. Chaos is moving to Colorado, and the event is billed as Bittersweet. The two DJs once battled each other week in and week out for the supremacy of central Arkansas dancefloors, but are facing off for the last time, arming themselves with their favorite electro, trance, breaks and house tracks. Opening the show will be turntable master Bobby Kuta. The music will last from 9 p.m. to around 5 a.m., and along with DJs Chaos and Big Brown, the night features DJ G-Force in the Lobby, and DJ Kourtney Van Wells and Whitney Paige in the Theater.
Here’s what Chris King has to say about Fayetteville party dance rockers Boom Kinetic as the band returns to Revolution Music Room: “It’s [a] non-stop party weekend when the boys from Boom Kinetic come to town! If you haven’t seen these guys mesmerize the dance floor, then you must not like things such as (A) a good time, (B) a roomful of happy beautiful people or (C) hit ’80s dance songs. Formed in 2006, the band formerly known as Molten Lava, is a high-energy dance rock band that has been named Best Party Band Ever by the Northwest Arkansas Music Awards two years in a row. The band mixes in pop rock originals along with some of the ’80s greatest pop tunes. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. with an $8 admission price for the 18-and-up show.
Local pop-flavored indie rocker Bryan Frazier is fresh off a win at the Little Rock Film Festival’s Music Video competition for his “Angelene and the Alpha Ray” tune and playing a show at Sticky Fingerz as Bryan Frazier and the Action Figures. Co-headling the show are Southern California indie rockers Young the Giant (formerly The Jakes) who are signed to Roadrunner Records and preparing for a debut album release. The opening act kicking the music at 9 p.m. is Conway folk rockers This Holy House. The cover is $6 for the 21-and-up show.
The Campaign for Death Metal Purity Tour visits … where else? Downtown Music with a trio of bands: California death metal band Gravehill, Texas extreme metal band HOD and Chicago death metal act Cardiac Arrest. Arkansas support will be provided by Fayetteville death metal band Vore. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $7 cover.
It’s long days and hot summer nights so why not have a Long Hot Summer Night Jam at Cornerstone Pub? That’s exactly what’s happening at Cornerstone as the Argenta bar hosts some of Arkansas’ most talented bands to showcase Arkansas music. Hosted and headlined by local blues rock band Interstate Buffalo with special guests, the lineup of music includes Brent and Adam (“The Duo” from FreeVerse), Weakness for Blondes and Starroy. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the music starting at 8 p.m. Cover is only $5. Works of art will also be for sale from Arkansas artists including Blake Fisher, Jake Jackson and Will Love.
The all-new Diversion, WIne Bar and Ultra Lounge is celebrating its … newness with a night titled The Remix featuring the music of Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers. The cover is $10 with the night starting at 9 p.m. Block and his cohorts promise a “relaxing soundscape for the real music lovers.” And they also promise a selection of cuts highlighting the group’s love of jazz, neo-soul and R&B along with tracks from Block’s debut album Outside the Box and guest artists. The special drink of the night will be the Real Music Lovers Peach Martini, and the first 20 guests will receive a new Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers beer glass. Seats are limited so arrive early.
Here’s Boom Kinetic in action with their “Ordinary People”:
The snow is gone and the postponed The O.D. Part 2 is back on, this time at Sticky Fingerz. Expect a night of real rap as the best in local hip hop is showcased, with sets from EarFear (607 and Bobby), Big Drew, Cat Daddy, Mista Mayhemm, Rah HoWard, Epiphany, Shea Marie and Mike Streezy. Beyond the self-described “dope artists on deck,” DJ Greyhound will be on the turntables. The event kicks off at 9 p.m. with a $10 cover for the 21-and-up show. Dress accordingly.
Juanita’s becomes the center of the female folk singer/songwriter universe — Arkansas edition — when Paige Allbritton, Amanda Rook and Cindy Woolf visit. Allbritton is a 23-year-old Little Rock artist whose strummed tunes such as “Hurt On Purpose” reveal an old soul. (She also covers Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up.”); Rook is a local acoustic rocker; and Woolf is an Ozark folk rocker born in Arkansas but living now in southwest Missouri. An Afterthought regular, Woolf now mixes in pop choruses and twangy country when singing in her angelic voice about love, traveling and trains. The 18-and-up night of music starts at 9 p.m. with a $7 cover.
The Randy Rogers Band disappeared from the touring circuit in late November and early December, visiting Nashville, Tenn., to record another album of Texas-stamped and approved country rock. But since the first of the year, the five piece has been back on the road, whittling down their usual slate of 200 plus shows a year, including their first visit of the year to the Revolution Music Room. Expect a rowdy good time filled with electric guitars, fiddle and yee-haws. The music will start at 9 p.m. with a to-be-announced opening act kicking off the night. Tickets are $15 for the 21-and-up show.
Illinois indie rockers The Forecast’s latest, self-titled album is out, and the quartet is on the road to support the album’s collection of robust, muscular rhythms crossed with pop hooks and tunes about love with lyrics such as “I’m stealing your kisses back from you.” The Forecast visits Vino’s, headlining a show that includes local support from acoustic rock group Townsend and northwest Arkansas rock band A Good Fight, and Murfreesboro, Tenn., pop punkers Since Forever and indie rockers The Narrative, a Brooklyn trio on their way to South by Southwest. The music will kick off at 8 p.m. with a $10 cover.
Central Arkansas blues outfit Unseen Eye has completed their debut album, Too Bad, for Kijam Records and are holding a CD release party at Cornerstone Pub. Presented by the Arkansas River Blues Society presents, the music starts at 8 p.m. with a $5 cover for the 21-and-up event.
Here’s a terribly shaky, crowd-shot version of the Randy Rogers Band’s tune “Interstate,” a new song that will appear on their summer release Burning the Day:
A little over a year since his last visit to Sticky Fingerz, former Beanland, Kudzu Kings and Widespread Panic guitarist George McConnell returns to the River Market club to play his swirling blend of rock ‘n’ roll-, jazz-, country- and blues-inspired music, including an homage to Steve Cropper with “Mr. Cropper” and the searing country blues rock of “Jaguar.” The opening act is Fayetteville’s Charliehorse, an outfit which throws out Ozark-flavored Americana music with a rockabilly kick, starting out the music at 9 p.m. Cover for the 21-and-up show is $7. McConnell’s new focus is releasing, via digital download, rock ‘n’ roll singles recorded in his Oxford, Miss., studio and titled the Virtual 45 Series.
Beastie Boys’ resident DJ Mix Master Mike will finish his current tour with four straight nights of chopping and spinning in London, but before jumping across the pond, Mr. Michael Schwartz is visiting The Village. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. with general admission tickets $20 advance and $25 at the door. Called one of the greatest DJs of all time by USA Today, Mix Master Mike has been multicoloring the Beastie Boys’ mixture of hip-hop, punk, garage rock and funk with turntable tweaks and scratches since the trio’s multiplatinum album Hello Nasty in 1997. But the turntable sorcerer has also left his crazy scratching on albums and EPs as a solo artist, and worked with musicians such as Ozzy Osbourne.
Expect to be asked to drink, and then drink some more, plus enjoy some kick-ass rockabilly music as Billy D and the First-Time Offenders play Cornerstone Pub. The music starts at 9 p.m. with a $5 cover.
Before the outdoors Edgefest VI arrives May 8 at the Arkansas State Fairgrounds with a lineup including Godsmack and Rob Zombie. 100.3 The Edge is presenting a couple of Edgefest veterans indoors at Verizon Arena with Canadian alternative rock band Three Days Grace and Pennsylvania alternative rock band Breaking Benjamin. Three Days Grace, known for their hook-filled songs such as the polished “I Hate Everything About You,” and Breaking Benjamin, who reached the masses with their crossover smash “The Diary of Jane,” will be joined by Flyleaf, a Temple, Texas-based rock band best known for the single “I’m So Sick.” Doors open at 6 p.m. with the music starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $39.75.
The Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative is holding an opening of Kat Wilson’s Habitat: A Photographic Experience by Kat Wilson from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the ACAC building on Rodney Parham Road. It’s the first time the entire series has been on display, and a film by Wilson will also be screened with musical accompaniment by Zach Holland. Video poems by Walt Whitman-award winning poet, Tony Tost, will also be displayed. Hors d’oeuvre, beer and wine will be available; donations are encouraged. The works will be on display until March 28.
Here’s George McConnell in action with his “Kill the Man”:
The frontman of Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band has been called “The World’s Premier Zydeco Showman,” and one viewing of a dancefloor exploding with the rapturous, infectious blues-laced zydeco music of Carrier will make anyone a believer in the man’s musical sorcery. Carrier proves that an accordion in capable hands can ignite a rhythmic fire, creating a dancing legion of joyous faces. Before returning to his hometown of Lafayette, La., for Fat Tuesday, Carrier (brother of Dikki Du) will lead the Mardi Gras Party at White Water Tavern, playing a collection of zydeco originals and swamped-up classics such as The Who’s “Squeeze Box,” War’s “The Cisco Kid” and the Grateful Dead’s “Fire On The Mountain.” CARRIER CAN’T MAKE IT TO LITTLE ROCK DUE TO WEATHER IN TEXAS.
Revolution Music Room gets people in the loving mood with a show simply titled Heartbreakers and Homewreckers, featuring a night of hard-charging rock ‘n’ roll, including Jeff Coleman and the Feeders, Trey Hawkins and Alan Hunt Band. The music starts at 9 p.m. with cover $5 for over 21, and $10 for 18-20.
Four, local heavy rock bands are invading Downtown Music for a rafter-shaking night of music: Sychosys, IRon Ton, Land of Mines and Monoxide Project. The Southern-flavored metal band Sychosys added a new drummer in 2009 and recorded an EP of their workingman’s metal influenced by bands such as Pantera, Black Label Society and old-school heavy rock acts such as Black Sabbath while IRon Ton — featuring two members of Sychosys — hammers out white-hot portions alternative metal tracks such as “Here I Stand.” Land of Mines is a Little Rock heavy rock quintet with a two guitar attack powering their hard-edged post-grunge sound, and Gravel Ridge Southern-rock-flavored metal outfit Monoxide Project is well-known for their hard-charging onslaught of ’70s rock-influenced heaviness mixed with down tempo, blues-tinged tracks. The music starts at 8 p.m. with a $6 cover.
Vino’s is featuring four central Arkansas bands: ambient indie rockers The Sound of the Mountain from Russellville; infectious pop punk group Box Wine of Little Rock; lo-fi, garage-y outfit Brother Andy and His Big Damn Mouth of North Little Rock; and Conway pop-flavored folk rockers This Holy House. The music begins at 8 p.m. with a $7 cover.
The 62-year-old Charles Woods will front the Charles Woods Band as they run through a collection of classic soul, R&B and blues tunes such as “Rainy Night In Georgia” at Cornerstone Pub. The music kicks off at 8 p.m. Born into the church, Woods’ sound is a rich, gospel-flavored voice influenced by greats such as Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Johnny Taylor.
Here’s a homemade video for the Jeff Coleman and the Feeders’ tune “All the Way Down”:
The last time The O.D. was held at Cornerstone Pub, eight talented, local hip hop artists took the stage to showcase real rap with their beats and rhymes. The O.D. Part 2 promises more of the same in the best local hip hop with artists 607, Cat Daddy, Rah HoWard, Mista Mayhemm, Carteaire Custom, Big Drew, Shea Marie and Mike Streezy. Hosted by Epiphany with DJ KP on the turntables, the event kicks off at 9 p.m. with a $10 cover for the 21-and-up show.
100.3 The Edge presents Los Angeles heavy rock Earshot at Juanita’s with opening act Parabelle, featuring Kevin Matisyn, the former lead singer of Evans Blue, kicking off the night at 9 p.m. with a $6 cover for the 18-and-up show. Formed in 1999, the five-piece Earshot is known for their extensive touring schedule, delivering their blend of hard rock and alternative metal.
Combining reggae and dance hall with punk rock and ska, the music of Sublime lit the charts and MTV on fire in the late ’90s with tunes such as “Santeria” and “What I Got,” catapulting the group to fame even after the death of lead singer Bradley Nowell in 1996. While Nowell is gone, Athens, Ga., five piece Wrong Way — A Tribute to Sublime carries on the legacy of the group, drawing from a set list of 40-odd Sublime songs and recreating the live energy of the ska punk band. Wrong Way visits Sticky Fingerz with an opening act to be announced. The music will start at 9:30 p.m. with a $7 cover for the 21-and-up show.
The Red Dirt country rockers Jason Boland & the Stragglers are still touring behind their 2008 release, Comal County Blue, an album that hit the top 40 of the country music album charts. Expect a boot-stomping good time with music blending country and rock when Boland and company visit Revolution Music Room. The opening act is to be announced, but expect the music to start at 9 p.m. with tickets $10 advance and $12 day of show for the 18-and-up concert.
Here’s a shot of Jason Boland & the Stragglers live in Kansas City with their tune “Drinkin’s Song”:
