8/4/2006: Pusher man, pusher man.

Achtung, babies!

Do not waste your precious time reading this Showy
McShow email, just go here right now and buy Soulive
tickets:
http://www.boomboomtickets.com/evinfo.php?eventid=12426&sid=

What you're still reading? Don't you listen?!? You
need to buy Soulive tickets right now! They're playing
this coming Wednesday night at the Boom Boom Room.
Yes, the Boom Boom Room. That little place won't be
able to contain the amount of funky sound these guys
will be puttin' out, much less contain the amount of
people that will want tickets. Get yours now!

Okay, now that that's out of the way we can move on to
other things. Besides your mandatory appearance at the
Boom Boom Room on Wednesday, there is actually a ton
of other musical tomfoolery that you'd be woe to miss.
Tonight there are a slew of great options. I might
keep it on the cheap and head to the Connecticut
Yankee myself. And on Sunday there are three great
FREE afternoon shows for you to choose from, three!
What other city can hang with this kind of nonsense?
New York? Bah! It's fine if you like triple digit
humidity I guess...

Anyhoo following this weekend things just get more
musically relentless. And on into next weekend, and on
and on and on...

Oh right, it's all below. Here you go:

|||||| FRIDAY 8/4 ||||||

Dragon Smoke @ Boom Boom Room $25
Friday & Saturday shows! This is gonna be some smokin'
funk music straight outta the Big Easy. Dig the
lineup: Stanton Moore (of Galactic, one of my favorite
drummers), Ivan Neville (of Neville Bros,
organ/vocals), Eric Lindell (star New Orleans
guitarist/multi-instrumentalist), and Robert Mercurio
(of Galactic on bass). It's the first time out of New
Orleans for this lineup and it should be an absolute
powerhouse show.
http://stantonmoore.com/

Drums & Tuba @ 12 Galaxies $12
You don't see this every day: An indie-rock band based
on (guess what?) a drummer and a tuba player. Okay so
there's a guitarist too, but these cats do some really
creative stuff including taking full advantage of
digital effects in using a tuba. And it's all based in
rock and roll. Cool.
http://www.drumsandtuba.com/

Scott Law, Tye North, Rich Sellars @ Connecticut
Yankee $7
This could be the surprise kick-ass show of the night.
Scott is an excellent guitarist and a ripper with the
slide and Tye has been Leftover Salmon's bassist and
has collaborated with some other crazy folks like
String Cheese Incident. Talented cats in a cozy venue,
good times. I'm tempted.
http://www.scottlawmusic.com/

Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra @ Great American Music
Hall $19
Now this is a whacky one: A big 18-piece jazz band
from NYC doing rearrangements and deconstructions of
Bjork tunes. From what I read they're supposed to be
ridiculously good. Wow.
http://www.bjorkestra.com/

|||||| SATURDAY 8/5 ||||||

Dragon Smoke @ Boom Boom Room $25
Friday & Saturday shows! See above.
http://stantonmoore.com/

|||||| SUNDAY 8/6 ||||||

Swoop Unit @ Beach Chalet (outside) $FREE
Afternoon show. Funky jazz in a lovely setting is
definitely a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Catch Adam Willis with Swoop in the garden behind the
Beach Chalet from 3 to 6.
http://swoopunit.com/

Spanish Harlem Orchestra @ Stern Grove $FREE
Afternoon show. This should be a hell of a day in the
Grove. The Orchestra, led by famed composer/pianist
Oscar Hernandez, is a huge powerhouse of authentic
salsa sounds. Opening up are cuban ska rockers Ska
Cubano.
http://www.sterngrove.org/SpanishHarlemOrchestraBio.php

Jerry Day 2006 @ McLaren Park Jerry Garcia
Amphitheater $FREE
Afternoon show. I say Gawd damn there's a lot of free
music this Sunday. Roll on out to McLaren Park if you
wanna get down to some roots music in the fresh
afternoon air. Dead cover band Grapefruit Ed,
bluegrass folk rockers Harmony Grits, and Django
Obscura are the lineup this year.
http://jerryday.org/

G. Love & Special Sauce @ Mountain Winery (Saratoga)
$30–38.50
G. Love just sounds like summer, doesn't he? The
Philadelphonic hip hop roots blues inventor is doin'
that thang that only he can do at the gorgeous hilltop
Mountain Winery this weekend. This music in that
setting sounds totally right on to me.
http://www.philadelphonic.com/main.asp

Liquid Soul @ Cafe du Nord $12
This rockin' 8-piece Chicago jazz-funk outfit has been
a ground breaker in the genre for over a decade.
They're full of energy, spontaneous, and
crazy-creative. I've never seen 'em, but I think this
show should be pretty off the hook.
http://www.liquidsoul.com/liquid-soul.htm

|||||| WEDNESDAY 8/9 ||||||

Soulive @ Boom Boom Room $25
Soulive! At the Boom Boom Room! Get tickets NOW fool!
To put it in perspective, these guys easily fill the
Independent and the Fillmore... venues that hold
hundreds more funky folks than you can stuff into the
lil' ol' Boom Boom Room. One of my absolute favorite
bands, this trio DEFINES the term soul-jazz. Each and
every time I see them they FLOOR me. They'll attack
with a huge and powerful wall of funk and won't let up
until your dancin' feet are completely beat. You are
absolutely NUTS if you miss this show. NUTS I tell ya!
http://www.soulive.com/concord/site.php

|||||| FRIDAY 8/11 ||||||

Melvin Seals & Jerry Garcia Band @ Great American
Music Hall
The Jerry Band was just awesome, some of his best work
for sure. Now Fender Rhodes master Melvin Seals
carries on the gospel/soul/jam tradition of the JGB
with what is supposed to be an excellent cast of new
and old members. Funky hip-hop cats Al Howard & K23
Orchestra open up.
http://www.jgbband.com/

On the One @ Boom Boom Room $10
A brand-new power funk quartet made up of Karl
Denson's funky drummer John Staten and players from
groove bands Giant People and Global Funk Council. Mix
it all up with soulful female vocals from Latanya
Lockett and it should make for a pretty hot gig.
http://www.boomboomblues.com/cgi-bin/calendar/index.pl?Calendar=cal_boomboom&View=Day&DateID=8/11/2006

Sinister Dexter @ Rockit Room $5
A big funky 12-piece band that rocks with funk, Latin,
blues, and jazz influences. I've been wanting to check
these cats out for a while now, and this gig is about
3 blocks from my house. That's the perfect stumbling
distance for a Friday night...
http://sinisterdexter.net/index.php

|||||| SUNDAY 8/13 ||||||

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience @ Freight & Salvage
(Berkeley) $30
Undoubtedly one of the most prominent mandolin players
in the world, there is almost no one bigger in
bluegrass than Grisman. For this night he'll be
bringing an all-star cast to play beautiful
traditional old-time bluegrass, and word on the trail
is that it's one of the best performances of real
string music you ever did hear. I wanna go...
http://www.thefreight.org/2006/0608-august/info_060813.html

|||||| WEDNESDAY 8/16 ||||||

Brett Dennen @ Independent $12
Lots of people were talking about this cat at High
Sierra this year, and even though I missed him I'm
thinkin' I shouldn't make the same mistake twice. A
singer guitarist in the roots/groove vein who blends
world and jam influences in an honest and (word is)
extremely talented way, sounds like this could be
really cool. Forest Sun opens.
http://www.brettdennen.com/

Dublin & Jazz Mafia Trio Hip Hop Jam @ Royale $5
Stay up late for beats, lyrics, and grooves at this
funky North Beach freestyle jam. You know the serious
talent that Dublin, Adam, and all things Jazz Mafia
bring to the table, so you know what a hump day
bargain this gig will be.
http://jazzmafia.com/jazzmafiaunit.html

|||||| THURSDAY 8/17 ||||||

the RituaL & Friends @ Connecticut Yankee $5
Local keyboard whiz Jordan Feinstein will rock the
Yankee with his funky band as their
every-other-Thursday residency continues. This guy
knows some of the best musicians in the city, so you
never know who will pop up on stage.
http://theritual.net/