First, some housekeeping and a mea culpa. I take a lot of notes for this column, but the handwriting from my crippled dominant hand produces a scrawl that looks like it comes from a doctor who’s been abusing his own medicine. It’s honestly a wonder I don’t mess things up more often. No excuses, just an explanation. When I reported last Friday’s free Big 8 show at the Logger Bar at 9 p.m., I was a week early. My bad. The good news is, if you still want some of that uptown New Orleans funk and soul sound far west of the West Bank, you are in luck tonight. Same time, same place. OK, that out of the way, here are two gigs in Arcata. Froth is the name of the new-ish coffee shop where the wonderful and sorely missed Blondies used to live. It is putting on a cover-less, all-ages show at 7 p.m. featuring all local bands. I’ve pumped the fine post-metal apocalypse trio Gnawed On here before, but these other two bands are as new to this as the venue. Kept will be playing its first show and promoting its first EP release tonight, while Sew will be singing a song I have yet to hear.
A half an hour later at the Arcata Theatre Lounge, Danny Kiranos, aka Amigo the Devil, will be playing his raw and blackened folk tunes with support by tourmates Tele Novella and David Talley. One of my dear amigos from my long-ago touring days, Mr. Texas himself, Joe Dudley McCoy, is a fan, which is the best endorsement I can offer, because Old Hoss is a much more devoted music lover with far better taste and spirit than myself ($40).
This article appears in ‘God Looking Back at You’.