I was recently driving up and down the coast a lot in the space of a few days, specifically the area between Arcata and Trinidad, mostly for work but a bit for fun as well. Any amount of leisure driving counts as a vacation — in the financial sense of cost analysis anyway — in these days of spiked gas prices brought on by the violent stupidity of a ruling party who are acting suspiciously like there won’t be an election in a few short weeks. Anyhoo, the weather has been nice, and as is the case with any vacation — financial or otherwise — I was locked onto some music while traveling.
I listen to a lot of different music, as you might imagine, but Jim Croce was the man for this particular mission. Jamming to the songs of someone who died quite a while before I was born doesn’t have the dissonance one might think. Croce’s early death at 30 from a plane crash while on tour in September of 1973 happened early enough in his career to preserve his music as an indelible flavor of that era, much like the fate the singer Al Bowlly suffered from a German bomb in London during World War II. Bowlly’s music has so much of a spectral, time-haunted quality that it was used to great effect over the horrific photo-anachronism in the final scene of Kubrick’s version of The Shining. Croce’s music is haunting too, but in a gentle way, reflecting a kinder time in a melancholic and aspirational sense to someone who never lived in that world.
Contrast this with the online meme-ified nightmare afterlife of a figure like Charlie Kirk, whose assassination in September of last year started a chain of events that began with an attempted clampdown on free speech, bomb threats called in to Black colleges and at least two murders by his more deranged and distraught fans, and finally led to an entire ecosystem of social media posts where anything and anyone could be “Kirk-ified” with the assistance of AI. The current ruling party thought they had the Reichstag Fire or Horst Wessel they needed to start sending any citizens to the camps, only to discover they had overplayed their hand. Liberals tripped over themselves to pay homage to the dead podcaster out of pure fear and the native cowardice that fuels the mitochondria of their entire political project. Our own congressman voted for the House Resolution 719 — the shamelessly sleazy and cynical lure designed by some Republican goblin from Texas — while simultaneously releasing a sanctimonious, Aaron Sorkin/West Wing-esque statement of assumed moral clarity that he should frankly blow out of his asshole. If he can find it without a flashlight in the darkness of this current era, that is.
Anyway, the Republican plot didn’t work out like they wanted and we’re not all in concentration camps — yet — for not caring about a man in his 30s whose legacy is using a middle-school vocabulary to debate nervous undergrads, because the demented young nihilists of the online far-right used the AI tools of the technofascists to turn Kirk into a verb and stamp his image on literally everything. And that, it seems, is how he will be remembered. Which is a fate worse than death for anyone concerned about any sort of legacy in this fallen, wretched and sometimes unspeakably beautiful earth.
Consider this week’s spooky intro to be a cautionary tale about an eternity frozen in amber, and if you must die before your time, try to leave some artifacts like Croce or Bowlly did in your wake. Choose life. Have a lovely week.
Thursday
If you are in the mood to hear some of the best local folk and bluegrass — and simply can’t wait a week and a day for their show at the Siren’s Song Tavern with The Pine Box Boys — come over to the Basement around 7:30 p.m. to enjoy some songs by Elderberry Rust Stringband. It’s only $5 at the door, making this one of many great shows at this venue to escape the effects of inflation.
Friday
The jazz residency collective After Hours presents “Three: The Evolution of the Piano Trio,” with music spanning the works of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans and beyond. Swing by the Arcata Playhouse by 7 p.m. to hear the goods delivered by Matt Seno on keys, bassist Lee Phillips and the young prodigy Ramsey Isaacs on the sticks and skins. If last month’s sold-out John Coltrane homage was any indication, this should be quite a highlight for your week. Tickets are $20 until Thursday and $25 at the door tonight.
Saturday
Nothing screams freedom quite like an all-ages punk show during the beginning of the school year. Tonight’s line-up at the Siren’s Song Tavern looks like fun, fun, fun and then some. Groove and thrash punk act SNAKEHEAD has twisted down the coast from Crescent City — or Crooked Titty, as my sister calls it — to link up with local mega-vores Radical A.P.E. and Executive Order for an evening of unhinged gorging. The door price is a very negotiable $5-$10 sliding scale, so don’t worry if the only thing that greets you upon opening your wallet is a single starving moth.
Sunday
One of Hawaii’s finest slack-key guitar masters returns to HumCo this evening to roll out the autumn season over at the Old Steeple. Led Kapaana is so good at what he does that I still find myself smiling at the memories from the last time I saw the fella play, even though that was on the heavy side of a decade ago. Tickets are going online for $31.50, which is a hell of a deal for lifetime memories of a musical tradition that plays like a long-lost island dream. The music starts at 7:30 p.m., don’t be late
Monday
Canadian singer/songwriter Imaad Wasif has been a lot of things over a long career, but is probably best known to mainstream ears as a touring member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well as a frequent collaborator with that act’s singer Karen O. That’s all fine and good, but it sells the fella short, as his solo work is absolutely fabulous in its own right. Come check it out for yourself at the Miniplex tonight at 7:30 p.m., where he will be on tap along with local band Bleater ($15, $12 advance).
Tuesday
Hey, how about some fine jazz at no cost tonight at 7 p.m. at the Speakeasy courtesy of the Opera Alley Cats? I can think of many worse — and very few better — ways to enjoy a Tuesday night.
Wednesday
Once more to the Siren’s Song Tavern tonight at 7 p.m., where Oakland’s smooth and soulful surf rock sextet The Helltones will be delivering a liturgy of dark water beauty rippling with reverb and tidal waves of analog organ deliverance. I really like this stuff, and you probably will too, especially if you are a fan of local psyche supergroup Western Extra, who are on the support section of the bill. Be advised, this is going to be a banger. ($10), all-ages.
Collin Yeo (he/him) has made a deal with Old Man River years ago and it is a stinker.
This article appears in Big Backyard Visitors.