I take every opportunity to wax lyrical about Chilean psych bands when they come to town, but sadly The Holydrug Couple‘s show at Public Arts on Friday was canceled as the band could not make it. Alas, hopefully there will be another opportunity to hear about how their most recent release, Hyper Super Mega is an excellent addition to their discography. Thankfully there are still some wonderful shows for you all to see this weekend.
5) David Bowie tributes at Brookfield Place
By the time you read this, you’ll have already missed this ensemble’s performance of David Bowie’s Lodger that happened on Wednesday, but fear not, you can still catch a performance of Heroes (Thursday) and Low (Friday). The band is led by Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater and includes the likes of former Bowie guitaristr Carlos Alomar, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, Greg Fox, Ed Rodriguez of Deerhoof and more. These shows are free and open with short programs of music that inspired the trilogy composed by Brian Eno and Klaus Schulze. I saw Shearwater play Lodger a couple of years ago and can confirm that he does a pretty good Bowie impression. Thursday and Friday
4) Pile, The Spirit Of The Beehive, Bethlehem Steel at Saint Vitus
Boston’s Pile are in town for a couple of sold out shows at Saint Vitus this weekend in support of their Odds and Ends album that was released last month, a collection of songs from 2010-2017 that were either on EPs, compilations or just omitted from other records for one reason or another. Don’t miss Spirit of the Beehive, who released a fantastic record back in February called Hypnic Jerks. Friday and Saturday 7pm
3) Big Bliss, Grim Streaker, Flexi, Gustaf at ALPHAVILLE
Few bands have covered the local circuit in the last couple of years as hard as Big Bliss, and this is the record release show for their debut LP, At Middle Distance. The songs released so far have all been excellent and I’m sure the record is going to be a bright spark in a year that (seemingly) has seen a slowdown in good post-punk records. Saturday 8pm
2) Guided By Voices, Park Doing at Bowery Ballroom
Of all the shocking things to happen this year, Guided By Voices only releasing a single album is a mere ripple, which says less about GBV than the average day of news, but don’t worry, there are at least two GBV albums planned for 2019… in the meantime Bob Pollard will bring his 100+ album discography’s worth of songs to Bowery Ballroom for a 50-song set of high-kicking action. Saturday 7pm
1) The Damned, Radkey, The Darts at Irving Plaza
I felt somewhat embarrassed when realising it has been nine years since I last saw The Damned, thankfully I’m fixing that on Thursday when they hit Irving Plaza with Radkey and The Darts. The punk legends released their eleventh studio album this year, Evil Spirits, which is their first in ten years and was produced by the also-legendary Tony Visconti. Thursday 7pm
