"From Jeff Bridges to Bat For Lashes: Tasty Upcoming Shows " by Music Blog

Music Blog

From Jeff Bridges to Bat For Lashes: Tasty Upcoming Shows

January 15, 2013

Like I said in the Weekly’s list of upcoming shows not-to-be-missed: More will definitely pop up. And they have been. Here’s the new and the notable:

Dead Meadow (Feb. 16) at Golden State Theatre: The best way to describe the D.C. trio: a vice soaked in liquid LSD, slowly crushing Black Sabbath. Jason Simon (vocals, guitar), Steve Kille (bass, sitar) and Mark Laughlin (drums) have been delivering heavy, psychedelic sludge for nearly 15 years. If you’ve never listened to them, get a copy of Feathers, crank it up to 11 and turn off the lights.

Yes (March 10) at Golden State Theatre: On their spring tour, the British prog rock heroes are treating their tireless fans to performances of three of their seminal albums —The Yes Album, Close to the Edge and Going for the One—in their entirety. At the Golden State they’ll be playing only The Yes Album and Close to the Edge but diehards shouldn’t mind since they’ll be catching Jon Davison, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White and Geoff Downes in such an intimate setting. After all, Yes seems like it was built for 50,000-plus-seat stadiums.

Jeff Bridges & The Abiders (April 3) at Sunset Center: “Fuck sympathy! I don't need your fuckin' sympathy, man, I need my fucking johnson!” Obviously, the Oscar-winning actor is cool with The Big Lebowski and his role as Dude, the ultimate slacker, being a part of his legacy because he’s embraced the language of the Coen Brothers’ film as seen in the name of his band. In addition to performing tunes from Crazy Heart—the film that earned Bridges an Academy Award for his ballsy portrayal of country musician Rooster Cogburn—he’ll rock original songs from his self-titled, T-Bone Burnett-produced studio LP like “Tumbling Vine” and “Falling Short.” The Dude still abides.

Bat for Lashes (April 19) at Henry Miller Library: Natasha Khan, the English multi-instrumental singer-songwriter who goes by Bat for Lashes, scored big in 2012 with her third studio record, The Haunted Man: Favorable reviews from Rolling Stone and Slant Magazine propelled the LP to debut at Number 6 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Pretty good for someone who was suffering from writer’s block before making the record—Kahn told Pitchfork that Radiohead’s Thom Yorke advised her to draw in order to overcome the writer’s block.

Medeski Martin & Wood (April 25) at Sunset Center: It’s hard to think of another band, outside of The Headhunters and Weather Report, blessed with such a technically superior group of players that are absolutely dynamic improvisers. John Medeski (keyboards and piano), Billy Martin (drums and percussion) and Chris Wood (double bass and bass guitar) know their instruments better than Kanye West knows Kim Kardashian’s booty. Frequently, the trio is classified as “jazz” but they’re much more; MMW is hip-hop, funk, fusion, ambient and rock and for more than 20 years, they’re live performances have been blowing minds.