C.E. NELSON
IN BRIEF
THURSDAY 9/1
15TH ANNUAL HOT SPRINGS BLUES FESTIVAL 5 p.m. Hill Wheatley Plaza. $5.
Blues lovers have it pretty good here in the Natural State. With the long-running King Biscuit Blues Festival, we’ve got one of the most high-profile blues festivals anywhere, but there is no shortage of quality smaller festivals. That’s not to say that the Hot Springs Blues Festival is in any way slight. The two-day event is packed with performers both national and international, including Saturday night headliner Lee Oskar, who was a co-founder of the omnivorous, long-running funk-blues-R&B-soul-rock-reggae outfit War. In addition to being a renowned harmonica player, Oskar started Lee Oskar Harmonicas back in the early ’80s. Other performers include Salt & Pepper, Schroeter and Breitfelder, Trampled Under Foot, The Lionel Young Band, E.G. Knight, Joe Pitts Band and more. The whole shebang is bookended with performances by Stella Vees at the Ohio Club — one of the best bars in Hot Springs or, really anywhere. Vees plays Thursday night at 8 p.m. and plays the after party Saturday, which runs from 9 p.m.-1 a.m.
SATURDAY 9/3
SET THE CONTROLS
9:30 p.m. Revolution. $10.
Tribute bands tend to fall into two camps: those that aim to capture a band’s look and those that are more concerned with recreating their source’s sound. A scant few manage to do both at once. Any Pink Floyd tribute act certainly has its work cut out for it, but Ohio’s Set The Controls — formerly called Eclipse — has the chops to pull it off. Nobody’s going to mistake this six-piece for Dave and Rick and Roger and Nick, but impersonation isn’t what they’re going for. Every member plays multiple instruments and if online clips are any indication, Set The Controls is doing Pink Floyd as well or better than anybody else out there. It’s telling that the band didn’t pick the most obvious reference or song title for its name, instead going for a deep track, a long, brooding number that’s one of the post-Syd Barrett Floyd’s best. Sure, you could opt to just sit at home with the headphones and beanbag and burn one with that scratchy old “Live at Pompeii” bootleg on the turntable for the umpteenth time, but this seems like a better pick.
SUNDAY 9/4
38 SPECIAL
8 p.m. Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater. $22.50-$55.
OLD SKOOL R&B: The Delta Classic 4 Literacy Old Skool Concert includes En Vogue (above), SWV and Silk, playing Friday night at Riverfest Amphitheatre.
EN VOGUE, SWV, SILK
7 p.m. Riverfest Amphitheatre. $20-$75.
If ever there was a lineup guaranteed to be a prelude to an evening of nonstop lovemaking, this would be it. En Vogue is one of the biggest female R&B acts of all time, whose 1992 album “Funky Divas” launched the band into the pop stratosphere. “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It),” and “Free Your Mind” were massive hits, as was 1993’s collaboration with Salt-N-Pepa “Whatta Man.” Even if R&B wasn’t your thing, if you were born between, say, 1960 and 1980 and you grew up in America and listened to the radio, those three songs are probably permanently seared into your mental jukebox. SWV was also huge, with the band’s debut “It’s About Time” going double platinum in its first year. The Sisters With Voices had several Top 20 R&B hits, including “Right Here,” “I’m So Into You,” “Weak,” “Always on My Mind” and more. And if you can find a more getting-it-on-obsessed ’90s R&B act (whose name isn’t R. Kelly) than Silk, then I’ll buy you a cassingle of the group’s smash hit “Freak Me.”
Back in ’74 or so, a gang of Florida boys, including Don Barnes and Donnie Van Zant — brother of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Van Zants — started a little boogie rock outfit called 38 Special and signed to A&M a couple years later. Those first few albums were fairly well received, but it wasn’t until 1981’s “Wild-Eyed Southern Boys,” when the band began weaving some arena-rock polish into its sound, that 38 Special started really blowing up. Like the pistol from which the band derives its name, 38 Special proved to be a classic and deadly machine. Maybe it’s been a while since you listened to “Rockin’ Into The Night” or “Rough Housin’ ” or “Hold on Loosely.” But these songs sound just as good coming through your iPod earbuds here in 2011 as they did back in high school, rattling out of the speakers of your dusty ’81 Silverado as you made out with Carla in the Sonic parking lot, the both of you lit off cheap weed and a quart of Wild Irish Rose. Well, maybe not quite that good.
TIM KASHER
8:30 p.m. Stickyz. $8 adv., $10 d.o.s.
With the exception of the The Faint — that irritating, albeit ahead-of-the-curve, ’80s-biting outfit — I gotta plead damn near total ignorance of that whole Omaha, Neb., Saddle Creek Records scene. Before a few minutes ago, I’d never listened to note one of Bright Eyes or Azure Ray or Son, Ambulance or Rilo Kiley or Tilly and the Wall (ugh!) or Desaparecidos or Cursive or The Good Life, the latter two featuring the prolific Tim Kasher. While Cursive had legions of adoring fans, the band was also known for its onagain, off-again, on-again, off-again, on-a ... no wait, off-again, onagain, off-again status. Kasher’s more recent outings — Cursive’s 2009 album “Mama, I’m Swollen” or his 2010 solo effort “The Game of Monogamy” — are still strident, heart-on-sleeve affairs, but aren’t nearly as tiresomely precious as much of the rest of his label peers’ work. Cursive has proven to be one of the most enduring bands of its scene and era, and the smart money says Kasher will probably pack out Stickyz. Aficionado opens the show.
From Chapel Hill comes The Moaners, a well-traveled female duo who specialize in moody, punked-up Delta blues. The band gets compared to the White Stripes a lot, but that’s a useful analogue only if you chopped and screwed the Stripes and gave Jack White a little more bass in his voice. Potluck opens the show at White Water, 10 p.m., $5. It’s a night of energetic local rock as Free Micah, Don’t Stop Please and Catskill Kids share the bill at Sticky Fingerz, 9 p.m., $5. For the club crowd, “BLISS” returns to Deep, 10 p.m., while “ONE” continues at Sway, 9 p.m., $1 cover before 11 p.m. It’s Shop & Sip in Hillcrest, too, starting at 5 p.m.
FRIDAY 9/2 Florida-based reggae act Rising Lion brings almost two decades of touring experience to Stickyz; according to the group’s official bio, it has “a reputation for bringing good vibes to every show,” 9 p.m., $5. At the Afterthought, Josh the Devil plays good-time rockabilly with the latest incarnation of The Sinners, 9 p.m., $7. In Hot Springs at Maxine’s, John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives similarly mine from the past, though their sound is more in the vein of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, 8 p.m., $5. If you’re in the mood for songs you know and know how to dance to, The Gettys return to Denton’s Trotline, 9:30 p.m. and Big Stack is at West End, 9 p.m., $5. If you’ve never seen Two Cow Garage perform and you’re a fan of Lucerostyle barroom rock, remember the band’s name for next time. The group sold-out a two-night stand celebrating its 10th anniversary at White Water Tavern this weekend. Football fans, catch your first taste of pigskin at the 2011 Salt Bowl, where Benton and Bryant square off at War Memorial, 7 p.m.
SATURDAY 9/3 Local standout indie rockers Year of the Tiger headline at Stickyz with Mainland Divide and War Chief opening, 9 p.m., $5. Little Rock soul diva Nikki Parish belts it out with her backing band at Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. Local rockers NeverTrain perform at West End, which is also showing the Razorback game; music starts at 9 p.m., $10. At War Memorial, UAPB takes on Langston University in the Delta Classic, 5 p.m., $20-$35. The UAPB drumline kills.
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