March 31st, 2009
Tonight In Shows
Quite a mixed bag of shows tonight; something for everyone! Over at the Troc, the Christian-leaning metalcore/screamo outfit The Devil Wears Prada — which does not include Anne Hathaway or Meryl Streep — drops by to rock the kidz. Who else is their target audience, really, with songs like “HTML Rulez, d00d” and “You Can’t Spell Crap Without ‘C’”? Their steez is to blend thrashy, chunky riffs and plenty of double-kick drumming with bloodcurdling screams and “scary” Cookie Monster growls, then throw in some soaring, melodic choruses like you’d find on a Jimmy Eat World album, with some creepy synths tossed in now and then for good measure. They’re in town in advance of their next album, With Roots Above and Branches Below, due out in May. The show starts at 6:30pm and is sold out, but I’m sure someone on the sidewalk will be happy to sell you a ticket.
Meanwhile, Glenn Tilbrook — who along with Chris Difford forms the songwriting tandem behind Squeeze — comes to World Cafe Live with his other band, the Fluffers (who are not expats from the porn industry). They’ve just released Pandemonium Ensues, which, as expected, doesn’t stray too much from the bright, sweet-voiced, classic pop sound of Squeeze, maybe getting a little rootsier here and a little New Wave-ier there. Hard to say whether they’ll tackle any Squeeze songs, but the new material certainly stands fine on its own. Show starts at 7:30pm; tickets are $30-40.
And Idaho native Josh Ritter — who was born to two neuroscientists and studied to be one himself until the songwriting bug bit him and screwed up his brain in all kinds of ways — is at the Sellersville Theater. Endlessly compared to the likes of Bob Dylan (what acoustic singer-songwriter isn’t?) and Leonard Cohen, Ritter’s earned most of that by being into the indie-folk storytelling thing. I’ve never seen him live, but I hear he’s got a quite compelling stage presence, so this may very well be worth the drive north. Show starts at 8pm and tickets will cost you $29.50.
Finally, as we told you yesterday, Seattle’s Steve E. Nix & the Cute Lepers have cancelled their appearance at the North Star tonight due to the tragic death of their guitarist, Travis Criscola. The show will instead be headlined by Philly snot-punks Goodbye, Etc., with the Percocettes and the Do Its supporting. Show begins at 8pm; tickets are $8.
