Mark
Hummel and the Blues Survivors are back in town at the Illinois Central
Blues Club Blue Monday Jam at the Alamo (115 N. 5th St., 523-1455). The San
Francisco area band is a knockout and Hummel is one of the best harmonica
players you’ll ever hear live. Why not bite the bullet and pay the $1
cover? Buy a cool looking ICBC T-shirt or join the club while you’re
there. Blues is good stuff and these guys are some of the best.
Speaking
of blues, Scott H. Biram of Austin, Texas, likes his a bit on the
rough-and-tough side. The self-proclaimed “One Man Dirty Old
Band” has a CD of the same name coming out on Chicago-based Bloodshot
Records near the end of March. Biram has quite a story, part of which
includes getting run over by an 18-wheeler, having a song called
“Truck Driver” (written before the accident), and a two-month
opening slot on Hank Williams III recent American tour. He likes to scream
old blues and folk songs into an ancient duct-taped microphone while
wailing away on a classic ’59 Gibson and pounding his foot on the
floor for percussive effect. Catch the crazy coot at Café Kanichi-Wa
(1117 S. Grand Ave. E., 544-3500) on Tuesday, March 1, starting around 9
p.m. where there’s never a cover charge.
Speaking
of Café Kanichi-Wa, this Saturday, Feb. 26, Big Fur, our grandest
and greatest local rock band, hosts opening act Rockit Girl from Chicago.
The quartet consists of some leftover Veruca Salt, a band from the
mid-’90s that was considered a record company’s darling and
trespassed in Top-40 territory. Now they’ve re-grouped, formed Rockit
Girl, and are headed back to the top of the pops. Go to www.rockit-girl.com for a look and listen.
Next
Thursday, March 3, Club 217 (3075 Normandy Rd., 529-0196) gets hard and
heavy with Bobaflex, a traveling band on tour with Sevendust and Magna-Fi.
They are best described as groups you would hear on local radio station
WQLZ (which is not sponsoring this show). Not only can you see a nationally
touring aggressive rock band, you also get three of the hardest working,
best sounding groups from central Illinois: Funky Circus Fleas of
Beardstown, Honest Pod of Decatur and Justify the Means of Peoria.
Here’s the best for last: Tickets are only $5 general admission and
$10 for the swanky V.I.P. room.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2005.
