Shake a leg, folks, the Springfield nightlife is up and running. You’d better get a move on if you’re going to catch it.
Frank Trompeter, Springfield’s popular saxophonist, leader of funk/pop/dance band elevator shoe, and man behind the curtain of the Innovators New Music Series, is striving to bring you the finest in avant-garde improvisational bands. Thursday’s entrée, The Anagram Ensemble, hails from New York City and specializes in “mixing jazz with classical and World Music influences.” The quartet performs its musical magic and mayhem at 8 p.m., downstairs from Andiamo!, in the wood-and-stone surroundings of Charlie’s Club. After the INMS event, the weekly open mic hosted by Second Harvest, convenes upstairs around 10 p.m.
The Pub Crawl welcomes with open arms two new music venues in our majestic metropolis: the State Bar and Grill in the Vinegar Hill Mall (the former “Spot and Atrium” digs) and Douger’s Patriot Bar in the Howard Johnson’s just north of North Grand on J. David Jones Parkway (that’s Walnut Street, you sleepy-eyed Springfieldians). Both establishments will feature plenty of live music, food, and libations, a terrific combo in anyone’s world.
If you’re up for another one of those music saturation experiences, try this. Start your Friday evening with a visit to Robbie’s and a listen to Craig Russo’s Latin Jazz Project, then roll on out to Billy’s Stockyards for some Patsy Cline country featuring Angie Martin with Still Kick’n. Next take a visit to Jazz Central Station for a little Treologic, Chicago’s jazz/hip-hop/rock sensation and top the night off at Viele’s Planet with Pana’s finest rock group, Hot Iron Skillet.
Saturday night, Lost Boys, a proud and loud ’80s “hair band,” removes the cover song gloves and bare knuckles it with their CD release of Break Away, a ten-song collection of self-proclaimed “awesome” original tunes. Let’s assume the songs are similar to the present music they are playing and not a divergence into funk, country, or polka, thereby assuring a spot in the CD rack next to Sammy Hagar, Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crüe, Poison, and others of that ilk. Rock on, dudes.
If you’re looking for a Thanksgiving Eve bash, roll on into Floyd’s Thirst Parlor and hit Black Magic Johnson‘s CD release party. The excitable blues trio will be as thrilled to deliver Food for Thought to you, as you will be to devour it. Also on the most popular bar night in the nation, The Schwag swings up from St. Louis to deliver a Grateful Dead-like performance of Grateful Dead tunes at the Illinois Theatre on the State Fairgrounds.
Hang on for dear life; they’re turning up the speed.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2003.
