HEaRD in WNY: Top shows for the week of Dec. 12 - 18

The featured event for the week is Saturday's The Big BANG! at Evening Star Concert Hall.

13.8 billion years ago, a large-scale evolution started taking place in a moment called the BIG BANG, and we're all products of the whole history of the Universe up until this point. So Nathan Bluerock has decided to have all of us come together at this huge birthday party/multi-genre event to celebrate our existences! Come colorful. Come Extravagant. Because they do this to give outcasts a space to feel at home and express themselves, network, grow, and build the love community. To inspire thought and motivate action. To give a stage to the demonstrators of existence. And to DANCE LIKE CRAZY, whether it is to remember or to forget.

Featuring:

• OPEN MIC from 7-8 p.m.
• Your HOST(ess) with the most(ess), Tyreese Maye
• The Stand Up Comedian Called Travis
• Arlowe Price's FREAK SHOW as Zombie Santa
• The Hypnic Jerks, Grace Of Faults, & Big Tim will be performing
• Wet Paint's EP release and ROCK N ROLL performance
• DJ FE'NETIKS, Loki Dnb, Basha, & Pulsejunkie B2B DJ Oddity on the decks
• Along with a variety of vendors and more!

/// other shows ///

• Slyfest Fundraiser: 6 p.m. Thursday at Buffalo Iron Works
• Pat Shea: 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Lancaster Opera House
• The Rifts, The Otherme, & more!: 7 p.m. Friday at Mohawk Place
• The Metal's First Annual Holiday Show: 7 p.m. Friday at Stamps
• The Organika Sensory Experience: 8 p.m. Friday at the Gypsy Parlor
• CAIN & Epicenter: 8 p.m. Saturday at Stamps
• Mohawk Xmas Party: 8 p.m. Saturday at Mohawk Place
• MahoganeyJaz EP Release: 8 p.m. Saturday at the Old Arthur S Pub
• 716 Hip Hop Showcase: 6 p.m. Sunday at Evening Star Concert Hall

Greg Burt is a Concert Promoter/Sound Guy/Music Supporter/Keyboardist/etc. He can be reached at Greg@FTMPEvents.com. For the full FTMP show calendar, visit www.FTMPEvents.com.

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Kiefer Sutherland returns to WNY for Niagara Falls show

NIAGARA FALLS -- Kiefer Sutherland must have liked it here. Having performed at Buffalo Iron Works over the summer, the actor-turned-country-singer is making a quick re-visit in the form of a Feb. 18 concert at Seneca Niagara Casino & Resort.

Tickets are $45 each for the intimate Bears Den setting at the casino, where Sutherland will showcase his debut album “Down In A Hole.” The country music collection is the culmination of what he calls the “closest thing I’ve ever had to a journal or diary.” In addition to the Iron Works show in May, Sutherland's tour has included performances at this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards and on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Sutherland has been a professional actor for over 30 years, starring in movies such as "Stand By Me," "The Lost Boys," "Young Guns," "Flatliners," "A Few Good Men." He is perhaps most known these days for his award-winning role as Jack Bauer on the hit FOX series "24." Sutherland now stars on the hit ABC series "Designated Survivor."

Unknown to many during the course of his career, Sutherland has taken on other vocations with the same kind of dedication and commitment - one of those being music. In 2002, Sutherland, with his music partner and best friend Jude Cole, began a small record label called Ironworks. The goal of this label was to record local musicians and distribute their music at a time when the music industry was going through a monumental shift. Some of their artists included Rocco DeLuca and the Burden, HoneyHoney and Billy Boy On Poison.

In early 2015, Sutherland played Cole two songs he had written and wanted to record as demos for other artists to record. Cole responded positively to the songs, encouraged Sutherland to record them, and the album grew organically from those recordings. Two songs became four and four grew into six, until Cole suggested that they make a record. The collaboration resulted in Sutherland's debut album, "Down In A Hole."

He hit the road for the first time earlier this year, and has performed the album live across the country.

"All of these songs are pulled from my own personal experiences," Sutherland said. "There is something very satisfying about being able to look back on my own life, good times and bad, and express those sentiments in music."

He continued, "As much as I have enjoyed the writing and recording process, I am experiencing great joy now being able to play these songs to a live audience, which was something I hadn't counted on."

Purchase tickets at 8 Clans or the Players Club Store inside Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino, online at www.ticketmaster.com, at any Ticketmaster location, or order by phone by calling 1-800-745-3000.

More information is available by calling 1-877-8-SENECA (1-877-873-6322) or visiting www.SenecaCasinos.com.

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Tom Petty coming to Canandaigua on July 2

CANANDAIGUA -- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will make a stop in Western New York in July as part of their 40th anniversary tour.

The July 2 show at CMAC offers lawn tickets beginning at $40, and two levels of pavilion tickets for $95 and $140. Doors open at 6 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. show. If lawn tickets remain they will be sold for $45 on the day of the show.

Tickets will be available beginning Friday at Ticketmaster – online, charge by phone 800-745-3000 and ticketmaster outlets.  Tickets will also be available at The Blue Cross Arena Box Office.

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PODCAST: ThinkSoJoe Show for Dec. 7, 2016

ThinkSoJoE and Muller have music for you from DredNeks, The Long Cold Dark, I'm From The Government And I'm Here To Help, and Orius.

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GURNETT: Kill the Clock's latest is upbeat, energetic

Kill the Clock is a local, four-piece pop punk outfit from Buffalo. Their new EP "To All My Friends and Family" is upbeat and energetic, with complex rhythms and a professional-sounding mix (with one exception, as noted below). You can hear many influences of their genre in their music, which calls to mind Good Charlotte, Brand New, Fall Out Boy, Blink-182, Relient K, and Stiff Little Fingers.

Opening track “Fighting the Weather” features great harmonies and backing vocals and is the best mixed track on the EP -- too bad it's only 55 seconds long. It feels like as soon as it starts to grab you, it abruptly ends. I would have loved to have heard this song fleshed out some more; as it stands, it feels like an unfinished segment of a song. The second track, “Rookie with Potential,” pushes forward with cool, distorted fuzzy bass and driving drums, while “Welcome Back Weekend” inspired me to do some air-drumming in my living room. “The Red Flower” ends with some tight lead guitar hooks but isn't very catchy or memorable on the whole. The title track closes out the EP. The mix seems a little muddy for this track, as the drummer's toms sound completely lost and the vocals are too loud; otherwise it's another not-particularly-memorable track.

To All My Friends and Family is upbeat and catchy. That said, it sounds just like every other pop-punk/emo band of the last 15 to 20 years. While the lyrics can be witty from time to time, it's filled with too many of the banal cliches that mark the genre.

From their videos, Kill the Clock looks like they'd deliver a fun and energetic live performance, but to be truly memorable, you have to take the genre and add your own flair to it, not just follow in the footsteps from the last 20 years. They clearly have the chops to be a valuable contributor to the local music scene, but they need a sound that is truly their own.

Find Kill the Clock on Bandcamp at https://killtheclock.bandcamp.com/

Ryan Gurnett has a B.S. in Music Industry from The College of St Rose. He has worked as a studio engineer, live sound engineer, producer and sound editor and has been a musician for 25 years. He is currently the bassist for The Lady, or the Tiger?. Email him at never_really_been@hotmail.com or find him on Twitter @SirWilliamIdol.

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HEaRD in WNY: Top shows for the week of Dec. 5 - 11

This week's feature event is Turn Up For Toys: 9 p.m. Friday at Surrender.

There are many less fortunate families in the area and Buffalo's Rinse 716 hopes to make a difference by collecting as many toys as they can to help provide underprivileged children with a wonderful holiday season! Come celebrate the holidays with their annual Turn Up For Toys event and give back to the community! Featuring a variety of local DJs & Producers including Beretta, Stacks, Keeter b2b Special Blend, Nsmbl, Bando, DJ Kai, Scafetta, Hal b2b Neko, Martian, & more in 2 rooms full of sound. The night will include a variety of EDM & Bass Music and the cost to get in is only any Unopened Toy Donation ($10 value or more). So get to Surrender on Main St in Buffalo this Friday starting at 10:00pm and join this party for a great cause!

/// other shows ///

• Will Wood of Will Wood & The Tapeworms: 8 p.m. at Mohawk Place
• Unmerciful & Seplophile: 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mohawk Place
• Cold Wave at the Cat Cave: 7 p.m. Friday at Mohawk Place
• Crooked Gener8ion: 6 p.m. Saturday at Sugar City
• Rust Belt & Nuke DANCE PARTY: 8 p.m. Saturday at Mr. Goodbar
• Electric Empire Tour ft. 4B: 8 p.m. Saturday at VENU
• Amplify 2.0: 8:30 p.m. Saturay at Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center
• 8th Annual "Hope For The Holidays" Benefit: 1 p.m. Sunday at Rockin' Buffalo
• Caskey: 6 p.m. Sunday at Evening Star Concert Hall

Greg Burt is a Concert Promoter/Sound Guy/Music Supporter/Keyboardist/etc. He can be reached at Greg@FTMPEvents.com. For the full FTMP show calendar, visit www.FTMPEvents.com.

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GURNETT: Weepies at the Tralf an intimate experience

Thursday night, indie darlings The Weepies brought their “Alone and Acoustic” tour to the Tralf. The result was an intimate, personal concert full of old and new songs from the band's vault and plenty of road stories. After years of touring with a full band, the husband-and-wife team of Steve Tannen and Deb Talan decided to make this one about small, intimate shows. So they packed up their family in their SUV and left for this two-person tour.

The set opened with “Nobody Knows Me at All.” Deb's beautiful warbly, smokey alto is even more striking live. It's a voice that oozes the insight behind their songs and bleeds American folk music. Both she and Steve played acoustic guitars, finger-picking their way through their short and sweet songs, sometimes using open tuning. Without a backing band, the songs truly played like the brief, beautiful vignettes of happiness, sadness, love and life that they are.

In between songs, the band—Steve, especially—spent a generous amount of time bantering with the crowd. Steve's stories, which alone would have made for an entertaining evening, covered topics from the stories behind specific songs to their children on the drive in pensively asking where the buffaloes are in Buffalo. At many times it felt like a real conversation with the audience; Steve even bought drinks for the night for a fan who could tell him the origin of the name “Buffalo.” They talked about their writing processes, their reason for touring without a band (“I just get bored. Can we play some other tracks?” -Steve), and Deb went especially personal by talking about her recovery from stage II breast cancer. There was also plenty of charming banter and joking (Steve to the audience: “Buy more drinks. We get better. That's our secret.”).

The wide-ranging set included a bluegrass tune called “Rocks and Water,” as well as songs like “I Was Made for Sunny Days,” the title track of their most recent album Sirens, “Please Speak Well of Me,” “Be My Thrill,” Riga Girls,” “The World Spins Madly On,” and “I Gotta Have You”.

While Deb's alto defines The Weepies' sound, Steve is an excellent singer as well, with a very folksy vintage voice that calls to mind a hybrid of Paul Simon and James Taylor. Steve also provided some excellent guitar licks. He didn't solo often, but when he did, it was precise and spot-on.

The show felt spontaneous, easygoing, and the set list flowed as the whim (and occasional audience requests) took the band. There were times when both Deb and Steve moved over to accompany the other on piano. Other times, one member left the stage momentarily allow the other to highlight some of their own material—notably, songs “Butterfly” and the Beatles-esque “Stained Glass” from Deb's upcoming solo album (which Deb described as similar to “bringing a new child to school; you know you love them, but how will other people react to them?”). For the encore, they did the Christmas-themed “All That I Want.”

The Weepies accomplished everything they wanted for with this show. It was an intimate evening with a relaxed, casual vibe that felt like the kind of acoustic concert you might experience in a friend's living room. The crowd's attention was rapt during each song (and even, contrary to Steve and Deb's jokes to “talk among yourself” during turnings) remained perfectly quiet in order to hear every note played and every word sung. It was so quiet that, at times, I could hear the hand dryers from the restrooms as The Weepies played. This was the band's first trip to Buffalo, and they definitely left their mark on a crowd that was clearly enamored by the whole evening.

-- Ryan Gurnett has a B.S. in Music Industry from The College of St Rose. He has worked as a studio engineer, live sound engineer, producer and sound editor and has been a musician for 25 years. He is currently the bassist for The Lady, or the Tiger?. Email him at never_really_been@hotmail.com or find him on Twitter @SirWilliamIdol.

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