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Photo by Laura Reinhard
Rapper Roebus One plays McGuinn's Place Saturday night.
The jazz-scatting city songbird’s vintage vocal ventures will melt your soul at a free Trenton2Night concert inside the Trenton Marriott (1 W. Lafayette St., Trenton) tomorrow night. Think classic Ella Fitzgerald. In fact, according to Giles’ web site, our director for the Trenton Community Music School is currently writing a musical about Fitzgerald’s relationships with bandleader Chick Webb, and their early days at the iconic Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, NY. Show starts at 5. All-ages.
The popular acoustic covers trio (Phrogger, PipeDreams) stay tranquil in their rendition of Counting Crows, Matchbox20 and Modern English songs at McGuinn’s Place (1781 Brunswick Pike, Lawrence) tomorrow night. Show starts at 9. Tickets cost $5. 21-plus.
The trio - Joel N. on keys, Tom Z. on sax and Tommy H. on drums - garner a passion for experimental fusion, pop, blues and smooth jazz through the inspirational recordings of Spyro Gyra, Dave Koz and Duke Ellington. In fact, just last June, the jazz heads – headlining a free Trenton2Nite performance at Gallery 125 (125 S. Warren St., Trenton) tomorrow night – invited Kool & The Gang’s Clifford Adams and Michael Ray to sit in on trombone and trumpet for some Lady Bird and Black Nile renditions in front of a packed house at Havana in New Hope, Pa. Show starts at 5. All-ages.
The Hooter – whose musical career includes three Top 30 hits in the ’80s, more than 2 million records sold and monumental opening slots at the 1985 Live Aid concert in Philly and Roger Waters’ 1990 Wall Concert in Berlin – headlines The Record Collector (358 Farnsworth Ave., Bordentown) tomorrow night. Bazilian’s released a few solo albums, too, while The Hooters were on hiatus in the mid ’90s. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Erin Hill and Lisa Bouchelle open. Tickets cost $15 in advance, $18 at the door. All-ages.
The trance-pop electronica and Fall Out Boy-type hooks in this Middlesex foursome’s “Dance Floor Disaster” CD drips neo green. Think pop punk with glow sticks when trying on their hyper crush at The Court Tavern (124 Church St., New Brunswick) tomorrow night. For fans of Tommy Sunshine rock remixes, 3OH!3 beats and Cobra Starship. Show starts at 9. Delta Falling, Bears & Bright Lights and Rose Riot round out the bill. Tickets cost $10. 21-plus.
The longtime bluesman refuses to play “Rock ’N’ Roll Hoochie Koo” – his most recognizable song – these days. Instead, expect only deep Southern blues in the style of Muddy Waters when checking the legend out at The Stone Pony (913 Ocean Ave., Asbury Park) tomorrow night. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. The Christine Martucci Band and Jon Klein Combine open. Tickets cost $27.50 in advance, $30 at the door. All-ages.
The just-ready-to-pop Trenton emcee - who calls himself the hip-hop Elliot Smith - wins the metaphor war around these parts with a slippery rhyme scheme that’s cold, dark and disturbed, but emotionally powerful with its spiritually lyrical imaging. The only performer to appear at Bamboozle ’09 with no label backing or by some lame ticket-buy contest, Roebus One’s freezy-flow falls under the emo-rap label – a tag that seems to fit the rapper fine here through his sampling of Anthony Green (Circa Survive) on the single “Frail” and vocal slow motions that’ll remind underground rap fans of Cage, Murs and Aesop Rock. He’s rocked the stage with indie hip-hop luminaries Copywrite and Yak Ballz and on Saturday puts McGuinn’s Place (1781 Brunswick Pike, Lawrence) on lockdown with To Live & Die in NJ. The rappers’ “Reflections of Goodbye” was released in early ’09 and is now being shopped to indie labels. Could Def Jux be in his future? Those who keep it real would think so. Show starts at 9. Rocky and D. Montana round out the bill. Tickets cost $5. 21-plus.
Spacey electro sequencing and near-robotic harmonizing has this Maryland fuzz-rocking, beat-blipping, spazz-spitting indie bunch speaking its own alien language inside the Mill Hill Basement (300 S. Broad St., Trenton) Saturday night. For fans getting high to Beck’s modern works, Danger Mouse production and noisier Modest Mouse. Show starts at 10. Trenton’s Honah Lee and Attic Dancers, and Philly’s Phantasm play, too. Tickets cost $5. 21-plus.
Life of Agony’s Joey Z produced the New Yorkers’ 2009 debut CD “Red Line,” which weaves a metal hybrid that’s alt-funky and melodic like Ozzy tending to his wicked garden. Also recommended if you dig Alice In Chains and Audioslave. The foursome, who boast about their “controversial lyrics about the human condition” on their MySpace page, play Championships Sports Bar and Grill (931 Chambers St., Trenton) Saturday night. Show starts at 9. Smack City, VEnT, Await Rescue and Addison Groove open. Tickets cost $8. 21-plus.
An original punk rocker in New York City with the Tuff Darts, the actor and singer fled the CBGB’s scene in 1976 to record with surf-rock royalty Link Wray and went on to make a name for himself in the rock-a-billy scene. Wray saw an Elvis Presley circa Sun Records aura in his voice – recording two albums with the now 62-year-old Maryland native, the latter featuring a tune written by Bruce Springsteen. Gordon, who Jerry Lee Lewis called “the real deal,” headlines The Record Collector (358 Farnsworth Ave., Bordentown) Saturday night. Show starts at 7:30. Bobby Steele (Misfits, Undead) opens. Tickets cost $25 in advance, $30 at the door. All-ages.
The 1999 Avery Fisher winner’s sultry violin finger-shimmies warms up Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” at the opening of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Italian Festival Saturday at the State Theatre (15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick). The Philly-born child prodigy is quite the looker – especially if you have an Asian fetish. She also scored a best seller at the age of 10 with her “Debut” CD on EMI Classics. Show starts at 8. Tickets cost $20, $38, $54 and $68. All-ages.
The Trenton metallic doom dealers – who scored an opening gig for the Black Dahlia Murder next month - rip up the cannibal corpses that tend to flock to Championships Sports Bar and Grill (931 Chambers St., Trenton) on the weekends for their all-ages hardcore meltdowns. This time the head bangers share the stage Sunday with audio bullies Isyou and a crazy cast of the most death-defying homicidal, suicidal, genocidal hardcore demons this area’s ever known. Show starts at noon. Decaying Crypts, Writhing Afterbirths, Her Virgin Wounds, After the Genocide, Dead Walk The Earth, I Am The Trireme, Tears of the Departed and The Visions Of play, too. Tickets cost $10. All-ages.
The Orange County punk rockers were the first to insert surf-rock elements in-between their guitar shreds, and many consider their 1981 album “Living In Darkness” the quintessential skate-punk record. That record went on to influences other bands from Southern California – like the Offspring – to incorporate some of that vintage pipelining guitars into its power chords. In fact, their song “Bloodstains” – which hopes to be a highlight on Monday’s show at The Record Collector (358 Farnsworth Ave., Bordentown) – is one of the most covered punk songs from that era. Other highlights of the show should include sing-alongs to “Punk Rock Girl,” “Bitchin’ Camaro” and “Dot” by openers Joe Jack Talcum (Dead Milkmen) and Scott Reynolds (All), respectively. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $20 in advance, $24 at the door. All-ages.
Scott Frost’s On The Beat concert listing appears in The Trentonian every Thursday. If your band is playing around town, email the On the Beat web line at djscott111@aol.com.
