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Concert update (swine flu edition): Power Jam, Green Day, Dylan and more

No, I don't have the swine flu, but with all the panic-inducing media saturation on the topic, well, I thought I'd cash in. If it helps, my son has been a little under the weather (no, it's not swine flu), which is why I haven't blogged in a while and had to skip the Korn concert on Monday. 

Hope I don't miss Jim Ward's CD release shows Friday and Saturday at the Philanthropy Theatre!

Enough with my whining (swining?), on to the good stuff. New show info! Cover your mouth if you cough while reading this:

• Shy of the occasional T.I. show (pre-incarceration), Power 102's annual Power Jam is not only the biggest local hip-hop event of the year, it's also brought some heavyweights here while on their way up. Can I get an Eminem?

So this year's show at 4 p.m. May 16 at Wet 'N' Wild Waterworld has a lot to live up to. Let's see there's Houston rapper Chamillionaire, probably the biggest name on the bill and the proud father of his third album, the delayed "Venom," now due in June. 

Yung LA is probably the hottest thanks to his multi-format, Top 20 R&B/hip-hop hit "Ain't I (with Young Dro and T.I.). Hurricane Chris (who's got a big hit in the making with "Halle Berry") and Dorrough (who's charting "Walk That Walk" and "Ice Cream Paint Job") are also playing. Also on the bill: Melanie Fiona, Damm D and Young Problemz, with more to come, station staff say.

Tickets are $17 through May 15, on sale now at Good Time stores. They'll go up to $25 at the gate day of show. Included in the price is admission to rides in the water park.

• Green Day has confirmed the venues for its first tour in three years. There's nothing here, of course, but the trek in support of new album "21st Century Breakdown" (due May 15; that's right, a Friday) will open July 3, end Aug. 25 (well, this leg anyway) and includes stops at the Toyota Center in Houston (Aug. 9), the AT&T Center in San Antonio (Aug. 10), Denver's Pepsi Center (Aug. 15) and the US Air Arena in Phoenix (Aug. 22). No on-sales yet.

• Did you notice that four-day gap in the itinerary on Bob Dylan's summer minor league baseball stadium tour with John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson? The tour wends from Grand Prairie on Aug. 7 to Glendale AZ on Aug. 11, meaning they've just got to at least drive through here, right? Wouldn't it be nice if they added a Cohen Stadium date in there? I have no reason to believe they will. I certainly haven't heard anything to that effect. I'm just saying. It would be nice. Dylan's new album, "Together Through Life," is a pretty wonderful blues albums, roadhouse blues. Would love to hear the stuff live.

• Geez, while we're speculating, how about those Austin City Limits Festival headliners? Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys, Kings of Leon, Sonic Youth, John Legend, the Decemberists, Lily Allen and Ben Harper among numerous others. Given that we're on the route from that side of the side to the west side of the country, and given that we picked up Beck and The Mars Volta shows last September in part because they were playing the ACL, you've got to wonder just who we might get this year coming or going to Austin. 

This year's Zilker Park decibel-fest will be Oct. 2-4. It's produced by C3 Presents, the same Austin company that does Lollapalooza (where Depeche Mode, Jane's Addiction, Tool and the Beasties perform Aug. 7-9 in Chicago), the same people who brought Ryan Adams to our fair city and is bringing Wilco here on June 17.

• Speaking of festivals, KLAQ boss Brad Dubow passed along some updates on a couple of theirs. The station's negotiating to book Cold and/or 12 Stones to replace Trapt on the first night of the 24th annual Balloonfest May 23-25. Trapt had to cancel its May 23 show at Wet 'N' Wild with Crooked X because singer Chris Brown will have surgery on a damaged vocal cord, Dubow said.

Meanwhile, The Cult is confirmed to headline the second day of the Downtown Street Festival on July 4. Two other acts are being booked to open. Candlebox is already firm for July 3.

FYI: In last week's blog (and Tiempo "That's the Ticket" column) about the Balloonfest, I mistyped the price of the festival passes, which are $49.95, not $4.95. Should have caught it before it went online and to print, but I didn't. Thanks to reader Gabby for the catch and the attitude.

• Moscow Ballet's "Great Russian Nutcracker" was such a hit last year after Christmas that it's coming back to the Plaza Theatre this year before Christmas. The show, known for its lavish sets, will return for performances at 4 and 8 p.m. Dec. 20. Tickets are $26-$86.50, with VIP packages for $98.50 that include choice seats, souvenirs and more. They're on sale now at the box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com, nutcracker.com and 800.745.3000.

• UTEP Dinner Theatre has extended the run of its popular "The Wizard of Oz" by four more shows. It'll now end Memorial Day Weekend. Added shows are at 7 p.m. May 21-23 and 2:30 p.m. May 24 (the 7 p.m. shows include dinner, the May 24 does not include a meal). Call 747-6060 with questions.

• The Bruce Nehring Consort is staging an unusual set of concerts this weekend. Featured will be pianist Romayne Wheeler, the "mystery pianist" they teased about earlier in the season. Wheeler left mainstream society in 1992 to join the Tarahumara Indians of southern Chihuahua's Copper Canyon, where he teaches young people to play the piano. He'll perform in Tarahumara costume. 

He'll be joined by pianist Romeyno Guierrez Luna and the Tarahumara Dancers. It's a wildly varied program that includes an original composition by 21-year-old Luna, excerpts from Wheeler's "La Fiesta de la vida," as well as classics from Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Gershwin.

Galleria 300 will display artwork depicting the native people before the concerts and during intermission. 

Performances are at 4:30 p.m. May 2 and 2:30 p.m. May 3 at First Baptist Church, 805 Montana. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for seniors and military and $15 for everyone else. Call 534.SONG for more info.

• Mexico City ska band Panteon Rococo headlines a Cinco de Mayo show at 7 p.m. May 5 at Club News, aka News Drinks Inn, 209 S. El Paso. Radio La Chusma and La Caravana open. Tix are $25 in advance, $30 day of show; $35 VIP advance, $40 d.o.s., on sale at All That Music & Video and ticketbully.com.

• Vertical Horizon (remember them?) play Diggs Tavern on May 12. 16 Frames and Michael Toulcher open. It's an 18 and over show, with music starting at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15 at ticketbully.com.

• EP's Mexicans at Night kick off a three-week tour of Arizona, California, Colorado and Washington with a May 7 show at Take II. 

• The annual birthday bash and jam for Art Lewis, the seminal El Paso jazz and blues sax player and onetime Long John Hunter sidekick, will be at 8 p.m. May 8 at Take II. The 73-year-old, who now lives in his native Houston, will be backed by pianist Fernando Lechuga and members of Azucar, but, as is customary, professional and advanced student musicians are invited to join in and jam. 

Tickets are $10, though it's free to pros and students who bring their own instrument. Call organizer and KHRO (1150 AM) host Hector Montes at 637.0505 for more info.

• The El Paso Youth Symphony Orchestra, El Mariachi Tapatio and Los Arrieros singer Juan Contreras team up for the EPYSO's second annual "Mariachis for Mom" at 2 p.m. May 9 at the Plaza. Ballet Folklorico de El Paso and Folklorico de Paso del Norte also will perform. Tickets are $10-$25 at the box, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

• Art Lewis isn't the only one with a birthday. Former big band leader Mike Caranda celebrates 91 years on this planet during the monthly tea dance by the band that bears his name at 2 p.m. May 10 at the Alamo Ballroom, 820 N. Raynor. Caranda's birthday is May 6. Bob Burns will lead the band during the three-hour dance on Mother's Day. Free dance lessons will be offered. Admission is $15. Call Burns at 575.525.9333 or 799.5684 for details.

• Faith Brown is a Montwood High School senior who raised $18,000 to stage a May 16 benefit for the ALIVE project, a teen suicide prevention organization. The show at the Coliseum will feature Building 429 (check out their emotional hit "Always" if you haven't already). It starts at 5 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 day of show.

• Members of Magic, a prominent jazz-rock band here in the '70s and '80s, will reunite to help raise money for an old friend, veteran jazz drummer Henry "Hank" Santaella, who has ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and needs financial help.

The concert will be from 3-7 p.m. May 17 at Lancer's Club East, 3135 Trawood. Donation is a minimum $40 and includes a buffet.

Santaella played in Magic, which performed with the El Paso Symphony and opened for Roy Haynes and Eric Johnson. He also played with Tangent, which opened for Al Jarreau and George Benson, and Never Say Never.

Musicians who'll play the benefit include Billy Townes, former Magic men Glen Leffler, Robert Vance and Andre Casillas, plus Roland Guerrero, Ruben Castillo and Oscar Ayala.

Call 533-8311, ext. 104, for more info. Magic has a Myspace, myspace.com/magicelpaso.

Gretchen Peters, EP's Tom Russell evoke old, new West on new CD

You can almost hear the gentle breeze and gurgling river flow by as Barry Walsh's piano ushers in the prairie dawn with "North Platte," the instrumental that opens "One to the Heart, One to the Head," a quietly extraordinary new album by Nashville singer-songwriter Gretchen Peters and El Paso's own folk titan Tom Russell.

It is a love song to the West. The old West and the new. It's a longing for wide-open spaces, simpler times, colorful characters and moments of contemplation. Sort of an antidote for life in the digital age.

Russell sums it up nicely in his liner notes that accompany the album, which is adorned by a couple of his impressionistic paintings. "This record sounds like the West I long for," he writes, " ... ancient, whispering, parched, desolate, bushwacked, half-drunk, windswept and crazy ... crazy with memorable ghosts."

For the New York-born, Colorado-bred Peters, probably best known for writing Martina McBride's "Independence Day," it's a chance to reconnect with her own Western roots, where she learned to "appreciate a certain kind of spare beauty," as she writes in her liner notes.

Those longings and those lessons drip from this musical canvas. What's surprising is that aside from Russell's "Guadalupe," the songs on this simple yet rich collection did not flow from their pens, but those of Bob Dylan, Townes Van Zandt, Ian Tyson, Mary McCaslin and Rosalie Sorrels, to name an impressive few.

It's obvious from Walsh's wistful opening piano strains that "One to the Heart" is not your typical covers album, nor is it your typical duets album. Heck, it's not even your typical concept record. This was not dreamed up in some marketing meeting. It's from the heart.

It's billed as Gretchen Peters "with" (not and) Tom Russell. And make no mistake about it. Her voice shines, imbued as it is with enough lived-in pain, yearning and melancholy to remind one of those Cormac McCarthy novels about the end of life on the open range.

Russell's keenly thematic song selection, dramatic voice and wisftul love of the open spaces (and all the freedoms that implies) form the dusty trail upon which these two country-folk pilgrims ride on this journey.

It wanders from the prairies of the Great Plains (McCaslin's elegiac "Prairies in the Sky") to the Tyson's "Blue Mountains of Mexico," stopping long enough to reflect on the woman Billy the Kid shot in El Paso in a spicey, border-style take of Dylan's "Billy 4." It also ponders, sadly, the loss of a certain free spiritedness in Tom Dundee's "These Cowboys Born Out of Their Time," which serves as a kind of emotional centerpiece for the album.

It vividly reports on nature's cruelty with Stephanie Davis' poignant 'Wolves' and the inherent loneliness of Van Zandt's wonderfully sad "Snowin on Raton." 'Guadalupe," Russell's delicate contemplation of Mexican religious tradition and his own spiritual ambiguity has a special resonance around here. "I am the least of all your pilgrims here," Peters sings with a certain resignation, "but I am most in need of hope."

It's a spare, simple album that hitches its wagon to these wonderful songs, many of them overlooked. Peters and Russell are supported with subtle restraint by a stellar cast that includes Texas accordionist (and Joe Ely sidekick) Joel Guzman, who adds some tasty border flavors, and keyboardist
Walsh, the former Box Tops player who has backed Roy Orbison and Waylon Jennings.

The ghosts of the cowboys, outlaws, cattle ranchers and lost souls live on this collection. But I would have given it a different name — "One From the Heart, One From the Head."

Doug Pullen may be reached at dpullen@elpasotimes.com or 915.546.6397.

Concert update: Balloonfest, Tejanos 4, Ozuna, State Line, Bingham, Pollstar check and more

Man, the Plaza books "Star Wars" (see last blog item) and now KLAQ is bringing in a giant Darth Vader balloon for Balloonfest '09.

Is this some kind of collusion or just a Jedi mind trick?

The Vader helmet balloon — all 86-feet high, 21-feet wide and 78-feet deep — will be the biggest attraction at the 24th annual event, which takes places at Grace Gardens (the new launch site) and Anthony's Wet 'N' Wild Waterworld over Memorial Day Weekend (May 23-25).

Of course, concerts are a big part of this, too, and this year's shows feature the usual batch of up-and-comers and near has-beens.

In the former category are Trapt and Crooked X (the Oklahoma rockers who finished second on the "Living Room Live" contest on CBS' "The Early Show" at 6 p.m. May 23.

Rev Theory, who just opened for Avenged Sevenfold and Buckcherry at the Pan Am, are paired with Burn Halo (who've been here a couple of times) for the 6 p.m. May 24 concert.

So far, Hoobastank has been announced for the 5:30 p.m. May 25 show. The band, which peaked in 2003 with "The Reason," is touring new album "For(n)ever," from which new single "So Close So Far" recently was released. They're not has-beens just yet, but they aren't getting the kind of airplay they were a few years ago.

Tickets go on sale May 1 at 7-11/Fina stores in El Paso and Pik-Quick in Las Cruces. They're $15, plus tax, which include a ticket to a concert and a one-day ride pass. A festival pass is going to cost you $4.95, plus tax, but includes a season pass to the waterpark, where the concerts will take place on the Budweiser Concert Stage.

There are more lavish packages available, that include VIP passes, choice access to the balloon launches and more. They're going for $2,000 through May 12, $2,500 from May 13-19 and $3,000 starting May 20.

Info: klaq.com, 544.9450; wetwild.com, 886.2222.

In other concert news:

• Little Joe Y La Familia, Jimmy Edward with the River City Band and Rhapsody headline Tejano Legends IV on July 17 at the Plaza Theatre. Hey, didn't we just have the third one of those? Yes, we did. It was last month, with Ruben Ramos and Sonny Ozuna. 

Little Joe Hernandez, who has a promoting stake in the shows, knows a good thing when he sees it. These things sell out! Tickets are $21.50, $36.50, $46.50 and $56.60 (first four rows), on sale at 10 a.m. May 1 at Ticketmaster outlets, the box  office, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

• Speaking of Tejano legends, Sonny Ozuna, who co-headlined the last one in March, will play the new Club News (the old Blu) at 209 S. El Paso at 8 p.m. May 8. Tickets are 20 bucks at All That Music & Video and, presumably, at the door if it's not sold out by then. The club's number is 633.6999. I couldn't find anything on their MySpace page about it. This announcement came from promoter Francisco Cabral.

• The cool, free music series with the unwieldy name — the Rudolph Chevrolet-Honda 2009 Live Music Series at the State Line — which opens today (April 22) with Roger Creager — has revised and bulked up its previously announced schedule of local rock and Texas country acts, dropping Cross Canadian Ragweed's Cody Canada, but adding folks like Cory Morrow.

Here's a rundown:

April 22 — Roger Creager

April 29 — Radio La Chusma

(May 6 — Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are listed on Pollstar, but not the official schedule)

May 13 — Bleu Edmondson

May 27 — Aaron Watson

June 17 — Zack Walther and the Cronkites (new)

June 24 — Cory Morrow (new)

July 1 — Stoney LaRue (replaces a solo stop by Cross Canadian Ragweed's Cody Canada)

July 15 — Band of Heathens (new)

The series runs through August. All shows are at 8 p.m. on the patio at the restaurant, 1222 Sunland Park Drive. Patrons are asked to bring non-perishable canned food or monetary donations for the West Texas Food Bank.

Info: 581.3371.

• Another Texas songwriter, Ryan Bingham, and his band Dead Horses, will play Whiskey Dicks on May 1. He's releasing his second album, "Roadhouse Sun," on June 1, two songs of which were performed on their "Austin City Limits" segment in February. Former Black Crowes guitarist  Marc Ford is back as producer. He helmed Bingham's debut, "Mescalito." It's a free show, with Bingham going on at 10. Don't forget that Mark Chesnutt is there May 3.

• A quick check of the Pollstar web site reveals a few tidbits, like Mexican pop group Reik June 18 (hey, that's my son's 21st birthday) at the Coliseum, Candlebox playing the Downtown Street Festival on July 3, Del Castillo headlining Music Under the Stars July 12-13 at the Chamizal (they're headlining Take II on April 24), Girl in a Coma (who cut their new album at Sonic Ranch) at Zeppelin's Underground on July 25, War playing the Plaza Theatre on July 31 and Tower of Power at the Chavez Theatre on Oct. 29.

• LA's Nico Vega play Take II on May 11 (Jayden's Playground, Miranda Burning and BB Gun Johnny open), with a $10 cover, while piano-and-drum duo KristeenYoung plays the Percolator on May 28 (Jayden's Playground opens that, too), an all-ages show with a $5 cover.

 

 

Plaza film festival gets the force: 'Star Wars' coming

When the Plaza Classic Film Festival's Eric Pearson greeted me with "May the force be with you" over the phone, I knew something very cool was up.

It is. 

The festival's artistic director tipped me today that an original print of "Star Wars," the 1977 sci-fi classic that changed the movie universe forever, has been secured for the second annual film festival at the Plaza Theatre.

It'll show Aug. 12, a Wednesday night, and probably at least one more time, possibly more depending on audience turnout.

It's a real coup, especially since Pearson, the festival's executive director, and Charles Horak, its artistic director whose Film Salon series celebrates its seventh anniversary May 2, couldn't quite pull it off last year.

"We know it's as iconic as they come, the way it changed the motion picture industry," he said.

The print that will be showing in the historic theater is only "one or two" "Star Wars" prints that will be shown at festivals this year, Pearson said.

"It's an original print. There's a person whose sole purpose is protecting the 'Star Wars' prints. He keeps them in his office," Pearson said.

Other festival bookings announced so far are "Gone With the Wind," which marks its 70th anniversary this year; "Mary Poppins," "The Nutty Professor" (original with Jerry Lewis), "Lawrence of Arabia," "Chinatown," "The French Connection," "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Help!" Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" (which influenced Lucas' "Star Wars"), "The Lady Eve," "Roman Holiday"  and "The Terminator."

The festival will run Aug. 6-16.

Tickets will range from free to $6, depending on the event. Tickets are not on sale yet.

Films will be screened at the Plaza (which has conventional and digital capability), the adjacent Philanthropy Theatre and outside the Festival Plaza area.

Nearly 32,000 people watched movies at last year's inaugural event, then called The Movies Return.

Details: plazaclassicfilmfestival.com; 915.533.4020.

'Magnificent' news for U2 fans: 360 tour goes SW

No EP date on the fall leg of U2's 360 tour, but there will be a handful of the stadium shows within striking distance and of them go on sale Monday, including an appearance in Arlington's new Cowboys Stadium.

After first single "Get On Your Boots" stomped off into oblivion, the group's going with the much more obvious "Magnificent," one of the better songs on the new "No Line on the Horizon" CD.

Here's a breakdown of on-sale dates and ticket info for shows coming to this part of the country:

Oct. 12 — Cowboys Stadium, Arlington ($30-$250, on sale at 9 a.m. MST April 20).

Oct. 14 — Reliant Stadium, Houston ($32-$252, on sale at 9 a.m. MST April 20).

Oct. 18 — Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium ($30-$250, on sale at 9 a.m. April 17).

Oct. 20 — University of Phoenix Stadium ($30-$250, on sale at 9 a.m. April 20, on sale at 9 a.m April 20).

Also, the band's also playing Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas if your. No ticket info on that one yet.

Concert update etc.: Warped, Record Store Day, T2, Chamizal blues, Spencer, Coachella and more

Old-school punks Bad Religion, NOFX and Anti-Flag, new-school punks Gallows, post-hardcore darlings (and my Flint-area homies) Chiodos, not to mention 3OH!3, Saosin, Senses Fail, Ivy League, Less Than Jake, Madina Lake, Thrice, The Devil Wears Prada and a few dozen more bands will play this year's Warped Tour show at NMSU's Practice Field on July 1.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. They're a budget-friendly $33 in advance, $35 at the door and will be available at the Pan Am Center box, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

Doors open at 11 a.m. Bring the sunblock!

In other concert news:

• Blues harmonicat extraordinaire Rod Piazza and his Mighty Flyers headline the first night of the two-day, first and hopefully annual Chamizal Blues & Jazz Festival May 16-17 at the Chamizal National Memorial. He tops the blues night, which will include guitarist Johnny Rawls and locals the Kat Crosby Blues Band and Austin Jimmy Murphy and the Blues Alliance (Murphy's one of the organizers). EP's Mike Hamilton tops jazz night on May 17, with Santa Fe pianist Bert Dalton and locals Crosstown Trio Plus Three opening. It's free, with performances from 5-9 p.m.

• Record Store Day returns on April 18, with lots of fanfare, live bands, special edition releases (Tom Waits is releasing a two-sided, live, 7' single from last year's Glitter and Doom tour). Closer to home, indie store owner George Reynoso will do what he did last year at All That Music & Video — offer a 20 percent discount on everything but sale items on that day. Show your receipt to the nice folks at Kristoph's Coffee next door (also independently owned; good lattes) and they'll give you 20 percent price cut. ATMV's hours are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. that day.

• Zechs Marquise, which includes The Mars Volta percussionist/keyboardist Marcel Rodriguez Lopez, will headline Take II's second anniversary party at 7 p.m. April 17. It's an 18-and-over show. The El Paso band, formed in 2003, also includes Marfred Rodriguez Lopez, sibs of TMV mastermind Omar Rodriguez Lopez, for whom Zechs Marquise opened in Europe last month. Music starts at 9:30. Admission is free for women, $5 for men after 9.

• Bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent (June 28), Mark Twain king Hal Holbrook (July 17), '50s teen idol Frankie Avalon (Aug. 1, two shows), '60s rocker Johnny Rivers (May 30) and the Bob Wills musical "A Ride With Bob" (Aug. 13-15) are among the 13 shows on the docket for this summer at the Spencer Theater, the elegant little venue in Alto, near Ruidoso. Series tix (four shows or more) go on sale April 29, with single tickets on sale May 1. Info: 888.818.7872 or spencertheater.com.

• Can't afford to go to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio CA this weekend? Do the next best thing. Check out live coverage, including updates, photo galleries, blogs and more, courtesy of The Desert Sun newspaper of Palm Springs, here on our very own little Internet machine thing, elpasotimes.com. The festival runs Friday through Sunday and includes performances by some acts that performed here recently — Morrissey and Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band — and one that should, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who cut a big chunk of new, synth-laden album "It's Blitz" at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo.

• Grammy winner Sunny Sauceda headlines Tejano Nite on May 16 at Ysleta Mission. He'll be joined by the Latin Breed and Windy City. Tickets are only 10 bucks, with proceeds going to the historic mission. You can get 'em at All That Music & Video, State Farm Insurance at 1745 Lee Trevino, La Tapatia and the mission office. Info: 859.9848, ysletamission.org.

• El Mariachi Tapatio joins Los Arrieros singer Juan Contreras and the El Paso Youth Symphony Orchestra for the EPYSO's second annual Mariachis for Mom concert at 2 p.m. May 9 at the Plaza Theatre. Tickets are $10-$25 at the box, Ticketmasters, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

• Border Bash, the local battle of the bands, returns to the Sunland Park Casino's Franklin Lounge April 29 with a new radio sponsor — KOFX (92.3 FM). The competition will run at 7 p.m. Sundays through June 17. Winner gets $1,000, studio time and 100 CDs, with 500 bucks for second and $300 for third. Call the station at 231.2405 or go to 923thefox.com for details.

• El Paso-born, Austin-based Subrosa Union makes one of their occasional returns with an April 19 show at Club 101. Who MI?, John Steady and Liquid Cheese open the 7 p.m. all-ages show. The group's planning to release a new album this summer.

• EP Christian prog-rockers Gideon are 54th and climbing in an online competition to score a spot on this summer's Cornerstone Festival, a Christian music event in Chicago. The band says 113 groups have entered, with the top 10 vote getters (and six chosen by a panel of judges) getting in. Wanna help 'em out? Go to www.cornerstonefestival.com/newbandshowcase/Gideon/. The festival runs June 29-July 4. Winner plays the main stage. Voting ends May 25.

• Metal jokers Psychostick play Chic's on May 18 ... Santa Fe singer-songwriter Martha Reich gives a free show at 5 p.m. June 28 on the Del Camino Patio at Ardovino's Desert Crossing ... "Musicians Against Cancer," a benefit for the American Cancer Society, will be at 5 p.m. April 25 and will include sets by local bands Bash, Atomic Pink, Soulboxx, Insignificance and Ulysses ... Turns out that May 29 Take II show by Sweden's The Sounds will be their first break from opening for the reunited No Doubt. New album "Crossing the Rubicon" comes out June 2.

New Mars Volta CD? Eight-headed monster or diamond in the rough?

The word "vacation" does not seem to be in the rather extensive and often cryptic vocabulary of The Mars Volta, the EP expats whose new album "Octahedron" comes out June 23, less than two years after their fourth studio effort, "The Bedlam in Goliath," and its recent, Grammy-winning single "Wax Simulacra."

The new album, which may takes its name from the geometric shape consisting of eight equilateral triangles (as in a diamond) or the musical term referring to a six-note sequence, will be distributed through Warner Bros. Records after a long association with Universal Music Group labels (Universal Motown on the last one).

It will feature eight songs, of course, with a running time of 49 minutes, with the surprisingly conventionally titled "Since We've Been Wrong" as the first U.S. single and "Cotopaxi" (that's more like it) releasing internationally.

Announced song titles are:

1. Since We've Been Gone

2. Teflon

3. Hale of Nembutals

4. With Twilight as My Guide

5. Cotopaxi

6. Desperate Graves

7. Copernicus

8. Luciforms

Nembutal is a kind of sleeping pill. Cotopaxi is volcano in Equador (and the name of a ship). Copernicus is the astronomer who put forth the theory that the Earth and the planets of the solar system revolved around the sun. Luciforms is a light reference, though it could have a sinister double meaning.

Don't you just love speculating?

A release announcing the new album states that singer Cedric Bixler Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez wrote the songs, while TMV regs Juan Aldrete de la Pena (bass), Isaiah "Ikey" Owens (keys), Marcel Rodriguez Lopez (percussion/synths), drummer Thomas Pridgen and frequent studio contributor John Frusciante (guitar) of the Red Hot Chili Peppers are listed as performers on the album. Sound manipulator Paul Hinojos and saxophonist/reed player Adrian Terrazas Gonzalez are not.

The band, who sold out hometown gigs last September at the Chavez Theatre and old Club 101, will be touring in support of it, including a June appearance at Bonnaroo in Tennessee, a string of summer dates at festivals including Roskilde and T in the Park across Europe, and San Francisco's Outside Lands festival in August.

It also comes at a typically busy time for Rodriguez Lopez, who never seems to sleep. He released one solo album here, "Old Money," and two more in Europe (which he toured last month), produced the new Juliette Lewis album and is closing in on the May 5 release of "Cryptomnesia," his first with El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez, essentially TMV with Hella drummer Zach Hill, and the first on his Rodriguez Lopez Productions imprint.

Review: Mope Master Morrissey Moves Mob

As if the Mexican flag draped on guitarist Jesse Tobias' amp before the encore wasn't enough to ramp up an already pumped up crowd, such was the general sense of euphoria that greeted Morrissey's encore Tuesday night at the Chavez Theatre that several fans, most of them male, tried to breach the beefy security to get to their idol.

One actually did get through, just before all the arms and legs started flying near the stage. He hugged the gentlemanly, sexually ambiguous singer from behind, prompting the 49-year-old mope master to make the sign of the cross and make a face to the crowd of more than 1,700 that suggested he was taking his life into someone else's hands — again.

This is a guy who doesn't take a lot of chances with physical threats. There were warning signs outside the theater that bore imperatives like "No Weapons," "No Fireworks" and "No Blankets" in ominous black letters. Just for good measure, everyone was subjected to pocket checks or purse inspections, with a few waves of a metal detector just to make sure. You'd have thought Metallica was doing a theater show.

Such is the life of an outspoken vegetarian and animal rights activist (remember the Smiths' "Meat is Murder"?) that concerns about self-preservation and crowds that tend to attract grown men who barely control themselves are part of the norm.

It wasn't exactly bedlam last night, but it was only a matter of time before the boisterous crowd — Moz has a dedicated following here and in Juarez — tried to upstage its gracious hero, who, in spite of the rare security breakdown, was sweet enough to reach out to those blithering idiots who crawled all over people just to touch his hand.

It was a fitting end to an eventful, if short 80-minute performance that spanned his quarter-century career as both frontman for the dear, departed Smiths and as a solo artist. Backed again by a taut, muscular quintet that included longtime guitarist Boz Boorer, Morrissey's set veered from big, muscular, explosive, defiant peaks — kinda like that big, stogie-sucking sailor who flexed his biceps on the scrim behind the band — with rockers like the fuzzed out blitzkrieg of the Smiths classic "How Soon Is Now?" and the pounding new anti-anxiety anthem, "Something Is Squeezing My Skull," to valleys of self-loathing odes, such as the lovely "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" and a delicate "The World Is Full of Crashing Bores."

"Death of a Disco Dancer" and its dashed hopes for "peace, love and harmony" added a touch of foreboding drama, while closer "I'm OK By Myself" served as both an I'll-show-you kiss off and just the right punctuation on the proceedings.

Through it all — including a nostalgic, insightful bit of '60s and '70s TV and video clips (who knew he liked Shocking Blue so much?) and an admirable opening set by Manchester pop-rockers The Courteneers — the not-so-new, nearly 50-year-old loner romantic was in good, keening voice, good spirits (at one point he asked how many in the crowd had "slipped across the border," a nod to his considerable Mexican following) and was full of graceful, microphone-cord whipping energy.

He sweated through a turquoise shirt (geez, even the sweat pattern on his back was in the shape of a heart), ripped off a dark blue one during the line in "Let Me Kiss You" about imagining "someone you physically despise," much to the crowd's uproarious approval, and finished off night in the very crisp white shirt to which a certain zealous fan snuggled up.

That's kind of what this Morrissey concert was like, full of the kind of charm, power and self-deprecation we've come to know and love.

Set list

1. This Charming Man

2. Billy Budd

3. Black Cloud

4. How Soon Is Now?

5. Irish Blood, English Heart

6. When I Last Spoke to Carol

7. How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?

8. I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris

9. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

10. Something Is Squeezing My Skull

11. Seasick, Yet Still Docked

12. The Loop

13. The World Is Full of Crashing Bores

14. Death of a Disco Dancer

15. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell

16. I Keep Mine Hidden

17. Sorry Doesn't Help

18. Ask

19. Let Me Kiss You

20. I'm OK By Myself

(encore)

21. First of the Gang to Die

Review: Oberst and crew get charitable with the new stuff

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, the group of musicians the Bright Eyes frontman assembled for some recording sessions in Mexico last year, hadn't even finished their benefit concert on Easter Sunday when he made a vow to return to the city where they recorded their new album.

The 29-year-old restless expressed hope that Tony Rancich, owner of the Sonic Ranch studio in Tornillo where Oberst's new album "Outer South" was recorded last November and December, would put together "a big-ass concert" with a special cause.

"We're gonna rip that f------ wall down. Coming soon. We'll be back for that," Oberst announced before tearing into "Roosevelt Room," probably the angriest, most political song on the new album, an obvious reaction to the last eight years of Bushian cowboy justice and selfish politicians in general.

It was the highpoint of an inspiring day of music and charity, where the vibe was laidback and appreciative and the cause was Hands of Love and Hope, an El Paso non-profit and family tradition in which Irma V. Tovar is carrying on the mission her late mother, Sister Susie Valadez, started 46 years ago to help the people who live near and off the city dump in Juarez.

Admission to the concert was free with a donation — money, food, bottled water, clothes, toys — and though it was hard to tell exactly how many people attended, what with people coming and going throughout its eight-hour run, but judging from the mostly full 17-foot trailer and the 2,000 or so who soaked up the sun during the windy day, then bundled up in the chill spring winds as the sun melted away in the west, it's a safe bet that at least 4,000 were there at one time or another.

Oberst is hardly a big name. He's hugely popular in some indie circles for songs that offer Dylanesque sharp-edged social commentary and a sound that has veered from rootsy to avant-folk, largely in the guise of his main collective, Bright Eyes.

Sleepercar, which preceded Oberst and crew, is a bigger name around here. They fought through some sound problems (including an uneven mix that improved during the performance) with a ragged but spirited set of songs from their "West Texas" album and frontman Jim Ward's "Quiet" EP. 

Due to family commitments (hey, it WAS Easter), I didn't get there until 4:30ish, so I only caught the tale end of blues-rockers Duck Domino's set and missed most of Los Roqueros rockabilly twang to do interviews for a story for Monday's paper.

Oberst's decision to make a solo (i.e. non-Bright Eyes) album early last year in the mountains of Mexico's Valle Mistico, known for UFO sightings and Aztec legends, alienated some fans, especially those who found its country-tinged stylings somehow below him.

He dubbed the musicians who came along for the trip — guitarists Taylor Hollingsworth and Nik Freitas, keyboardist Nathaniel Walcott, bassist Macey Taylor and Bright Eyes/Rilo Kiley drummer Jason Boesel — the Mystic Valley Band, which toured with him to support of the new album. They came to Sonic Ranch last November at the suggestion of Nick Zinner, guitarist for tre cool NYC rockers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who cut most of their new, synth-laden, disco-heavy "It's Blitz" there last year.

They met Denny and Josh Brewer of EP's psyched out blues-rocker jammers Refried Ice Cream, who have been doing benefits for Hands of Love and Hope and asked Oberst to headline this year's concert. April 12 — Easter Sunday — was the one day they all could do it and, voila, benefit concert.

Oberst's 90-minute set was a no Bright Eyes zone. Meaning this was one for hardcore fans — and new ones. 

It's more of an acquired taste than some of his earlier work but hearing it live brought more of its richness and immediacy. Sunday's set focused exclusively on songs from last year's "Conor Oberst" and the new, more diverse "Outer South," which is due May 5. His acoustic-driven, country-flavored, literary-touched brand of music is hardly popular, or well known, around here. 

It's not like you're going to hear him on the radio. He doesn't have any real big hits to use as tentpoles in the show. He's not about that.

But the 2,000 or so who huddled in front of the stage sounded very receptive to what Oberst and the band had to offer.

New single "Slowly (Oh So Slowly)" set the tone with its driving acoustic rhythm guitar line and Oberst's nasally reflection on nostalgia and growing old. He celebrated the healing power of the open road with last year's "Moab," turned the mic over to Freitas on the bouncy, existential country of "Big Black Nothing" before Oberst's almost chantlike recitation of "Cape Canaveral" gave the performance some real lift off.

It just got better from there. The band rallied around the new incarnation of "Eagle on a Pole" (not the one on the last album), drummer Boesel's tentative singing gaining confidence as the band flexed its muscle.

The culmination, however, was "Roosevelt Room," which closed out the main set with the kind of amped up anger missing from much of Oberst's post-Bright Eyes material.

Love or hate Oberst's most recent musical journey, you have to admire a guy who, like Dylan, follows his own muse and concerns himself very little, if at all, with what people think. He just does it and hopes people follow.

Expect the unexpected from this guy. That he found an audience here and helped fill a trailer full of food for orphans across the border was even better than the performance, which was pretty good.

Concert update: Wilco in EP!, plus Dinastia Rivera, circus

For the folks who say no cool shows ever come here, I present  you with Wilco, the Chicago rockers (and one of those deceptively great live acts), who will headline the Chavez Theatre on June 17.

The show, part of a summer tours, comes on the heels of its concert documentary, "Ashes of American Flags," currently playing the festival circuit but due on DVD on April 18. 

It also follows the planned June release of a new, as yet untitled seventh studio album, which they recorded mostly in New Zealand and frontman Jeff Tweedy and three other members worked on Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide concerts. Additionally, guitarist Nels Cline has a new album, "Coward."

One description said the new Wilco album was likely to be more experimental, like "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "A Ghost is Born," than conventional.

Tickets for the show, which is being promoted by Austin's C3 Presents (they brought Ryan Adams to town and stage the annual Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza festivals), are $29 and $31 and will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 25 at the Plaza Theatre box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

In other concert news:

• U.S. born banda diva Jenni Rivera and her family, known as Dinastia Rivera, bring their first ever tour together to the Coliseum on May 2. The noted banda/corrido queen (and unwitting X-rated sex tape star) is one of the top-selling artists in her genre and one of the few women to excel in the male-dominanted, brass-driven style of music. She'll be joined by dad, Pedro, brothers Lupillo, Juan, Gustavo and Pedro Jr. and sister Rosie, who was part of an abuse scandal involving Jenni's ex-husband.

Tickets are $37, $57 and $77 at the box, Ticketmasters, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

• I haven't seen any announcements about it but I did see that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' new show, "Boom a Ring" is coming to the Coliseum for shows at 7 p.m. May 22, 2 and 6 p.m. May 23, 2 p.m. May 24 and 1 p.m. May 25. Tickets are $11 and $28 for opening night; $14, $17 and $28 after, on sale at the box, Ticketmasters, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.