Preview

Tonight: Public Enemy

June 23, 2016

Before joining three quarters of Rage Against The Machine and Cypress Hill’s B-Real for a summer of kicking up ruckus as The Prophets Of Rage (including a show in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention), Chuck D and the original “Prophets Of Rage” Public Enemy  bring their incendiary brand of woke hip hop to Canalside tonight. Nearly three decades into their illustrious career and no less relevant, PE is The Clash of hip-hop: one of the few (if not the only) hip-hop acts that genuinely “matters:” changing the sound and texture of hip-hop while challenging audiences and the status quo with potent yet fun lyrical fusillades against racism, injustice, and systemic corruption, and tonight’s free show will be a wonderful chance to do homage to the legendary band and check out what they’ve got to say in 2016. Opening the show will local MC Chae Hawk and the Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra,[...]

Tonight: Herd Fest Day Four

June 19, 2016

Woooo Herd Fest Day Four! I am writing this with one hand dangling off my twin mattress. So far, we’ve had twelve showcases since Thursday, featuring some of the very best acts locally and beyond. Tonight is no different. This evening Mohawk Place plays host to some of the areas most talented emcees. Leading off the night is Rochester-based hip hop collective, Chemical Ape. Next is conscious rapper Dean Chatham, who will be including a live drummer in his set. After that we have Buffalo’s Chill Ali, set to perform smackdab in the middle. Rounding out the night are sets from wordsmith emcees Prime Example and lit-rap act 200 Kids Outside. Fun starts around 8pm with a $5 cover. <iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/a76d7vfwgFk” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Tonight: Herd Fest Day Two

June 17, 2016

Tonight we launch into the busy portion of Herd Fest with day two of the festival. Tonight programming spans across five venues. Earliest show starts at 8pm at Mohawk Place with gravelly indie rockers via Syracuse, Bridge Under Fire, dreampop synth artist Daniel Robinson, sunny Bryan Johnson and Family, indie-pop act Comfy, industrial goth duo and the heavily anticipated psych set by Ex-Pat. $5 cover. At about 9:30pm, Milkie’s launches into their set programming, with emo revivalists from Rochester (and formerly of Michigan), Charmer. After that are straight rock band The Soft Love, psych-rock act Deadwolf, stripped down indie original Moody Cosmos, and rounding out the night is comedy act Wood Bois. If you are a fan of Flight of the Conchords or The Cure, then you should mark this set down. $5 cover. If you get there before 9:30pm, you might be able to catch WWE Hall of Famer[...]

Tonight: Herd Fest Day One

June 16, 2016

Tonight is the night. After close to nine months of planning Herd Fest is finally launched. This year we did things different. In the past we subcontracted shows to various scene reps and labels in order to diversify the voices being represented for the festival. This highly collaborative process was fun and confusing so we decided to do things different this year. For our third year, we took the reigns and centrally booked all of the shows. We had bands go through an application process in order to diversify and cater to fans of up-and-coming indie acts, resulting in four days of showcases at seven venues with 67 bands set to perform. We launched our Herd Fest app, where you can go and download and create your own schedule for the next four days. In addition, we have on-site managers for each venue ensuring stage management. Bands will be playing very close[...]

Tonight: Two Door Cinema Club

June 15, 2016

North Ireland indie-pop rockers Two Door Cinema Club are making an eagerly awaited Western New York appearance tonight at Artpark. Fine purveyors of  achingly bittersweet and very dance-able indie pop as showcased on their excellent two albums Tourist History and Beacon, TDCC is back after a three year break with a new single released just yesterday and a new album due this year, of which this show will offer a sneak peak. Opening the show will be sensuous electronic shoegazer Bayonne (aka Roger Sellers), currently on tour to promote his debut album Primitives. Doors open at 4:45pm, the show begins at 6:30pm, and tickets are still available. General admission is $17 and reserved seating and front of the stage is $27.

Tonight: Blitzen Trapper

June 14, 2016

  If you’re looking to get into Blitzen Trapper, it may take you a few solid months to comb through the band’s far-reaching discography. The alt-folk/blues rock quintet from Portland, OR recently released their eighth studio album, All Across This Land, within a span of about 16 years. It’s not as easy as it would seem to pigeon-hole Blitzen Trapper as a folk group, or a blues rock band. The stylistic arsenal they’re able to draw from is as far-reaching as their catalogue, which makes for incredibly textured one at that.There’s something immediately pastoral about their sound, but it’s also incredibly attuned to modern pop-country song conventions. You can catch Blitzen Trapper downtown at Iron Works tonight. Show starts at 8:30pm, tickets are $17 at the door.

Tonight: Moving Units

June 13, 2016

LA-based dance punk veterans, Moving Units, will be playing Mohawk Place tonight, undoubtedly waking up Buffalo on a fairly sleepy Monday night. If you are a fan of The Faint or New Order, then you should probably head down to the ‘Hawk Tonight. Also on the bill are fellow LA-ians, Visions, who are currently teaming up with Burger Records to release their forthcoming album. Doors open at 8pm with a $10 cover.

Tonight: Mutual Friends

June 10, 2016

Dreamy ghostrockers The Leones are haunting their way into town tonight, bolstered by an all-star cast of openers. One of these openers happens to be Mutual Friends (the new project from Nelson-Type’s Kevin Scoma and our favorite lake-popper Bryan Johnson), who are playing their first show this evening. It’s bound to be a good time, especially with Moody Cosmos and Coral Collapse in tow. The show starts at 8:00 tonight. See you at Mohawk Place!

Tonight: Secret Pizza

June 9, 2016

If the big crowds at Canalside ain’t your thing, or if you just want to keep the fun going well into the night, then head on down to Mohawk Place later on as Rochester’s Secret Pizza heads west to headline a stacked indie rock bill. The fuzzy four-piece, fresh off the heels of releasing its debut record Nothing Needs to Happen (one of our most recent Albums of the Week) via Dadstache Records, is on night two of its 10-day tour of the Northeast to support the album. Nothing Needs to Happen has a bit of everything: post rock, grunge, shoegaze, plus the joined forces of co-singers Phil Shaw and Gina Caliolo carrying the booming songs through heavy riffs, sneaky melodies, and plenty of distortion. The full album can and should be listened to here prior to tonight’s set. It’s pretty great. Band buddies Del Paxton will be supporting Secret Pizza, along with a[...]

Tonight: Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires

June 8, 2016

The Thursdays at Canalside Concert Series kicks off tonight in magnificent style with the return of Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires. One of the new soul legends on the mighty Daptone Records label headquartered in Brooklyn,  Bradley has emerged as one of the most potent voices on this scene or any scene, a soul man of incredible range, dexterity and smooth grit who has walked the walk and talked the talk during his 67 years on this Earth. In the last week of his current tour behind his latest release Changes, named after his wonderful cover of the Black Sabbath classic, Charles Bradley will be unleashing his realer than real and instantly vintage brand of soul with opening support courtesy of Vin DeRosa, winner of the Public’s Battle of the Bands. The show starts at 6pm. Admission is of course free with VIP tickets available for $55.

Tonight: Bethlehem Steel

June 4, 2016

Following a tour van mishap that led the band to cancel its most recent hometown appearance, Brooklyn-based trio Bethlehem Steel will finally make it back to its origin city of (as their bandname may suggest) Buffalo tonight. Sharing cues from Rochester-based fuzz rock contemporaries Pleistocene, the BFF bands are the local(ish) pioneers of their crafted genres. Have a listen to a track from B-Steel’s excellent Docking EP below, released in November via Miscreant Records. Tonight’s NY-centric bill at Mohawk Place includes Bethlehem Steel, lo-fi punk locals Space is Haunted, Slowcooker, and B-Steel citymates Stringer. Get there right around 8pm to catch them all–these bands are bringing more than just volume. $7.

Tonight: Taking Back Friday

June 3, 2016

Don’t worry. It’s okay if you’re still emo. That’s right! It’s okay if you wear your heart on your sleeve, if you still want to walk around with a hair-eyepatch, if you instinctively take selfies from an upward angle (you’ve even affected a modern day trend). All of those urges buried deep within are acceptable… At least tonight they are. buffaBLOG gifts you an excuse to delve into your past/current music loves (i.e. Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, The Academy Is…, My Chemical Romance, Dashboard Confessional, Thursday, The Hotelier, Modern Baseball, etc) in Taking Back Friday, an admittedly emo get together presented by yours truly at Milkie’s. Come unabashedly partake in emo feels with fellow emos. Narrating your night will be DJ sets starting at about 10pm from Jessica Railey (Communist Party), Tom and Donnie Burtless (All Blondes Go To Heaven, Buffalo Eats), and Bryan Johnson (Wildebeast Wontabeast). A blast from the[...]

Tonight: Catfish and the Bottlemen

June 2, 2016

There’s a few styles of music that I hold a certain soft spot for, but perhaps none are as near and dear to my heart as British indie rock, whether it’s the pop-infused satirical musings of bands like Blur and Pulp or the working class rock of bands like Oasis or the Libertines. Catfish and the Bottlemen are definitely a band born out of the tradition of the latter; a capital-R rock band who’s anthems of being young, drunk, and in-and-out of love are custom built to sing along to at football stadiums and summer music festivals. Tonight, the Welsh lad rockers arrive in Buffalo fresh off the release of their impressive sophomore record, The Ride. An album which demonstrates the band continuing to grow their sound and ambition. Catfish and the Bottlemen are know for their dynamic and energetic live show which was the talk of Glastonbury when I[...]

Tonight: Tiny Moving Parts

May 31, 2016

Tonight, Waiting Room once again proves it is the place to be for staked emo gigs as Minnesota’s Tiny Moving Parts will be making yet another stop in Buffalo,  this time in support of their newest release, Celebrate.  Also making a repeat stop will be indie-emo act Prawn, along with Nashville’s Free Throw. Tonight is the night to get sad. Doors open at 6:30pm with a showtime of 7pm, and local act Alleys will be kicking the show off. Tickets are only 14 bucks at the door.

Tonight: Dreambeaches

May 28, 2016

Sunny Buffalo-based indie rock act, Dreambeaches, will be celebrating their EP release, titled Habits, tonight at Nietzsche’s. The baroque-rs have been on the scene for over a year, so waiting this long for an EP is rare in an era of home recordings. From what I’ve heard, this release is well worth the wait.  Also on the bill are synth-pop outfit Humble Braggers, psych-pop band Mooses, and cave-rock band Bold Folly. Doors open at 9pm and there is a $5 cover.