Preview

Tonight: Ryan Luce

May 4, 2019

Buffalo to Brooklyn ex-pat Ryan Luce is back home to celebrate the release of his aptly named debut EP California Gold tonight at The Tabernacle with California singer songwriter and fellow collaborator DM Salsberg. California Gold is an ode to an age gone by, when laid back country, folk, and pop coalesced into something that sounded sweet (and rather popular)  coming over your AM radio… and even sweeter in stereo; all shimmering piano notes, bittersweet harmonies, and pedal steel over a toe tapping beat ideal for shimmying and shuffling at a spot like The Tabernacle. DM Salsberg and her evocative soprano voice will be getting the shindig started right with her own brand of acoustic folk pop California sweetness. Doors are at 8pm and suggested donation is $5. California Gold by Ryan Luce

Tonight: Pinky Doodle Poodle

May 3, 2019

Japanese power rockers Pinky Doodle Poodle will be making a stop at Milkie’s tonight at 8pm. Known for their heavy, riff based music with positive lyrics, PDP maintains a fairly active touring schedule. After catching the ear of Robby Takac, the band was signed to Good Charmal Records and released their first full-length record in 2014. Their most recent release, Poodle Boogie was released in 2017. Core members Yuria and George have created a high-energy guitar driven sound that balances scorching riffs with playful lyrics. Rounding out the bill tonight are the punk outfit Radical Operations and instrumental rockers Good-Dude. In addition to their show at Milkie’s, you can also catch PDP at the Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend. Doors at 8pm with a $6 cover. Written by John Smigielski

Tonight: Twin Peaks

May 1, 2019

Tonight, incandescent Chicago DIY indie garage rockers Twin Peaks make a stop in Buffalo at the Rec Room with fellow Chicagoans Post Animal and local rock heroes Made Violent. God bless them, these dudes formed their band back in high school in 2010 amidst other proper shenanigans, getting their legs becoming mainstays in Chicago’s DIY scene before releasing their debut EP Sunken in 2012 and continuing a prolific string of releases up thru last year’s Sweet ’17 Singles, a collection of laid back psych garage recordings the band released as singles monthly throughout 2017. Chicago’s Post Animal will be making a welcome return after making a very heady debut at the Tralf a few years ago and making good on a show scotched by the death of a van last year I believe, while local fellas Made Violent will be getting everybody in the mood with their tasteful, California sober hard rock[...]

Tonight: Eels

April 29, 2019

Town Ballroom is hosting an evening of indie nostalgia by way of California rock’n rollers, Eels. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist and project mastermind, E (aka Mark Oliver Everett), Eels has been a working project since 1995, evolving in sound and vision. Currently, the band is touring in support of their latest album, The Deconstruction. Expect to hear a range of sounds from orchestral pop, psych-rock, and indie rock from the heyday of college radio. Doors are at 7pm with a $36 cover. Get there early to check out opener The Inspector Cluzo. 

Tonight: The Felice Brothers

April 29, 2019

Catskills based folk rockers The Felice Brothers will be making a return to the area with a show at the 9th Ward on April 29that 8pm. They’ll be touring in support of their new record Undress, out May 2 on Yep Roc Records. This will follow up their 2016 release Life in the Dark. Far from being novices, The Felice Brothers have already proven themselves to be a formidable force in the Americana scene. In 2017, the band served as Conor Oberst’s backing band on Salutations, and his subsequent tour. They will also be performing at the Borderland festival this Fall in East Aurora. This new album features a paired down sound, and is far and away their most reflective and personal release. On Undress, The Felice brothers tighten the scope of their increasingly sociopolitical songwriting. The title track of the new record features rich imagery and a decidedly political[...]

Tonight: Coral Collapse

April 27, 2019

Nietzsche’s is the best place to be tonight if you are looking for new music. Come out and celebrate two new releases, Don’t Wait To See Me Say Goodbye from Coral Collapse and Shapes of Color from M.T. Lakes. Needless to say, it’s going to be a great time. Joining them are Buffalo’s “animal rock” experts Bold Folly, as well as the humble, soft-spoken offerings from The Shallows. Doors are at 9. $8 cover which includes a physical copy of Coral Collapse’s new album. Written by Mike Rakieki

Tonight: Slow Animals

April 26, 2019

There’s a rock show tonight at Buffalo’s Mr. Goodbar (downstairs) that should absolutely be on your radar. Can’t wait for the Strokes global comeback tour? Well, tonight you get the next best thing with the headlining act, Slow Animals, a Strokes cover band and patchwork of local talent. Come out and jam along with this on point five-piece as they perform your favorite tracks off albums like Is This It and Room on Fire. Sharing the spotlight is SMUG, the hometown pop-punk trio your mother warned you about. This set’s going to be a total party with addictive, booze-soaked anthems that will make you want to trash a living room. Everyone’s going to be there so give in to the peer pressure and don’t miss it. You know you want to. Topping it all off with a nostalgic indie rock sound that’s more comforting than a bowl of chicken noodle[...]

Tonight: Bad Waitress

April 20, 2019

Tonight Sugar City hosts a night of serious 21st century punk rock when Toronto’s Bad Waitress rolls through town with Thick and Tina Panic Noise. Bad Waitress is rowdy, insurgent, and not playing around with your feeleings or your hangups, while Brooklyn’s Thick is all DIY punk, soaring melodies, and kicking the status quo in it’s dude-centric junk (we have it coming); and Buffalo’s Tina Panic Noise is punk rock stomping on the fingers of the dying CIS-heteronormative world unfortunately holding on for dear life well after it’s sell by date. Tickets are $12 and doors are at 7pm. Please note this is an all ages show and that Sugar City is a drug and alcohol free space. Party Bangers Volume: 1 by Bad Waitress

Tonight: Matthew Danger Lippman

April 19, 2019

Tonight, Buffalo to Brooklyn transplant Matthew Danger Lippman brings his glammed out, soul man jive home for a special show at Sugar City with Welks Mice and Lesionread. Matthew just released Sadomania hot on the heels of last year’s trippy and surprisingly soulful Ill, which found MDL leaning hard into melodicism and confessional turns to find some real catharsis; also, it’s always real interesting to see what he’s got going on. Actually that’s also true for good vibes prophets Welks Mice and the always provocative Lesionread, who’s taking a night off from Space Cubs to offer artistic support to a fellow troublemaker comrade in arms. Cover is $7, doors are at 7pm,  and don’t forget Sugar City is all ages and a drug & alcohol free venue, so please be cool. Sadomania EP by Matthew Danger Lippman

Tonight: Science Man Tour Kick Off

April 19, 2019

Garage rock supervillain Science Man lays waste to Buffalo’s Mohawk Place tonight and lights the fuse for his destructive new tour with the help of local minions. Science Man, the solo project and alter ego of Buffalo multihyphenate John Toohill, has been busy in and outside his heinously deranged laboratory. After unleashing a bulldozing debut LP to stellar reviews last month, Science Man has been terrorizing venue stages with an all-out garage rock assault. If you’re into slimy riffs, hammering drums and rough-and-tumble vocals, this set is your perfect poison. Also taking part in tonight’s destruction are punk rockers, Facility Men. You don’t want to miss this gnarly four-piece rip it up with primal tracks that strike raw nerves like lightning. Expect howling vocals over catchy garage grooves and a whole lot of chaos during this anticipated performance. Opening cronies include garage punk rockers, Quitman, and mutant punkers, Nervous Tick[...]

Tonight: The Movielife

April 17, 2019

Fans of 00s Drive-Thru-era pop-punk rejoice! The Movielife is making their way through Buffalo tonight for a very special set… They’re playing two of their most celebrated albums in full – Forty Hour Train Back To Penn and The Movielife Has A Gambling Problem. Joining The Movielife tonight is fellow 00s royalty, Travis Shettel, of Piebald fame. Tonight’s show is at the Rec Room on Chippewa. Tickets are $20 in advance and doors are at 7pm.

Tonight: Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers

April 15, 2019

A long creative career is never a singular track. Different incarnations, both visually and sonically, are required for sustainability. Laura Jane Grace, the lead singer and guitarist for punk band Against Me!, started garnering underground fans with demos, eventually earning support from punk-purists NOFX and their label Fat Wreck Chords close to twenty years ago. Seven studio albums followed, along with success on the Billboard 100 chart, but that did not give Grace complacency. An AOL TV series about transgender lifestyle, multiple columns written for Noisey, and a full length confessional book allowed fans a direct look into her personal life. Now, the punk-rocker who wears many hats has a new side project, Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers tour their first album Bought to Rot. Containing songs Grace deemed not appropriate for Against Me!, the album still packs the hardcore punch and melodic rhythms that is her forte. Catch[...]

Tonight: Single Mothers

April 14, 2019

Ontario’s Single Mothers brings their debaucherous brand of rock-and-roll to the Rec Room this evening. The band, formed in 2008, recently released their third album, Through A Wall in September of 2018, and is visiting the city of good neighbors to show us what it’s all about. It will certainly prove to be a show we’ll all look back fondly upon. Single Mothers will be sharing the stage with Boston’s Rebuilder, as well as Buffalo acts The Eaves and Worse Things. 

Tickets are $15, doors are at 7pm.  Check out Single Mothers’ “Dog Parks x Switch Off “right here. Written by Mike Rakiecki

Tonight: Johnny & the Man Kids

April 12, 2019

Tonight Mohawk hosts a solid lineup of Buffalo indie rock when Johnny & The Man Kids celebrate the release of their new EP You Made Me Hurt with help from Passed Out, Award Show and Halo Nellie. People expecting some 90’s revivalism will have to look elsewhere  because Johnny & the Man Kids have entirely skipped that apparently misbegotten decade to embrace the glory of the first decade of the 21st century as embodied by NYC stalwarts The Strokes and Vampire Weekend with some of that early Killers goodness (before it all went wrong) via John Marciniak’s earnest and appealingly evocative vocals, and their EP is a celebration of youth and an era that almost seems bygone nowadays considering everything’s all went wrong, but hey. Opening the show will be raw as hell indie rockers Passed Out, lo-fi shoegazers Award Show, and newbies halo nellie, about which little is known so[...]

Tonight: The Demos

April 5, 2019

Spring is upon us (kind of), and there is no better way to both celebrate the warmer weather (sometimes) and clear your sinuses than to come out Nietzsche’s. This is a show you definitely do not want to miss. Even if dancing isn’t your thing, you will have fun you will have at this show. The Tins are sure to sonically bring the house down with their new-wave rock that features tight grooves, tasteful electronic percussion, nostalgic vocal effects, and truly amazing guitar shredding. Also on the bill is Rochester-grown The Demos, who will certainly have you dancing right out of your shoes with their upbeat, indie pop beats and catchy hooks that you’ll be humming for days. The Leones are also joining in on the festivities, and they’ll have you feeling melancholic with their dreamy guitar parts and distant psychedelic vocals. Don’t fret about feeling somber though, because they[...]