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Tonight: Sugar City Soul Night

Sugar City Soul Night is back and this year it’s on Valentine’s Day night for all your booty shaking needs at Milkie’s on Elmwood, so don’t miss out. The primary fundraiser for the beloved and vital all ages DIY arts, performance and community space, Soul Night is all about tasty grooves guaranteed to keep you warm inside and out during a polar vortex or whatever. Soul Night 2020 will be featuring DJ sets from Handsome Dan, DJ Press, and Steve Soulson, spinning the hottest soul, r & b, funk, disco, and afrobeat from 10pm to 3am. As always, cover is $5, safe space rules will be in effect so please… no jerks, and unlike Sugar City’s other programming, Soul Night is 21 and up.

Tonight: WSTR

Tonight beloved DIY arts and performance space hosts Liverpool, UK pop punk band WSTR with Springfield Missouri’s emo punk outfit Hold Close. According to reports, WSTR have generated considerable buzz at home and it’s not hard to see why because their take on American pop punk is turned up to eleven, incredibly shiny, and very sharp elbowed thanks to their Northern, working class spirit (in England governmental, political, financial and media power is entirely concentrated in the south; you’re welcome), humor, and natural proficiency with profanity. Show openers Hold Close, have a whole midwestern arena friendly emo pop punk thing going on that kicks and hits you right in the emotions. Doors are at 7pm and cover is $15.

Tonight: Guerilla Toss

Tonight walk on the wild side at Sugar City when Boston by way of NYC avant garde funk band Guerilla Toss rolls through with Philly post punks Empath and local freaks Mallwalkers and Lesionread. Blending  arty NYC New Wave with noise, psychedelia and crazy funk, Guerilla Toss keeps your brain swimming in ideas and out there sounds that are simultaneously very listenable yet totally bonkers. Empath meanwhile, is psychedelic punk: raw yet freaky in the ear, and completely unbothered by your rules or your need for labels. Providing local support will be legendary punks Mallwalkers playing their penultimate local show, and avant provocateur  Lesionread. Tickets are $15 and doors are at 6pm.

Tonight: Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts

Tonight NYC anti-folk punk poet laureate Jeffrey Lewis and his band Los Bolts will be headlining an excellent lineup at beloved DIY space Sugar City featuring Welks Mice, Hop Hop, and Derick Evans and the Dream Beam Magic Team. A noted writer, graphic artist, and quasi spiritual heir to downtown intellectual singer songwriter luminaries  like Lou Reed and Jarvis Cocker, Lewis has been banging out his poetic underground lo-fi indie rock for more than twenty years, most of them on the legendary Rough Trade label, and tonight’s show at Sugar City will be intimate and sweet. Opening this early show will be the ever delightful literal good vibes of Welks Mice, Buffalo hip hop all-star Hop Hop, and deep dive existential performance art outfit Derick Evans and the Dream Beam Magic Team. Doors are at 6:30pm so plan accordingly and cover is $10.

Tonight: Spirits Having Fun

Tonight, local DIY space Sugar City hosts a “very fun rock show” featuring Chicago art rock outfit Spirits Having Fun, Tokyo East-West rockers and now honorary Buffalonians The Molice, and local post rock avant-gardist Little Cake. Melding sweet melodies, chaotic whimsy, progressive discordance, and elements of free jazz, Spirits Having Fun have a debut album coming out next month, Auto-Portrait, and a lot going on simultaneously from a critical standpoint, so they’re worth checking out. The Molice meanwhile, have been kicking around Buffalo since last Fall while working on material at GCR Audio, playing venues all over the city and they’re back to Sugar City for more international DIY fun, while Little Cake will get the fun started with their impeccable melodies and always bravura musicianship.  Cover is $7-$10, doors are at 7pm, and don’t forget that Sugar City is an all ages space that is drug and alcohol free so please be cool.[...]

Tonight: Bad Waitress

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

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: The Molice

Come out tonight and catch a killer rock ‘n’ roll show at Buffalo’s Sugar City who host a lineup of local acts. Headlining are temporary resident punk act The Molice. This Japanese three-piece is going to rock your socks off with the insanely catchy combo of candy-sweet vocals, electrifying riffs and dynamic drums. Expect material off their latest album GATE and an overall fun, livewire set from a band that can go. Sharing the bill is the college rock four-piece, Little Summer. Their upbeat, yet lackadaisical jams will bring you back to the days when all you had to worry about was getting to class on time and having enough beer money for the weekend. Check them out for a performance that will put a smile on your face and melt away your worries. Opening the night are the neighborhood eardrum-blowing punk rockers, Uniform Operator. Show is at 8pm. Tickets are[...]

Tonight: Dr. Fadeaway

Tonight local DIY space Sugar City hosts a profoundly compelling  lineup of electronic acts featuring Detroit dream pop band Dr. Fadeaway, Medusa and Berlin Boys. The brainchild of SoCal native Alathea Reese, Dr. Fadeaway and their debut EP Cosa Rimane floats in on tight hooks, New Wave synths and jangling guitars that go rather nicely with vocals pleasingly reminiscent of Tom Tom Club and Memory House’s Denise Nouvion. Opening the show will be local neophytes Berlin Boys, of which little is known; and dark wave mastermind Medusa, who released her excellent sophomore album Rosie last month, exactly nine months after her staggering debut LP Residuals, albums redolent with tight beats, darkly sweet synth lines, layers and layers of sound , and cathedralesque vocal performances that are pure headphone candy. Doors are at 7pm and cover is $5. Cosa Rimane by Dr. Fadeaway

Tonight: Druse

Sugar City is being savagely taken over by Rochester tonight, featuring a double-whammy headliner via post-hardcore act DRUSE and mathy-emo kingpins Taking Meds. They will be joined by the equally excellent California Cousins and the swimmy, shoegaze-tinged Carpool; both bands have been making waves lately in the emo scene (see our album of the week nods here and here). Tonight’s show is at Sugar City – get there by 7pm to catch all of the bands. We couldn’t find a price, but we’ve provided a link to the Facebook event here. A friendly reminder that Sugar City is an all-ages, drug and alcohol free space. My Moon is Always Full Promo by Taking Meds

Tonight: Seafox

Ethereal folk act Seafox is returning from a romp on the west coast for a night of beautiful, intimate music. Seafox (aka William Fortier) specializes in lush compositions that sound beautiful fleshed-out, but could also certainly stand on their own. Support tonight comes from bedroom folk quartet heave and solo-act (and purveyor of sorrow), Ian McCuen. Tonight’s show is $7. Show up early at 7pm – music will end by 10pm. A friendly reminder that Sugar City is an all-ages venue with no drugs/alcohol/bad attitudes.

Tonight: Sugar City’s 10th Anniversary Party with Calvin Johnson

Sugar City, the city’s only remaining DIY arts and performance space is celebrating ten years of existence in both the material and immaterial worlds tonight with two parties, an excellent lineup featuring friend of Sugar City, indie rock hero Calvin Johnson, and you beautiful people. It’s been quite the adventure for Sugar City since it’s grassroots founding back in 2008, existing first in the hearts and minds of it’s early organizers and supporters, then in a magical physical space on Wadsworth at the base  of Allentown, where magical things happened… before being gentrified out and/or beset upon by unfriendly forces, depending on who you’re talking to. Then it was back to the whole hearts and minds thing as Sugar City regrouped, staging events around the city and keeping the flame alive until an unsolicited grant from Robert Rauschenberg’s foundation put enough wind in their sails to land another wonderful space on[...]

Tonight: Queer Kevin

Ohio “shoegayzers” Queer Kevin  are swinging through Buffalo tonight, bringing their simmering indie rock vibes and haunting melodies in tow. They’re bringing Northampton punks Dump Him along for the ride, in what promises to be a night of beautiful punk-esque noise. Local support tonight comes from the ever-sad indie rockers in honey COMA and a slow, ambient set from scene vet Kay Stuitje. Tonight’s show is a very affordable $5. Be at Sugar City at 7pm – music starts at 7:30pm. A friendly reminder that Sugar City is a drug and alcohol free, all-ages venue. all dykes go to heaven (demo) by Queer Kevin

Tonight: Big Huge

Super fun Brooklyn glam punks Big Huge make a welcome return to the Queen City tonight at the newly air conditioned Sugar City with Sofa Kingz, Party’s Over and DJ Fluffybody. Their show last August was a bonafide, life affirming gas, so you don’t want to miss this one, and with up and coming local indie pop outift The Sofa Kingz and Queen City Music Lottery survivors  Party’s Over representing for the area with some tight beats from DJ Fluffybody it’s going to be a good party. Doors open at 7pm and cover is $10. CRUEL WORLD by BIG HUGE

Tonight: The Molice

Get your culture on tonight at Sugar City as they host a righteous evening celebrating the creative expression of art, rock and roll. Venturing all the way from Japan and continuing their extensive US tour are one-of-a-kind indie rockers, The Molice. This charming DIY three-piece play bright, bubbly and highly danceable power pop records that draw from a wide range of influences. If you haven’t heard their cover of The Police’s “Bring on the Night,” seek it out ASAP and find out what all the buzz is about. As a special treat, lead singer and guitarist, Rinko, will be showcasing a series of original paintings in the gallery to kick off the night. Stimulate your ears, eyes and mind with this ever-creative and rocking act. Also taking the stage and bringing the noise are gnarly garage rockers and Buffalo scene vets, Green Slime. This brother duo specializes in raw, melodic[...]