Where the Bands Are: This Week in Live Music and Concert News

February 6, 2025

Artwork by Kim Miers

(Have a cool concert or interesting event you know about? Email all the info and links to jeffmiersmusic@gmail.com to be considered for inclusion in Where the Bands Are.)

How you holding up out there, music lovers?

Yeah, I know. Life has been a pretty much constant succession of “WTF!” moments of late. I hope you’re all getting by. Music helps. And it sure as hell helped me get through the past week.

“If you know your history/Then you would know where you’re comin’ from…”

Thursday, February 6, would’ve been Bob Marley’s 80th birthday. That milestone will be celebrated all year long, through a campaign centered around the Marley & the Wailers masterpiece Uprising.

This feels significant. Marley’s music is timeless, in no small part part due to the fact that his message of struggle against racism, bigotry and authoritarianism – sound familiar? – is also timeless. How this man managed to make songs that detail immense, ongoing struggle sound so positive and uplifting is beyond me, but it’s something I’ve been grateful for from the first moment I heard his elegantly tuneful take on Jamaican music fused with American soul and R&B. That he worked with one of the greatest ensembles in 20th century music – the incredible Wailers – adds another layer of deep, almost spiritual indelibility to the songs.

“Celebrating Daddy’s 80th birthday under the theme ‘Uprising’ is a special moment for our family and fans worldwide,” Marley’s daughter Cedella Marley said in a press release announcing the year-long campaign. “This album represents so much of his spirit, with powerful songs like ‘Forever Loving Jah,’ ‘Coming In From The Cold,’ ‘Could You Be Loved,’ and ‘Redemption Song,’ which continue to inspire generations. Each year, we honor his legacy in a way that unites our extended family, friends, and fans from all corners of the globe. This 80th milestone is a reminder of his timeless call for love, resilience, and freedom.”

Amen.

Last Thursday, the surviving members of Nirvana – Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and touring guitarist Pat Smear – reunited at FireAid, the star-studded concert benefitting recovery efforts in the Los Angeles fire disaster. The band was joined by guest vocalists St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett and Violet Grohl for its 4-song set.

Despite the over-the-top nature of these multi-artist mega-bills (even when they’re for extremely worthy causes), the Nirvana set struck me as meaningful. It’s hard to say exactly why. It’s not like the band was particularly tight, and the sound on the live streaming feed wasn’t the greatest, either.

I guess it was the enduring power of these roughshod paeans to crippling self-consciousness that came through. Pop music is so wholly dedicated to cribbing from the past and claiming it for its own these days – and the modern production and “live” performance ethic is largely edge-less, clinical, and barely human, – that hearing these uncomfortably raw-but-beautiful Kurt Cobain songs performed as if the Intuit Dome in Inglewood was a dirty little gin joint like Mohawk Place in Buffalo, really struck a chord. I woke up the next morning and immediately wanted to listen to Nirvana’s “Bleach.” That’s the highest compliment I can offer.

Moe. Photo by Paul Citone.

In other good news, moe. kicked off its 35th anniversary celebration by releasing an album that I’m already considering a masterwork.

Circle of Giants, the band’s 14th studio effort overall, is also its first album to feature keyboardist/flautist/vocalist Nate Wilson as a full-time member – and man, did he ever make a mark on the beloved and fully-tenured Buffalo-born jam band’s sound. I’m a huge fan of Wilson’s work, most notably his Ghosts of Jupiter project, an album that effortlessly blends power-pop, psychedelia, progressive leanings and jam stylings into an ear worm-heavy whole.

You can hear that influence seamlessly woven into the moe. tapestry all over Circle of Giants, an album that deals with mortality in a healthy manner, and reflects the struggles and immeasurable losses endured by the band-members over the past several years.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a moe. fan, I urge you to check this new record out.

Rhiannon Giddens has reunited with her former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, an album of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music, out April 18 on Nonesuch Records. You can pre-order the album – which was recorded outdoors in North Carolina, and comes replete with a natural soundscape – here.

Justin Robinson and Rhiannon Giddens.

Check out this new Aloe Blacc video, if you need to feel something resembling hope. ‘Don’t Go Alone’ is a genre-bending tune based on the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The song is definitely on the poppier side of the tracks, but it’s message is oh so necessary, and the video is deeply moving. Or at least, it moved me, deeply.

On Friday, the Smoking Popes dropped a new song, in the form of “Allegiance,” a punk-pop anthem featuring vocals from Scott Lucas of Local H.

Smoking Popes frontman Josh Caterer told Brooklyn Vegan that “it would be easy to feel hopeless about (the current state of national affairs), to just give up, but I’m confident that people will fight back. I don’t know what shape the resistance will take, but I think it starts with just lifting your voice and saying ‘No!’ to what’s happening. That’s a freedom we still have in this country and that’s what this song is trying to do.”

Smoking Popes arrive in Buffalo on Friday, May 23, for a show at the Rec Room.

Revolver Records

Revolver Records opened the doors to its new 810 Elmwood Avenue location on Saturday, February 1st. Good reason to hit the Village and check out their brand new spot.

DEVO is hitting the road once again for 50 YEARS OF DE-EVOLUTION… CONTINUED!

According to the band’s press release, you can “Expect high-energy performances, iconic visuals, and all your favorite anthems of de-evolution!”

Monday, June 30 at History, Toronto, ONT, CA. Tickets On-Sale: Friday, February 7 at 10 am

2025 Great Blue Heron Music Festival

Friday, July 4 – Saturday, July 5 – Sunday, July 6 in Sherman, NY.

Blind Faith Tickets are on sale now!

Becoming Led Zeppelin

Starting Thursday, February 6 at IMAX, and Thursday, February 13 at 2D theaters. Find screen times here.

“The film traces the journeys of the four members … through the music scene of the 1960s and their meeting in the summer of 1968, culminating in 1970.”

Here are some of the many things happening in our scene, this week and beyond…

Alex McArthur & Bob Sneider

Thursday, February 6, 2025, 7 pm at PAUSA art house, Buffalo. $15/$13

Thursday Night Live: Delvin Payton and The Lyfe Band

Thursday, February 6, 5:30 pm at the Wilson Town Square, Knox Building, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo. FREE

Star People: The Legacy of Jazz

Friday, February 7, 7 pm at PAUSA art house, Buffalo. $20/$15

The Nightmare Before Valentine’s ft/Glizzy McGuire, Wacko Fest, BD2, and Michael Delano & Fe

Friday, February 7, 8 pm at Mr. Goodbar, Buffalo. $8/$10

Funktional Flow

Friday, February 7, 10 pm at Jack Rabbit, Buffalo. $

Burt Fest 2025 (Part III) ft/The Queen Guillotined, Crown Conscious, The Impurity, Murder!, Arcana, & Kanuton

Friday, February 7, 6 pm at Evening Star Concert Hall, Niagara Falls, NY. $15

Nancy Dunkle and her band open for Brooke Surgener & The Bandits, Star Theory, and Akloh

Saturday February 8, 6 pm at the Rec Room, Buffalo, NY

Tickets: https://www.ticketweb.com/…/brooke-surgener…/14154383

Stevie Wonder & Other Funky Songs ft/Vitamin D

Saturday, February 8, 7 pm at West Falls Center for the Arts, West Falls, NY. $22-$95

Adam Bronstein & the ABtrio

Saturday, February 8, 7 pm at at Shakti Lounge, Buffalo, NY. $20 suggested donation.

Little Mountain Band

Saturday, February 8, 8 pm at The Cave, Buffalo. $10

Buffalo Music Coalition presents

Saturday Sessions: Bill Smith and Grace Stumberg

Saturday, February 8, 4 pm at Flying Bison Brewing Company, Buffalo. FREE

BUFFALO BOWL: Snapcase with Many Eyes featuring Barbarians of California & Do Crime

Saturday, February 8, 6 pm at Town Ballroom, Buffalo. $27.25

Tadaaki & The Get Backs

Satuday, February 8, 7:30 pm at Sportsmen’s Tavern, Buffalo. $20

Holka, Thurman, Street, & Yates

Satuday, February 8, 9:30 pm at Wagon Wheel, Niagara Falls, NY.

GK Special

Satuday, February 8, 6 pm at Duende at Silo City, Buffalo. Free

Brunch with Ellen Pieroni & the Encyclopedia of Soul

Sunday, February 9, 1 pm at Jack Rabbit, Buffalo. Make reservations.

All’s Eye Trio

Wednesday, February 12, 7 pm doors at Buffalo Iron Works, Buffalo. $15/$20

Buffalo/Rochester Dead All-Stars wsg/Kyle Yagielski and John Aaron Troy

Wednesday, February 12, 7 pm at Sportsmen’s Tavern, Buffalo. $10

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY:

Classic Vinyl Live: Bob Dylan “Blood on the Tracks” 50th Anniversary Celebration

Monday, February 24, 7 pm at Sportsmens Tavern, Buffalo. $15

Seneca Casino Concert Series

The Psychedelic Furs wsg/ The Mission UK

Saturday, July 5, 7 pm doors at Outer Harbor Live at Terminal B, Buffalo. Spotify/Local Presale tickets on sale now with code, public on sale Friday, February 7 at 10 am.

Twenty6 Productions Presents:

Start Making Sense (Talking Heads Tribute)

Satuday, May 17, 7 pm doors at Asbury Hall in Babeville, Buffalo. $25/$35.

After Dark presents

Smoking Popes w/Off With Their Heads

Friday, May 23, 7 pm at Rec Room, Buffalo. $29.79

Bright Eyes

Friday, April 11, 8 pm at Buffalo RiverWorks, Buffalo. $45/$55

Funtime Presents:

Mercury Rev

Friday, April 25, 8 pm doors at Town Ballroom, Buffalo. Tickets on sale Friday, January 31 at 10 am.

A LOOK AHEAD…

After Dark presents:

Hot 8 Brass Band w/Hunks Of Funk

Friday, February 14, 7 pm at Rec Room, Buffalo. $29.27

Petros Klampanis

Friday, February 14, 7 pm at The 9th Ward at Babeville, Buffalo. $45/$51

Sinatra in Love ft/Tony DeSare

Friday, February 14, 10:30 am and Saturday, February 15, 7:30 pm at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo.$16-$74.50

Organ Fairchild’s Fifth Anniversary Party w/ Zuffalo

Saturday, February 15, 7 pm doors at Buffalo Iron Works, Buffalo. Only $1 GA or $25 Supporter/$60 VIP

Grateful for Biggie w/ Felix Free

Sunday, February 16, 7 pm doors at Buffalo Iron Works, Buffalo. $15/$20

Over the Rainbow: Celebrating the 120th Birthday of Harold Arlen ft/Pete Malinverni (jazz pianist), Julie Kurtzman (violinist) and Anaïs Renor (jazz vocalist)

Sunday, February 16, 3 pm in the Mary Seaton Room at Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo. $41.50

Funtime Presents:

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