Cattle Decapitation | Psyopus | Book of Black Earth | Gigan (The Lounge)
Cattle Decapitation seemed much more brutal when I first heard them about a decade ago. Everyone loves them live so maybe this is one worth going to since I have never actually seen them. Of all the groups here, Gigan seems to be the most interestingly acrobatic with shrieking, squeaking, high-pitched little guitar parts that sometimes sound like Human Remains, another group that stood out from a lot of the monotonously similar extreme music from the era in which they existed.


DeVotchKa | Crooked Fingers (House of Blues)
Apparently there is some controversy surrounding the term "Gypsy Punk" being used to describe bands like DeVotchKa, because it's exploitative of the Eastern European sounds and culture from which they siphon. I don't think that it exploits this culture as much as it provides an easy sonic stencil that these groups can just unimaginatively fill in.

As for Crooked Fingers, man, where to begin? I have asked so many Archers Of Loaf | Erich Bachman | CF fans to explain the appeal to me. Play me a Youtube clip, make me a mix-cd, anything. And every time, it's just embarrassing. I went back and watched some old clips of Archers of Loaf today, followed by a sampling of his solo work on Saddle Creek, topped off by my actual bad memory of seeing Crooked Fingers open for Jonathan Richman, and I still just can't comprehend the cult following these projects. To be fair, I get a lot of weird looks when people go through my music collection, so...

Yes (House of Blues)
CANCELED.

Disqo Disco (Fallout Lounge)

90's Night With Yeah Def (Hailey's)