The Bad Plus Performs Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction Saturday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m., $10–$38 Duke’s Baldwin Auditorium 1336 Campus Dr., Durham, 919-660-3356 www.dukeperformances.duke.edu The Bad Plus wanted to bail on Duke Performances. In 2010, the borderless jazz trio, famous for interpreting Black Sabbath and Nirvana while crafting its own intricate tunes, had accepted a commission […]
Grayson Haver Currin
Bio: Grayson Haver Currin was the music editor of INDY Week and the co-director of Hopscotch Music Festival.Twitter: http://twitter.com/currincy
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How the N.C. State Fair spends its talent budget
The state fair circuit is a punchline of the touring industry, like a transient Branson that moves to wherever the midway is. But why? The money is fantastic, even for Vanilla Ice, who has been little more than a laughing stock for two decades. At this year’s N.C. State Fair, he’ll be the second-lowest paid […]
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Perfume Genius talks finding liberation in desperation—and always confusing his father
Perfume Genius with Matteah Baim Friday, Oct. 10, 9 p.m., $13–$15 Cat’s Cradle (Back Room) 300 E. Main St., 919-967-9053 catscradle.com A few hours before I spoke with Mike Hadreas, the singer-songwriter who calls himself Perfume Genius, the Supreme Court of the United States had, in effect, shrugged. By refusing to review a set of […]
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The Ritz purchased by Live Nation, undergoing $1 million renovation
One of Raleigh’s biggest and oldest music venues is getting an expensive facelift from its new owners: Live Nation, the world’s biggest concert promoter, has purchased The Ritz, a 2,000-plus capacity club just inside Raleigh’s beltline, with a long-term lease on the property. The Ritz will be owned and operated by House of Blues, a […]
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IBMA, Day Four: Edgar Meyer!
My neighbor last night in the Red Hat Amphitheater seemed to be a bluegrass aficionado. During Hot Rize’s late-evening set, for instance, she used her cell phone to videotape incessantly and laughed heartily to most every one of Tim O’Brien’s inside jokes. But she returned late from the break and sat down just as the […]
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IBMA, Night Three: 10 Things I Learned Backstage at the International Bluegrass Music Awards Show
Last night in Raleigh, Memorial Auditorium hosted the International Bluegrass Music Awards Show for the second time. In 2013, I watched the program from one of the last rows in the house, and I was curious how it all worked: Where did they keep all those microphones? How did they stage it all so quickly? […]
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IBMA, Night Two: Too many banjos per capita?
IBMA’s World of Bluegrass Downtown Raleigh Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014 It was hard not to feel a little bit bad for Missy Werner last night. The plaintive Cincinnati singer and her competent, supporting four-piece had but one official showcase scheduled for this year’s World of Bluegrass gathering—at midnight yesterday, in a very desolate Pour House. […]
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IBMA, Night One: A lonely waltz at first, and then the best fiddle in the business
If the five days of the World of Bluegrass conference and festival, which started last night in Raleigh, were a string band’s onstage setlist, the beginning would be a ballad, maybe even a waltz—slow, steady and solid, but only a suggestion of what is to come. Bike racks that will soon be used to barricade […]
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Oak City Breakdown
Has the International Bluegrass Music Association built Raleigh’s signature cultural moment, creating in only a year the event that sets not only the city but also its suburbs into unified motion? On the eve of the mandolin’s second annual reign over the Capital City, most signsor more than ever before, it seemspoint to yes. The […]
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Raleigh’s response to the late-night bluegrass struggle
Adam Lindstaedt could have handed his rock club’s keys to the International Bluegrass Music Association last year. When the organization decided they wanted to try something new in Raleigh in 2013 by opening their industry-only showcases to the public in a venue-hopping series called The Bluegrass Ramble, they needed to rent, borrow or build several […]
