Courtesy htp://www.ballade.mo

Tomorrow night, Louie’s Trophy House is playing host to a fantastic and phenomenal set of free jazz musicians. Their caliber is top-notch. Their quality is unquestioned. Their licks are wicked. So it is with Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad and his compatriots, Paal Nilssen-Love and Jon Rune Strøm.

Frode, ever an improviser, is bringing some serious fire to this big little city. As an avant-garde saxophonist, he is a fantastic player. Strøm is no slouch himself on that doghouse bass. Meanwhile, Nilssen-Love may be one of the best drummers alive. Don’t believe me? Well then.

And Nilssen-Love doing his thing:

Opening the show, Kalamazoo locals and similarly-minded experimental musicians UNITARD will be bringing their all to the fore. If you haven’t seen Unitard before, this would be a good chance to check them out. If you have seen them, then you know what to expect and how excellent this event really should be.

Photo Courtesy Mark Wedel

If you’re a fan of experimental music, this is the show for you. If  you’re a fan of sheer instrumental virtuosity, control and technique, this is the show for you. If  you simply want your brain to melt a little bit, I’d show up all the same.

The cost is 8 bucks at the door – a paltry sum for such a fantastic display of musicianship. Plus, you didn’t have to buy a ticket to fly to Norway to see the Trio, so that’s a savings of roughly 1300 dollars off the bat.

Doors open at 8. Show starts at 9. I’ll be there.

Summer is almost over and once again The Strutt is putting on a banger of a show or should I say a smanger of a show which of course means it will be a smash and a banger…

Royal Baths hails from San Francisco, CA. They will be jamming their poppy garage rock tunes at the Strutt along with Pessoa from Indianapolis,IN. I got to see Pessoa play in Indy once when my band played with them and it was a killer show. If you are into catchy twinkly jams, you should check them out.

Local rebellious garage rockers, Inflatable Best Friend will be playing as well.  Doors at 8:30, Show starts at 9:30. $5 at the door. If you do dat facebook thing, check it out here. Stay baggy.

Get your butt off the couch, stop watching dumb football and get down to the Strutt this Sunday for some rad post rock and emo jamz. Empire! Empire! and Mountains For Clouds are stopping in Kalamazoo on their August tour to meet up with An Aesthetic Anaesthetic from Chicago and local gig stars Analecta.

Empire! Empire! comes from Fenton,MI and play twinkly emo in the vein of Mineral and American Football. With their always revolving cast of band members, Keith and Cathy continue to crank out releases and tour frequently. The happy couple runs a record label called Count Your Lucky Stars out of their home and help many bands in the midwest and all over put out cool releases as well. Mountains For Clouds, who also come from the east side of the mitten, play twinkly jams as well but with a more post rock kinda twist. They remind me a lot of a mathy Appleseed Cast if that tickles your fancy at all.

Also joining the fun is An Aesthetic Anaesthetic from Chicago,IL with their raw post rock sounds. And finally some what local boys, Analecta, will be playing epic post rock that will give you the pee pee shakes. I’ve known and watched these guys play in a handful of different kinds of bands and every time I see them live, it gets me more excited for what these guys are gonna put out next.

Doors at 8:00 and show at 9:00. $5 dollars and all ages. Couldn’t ask for a better Sunday gig. Here is that Facebook thang too.

Grand Rapids rockabilly group Delilah DeWylde & The Lost Boys will be performing tonight at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe.

The show is 21 + and starts at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $5.00.

C’mon down to the Strutt tomorrow night at 8 for a clever and eclectic assortment of local jams. Featuring some fairly well-known [and loved!] Kalamazoo residents and musicians, St. Isodore treats us to their very first show, which is sure to be a blast. Also on the bill, (a)Rare Animal; some of Kzoo’s freshest and finest indie-rockers. And lastly, but certainly not leastly, Lincoln County War and Forget the Time’s own Benji Myers rounds out the night with a solo set.

All ages, $5!

Tonight at Victory House there’s going to be one killer show with the line-up to back it up.

DADS is a two-piece coming all the way from New Jersey and providing some noodly, melodic emo/punk awesomeness.

Hometown heroes, Kzoo’s tappy, screamy secret weapon, THE REPTILIAN will be killing it as they always do.

And, lest we forget about the premiere performance of Kalamazoo’s latest and raddest band, WITCH FINGERS,  featuring the combined powers of members of Ackley Kid, Lincoln County War, and The Reptilian. This pop-punk super-group has me more excited about hearing new tunes than I have ever been.