Author Archives: Jay W. Ess

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About Jay W. Ess

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A Busy Weekend (Boiling Pot Boiling Pot Boiling Pot)

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It was a hot, sweaty, humid, good music sort of weekend, which is probably one of the best sorts of weekends, really. The Strutt and the IDEA Association played host to a most excellent display of Michigan’s modernist culture in art, clothing, beer, and – most importantly – music. That’s right, Kalamazoo’s Boiling Pot Festival was the order of the day for a large group of people this Saturday and Sunday, with a variety of local artists sporting their wares, and a variety of mostly Michigan-based musical groups rocking the entirety of Downtown.

I spent my Sunday not only getting the chance to play what, in many people’s opinions, is the Festival of the summer so far in town, but also enjoying the atmosphere of great music, good food, and a sea of friendly faces who were all sweating together (my personal favorite band Sunday being Prussia. They have free albums to download, so check it). If you missed it, then know that you missed something special. If you didn’t miss it, count yourself lucky, and spread the word, as I know the powers that be are already looking towards next year.

The rest of the week is similarly packed, with flavors enough to appeal to any and every person’s particular sort of palate. Tomorrow night, the No Fun House is playing host to Sohns and Analecta, which is right up your alley if you dig on anything math or post rock.

Thursday there’s a bit of a competing event thing happening, with No Fun’s Emilio Festivez coexisting with Nathan K., Fiona Dickinson, and Jeremey Ruggles‘ new project, the Mind Death Quintet at The Strutt.

Friday night, local jazzers the William Wengers will be rocking out at the Craftsman Chop Co. in Portage on Sears Drive, so if you feel like kicking back and enjoying a bit of live jazz, come on down and kick.

More Boiling Pot Boiling Pot Boiling Pot Boiling Pot

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Sam gig as yesterday: different bands, live music from noon until the cows come home. Check it out ladies and gentlemen.

See all you folks down there. Let’s kick it.

Boiling Pot Boiling Pot Boiling Pot Boiling Pot

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Here’s the offical Roster for the first day (Saturday) of the first ever BOILING POT FESTIVAL here in Kalamazoo, sponsored by the IDEA group and The Strutt. Not sure you want to go? Well now you can be. Check it.

Ten bucks a day for an absolute awesome stack of bands, so it’s cheap. There’s a link to all of ’em, so you aren’t going in blind. It’s gonna be a hell of a good time, I can almost guarantee it. See all you cats there. No Excuses.

Quiet on the Eastern Front, or the calm before the storm.

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The Kalamazoo music scene will be taking tonight to breathe, and that’s just fine considering the slew of most excellent shows that have rocked our little city (All reports from the mewithoutYou/David Bazan show come in as ‘Amazing’). It will surely prove to be a nice opportunity to rest, relax, and and get ready for this weekend’s Boiling Pot Fest. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to be celebrating America’s birthday the right way: With lots of live music.

Oh, one more thing. DIT Kalamazoo would like to extend it’s congratulations to Joshua Tabbia and Tori Blade, who at the time of this post, have been married for no more than an hour. Good luck on this, the first day of the rest of your lives.

Although, I suppose that last line goes for all of us.

Cancellation tonight at the Corner Record Shop.

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Bad weather and long drives add up to make a good show a hard thing to jam together, and since we’re all about the good shows, and aren’t all about the potential of not-so-good shows due to long drives and weather, sometimes cancellations happen.

So today at the Corner Record Shop, there won’t be a show. Mostly Pleasant is gonna get to stay in for the night, and the rain can come down unabated. We’ll see you Tuesday when mewithoutYou and David Bazan of Pedro the Lion and Headphones tear down the Strutt. Can I get a hell yeah?

The correct answer should be ‘yes’.

Topography Night at The Strutt!

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Well, actually, while bringing in accurate aerial drawings of various regions wouldn’t be expressly recommended against, it may be particularly out of place (and rather off-color, as that last joke turned out to be). Either way, Maps and Atlases is playing tonight. and they’re pretty rockin’. A slick combination of varied rhythms, moving guitar lines and flawless vocal melodies and harmonies all add up to characterize a band that sounds like they’re having a lot of fun. These boys are coming in all the way from Chicago, which isn’t a terrible drive, but it’s still a bit further than Portage. They could use some Kalamazoo love (but couldn’t everyone?).

Supporting Maps and Atlases tonight is the Grand Rapids-based outfit Victor! Fix the Sun. Super-precise math-rock guitars cushioning a vocal line specifically tooled to cut right to the core of you. These guys are most excellent players, and a treat to watch while they rip it the hell up. Check ’em out if you don’t believe me.

And of course, rounding out tonight’s bill is the local veterans The Reptilian. I don’t know if much more needs to be said, other than they’re pretty terrifying. If you’ve never seen these guys live, now is one of your last chances before they strap up the van and hit the ol’ dusty trail for a month, so make sure you fit it in to your schedule. It’s gonna be a good time. 9pm at the Strutt. Don’t be late.

Emilio Festivez (For the Rest of Us).

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Rather recently, DIT got hit with about a million and five requests for shows on July 8th. At first, we were turning everybody down because there’s a lot of stuff going on that week and we didn’t -really- want to flood the market with another 3-band show. Then someone came up with a crazy idea.

So we took another look at the bands requesting shows for the 8th, and realized that the crazy idea just might work.


What comes next is Emilio Festivez! A one-night folk/punk festival at the No Fun House on Thursday, July 8th. There will be rockin’ and pickin’ and grinnin’ and everything you really want in a festival at a DIY venue. The line-up is killer, with a lot of out-of-town talent coming together to make what is almost guaranteed to be an excellent show. We got bands like

Anniversary Club!

Paul Blest!

Glocca Morra!

The Greek Favourites!

Peggy Wray!

The Fake Boys!

No Shoulders

The Scurvies!

as well as a short list of ‘maybe’s to round everything out. Plus, Kalamazoo’s own John Van Hattum is gonna bust out the flaming torches and put on his infamous juggling act. It’s gonna be a good time any way you slice it.

All that’s still two weeks from now, though, and there’s plenty of good music hittin’ the ‘zoo between now and then. Take tonight’s show at the Strutt, for example. Make sure you keep checkin’ back, ‘cuz we’re gonna keep talking about shows. I mean, that’s sort of the whole point.

A Breather

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This particular five-day stint between DIT events has been the longest since this blog went live, and that’s okay. Now rest assured, just because there aren’t shows going on doesn’t mean we’re just sitting around with our thumbs up our noses. Between organizing the upcoming Emilio Festivez and the Midwest Noise Conference, we’ve got plenty on our plates.

That doesn’t change the fact that nothing’s going on though. You want action. You want live music. You want to stay up a little too late before work the next morning and feel good about it ‘cuz you got to catch some good jams. Well, there are a few spots around this little-big city of ours that can keep you occupied on these off evenings.

If you’re in to open mic action, there’s a pretty rockin’ scene at Harvey’s on the Mall every Monday night. Likewise, for a bit of a mixed bag, you can check out The Strutt every Tuesday night for the best Open Mic ever (it says so on the chalk board at the entrance to the back room). There’s also an open mic at Shakespeare’s Pub, and another at the Corner bar, making Tuesday night a record-holding timeframe for most mics left unattended in Kalamazoo.

Or you can stay in and wait with baited breath for the most excellent show that’ll be happening at the Strutt this Wednesday. Either way, we’ll see you around.

No Fun at the No Fun House

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Between 7:30p and 9p, the power went out on Allen boulevard, and I guess two-piece bass-and-drum electro-rock outfits aren’t usually prepared with a translatable unplugged act for such occasions as a venue’s power being out. So, We’re Wolves and As Above, So Below went back to whatever it is they do on a stormy Kalamazoo Friday night, while The Lorax Tree unfortunately had to make the long drive home to Ohio. Hopefully we’ll get these guys back in the near future, but until then, I guess we’ll just have to sate ourselves with the myspace.

Meanwhile, the myriad late-comers and hangers-on such as myself were treated to a small show on the No-Fun House’s front porch by Benji Puppies and his sticker-covered acoustic guitar. He upheld the newly-formed tradition (developed on Rotten Wood Moon’s most recent tour). Often times the ‘traditions’ that folks develop during strange circumstances (particularly where they must spend a lot of time with the same small group of people) are completely unintelligible to anyone that isn’t directly involved or ‘in the know’, but this little gem of a bit is not so obtuse. It goes as follows: if there’s nothing much else to do, grab a six-string and rattle off acoustic covers while replacing select words with the term ‘bacon’, syntax be damned. I certainly laughed, and a few of us fools even joined in on the thing. Delightful.

It was a pleasant sort of time at the No Fun house (though most certainly, nobody was having any fun). All things considered though, It would have been great to rock it with The Lorax Tree. There’s more stuff coming up here in the Zoo, though, so if you still have some rockin’ to do (and I know I do), you’d best check out Astroline, Doby Watson, and The Daredevil Christopher Wright at the Strutt this Wednesday. Gotta get that led out somehow.