Music-Live-Reviews

For the largest Oktoberfest celebration in the United States, what can be better than a 3-mile parade, over a week long of events, and the best heritage music to hit the area!  Not to mention the brats and cheese curds either, which just mentioning has made me hungry.  Friday morning marks the start of Oktoberfest in La Crosse, leading up to the opening weekend with the Maple Leaf Parade.  And to help start off the celebration, head down to hear some of the best bands from the area.

I have been a lifetime La Crosse resident, so I grew up with Oktoberfest every year.  It is definitely a different kind of celebration from when you’re 5-years-old to when you’re 24-years-old, or even 80-years-old.  There’s so much to do, but the best part is getting together with friends, family or networking your way around the Oktoberfest Marshal’s who can be found wearing lederhosen.  And apparently lederhosen can be quite expensive, who knew?

Oktoberfest music is spread out to many different styles and backgrounds.  Of course you’re going to hear the traditional music like polka and German style music.  But this is Oktoberfest in Wisconsin, so you’re going to get much more.

Headlining the opening night of entertainment on Friday will be local classic rock band, The Remainders on the South Side Main Stage at 8:00 p.m.  They’re always a get live band, especially since they have a fairly large song catalog.  But if you feel the need to start off your Oktoberfesting with traditional polka, why not check out the Jim Busta Band on the South Side Garden Stage on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.  I had the privilege to sit in with them on a few gigs this past summer, and they are definitely worth watching.  Each band member plays a number of instruments, so there’s rarely a time that they can’t play a requested song.

The next day that popped out at me for entertainment was Thursday, October 1st.  On the South Side Main Stage at 7:00 p.m., 80’s cover band Brat Pack Radio will take the stage.  You can read my review from their concert when they played at Weinerfest this past year at the Oktoberfest Grounds.  And following BPR is the one and only Pat McCurdy.  Pat’s a long time fan of the La Crosse area, and holds a pretty large fan base here.  I’ve also reviewed him the last two times I’ve seen him, which have both been this year too. The rest of the fest consists of more classic rock, country, blues and good old polka.

Don’t forget about music in the Maple Leaf Parade too.  There will be plenty of floats that have live bands, dancers, bikers, and lawnmowers.  Yes, I did say lawnmowers, we live in Wisconsin.  Also, watch out for the many marching bands from area schools.  I only say that because I had to put up with four years of marching in the parade, wearing those heavy uniforms and playing an instrument while walking.  It’s harder than it looks.

For a complete list of Oktoberfest events, click here.

-BC

Categorized as one of the top 5 indie bands in the nation, it’s no doubt that La Crosse feels like home for Arizona based Caroline’s Spine.  With having a strong college base, C’SP has made countless appearances in La Crosse since their existence.  Even with chart topping hits and tours with household named bands, Spine still treats their La Crosse fan base with new releases and great live shows.

Caroline’s Spine broke onto the national mainstream with hits like “Sullivan,” “Monsoon,” “Attention Please,” and my favorite “Wallflower.”  If first saw Caroline’s Spine in La Crosse in 2003 when they came to, what was, 324.  I’ve seen them a few times since then and they never disappoint.  C’SP music is also easy and fun to cover, if you play guitar or are in a band.

The full band, outside of just Jimmy Newquist, have been on hiatus and back together a few times in the past few years.  Newquist had made many solo appearances in La Crosse while C’SP was off and on, most of times at John’s Bar.  But to tell you the truth, it’s good to have Spine as a whole again, even if it’s not the original.  Most recent release, Work It Out, features single “The Light Inside” which is said to be the second most downloaded C’SP song since “Sullivan.”

Spine will be making their latest stop in La Crosse this weekend, Saturday, September 12th at the “End of Summer Bash” put on by local rock station 95.7 The Rock.  Held at the South Side Oktoberfest Grounds, C’SP will take the stage around 9:00 p.m. or whenever The Rock gives away the bike.  I leave you with their latest hit, “The Light Inside.”

This weekend, La Crosse will see another large act visit the La Crosse Center.  On Sunday, Hinder and Papa Roach will hit the stage.  Last May, the Music as a Weapon tour rolled into La Crosse with Lacuna Coil, Chimaria, Killswitch Engage and Disturbed.  Click on the band names to read my review of those concerts.

Hinder is a relatively new band to hit the scene, and by new, I mean four years in the limelight.  Hinder’s debut album Extreme Behavior became an instant hit on radio stations across the country with songs like “How Long,” “Lips of an Angel,” and “Get Stoned.”  A total of five singles were released from the album.  The popularity of Hinder grew with an image of bands like Aerosmith, KISS and the Slash version of GN’R.  Hinder released their second album Take It to the Limit in late 2008.  So far, two singles, “Use Me” and “Without You,” have been flooding rock stations across the country.

Opening for Hinder is a band that has been on the scene for a tad longer than Hinder, Papa Roach. First breaking out in the late 90’s with their single “Last Resort,” Papa Roach became a powerful, vocal driven band that was distinct among any other band.  Five albums later, Papa Roach is still touring strong and making their first stop in La Crosse.  With seven top ten hits in their existence, they are planted to have a crowd exhilarating show at the Center.

Tickets are still on sale at the La Crosse Center box office for $32.50 in advance or $37.50 the day of the show.  The show starts at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, the 23rd.

August brings with it the annual Irishfest festival to the La Crosse area.  Held at the south side Oktoberfest grounds, the 5th annual Irishfest festival felt very traditional this year with returning events, people and bands. I, myself, am not Irish.  I am more Danish in ethnicity outside of being American, but everyone seems to be proud of the country their ancestors came from.  But there’s nothing wrong with celebrating with the Irish to great music and drinks.

As I planned last year, the band I wanted to see at Irishfest was Gaelic Storm.  Gaelic Storm is a popular Celtic band who plays traditional Irish and Scottish music.  Formed in 1996, they got their biggest break, after already being a popular pub band, appearing as the steerage band in the movie Titanic.  From then on, they began touring the world and releasing albums that became instant hits.

With high energy live concerts, they are a great festival band who always put on a good show.  They have been the headliner at Irishfest in La Crosse for the last few years.  They also headline Milwaukee’s Irishfest, which is known as the largest celebration of Irish music and culture in the world.  Gaelic Storm has released six new original albums including 2008’s release, What’s The Rumpus?

Saturday night’s concert was highlighted by hot temperatures, even after the sun went down.  But that didn’t hamper anyone’s spirit once Gaelic started their set.  A very crowd oriented concert, you will have more fun at their shows if you know all of their lyrics versus being a first timer.  They also started up a competition from gig to gig to show the strength of their fan base at each concert called the Adventures of Darcy, named after their song “Darcy’s Donkey.”  Darcy is a miniature donkey figure that dances around in front of a digital camera at each gig.  However, they haven’t posted the video yet, so once they do, I’ll add it to this post.

I’m counting on Gaelic Storm coming back to Irishfest next year, and this time I’ll be more prepared with a better knowledge of lyrics and hopefully it will be a cooler night to sing along with them.

-BC

Music can be heard in all different kind of situations and places, but what defines music?  When you hear music in an advertisement, does it remind you of the product, make you want to buy it?  Why do certain types of music relate to human emotions?

I came across a group of podcasts from the Library of Congress called “Music and the Brain.”  Each topic was an interview with an expert in each specific field.  The one I found most interesting was, “Your Brain on Jazz: Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Improvisation.”  Interviewee Dr. Charles Lim, a neurosurgeon, spoke about how the brain works when listening and playing jazz.  In a segment of the interview, he talked about experiments they tried with jazz piano players and measuring their brain’s reaction using a functional MRI, which measures blood flow in the brain, which ultimately shows regions of the brain that become active or underactive.  They first measured which sections of the brain were more active when each pianist played written sheet music.  Then they compared those results to the results from each pianist improvising off the top of their head.  What they saw was a drastic change between areas of the brain that tap into the creative side of thought and self expression.

The other podcasts that were included were “The World in Six Songs: How the musical Brain Created Human Nature,” “The Music of Language and the Language of Music,” “Dangerous Music,” “From Mode to Emotion in Musical Communication,” and “Halt or I’ll Play Vivaldi! Classical Music as Crime Stopper.”

I found the rest of them equally interesting, especially examples of real life situations where some of the hypotheses’ were tested and proven true.

If you would like to listen to these podcasts, log in to the iTunes Store and search for “The Library of Congress: Music and the Brain.”  The best part of this, you can download them for free.  Definitely a worth while download if you have any interest in how music is perceived in the human mind.