Funk Babblings

I spent quite a bit of my time in the 90s going to see a lot of great indie, unsigned, or local bands play around the OSU campus area. While there were many venues, two stood out: the literally underground Bernie's Distillery, and Stache's. Every band who came through town a few years before hitting it big played at one or both of those.

In 1997, Stache's lost its lease and the building was torn down in favor of a suburban-style strip mall, but it was soon reborn in a larger building in the Short North as Little Brother's. It's now been a decade since LB's opened, and there are 10-year anniversary celebration shows scheduled for mid-May. (That will include some bands that were regulars at Stache's back in the day, such as Scrawl.)

Unfortunately, we now learn that the 10-year anniversary may also be the end of the Stache's and Little Brother's legacy. The landlord has raised the rent exhorbitantly and shown a desire for a new tenant. Dan will probably have to close the place and retire from the business, a great loss for the Columbus music scene.

Anyone in Columbus looking for something to do on Saturday should head downtown to Madlab for an event they call Volatility. Two stages, 17 performances. It opens at 3pm, goes until after midnight, and it's just $5. "There will also be a silent art auction, beer, food, beer, Flash for Cash, beer and...oh yeah, beer." (Um, what's Flash for Cash? Sounds scary.)

My picks for who to see there? Either Red Dahlia (formerly Planet 12) or Marcy Mays at 9 (two stages can make for tough choices). Earwig at 10. Jon Chinn (from Pretty Mighty Mighty) at 11. Stepford Five at midnight. I believe that "Sacred Shimmy" at 5 may be bellydancing led by former PSA member Raymere. (At least, that's what it was at PSG.) I'm also curious about Cirgy The Imaginary Horse at 6.

Oh yeah, the money goes toward improving the Madlab performance space.

Update: Since I won't be there, if anybody goes let me know how it went and what an imaginary horse looks like.

OK, it's almost another weekend, so I'd better write about last weekend before I forget....

I ended up spending most of my Marcon time in panel discussions, probably half of which were fan discussions about TV shows (lots of Firefly and Buffy fans) and movies, and the rest were about either old Sci Fi books or some issues raised in some Sci Fi. Actually the best part there was starting to get to know some of the people that went to so many of the same panels as I did.

But the highlights of my weekend were walking up High street for some music.

( Friday - NSA and some trauma )

( Saturday - Scrawl Rocks! )

Just today I realized that Ladyfest Ohio is this weekend in Columbus, and I might be able to go to some of it since I'll already be downtown for Marcon. Looks like there's a lot of interesting stuff going on, but of course I'm most interested in the music. Looks like a wide variety of styles.

The main highlight for me is the return of Scrawl, 11:30 Saturday night at Little Brother's. However, another one I hope to see the same night is Camora, 11:00 Saturday night at Club 202. Doing both should be interesting, but they're both great bands.

There are others I'm not familiar with but look interesting just from the descriptions... my initial list includes:

• Friday Night
  • Little Brother's
    • 7:00 - St. Sebastian
      
    • 10:00 - Di Di Mao
      
    • 11:45 - Frostiva
      
    • 1:00am - Tracy + the Plastics
  • Club 202
    • 11:40 - The Voodoo Dollies
• Saturday Night
  • Little Brother's
    • 5:30 - Deco Halo
      
    • 8:30 - The Fairmount Girls
      
    • 10:00 - Slumber Party
      
    • 11:30 - Scrawl
  • Club 202
    • 11:00 - Camora
      
    • 11:45 - Scarlett
      
    • 12:30 - Burning Sage
      

Of course, Friday night I'm already planning to see The Secret Sound Of The NSA at Bernie's.

Next trick is to compare this with the Marcon schedule and figure out my priorities and where to go when.