MusiCal (August 2012)

By Don Allred

The Band Perry/Dustin Lynch

The Band Perry’s mostly self-written country-pop hits never get trapped in country-traditional fatalism. True, “If I Die Young” is a tad morbid, but Kimberly Perry is luxuriously stretching her wings, knowing she’ll make a good-looking angel. She also learns selling out doesn’t pay: “I never liked the taste of crow/But Baby, I ate it,” she tells her guy in “You Lie,” or would, if he ever showed up. Like the resourceful Perry siblings, young Dustin Lynch is fascinated by love’s drama, without getting (too) hung up: “I guess God kinda likes/Cowboys and angels.”

08/02 Ohio State Fair, Celeste Center, 717 E. 17th Ave., 7p.m.

The-Dream/Miguel

The-Dream and Miguel are steadily rising stars, easing and squeezing contemporary r&b between hip-hop, rock, funk, live bands, electronica--whatever it takes to score each man’s own hits, and ones in collaboration with other artists. The-Dream sometimes includes hip-hop staccato in his singing, where rap-associated boasts can encounter vulnerable moods. Miguel’s vulnerability is a given: he carefully applies melodic solace, while floating over anxious beats, and even when requesting a “Quickie.” Both artists are commonly compared to Prince, with whom they share a classically quirky approach to uncommon delights.

08/03 @ Ohio State Fair, Celeste Center, 717 E. 17th Ave., 7 p.m.

Dublin Irish Festival

The Dublin Irish Festival delivers a variety of active and relaxed enjoyment. You can take singing lessons with unpretentiously cosmic folkie Niamh Parsons, and fiddle with the masterfully classy Eileen Ivers. Or just groove with the Tannahill Weavers’ freshly traditional dances and ballads, a range honored by the folk-punk of Mahones and Black 47.  Gaelic Storm’s Celtic-global atmospherics include barroom weather advisories like “Chucky Timm,” named for their formidable drinking buddy, also Dayton’s 1968 Olympic bobsledder. Area artists include singer/storyteller Bob Ford and his band Ragamuffins, plus the stout-hearted General Guinness Band.

08/03/04/05 @ Coffman Park, 5600 Post Rd, Dublin, first shows:4:15 p.m./11:15 a.m./10:45 a.m.

Dethklok/Lamb of God/Gojira

Cartoon Network’s metal stars Dethklok boldly bestride both sides of the ever-thinning line between flesh and fantasy. Vast images of Dethklok’s virtual virtuosos rule the screen above the stage, where a live soundtrack is channeled by Gene Hoglan, whose drums drove both Dethklok albums, bassist Bryan "Liberty" Beller, who materialized on Dethalbum II, and Mike Keneally, successor of Steve Freakin' Vai as Frank Zappa’s designated “stunt guitarist.” Keneally was born for Dethklok’s deftly deadpan humor, and the brawny harmonic agility of “Black Fire Upon Us.”  Virginia’s Lamb of God revel in their righteously woolly Resolution, and France’s Gojira unveil L’Enfant Sauvage.

08/10 @ The LC, 405 Neil Ave., 6 p.m.

A Tribute To Queen

Columbus Queen tribute band Mr. Fahrenheit And The Lover Boys began in the 2006 brainstorm of Phil Cogley and Jacob Wooten, colleagues in the Weezer tribute band Pinkertones. Rising above indie irony, Queen’s electric rainbow is a challenge and a release, especially for Cogley, whose other self-challenge, the valiantly live-mixing one-man-band Saturday Giant, finds no time for glamtastic glory. Members of sludge metal’s ravenous White Wolves, tempestuously progressive Sleepers Awake, funktronic Shemale Fiesta, and OU’s Math Department also meld with chamber-rocking combos Ghost Shirt and Milano for two hours of Queen classics, plus some curveballs.

08/10 @ Kobo Live, 2590 N. High St., 8 p.m.

Wino & Conny Ochs

Inspired by classic death-of-the-60s early metal (the kind with a psychedelic afterglow), singer-guitarist Wino Weinrich has always demonstrated how just electrically the positive and negative can connect. While keeping several bands on his speed-dial, Wino also brings the dark and light to stripped-down folk-metal sets. Heavy Kingdom, with poetically inclined picker Conny Ochs, finds the power duo mixing it up like Beowulf and Grendel, down at the old mead hall. They’re energetically ready to “Take it all the way around/As the wheels are spinning off/Don’t let it bring you down/Too fast!”

08/19 @ Ace of Cups, 2619 N. High St., 10 p.m.

Black Swans

Long known for their thinking-out-loud, freebird approach, Columbus’s folk-rocking Black Swans were hatched by singer-guitarist Jerry DeCicca and violinist Noel Sayre, playing together since 1995. When Sayre drowned in 2008, the band set aside their album in progress, Don’t Blame The Stars. 2010’s wryly exploratory Words Are Stupid sported Sayre’s recently discovered tracks. 2011’s completed Don’t Blame... included Sayre at his peak, while the new Occasion For Song candidly deals with his tenacious influence, via the Swans’ steady-rolling rhythms, searchlight guitars, and other immediately engaging sounds, centered by DeCicca’s all-weather reveries.

08/24 @ Rumba Cafe, 2507 Summit St., 10 p.m.

Skitzo Show

The multi-media Skitzo Show is the living dream of Electro Cult Circus, conceptual artists dedicated to giving all senses and audiences a tune-up, long before morphing into an actual band. They namecheck Beck as a cheeky inspiration for the paisley-beat core of their own mischief. Music is the springboard for live and video apparitions, including much comedy. ECC’s Madlab colleague Stephen Woolsey predicts “interviews with Columbus pseudo-celebrities.” All in all, Electro Cult Circus’s ringmasters welcome us to a “hot bath of enlightenment and laughter for the pineal gland to open and devour with joy.”

08/28 @ Kobo Live, 2590 N. High St., 9 p.m.