It’s a new month, and that means plenty of new 9:30 Club shows to get excited about. Here’s your April preview and an extra chance to win tickets to the show of your choice from below— don’t forget to answer the challenge at the bottom! Here are five shows to spring you into action.
Galactic, Sun 4/14
New Orleans funk masters Galactic released their last album, titled Carnivale Electricos, on ANTI Records in 2012. This is the first time they’ve made an album dedicated to the spirit of New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Carnival is celebrated worldwide, and in South America everyone gets into the spirit by throwing water at anyone and everyone that passes by—sometimes even buckets at a time. Laughter and music fill the streets, uniting people in a celebratory good time. New Orleans lives out this infectious spirit in the USA, and Galactic captures it in a uniquely funky album.
Get to the club for 18 years of experience and love for a city that embodies the true spirit of music. The band states, “GALACTIC is, always was, and always will be a funk band. Whatever genre of music anyone in New Orleans is doing, from Mardi Gras Indians to rock bands to hardcore rappers, it’s all funk at the bottom, because funk is the common musical language, the lingua franca of New Orleans music.” We’ll have your chance this week to win tickets to this funky good time.
Matt Costa, Fri 4/19 at U Street Music Hall
Brushfire artist Matt Costa released his latest self-titled album in February, taking over producing duties. Costa explains, “I was thinking about the Basement Tapes [a collection of tracks that Bob Dylan recorded with The Band in 1967] and how I always loved the way those songs made me feel, and also how they were all recorded so simply. With this album, part of what I wanted to do was work with all these big, over-the-top arrangements that burst open and take off into a whole new dimension—but still ultimately create that same kind of cool, pure feeling.”
Costa released his debut album in 2003 with No Doubt’s Tom Dumont, and has since risen steadily in his career, having toured with Jack Johnson, Modest Mouse, and Oasis. Join this swoon-worthy former skateboarder next week at UHall.
Living Colour, Fri 4/19
Funk rock legends Living Colour formed in the ’80s, headed by Vernon Reid. They reunited in 2000 and haven’t stopped since, currently touring to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
When a band doesn’t have to make new music to tour and can still rock songs from the ’80s to crowds worldwide, there really isn’t much else to say. Look out for these legends later this month.
Akron/Family, Fri 4/26 at U Street Music Hall
Dead Oceans artist Akron/Family have remained a constant success since their formation in 2002 and will be releasing their latest album Sub Verses, produced by Randall Dunn, at the end of the month. The trio, Dana Janssen, Seth Olinsky, and Miles Seaton, have turned heads since their beginning days, making Akron/Family a household name. Seth Olinsky describes Sub Verses as “Our story, a story, all stories. Told in verses, in underground language, in sub frequencies. Not audible, only felt, intuited, imagined in some deepest psychic space that you are yet to know. A strange story. Of the future, of yourself. Of everyone. We are all we are, only this, and yet we move forward. Along some line to somewhere. And who knows?”
You’ll have the opportunity to win tickets this month to be transfixed by the trio of deep thinkers.
Robyn Hitchcock, Sat 4/27
Robyn Hitchcock began his career in the ’70s with the band The Soft Boys and has been going strong since, just releasing his latest album Love From London last month. The 60-year-old told NPR, “Forty years ago, when I first got hold of an electric guitar, if someone had told me that at 60 I’d be playing amplified beat music, I would have just said, ‘Get out of here!…It’s like Mr. Rogers is playing guitar; that’s gross!’ But you know, rock ‘n’ roll is an old man’s game now.”
Welcome Hitchcock to this country near the end of the month.
Stay tuned throughout the month for more info about how to win a pair of tickets to each of the shows listed. For an extra entry into the giveaway of your choice, tell us below, your favorite album from any of the four bands above.
Get to the club, and good luck, Music Freaks!
