By Samir Mathur
Contributing writer
As always, if there's something that I've not mentioned that you're excited about (looking at you, Manilow fans), go ahead and mention it in the comments.
No Age at Backbooth
A no-nonsense two piece from the City of Angels, No Age are coming to blow you away with their stripped-down, melody-driven but still-noisy rock-and-roll. (So many hyphens in that sentence.) No Age’s latest album, ‘Everything in Between’, sounds like they spent more time on it than previous works, and the extra layer of polish makes for a much more accomplished album. Still, they’ll rock the nose off of your face, so be careful out there.
Thursday – January 20
Doug Benson / Graham Elwood at Backbooth
Over the past year, Doug Benson has gone from ‘stoner comedian who made reasonably entertaining documentary about being a stoner’ to ‘stoner comedian with his own show on Comedy Central and hugely successful weekly podcast’. Doug is crazy affable, and fortunately for prudes like me, his act is not 100% about drugs. Supporting him is Graham Elwood, who has a separate comedy podcast about movies, and who is also funny. This is the first of two hot tickets this week for us comedy nerds in town.
Friday – January 21
Patton Oswalt at Hard Rock Live
…And this is the other hot ticket. Patton is one of the funniest dudes out there. He’s just put out his first book, Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, which I wrote about elsewhere. His live act incorporates pop-culture trivia (this is a dude that got kicked off VH1’s Best Week Ever for being too rude about Paris Hilton), politics (but just barely), the joys of being a working comedian, and his domestic life as a husband and father. I was sad when this got postponed back in October, but I’m delighted that it’s been rescheduled. If you have a pulse and live within a hundred miles of Orlando, you should be at this show.
Does It Offend You, Yeah? at the Social
DIOYY are from Reading, a small town just outside of London that hosts a giant music festival every August. That festival brings together some of the biggest names in rock and dance music. Accordingly, DIOYY’s sound is an unholy mess of rock and dance music that is incredibly fun to watch at close quarters. They have a rep for bringing the ruckus – their singer once broke his leg during a show and didn’t leave the stage until the end of the show. Is he an incredibly talented performer or is he mentally ill? You decide! Their second album is three years in the making, and it’ll be fun to hear how their sound has evolved.
Saturday – January 22
John Bell and Friends, with Drive-By Truckers at House of Blues
This is a benefit show for the charity Hannah’s Buddies, which aims to fight spinal muscular atrophy. A worthy cause for sure, and for your money you’ll get to see Widespread Panic’s John Bell lead an all star show, inlcuding Athens’ favourite sons, the Drive-By Truckers. (Sorry, Michael Stipe!). Click here for more details about the cause, and a whole weekend of events.
Reel Big Fish/The Aquabats at Hard Rock Live
I never got into the whole ska craze of the late 90s. Maybe it’s because I lived in London and not somewhere sunny like Orlando or Southern California. Ska sounds like a distinctly warm-weather kind of music. I had to settle for moping around to Joy Division while the skies were depressingly gray for ten months a year. But I know plenty of people who love bands like Reel Big Fish and the Aquabats, and for them, I’m sure this will be an unmissable show, complete with more sweating than should be allowed in January.