NEEDTOBREATHE Bayou Music Center, April 28
Without a whole lot of fanfare, South Carolina's NEEDTOBREATHE is probably the first band since Switchfoot to fully cross over from contemporary Christian music into the mainstream; beyond even that, they've become one of the biggest rock groups of the 21st century, period. Since their debut, 2006's Daylight, the group steered by brothers Bear and Bryant Rinehart has watched the audience for their acoustic-driven anthems and positive messages swell, winning accolades aplenty and courting secular fans by touring with Collective Soul and even Taylor Swift. Last year's fifth studio LP, the soulful and uplifting Rivers In the Wasteland, went on to become their most successful to date; earlier this month, the band released the companion album Live From the Woods.
Jimbo Mathus Under the Volcano, April 29
Once part of the popular '90s "swing revival" group Squirrel Nut Zippers Jimbo Mathus has also knocked around the Memphis punk scene, appeared on a couple of Andrew Bird records and cut an album of Charley Patton songs to benefit the Mississippi country-blues progenitor's daughter Rosetta, supposedly once his childhood nanny. Now based back in his home state of Mississippi, Mathus has taken everything he's absorbed and channeled it into recent albums Confederate Buddha, White Buffalo and now the brand-new Blue Healer, which revels in ragged garage-rock, Southern country-soul and the tortured tone-poems of Tom Waits.
Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts Warehouse Live, April 29 (free show)
Scott Weiland is the modern-rock equivalent of a stubborn penny: he just keeps turning up. Critics may have turned a cold shoulder to his latest band the Wildabouts' new album, Blaster, but the singer's life is seldom dull. Last month his sullen behavior at a Boston meet-and-greet led to a Facebook apology shortly thereafter; he's also been feuding in the media with Filter's Richard Patrick and dealing with the March 30 death of Wildabouts guitarist Jeremy Brown.
Nevertheless, all those Stone Temple Pilots songs (and maybe a few by Velvet Revolver) have really left an impression on fans. So much so that Weiland also seems to have a knack for inspiring impersonators whose behavior sometimes mirrors their idol's; "Related Headlines" on the same page as the above Rolling Stone article include "Fake Scott Weiland Poses as Singer After Drug Arrest" and "Scott Weiland Imposter Played In an STP Tribute Band." He must really be trying to make nice, because Wednesday's show at Warehouse Live is 100 percent free.
More shows on the next page.
