Saturday, September 11, at the Rhythm Room, 1815 Washington Avenue, 713-863-0943.
Umphrey's McGee, with Theresa Andersson
Now that those Phine Phellows of Phish have said "Phini!" speculation runs rampant -- rampant, I tell you! -- in the jam band community. Who will ascend to the hemp-stained throne and don the hoodie as the genre's guiding light?
Some point to veterans like the Dave Matthews Band or Widespread Panic, and others to fan faves like moe., the String Cheese Incident and Galactic. But a growing number are pledging their allegiance to Umphrey's McGee, a Chicago quintet that augments the traditional improvisational noodling and esoteric lyrics of Planet Jamband and augments them with healthy doses of prog-rock flow and synthesizer sounds à la Rush or Zappa. Formed in 1997 in South Bend, Indiana, they created a debut with the twisted title Greatest Hits, Vol. III, which came complete with fake chart positions for each song. The band's current harder style came to fruition later, with the addition of Jake Cinninger from the band Ali Baba's Tahini, and now, Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss give the band two equally strong front men.
The band's current album, Anchor Drops, is its most realized studio effort, an amalgam of twin vocals and guitar, solid grooves, jazz fusion and spacey hard-rock romps. Full of wild time-signature shifts, it offers ambitious and intriguing (but still groove-oriented) music in tracks like "Plunger," "In the Kitchen" and "Mulche's Odyssey." But this is a band that also has its hands firmly in the pop-culture pie, so don't be surprised to hear snippets of everything ranging from Mötley Crüe and Billy Joel songs to the theme from Family Feud. Umphrey's is certainly a band on the rise -- and this will probably be one of your last chances to see them in such a small venue. -- Bob Ruggiero
Saturday, September 11, at the Last Concert Cafe, 1403 Nance, 713-226-8563.
Electrelane, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Lights Out on Sound
When artists go from being instrumental to including vocals and lyrics (the former does not guarantee the latter), many consider it a graduation of sorts. But really, a lot of times the vocals don't make the band any better or worse, especially if the band was already brilliant. Such is definitely not the case with Electrelane. On the Brighton, England, quartet's newest record, The Power Out, recorded with Steve Albini in Chicago, the vocals aren't necessarily riding up front -- in fact, they're somewhat muted -- but the songs wouldn't be complete without them. It's more aggressive, jumpier and really conveys a different attitude altogether, and it makes you wonder why they took so long to add the vocals. And though their earlier work might have drawn comparisons to Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the like, this one is much more akin to the art punk of their former labelmates on the newly defunct San Francisco feminist label Mr. Lady.
Austin's I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness includes past members of Windsor for the Derby, Paul Newman and the sadly overlooked Glorium, and Lights Out on Sound is DJ Ceeplus making friends with computers. -- Lance Scott Walker
Monday, September 13, at Mary Jane's Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-JANE.
Ministry, with Hanzel und Gretyl and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
Former goths can think twice about reliving their glory years with Al Jourgensen and Ministry. The acerbic dance hit "Stigmata" is not on the set list this time around. "If we were going to get to all the little club hits or whatever, we'd have to do a three-hour set. We did a two-and-a-half-hour set last tour," Jourgensen says. "But we're touring with another band this time. So we're cutting the set back to about an hour and a half. You kind of got to pick and choose. Plus, we're all kind of sick of playing it after almost 16 years or something."
But Jourgensen is not totally averse to playing other hits, he says. "Our set will be mostly from our new album. If you put a quarter on my tongue, twist my ear, we'll become jukeboxes and spit out songs for you."
The new album, Houses of the Molé, is Ministry's first in 18 years without the two cents of Paul Barker, a computer whiz who added a techno edge to the group. "A lot of the stuff we'll be doing is much more guitar-driven stuff than we've had. So therefore, [there will be] a lot of stuff off Psalm 69, three or four off Filth Pig and a couple off Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, and we'll probably keep it at that." -- Christina Fuoco
