By Ryan Woodard 

Blues Traveler, which was slated to headline the Deadwood Jam on Friday, Sept. 14, has cancelled due to lead singer John Popper’s medical issues. Friday night’s headliner will instead be Big Head Todd and the Monsters - a band that has played the Jam a number of times, including 2005.   

What do you think of this change? While it’s obviously unfortunate that Popper is having medical problems and that the band must cancel, I would personally rather see Big Head Todd and the Monsters. I became a fan after their 2005 Jam appearance. I was really impressed at the way they stepped up their live show by playing some cool covers and extended jams I didn’t expect from what I had heard of the band previously. Todd Park Mohr, the band’s frontman, is an excellent guitarist and a good entertainer.   

The rest of the Jam’s lineup remains unchanged. The Drew Davis Band and Solution will open for Big Head Todd Friday night. 

Saturday’s lineup includes DownLo, Djate, Melvin Seals and Friends, Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Cracker and Robert Randolph and the Family Band.  What do you think of this year’s lineup?  I’ve heard good things about Robert Randolph but have never given the group a good listen.

Tickets for Friday’s music are $20 in advance and $25 the day of the performances.  Saturday costs $25 in advance or $30 the day of the show.

A two day pass can be bought prior to the Jam for $40. Tickets are on sale now and can be bought by calling Black Hills Central Reservations at 888-838-2855 or 605-578-7702.        

 

By Eric Lochridge

Not sure why I have to get this from the Detroit Free Press, but Ted Nugent’s recent onstage anti-Obama/anti-Hillary tirade has prompted South Dakota State Fair officials to ask that he take it down a notch or two for the family-oriented event in Huron on Sunday.

Nugent’s profane outburst has been attracting quite a bit of attention on the cable TV news channels. It’s too bad he doesn’t have a new album coming out that he promote as long as he’s being noticed again. Oh wait, my bad. “Love Grenade” comes out Sept. 4.

by Ruth Milne

Voices of the Heartland Independent Film Group presented the award-winning documentary “Shut Up and Sing” last night at the Elks Theatre.

Organizers didn’t much like the L.A. Times review the Journal reprinted in its movie listings this week, and I have to say, I didn’t agree entirely either —

“This documentary from Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck follows The Dixie Chicks after lead singer Natalie Maines’ offhanded on-stage comment that the group was ashamed that President Bush was a fellow Texan. “Shut Up & Sing” teeters on the edge of deifying Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison for their perseverance. But it also focuses on the shrewd, almost cynical strategies they adopt as they try to keep their career afloat.”

I don’t think the film deified Maines; in fact, I thought she came across as someone who’s not very “shrewd” at all, and just accidentally stumbled into a mess that got blown way out of proportion and took a long, long time to recover from. But it was an interesting, insightful movie, with some great music. I never listened to the Dixie Chicks before, but it turns out they’re all right. And Maines’ wacky pompadour-meets-mullet hairdo blew my mind.

Now, we’re not here to debate the merits of George W. Bush’s presidency. For that, go here.

Instead, we’re here to talk about music, and how outspoken singers are expected to be or not be. Should they just “shut up and sing”?

And what about U2 frontman Bono, who routinely meets with world leaders? What the heck is up with that?

Musicians, actors, sports stars — they’re all expected to be somehow better than the rest of us, although they’re really just people who are good at their jobs (an expert at flipping burgers deserves the same respect). And sometimes it seems like we expect stars’ opinions to be more noble, more valuable than those of the unwashed masses.

That’s why it’s such a huge deal when they say something that their fans find offensive — it’s a long way down from a pedestal.

Here’s my take: I believe the uproar was entirely due to the fact that the Dixie Chicks are in the country genre.

Folk singer Ani DiFranco regularly says things like, “We hold these truths to be self evident: #1 George W. Bush is not president. #2 America is not a true democracy. #3 The media is not fooling me,” and nobody so much as blinks.

And let’s be honest: If a punk rocker were to say they weren’t ashamed of Bush, don’t you think they’d get every bit as much contempt from their community as Maines received from hers for saying the opposite?

by Ruth Milne

Area bands rallied against hunger at the fourth annual Hardcore for Hunger benefit concert Saturday at the Imperial.

It’s still been less than a year since local hardcore band Just Another Pretty Face’s first show, and they have come a long, long way since that fiery debut. The most recent change is their new guitarist, Craig, at left.

At first I thought they had a new bassist too, but it turns out he just got a haircut. Either that or the new bassist has the same tattoos as the old. I’m thinking a haircut is more likely.

The show’s called “Hardcore for Hunger,” but traditionally, all the bands play metal. “Sorry we’re not metal enough,” Just Another Pretty Face jokingly titled one song.

Sure, they aren’t “metal” through-and-through, but Just Another Pretty Face isn’t trying to be — they’re hardcore. And they’re good hardcore. And more than that, they’re good hardcore by good guys; they started off the set by talking about how the concert was for a great cause, and whatever subgenre you wanted to identify yourself with — metal, hardcore, emo, country, etc. — we’re all part of the Rapid City scene.

It’s nice to see kids talking about community; we need more of that around here.

A final note: Just Another Pretty Face is loud. Standing near the speakers to take this photo, the hair on my arms was vibrating, and I’m no monkey.

As usual, this band’s final song was “Convicted Without Evidence,” about the West Memphis Three, a cause they feel very passionately about.

Black as Sin, whose MySpace link can be read more than one way, was up next.

A metal band from Rapid City, Black as Sin was plagued by technical difficulties. This is not an instance of that; he was just kneeling on the dance floor while he played.

The guitarist’s tummy says Leetch, which was the opening band, which I missed. Not sure what his boob art says, though.

Emissary, the group I’d really come to see, was up next.

This New Underwood-based thrash band is fantastic, and just getting better.

Since the last time I saw them, Emissary added a second guitarist, who did a fine job of keeping up with the band’s Slayer-style speed. If you want your metal old-school and stripped-down, with blazing guitars and ear-shredding vocals, this is your band.

The crowd was thin, but there was some serious head banging.

Right in the front row, this cherubic little kid was trying out his metal moves for the very first time.

This adorable little gal also loved Emissary.

At this point, it was 10:30 p.m., and with five or six bands yet to play, I was out of there. I did want to see Disorderly, but at the rate the members were downing booze, it wasn’t going to be good… I might as well play their demo CD and watch a train wreck on TV.

I heard that it was going to be Synthetic Discipline’s last show, so I hope that went well.

Best of all, organizers collected a couple tubs of canned goods for the food bank.

By Ryan Woodard

Country star Joe Nichols was scheduled to perform at the Central States Fair grandstand on Wednesday evening but the rain put the kibosh on his performance. Or so his fans thought.

Nichols, who was guaranteed payment despite the rainout, performed anyway. After finding out that his opening act, Trent Tomlinson, finished his set at the Coors Tent, Nichols made his way over there and played under the tent for over an hour.

“When Joe heard that Trent was playing over at the Coors Tent, he went over, too, and played for an hour and 15 minutes,” said fair manager Ron Jefferies. “That’s unheard of. Our acts get paid rain or shine. No one was under any obligation to perform. They did everything they could to play for the crowd.”
While I’m not much of a country fan and didn’t catch the show, I found his decision to play a show he was not obligated to play to be very refreshing, in this day and age of outrageous concert ticket prices and certain prima donna musicians. Nichols obviously didn’t want to disappoint his fans.

Did anybody catch the show? Good for Nichols.