DISTANT + KAIJU + ENDERA + THIRST + EMERSION
SAT MAY 9 | 6 PM | COASTAL EMPIRE BEER CO.
After a tragic and heart-wrenching seven-year absence that just about no one else but Take Five is aware of, Savannah will once again be completely obliterated by an extreme metal band from the Low Countries. To be clear, not our Lowcountry, but the northern European kind.
In May 2019, Belgian black metal destroyers Wiegedood stole the show from better-known quantities Skeletonwitch and Soft Kill at The Jinx. The band named after SIDS played a set so brutal, it was like being beaten senseless while being drowned in a toilet.
Nothing from the area has come close, but Dutch/Slovak deathcore facerippers Distant are the first to attempt topping it. The band’s slow, crushing breakdowns are measured in megatons, setting up the death metal beatdown that inevitably follows.
For comparison, it makes the reformed Celtic Frost’s final record, the impossibly heavy Monotheist, sound like Connie Francis. Apparently, someone has to pay for the long absence of such high-quality Old Country metal, and it’s you!
Fittingly, it’s going to take four opening acts to prepare that ass for such an assault. Savannah’s prolific heavy music scene is more than up to the task.
Kaiju is made up of former members of other heavy AF bands Second Death and Omen Killer, playing their own “Deep South deathcore.”
Endera are one of the hardest-working metalcore bands around, and continue to be invited on bills like this because they’re not here to F around.
Emersion’s metalcore has an unusual combination of technical complexity and driving groove.
The other out-of-towners, Thirst, keep their metal noisy, violent, and aggressive, which could be the motto of the not so shi-shi areas of their West Palm Beach home base.
BUCKCHERRY
TUE MAY 5 | 8 PM | VICTORY NORTH
When The Who recorded Long Live Rock way back in 1972, Pete Townshend was making the point that the kind of rock and roll his band helped become a cultural phenomenon in the late ‘60s may already be getting stale, but different versions will keep it alive. In defiance of the lyric “rock is dead,” he could not have been more correct. Punk, metal, glam, new wave, and other styles innovated over the ensuing half-century, but straightforward arena hard rock never left.
It’s fair to say Buckcherry helped re-revive the sleazy, sex-soaked, dangerous hard rock space Guns N’ Roses vacated after their meteoric rise to global superstardom had crashed and burned at the end of the 20th century. Like GNR, Buckcherry relied on the vibe and stroke of classic-era Aerosmith and AC/DC. Marshall stacks, Gibson guitars, and crunchy riffs carrying tawdry tales of the unimaginable rock star body count dominate the playlist, with a slow anthem here and there to keep the whole thing from being a nonstop misogyny fest.
Given the decadence, their consistency is impressive. Eleven albums since the 1999 debut is a rare accomplishment in the new digital music economy, and a strong indicator that their kind of hard rock, and certainly not its fanbase, isn’t dying any time soon.
MAGOO
WED MAY 6 | 8 PM | BROUGHTON STREET BOWL & BREW
For those who missed the Billy Strings two-night stand at Enmarket Arena last month, Savannah has not let up on non-traditional bluegrass acts since. For those who attended but haven’t gotten their fill, another week means another chance. This time it’s Magoo, hailing from stoner mecca Denver. Like most progressive bluegrass, Magoo’s appeal comes from what they do with the foundation and how far they are willing to push the envelope.
In Magoo’s case, it’s more subtle than, for example, where Béla Fleck took the banjo. Extended jam band-adjacent voyages are one way. Guitarist Erik Hill was a runner-up in the flatpicking contest at RockyGrass Festival 2024. More prominently, dobro player Dylan Hill won that instrument’s top prize at the same fest. Unsurprisingly, the dobro is more central to their sound since the band does not have a full-time fiddle or banjo player. Another highlight is the group’s three-part harmonies.
Sure, it’s a standard element in the form. They’re just better at it than most. A couple of years ago, Savannah was absolutely overrun with top-quality Nashville alt-rock and dream pop bands. Now the live music tidal wave is, of all things, various iterations of bluegrass. Both are proof that not all current trends suck.
THE REVEREND CRISTIAN JAMES & THE AUGUSTA COWPUNK COLLECTIVE
FRI MAY 8 | 9 PM | THE WORMHOLE
Cowpunk is a distinct genre that is too often overlooked considering the many enduring branches that sprouted from it. A fairly even mix of country and punk rock, cowpunk started taking shape in the late ‘70s, before the term was coined and not too long after the Sex Pistols disbanded.
Early roots-punk and cowpunk-adjacent bands like X and The Blasters helped set the table, while Jason and the Scorchers became one of the style’s defining early acts. In 1984, music critic Robert Palmer used the term in former newspaper The New York Times to describe new wave bands with country-influenced sounds aimed at the growing MTV and college rock audiences.
In due time, Uncle Tupelo and the No Depression universe steered toward seriousness and aggression while bands like Cracker practically invented alt-country with a heavy dose of sardonic humor.
Cristian James and the Augusta Cowpunk Collective operate somewhere between the original recipe of early X and the extra-crispy edge of Uncle Tupelo’s Graveyard Shift. Video evidence shows James letting loose on guitar, the Collective filling out the sound with heft and energy, and crowds responding with spastic fits of joy.
TRACY LAWRENCE
THU MAY 7 | 7:30 PM | JOHNNY MERCER THEATRE
Tracy Lawrence belongs to the ’90s country class that includes Clay Walker, Clint Black, and Travis Tritt. These guys sold millions of records and tickets without having to fake or apologize for their honky-tonk roots.
Born in Texas, raised in Arkansas, and Nashville-bound by 1990 while still in his early 20s, Lawrence broke through fast with Sticks and Stones. He spent the decade stacking hits when country radio had more space for steel guitar, barroom blues, and singers who sounded like they didn’t want to be rappers. His biggest records, Alibis and Time Marches On, both went double platinum.
He landed more than 40 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, with eight making it to No. 1. His 14 studio albums draw from plenty of life experience, with expected country themes of working-class masculinity, friendship, restlessness, and the heartbreak of failed marriages to a rodeo star and a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader before finding true love.
Although a veteran survivor in the game for more than three decades, Lawrence is far from a nostalgia show. The grit and twang of pre-ubiquitous country pop never lost relevance, and this is as good a reminder of that as you’ll get.
By Frank Ricci