HALLOWEEN COVER SHOW

SAT OCT 31 | 5 PM | STARLAND YARD

Savannah has rocked the Halloween cover show tradition for years now. Last year’s version at El Rocko featured blood wrestling, so that’s a hard act to follow.

The gory combat sports exhibition will be missed, but this lineup alone is one of the best in recent memory. Along with a Shoegaze Greatest Hits set, four local fellas take on the foundational ska-punk of Operation Ivy.

Pixel Chix dial up the intensity of their usual synth-decorated punk to perform as alt-metal pioneers L7, who weren’t nearly as grunge as advertised.

When you see grizzled veterans at the show grinning like a baboon, the final four acts are why. Deftones are one of the few nu-metal survivors of that genre’s cultural apogee in the late ‘90s.

They slogged through some lean years and are now about a half-decade into a resurgence, gaining a new, younger audience and renewed critical respect. Texture, atmosphere, mood, and an intentional lack of guitar solos set them apart. Expect The Maxines, as adept at metal as grunge, to crush it.

Pit Locust mix up a bunch of cores in their original material. Grind-, math-, metal-, hard-, and others heretofore unknown add intricacy and progressive elements to the overall ferociousness. They’ll have to contain themselves to deliver the straight-ahead, old-school punk of Green Day.

Of all the legitimately seminal hardcore bands, Minor Threat seems to get overlooked. Perhaps they’re overshadowed by the longevity of Ian MacKaye’s subsequent band Fugazi, but it still makes no sense. Their admittedly brief discography is some of the best hardcore ever made.

Bottled Violence has only 26 tracks and 47 minutes of Minor Threat output to choose from. They can’t go wrong since every track is part of the hardcore Rosetta Stone.

Finally, the mighty Zandig rocks Danzig-era Misfits with more precision than the original recipe. Their headline set at last year’s blood-soaked El Rocko riot melted faces and dropped jaws. No reason to expect any different.

 

NICK SHOULDERS + TENNESSEE STIFFLEGS

TUE OCT 27 | 8 PM | VICTORY NORTH

Nick Shoulders is bringing back old-time country yodeling, and he's remarkably good at it. The distinctive vocal delivery of early country singers like Hank Williams Sr. owed something to the Scottish and Irish folk traditions that form a cornerstone of Appalachian music. That was long before hip-hop began to infiltrate modern country vocalizing, something ol’ Hank would have never been able to comprehend.

The Arkansas native has an extraordinary voice, moving effortlessly between a lonesome croon, soaring yodels, and birdlike whistles. Some of the electrified strumming on the records has a psychedelic weirdness to it. One look at the accompanying photo and it makes more sense.

Does he look like your typical honky-tonk singer or Hugh Hefner’s try-hard nephew who could use better advice in his choice of robes? Leisurewear aside, he seems to make the right choices when he’s making music that sounds old and new at once.

Knoxville’s Tennessee Stifflegs open with old-time country, Western swing, and hillbilly jazz. Their fiddle-driven sound should provide a lively introduction to an evening of gloriously unconventional roots music.

 

AURALAYER + THE BLACK STRAIN + ONE LONELY GOAT + PALMETTO SLUG

FRI OCT 30 | 8 PM | THE WORMHOLE

Stoner metal may land on the heavier side of the spectrum, but it remains more accessible for a few reasons. It tends to have a warm fuzziness despite often dark lyrical content. It relies on hooks and grooves that don’t get too complicated.

After all, it’s based on the first three Black Sabbath records, which are nowhere near progressive rock. Not to mention stoners aren’t looking to harsh anyone’s mellow with angry, Pantera-adjacent rage, even when making heavy music.

Auralayer, from Greenville, South Carolina, has found that sweet spot. Their bass player loves The Beatles and Talking Heads, their guitarist worships High on Fire, and their original drummer was a Neil Peart aficionado. One can only assume the new drummer is as well.

Combining the massive tone of Torche, the alternative vibe of Hum, and the bong-driven riffs of The Sword, they maintain a melodic core. Plus, Beatles-loving bassist Jake Williams can actually sing.

Support comes from a trio of Savannah’s heaviest. The Black Strain continue to spew more tons of sludgy doom than a duo ought to. Their recent LP, Rose Amongst the Skulls, does the live set justice, but nothing hits like feeling it on your face on Mischief Night.

One Lonely Goat is another duo capable of generating a completely unreasonable amount of noise. Their cocktail of Southern sludge, hardcore punk, and noise rock can wilt a mighty oak. Bassist Adam Crews and drummer Tim Payne have been at it since their Brunswick days more than a decade ago, and last year's Behold How the Loved Ones Have Fled EP proves they haven't mellowed.

Palmetto Slug take an unpredictable route at every performance with their improvised punk and sludge. Whatever happens is largely determined on the spot, making them the wild card on a bill with precious little opportunity to come up for air. Anyone looking for caressing sounds on a gentle autumn evening probably squeezed into the wrong Wormhole.

 

CC WITT & THE LYN AVENUE BAND

SAT OCT 31 | 3 PM | OVER YONDER

Savannah live music fans remember CC Witt as one half of Lyn Avenue, the country duo she fronted with her former husband, guitarist Patrick Ellington. A lot has changed in recent years.

The couple divorced, her mother passed away, and she now carries on as CC Witt & the Lyn Avenue Band. Witt retained the name, but she’s taking the music in a more personal direction now.

The boot-stomping country of the first incarnation has given way to Southern soul and Americana, with Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, and Susan Tedeschi among the cited influences. Her recent single, Tryin’ to Love You, emphasizes melancholy and atmosphere, while an upcoming seven-song project, reportedly titled Hypothetically, is informed by a period of personal upheaval, resilience, and creative independence. The formidable voice that powered the original Lyn Avenue remains very much intact.

This Halloween matinee at Over Yonder offers the added benefit of an excellent place to hide from the daytime trick-or-treaters before heading out for another show after dark, thereby avoiding the rest of those demanding little Chuckies.

 

JAKE SHIMABUKURO

THU OCT 29 | 7 PM | TYBEE POST THEATER

It’s a straight-up national embarrassment that America has suffered such a dearth of ukulele heroes since Don Ho's Tiny Bubbles swept the nation in 1966, introducing millions to the laid-back musical culture of our shiny new 50th state. Surely, in the intervening 60 years, someone could have answered the call to glory.

How the humble four-stringed instrument failed to achieve the status of a rock guitar is anyone’s guess. Where did all the shredders, virtuosos, and wild men go?

Thankfully, Hawaii's Jake Shimabukuro finally stepped up. Tearing it up since age four, he became an unlikely YouTube sensation in 2006 when his astonishing rendition of The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps went viral.

Since then, he's taken the ukulele into rock, jazz, blues, and classical territory with the intensity of Dave Mustaine and the finesse of Yo-Yo Ma.

The extraordinary technique goes well beyond speed. Shimabukuro can produce melody, harmony, and rhythm simultaneously, making four strings sound like an entire ensemble.

\Precedent exists in rock and jazz. John Entwistle and Jaco Pastorious often sounded like they had four hands working the bass guitar. But even Don Ho himself could hardly have imagined what the ukulele had in store.

By Frank Ricci