Live Music Roundup: Cracker. Nope, Other Stuff

I have to be honest with you… I was going to use this space to write about Cracker and did not even look at the rest of the weekend calendar once this week. They were scheduled to play at The Radio Room Saturday night and that was all the excuse I needed to blather on about how they have been one of my favorite bands for almost 30 years. Man, it was going to be epic.

I was going to start, of course, with the tale of how when I was in middle school, my good friend’s older brother would share what all the cool high school kids were listening to – when he was not beating us up, of course. I am pretty sure he was passing on knowledge from older college friends but, regardless, such is how seventh grade me ended up listening to cassette tapes of Camper Van Beethoven years before lead singer David Lowery would go on to form Cracker. Once he did, high school sophomore me fell in love with both Cracker and the pretty high school senior that had told me about them. The latter love was unrequited but at least Cracker never let me down. Years later, I scored an epic hall pass when my now-ex-wife was cool with me going to seeing Cracker live at Birdie's in Indianapolis rather than going with her to pick up her mom from the airport for a weekend visit. I love my ex-mother-in-law dearly to this day but, for the record, I would make that same decision a million times over.

And then Cracker at The Radio Room was postponed until this fall. Dammit.

Muskrat Flats; performing at Gottrocks Friday night

Back at square one, I started scrolling through the local music calendars yesterday only to be reminded of how much we have going on the local music scene. As much time as I spend on this task each week, it is always a nice surprise to be taken aback by the richness and diversity of the options we have at hand. My Cracker induced tunnel vision was replaced by more of a “Well, will you look at that?” sort of attitude and I cannot be mad about it.

WVN; performing at Swanson’s Warehouse Friday night

Friday night alone boasts “Rap Night” at Swanson’s Warehouse which features both WVN and Saucellina, two of the best young local female MC’s around in my humble opinion. Hip-hop not your thing? Abby the Spoon Lady is at The Spinning Jenny in Greer and Philadelphia jam band Muskrat Flats is at Gottrocks. For those looking for something more familiar, Third Eye, a touring Tool tribute band, will be at The Radio Room. Throw in local alt-punk Curly Blue with Atlanta’s Strumbrush and Columbia’s Death Ray Robin at Swanson’s Saturday evening and, ladies and gentlemen, we have a stacked lineup of music this weekend even without my beloved Cracker.

I would also like to take a minute to look ahead to next week when The Old 97’s Rhett Miller visits The Radio Room Friday night. I do not have all the nostalgic, little kid version of me memories of The Old 97’s but I do still love that band. They are actually one of the first bands my wife and I bonded over when we first met and it goes without saying that things are going way better than I ever could have expected out of that old high school crush that introduced me to Cracker. Get your tickets now and we will talk more about it next week (Rhett Miller and The Old 97’s, not my wife, that is).