Kevin Kerby + Battery record an episode of AETN's 'On the Front Row'
by John Tarpley
WEDNESDAY 3/23
G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE
8:30 p.m., Revolution. $20 adv., $25 d.o.s.
This year's classes of incoming college freshmen were in utero when G. Love and Special Sauce's signature songs, "Cold Beverage" and "Baby's Got Sauce" were released and, no doubt, made popular by college kids of the mid-'90s. The mean music writer in me wants to scoff off the hippy-dippy, folk-hop act that's mutated into a Beck knockoff with a freakish will to survive as an irrelevant holdover from the golden age of frat rock. But then I remember that this writer was the first to remind guys in his old frat house that their "baby ain't sweet like mine." Also, the fact that G. Love and Special Sauce has released 10 albums since, including the latest, "Fixin' to Die," produced and co-performed by The Avett Brothers. It's the "Philadelphonic" mad blues scientist's newest shot at reviving his well-worn sound into a more rustic groove, complete with swampy Pentecostal percussion and a Booker "Bukka" White cover serving as the title track. (The album's attempts to redress Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and Velvet Underground's "Pale Blue Eyes" don't fare as well: You'll remember them for being audacious, not good.) So: irrelevant? Not as much as ambitious. And tenacious. And consistently popular. As always, expect him to pack a house with ease.
SOMMORE
7:30 p.m., Robinson Center Music Hall. $35-$65
Is Robinson Center Music Hall becoming the state's classiest comedy club? In addition to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the regular theater tours and the occasional (usually stellar, always welcomed, hint hint) music act, we've seen Kevin Hart, Rodney Carrington and Mr. Brown & Cora of Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns" dot the hall's schedule. The laughs must be plentiful, because this week brings yet another stand-up, Sommore. (That's "Sommore" as in "please, we want Sommore live music at Robinson this year.") The comedienne and "Queens of Comedy" tour alum has been a regular guest on Def Comedy Jam, Showtime at the Apollo and BET's Comicview, featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and has lost 30 pounds in front of the country during Celebrity Fit Club. On stage, she subscribes to the "I'm gonna say what you're thinking about dating, family, men and money except with more head bobs and cussin' " school of comedy. Funniest thing I've heard her say while writing this: "Gas is so high it makes you wanna bang a bus driver." I laughed. Also along for the ride: D.C. Curry of the "Friday" sequels and one of "P. Diddy's Bad Boys of Comedy," Damon Williams.
THURSDAY 3/24
'ON THE FRONT ROW' WITH KEVIN KERBY + BATTERY
6:15 p.m., AETN Studios. Free with RSVP.
The next time you log onto Facebook, do a search for "Make Kevin Kerby the Poet Laureate of Pulaski County," go to the page and "like" it. We may be a small group, about 50 strong, but we know that few other working scribes — certainly no songwriters — have written about the capital county with as much incisive wit and precise color as the wise (assed, usually) bard/barista/baseball fanatic. The fact that a native Texan is being drafted for a position that's been vacated since 1945 could and will draw a round of "boo hisses," but we'd challenge them to take "Beautiful & Bright" for a spin. His latest album, and his first with Battery, his top-notch backing cast, finds its muscle in a series of loosely-wound audio snapshots of Little Rock, wedged somewhere between Paul Westerberg's know-it-all scowl and Jeff Tweedy's ear for pop poeticism. Hopefully his debut on AETN's signature local music program will spread the message to the majority of folks who don't frequent music nights in Little Rock's finer beer bars. Thursday night sees Kerby & Co. debut a couple of new numbers, one accompanied by Kevin's young son. Tickets are free: RSVP at aetn.org.
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