There is now new band music, finally, across the Hudson area and beyond, sweeping into brand new territories of ilk and making for a more comprehensive calendar. If at times, only a rehab of what they’ve featured before. Karaoke makes a comeback, but can be fickle, so you can fill the star gap.
I’ll only hit newer highlights, not what’s been written if only in partial form before, as our venues for musical stagings continue to adapt. Even when sung by amateurs, and forge on even if that’s now a reverb of open mic nights.
The Smilin’ Moose has jumped into the karaoke mix with every Thursday night activities, and if strutting past when downtown you can notice versions of early moderate-tone rock songs, beyond typical karaoke kitsch. Other Thursday evening fare, if a little earlier but with much the same tempo, found in cross-county Hammond at Schuggy’s, is an acoustic jam from 6-9 p.m. and featuring veterans of the scene Trandy Blue and Justin Barts as your man/woman mix-and-match-leaders.
— It had to come for me. Why not closer to Father’s Day … Someone finally referred to my bestest fave as wave NWOBHM, mostly, and indeed all Old School Heavy Metal, as “dad rock.” Like the later mentioned Motley Crue, which not long ago was termed “classic rock” in a song that flippantly analyzed.
And then I pour through, or down, what dad likes to drink. I gotta start with Happy Dad hard iced tea, in 12 packs, with two containers crossing out “dad” and putting “mom,” marital not sibling rivalry, and also a version loosely sponsored by Death Row Records. More dad rock? —
An act a block or so south from The Moose on the Hudson scene, now finalized and done, has been performed by Dave Burkart at Bennett’s, often taking hard rock and such and making it understandably acoustic, but now moving to other local venues after a good run.
A couple of months beforehand, it was Ziggy’s Hudson, adding to its weekly mixture of pianos and solos and duos and more that is frequently altered and flipped around, with Wednesday night karoake that often featured bartender Megan and her beautifully done I’ve-been-a-country-women-wronged songs. Alas, a month ago, Ziggy’s changed gears again, as they also did last year for Wednesdays when shuttering — at least for now — Kyle Kohila’s one-man act. They’re going much more to rich-toned and deep-voiced country, and there’s always the upstairs on weekends for full-on bands.
But there still are long-running, continuing despite a switch in host and keeping with quality, karaoke gigs that prevail — also on Thursday nights — at the Wild Badger in New Richmond. It started with a Wedding Day DJ variety named All Occasions, then late in 2023 yielded the stage to DJ BDay. More on that later. And earlier, a few posts down, I introduced you to Skakin’ Dave across the street at Bobcat’s, three times a week.
Step it up once more, and its like being with a band, you have the open mic night at Bobtown in Roberts that shows styles of stuff beyond the folkish-ness that usually rules the day. Or night, or early evening. Its on Monday starting at 5 p.m., (for those nursing a weekend hangover and not wanting to need to close it down?)
Hop N Barrel has been rocking it for some time, also with early origins, starting with Friday nights from a booth-type corner-of-the-room tucked away beyond the rest of the tables in a main room adjoining the other big main room. Now they’ve added Saturday nights too for live music. “I don’t know just how long, its been a while now,” a bartender said about kickin’ it later into the weekend.
Over at the relatively new 501 Tavern, the bartender referenced being really tight with another in her trade, in it for the long haul at The Next Door tavern, where Fridays do not wait until typical happy hour time to bring the band. The first tender I just tendered, a somewhat-seasoned singer in her own right, has often made the early-weekend run from North Hudson to Houlton to grab the mic.
I also grabbed a business card, from Randy Burger who too was playing solo, as a street musician, up on the other end of Locust, perched on the sidewalk up against a building. He had more than one guitar to pick from, merging an electric sound with acoustic. He said he’d be back, at this spot, once in a while in summer.
Also now returning, is the spotty spate of spacings to house The Nova, currently positioned just inside the building that is Casanova Historic Liquors, not out on the patio out the back.
Tarnation Tavern in River Falls and The Empoureum in the town of Hudson are much alike, in that they bring a different set of bands then what you’d usually find, with the first doing their musical thing every weekend, usually at least once, and the second picking and choosing throughout the summer, then look out in fall. Johnnie’s on the same street, what in tarnation, also is upping the ante with their frequency of bands, and add to the list of such Tattersall distillery on the far south end.
Some other venues cater to combining with motorcycle runs when they give it a run with music, after the ride. Leading that batch is The GasLite in Ellsworth, when this time, its the early Saturday rally to support Alzheimer’s that finishes its riding around dusk with a show by Theater of Pain, bearing so many tribute-band similarities to Motley Crue (down to the masks) and the crew with their rock and look, and more. (Check out the Crue’s third studio album.)
On the way, check it out with your bike at another charitable-aiding rally that’s over at the American Legion Post in River Falls, with ending tunage by Whiskey Rock, and with a name like that you think of southern and classic and new and even outlaw country. However, the set list of this new band from Prescott shows a range of rock that is really broad, and even merges into hip-hop. The date of the run and concert is a Saturday TBA.