BARDO POND 7/4, EMPTY BOTTLE This show’s the place to be on Independence Day for those who pledge allegiance to the outer limits of inner space. Bardo Pond’s wildly popular performances at both Terrastock festivals place them firmly within the new wave of psychedelia, but their tasty swoops of deep noise are as much Sabbath as Floyd, and vocalist-flutist Isobel Sollenberger sometimes snarls and declaims like a blissed-out Lydia Lunch and sometimes beats Hope Sandoval at her own game by drifting away altogether. Their most recent full-length, Lapsed (Matador), is their clearest statement yet–even when it sounds like the band members are playing several different songs at once–and the cumulative effect is chilling bad-trip beauty.
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HACKBERRY RAMBLERS 7/4, FITZGERALD’S American Music Festival The “American music” FitzGerald’s celebrates every year around I-Day generally refers to the underappreciated ethnic traditions that rock ‘n’ roll either absorbed or shunted aside. The Hackberry Ramblers know a thing or two about tradition, having been around since 1933. Founded by fiddler Luderin Darbone and accordionist-guitarist Edwin Duhon, they’re still touring and still playing the dance music of the bayou with plenty of piss and vinegar, even though only one of the six members is under 60. The guest stars on last year’s Deep Water (Hot Biscuits)–Marcia Ball, Michael Doucet, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Rodney Crowell–realized that this stuff is hot liquid gold and genuflected accordingly; so should you.
PRISSTEENS 7/7, METRO Not for New York’s Prissteens the tight little pastel baby tees of the Donnas, no way. The Prissteens are bad to the bone in a womanly, Ronnie Spector kind of way, boy drummer and all. The music on their Almo debut, Scandal, Controversy & Romance, is pretty much your standard-issue girl-group-by-way-of-the-Ramones New York punk pop, but this stuff has always lived and died by attitude anyway.
