DYLAN HICKS 9/4, SCHUBAS There’s nothing particularly unusual about this Minneapolis indie-pop singer-songwriter, but he does embody some of the best virtues of the embattled breed; his songs are accessible, self-effacing, well arranged, and clever. So clever, in fact, that all possible potshots are disarmed right there in the lyric sheet to his Poughkeepsie (No Alternative): “I can hear those bullies calling me a fairy / Now they call me adult contemporary,” he sings in “That Look Wasn’t Meant For You,” and he admits outright that he’s too self-absorbed to be anything but a “Bad Boyfriend.”
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GEORGE CLINTON & THE P-FUNK ALL-STARS 9/4, CUBBY BEAR One of the funniest things I’ve ever read in the Onion was the front-page account of the Parliament-Funkadelic mothership descending in the middle of a Hootie & the Blowfish concert; the image of it trying to find a parking spot in Wrigleyville, however, is almost sad. But while it’s true that George Clinton hasn’t broken much new ground in the 90s, the man worked so much overtime doing just that in the 70s that his stockpile of raidable grooves and quotable quotes should keep him sacred for at least another decade. His elaborate brother-from-another-planet routines still compel close listeners to take a good look at this world and imagine a better one–and even when they’re as out of context as they usually are at gigs like this, Clinton and his cast of spangled thousands can always deliver “the funk, the whole funk, and nothing but the funk.”
MR. RUDY DAY, GOODY BRITCHES 9/8, LOUNGE AX “Rudy Day” bears a startling physical resemblance to guitar savant Andy Hopkins, late of the Atlanta “hick-hop” trio Flap, but musically he’s a whole different guy. Rudy’s an over-the-top blue-eyed-soul balladeer, a smooth man with rough edges, and his unlikely fusion of indie rock, blues, and hot buttered soul seems to flow naturally from his Venus Flytrap-uncensored between-song patter rather than the other way around. He’ll be backed here by sidemen from local stalwarts Grimble Grumble and Star Vehicle. Opener Goody Britches is the duo of Kelly Hogan and Lambchop’s Deanna Varagona, who has just released her first solo single. Both women have a way with a song, and live Hogan’s good-time energy should counterbalance Varagona’s shrinking-violet tendencies.
