goings on - SATURDAY 4/29

I was going to prepare another Outsources entry, but over the past few weeks there hasn't really been any relevant music articles...just Metro Pulse using boring stereotypes to scare people away from the Pilot Light (and refusing to write about the Midnight Bomber), the News-Sentinel writing about ego-metal, and the Maryville Daily Times writing about a broad range of bands, none of which really fit here (besides possibly the Tim Lee band, and their recent article on this blog.) So instead I'll use this opportunity to welcome the arrival of the KNOXVILLE VOICE, a new progressive-minded alternative weekly that will hopefully find an audience and give us a less corporate-minded alternative to the Metro Pulse.

I made brief reference (and extensive judgment!) above to what doesn't "fit" on this site, and I say with some authority that ska(core) is one of those things, but for some reason every year in the run-up to SKA WEEKEND I'm overcome with respect for what promoter Ben Altom has done with it. The largest ska festival in the country, it will host 27 bands this year in Knoxville's Old City on Saturday. The best part is that the cost is only $15 plus five cans of food to be donated to America's Second Harvest Food Bank. That's DIY with style and bravado, and even if I'll be avoiding the Old City like the plague that day, I tip my hat to Ben.



Later that night the SWEET SOUTHERN PIXELS women's media art collective will be having their Cotillion party at the Electric Ballroom, and it should be the party of the month, if not the year. DJs, dancers, contests, prizes, libations, videos, photos, and more. Proceeds will facilitate future SSP art shows. This would be your best option for the night's entertainment even if the Old City weren't clogged with ska kids.

live - Diacon Panthers

Saturday evening, the DIACON PANTHERS took the stage at Old City Java for their fourth show ever, a not-quite-sparsely attended EP release (to secure one for yourself, I'd check their myspace page).

After a shambley, confused soundcheck ("Maybe I should just use one mic."/"What's that buzzing sound?"), the Panthers disappeared behind Java's newish Little Rascals-esque curtain and soon re-entered, marching, from the back entrance, one operating a trumpet, one pounding some marching-band issue toms, soon stepping aside to welcome "Captain Yarn and the Musical Apricot" to the mic for a PSA (essentially the Panthers' drummer, Nikki Nair, strumming out an acoustic hortatory message about manners. It was actually pretty hilarious.) The tune was lovingly dedicated to the infamous missing sugar glider (currently adorning "lost" flyers on various poles in the Old City). It was all a little Royal Bangs Junior until the Panthers got on to the main event...

Following a couple of vastly differing opening numbers (one pop-punkish, short and intense with a smart guitar line, the other Durutti Column-esque dreampop), the Panthers frontman abstained from guitarist duties to simply sing. Sparse instrumentation (a slide guitar, simple bass, quiet drums) highlighted his unique, pleasant singing voice for the first time in the set, his pitch staying perfect in a situation (long notes, little instrumental backup) in which lesser singers would certainly go tuney at least once. Natan Diacon-Furtado (who handles/has handled vocals, guitar, and a million-odd instruments in this and various other local bands) possesses an authority over the Panthers project that manifested itself slowly but absolutely, from his apparent spokesmanship for the band earlier in the set to his constant (but polite) signalling to the others, sometimes leaning over to speak directly with each member about a single change. This band is fairly obviously about one guy, and that guy is the frontman -- his duties here extending even into typical drummer territory, counting off each new song with affable authority.

The Panthers played through genre after genre, including a Cabaret Voltaire-ish quietquietquietLOUD piece and a Steve Earle/Merle Haggardesque country rocker coated in viscous slide guitar, before (expressing doubt that anyone in the audience could diagnose it) beginning a countried-up (and excellent) cover of New Order's "Age Of Consent", admittedly difficult to recognize robbed of its signature bassline. For the final song, "When It Comes To The Night", bassist Jeremy Given picked up a melodica, Greg (Jeremy's brother, I take it) Given continued on intermittent slide guitar, and Natan changed his electric guitar for an acoustic, which he stated was not worth plugging in because "we won't make much noise".

Away from the din of the technical difficulties and rhythm problems (nothing practice and experience won't erase), the people left inside could even hear the buzzing of the amplifers left on. You could hear the exhalation from a drag on a neighboring audience member's cigarette. From outside, you could hear the Java punks' intermittent oblivious cacophony, alternately intruding and retreating as the door opened and closed. And you could hear everything great about the band -- songwriting, good ideas, good voice. Taste. Promise. Someone, sometime had switched off the lights during the performance, and in the dark, you could see it, in the quiet, you could hear it: the excitement of seeing a band in its infancy, knowing that all it will take is time.

RIYL: The Royal Bangs, Built To Spill, Merle Haggard.

MP3: China (3:41)