MP3: Justin Townes Earle – Rogers Park (live at the Castle Theater in Bloomington, Illinois)
When Justin Townes Earle came to Columbus in the past, he’d always play the Rumba Cafe, even though he outgrew the venue pretty quickly. It made for an intimate show, but it was crowded, and if you got close to the stage you were one of the lucky ones.
Now that the Rumba’s Todd Dugan is booking occasional shows at the Bluestone, Columbus has a chance to see Earle with a bit more elbow room, good sight lines and some stained-glass ambience. After seeing Lucero in the space last month, I was also impressed by the quality of the live sound, something Rumba has become known for. …Think a smaller, classier Newport with better sound.
Tristen opens tonight’s show ($17, 18+, 9pm). Dugan’s next big Bluestone show will be Watershed‘s CD release show on June 8.
I won’t lie. 
It’s a rock n’ roll cliché and a PR flack’s dream: Guy breaks up with girl, drinks heavily, pisses off all his friends, eventually sobers up and retreats to his parents’ house to record an album on a four-track. But man does this cliché jangle with some of the best in-the-red pop songs I’ve heard in a while. Stuart McLamb’s Chapel Hill band signed to Merge in October and is slated to have a new release in August, and after seeing the full band (now a 7-piece) put on a terrific show at the Wexner Center in the fall, McLamb’s next outing could be even better with a little help from his friends.
Every aspect of Andrew Bird just keeps getting better—his voice; his gorgeous, multi-layered violin arrangements; his whistling. It makes for a backdrop so compelling that he can sing about proto-Sanskrit Minoans, porto-centric Lisboans, Greek Cypriots and Hobis-hots and have you nodding your head in agreement instead of scratching it in confusion.
Hospice is one of only a few albums this year that completely transports me whenever I give it my full attention. (