Tag: music

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Arts & Entertainment News

Winter Blues Fest ’09

The Southgate House will be the host for the 2nd annual Winter Blues Fest this Friday and Saturday. The doors will open at 6pm with performances going until about 1:30am or so (you know how these things go). The festival boasts 28 bands on 3 different stages and will offer a great way to spend the weekend and escape the cold for a bit.

The festival serves as an annual fundraiser for the Blues in the Schools program. There will be youth performances in the lounge area both nights from 6:10 to 6:40pm. The Bluebirds and The Blue Shivers will be headlining on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Tickets are $15 per person, per night and can be bought in advance or at the door. Blues Society members getting a $5 discount. Visit the festival’s web site for more information on the list of bands and schedule of acts.

The 17th annual Cincy Blues Fest will take place August 7th & 8th at Sawyer Point.

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Cincinnati’s own American Idol Star

First of all, I know…weird topic for me to cover. But on the way in to work yesterday I heard a conversation, on the radio, about a certain American Idol contestant. I don’t watch the show, but found the contestant they aired particularly interesting since a) she is from Cincinnati, b) sung an original song that she wrote and, c) that original song was called “Nati.”

Check out Leneshe Young’s story and performance that blew the judges away. If Cincinnatians weren’t obsessed with reality shows enough, this will serve as a big reason to follow AI this year.


Leneshe Young Audition

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Hawthorne Heights at Shake It

On Friday Hawthorne Heights will be in town for a very special appearance at Shake It Records in Northside. The Dayton-born band will give an acoustic show and just hang out for a little while probably signing albums and engaging in musical chit chat.

Hawthorne Heights is an emo band that has released three albums the most recent of which came out earlier this year entitled Fragile Future. Their first album, The Silence in Black and White, went platinum with over 1 million in record sales dating back to 2004. This was then followed up with a Gold album in 2006 that reached the top spot on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums list. If you’re not into emo bands, then just get on over to Shake It to check out their amazing collection of independent music.

In order to get their on-time you might have to cut out of work a little early. Shake It (GoogleMap) suggets that you should get their by 4pm, but if not feel free to come in and join the crowd whenever you’re able (regular hours M-S 10-9, Sun 12-6).

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Salsa Dancing at the Wisp

Over the summer Fountain Square hosted Salsa on the Square every Thursday which included salsa lessons. The event showed the most growth of all of Fountain Square’s summer events with crowds of 400-500 people by the end of summer. With these weekly nights of Salsa on the Square done until next summer, I couldn’t think of a better spot to rekindle the dancing magic during the winter months than the Blue Wisp Jazz Club.

This Thursday, November 13th, the Blue Wisp will have salsa dancing with Mambo Diablo starting at 8pm. Free dance lessons will be available a half hour prior to the show. There is a $5 cover charge for this show, but if you’re one of the many who are into salsa dancing then this is probably for you. Mambo Diablo consists of John Zappa (trumpet), Stan Ginn (percussion), Bill Jackson (bass), Mike Darrah (piano) and a couple others.

You could make it a full evening of music at the Blue Wisp (GoogleMap) by getting there after work for happy hour. The free show features The Courthouse Trio with Billy Larkin (piano), Eddie Felson (bass), and Al Beasley (drums) will be taking the stage at 4:30pm, but would make for a great after work stop whenever you get off. There are plenty of food offerings, and of course lots of drinks to choose from.

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Arts & Entertainment News

Big city, small town

Cincinnati is an amazing place. You get all the benefits and features of a big city, while also being able to take advantage of the small town charm.

Last night Fountain Square was packed for a political rally encouraging voters to get out there and vote early. The night featured Natalie Portman and music by prominent Indie bands like The Breeders and The National.

The music was awesome, the crowd was big and the weather was perfect. Unfortunately we were a little late arriving and missed The Breeders performance and only caught about 3/4 of The National. But while we were there the night was amazing, and we couldn’t help but think where else could this happen than Cincinnati.

We lucked out and a tabled opened on Via Vite’s rooftop terrace. From there we were able to not only take in the amazing music from The National, but also enjoy some of the area’s best Italian food in comfort and style. We didn’t have to wait, pay top dollar, or even know somebody. We just had to show up and take advantage of the awesome night ready to be had.

We were there with local celebrity/politician Jim Tarbell and nationally known pop star turned Green Party politician Justin Jeffre. In NYC you would have had to been a high roller in order to get that kind of experience, but here some average twenty somethings were able to roll with the big dogs. Only in Cincinnati.

Photo from Jeff Swinger/Cincinnati Enquirer — MORE PHOTOS HERE