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The Starlight Mints, Evangelicals, Levon Helm and more of who's playing in the local music scene.
June 1 — Make Me
Soundpony, 409 N. Main St.
Kick off June correctly and catch this rocking four-piece from Oakland, Calif. This free show helps you save some dinero to spend on the plethora* of frosty beers at the Pony. You can even get the band’s free EP on Make Me Make You. Nice recovery show after the previous three days of bike racing/partying at the Tulsa Tough event.
*From recent conversation overheard at the Soundpony after reading the above:
Josh (co-owner of Soundpony): Would you say we had a plethora of beers?
Mike (other co-owner): A what?
Josh: A plethora?
Mike: We have Bridgeport, Marshall’s, Guinness and Boulevard, but I don’t remember seeing any Plethora. Why, handsome?
Josh: We need to order some because it says here we have it.
June 5 — Starlight Mints and Evangelicals
The Marquee, 222 N. Main St.
These Norman bands schlep up the turnpike to show Tulsa how to make rock music through some new technological invention (or totally made-up gadgetry by this author) that makes cartoons appear in your head. I dare you to listen to “Rhino Stomp” and not have some belligerent rhinoceros cause a kerfuffle in your frontal lobe. Almost every song sounds like the soundtrack to some as-yet-undiscovered short film.
Thanks to a nationwide tour and being signed to the Barsuk Label, this might be one of the last Starlight Mints shows where you will actually be able to see the band and not have to look at the giant screen next to the stage because you are standing in a field a quarter-mile away.
Quirky, good times and great music are guaranteed. But watch out for the glow stick army.
June 6 — Asleep at the Wheel
Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.
Touring in support of what many are calling the album of the year, “Willie and the Wheel,” Asleep at the Wheel is coming back to the House that Bob Built and playing its own version of western swing that would make Mr. Wills proud.
Willie Nelson joined Asleep at the Wheel on this album, and since its release, the band has received accolades from virtually every publication except Italian Vogue and those musical snobs over at Quilter’s World magazine.
Ray Benson and his bandmates have been preaching the gospel of western swing for decades and now bring it back home, to the place that made it famous.
I’d love to see this show, but I am getting married that night. If you see me there, show me the door and shove me toward the chapel.
June 16 — Levon Helm
Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.
My friend Joe introduced me to The Band years ago. He taught me a lot about what happened before I became musically aware (circa 1983). I have been repaying him by keeping him current with where music is headed (see: Wilco, Radiohead, Miley Cyrus … kidding). Levon Helm serves as a benchmark for music: past, present and future — ergo, someone we both appreciate.
This entire column could not begin to encompass what Helm has been a part of and what he has influenced. He saw Elvis when Elvis was the warm-up act. Many of the songs that you just know, that make up your musical vocabulary (“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “The Weight,” etc.) were about Helm’s ties to the South. And that was more than 30 years ago!
Since 2004, he has hosted The Midnight Ramble at “The Barn” in Woodstock, N.Y. It’s an SRO evening for those who love American music. Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Donald Fagen and Allen Toussaint are just a few of his late-evening guests.
His 2007 release, “Dirt Farmer,” won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. His next release, “Electric Dirt,” comes later this month.
Currently, I am in negotiations with Joe to run the holy gauntlet of Wilco the night before (June 15) in Oklahoma City at the Coca-Cola Bricktown Events Center (not nearly as cool as the Cain’s, but if Wilco is playing, I’d settle for anything) and Levon Helm the next night.
If you love American music as much as Joe and I do, meet us at the Cain’s.
Pictured: The Starlight Mints. Photo by Christian Pitt.
