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NEAL FRANCIS w/ Jombi
1884 Lounge
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2023
DOORS: 7 PM / SHOW: 8 PM
ALL AGES
TICKET PRICE:
ADV: $27 | DOS: $30

Neal Francis Bio:
On his new album In Plain Sight, Neal Francis offers up a body of work both strangely enchanted and painfully self-aware, unfolding in songs sparked from Greek myths and frenzied dreams and late-night drives in the depths of summer delirium. True to its charmed complexity, the singer/songwriter/pianist’s second full-length came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a possibly haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience, presented in a kaleidoscopic sound that’s endlessly absorbing.

The follow-up to Francis’s 2019 debut Changes—a New Orleans-R&B-leaning effort that landed on best-of-the-year lists from the likes of KCRW, KEXP, and The Current, and saw him hailed as “the reincarnation of Allen Toussaint” by BBC Radio 6—In Plain Sight was written and recorded almost entirely at the church, a now-defunct congregation called St. Peter’s UCC. Despite not identifying as religious, Francis took a music-ministry job at the church in 2017 at the suggestion of a friend. After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend while on tour in fall 2019, he returned to his hometown and found himself with no place to stay, then headed to St. Peter’s and asked to move into the parsonage. “I thought I’d only stay a few months but it turned into over a year, and I knew I had to do something to take advantage of this miraculous gift of a situation,” he says.

Mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (HAIM, Spoon, The Flaming Lips, Tame Impala), In Plain Sight finds Francis again joining forces with Changes producer and analog obsessive Sergio Rios (a guitarist/engineer known for his work with CeeLo Green and Alicia Keys). Like its predecessor, the album spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited performance on piano, an instrument he took up at the age of four. “From a very early age, I was playing late into the night in a very stream-of-consciousness kind of way,” he says, naming everything from ragtime to gospel soul to The Who among his formative influences. With a prodigy-like gift for piano, Francis sat in with a dozen different blues acts in Chicago clubs as a teenager, and helmed a widely beloved instrumental funk band called The Heard before going solo. Along with earning lavish acclaim (including a glowing review from Bob Lefsetz, who declared: “THIS IS THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC BUSINESS!”), Changes led to such triumphs as performing live on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” sharing the stage with members of The Meters at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and touring with such acts as Lee Fields & The Expressions and Black Pumas.

Jombi Bio:
Hailing from the historic music city of Memphis, TN, Jombi are a psychedelic rock band known for their eclectic sound and genre-bending catalog. With a main focus of classic rock and neo-psychedelia, Jombi has incorporated hints of indie, jazz, folk, pop punk, and experimental/progressive rock into their music. They broke into the Memphis scene in 2021 as a live band with a heavy dose of improvisation, and have garnered a dedicated local following that stretches musical taste.

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Big Ass Truck “All You Can Handle” 30th Birthday Bash at MinglewoodHall 10.14.2023 Support by The Indefinite Mash O Matic. Pre show listening party with Capital A includes a GA ticket, Limited Edition 180g splatter vinyl record, show poster.

Big Ass Truck is a rock and psychedelic funk band from Memphis, Tennessee. The band released its debut album in the mid 90’s and developed a passionate, underground following in the South. Who Let You in Here? was released by Terminus Records in 2000 and the band followed up with The Rug in 2001. Both albums mix timely funk, grooves and splashes of turntablism to defy easy categorization. Big Ass Truck etched a unique imprint in the storied legacy of Memphis music. Terminus is proud to present Who Let You in Here? on vinyl for the first time available in the summer of 2021. This limited-edition audiophile pressing is remastered from the original analog tapes on 180-gram vinyl, with new artwork and housed in a deluxe Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket.

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“The California Honeydrops…evoke the greasy rumble of Booker T and channel the spiritual ecstasy of Sly and the Family Stone.” -Rolling Stone

Formed in the subway systems of Oakland, retro-soul outfit The California Honeydrops are an electrifying group that defy convention at every turn. They’ve become a mainstay at festivals including Byron Bay Bluesfest (Australia), Outside Lands, Monterey Jazz, Lightning In A Bottle, and touring with B.B. King, Dr. John, Bonnie Raitt, Buddy Guy, and Allen Toussaint. Led by the enigmatic and energetic frontman, Lech Wierzynski, and drummer Benjamin Malament, each member of the band is a virtuoso in their own rite — Yanos “Johnny Bones” Lustig on saxophone, Lorenzo Loera on keyboards/guitar, Beaumont Beaullieu on bass, and regularly accompanied by Scott Messersmith on percussion, Oliver Tuttle on trombone, Leon Cotter on saxophone/clarinet, and Miles Lyons on trombone/sousaphone — navigating through a vast repertoire of original songs and timeless classics every night. But what truly sets them apart is their unwavering commitment to the art of improvisation – a skill so finely honed that they have completely abandoned the use of set lists and no two shows are ever the same. Off stage, their music has been streamed more than 200 million times, and placed in a variety of TV and films, including “Dead To Me,” “Alaska Daily,” “Black-ish” and more. They are currently touring North America in support of their new deluxe album, ‘Soft Spot’.

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“There’s this great duality to our band,” reflects Greensky Bluegrass mandolinist, vocalist, and songwriter Paul Hoffman. “We’re existing in a few different places at once: we’re a bluegrass band and a rock band, we’re song-driven and interested in extended improvisation.”

“We play acoustic instruments,” adds dobro player Anders Beck, “but we put on a rock’n’roll show.

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Mempho Presents: Shake Em’ On Down Tour with Jesse Dayton, Samantha Fish, Jon Spencer, & Eric Johanson

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MEMPHO PRESENTS:
AMERICAN AQUARIUM
SPECIAL GUEST LANCE ROARK

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2023
DOORS: 7PM / SHOW: 8PM
ALL AGES

ON SALE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 @ 9AM

Minglewood Hall is a cashless venue. This event is general admission standing.

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Anywhere off Hatteras Island, Chicamacomico sounds made up, like some wine-drunk incantation or maybe a tongue twister—try to say it ten times fast. But as a former life-saving station built in 1874 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the name is perhaps the perfect metaphor and title for American Aquarium’s ninth studio album.

The Old North State is tattooed on the bones of front man BJ Barham, who has never lived more than two hours from his hometown in Reidsville. But, more so, what better to represent an album about loss than a place built to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers? Song as a sort of salvation is something Barham hopes this album can do for the band’s established and growing fanbase. Sometimes when we’re drowning, music keeps us afloat.

“When these massive life changes happen, we feel like we are the only ones facing these problems,” Barham said. “I hope this album serves as a salve to anyone who has experienced this sort of loss over the last few years. I hope it makes them feel a little less isolated and disconnected. I want them to know that someone out there is going through the exact same shit and that they are not alone.” With tracks tackling personal loss—the loss of his mother and grandmother, the loss of a child, the loss of youth and time and the creative spark that drives him—Chicamacomico feels stripped down and bare-boned in its instrumentation compared to earlier records. The orchestration is dialed back leaving the lyrics to stand naked front and center. It’s reminiscent of Rockingham, Barham’s 2016 solo album, and this may be in part a result of producer Brad Cook, who produced both albums as well as the band’s 2015 record Wolves. But it’s likely more a sign of the maturing sound and expanding scope of a songwriter now fully comfortable and confident in his own skin.

“When you are young, you want to play everything loud and fast and I think that comes, at least in part, from uncertainty. I hadn’t fully found my voice back in those early days so the louder and faster the songs were the less chance someone could actually hear what I was saying. I’m not afraid of the lyrics sitting way out front anymore because I am confident in the songwriting. The band can still cut loose and take over a song, but they aren’t expected to do all the heavy lifting these days.”

Few songwriters swing the hammer as hard and precise as Barham and it is a testament to the humility and trust of his bandmates that they take the back seat and allow his storytelling to drive us home. With a heavy tour the rest of the year and a backlist of brass-knuckled bangers, each will surely have their fair share of time at the wheel.

But as for this record, be thankful for the subtlety, for the stillness and for the quiet. For ten songs, Chicamacomico will hold your head above water.

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JAZZ IS DEAD
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2023
DOORS: 7PM / SHOW: 8PM
ALL AGES
TICKET PRICE:
ADV: 29.50 | DOS: 35

Jazz is Dead is an instrumental Grateful Dead cover band that interprets classic Dead songs with jazz influences. The group is notable in featuring veterans of jazz and jazz fusion ensembles.