SOUNDCHECK
Listen to these tunes:
Wolf Alice – “Heavenward”
The Score – “Never Going Back”
Angel Olsen – “Shut Up Kiss Me”
Elephant Stone – “Manipulator”
Aimee Mann – “Patient Zero”
Ryan Kinder – “Kiss Me When I’m Down”
Converge – “I Can Tell You About Pain”
Welcome to “Seven in Seven,” where each Friday we take a look at shows coming to the region over the next week. Whether your musical tastes are rock and roll, jazz, heavy metal, singer-songwriter or indie, there’ll always be something to check out in the coming days.
Here are seven of the best for the week beginning Dec. 10:
Wolf Alice – Dec. 10 at Trocadero Theatre
North London atl-rockers Wolf Alice were one of the genre’s high points when their debut, My Love is Cool, dropped in 2015. In a year’s time, they had been shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize and received a 2016 Brit Award nomination for British Breakthrough Act. The band toured with The 1975, had several headline tours, and played major festivals including last year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival and Lollapalooza. Proving they’re no flash in the pan, late this September they released the follow-up, Visions of a Life, to glowing reviews across the board.
The Score – Dec. 11 at Trocadero Theatre
The Score unleashed their debut EP Where Do You Run to critical acclaim a couple years back. They quickly amassed over 23 million Spotify streams and gained the attention of BBC Radio in the UK, and the Los Angeles natives turned an international success story into a worldwide deal with Republic Records. Following the success of their first EP, they returned in 2016 with the Unstoppable EP, notching 18 million Spotify streams, and in early 2017 with the Myths & Legends EP with 9 million streams to date. Finally, in mid-October, they delivered Atlas, a full-length LP which is officially heralded as their debut.
Elephant Stone – Dec. 12 at Underground Arts
Formed in Montreal in 2009, Elephant Stone is the brainchild of vocalist, bassist, songwriter, and sitar player, Rishi Dhir. Also featuring Miles Dupire (drums) and Gabriel Lambert (guitar), the group have toured extensively throughout North America and Europe and are prominent members of the burgeoning psych rock scene. Dhir has recorded, performed, and toured with indie rock icons like Beck, legendary cult bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and contemporary psych titans The Black Angels and The Horrors. He’s definitely got the pedigree to do it on his own.
Angel Olsen – Dec. 12 and 13 at Union Transfer
From the lo-fi, sparse folk-melancholy of her 2010 EP, Strange Cacti, to the electrified, polished rock and roll bursting from last year’s beloved and acclaimed My Woman, Angel Olsen has refused to succumb to a single genre, expectation, or vision. Impossible to pin down, she navigates the world with her remarkable, symphonic voice and a propensity for narrative, her music growing into whatever shape best fits to tell the story. She’s just released Phases, a collection of work culled from the past several years, including a number of never-before-released tracks.
Aimee Mann – Dec. 14 at The Colonial Theatre
As should be perfectly clear by now, singer/songwriter Aimee Mann is not mired in the traditional business of strictly writing love songs, but more prone toward diving into the vast majority of human interactions that almost never get a song written about them. This spring saw the release of what very well be her most ambitious effort to date, Mental Illness, her ninth solo album. The record is sparse and acoustic, emotions laid bare for all to see. It’s a striking work, one of the best of the year.
Ryan Kinder – Dec. 14 at The Foundry
For Alabama native Ryan Kinder, it’s all about the music. Whether he dons his favorite boots or rocks his vintage Chuck Taylors when he takes the stage, the music is what demands audiences’ attention and defines this up-and-coming sensation with a soulful Southern sound. Inspired by his Southern upbringing, country strongholds Garth Brooks, Keith Urban and Brad Paisley, and rock and soul sensations like Eric Clapton, Marc Broussard, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jackson Browne, Kinder is perfecting a truly unique sound, both expressive and impactful, that hits close to the hearts of his growing fan base.
Converge – Dec. 16 at Union Transfer
Every Converge album is a milestone in the heavy music community and the band’s latest is the most integral album to date in a catalog that’s celebrated to an almost religious degree by countless fans of punk, metal and hardcore. Last month, they released the long-awaited The Dusk in Us, their first album in five years. Nine records in, it’s received some of the best reviews Converge has ever received, a testament to their ability to continue to grow while at the same time achieving legend status.