Eclectic Vibes - February 2014

by Andrew Frey

SWEETNESS
Taking your sweetheart to Gaelic Storm on Valentine’s Day might may be the best way to get those wild love juices flowing! The are touring their #1 Billboard World Album called “The Boathouse”, which is a seafaring album of traditional songs of the ocean. It was recorded in one whiskey-fueled week in a converted boathouse on The Chesapeake Bay. The group has now had four consecutive albums debut at #1 on the Billboard World Albums Chart! If that doesn’t sound like a spectacle worth your visage, you may need to have your Blarney Stone kissed. www.gaelicstorm.com

FRANKLY PLAYING
I am a huge Zappa fan, so whenever Dweezil Zappa brings his crew around for one of his Zappa Plays Zappa performances, I get quite excited. This time he is playing the Roxy and Elsewhere album in its entirety. How cool is that! A great escape from the winter blues it to CRANK SOME FRANK! Appearing 2/16 at First Avenue in Minneapolis and 2/17 at the Barrymore in Madison. www.zappaplayszappa.com

PATTY’S PREVIEW
Irish bands can never be too prepared for Saint Patty’s day, so when the popular Boston-based Celtic punk outfit Dropkick Murphys comes to the Orpheum Theater in Madison on 2/21 with Lucero and Skinny Lister on their Saint Patrick’s Day Tour 2014, be prepared for full tilt Irish mayhem to erupt!  www.dropkickmurphys.com

CLOUD CULT
Continuing to celebrate life, love and the mystery of being, the Minneapolis-based experimental indie rock band, Cloud Cult will be bringing a full evening performance (two sets with no opening band) to the Barrymore Theater on 3/1 in Madison and to Turner Hall on 3/2 in Milwaukee. What will their on stage painters treat us to next? www.cloudcult.com


MICRO REVIEWS:
This Month's Rating Scale is from 1 is Tar 10 is Resin