30 Days Out: a look at upcoming concerts

Twice monthly, my blog 30 Days Out spotlights upcoming music shows and events of note, shining a light into some less well-lit corners, where some fascinating artists schedule performances. I do my best to give ample advance notice so that you can adjust your budget and calendar in a way that lets you get you to the show.

This time there’s a real assortment of genres: big band jazz, instro-surf, indie rock and even a bit of pop oldies (served with a side of Southern “classic rock”). There’s a show for most every taste, and every budget (though perhaps not always at the same time and place).

Artist: Russ Wilson and His Famous Orchestra
Venue: ISIS Restaurant & Music Hall
Date: Sunday, July 20, 8 p.m.
Door: $8 / $4 students
Russ Wilson is a prominent fixture on the Asheville music scene; if you know where to look (and his website can help with that) you can find the multifarious performer onstage somewhere in town most every night. Maybe he’s standing on a table at 5 Walnut singing jazz without amplification; maybe he’s behind the drum kit at Olive or Twist playing vintage rock ‘n’ roll. Or maybe he’s wielding a baton at the members of his orchestra in the big room at ISIS. Wilson leads the group — ranging on any given night from ten to sixteen players — through lively and/or romantic big-band jazz from the early part of the last century. (Band image by Frank Zipperer Photography)

Artist: Krektones
Venue: Bywater
Date: Sunday, July 20, 5:30 p.m.
Door: Free
Right after Greg Cartwright‘s Reigning Sound finished recording its 2011 EP Abdication…For Your Love, the band splintered. But local guitarist Jason Krekel hooked up with its ace rhythm section of Dave Gay (bass) and Lance Wille (drums). Adding a trumpeter (Henry Westmoreland), The Krektones crafted a sound that combined the best elements of ’60s instrumental rock with unhinged Memphis soul stew. Imagine The Cramps crossed with Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass. Now go see and hear ’em before they get a well-deserved big break and skip town.

Artist: JEFF the Brotherhood
Venue: Millroom
Date: Sunday, Aug. 10, 9 p.m.
Door: $10 advance / $12 day of show
Psychedelic, ’60s garage and powerpop don’t generally rank among the more popular rock subgenres among today’s show-going demographic. But those terms (or epithets, depending on one’s point of view) can all be applied in one way or another to the music of this Nashville duo of brothers Jamin and Jake Orrall (and nobody named Jeff). True, they are yet another in a seemingly endless line of guitar-and-drums-and-nothing-else duos, but their hooky sound often transcends the limitations of that format. This is an all-ages show.

Artist: Three Dog Night
Venue: Biltmore Estate
Date: Friday, Aug. 15, 8 p.m.
Door: $50 general admission
If you listened to AM radio in the early ’70s, or oldies radio in the subsequent decades, then whether you know it or not, you’ve heard plenty of Three Dog Night. Between 1969’s cover of Harry Nilsson‘s “One” and 1975’s “Till the World Ends,” the group racked up a staggering 21 hits on the Top 40 charts. Two of the original vocalists — Danny Hutton and Cory Wells — remain from the original trio (Chuck Negron left in 1985), and two members of the group’s underrated musician lineup remain as well. ’80s AOR sensation (and nominally Southern rock group) .38 Special opens. The more expensive seats are sold out, and remaining General Admission tickets are going fast.

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