Each week, the team at We Are Memphis Music sifts through the upcoming week’s shows to choose some of our favorites for you to circle on the calendar.
The Cryptics w/ Lipstick Stains
8:00 P.M., Monday March 28th
The Hi Tone (Small Room – Downstairs)
$10
Unfair though it may seem, New Hampshire has never held much of a grip on the American public’s cultural imagination. The unspoken-consensus is that New Hampshire is the red-headed stepchild of the New England states, lacking Massachusetts’ colorful role in the building of the country, Connecticut’s obscene wealth, and Maine’s chilly coastal whimsy. But the ‘Live Free Or Die’ on their license plates belies an independence beyond that immediate (and sometimes unfortunate) political signifier. The Cryptics hail from Dover, NH, and play the kind of punk rock that seems to be dying out these days – melodic, catchy, and full of sound and fury, with leader Tino Valpa’s voice suggesting Greg Graffin at the height of his powers in Bad Religion. Never quite veering all the way into pop-punk territory, they manage to recall the Offspring in good ways rather than bad ones. With triumphant singalong Memphian indie-punks Lipstick Stains opening up, this double-act bill at the Hi Tone’s small room just might give you something to fondly remember about The Granite State.
Jackyl
7:00 P.M., Wednesday March 30th
Lafayette’s Music Room
$30
How are Jackyl still a thing in 2022? The Kennesaw, Georgia-bred Southern rock disciples are chiefly remembered for their ubiquitous 1992 novelty ‘The Lumberjack’, which featured a solo for chainsaw ‘played’ by lead vocalist Jesse James Dupree. But this outfit’s never been content to play by anyone else’s rules, as evidenced by their notorious response when a small town Kmart refused to carry their album (they played a surprise concert in front of the store). These proudly deep-fried hayseeds managed to latch onto fierce nationalist sentiment in the wake of 9/11 and have never really gone away since, setting Guinness World Records along the way (two, even, one for playing one hundred concerts in fifty days, the other for performing twenty-one concerts in a twenty-four hour period). Whether their knowingly-kitschy take on crass Nugentisms is your thing or not, it’s likely that taking in a Jackyl concert would prove very, very memorable. There’s no way they don’t bust out the chainsaw.
Bailey Bigger “Coyote Red” Album Release show
8:00 p.m, Friday, April 1st
Hernando’s Hide-A-Way
Singer-songwriter Bailey Bigger has been building a name in folk and Americana since middle school. Coyote Red is Bigger’s first full length album out on Memphis based indie label MadJack Records and its tone will be familiar to her fans. Bailey’s style is sweet and subtle, but her songwriting and natural vocal pattern draw you in. The production on “Coyote Red” leans toward a 90’s neo-traditional style country record, a-la Kelly Willis or early Dixie Chicks. Hernando’s Hideaway will host her release of the highly anticipated album on Friday, April 1st, which is free to the public.
Wendy Moten
7:30 p.m, Saturday, April 2nd
Halloran Centre at The Orpheum Theatre Memphis
After a successful career as a backup singer for major touring artists including Michael Bolton and Tim McGraw along with six full length album releases, Memphis native Wendy Moten found herself as the runner-up on the most recent season of the popular singing competition show “The Voice”. Her powerful vocal performances steadily blew judges and audiences away week after week. This is your chance to see Moten in her prime back home in Memphis as she turns another successful corner in her career- we cannot wait to see what she does next!
