‘A Lifting Of The Veil’: A Winter Solstice Celebration w/ The Pop Ritual and Corrina Repp
7:30 PM, Wednesday, December 21st
The Green Room At Crosstown Arts
$20
An unusually chilly week is in store for us Memphians, to say the least, so I imagine it’ll take some extra coaxing to encourage all you live music lovers to load up on layers and plunge out into the frigid night. Will a special winter solstice celebration with The Pop Ritual do the trick? The long-running industrial-psych collective’s eerie churn and throb are well-matched to the atmospherics of dead gray branches and leaves skittering across pavement, so while this special retrospective performance at the Green Room won’t necessarily warm those frozen bones any, it’ll at least match the gloomy weather more than appropriately.
It’s Christmas Time w/ Deep Roots, Ariel Reign, and Raneem Imam
7:00 PM, Thursday, December 22nd
Memphis Music Room
$20
Memphis Music Room, the city’s newest music venue, has been open for a few months now, but is still flying under the radar. What better show to introduce yourself to it than with a Christmas show packed with Memphis music? Memphis band Deep Roots and artists Ariel Reign and Raneem Imam will play a selection of Christmas originals alongside your favorite holiday classics. Reign and Imam are two of Memphis’ most inspired pop singer songwriters, totally capable of writing the newest Christmas hit and we can’t wait to hear what they have in store to get us in the spirit.
Sub-Radio: The 1990 Something Tour
7PM, Thursday, December 22nd
Growler’s
$15
One could never accuse DC-area quintet Sub-Radio of subtlety, but in this case, that’s completely the point. This is power-pop dialed up to eleven, a maximalist color palette of neons and pastels designed solely to beat your pleasure centers into happily-dazed submission. The giddy energy in their danceable, laser-guided grooves may speak to nostalgia, but the team spirit is all in the here and now, and what better time of year than the holiday season to throw yourself into a festive mood as the year draws to a close? Sub-Radio aim for the sort of escapism all of us appreciate, and could stand to lean on in such times.
Rockabilly Night w/ Rockin’ DJ Amy Dee & Friends
7:00 PM, Friday, December 23rd
Hernando’s Hideaway
$10
For decades, Hernando’s Hideaway has been ground zero for Memphis’ rockabilly scene. In the post-Sun Records years, the venue regularly hosted heroes of the genre such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Charlie Feathers, and since its reopening has continued to be the home for contemporary kindred spirits. On Friday, the Whitehaven roadhouse will be celebrating this rich history with an evening of music and dancing courtesy of some of the city’s finest DJs and their stacks of Rockabilly, Jive, Swing & Bop 45s. The Brad Birkedahl Trio will also be in the house to deliver some live tunes.
Mark Edgar Stuart XMAS Bash
9:00 PM, Friday, December 23rd
Bar DKDC
Singer songwriter Mark Edgar Stuart has been busy hosting The Memphis Songwriter series at the Halloran Centre all year, but is taking his show to the small stage of DKDC for an intimate evening filled with holiday cheer. Stuart is a pioneer of Memphis’ Americana songwriter scene and his latest album “Until We Meet Again” illustrates his knack for storytelling and songwriting beautifully. Expect more of that style live at his XMAS Bash this Friday at DKDC, with special guest Andy Grooms and more.
