Hot Spring Tour Action

Spring has sprung and SXSW is over, which means that hundreds of bands who days ago were all packed into one college town in Texas are unleashed to scamper back home or else scatter. Many will tour the country. And it’s not just tours; festival season looms, as well.

In terms of big shows, the Throbbing Gristle American tour promises to be amazing. The new leg of My Bloody Valentine gigs will definitely be the loudest show you’ve ever seen (unless you’ve seen them before and can’t hear much anymore as a result). If you’re looking for a show to see with your folks, maybe this one will work for you? Probably a better bet than Throbbing Gristle for that sort of outing, unless you have a very interesting family.

This is obviously a shaky time for the economy in general and the music industry in particular, so some smaller festivals have decided to hit the “pause” button this year. Others are going ahead pretty much fulls-team. Coachella, the Pitchfork fest in Chicago, and All Tomorrow’s Parties in upstate New York have all released information on their lineups. ATP is curated by the Flaming Lips this year. They still are doing that weird thing where they get a band to play an entire “classic” album of theirs all the way through, but it’s hard to go wrong when those bands are the Feelies and Suicide!

Which ones are you psyched about? Most of my friends expect me to be at the My Bloody Valentine show in Seattle next month ‘cause I wrote a small book about one of their albums, the show happens to be on my birthday, and it’s pretty close by. But I’m lucky — I got to see them in their prime and see no need to relive past glories. When they make new music I’ll go; I have this weird “no oldies revues” rule when it comes to live music. So instead, I’ll be up there a few weeks earlier, to see another loud, droning band, one who who are making new music inside a small dive bar where I won’t have to crain my neck and squint to try to make out who’s who on stage.

—DJ Yeti