Weezer

Friday, July 13

Blue, red, green...Pinkerton. These are the colors of Weezer and everyone has a favorite. There aren’t many bands out there with a debut record as successful as Weezer’s 1994 self-titled debut, known to most as the Blue Album. The band had more hits on that album—like “Undone—The Sweater Song,” “Buddy Holly,” and their iconic track “Say It Ain’t So”— than most bands have over the course of an entire career, and all they were doing was being honest. When that record was released Weezer was just a bunch of nerdy kids from L.A. writing songs about Dungeons and Dragons and surfing but people very quickly began to realize that frontman Rivers Cuomo was just like them. In their nearly 20 years of existence Weezer has released nine albums to various fan reaction. Their 1996 album, Pinkerton was initially panned by fans but is now viewed as one of their most critically acclaimed records. Only Weezer can perform a song that will have their fans in tears of happiness and follow that with a song—with roughly the same rhythm and melody—that will have those same fans hissing and snarling, but such is the world of nerd-rock. Here’s to hoping they play “Beverley Hills” before “Undone.” Weezer will perform all of their hits and probably some of their misses too at the Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf on Friday (July 13) with support from local rockers On Beta. Now if only I could find my hash pipe. —cory perla

6pm Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf. (buffaloplace.com/rocks). $35 advance, $40 day of the show.

Friday, July 13

Rock the 500 Block: Freestyle Faces of Main Street

There is one block in Buffalo that brings together some of the essentials of this city, business, art, theater, and recreation, and that is the 500 block of Main Street. Main Street (St)udios is at the heart of that block, across from the Hyatt Hotel and steps from Fountain Plaza, Lafayette Square, the Theater District. Once known for its lost energy and abandoned storefronts, the area has recently been injected with new life. When an area like that is revitalized, local artists are usually some of the first to catch on and add an important aspect: public art. On Friday (July 13) artists Ogre, Chuck Tingley, Erica Eichelkraut, and Max Collins will create an original mural, “Freestyle Faces of Main Street,” with a variety of media from wheatpasted photographs to colorful paintings—live from 5pm to 9pm as part of the monthly Rock The Block Party. The event will feature live music throughout the evening, an outdoor marketplace, gallery openings, WAM Open Mic with spoken word performances, art displays, drink specials at the Hyatt, and more. The people of Buffalo are taking steps every day to improve this place that we live in, so come down to the 500 block and support our city and its art. —cory perla

5pm Main (ST)udios, 515 Main St. (nomadbuffalo.com/515).

Saturday, July 14

The BPO Performs the Music of the Greatful Dead

Deadheads and dilettantes celebrate the orchestral makeover of one rock and roll’s most enduring acts as The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra presents the Music of the Grateful Dead this Saturday (July 14th) at the Hard Rock Café. With over 2300 performances, and a discography that includes more than 13 albums, the Grateful Dead, known affectionately by fans as “The Dead,” became the psychedelic era’s most beloved band over their 30 year span. Anchored by iconic frontman Jerry Garcia, the band flourished in the live setting, using their improvisational talents to fuse elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, jazz, reggae and country into infectious tunes like “Truckin’,” “Casey Jones,” and “Friend of the Devil.” Today, the Grateful Dead’s music remains as a lasting testament to the counterculture that defined a generation. Having paid symphonic tributes to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Queen in the past, it’s only fitting that The Buffalo Philharmonic tip their hat to another deserving rock luminary in the Grateful Dead, for a performance that promises to showcase some stellar arrangements of Dead fan-favorites. —jon wheelock

6pm Old Falls St., adjacent to the Hard Rock Cafe, 333 Prospect St., Niagara Falls. (282-0007 / hardrock.com). Free.

Saturday, July 14

Hope for Hope / Littledrops Benefit featuring Peanut Brittle Satellite, A Hotel Nourishing, and the Scorched Earthlings

Nietzsche’s has been a hotspot for Buffalo music for longer than many of its patrons may care to remember. What’s sometimes forgotten though is that Nietzsche’s has hosted more than a few benefit concerts over the years. The cause in question this time—i.e., Saturday (July 14)—is raising money for Hope for Hope and Littledrops, organizations that plan on building a sustainable children’s home in Nyahururu, Kenya where HIV/AIDS, other diseases, and general poverty have left countless children orphaned. In short, it’s a good cause, as always. The lineup assembled to rock out for the cause is impressive, as always. Leading the way is Buffalo’s own prog rock six-piece outfit Peanut Brittle Satellite, whose intricate percussion-intensive brand of multi-instrumental musical mayhem will give patrons a lot to contemplate on top of the cause being supported. Also performingwill be local experimental/jazz/prog/post-punk duo A Hotel Nourishing, and Music Is Art (another cause Nietzsche’s supports) festival veterans and young up-and-comers the Scorched Earthlings. —edward a. benoit

10pm Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / nietzsches.com). $5.

Sunday, July 15

Feist

For seven years Leslie Feist didn’t stop moving—literally. Her first solo album was released in 1999 but her major-label debut didn’t come until 2004 with Let It Die, a release that garnered two Juno awards. She began touring extensively through North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia—after moving to Paris—and began recording a follow-up, The Reminder, released in 2007. Again, she toured worldwide to promote the album, and fans across the globe can’t help but sing along “one, two, three, four, tell me that you love me more” to the song made famous by Apple. She’s since won six Juno awards, earned four Grammy nominations, recorded with Beck and Wilco, and made a documentary about her journeys. Feist took a brief hiatus to just live—something that didn’t come easily for the intrepid artist. “Sometimes after being in a lot of noise and movement, silence and stillness can seem completely terrifying,” she said. After learning from the quiet in 2010, Feist was ready to make music again. She went back to her roots as a guitarist in punk and rock bands, looking for a sound completely different from the typical smooth, melancholic folk tunes. Her latest release, Metals, is admittedly more brutal and intense—Feist wanted chaos and movement and to become a narrator. She’s back on the move. You can catch Feist this Sunday (July 15) when she stops in Buffalo at the Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf. —rebecca bratek

6pm Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf. (buffaloplace.com/rocks). $10 advance, $20 day of show.

Wednesday, July 18

Shut Up & Play the Hits

What made LCD Soundsystem the kings of the hipsters? Was it their perfect mix of dance music and rock, disco and punk? Is it that we all wish that we could be like James Murphy and Nancy Whang when we grow up? LCD Soundsystem was never the biggest band in the world. They never did an arena tour and they weren’t a household name but the world paid attention when they said they were calling it quits. It doesn’t happen very often that a band totally plans out their last moments but that is what LCD Soundsystem did when they announced their last show ever at Madison Square Garden in New York City on April 2nd 2011. When all was said and done—when the band had performed “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” for the last time ever just before a flood of white balloons fell from the ceiling of MSG and the house lights clicked on—we were left with the memory of a band that began their career with a song—“Losing My Edge”—about how uncool they were. The celebration, the funeral that was LCD Soundsystem’s last show has now been made into a documentary film called Shut Up And Play The Hits, which chronicles the band’s final 48 hours. Shut Up and Play The Hits, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, will screen across the country, from LA to Brooklyn and at the Market Arcade Theater in Buffalo for one night only on Wednesday (July 18). Some bands crash and burn like plane wrecks, some slowly fade into irrelevance like old technology, but very rarely does a band go out on top like star athletes after winning a championship. —cory perla

8pm showing Market Arcade Film & Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022 / dipsontheatres.com). $10.

Thursday, July 19

Detroit Cobras w/Chains of Love

The Detroit Cobras were born to play bars. A retro garage rock-and-roll cover band from (you guessed it) Detroit, the Cobras specialize in putting an edgy (and sometimes perhaps slightly ironic) twist on old favorites from an era long bygone, with four LPs and counting to their credit. Though the lineup has changed multiple times since the band’s formation in 1994, the core of the Cobras has remained the same: guitarist Mary Ramirez and singer Rachel Nagy, who have perhaps perfected the fine art of being “bad girls.” The Cobras and their cultivated ironic retro garage band edge can be witnessed at Mohawk Place on Thursday (July 19). Cheap beer and cigarette smoke are sure to abound. Joining the Cobras will be another contemporary paradigm of post-feminist rock-and-roll, Toronto outfit Chains of Love, who will (for the most part) be following the Cobras on their summer tour of places that aren’t Detroit. Local bands the Irving Klaws and Tell-Tale Signs open the show. —edward a. benoit

9pm Mohawk Place, 47 East Mohawk St. (855-3931 / themohawkplace.com). $10 advance, $12 day of show.

Thursday, July 19

Young the Giant

Thursday at the Harbor is a summer staple in Buffalo and what could be better than a sun-soaked indie rock show right on the shores of Lake Erie? Young the Giant will grace the stage and remind crowds why “life’s too short to even care at all” this Thursday (July 19) at the Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf as the next installment of the summer concert series. Hailing from Newport Beach, Calif., Young the Giant is a five-part, eclectic group of international names and backgrounds with one thing in common: high school friends divided by miles and the California coast with the dream of touring the country as a rock band. And in 2009, they made that dream a reality with the release of their first EP, Shake My Hand. Since that release, the group has come a long way from their Orange County hometown. They’ve been featured at South by Southwest music festival and have toured with popular groups (such as Steel Train and Minus the Bear), putting their education on hold and fine-tuning their experimental and infectious pop-alternative compositions. They even recorded their self-titled, full-length album with the same producer who brought the White Stripes and the Shins to fame. If you’re looking for some summer fun, be sure to head down to the Harbor on Thursday for Young the Giant. —rebecca bratek

5pm Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf. (buffaloplace.com/thursday). Free.