Infringement Continues

Ongoing through Sunday, August 5

The 8th annual Infringement Festival, an 11 day long music, theater, art, and performance marathon continues this week with dozens of breakthrough, underground, and off the radar events left. On Thursday (Aug 2) the festival takes over the airwaves for Infringement Invades WBNY II from 7pm to 11pm with Jen Whitmore, the Heenan Brothers, the Haunted Buffalo and the Moves performing live on air. Don’t miss the local Hip Hop Showcase on Friday (Aug 3) from 8pm to 3am at Broadway Joe’s featuring Artvoice Best of Buffalo “Best Hip Hop Act” AJ Jordan, 2009 Artvoice B.O.O.M. winners Type Relevant, Mic Excel and the Essential Vitamins Crew, and more. Saturday (Aug 4) from 7pm to 3am is the Meaty Music Masquerade Ball, also at Broadway Joes, featuring Cavalcade, Noah Gokey & the Skulls, the Moves, Maybe the Welders, and the We Couldn’t Afford the Bootsy Collins All Star Project who will perform a demented sort of audience participatory sing-a-long...something I’m sure you’ll have to see to believe. Nietzsche’s will host a Sci-Fi Costume Party (dibs on the creepy white alien from Prometheus) featuring Slip Madigan, Scantron and more on Saturday (Aug 4) from 9pm to 3am. Finally, the Infringement Closing Ceremonies—also at Nietzsche’s— is on Sunday (Aug 5) from 8pm to 1am with a must-see performance from Brooklyn afrobeat allstars Zongo Juntction. It’s still not too late to check out art instillations like Buffalo in 3D at Wasteland Studios, Sign Art of Occupy Buffalo at the OB House, Addiction is My Affliction at Casa de Arte, Molecular Masterpieces at Sp@ce 224, and Death Disney at the Vault. For more information on venue locations, set times, and the dozens of shows we couldn’t cover here, check out infringebuffalo.org. —cory perla

Various venues, various times. (www.infringebuffalo.org). See last week's cover story for more information or download a full guide (PDF format).

Thursday, August 2

Strung Out

20 years of blistering punk rock would have anybody strung out. Punk band Strung Out refuse to live up to their name though. The original Fat Wreck Chords band have been breaking guitar strings, punching through drum heads, and pounding bottles of liquor on stage since 1989 but that hasn’t slowed them down one bit. In 1996 the band from Simi Valley, released their quintessential record, Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues, which established a fast, poppy sound with songs like the frantically palm muted “Radio Suicide” and bass twisting “Firecracker.” Two years later the five-piece group would release their record Twisted by Design, a speedy and dark punk rock record that showed off the band’s technical skills and took them in a different direction. In 2009 the band released their seventh studio album, Agents of the Underground and in July of this year they released a compilation album, Top Contenders: The Best of Strung Out, with remastered versions of 23 songs, and three new tracks. Don’t miss Strung Out when they come to the Mohawk Place on Thursday (tonight!) with The Darlings and Handguns. —john burkett

8pm Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (465-2368 / themohawkplace.com). $15 advance, $18 day of show.

Saturday, August 4

Black Angels

The last time the Black Angels came to Buffalo was two years ago on the day before Halloween at the Tralf and it was a dark and freaky scene. The crowd was dressed in costume, and the moment the Angels took the stage their guitarist, Christian Bland let out the first pulsating tremolo guitar riff of “Bad Vibes,” which consumed the room. Purple lights shone on the stage and everyone’s face was shrouded with masks or dark shadows. The Angels played their set with little to say in between songs, adding to the already mysterious, heavy, and psychedelic vibe. It was a very dreamlike, even nightmarish set. The Black Angels’ music is the product of an obsession with the 1960s, the Velvet Underground, the Zombies, and the Doors. They believe that the time we are living in now is a reflection of that time. “You’ve got a country going to war over reasons they’re not really sure of, a government that’s lying to the people, and the people are apathetic and not proactive enough to learn what’s really happening,” said bassist Alex Maas in an interview with the Neighborhood last year. Those were the circumstances that sparked a revolutionary moment in music in the 1960s, the type of musical revolution that is lacking in this generation. Maybe this pysch-rock band from Austin, Texas will lead the way, or at least open the door for the next revolution. The Black Angels will perform live at the Town Ballroom this Saturday (Aug 4) with support from Seattle’s Night Beats. —cory perla

7pm Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $18 advance, $22 day of show.

Sunday, August 5

Delicate Steve with Lazlo Hollyfeld and Love Scenes

Can personality score you a record contract? Maybe. It happened for Delicate Steve. An A&R man from Luaka Bop Records discovered the R&B five-piece sitting in a strip mall in New Jersey having a bizarre conversation about Prince, Led Zeppelin, dump trucks and box kites, and after a meeting in a Chinese food restaurant the band was signed. The result was their debut album Wondervisions, a happy off-the-wall instrumental pop album with influences that range from Vampire Weekend to Orbital, Radiohead, and The Wizard of Oz. This month the band released their second record, Positive Force, a strange, roaming instrumental R&B record full of harmonic vocals, virtuosic guitar solos, and an all around trippy atmosphere. Personality may have gotten this band in the door, but they’ve proven their musical skills with these two albums. Joining Delicate Steve when the band comes to the Mohawk Place on Sunday (Aug 5) are Buffalo’s Lazlo Hollyfeld and Love Scenes. As veterans of the scene, Lazlo Hollyfeld continue to pump out their instrumental post-rock sounds while Love Scenes duo Leah Loefke and TJ Grace play in support of their recently released sophomore record Blissed Out Youth. —cory perla

8pm Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (465-2368 / themohawkplace.com). $8 advance $10 day of show.

Sunday, August 5 & Sunday, August 12

Pine Grill Jazz Reunion: Legend and Legacy

For the 22nd consecutive year, Buffalo’s African American Cultural Center will be celebrating some of the biggest names in contemporary jazz. Indeed, the Pine Grill Jazz Reunion, a tried and true staple of the Buffalo summer, has been known to attract the who’s-who of today’s jazz scene year after year, and this summer is no different. Gracing the stage this time around are living icon and Buffalo native Dr. Ronnie Smith, a Hammond organ virtuoso; Osaka, Japan’s Akiko Tsuruga, another master of the jazz organ; Chicago-born Blues harmonica legend Billy Branch; and Ghanniyya Green, a female jazz vocalist who, despite being comparatively new to the jazz game, still works and sings in the spirit of the many greats who preceded her. Admission is free, but don’t let this stop you from giving generously when the time for donations comes. If you’re interested in getting out to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park on Sunday (August 5) to see this five-hour offering of jazz greats, but can’t, never fear—as always, there will be a second show the following Sunday (August 12) at the same time and place but with a different lineup. Conversely, if five hours of practically free jazz music just isn’t enough for you, you’re more than free to head down to MLK Park for both shows. —edward a. benoit

4pm Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. (884-2013 / africancultural.org). Free admission, donations collected.

Wednesday, August 8

The Acacia Strain

Formed in 2001, the Acacia Strain has almost the same number of former members as years they’ve been in the business. It seems as though they are pretty comfortable with change as the band continues to carry the torch for their devoted fan base. Just earlier this year they switched labels, signing with Rise Records, while announcing a new album that is set to be released in early October. The new album, Death is the Only Mortal, is sure to have the same brutal pace and heaviness that they’ve built their careers on. During their current transition to their new label, the band self-released a new song called “Servant in the Place of Truth” just to give their fans a taste of what’s to come. The Massachusetts natives will be playing at Club Infinity on Wednesday (Aug 8) headlining the “Scream It Like You Mean It” tour which is loaded with bands. There is a deep lineup including, Oceano, Impending Doom, Like Moths To Flames, For All Those Sleeping, Close To Home, Volumes, Hands Like Houses, My City, My Secret, and The Donner Party. Make sure to get there early, because there won’t be much room with that many bands on one bill. —jeremiah shea

5pm Club Infinity, 8166 Main St., Williamsville. (565-0110 / infinityconcerts.com). $17 advance, $20 day of show.

Thursday, August 9

Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Throughout the past 27 years the Mighty Mighty Bosstones has played thousands of shows, persevered through major line-up changes, a hiatus, and the fall in popularity of ska. Melding together metal, punk, ska and hardcore, the Cambridge, Massachusetts based band started their venture into the music scene in 1984. The band was one of the originators of ska-punk and created it’s sub-genre, ska-core, pushing the experimental sounds into mainstream music. The debut of their first album in 1989 led into a period of intense touring and recording through the 1990s. In 1997 the band’s album Let’s Face It went platinum, and the single “The Impression That I Get” became a hit. The band was a major influence on the “Third Wave” ska scene that surfaced in the mid-1990s. A few years after the band’s commercial peak, they took a break in 2003 only to reunite in 2007. The group toured and recorded, finally producing their eighth studio album, The Magic of Youth in 2011. In a world where few bands rock out with trombones and saxophones, this show at the Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf on Thursday (Aug 9) will continue to fill out what has been a solid summer of free Buffalo concerts. —sara dinatale

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