2012 Mardi Gras Best Bets

The Blues Hounds

The Blues Hounds

Noir, 5-8pm

Featuring Jeremy Keyes, one of the region’s best blues harmonica players, and the growling voice of singer JJ White, the music of the Blues Hounds rises from the Delta, by wat of Memphis and Chicago. Perfect for Fat Tuesday.

Chevon Davis & Friends

Nietzsche’s (10pm), Underground (midnight)

Malibu Breeze, Kitty Good, Vanity Vogue. Nope, these aren’t cocktails; these are just a few of the drag queens that will be rocking the dance floors at Nietzsche’s and Underground n Fat Tuesday.

LeeRon Zydeco and the Hot Tamales

LeeRon Zydeco and the Hot Tamales

DBGBs (5:30pm), Armor Inn (8pm)

LeeRon Zydeco and the Hot Tamales are the quintessential Mardi Gras band. A mix of American roots music, folk, and zydeco—a form of Creole music which evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century—you can almost taste the spice coming from LeeRon’s accordion. When LeeRon, a.k.a. Ron Davis, hooks up with the Hot Tamales, his signature backing band, then he really starts to spit fire as they dip into everything from Tex-Mex to Caribbean and Cajun music, too.

Steam Donkeys

Nietzsche’s

If you’re looking for sure bet on Mardi Gras, the Steam Donkeys are it. That’s because this Buffalo band, fronted by AV’s own Buck Quigley, has been playing a mix of country, rock, honky-tonk, and Americana for over a decade now. Don’t miss them at Nietzsche’s on Fat Tuesday.

Skiffle Minstrels

Skiffle Minstrels

Armor Inn (6pm)

Guitar, harmonica, lap steel, accordion, fiddle—these are the instruments that make the sounds of the South, and the Skiffle Mistrels have mastered them. Their specialty is country western and Cajun standards that they combine with a slew of upbeat originals that keep their crowds dancing all night. The six-piece band from Buffalo released their debut full-length, Homespun—a title that perfectly describes the simply recorded, straight forward tunes within—two years ago. Shortly thereafter, in 2010, they were voted “Best New Original Band” by the Buffalo Music Awards, and “Best Country Band” in the Artvoice Best of Buffalo.

Joe Marohn

Creekview Restaurant, 7:30pm

Joe Marohn is one of the region’s sharpest and most energetic acoustic performers, and has opened for Brad Paisley, Diamond Rio, and Billy Ray Cyrus.

The Stripteasers

The Stripteasers

Nietzsche's

The Stripteasers, a local burlesque act and staple at Roxy’s on Thursday nights, use the power of body language to incite a sensual mood, performing to delight and inspire the crowd. Burlesque began as a satirical form of entertainment that explored sexuality, movement, comedy, and caricature. Since the 1990s, interest in burlesque has re-surged and it has been revived as a nostalgic, glamorous, ecdysiast-esque, and at times political, variety show. As a way of performing gender, burlesque is campy and fun while adding to the social commentary that began in the 1970s with body and performance art. The Stripteasers describe their performance as “dance, political satire, and queer sketch comedy to create a shocking, sex positive revue…The Stripteasers use their wit and sass to challenge social stigmas, gender hierarchy, and political constructs.”

Caitlin and the Jamie Moses Band

The Bend

Backed by AV publisher Jamie Moses and company, the sultry Caitlin Koch has made a mark on Buffalo’s music scene with a rich, bluesy voice that belies her youthful years.

It's ALL Allentown

Celebrating Fat Tuesday in the historic Allentown district means spending some time in your favorite colorful Allen Street haunts, venturing to the bustling and nearby Delaware Avenue and North Street, and exploring off the beaten path down narrow Virginia Place. Allentown always offers nighttime rendezvous, top-shelf cocktails, and eclectic live music, but on Mardi Gras the whole area cranks it up a few fat notches to really let the good times roll. Overflowing with bright beads, artsy patrons, and entertainment of every variety, historic Allentown is sure to be Buffalo’s own decadent New Orleans this Tuesday.

Get Downtown!

Listen to the music of the traffic in the city. Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles. Forget all your cares and go…DOWNTOWN! Oh, ya, ma petite amie. Petula Clark nailed it when she belted out that famous advice, and there’s no better day to take her up on it than on Fat Tuesday.

For, within easy walking distance you can enter over a dozen happening bars and nightclubs on nothing but the charm of your smile and a $5 wristband. When you purchase your wristband at any one of the venues participating in the Artvoice Mardi Gras celebration, you gain admission to any participating club—from Williamsville to Elmwood Village, to Allentown, to Downtown, to Hamburg. While the proceeds from these wristband sales all go to one of two worthy charities (G4G or Hospice), if you choose to purchase yours at a downtown club, your money will be designated to help Hospice.

Below is a list of venues to check out, including Noir Ultra Lounge, where live music and genuine Pat O’Brien’s Hurricanes will be mixed using ingredients shipped up from the legendary French Quarter institution. Whatever you do, don’t miss the festive Mardi Gras pageantry of the big midnight show at Club Marcella!

It Takes an Elmwood Village

If you’re a city-dweller, or even if you’re just visiting the city, it pays on Mardi Gras to stay on the move. The stretch of participating bars and clubs on Elmwood Avenue, conveniently looking out on the Artvoice Mardi Gras Parade route, are a great place to start the night before descending upon Allentown. Or (and?) to end the evening. Or to hunker down all night.

From Goodbar with its pool tables and its first vantage on the parade (Goodbar and Coles are like the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary), to Blue Monk’s wide windows and endless beer list, to the Essex Street Pub (off the parade route, but cozy and outfitted with a killer jukebox), and at points in between, what we here at AV still call the Elmwood Strip is a Mardi Gras party just bursting to happen.

Below is a list of who’s taking part. Remember, that $5 wristband buys you entry into any of the venues, and every penny of that $5 goes to Give for Greatness, our campaign to provide funding for arts and cultural institutions in the region.

Welcome, Williamsville!

Welcome to Mardi Gras, Williamsville! We’ll start you off with a nice Southern Comfort Cocktail. Drink it down quick and move onto something like a Tiger Paw or a Hurricane and then maybe you’ll be up to speed—because you’ve missed out on some good times. This is the first year that the Artvoice Mardi Gras Party has made it out to the ’burbs, and what a great year it will be, with lots of live entertainment, spicy food, and plenty of Mardi Gras style cocktails spilling within walking distance on Main Street.

Check out our list of official Mardi Gras venues and their specials for this Fat Tuesday below. A $5 wristband buys you entry into any of these venues, and every penny of that $5 goes to Give for Greatness, our campaign to provide funding for arts and cultural institutions in the region.

Hello, Hamburg!

Our neighbors in Hamburg enjoy a strip of restaurants and watering holes that would give any district in the city a run for its money. Which is to say, downtown Hamburg is ripe for a Mardi Gras celebration—people spilling onto the streets and letting loose, hooting and hollering, eating and drinking like there are 40 days of bereftitude stretching ahead of them.

So gratefully we welcome the clubs below into the Artvoice Mardi Gras Party family. As is true everywhere else, a $5 wristband buys you entry into any of the venues, and every penny of that $5 goes to Give for Greatness, our campaign to provide funding for arts and cultural institutions in the region.

more in the 17th Annual Artvoice Mardi Gras issue:
It's Fat Tuesday, Mes Chéries!  •  The Belles of Mardi Gras
The Artvoice Mardi Gras Parade •  Mardi Gras Events, Joints & Best Bets
Give For Greatness kicks off Give Season on Fat Tuesday

for more info:
The official Artvoice Mardi Gras Website  •  www.GiveForGreatness.org