All photos courtesy of Joey Flispart, Backseat Sandbar

[THURSDAY, 9/20]

The Music Tapes at Kentucky Theatre

I didn’t know much about The Music Tapes other than frontman Julian Koster’s involvement with the Elephant 6 Collective (Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control). Still, my interest was piqued as soon as I saw their stage set up – melodica, trumpet, organ, euphonium, singing saw, bass, and banjo. Oh, not to mention a seven-foot tall metronome.  Despite the absurd and eclectic setup, the band wasn’t as engaging as I had hoped, though Koster kept me entertained with his bizarro stage banter, like his story about a family of Romanian circus performers.

The real surprise came when a couple guys got into a fist fight during the last song and had to be escorted out of the show. You haven’t  experienced surrealism until you’ve seen a man bitch slap another man to the soundtrack of swelling carnivalesque pop music.

Jeff Mangum at Kentucky Theatre

Read the full review here

*Spoiler alert: It was amazing.

[FRIDAY, 9/21]

The Apache Relay at Cosmic Charlie’s

The Apache Relay struck me as the embodiment of the “new Nashville sound” – twangy folk rock with slight undertones of pop and blues. While the Nashville-based (yes, they’re actually from Nashville) six-piece drew me in with a the first couple songs, by the end of their hour-long set, it all started to blend together.

Deerhoof at Cosmic Charlie’s

Deerhoof absolutely blew me away with what was, hands down, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen them play. Matt Jordan of You Ain’t No Picasso nailed it when he said, “Everyone in Deerhoof is the best at what they do.” Greg Saunier is a monster on drums, and I think my mouth was open in pure awe watching guitarist John Dieterich contort his face as he played guitar. It’s like his face mimics what he plays; I swear, I could watch him play guitar all day. And of course I always look forward to watching singer Satomi’s onstage dance aerobics. The entire band looked like they were having a great time, despite Greg Saunier’s initial fear that no one would be there since they had never played Lexington before.

About Caitlin Behle

Caitlin has been with Each Note Secure since her days at WOXY as an evening DJ beginning in 2008. As a senior contributor with ENS, most of her live reviews are centered on Cincinnati's local music scene. She also provides the words for Drunk Music Reviews, a series of reviews written in collaboration with illustrator John Sebastian in which they both get hammered and write/draw their live concert experiences.