News | Headliners Music Hall, Hey Champ, Jim James, Lydia Burrell

Honey, It's the Weekend: Hey Champ at Headliners 'Gang Bang IV', Lydia Burrell at Z-bar and Tristen Brooke at Gestle's

by Michael Tierney

The weather has turned from rain to shine for the upcoming weekend and there are plenty of steamy events going on around town.

Here are a few low-key suggestions going on right here in Louisville that should merit your attention, your eyes and your ears.

Hey Champ at Headliners, Friday, June 15:

Electro-rockers Hey Champ (“Cold Dust Girl”) will be performing this Friday at Headliners via OK Deejay’s event titled “The Bang Gang IV.”

The New York Times recently posted an article on the growth of dance music in America, I had eluded to this craze a week ago myself ☺ a few days ago and Hey Champ is a perfect example of the modern dance-oriented band.

Hey Champ is similar sounding to bands such as Passion Pit, Temper Trap and Death Cab for Cutie. They have very upbeat and pop-oriented lyrics that strive for hooks that will find their way into listener’s brains.

With a live outfit loaded with instrumentation and crafty synthesizers, the band is very fun to listen and dance too. Should be a rockin’ feel good set by the Illinois crew.

Afterwards, OK Deejays and other local DJ’s will be spinning dance songs the whole night until the crowd dissipated or dies of exhaustion.

So if you forgot to exercise and are an 18-27 year old, who wants to sweat and drip to the bone … head to Headliners on Friday.

The price is $5 and the show is 18 and over, starting around 10 p.m. Headliners is at 1386 Lexington Rd., next to Distillery Commons near downtown.

Lydia Burrell at Zanzabar, Friday, June 15

It could not have been much longer before I was forced to write about an awesome show going down at the infamous Z-bar. Friday night, Lydia Burrell will be performing for the dance-crazed crowd that plagues the venue each and every weekend.

Lydia Burrell is the Louisville music project conceived by Alexander Smith of Removador Recordings and Solutions. Smith released his self-titled first album, Lydia Burrell, with production assistance from My Morning Jacket’s Yim Yames.

Lydia Burrell’s sounds are similar to projects such as Tobacco, Black Moth Super Rainbow and other hybrid electro-indie outfits. When Smith uses his voice, Burrell is at its finest. Reminding me a lot of the very popular LCD Soundsytem. It is dramatic with heavy synth and guitar work. The sound is also eerily ambient, but loaded with heavy drum breaks and grooves.

Making the overall listening experience unique, fun and dance-worthy.

Big thoughts with awesome electronic based sounds have seemingly become one of the most effective ways of modern artists communicating to the nu-aged listener.

“The universe can only be as big as my mind.” (Line from Burrell’s track “Everything.”)

So if you want to throw your skinniest pair of jeans on, show some chest hair, drink a PBR and/or find yourself lost in emotion and dance, Z-bar should be your destination Friday.

Show starts at nine. Zanzabar is at 2100 S. Preston St. near the University of Louisville.

Tristen Brooke at Gerstle’s, Saturday, June 16

Tristen Brooke is one of Louisville’s true underground rock-stars. If you travel around St. Matthews or the Highlands on a Louisville weekend, you have a good chance to see this fiery young singer/songwriter, because she plays whenever and wherever she can.

Desperate, I think not. Over saturation? Never.

The reason Tristen can play so often is due to the uniqueness of her sound in Louisville. Tristen is a charming spirit. But once on stage, she knows how to denounce any notion that girls can’t kick ass on guitar as well as long-haired men.

She strums and beats on her guitar in flamenco fashion as if she was trying to resuscitate the object back to life. While the six-string will forever remain inanimate, the audience’s hearts will come alive as they watch the spirit, soul and passion pour out of the solo artist.

Tristen is Joni Mitchell mixed with the Gipsy Kings. She’s very organic in her connection to the environment and a very motivated person in speaking about environmental and political activism. If she had been born in the 1960’s in San Francisco, she would have found herself playing a fiery late night set at Woodstock in ‘69.

 She really is that good.

As many of her shows are, the one on Saturday is free of charge. So if you want to drink a few beers, without paying a cover charge and watch someone glistening with talent perform, get yourself a date and head out to Gerstle’s back patio this Saturday. Gerstle’s is at 3801 Frankfort Ave., where Frankfort meets Shelbyville Road.