Meat Puppets w/ Sumo Princess 5/14/19 Spaceland

California duo Sumo Princess consisted of a guy on drums and a woman (the SP?) on bass and vocals. Like the Meat Puppets, these two were no spring chickens. The woman's bass had some distortion pedals that made her sound like a guitarist who played low notes, the definition of bass I guess. The drummer kept a frantic pace and hit the skins with such force that his kit might be "single use". The woman had leopard print pants, a shirt with a ghost emoji, and some misplaced bangles that put forth a scary "don't fuck with me" persona. The vocals vacillated between Julia Child warble and riot grrl snarl.
I had never seen the Meat Puppets back in their heady start in the 80s and 90s. A couple viewings in recent years have made me appreciate their arc and longevity. Arizona-based brothers Kurt and Chris Kirkwood were joined this outing by their original drummer, Chris' son Elmo on rhythm guitar and vocals, and a keyboard player. The sound can best be described as "desert-country-punk-grunge-psych". The brothers must be in their 50s and are gray and grizzled like a couple of grunge Moses's who have witnessed the burning bush. In this case, the burning bush was being pals with and touring with Nirvana ( and a late great Kurt). The songs Plateau and Lake of Fire are firmly etched on Nirvana's Unplugged recording and were highlights on this evening. Their recent recording Dusty Notes, a mixture of country and punk templates were jumping off points for Kurt's almost Hendrixian guitar psych noodlings. The venue was packed to get a glimpse of these truly original artists. I heard a snippet of a 90s interview with Kurt who said" I don' t know man, I just wanna play music and connect people with my imagination".

Here Lies Man 4/30/19 Cafe 9

If a band bio describes them as melding Afrobeat and metal, with a guitarist from Antibalas and The Daktaris, you know that will get me out of my chair. Here Lies Man, an LA based quartet, boasts such a pedigree. Guitar and frontman Chico Mann (aka Marcos Garcia) led the charge with crunchy fretwork and vocals. Joined by keys, bass, and drums, it was hard to draw the line to Afrobeat, which usually implies more bodies and horns. No matter, the sound was infectious. One tune started out like Locomotive Breath, while another had strains of Mississippi Queen. The Afrobeat parallel could best be attributed to the drummer Geoff Mann, who is the son of jazz flute legend Herbie Mann, and was reminiscent of Ginger Baker's stint with Fela. The bassist had long hair and rose colored glasses with an extendo- strap that made it look like he was tickling the back of his knee when he played. The keys were understated but added positive shading in the form of creepy wind noises at the beginning and end of some tunes. Many tunes were pulled from HLM's recent release You Will Know Nothing. It would have been nice to get an explanation of the band's moniker.