10 summertime live music events for Iowa music fans

Summertime was made for live music. I believe this to be true without question.

So it’s high time we talked about all the killer live music happening in Iowa the next couple months. I’ve handpicked 10 shows, listed here by date, that cover a lot of musical ground. The list includes blues, country, rock and hip hop artists, some of whom have attained legendary status while others are promising up and comers.

But this list doesn’t come close to capturing every worthwhile musical experience Iowa has to offer this summer, nor was that the intention. Get out there and experience your own adventures in Iowa rock and roll, and let me know what you find!

July 11 – I’m With Her, Codfish Hollow Barnstormers in Maquoketa
As I’ve written before, Codfish Hollow is one of the coolest music venues you’ll ever experience. This Thursday, the dazzlingly talented trio I’m With Her take the stage in rural Maquoketa. Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan team up to spin enchanting songs with mostly acoustic instrumentation. Their music will scratch your bluegrass itch, but they push the boundaries beyond traditional bluegrass as well.

July 16 – Robert Earl Keen, Englert Theater in Iowa City
Keen’s songs of desperados and criminals on the run conjure a cinematic Texas landscape that feels so realized and romantic that I want to just dive in and live alongside the characters in songs like ‘Corpus Christi Bay’ and ‘The Road Goes on Forever.’ His shows are a little bit country, a little bit rock and a lot of Lonestar.

July 27 – Red Dirt Country Fest, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City
I honestly try not to be the guy constantly ragging on the country music mainstream, but this year’s country representation at the Iowa State Fair grandstand is going to smother a lot of brain cells. Toby Keith, Dan + Shay and Luke Bryan don’t do it for me, and if you’re reading my blog, you probably agree. (Zac Brown is ok, but just barely.)

If rugged, guitar-driven country is more your speed, skip the fair scene and hit up the Red Dirt Country Fest in Sioux City, with headliner Cody Jinks. Jinks is a fire-breathing reformed metalhead who has produced some of the hardest-hitting country albums of the last decade. Listen to ‘Holy Water’ from his most recent album Lifers if you don’t believe me.

Aug. 1 – Wu-Tang Clan, Stir Cove in Council Bluffs
They performed in Des Moines for the 2013 80/35 Music Festival, and Iowans will get another chance to enter the 36 chambers of Wu-Tang in August. We all miss Ol’ Dirty Bastard, but the legendary NYC hip-hop group still brings serious swagger to the stage. Legends in their own time.

Aug. 2-4 – Hinterland Music Festival in St. Charles, Iowa
Brandi Carlile and Kacey Musgraves are fresh off Grammy-winning years, and they’re only a fraction of the talent worth taking in among this year’s staggeringly good Hinterland lineup. Jason Isbell, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Brent Cobb, Colter Wall and John Moreland all have produced thrilling work in recent years. And Hozier and Hippo Campus have you covered if you prefer pop and indie rock to Americana and roots.

My sleeper pick among this year’s field is The War and Treaty, a powerhouse vocal duo with a penchant for old-school soul. If you’re in need of an instantaneous energy transfusion, listen to the title track off their 2018 album Healing Tide.

Aug. 10 – Twins of Evil: Rob Zombie & Marilyn Manson, US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids
Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches on your way to the dope show. I’ll be pretty disappointed if this show doesn’t turn out to be the weirdest on this list.

Sept. 3 – Kiss End of the Road Tour, Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines
I usually shy away from arena shows, but Kiss – with all the pyrotechnics and theatricality – represent the pinnacle of the form. I remember when their Psycho Circus album came out in 1998. Rock 108, my local radio station of choice, played the hell out of it, and I thought it was pretty rad. I gather that rock critics didn’t regard it as highly as I did at the time, but maybe it’s due for a critical reevaluation. (Probably not.)

Sept. 10 – Social Distortion and Flogging Molly, Water Works Park in Des Moines
A couple of punk rock’s most stalwart acts will take the new Lauridsen Amphitheater stage at Water Works Park on Sept. 10. Flogging Molly mixes heavy doses of Irish folk music into its sound, while Social Distortion has leaned on rockabilly and country throughout its four-decade(!) history. This show should provide a satisfying one-two punch for rockers and punks who like their summertime jams cranked up loud.

Sept. 18 – Soccer Mommy, the Mill in Iowa City
One of the most exciting indie rock acts to emerge in the last few years, Soccer Mommy is the vision of singer-songwriter Sophie Allison. Soccer Mommy’s studio debut, 2018’s Clean, features a hazy, intoxicating mix of teenage vulnerability and pop melodies. Iowa City feels like a fitting stop for any Soccer Mommy tour.

Sept. 23 – Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters and Lillie Mae, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake
Technically, this show lands on the fall equinox, but how many people living on the planet right now can make an honest claim to be a bigger rock legend than Robert Plant? Like, maybe a half dozen? Maybe. Plant’s still making adventurous, thrilling music, and he’s playing one of Iowa’s most iconic rooms. This is a pretty big deal.

Also, don’t sleep on opener Lillie Mae, whose 2017 album Forever and Then Some released on Jack White’s Third Man Records. Lillie Mae is a combustible fiddle player with a voice capable of inflicting maximum emotional damage.

The end of music? DG’s Tap House goes silent

exterior DG’s Tap House, the Main Street bar that became the best-known rock club in Ames for the last decade, went quiet last Saturday night.

A liquor license suspension, brought on by systemic management failures, spelled doom for DG’s, as well as two other Ames establishments under the same ownership. Stories in the Ames Tribune and Des Moines Register detail some of the management issues that got us here, but the truth is, predicting the demise of DG’s became something of a parlor game among Ames music enthusiasts for the last couple years.

Despite the difficult circumstances surrounding its closure, I’ll miss DG’s Tap House one hell of a lot.

I played my first show there around eight years ago. I’d just moved back to Ames after a stint in Washington, D.C. I didn’t know many people in the music scene anymore, but I got an opening slot at DG’s as a solo singer-songwriter. I brought my cutout Alvarez acoustic and a handful of original songs that I’d later record with the Colt Walkers. I took the stage at DG’s a handful of times every year thereafter. It was as close to a musical home as I ever had. I felt comfortable on that stage, and I developed a lot as a performer as a direct result of the experience I gained there.

stalldoor — The men’s room stall door at DG’s Tap House, exactly as a rock club bathroom should look

Perhaps even more importantly, I took in some incredible shows as a fan at DG’s. I remember practically swimming my way through the crowd to get a spot at the bar the night Meat Puppets played at DG’s for the 2013 Maximum Ames Music Festival. Nate Logsdon, the Max Ames mastermind who booked Meat Puppets, doubled as a booker and bartender at DG’s at the time. Nate manned the bar with unrelenting (and sleeveless) energy and positivity. I flagged him down to thank him for bringing the Meat Puppets to my favorite little rock club. He paused just long enough to grip my hand and shout “Rock and roll legends!” before moving on to the next customer.

A few years later, I dragged my wife along to see Wayne Hancock, the world’s finest purveyor of juke joint swing, at DG’s. When Liz and I arrived, Hancock and his band were standing on the sidewalk, at the foot of DG’s stairs, having a smoke. The show was far from a sellout. Liz and I sat at a table on the dance floor, and I remember fighting the nearly irresistible urge to get up and dance when Hancock’s band launched into his more energetic honky tonk tunes.

bartenders — Katlyn and Vincent behind the bar at DG’s Tap House one last time.

And for every incredible show like the Meat Puppets or Wayne Hancock, there are maybe a dozen shows I remember with less clarity, most likely due to too much PBR and Ten High. But I cheered on old friends, met plenty of new ones and tried to buy merch from the touring acts whenever I had some extra cash in my wallet.

I went to the last show at DG’s on Saturday night. I’d never heard of Wilderado or Duncan Fellows, the two acts who played the last show. That didn’t matter all that much to me though. I just wanted to be there for the last song. Both bands, as it turned out, played good sets. Duncan Fellows did a really faithful version of “Don’t Let Me Down,” and the lead singer for Wilderado told the crowd he felt bad his band would be the last one to grace the DG’s stage, despite never having played there before. I appreciated that, and it turns out Wilderado is a tight indie band with a bright future ahead. For the record, the very last song they played was “Siren.” I confirmed the title with one of the band members when he went out to smoke after the set.

The show drew a respectable crowd but not an enormous one. The dance floor was full much of the evening, but plenty of tables and booths were available at various points. Sound guy Evan Taylor made sure both bands sounded good. He even asked me how I thought the show sounded at one point, which I found strangely touching.

Taylor, who ran sound at DG’s for over three years, said he learned a lot working at DG’s. He acknowledged “stupid decisions” made by the bar’s ownership, but he stressed most of the staff did their best to give Ames a quality music venue.

“It’s a really mixed bag,” Taylor said. “I’m happy to have been part of this experience but really bummed out because the place meant a lot to me.”

evantaylor — Evan Taylor behind the sound board during the last show

Bartenders Katlyn and Vincent kept the drinks coming as best they could. Plenty of the taps were empty and much of the space reserved for liquor was bare. After Wilderado’s final song, Katlyn stepped up to the mic to announce the availability of $1 pints until all the beer ran out.

I left feeling a touch disappointed there wasn’t more pomp and circumstance to mark what looks to be the last show ever at DG’s Tap House. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the music won’t stop in Ames just because one venue closed. Too many talented musicians and too many passionate music fans live here for the scene to wither away. But it certainly won’t be the same without DG’s.

Sing it with me now: Hey hey, my my… dgsheart

Iowa music you gotta hear: Crystal City’s ‘Three-Dimensionality’

Crystal City throws a lot at the listener on their new album Three-Dimensionality.

The album’s 12 tracks experiment with crunchy rockabilly, dreamy jazz, sugary pop and even some power balladry along the way. But songwriter Dave Helmer’s creative vision combines with the band’s live energy to tie the songs together into a cohesive listening experience. The result is a dynamic and ambitious rock album that’s well worth your time.

“See Thru,” the album’s closing track, best illustrates the impressive ambition on display throughout Three-Dimensionality. The song begins with stark piano chords that give way to a funky R&B groove for a couple verses before the song soars to a jazzy guitar-driven crescendo that crashes into an ethereal fadeout in the closing seconds. Crystal City packs all that dynamism into a dense and intoxicating four-and-a-half minutes, making it the longest track on the album. Other standout tracks include forceful rocker “All Gone South” and the blissfully infectious pop tune “You in the Morning.”

Crystal City’s most distinct sonic hallmark is the way Helmer’s gruff vocals, which remind me of Mark Knopfler, mix with those of bandmate Sam Drella. At some points, Drella sounds as if she’s singing the same melodies as Helmer, giving tracks added thickness and urgency. At other points, Drella sings harmonies that add color and nuance, reinforcing the multi-dimensionality hinted at in the album’s title. Drella’s harmonies elevate the material, particularly on “Cigarettes for Breakfast,” where her “ooohs” during the verse call the to mind Kim and Kelley Deal of the Breeders.

Helmer’s lyrics often center on down-and-out characters facing up to difficult circumstances. “I ain’t got a dollar in the bank/I ain’t got a gallon in the tank,” Helmer and Drella sing on the title track. But the relentless energy of the songs inspires hope and motivation.

“I want this album to make people feel good and energized,” Helmer said in an interview. “We touch on a lot of themes people deal with on a regular basis, so I want people to feel like they’re not alone.”

This is the third album from the Iowa City-based band, following 2014’s Change and 2017’s Bartenderly. Helmer said the band recorded a handful of the album’s tracks in his home studio, while the rest were recorded at Flat Black Studios outside Iowa City. Engineer Luke Tweedy mixed the entire album, expertly handling the various configurations and approaches Crystal City utilized for the record.

Three-Dimensionality will sweep you up in its intense energy, precise musicianship and sheer ambition. The album is streaming online and is available on vinyl through Crystal City’s Bandcamp page. Crystal City will perform at the Mill in Iowa City on May 18 and at the 80/35 Music Festival in Des Moines on July 13.

crystalcitypromo — Crystal City’s Sam Drella and Dave Helmer

The Science of Things: Uncertainty Fest 2019 kicks off on Thursday

The scientific process relies on experimentation to push beyond the limits of human knowledge and into the unknown. The organizers of this weekend’s Uncertainty Festival hope live music can perform a similar function.

The 2019 Uncertainty Festival includes nine events at three venues on Main Street in Ames beginning on Thursday and extending into Sunday. Each showcase features a different twist on a scientific theme, and attendees will be able to take in a sweeping range of musical styles. A “universal festival pass,” available through MIDWESTIX, costs $20.

uncertainty2019poster Single-show passes are available as well, but you’ll get the most out of Uncertainty if you make an effort to take in some acts you haven’t heard before, said festival organizer Rachel Dudley.

“I hope that people go and have an opportunity to see musicians they ordinarily wouldn’t have checked out and get their minds blown,” Rachel Dudley said.

Rachel and her husband, Bryon, have spearheaded Uncertainty since the festival began in 2017. Rachel and Bryon described themselves as “nerds” who thought a science-themed music festival sounded like fun. Accordingly, each show associated with this year’s festival comes with name like “Cosmic Expansion,” “Planetary Motion” or “Particle.”

The names suggest an experimental quality to the festival, as if Bryon and Rachel are gathering data and testing their own theories on the periodic table of rock ‘n’ roll.

This year’s festival has grown considerably larger than the previous two iterations. Last year’s festival hosted three showcases, while this year’s festival will feature nine events, including a meet and greet for musicians and fans on Sunday afternoon. The expansion resulted from Bryon and Rachel working on last September’s Maximum Ames Music Festival and gaining confidence in their ability to organize a larger event, they said.

Uncertainty Festival doubles as a spotlight for acts that have released music on Nova Labs, the independent record label that Bryon and Rachel run out of their house. Nova Labs has helped dozens of Iowa musicians release music and find a larger audience, and Bryon said he takes that responsibility seriously. That means he makes sure everything about Uncertainty Festival, from the acts to the venues, reflects positively on Nova Labs.

“If this is something I’m going to put the Nova Labs name on, I want it to be something that I believe in very strongly,” he said.

That approach carries over to the all-local list of festival sponsors, including London Underground, Prints Copy Center, Smiles Food Carts, Alluvial Brewing Company and the Tom Russel Piano Service.

And once it’s over, Rachel and Bryon will head back to the lab again with a fresh set of data to analyze and new hypotheses to test.

Uncertainty Festival 2019 programming

April 18

Hypothesis: Piano
7 p.m., London Underground
Elizabeth Zimmerman, Holly Figueroa,  Evelyn Davis &  Lizzy Poppyseed

April 19

Particle Showcase
8 p.m., DG’s Tap House
Lionessa , Matt Woods, Ducharme-Jones Band, Brother Trucker

Cosmic Expansion
8:30 p.m., The Angry Irishmen (formerly Deano’s 119)
Obsidian’s Dream , Moonrabbit &  Other Brothers

Hypothesis: Beat
7 p.m., London Underground
SLICE the Celestial Sorcerer &  Quërvo

April 20

Wave Showcase
1 p.m., DG’s Tap House
Free The Snakes , Bleujack,  Fred Love &  Dylan Boyle

Hypothesis: Dance
7 p.m., London Underground
Pink Kodiak  & DJ Saturn Savant (aka Austin Robert)

Light Showcase
8 p.m., DG’s Tap House
Bitter Canyon , Pink Neighbor , Wiitch Tiit &  Linear Symmetry

Planetary Motion
8:30 p.m., The Angry Irishmen
Great Caesar’s Goat,  Mountain Eats Mountain , Kickstart The Sun & Electric Jury

April 21

Hypothesis: Interaction (musician meet and greet)
1 p.m., London Underground
Starlight Therapy , Tom and Will (Tom Russell and Will Pett),  DJ Strooya (aka Zee Krizhan)

The answer to one of live music’s biggest drawbacks and other scenes from Mission Creek 2019

Live music can test your patience.

Sometimes it’s the exquisite torture of those last few moments waiting for your favorite band to take the stage when the house lights dim. Sometimes it’s the monotony of waiting for a band to load its gear off stage so the next act can set up. Sometimes there’s a sound check in there too, which slows the proceedings down even more.

But this is all just an unavoidable part of the experience, right? If you take in a lot of live music, you’re going to slog through some downtime.

tanyatnt — A copy of Tanya Tucker’s *TNT* that I bought between acts at the vinyl market during the 2019 Mission Creek Festival.

Friends, I’m delighted to report Mission Creek Festival, the annual music and literature celebration held in Iowa City, may have found the optimal solution to this age-old problem: vinyl records! The festival brought in a bunch of record vendors to set up shop at Big Grove Brewery, allowing listeners to comb through crate after crate of the good stuff while waiting between acts. The lines to snag beer and food were prohibitively long most of the evening I was there, but I barely had to wait at all to score a good deal on old records. It was a brilliant diversion to keep boredom from setting in.

My wife and I spent Saturday evening in Iowa City. It was the only night of the Mission Creek Festival our schedules permitted us to attend, so we missed a bunch of great programming from the other days of the festival. But I want to highlight some of the excellent stuff we experienced and congratulate the Mission Creek crew on a successful event.

For the uninitiated, Mission Creek takes place every spring in downtown Iowa City. The festival is presented and produced by The Englert Theatre. In addition to music, the festival also features a full slate of literary events, reflecting Iowa City’s reputation as one of the world’s premier destinations for literature.

My wife and I arrived at Big Grove just in time for the start of Middle Western’s set. Middle Western includes some fabulous Iowa musicians, including David Zollo and William Elliott Whitmore. They put on a terrific show, featuring a couple Les Paul-toting guitarists and Whitmore handling most of the lead vocals while playing a Gibson SG bass. Zollo took lead vocals on a few songs as well, his bare feet sliding around on the floor beneath his keyboard.

middlewesternmissioncreek — Middle Western plays at Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City during the 2019 Mission Creek Festival.

After Middle Western wrapped up their set, I meandered into the adjoining room for some record shopping. I scored an excellent deal on a nice copy of Tanya Tucker’s TNT album from 1978 while East Nashville songwriter Lilly Hiatt set up.

Hiatt’s set turned out to be the highlight of the evening for me. I’m a big fan of her 2017 album Trinity Lane, and she and her road-tested band served up sizzling renditions of all my favorite tracks from the album, including “The Night David Bowie Died,” “Records” and the title track. The band delivered a spirited version of “Get This Right,” a track from Hiatt’s 2015 album Royal Blue with which I was unfamiliar, but I’ve been playing the song on repeat in my house all week. Hiatt also took home the award for “best guitar tone” with her gorgeous Rickenbacker plugged into a Princeton Reverb. The way her tone broke up on her louder material was just gloriously unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll.

Also of note: Between songs, Hiatt referenced a mysterious incident in Fairfield, Iowa, as one of the best nights she and her band had experienced on the road, but she didn’t elaborate further. The cryptic remark left me curious to learn more.

After Hiatt’s encore, we made our way to the iconic Englert Theatre to take in Hurray for the Riff Raff, our final show for the night. The Englert is one of those classic venues that every Iowan should visit at some point. Some true legends have graced that stage over the course of the theater’s 106-year existence.

Alynda Lee Segarra, the singer and main songwriter for Hurray for the Riff Raff, delivered an electric performance, particularly when she put down her guitar to roam the stage. Hurray for the Riff Raff’s set drew mostly from The Navigator, the band’s most recent album, which delves into political themes such as colonization and oppression. The songs demand action from the listener, while also providing hope, such as on “Pa’lante,” which Segarra told the audience translates to “move forward.”

For those keeping score at home, that’s three righteous shows (plus a sweet deal on a classic Tanya record and enough time to grab a burger for supper) in a span of less than five hours. Well played, Mission Creek. I’ll see you next year.

Have you hugged your sound engineer today? A conversation with Adam Brimeyer

According to Adam Brimeyer’s best guess, he’s run sound for something like 2,000 live shows over a span of about a decade. Brimeyer has manned the board for rock legends, local heroes and just about everything in between. Most of those shows occurred at DG’s Tap House, a venerable rock club in downtown Ames, but he’s worked in outdoor and festival settings as well.

He’s also an accomplished guitarist in his own right, shredding for acts like Electric Jury and Drunk N Disorderly among others.

So if you’re looking for an expert on live sound, particularly as it pertains to Iowa rock music, Adam Brimeyer’s credentials are unimpeachable. I caught up with Adam for a beer and a chat recently at London Underground and picked his brain on live sound, his experiences in the music industry and how he wishes every band approached sound check.

Read on for a glimpse into the sound booth. Just don’t spill your beer on the board.

Origins of a sound engineer
Brimeyer grew up in Maquoketa, Iowa, where he cut his teeth on Black Sabbath and played guitar in garage bands before moving to Ames in 2002 to study physics at Iowa State University. Around then, Brimeyer joined a band that also included Dennis Haislip, owner of Alexander Recording Kompany, an Ames-based recording studio. Brimeyer picked up the basics of audio engineering from Haislip and started filling in both at DG’s and Headliner’s, a Campustown club that closed its doors years ago. DG’s offered Brimeyer a steady job in 2008, which he held until 2017. Nowadays, he does the booking and handles some of the live sound for Gas Lamp in Des Moines.

Brimeyer stressed the “wild west” nature of the live sound industry. He said there are few accepted standards or regulations in the profession, meaning young sound engineers should take every available opportunity to make connections and learn from more established engineers. Acts like Leftover Salmon and Railroad Earth would bring their own audio engineers on the road with them. When they’d play DG’s, Brimeyer said he jumped at the chance to watch them in action and ask questions.

The unpredictable nature of the live music industry also comes with some pitfalls, including a decided lack of security, he said.

“You’re only as good as the last show you ran,” he said.

To his credit, Brimeyer has run sound for some excellent shows. He points to Meat Puppets, who played at DG’s for the 2013 Maximum Ames Music Festival, as one of the highlights of his sound engineering career. The band, perhaps best known for appearing on Nirvana’s famed MTV Unplugged in New York release, has produced several decade’s worth of idiosyncratic rock that mixes alternative with roots and psychedelia. Brimeyer said he grew up listening to Meat Puppets and was delighted to learn the band members were gracious, down to Earth and easy to work with that magical night in September 2013.

“Imagine taking your heroes off the pedestal and just hanging out with them,” Brimeyer said.

But for every transcendent musical experience with someone like Meat Puppets, Brimeyer can tell just as many horror stories. He recounted the time a certain EDM artist played DG’s and required Brimeyer to show up at 9 a.m. to load in audio and lightning equipment and then stay until 5 a.m. the following morning to load everything out after the show. That might not have been so bad if the artist hadn’t pushed the volume to disastrous levels during the show. Brimeyer asked the tour manager to pass a note to the artist to get him to lower the volume, but the note went ignored.

“He starts playing and we’re running all of his stuff through DG’s board,” Brimeyer said. “And he just takes his DJ rig and cranks it all the way, and it just redlines the input channels 100 percent. Nothing we can do, and it sounds awful, just crunched.”

Brimeyer said the show wrecked every tweeter in DG’s PA system, and the artist didn’t even apologize. Instead, the artist spent the rest of the night avoiding Brimeyer at all cost.

(Author’s note: Brimeyer, without hesitation, named the EDM act in question here. We’ve decided to withhold the name out of an abundance of caution. If you ever see Adam, he’ll most likely be happy to tell you the name of the artist, along with several other choice words.)

The perfect soundcheck
The soundcheck is a critical component of any smoothly run rock show. Get it right, and everyone – from the audience to the performers to the sound engineer – enjoys the show. But, when done poorly, it can devolve into a frustrating mess, particularly if it’s happening while the audience is already seated and watching.

Brimeyer stressed the importance of punctuality and communication for a successful soundcheck. He urged bands to follow the schedule for loading in, setting up and loading out. Once a band is onstage and ready to soundcheck, he said musicians should follow the sound engineer’s instructions and resist the temptation to noodle away mindlessly on their instruments.

“You’re not there to play ‘Free Bird.’ You’re not there to jam out,” he said.

Once each musician has had a chance to check the levels on their instruments, Brimeyer recommended every band identify a single song as the go-to for soundchecks. The soundcheck song shouldn’t be something the band intends to play during their regular set, and it should be kept short, ideally less than a minute. Brimeyer said the soundcheck song simply allows the musicians to make sure everything is working and that they’re comfortable onstage. Once that’s settled, there’s no need to keep playing, no matter how righteous that new Fender Twin sounds.

And, if a musician discovers they’re not comfortable with something, soundcheck is the time to iron that out, Brimeyer said. If you don’t communicate your needs to the sound engineer, then the problem won’t get solved.

“The one pet peeve of every sound guy, and it’s probably universal, is when someone complains about not having enough of something in the monitor but they never told you once they wanted it,” Brimeyer said with an exasperated chuckle.

Bottom line, a good rock show usually needs some functional audio gear, and few people on this planet have the necessary skills to make the best use of that equipment. So here’s to Adam and sound engineers everywhere. You make rock ‘n’ roll work. And I’d like to extend a personal apology to every sound engineer I’ve ever worked with for all the times I interrupted soundcheck with my incessant guitar noodling.

Craft brews and Buddy Holly: A new frontier for Iowa musicians

Back in June 2018, I played a solo show at Fat Hill Brewing in downtown Mason City. I keep a fairly consistent set list for shows like that, which usually require several hours of music. Somewhere near the middle of my performance, I launched into “Well All Right,” a Buddy Holly classic that I first heard as a kid, without giving the song much thought ahead of time. It was simply the next entry on my set list.

And then a strange feeling hit me, right before the first chorus, as I realized I was playing a Buddy Holly number in Mason City, just a stone’s throw the last town Holly ever played before the tragic plane crash that ended his life at 22. It’s a famous story, and you probably know most of it, but here are the pertinent facts: Buddy Holly took part in the 1959 Winter Dance Party, a tour of the upper Midwest that also included a handful of other early rock ‘n’ roll performers. Following a Feb. 2 concert at Clear Lake’s Surf Ballroom, a chartered airplane carrying Holly, Ritchie Vallens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson crashed into a field near Clear Lake. None of the passengers survived, and the tragedy has taken on a mythic status as “The Day the Music Died.”

fathillexterior — Fat Hill Brewing in Mason City, IA

And there I was, playing “Well All Right” in Mason City about 10 miles from where Holly’s last show took place nearly 60 years later. It left me feeling as if I were some kind of small link in a great chain connecting guitar-toting songwriters through the ages. It was certainly a highlight of my gigging schedule last year.

And I likely would not have gotten that opportunity were it not for Fat Hill Brewing and the growth of Iowa’s craft brewing industry in recent years. Locally brewed craft beer contributed $100 million to the state’s economy in 2014, according to a study from the Iowa Wine and Beer Promotion Board. The 2015 study, the most recent I could find, also predicted Iowa’s brewing industry to triple its production between 2014 and 2019. Those numbers are maybe out of date now, but they clearly show a rapidly growing industry. And the best part for DIY musicians like me is that many of these local breweries like to host live music in their taprooms. This has created something of a new frontier for Iowa music.

Because what goes together better than good beer and good music? I can’t think of many things.

Last year, I played Firetrucker Brewery in Ankeny and two shows at Shiny Top Brewing in Fort Dodge in addition to two gigs at Fat Hill. This year, I’ve got gigs lined up at Shiny Top and Fat Hill, as well as the Iowa Brewing Company in Cedar Rapids. These aren’t dedicated music venues; they’re breweries that decided, correctly, that live music enhances the enjoyment of their products. Accordingly, few of them own sound systems. That means the acts they book have to provide their own sound. That reality has taken a serious toll on my back, since I have to lug my two 15” main speakers out of the basement every time I play one of these shows. But the extra effort is worth it. I really enjoy getting out to explore new towns, taking in the local atmosphere and, of course, sampling some locally brewed beer.

fathillinterior — The taproom at Fat Hill

Seeing these local businesses innovating and providing new spaces for Iowans to get together as communities really excites me. These breweries are igniting new economic and cultural opportunities in rural stretches of the state, and many are booking talented musicians who might not come to your town otherwise. It’s my sincere hope that everyone involved – from the brewery owners to the musicians to the local music fans – will continue to embrace that.

So here’s my modest request. To the brewery owners, keep booking live music, and, whenever possible, try to find local Iowa artists to feature alongside your local Iowa beer. To the musicians, get out there and try to play a new city or two in 2019. You can find new audiences and make connections in new communities. And to the customers who like hanging out in the local taproom, let the musicians know you appreciate their talent. Buy some merch the next time a musician plays your local brewery. Welcome them to your town, and tell them you enjoyed their music. It’s a lot of work loading up a bunch of gear, driving a couple hours and then putting on a quality show. Sometimes a word of encouragement makes all the difference.

shinytop — Shiny Top Brewing in Fort Dodge, another area favorite of mine

Some of my favorite musical experiences in recent years, including that one last summer at Fat Hill Brewing, have occurred in local taprooms. There were 54 craft breweries operating in the state in 2014, according to that Iowa Wine and Beer Promotion Board study. Today, Iowa boasts more than 80 brewery locations. As a local musician and Buddy Holly fan, I hope that trend will not fade away any time soon.

The Top-10 Iowa musical acts you need to hear

First, a disclaimer.

Yes, this list is purely subjective. Yes, it leans heavily on guitar-driven blues, roots and rock acts. Yes, there are plenty of other Iowa artists not on this list worth your attention who are defying conventions and innovating in all kinds of genres. But sometimes you gotta plug an old guitar into a tube amp and crank that bad boy. That’s what most of this list is about.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I can confidently and righteously assert that these ten acts, without exception, absolutely thrash. All of them perform regularly across the state, too, so look up their gig schedules and catch a show! You can’t go wrong here.

twins 10) TWINS – This Cedar Valley outfit cranks out an undeniably hooky flavor of pop rock that lands somewhere between the Byrds and the Replacements. Their most recent album, 2016’s Square America, deserves a place on any Iowa record collector’s shelf. The album crackles with bratty teenage attitude, clever arrangements and tight musicianship. Check out the searing guitar tones on “Hot Stepper,” the retro jangle and harmonies of “Breakin’ Up,” and the pedal steel-tinged pop punk of “Lovesick Romeo.”

pinkneighbor 9) Pink Neighbor – The relatively new upstarts on the list (you might even say including them here is a sly declaration of new-classic status slipped into a list of old safe ones), Pink Neighbor hail from Grinnell. Their live show oozes highly infectious, 60’s psychedelic charm. I saw them play the opening show for last year’s Maximum Ames Music Festival and immediately fell under their spell. They’ve released a couple EPs and three singles, but I can’t wait to hear a proper full-length album from them.

rushcleveland 8) The Rush Cleveland Trio – Rush Cleveland’s voice sounds like pure authenticity. He’s paid his dues with a lifetime of gigging and devotion to the guitar. Another Cedar Valley entry on the list, check out the Rush Cleveland Trio’s last two releases, American Music vols. 1 and 2. Both albums are full of blues, honky tonk and rock ‘n’ roll, stripped down to the bare essentials. When Rush sings a line like, “Liquor, lines and ladies, that’s lessons learned,” in his gravelly warble, you don’t doubt a word of it.

7) The Surf Zombies – Brook Hoover, the Cedar Rapids guitar virtuoso who leads the Surf Zombies, taught me nearly everything I know about the guitar. I took lessons from him for about three years during high school and college. The man lives and breathes guitar, and he infuses everything he does with his relentless enthusiasm and goofy sense of humor. The Surf Zombies, a surf-rock instrumental band, provides Brook and his bandmates a platform for plenty of guitar heroics and attitude, and they’ve done a terrific job over the years carving out a unique niche in the Iowa music scene. The Surf Zombies catalog includes a handful of albums, all of which brim with classic guitar tones and interesting musical arrangements that are always catchy but never obvious. You won’t find a tighter – or weirder – band on this list.

SLB 6) Strong Like Bear – This long-time Ames band includes some of my favorite human beings in the world, but that’s not why I put them on the list. SLB has existed for over a decade now, producing a solid discography of alt. rock that strikes me as a cross between the Pixies and Fleetwood Mac. The combination of influences lends the band a versatility and adventurousness that keeps each of their five albums sounding fresh. But the secret ingredient is the chemistry the band members have established through a decade-plus playing together. I highly recommend Passing Through the Waves, the band’s latest album, released in early March.

mattwoods 5) Matt Woods – One of the finest blues guitar pickers the state has produced, Matt Woods has certainly put in the reps. The lanky lefty has produced a consistently excellent discography of full-band and solo work over the years. Two common denominators tie all of his music together: his impeccable fretwork and his gruff vocals. His 2018 album Tired & Dirty casts life in rural Iowa squarely in the blues tradition. And anyone who’s suffered through a Midwestern winter can relate to the white-knuckle thrill of 2015’s “Snow Drivin.” Contender for the most Iowa song lyric of all time: “It keeps on snowin’ like a sonofabitch, and I can’t tell the edge of the gravel from the bottom of a ditch. Snow drivin!”

4) Brother Trucker – On Brother Trucker’s most recent album 5, a song titled “Bar Fight” leads into the next track, called “Who Called the Cops.” And that’s a pretty good indication of what you get with Brother Trucker: a bunch of rugged Americana rockers about misfits and outlaws. Principal songwriter Andy Fleming possesses a terrific eye for lyrical detail, and the band raises hell with the best of them. Fleming is one of Iowa’s hardest gigging singer-songwriters, but don’t sleep on keyboardist Matt Jesson when he takes lead vocals on “Powderfinger.”

3) William Elliott Whitmore – I first saw William Elliott Whitmore at the Maintenance Shop in Ames back when I was a sophomore at Iowa State, most likely 2005 or 2006. His voice alone stopped me in my tracks, and his rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine” remains etched in my memory as one of the most powerful musical displays I’ve witnessed. Since then, the great Iowa troubadour has been writing, recording and touring relentlessly. His most recent album, Kilonova, came out on Bloodshot Records, the scrappy Chicago indie responsible for some of my favorite alt-country of the last decade. His smoky blend of folk, blues and country all wrapped up in a punk rock attitude and old-soul vocal delivery is absolutely essential listening for Iowa music fans. Whitmore’s side project with Dave Zollo, Middle Western, is worth your time too!

pietabrown 2) Pieta Brown – Iowa City-based Pieta Brown is the one artist on this list I have never seen live, but I’ve listened to both of her most recent albums – Paradise Outlaw and Postcards – extensively. Her crystal-clear vocals, her literary-yet-immediate songwriting and the haunting atmospherics of her recordings combine to give her work a quiet, swirling depth that’s easy to get lost in. In an interview, Brown explains that the inspiration for “Rosine,” my favorite composition of hers, came to her in a dream about Bill Monroe. The more I thought of it, the more a dream about the ghost of one of Appalachia’s greatest musicians seems like the perfect image to accompany Pieta Brown’s music.

1) Joe and Vicki Price – I’ve often heard people describe Robert Johnson’s guitar playing as if it sounds like two guitarists rather than just one. I’d argue that Iowa blues legends Joe and Vicki Price sound like two guitars being played by a single, unified mind – with tone that would make Hound Dog Taylor blush. And their live show is an absolute joy to behold. Their warmth and humor draw the audience in to make everyone feel like they’re at a party with all their best friends. I never tire of watching the way Joe stomps and slides his feet around with all those irresistible rhythms. Listen to “High Blood Pressure” from their 2015 album Night Owls to get a sense of what I’m talking about.

Maximum Ames Music Festival: The most DIY punk rock thing I do

If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely a music fan living somewhere in or near Iowa. Or, you’re my mom or my wife or a friend reading this blog out of some sense of obligation. In either case, I want you to read carefully. Please go to your calendar or your planner or whatever app you use on your phone to keep track of all your plans and reserve the four days from Sept. 5 through Sept. 8. Plan to be in Ames during that time with your gnarliest pair of party pants because the 2019 Maximum Ames Music Festival is going to change your life.

It’s already changed mine, and it’s still six months away.

lionessa — Lionessa performs at London Underground last Sunday during the Maximum Ames/Ames Pride date reveal party.

Last year, I volunteered to handle some of the promotion, communications and social media for the 2018 Maximum Ames Music Festival, then in its eighth year. The experience turned out to be one of the most inspiring, life-affirming grassroots efforts to which I’ve ever contributed, and this year’s festival promises to be even better. We just announced the date of the 2019 festival last Sunday at London Underground on Main Street in Ames. It was a ferocious party with Free the Snakes and Lionessa providing live music (look them up!), but that’s a story for another time.

Let’s talk about why the Maximum Ames Music Festival is so important to me.

Reading Michael Azerrad’s ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’ during my high school years changed my perspective of rock ‘n’ roll in some pretty radical ways. Before that book, I thought playing rock music was only for stars like Bruce Springsteen or Mick Jagger.

But reading stories about the do-it-yourself attitude that pervaded underground punk and indie rock throughout the 1980s opened my eyes to a whole new approach. Reading about straight-edge punks at Dischord folding and gluing their own record sleeves, or a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia putting together cassettes of avant-garde acts and self-publishing a fanzine, made me realize you don’t have to be Mick Jagger to make rock and roll. In fact, it might just be that average citizens – schmucks like me with jobs and bills to pay – expressing themselves through music might be a more revolutionary and subversive act than anything those celebrity musicians ever did.

That belief inspired me to volunteer to help organize last year’s Maximum Ames Music Festival. The festival, held last September, hosted more than 60 acts in a dozen venues near downtown Ames. The festival also synced up with Ames Pridefest, which occurred Sept. 29 in downtown Ames. The confluence of events reinforced the Maximum Ames mission of “providing a safe, inclusive environment that fosters creativity and understanding through music and art.” It’s precisely the sort of event our communities need nowadays, with division cutting so deeply and compassion for one another in such short supply.

freethesnakes — Free the Snakes performs during the date reveal party.

I spent several months leading up to the festival planning media relations and promotional efforts, and I coordinated with a team of six other volunteers to take care of all the necessary arrangements to make an event like that happen, from fundraising to booking acts to making sure all the venues had functioning PA systems. It struck me at every meeting that all seven of us in the core team were all pretty much regular folks who just happen to think putting on a music festival in our small Iowa town enriches the entire community and advances the crucial values of inclusion, acceptance and creativity. More than any other music-related endeavor I’ve undertaken, volunteering for the Maximum Ames Music Festival made me feel like I was walking in the footsteps of the DIY heroes featured in ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life.’

And the festival itself is always a blast. Past acts have included the Mountain Goats, Meat Puppets, Wanda Jackson and Lavender Country. The Zombies, who were just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are Max Ames alums. Last year’s lineup covered a dizzying range of genres, from guitar-heavy rock to hip hop to jazz to blues.

If any of this appeals to you, I invite you to attend and participate in a truly awesome community experience. If you’re a musician, apply to play at the festival. If you’d like to volunteer, we’ll need people to man the doors at venues, to deliver payments to the acts and photographers to document the experience. You don’t have to be a rock star to get involved. In fact, you don’t have to have any experience whatsoever in the music biz. All we’re looking for is a positive attitude and some DIY spirit.

I hear a lot of folks use slogans like ‘eat local’ or ‘shop local.’ Absolutely, let’s do that. But, while we’re at it, let’s rock local too. And remember! #MAMF9 Sept. 5-8!

Welcome to Rock Roads, a blog exploring Iowa’s rock ‘n’ roll experience

jmascis1 — J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. playing Codfish Hollow on July 27, 2016

The sheer volume almost made me wish I’d brought ear plugs.

I’d read about how impossibly loud Dinosaur Jr. plays, most memorably in Michael Azerrad’s seminal ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life,’ but that didn’t prepare me for the experience. I’m not sure anything can. It was so loud, I found myself thinking for the first time in my life that a set of ear plugs might actually improve the experience.

The crowd at my back pinned me to the lip of the stage. Lou Barlow loomed directly above me, furiously wielding his bass. He was so close, I could read the set list taped to the stage at his feet. Emmett Jefferson “Murph” Murphy thrashed at his drums a few paces away, wiping sweat off his bald pate between songs. And, on the far side of the stage, J Mascis stood behind his trademark Fender Jazzmaster, a mountain chain of Marshall stacks behind him, punching a hole in space and time with hairy, Big Muff-drenched leads.

It was glorious.

The best part was that this show didn’t take place in an arena, or auditorium or club. Rather, it was in a remote barn, situated along a gravel road, in rural eastern Iowa. The venue, called Codfish Hollow Barnstormers, is a true Iowa gem. Seeing Dinosaur Jr., one of my absolute favorite bands, in such a distinctive setting ranks among the very best rock ‘n’ roll experiences I’ve ever had. And I’ve had my share.

loubarlow — Lou Barlow, the bassist for Dinosaur Jr.

Welcome to Rock Roads, a blog that will attempt to spotlight the unique elements that make up Iowa’s music scene and rock heritage, such as the Iowa-to-a-tee Codfish Hollow. The venue is located a few miles outside of Maquoketa, accessible only by gravel roads. Concert goers park in a pasture and then walk or ride a tractor-pulled shuttle to the barn where the show takes place. It’s difficult for me to imagine a more powerful musical experience than that late-July night in 2016 at Codfish Hollow, when Dinosaur Jr. nearly tore apart that old wooden barn in the Iowa countryside.

I plan to examine the many things associated with rock ‘n’ roll music that I sincerely and unabashedly love, giving them an Iowa-centric spin. This blog will take you on tours of Iowa’s dingiest rock clubs, help you navigate the state’s growing music festival landscape and highlight cool vintage guitars and the Iowans who play them. If it’s rock ‘n’ roll and Iowa, you’ll find it here.

So who am I, and why should anyone care what I have to say about the Iowa music scene? A brief introduction may be in order.

I’m a 33-year-old family man, communications pro and musician in Ames. I grew up in rural northeast Iowa and currently work at Iowa State University, where I write news releases and conduct media relations on science-related topics. I’ve got a wife and two children, ages 7 and 2. And I’ve been playing music, both solo and in bands, going back to my college days. But more than all of that, I’m a music fan on a lifelong quest to get as close as I can to the music I love. Thank you for joining me on that quest.

murphandlou — Murph, left, and Lou Barlow, right, thrashing their way through a Dinosaur Jr. set.

Recalling that Dinosaur Jr. show at Codfish Hollow brings back a few vivid memories. I remember getting so sweaty that my glasses slid off my face and I had to get down on my knees to retrieve them before they got stomped. I remember J Mascis telling the crowd that if anyone wanted to hear the lyrics over the roar of the instruments, they should probably go outside the barn. I remember briefly considering scrambling onto the stage after the encore to nab Lou Barlow’s set list before someone else beat me to it.

And I remember stepping back out into the cool country air after the show ended. It was a perfect, late-summer night, and my wife and I felt refreshed as we made our way back to the car. And maybe it was just the post-show buzz, but I remember thinking there was nowhere else in the world I’d rather be than in rural Iowa on a rock road.

Let’s make it loud, Iowa.

Jmascisamps — J Mascis’s guitar amps loom backstage at Codfish Hollow in July 2016.