The fever, ‘Drivetrain’ & Mannequin Makeout

by Lindsay Nelson

The arrival of warm weather lately in Durango has brought with it a sense of urgency. Ambitions and plans that have lain dormant during the long brown winter are suddenly sprouting up from the thawing ground like the first spring daffodils. If you’re not worried about the condition of your quads for hiking, your tires for biking, or your tummy for bikinis, you’ve been staying indoors too much. Suddenly there’s pressure to get the garden tilled, to buy new Chacos and maybe a puppy. You think about buying a house, then you sober up and decide to renew your lease. Old Spring Fever is here to get you moving. Of course, by the time you read this, it may be 35 degrees with snow flurries. Don’t pack up your fleece just yet.

With these record high temperatures so early in the season (spring just officially started yesterday), and record cold and snow in the Midwest and East, wildfires in California, it all makes you wonder – is it global warming, or is Mother Nature just having a laugh on us? If it is this “global warming” thing, is it our fault or just those damn flatulent bovines? These are the questions that plague us modern humans. That and who’ll win “American Idol.”

Indeed, (see above) music is in danger of dying. Well, not the music itself but our ability to discover and delight in it. Corporate conglomerate radio stations, $20 CDs and lawsuits over free mp3 sharing all combine to threaten the way we listen to and make music. Happily for us, the folks at KDUR radio are fighting the good fight for free-form, diverse and fully independent radio. This week, the station is raising money and signing up new members to help support the station – important work that can be dreary, but they try hard to make it fun, at least for you listeners. Tonight, March 22, the folks at KDUR bring the only Four Corners screening of the film “Before the Music Dies,” which deals with that very issue – whether or not corporate influence on the music industry is strangling musical innovation. Performances and interview with Erykah Badu, Calexico, Dave Matthews, North Mississippi Allstars, Eric Clapton and many more great artists are featured. Doors at the Abbey open tonight at 6 p.m., free for KDUR DJs and members (the noninitiated public is welcome, too, for $7). And did I mention free pints for the first 50 entrants? The movie starts at 7 p.m. Be there.

It’s not every day you get to see two nationally known and highly divergent musical acts in one weekend. Beginning Friday, you can catch David Bromberg with Angel Band, for an unparalleled performance of American music – virtuoso string instrumentation in genres from bluegrass to blues, folk and rock ‘n’ roll. Bromberg is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics and has played with Jerry Jeff Walker and Bob Dylan. The show begins at 7 p.m. at the Community Concert Hall at FLC. Then, on Sunday, be someone who can say you saw .38 Special on their Drivetrain Tour of 2007. Good ole’ Donnie Van Zandt says the band’s new record “Drivetrain” is “greasy, loud and proud” – just like him! Well, anyway, let the music scream for itself. The Concert Hall has them Sunday night, and tickets are going fast. Really.

.38 Special

If that’s a bit rich for your blood (all that grease, you know), you can still rock steady. Sunday night down at the Abbey Theatre is Mannequin Makeout, a totally punk event with The Freeman Social and In a Day. Hope your Mom lets you stay up late, because the noise doesn’t start until 10. Slam-dancing til 2 a.m. on a school night? F-in’ A!

Friday night you can head over to the Billygoat Saloon for everyone’s favorite farmer rock ‘n’ Western band, The Beautiful Losers, from way West in Montezuma County. Here in the big, gridlocked, overgrown city of Durango, you may want to catch tribal psychedelic rock band Kan’Nal at the Durango Arts Center on Friday night, if you can find a parking space. “Primal rhythm, swirling dancers, ancient instruments and futuristic technologies blend with mythic archetypes and alternative rock to create a musical, visual, sensual experience,” which, of course, means you must rat up your ponytail, don a crushed velvet peasant skirt and dab on a smidge of patchouli for a night of vegetarian air-groping and twirly dancing of the sort seldom seen outside of Rainbow gatherings.

Don’t be like me: go see the movies that are good, instead of just thinking about it. Right now it’s “Black Snake Moan” you need to check out. Christina Ricci is an abused, crazed nymphomaniac in tiny little cutoff jeans, and Samuel L Jackson means well but also uses chains to show his disturbed charge the way of the Lord. It’s hot and dirty and Southern, and it’s playing at the local independent movie theater right now.

Don’t forget the sunscreen. Lindsay_damico@yahoo.com. •