Black Wizard Feb 27, then again in April

I've seen Black Wizard at least a couple of times, now - once at the Interurban Gallery in 2011, for Johnny De Courcy's final show with them, with bev davies in attendance, and once opening for Bison a few years ago at the Rickshaw, I believe it was. Both were really solid and enjoyable shows, but they kinda seemed like two different bands: the first was a bunch of skinny hip kids, the second was a bunch of shaggy, sweaty, vaguely intimidating men. The first band seemed like they had potential, the second seemed like they were well on their way to realizing it, and their music was considerably tougher, like they'd been spending their off hours chopping wood or something. They had almost (I thought at the time) added a bit of a Southern-fried quality to what they did (Skynyrd, Outlaws, what-have-you, but heavy and muscular. Maybe it's just that they kinda had hair that reminded me of the Allman Brothers?).

Anyhow, I'm totally excited about their upcoming show at the Rickshaw, though it looks like I won't be doing much beyond this to plug it... Still, every band on the bill sounds pretty damned good to me: Man the Wolf, Mos Generator, Anciients and Waingro, plus, fuckin' hell, check out New Waste by Black Wizard... It's like these guys are all informed by a single thought: "what kind of music do people actually want to own on vinyl these days? Let's make some!" 

Photo: Black Wizard, April 2011 at the Interurban, by bev davies 

Plus hey, it looks like Black Wizard and Bison will be opening for Red Fang their next time up here, at the Venue... That could be a must-see, too (and don't you just love the gig poster?). Much as I like the Venue - especially now that they seemed to have toned down their coplike security vibe a bit - it sure seems like an incongruous place for a band as, shall we say, earthy-looking as Bison to play. But now that I think of it, the first ever Bison gig I went to, back when their new album was still Earthbound (!), was at the Plaza, which BECAME the Venue! (Bearing in mind that it will be a completely different rhythm section this time out, though it's interesting to note that while the Venue has gotten much prettier, Bison, uh, has kinda gone in the opposite direction...). That was where I bought my first of many Bison t-shirts, with a crude cartoon of some corpsey-looking guy riding a bison and brandishing a sword. It looks like something drawn by a high school student in the back of his textbook... I still have that shirt in my closet...

Anyhow, couple of gigs to be excited about... Maybe I'll actually attend them...