Weekend Picks: Matthew E White, Ava Luna, Mavis Staples, Joan Osborne, Hiss Golden Messenger, No BS! Brass Band, Souper Bowl 2

The indie/soul/rock of local boy done good, Matthew E White, will fill The Broadberry on Friday night. Tix are $12 in advance, $14 at the door. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. DJ Harrison will open the show. This is Matthew's last show of the year. He'll take a break for the holidays and then head to Australia and then the UK for a January tour. Here's Matthew's "Vision":



Ava Luna from NYC will play at Hardywood on Friday evening. It's FREE to get in. The tasting room opens at 4 and the music starts at 5:30 with openers Lucy Dacus and Manatree. Here's part of the press blurb for Ava Luna:

New York’s favorite ‘nervous soul’ outfit, Ava Luna began in 2007 when Carlos Hernandez, then a music composition student, set out to combine the heartfelt soul of Sly Stone and Shuggie Otis with the raw intensity of bands like Wire and The Raincoats. After self-releasing several EPs, their debut LP Ice Level was released in 2012 to a groundswell of support, lauded by Spin as “ice-cool vintage ’80s no wave grooves and extra-lush three-part girl group harmonies,” and by Pitchfork as “glorious.”

And their latest album, "Infinite House", was produced by Dave Fridmann, who has produced albums for Flaming Lips and Sleater-Kinney. Here they are performing "Plain Speech" at WOBC-FM earlier this year:

No BS! Brass Band is doing 4, count 'em, 4 shows at Balliceaux this weekend to celebrate the release of their new album, "Brass Knuckles". Tix are $10 in advance, $15 at the door for each show. Shows are Thursday & Friday at 10:30 PM, Saturday at 8:30 PM (all ages) and 11 PM. You'll hear lots of stuff from the new CD over these nights but here's their version of "Thriller" recorded last month:

Saturday at Max's Positive Vibe Cafe, it's Souper Bowl 2 featuring guest judge Larry Thomas aka the "Soup Nazi" from "Seinfeld". He'll decide which soup is best after tasting entries from fourteen local restaurants.  For $10, you can try samples of the soups yourself and listen to live music from The Cary Street Ramblers and The Hullabaloos. All proceeds benefit the Cafe's training program for people with disabilities. Here's the Ramblers doing "Hunting the Buffalo":

It's a night for great soul singers with Mavis Staples and Joan Osborne at Modlin Center for the Arts on Sunday night. Show starts at 7:30 and tix ranges from $22 to $45 depending on your demographic. Mavis and Joan will perform alone and together and it should be a treat. I don't usually do audience videos but I had to put this up. Here's Mavis, Joan and Bonnie Raitt doing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" two months ago at The Fillmore in SF.



Folk/pop/psychedelic/country singer-songwriter Hiss Golden Messenger will be at The Broadberry Monday night. Tix are $15. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with No BS! Brass Band because they didn't play enough over the weekend. You might dig Hiss Golden Messenger if you like Dave Rawlings, Wilco, Bright Eyes, Bon Iver, Bonnie "Prince" Billy or Iron & Wine. Here's Hiss Golden Messenger doing an acoustic version of a song I really like, "Saturday's Song":



That's it. Have a great weekend!

Here's the late, great Allen Toussaint performing The Band's "Life is a Carnival" at the Love for Levon benefit in 2012. Allen had arranged the horns for the version in "The Last Waltz". RIP Allen!



Tony Jordan