Just another week at One Eyed Jacks.

In recent months, One Eyed Jacks has become one of my favorite venues in town. This week along I saw two great shows. They always offer great music that no one else in the city seems to attract.

Heartless Bastards
On Wednesday I saw the Cincinnati trio rock for the second time. The first time I saw them (also at One Eyed Jacks) I was absolutely blown away by how tight they were, how great they sounded, and how shy but simultaneously powerful lead singer Erika Wennerstrom was. This show was much of the same. There were many many more people in the crowd this time which was great to see, and Erika had a little bit of a buzz on.

Ok, that's stretching the truth. She sat at the bar during the entire opening band (Pearlene, also from Cincinnati and pretty good) and by the time she got on stage she was allegedly "very drunk, but hey, ain't New Orleans the place to be drunk? wooooo!" Surprisingly, she still put on a great show, albeit dropping picks, stopping songs because she's out of tune, etc.

They played a new song which was very mellow. This is a little worrisome to me. Listening to the first and then second album, it's obvious that they did a lot of songwriting and innovating between albums. However, I hope that doesn't mean that they will continue to mellow out. Songs like "Brazen" and "Into The Open" are fantastic and some of my favorite. Either way, good show.

The Comas
The Comas opened for the Meat Puppets. The only reason I mention them is their stage antics. They weren't great. They weren't unlistenable, but it was few and far between those in the crowd that were really paying attention much less getting into it. They played sloppily, they ignored the crowd, it was just not a well run show. Before the second to last song the singer decided to announce to the crowd that we sucked and we're nothing but dead weight that was pissing him off. Forget those guys. Avoid the Comas. That's what happens when you take a regional at best band out of their region.

The Meat Puppets
Great great great show. Both Kirkwood brothers were present and they were both obviously having a good time. They went all over the place: punk, country, psychedelic rock, and everywhere in between. I was never able to see the Minutemen or fIREHOSE so it was awesome to see the Meat Puppets, who typically fall between these two bands and bands like Sonic Youth and The Pixies. The crowd was interesting. It was full of hipsters, older guys, frat guys, young guys, and hippies. I can explain most of them, but I don't understand the frat guys. Either way, I have now seen the Meat Puppets. Great show.