Arts DEVO

Major choonage One of Arts DEVO’s recurring duties, standing sentinel as he does at the gates of Chico’s arts maze, is to offer periodic guidance through the biggest of our little city’s labyrinths: the very busy and frequently fluid local-music scene.

It’s exhausting sometimes. It’s not the seeking and discovering of new choice local cuts that wears me out; it’s the unpacking and reforming of the whole scene into digestible jazz bites, punk snacks and indie-rock vittles that makes my eyes gloss over.

But today, I am both relieved and grateful to say that the Chico music scene has gone and done the work for me. Over the next week or so, there are three shows functioning as concentrated intros to the local techno, metal and country music scenes. All I gotta do sit in the back row and say, “The class is all yours”:

Ol’ Hawk Eye and the Buckaroo Girl Chico definitely produces more epic local metal lineups than the one being constructed around Seattle heavy-hitters Same-Sex Dictator Wednesday, Sept. 8, 7 p.m., but these three openers offer a perfect cross-section of what the scene has to offer, with samples of doom (Amarok), instrumental (Cold Blue Mountain) and Paradise (Epitaph of Atlas) metal. Plus, you earn bonus Chico cred just being seen at Ol’ Hawk Eyes Art Shackle—the all-ages arts/music warehouse space at 641 Nord Ave.

And next week (Saturday, Sept. 11), after the rubber and vomit of the previous weekend have been scrubbed off the river’s shores, Scotty’s Landing will feel like the center of the country-music universe when 13 of the area’s best gather for Honky Tonkin’ on the River, a benefit for Handi-Riders. Everything from harmonizing sister trio The Railflowers to 18-year-old cowgirl Adrian to Chico’s best bar band Three Fingers Whiskey will be on stage from noon to midnight.

Slow and low When it comes to any form of electronic dance music, I couldn’t be less qualified to speak … at least, not without being a jerky guitar snob. Thankfully, Sean-Michael Yoder, aka abstract_terrorist, aka the guy putting on the free Zocalo chill-out event at Café Flo Friday, Sept. 3, 6-9:30 p.m. (featuring performances by him and fellow electronic wizards Symbio and OILPANIC) is on hand to sub for me: Sean, you were saying …

Zocalo means “base” in Spanish, and I just wanted to evoke feeling of getting back to the base (like the old song by X) with a group of friends from around the region at a nice, friendly, tucked-away spot and also recall pleasant memories from the wild parties of legend at the old Zocalo Room. This group of friends also happens to dig on techno music—and not just for the energy but also the aesthetic so OILPANIC, Symbio and I are focusing our collective DJ energies on the mid- and downtempo aspects of the genre to allow the cinematic textures to unfold and perhaps capture the imagination and/or fancy of a few folks.

If nothing else, we hope to provide some ace choons for people getting off work after a long week allowing them to relax, grab a bite and get the holiday weekend started properly. I am 100 percent excited, that is for sure.

DEVOtions, Labor Day Retrovision version

The old-school good time sparked by last week’s 28th Day reunion show continues with two more reunions on the Duffy’s Tavern stage: Friday, Sept. 3, Chico faves The iMPS return to rock one of their most storied haunts; and two days later, Sunday, Sept. 5, adopted local son Bob Howard reconnects with his old drag-punk crew, the Transexpistols.