Saturday, May 19, 9 p.m.
Rock Island Brewing Company, 1815 Second Avenue, Rock Island IL
One of the most original forces in American music makes an eagerly anticipated May 19 appearance at the Rock Island Brewing Company, as the venue hosts a night with Tav Falco's Panther Burns, the blues and roots rockers who will soon enter their fifth decade of live performance. Its frontman was described by Robert Palmer in the New York Times as “a singer, guitarist, and researcher of musical arcane who hasn't let his idiomatic mastery and increasing technical expertise compromise the clarity of his vision.” Variety's Deb Sprague, meanwhile, said of Falco: “He was post-modern when post-modern wasn't cool.”
Raised in rural Arkansas, Falco embarked on his long and distinguished musical career upon arriving in Memphis in the mid-1970s. Teaming up with local music legend Alex Chilton in 1978, the duo formed Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, and despite Chilton’s exit from the live lineup in 1984, Panther Burns carried on to create a discography of 10 studio LPs, plus numerous EPs, live albums, and compilations. Frequent participants in the early-'80s club scene at The Peppermint Lounge and Danceteria in New York City, Tav Falco's Panther Burns continue to be the standard bearers of an evocative mélange of Southern Gothic-tinged roots rock that encompasses country, blues, tango, beat poetry, exotica, and performance art.
Artists who have referenced Panther Burns as one of their influences include the American alternative music artists Southern Culture on the Skids, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jack Oblivian, the Royal Pendletons, and The Gories. In Europe, neo-psychedelic groups influenced by the ensemble include England's Spacemen 3, Scotland's Primal Scream, and Italy's Time Machine. Having recently completed sessions in Rome for a new album, the touring lineup of Panther Burns in its RIBCO engagement will feature the same Italian players from that album: bassist Giuseppe Sangiradi, drummer Riccardo Colasante, musical director/producer/guitarist Mario Monterosso, and keyboardist Francesco D’Agnolo, a frequent session player for the legendary film composer Ennio Morricone.
Tav Falco's Panther Burns plays its 9 p.m. concert on May 19 with an opening set by The Krank Daddies, and more information on the evening is available by calling (309)793-1999 or visiting RIBCO.com.
