If you can hack it into the late night, the people at Outside Lands have set up quite the impressive line-up of night shows - 12 of them - at various venues throughout the city. OSL night shows offer those who either can’t afford or don’t have time to attend the all day festival an affordable (shows range from $10-$25) option to preview some of the festival's biggest draws. Here's our roundup of the best night shows this week. For the complete list of night shows, click here.
The Dodos & Spencey Dude & The Doodles, Rickshaw Stop, Wednesday (8/26):
It’s really no surprise that these local indie superheroes have the only sold out night show so far. The Dodos have quite the local cult following with huge rallies of support. Gear up for lots of live tracks from their sophomore album, Visiter, which has met grand approval across the board from fans and critics alike. If someone in the music biz owes you a favor, use it up to get in to this show.
Akron/Family & Howlin’ Rain, Rickshaw Stop, Thursday (8/27):
If you can’t make it to the festival on Friday, get on down to The Rickshaw Stop Thursday night for this OSL night show. Their live shows are the stuff of legend and Akron/Family's impeccable improvisation and folk-infused psych-rock style will no doubt blow your mind.
Street Sweeper Social Club, AmpLive feat. Trackademicks & K. Flay, The Independent, Friday (8/28):
A clear absence of hip-hop this year and sudden cancellation of the Beastie Boys at OSL makes this show easily the best and most anticipated of the underrepresented genre. Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave’s guitarist, Tom Morello and Boots Riley (of The Coup) have teamed up for this quite unusual genre-bending take on what Morello calls, “revolutionary party jams.” Street Sweeper itself has acclaimed quite the press with their album release back in June. Blend that with Zion I’s DJ, AmpLive spinning a set featuring Trackademicks (of E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” remix fame) and hip-hop songstress K. Flay, and really there are no words to express how wild this show is going to get. Bring your party pants, dancing shoes, or whatever and see what this crazy lineup has to offer.
Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band, Her Space Holiday, Mezzanine, Saturday (8/29): The gentle romantic known for his lyrical expression of self-destructive behavior has all the ladies (and gentlemen) swooning for his croon. Conor Oberst is touring with The Mystic Valley Band with whom he began writing songs with just recently. This collaboration should make for an interesting stage show, but definitely won’t disappoint Oberst super-fans.
Calexico & Sergio Mendoza y La Orkestra, The Independent, Saturday (8/29): Based out of Tucson, Calexico has changed gears more times than we can count. From lo-fi to ambient, Latin-jazz and electronica-infused high power energy, they’ve covered it all. Despite their clear lack of direction, Calexico never ceases to amaze and empower. Their last release, Carried To Dust, came out in 2008, but they’ve got so much material, we’re eager to see their set live. This one will definitely be a crowd pleaser.
Amanda Blank, Ariel Pink & Gang Gang Dance, Rickshaw Stop, Sunday (8/30): Hailed as the new and better Lady Gaga, Amanda Blank is garnishing tons of press for her unabashedly bold and often raunchy club jams. Diplo and Switch produced and Santigold co-wrote her first album, I Love You, out now on Downtown Records. This show might be worth going to just to peep how her live show compares to the high-energy, well-produced album.
