Steel Rhythms | Jonathan Scales Fourchestra
Tues. June 4
9 p.m.
Free
Pour House
Jonathan Scales started playing the steel pan in college when his friends convinced him to join the Appalachian State steel band. Fortunately for everyone else, it was love at first ping. Since then, the steel pan player and the leader of the Jonathan Scales Fourchestra has won over the jam band world with his brand of smooth tropical jazz. Scales and company have also gotten the chance to play with Béla Fleck & the Flecktones’ Victor Wooten and Howard Levy. Come on, we know you’re jealous. “It was a dream come true working with Victor,” Scales says. “Listening to Béla Fleck & the Flecktones religiously was a huge part of my development as a musician, so it’s really unbelievable to have one of my role models work with us.” The Fourchestra breaks the mold with their innovative improv style, mixing contemporary grooves with that old-school rhythmic flavor. Scales explains, “We are a steel pan-fronted jazz-fusion power trio on a wild ride through rhythm, harmony, and melody.” —Kalyn Oyer TUESDAY
Two-Man Sludge | Compel
w/ The 33’s, Favor the Heart, Greenseer, and An Era of Echoes
Sun. June 2
6 p.m.
$10
Oasis
The first side of Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is the best slice of bottom-heavy jam ever. From the opening title track to the death-by-sexy groove of “Sabbra Cadabra,” the four songs are Sabbath at their cocaine-all-night, drop-acid-all-day peak, and few bands have the balls to tackle them. And then there’s Compel, Summerville’s duo of instrumental doom. Last fall, they released a killer cover of Sab’s “National Acrobat,” and even without vocals, they nail it. “That song in particular has always been my favorite Sabbath song and the riffs are timeless,” says guitarist Joe Horne. “It was our way of paying homage and respect to the fellows that paved the way for our style of play. We just added our own flavor to it.” Drummer Tim Davis adds, “There are tons of ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Paranoid’ covers, so we wanted to choose something a little more unique.” Compel also has a pretty rock-solid self-titled three-song EP under their belt, featuring one track that goes over the 20-minute mark. “I’m sure you’ve heard a song before where a riff starts playing and right when you really start to get into it, it’s over,” Davis says. “We try to not leave our listeners hanging like that.” The Summerville metal heads have plans to release a new EP this July. Stay tuned. —Chris Haire SUNDAY
Groovy Funk | Dank Sinatra
w/ Wadata
Sat. June 1
10 p.m.
$8/adv., $10/door
Pour House
Athens, Ga.’s indie-rock cred is well established, thanks to bands like R.E.M., the B-52s, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Of Montreal. But if you want a taste of the city’s funk scene, you can’t do much better than Dank Sinatra. The groovy, improv-heavy sextet is firmly rooted in the smoother sides of funk, blues, and jazz, with a healthy dose of jam and electronica thrown in. “We always try to keep an open mind when it comes to incorporating different styles and genres into our own original work,” says Dank Sinatra’s singer and keyboardist Matt Henderson. “As of late, we’ve all been focusing on looking back to the roots of our individual instruments and influences to find out who they were influenced by and so on down the line. We try to … create a new and unique style of our own, though no matter what, we always try to get people moving and feeling good out in the crowd.” Though the group’s live shows, with their Grateful Dead-worthy jams, are their trademark, Dank Sinatra has been working on a new studio release for the past six months or so. It’ll be the second album for the band, following 2011’s Just Charlesin’. —Elizabeth Pandolfi SATURDAY
Easy Listening Alt-Rock | Sister Hazel
w/ Amy Gerhartz and Joe Backman
May 31-June 1
9:30 p.m.
$25
Windjammer
Some Charlestonians just can’t seem to forget Sister Hazel. While most of us know the Gainesville, Fla. band for their 1997 soft-alt hit “All for You,” the Holy City’s Hazelnuts know full well that Sister Hazel is still going strong — they’ve released six studio albums since the glory days of Hootie rock, including 2010’s Americana-inspired Heartland Highway, and they are the band responsible for today’s rock cruise fad. This weekend, Sister Hazel will perform three sets as part of the 8th annual Hazelnut Hang at the Windjammer on the Isle of Palms, and you can purchase tickets for the entire festival ($179.99), which includes a medley of beachy fun activities and live music, or tickets for each Sister Hazel show, including the $20 acoustic set at noon on Sunday. —Brooks Brunson STARTS THURSDAY
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