THE FRESNAN

BANDGEEK!: King Sugar, Jenny Owen Youngs, Patrick Contreras, Dopamina, JJ Brown and KFSR & Bel-Tower Benefits

Yet another nice weekend in Fresno for shows. We put some of them together for you to help figure out which ones might fit ya best. It's called... BANDGEEK!:

FRIDAY

FULTON 55: Fresno's ska/reggae kings King Sugar plus The White Glove Service and Fat Penguin:

THAI PALMS: Homegrown talents Session, Halfway There and The Long Black Veils:

ENGLEMANN CELLARS: Showcasing of JJ Brown and more:

THE NEXT BAR: Some Tulare bands live Above The Crows:

SATURDAY

BABYLON: Big free show put on by Diehardz Music and featuring Patrick Contreras, Mike Pinto, Checkered Past, Hot Shade and more:

BANDGEEK: Even With No Bel-Tower, Live Music In Fresno Still Rules!

After raising some money for a Downtown business to get its license to sell beer, you might as well go enjoy some live and local music. That's what we're here for. It's... BANDGEEK!!:

FRIDAY

KUPPAJOE'S: Rock and hardcore adjust to the "clean stage" of Kuppa, plaing is To Speak Of Wolves (Greensboro, NC), Write This Down (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Future Ghosts (Greensboro, NC), Phinehas (La Mirada) and Operazoo (Madera Ranchos). Info:

STARLINE: Fresno and Visalia blues rock meet to tear the stars off the walls of Starline with Electric Grease and Trey Tosh:

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: These are always a good time, as is anything Soulflower Group: 

FULTON 55:  

C.A.F.E. INFOSHOP: Nevermind what the flier says, it ain't happening at The Bel-Tower. This show has been moved to CAFE Infoshop (just don't tell the fuzz). Show features locals like Sci-Fi Caper, Still Stoked and The Velisha:

Maybe We Should Just Shut Our Stupid Blogger Face

Just as a small update, after the big meeting Monday, The Bel-Tower is still closed. Yes, there is hope they can work it out but... well, we should stay positive but experience says not to hold your breath. The city doesn't make things easy to run a venue, no matter how many times they say they're cutting more red tape. A meeting with the Fresno Fire Department Wednesday will yield more info.

In a related thought, Famous Whitewater's post about The Bel-Tower got us thinking and commenting: Maybe we should just shut our nerd-trap about shows at DIY places like The Bel-Tower. These venues are sorta meant to be underground and not listed on Fresno's mainstream blogs - yeah we're not mainstream but work with us here.

Not saying a lot of people read this blog but it just takes one sorta Internet savvy city official, cop, (or big venue owner that's getting annoyed that these kids are putting on all these shows and not paying the same permit fees they're paying) to read about all the shows happening and call the city to go over there and shut it down.

We saw on the facebooks that a lot of the Bel-Tower shows are getting moved to another DIY venue, a place we know. But now we don't want to post the info and make it easier to find THAT venue and inadvertently help shut IT down... what to do, what to do...

Meeting Today Could Decide Whether The Bel-Tower Stays Open

Over the weekend, the Fresno PD and Alcohol Beverage Control, shut down all ages music venue The Bel-Tower. Citing a lack of proper permits. Bel-Tower volunteers are meeting at Noon today with ABC to see what can be done to re-open the place. Fresno PD and the City Of Fresno has never been to welcoming to all ages clubs, but hopefully something can get worked out. We'd hate to lose a music venue in town.

The Bel-Tower folks put a humble video together - very much worth watching - to illustrate what they mean to the all-ages music crowd:

BANDGEEK!: Shitass. Just HAD to pick THIS weekend to leave town... dammit.

Wow, man. This is just a HORRIBLE weekend to be out of town. Hor_rib_le. Both Friday and Saturday are packed out with big quality local talent. Insane stuff for those staying around, having fun in the 'no. Lucky bastards. The fun is explained below... BANDGEEK!!:

FRIDAY

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Professional musician (in every sense) Patrick Contreras has pretty much done it all locally. Yeah, I know what you're thinking "Well he doesn't know the first thing about dubstep." UP YOURS! You are wrong, my friend. He's been trying that too and he'll be doing some of it tonight:     

KUPPAJOE'S: You were hopefully informed about this show earlier in the week. PK is premireing a new video for the song "Seawolves" plus they're playing with My Beautiful Surrender (Clovis) and The Roos (Visalia). Details:

FULTON 55: For some reason F55 wants to say thanks to Fresno. They're doing it with a free show from Fierce Creatures, Coast Jumper (SF) and the Quiet Americans. Stay classy, Fulton 55. [Free, 9pm, 21+]

THE BEL-TOWER: It's Doll Hair Fest II with a giant lineup of random crazy localness with Checkered Past, Restaurnaut, Still Stoked, Cabin Fire (Just signed to a Portland label), Sci-Fi Caper and more (check the event page for full details). Seriously it's a lot of acts, only a dollar, check it. [$1, 6-Midnight, All Ages]

THAI PALMS: The home growing continues with soon to be big Fields Of Prey plus Corsair and Rise Before The Fall:

THE CYC: Dude if Jabba The Hut has a bounty on your ass, best not go to this show as it seems bounty hunter, Boba The Fett, will be in attendance. The flier says "no disintigration" but it doesn't say anything about freezing people in carbonite:

BABYLON: We don't believe this to be Hands That Kill's last Fresno show... but go as if it is... that's really how we should treat all shows, right?

SATURDAY

STARLINE: These dudes, 40 Watt Hype, never ever disappoint. This may be true of Clouded Vision and Kevin Hayashi but we need more info:

BANDGEEK!: The Bel-Tower Needs Help and The Mallard Migrates Back To Fresno

In case you didn't see this over on Fresno Famous or on Facebook this week; local DIY venue, The Bel-Tower, has had a bad few days. Obviously the most tragic is the death of local promoter, musician and Bel-Tower volunteer, Ariel Gieseman. She was killed in a fog related accident near Hanford. Our hearts go out to her friends and family.

Also, The Bel-Tower needs to get some expensive code-related repairs done soon and are never rolling in cash given the nature of this kind of place. They're asking for some donation help in order to keep things running, hopefully we can all help out soon.

Alright, let's change the mood here and start looking forward to some shows this weekend. Let's BANDGEEK!!

FRIDAY

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Big one right here. Sorta Fresno band, The Mallard, comes to town. As you can learn from Fresno Famous, Fresno natives Greer McGrettrick and Dylan Tidyman-Jones lead this now Bay Area band. They'll be partying for their EP release and stopping by to do stuff with them is Aussie band, Woollen Kits, and Portland band The Woolen Men. Fresno's Quiet Americans will be playing and rethinking why the didn't call themselves The Woolen Americans. [$5, 9pm, 21+]

KUPPAJOE'S: A big night of local hardcore type stuff with Infinite, The Day I Ate The Moon, Signals (actually they're from Tuscon), Bridges and Swimming With Tsunamis. Info:

FULTON 55: Southern California American Rock band Lukas Nelson and the Real. They've been on David Letterman and Jay Leno and soon to be from Fulton 55's stage:

FULL CIRCLE BREW: We told you about the nice folks at Food Not Bombs putting on their yearly benefit show. Just remember there's beer, food, and music from Blake Jones & The Trike Shop and the David Hull Band and an awesome flier:

THE BEL-TOWER: Fresno's Sci-Fi Caper claims this show is going to be "badical". Big claims, big. Maybe not though with this lineup, it truly is badical:

THAI PALMS: Singing and songwritting fool, Tommy Marquez. Plus Madera alt rock band All Nite Pilots and Sound Awake:

THE LAMP POST:

STARLINE: Kris Devold (comedian and former Fresno morning show host, now podcaster) will be MC-ing this Fresno metal show with 3 Foot Chain, Gods & Kings and Trial. [9pm, $6, 21+]

Music In Fresno Tonight: Tuscon Rock, Xerxes and Code Orange Kids

The Bel-Tower: Nice enough to come all the way from Tucson is Signals. Locals Troubled By Insects, The Milford Higgins and Restaurnaut will be filling things out... hopefully. We say hopefully because we heard the drummer and bass player for The Milford Higgins left the band on Tuesday - maybe Eli Reyes (a drummer in, like, six local bands) is looking to pick up a new one.

The CYC: Locals Cabin Fire plus traveling dudes Code Orange Kids and Xerxes. And maybe a surprise or two:

Get hard (you can take that however you want to) with some Code Orange Kids:

BANDGEEK!: Big Sandy, Patrick's Back, Restaurnaut, Death Motor Cults and Angels

Sorry for the halfass-ness of this week's "Bandgeek" post. We were busy Thursday night with drinking messing up our podcast and we didn't do up Bandgeek as much as usual. But hey, you'll still get the gist of what's happening this weekend... It's BANDGEEK!:

FRIDAY

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: The return of Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys:

KUPPAJOE'S: You may or may not know this but Hello Astronaut, Amoret and Vegas Is North are three of Fresno's most underrated music acts. No joke. Not sure about Love Is or Mayfield though. Go:

C.A.F.E. Infoshop: If you like locals Restaurnaut and Cabin Fire (which you damn well should) you'll like the rest of this show too:

FULTON 55: Big Birthday or Anniversary show for Fulton 55. It's been one year of greatness for Fulton 55 and this local themed show matches up with Patrick Contreras. We don't get a chance to see Patrick enough anymore as he seems to have tuned down the amount of shows, so that makes this one so much more special doesn't it!? Plus, the local band that sold out F55: 40 Watt Hype. Also playing, Doc's Holiday, whom are very awesome. It's a perfect show, basically. [FREE!, 9:30, 21+]

STARLINE:

BANDGEEK!: Metal Coffee, Audie's Birthday, Home Grown Rock, Checkered Pasts, Meth and Abbey Road

Painfully searching for what bands are up to this weekend and filtering it into one Fresno music filled post to produce what's affectionately called... BANDGEEK!!:

FRIDAY

KUPPAJOE'S: Get some metalcore in your coffee with Art By Numbers (Kerman), Catharsus (Visalia), Me The Mountain (San Jose), Drag Me To Shore (Madera Ranchos) and CGR (Madera):

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: We already gave you a preview of this one. It's Audie's birthday weekend and he's celebrating with rising Portland blues/rock/physcobilly band Hopeless Jack & The Handsome Devil. Plus strong local stuff from Poor Man's Poison and The Giddy-ups:

THAI PALMS: In celebration of their local music show, Home Grown, New Rock 104.1 has teamed up with Art Silva to do some local rock shows every Friday. Tonight has From The Fallen, Bully The Kid and Soul Intact. Check it:

FULTON 55: Long time funk and soul band whom started the East Bay Grease sound: Lydia Pense and Cold Blood plus Cupcake & the Creapers. Tickets. Details:

THE BEL-TOWER: All punk and reggae and local with Checkered Past, Drunx In Public, Still Stoked and The White Glove Service:

Music In Fresno Tonight: Outlaws & Hardcores

@ Audie's Olympic: Country music has cast them out. Shunned them. Told them "We don't like yer kind 'round these parts. Either you'n play country music liken we wantn ya ta, or else we shut yous up fer good." Well these bands refused to conform. That's why they are forever branded as... OUTLAW COUNTRY! The Dan Family (Fort Worth TX), 800 Mile Monday (Lubbock TX) and Walker & The Texas Dangers (Weatherford TX) will make an outlaw out of you ifn ya go:

@ The Bel-Tower: Touring and local hardcore metal will be the soundtrack to many a circle pit at the BT tonight. Performing is Pillars, A Hope Not Forgotten, Prestige, Brotherhood, In Search Of Oblivion, Forever Rising, We Sunk the Mayflower and Limits. Info:

BANDGEEK!: Lezayring, Steak Rock, Pawns, Covenants, Subterraneans, Eagle Tributes and Mud Mouths

Back to back holiday weekends are cool and all, but it's good to have all the regular venues back and in show-having order - especially for the all-ages folk. So let's see what's out there to choose from. Let's BANDGEEK!!:

FRIDAY

KUPPAJOE'S: One of Fresno best bands, Lezayr, plus Siren Singing, Via Verde (Fullerton), Clockwork Hero (Stockton) and Tommy Marquez:

JOE'S STEAKHOUSE: Fresno's The Dirty Stomp and Panama Lane rock the bull by the horns in the back room of Joe's:

THAI PALMS: Local rock, presented by New Rock 104.1, with Pawn, Homebrew and This Planet Prelude. Details:

CLUB RETRO: A night of deathcore and stuff like that there with locals Messenger Of The Covenant, a EP release from he.cried.wolf and more:

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: A 5:30 happy hour starts with Glen Delpit and the Subterraneans. Then later, come back (or stay drunk) to see local funk, jazz and rock with The Experience w/ Ray Moore & Eva Scow, HR7 & David Hull. [9pm, $5, 21+]

BANDGEEK!: Saturday Night Is Insane, Like It Should Be, For NYE. Friday... not so much

This is the most thin we've seen a Friday night in Fresno, like, ever. New Year's Eve on Saturday sorta makes up for it but jeezzz. Whatever you do, don't drive dirty 'cause Chief "Retire? Who, Me?" Jerry Dome will be waiting for you.

Happy Damn New Year, Fresnans! Hope you've been able to use this post once or twice this year. Enough talk. Let's... BANDGEEEEEK!:

FRIDAY

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Merced reggae rock from the B-Side Saints plus Fresno's Valley Of Ashes and Checkered Past. Info:

  

THE HOLLOW: Cool little Clovis show popped up, only all ages show tonight. It's with Ever Chasing Daylight, Hushwreck, Tiger Lily and Cabin Fire. [Free, 6-10pm, All Ages]

THE NEXT BAR: Bandgeek... geeks will notice this is the first appearance of The Next Bar in Bandgeek. That's because they've got a pretty damn good show happening with Fresno's Bully The Kid and I Do Not Exist. Plus Merced's Stigmurder. [$?, Doors 8pm, 21+]

SATURDAY

STARLINE: Fresno’s own Beatle tribute band: The Beetles, will be putting on a special New Years Eve event. They'll perform, from start to finish, The Beatle’s acclaimed 1965 album: Rubber Soul. “Even after all these years, there were a handful of songs from this record that we’d never performed live,” says drummer Stan Schaffer. “We took a lot of time deciphering the vocal harmonies. With all of their other qualities as songwriters, etc., we forget what a great vocal band The Beatles were. We’re looking forward to sharing these tunes on New Year’s.” [$20, Doors 8:30 - music 9:30, 21+]

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: If select Fresno bands were needed to form a Megatron, these three bands would be used for sure: Strange Vine, 40 Watt Hype and Motel Drive. Insanely all three of these outfits are playing a special New Year's Eve party at Audie's. The question is who would be the headliner of these three:

FULL CIRCLE BREWING CO: Local folk and blues legend, Evo Bluestein, join rising locals Old Tire Swingers and Doc's Holiday for a special folksy New Year's Eve. Perfect kinda venue for this lineup too:

THE RANCH: NYE is not just for the 21+, it's for everyone that wants to drink... or go to awesome shows in Clovis (of all places). Achievement House, the Quiet Americans, Light Thieves, Goreshack (look out) and Farooq. Info:

BABYLON: Looking like the Friday night show at the Next Bar with Bully The Kid and I Do Not Exist both playing. But it changes up with Fresno rock reggae act Valley Of Ashes and hard rock Fresnans Hammer Down Sindrum. Possibly Murder My Hero is playing but it doesn't seem like it. [$8, 8pm, 21+]

THE LAMP POST: Self professed stoner rock singer, Damien LaFrance, playing with fellow Fresnans The Current. [$?, 8pm, 21+]

FULTON 55: There's no bands involved but the flier is too cool... and so is the name Collecto. Details.

BANDGEEK!: Revelators Release In Style, Lezayr gets Retro with B-Rawcity, The Burners are rock steady Hooligans and Zombies get a Dirty Sanchez

This post is for finding where bands are doing stuff in Fresno purposes only. It's not to be used to pick up chicks or be read while on any hallucinogens... cause that be a waste of good hallucinogens. It's Bandgeek!:

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Big CD release party for Fresno's Style Like Revelators. They are playing with Sacramento's I'm Dirty Too and, of course, out very own Westerns. Details:

CLUB RETRO: Big mix of stuff with Visalia's The Roos, Fresno awesome hip-hop artist B-Rawcity, badass Fresno alt rockers Lezayr, Merced pop from Rudy De Leon and Dinuba's Total Reliance. Info:

CYC: Touring post-hardcore pop-punk and stuff like that with Epitaph Record's Set Your Goals, plus This Time Next Year, The Story So Far, The Sheds (Agoura Hills) and Souvenirs. [$12, 6pm, All Ages]

THE BEL-TOWER: The Bel-Tower is in the giving mood as you will only pay $1 for 7 bands tonight. Bands: The Speed of Sound in Seawater (Elk Grove, CA),  Hail the Sun (Chico, CA), Sci-Fi Caper, Maximo, Restaurnaut, Al Bundy and Cabin Fire. [$1, 5:30, All Ages]

FULTON 55: If you know what an Exiting Posada and Christmas party is then maybe you'll understand what's going on at Fulton tonight more than us. It's Posada Cumbia & Rock N Roll with Fresno's Spanish rock band, La Sambina. Check out the details.

SATURDAY

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Local ska is always the best ska with Los Hooligans and The Burners:

STARLINE: Obviously we've got a White Zombie tribute band going on here - if they play any solo Rob Zombie, WE'RE OUT! Locals the Dirty Sanchez and Gutterfish will open it up. Details:

CYC: Fresno, please give a 'core welcome to Dennis Is Dead (Union City) and Australia's As Silence Breaks. Locals ITheDeciever, The Art Of War, Impale The Warfare and Bound By Aura will be there to help you welcome.

FORBIDDEN TATTOO: Share ink stories with DirtheaD (Bakersfield), Meloman (Delano), Merduh the Innocynce, Narcodix, SyKoSiK, Asylum and Big Smoke. [$6, 4-10pm, All Ages]

SUNDAY

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: San Luis Obispo thrash metal band, Meth Leppard with The Mentors (Bako "porno" rock) and Fresno's Cousin Fister:

C.A.F.E. INFOSHOP: Are The Milford Higgins and Goat really on the same bill? Kickass wierdness is what that is. Oh wait, it's not Fresno's Goat? Well... still kickass, guess. They'll both be there with Clouds On A String. [$3, Time?, All Ages]

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Well that's what we found. If you know of a local band playing, or even a weekend event that's not on here or you want to pimp or muse about what IS on here, please use the comment section of this post to its fullest!

Support Fresno's music scene!

Future flier/show submissions, email: [email protected]

BANDGEEK!: Norma Jean, Lybecker, Records, Basically Journey, Morning Teleportation, Art Silva Day, Jailbreak and the return of The Overdubs!

Friday night is crazy with shows. Saturday night is nice too. Real nice for.... BANDGEEK-ing!

CLUB RETRO: One of the biggest shows we've seen come to Retro. We know that Fresno's Your Hero Is A Villain has been ancy as hell to get this one going with popular Georgia metalcore band Norma Jean. Plus Oh Sleeper (Fort Worth), Close Your Eyes (Texas), Stray From The Path (New York hardcore) and Lower Than Atlantis (Hertfordshire, UK rock):

KUPPAJOES: We thinks maybe Lybecker must really like Fresno or something. We want to say this is like the 4th maybe 5th time the Seattle rock band has been through Fresno. Also playing are a bunch of locals like Saving Temperance, My Beautiful Surrender, Mercy Fists and Sactown's Joshiah James:

AUDIE'S OLYMPIC: Give it up to the Soulflower Group, continuing to come up with interesting shows for Fresno to enjoy:

FULTON 55: Isn't the real touring Journey already sorta of a tribute band? Yep. So why not go to this, it's like really really seeing them. Tickets and info:

THE BEL-TOWER: Thrash and grind tonight, Fresnans, with Buried At Birth, Drag Me Under and:

Music In Fresno Tonight: The American Scene, Lions!Tigers!Bears!, Design The Skyline and Salvador Santana

At the CYC, Religious Appeal presents Bay Area pop-punk band The American Scene touring with East Bay's Troubled Coast and joined tonight by Fresno's RMS Olympic.

Over at The Bel-Tower, Under City Lights presents Victory Record's Texas deathcore band: Design The Skyline. Plus popular Northridge alt-rock band Lions!Tigers!Bears!. This is some pretty big stuff for Bel-Tower, should be packed out. Also there is Capture The Flag (Bend, Oregon), Fresno's ITheDeciever, Woodlake's Limits, Fresno's Brotherhood and One Shot One Kill.

For the older folk, at Fulton 55, it's Salvador Santana. [8pm, $12, 21+]