Mike D’s Top 5 Can’t Miss Shows of September

1. Sunday, September 10: Roky Erickson’s Psychedelic Ice Cream Social; 4 to 7pm; $15; All ages; POP, 219 W Park St, PVD. If you were like me, you were cursing the sky back in February 2014 when Roky and the Black Angels were canceled due to a couple inches of snow and a parking ban. It has been over three years, and the time for healing is finally upon us. Roky Erickson is a psych rock icon and doesn’t tour very often. He was in one of the very first psych bands, Austin’s The 13th Floor Elevators. Their debut single “You’re Gonna Miss Me” is outstanding in how it is still beautiful, unique and at the same time jarring 51 years later — a rare occasion of the pioneer setting the genre’s ceiling. This show will be Roky performing with his current band, The Hounds of Bakerville, and portions of the proceeds go to his neighbors, in Texas and Louisiana, who need relief from the unfortunate and powerful Hurricane Harvey. This is also the perfect pregame for the Descendents show. And if you haven’t been inside POP, southern New England’s best oddities shop hands down, then make sure to arrive early to poke around through great pieces of pop culture art from the last century.

2. Sunday, September 10: Descendents, Night Birds, Berri Txarrak; 7:30pm doors / 8:30pm show; $30 advance / $35 day of; All ages; The Strand Ballroom & Theatre, 79 Washington St, PVD. Descendents are back in Rhode Island for the first time in close to (or maybe actually little more than) 20 years and are the first rock show to kick off the newly renovated (and renamed) The Strand Ballroom & Theatre. The Strand was the original name of the space where Lupo’s and The Roxy were sharing, so its makes sense that after significant renovations to make it more of a theater, it goes back to its theater name.  The last time they were in town, the Descendents played at Lupo’s (version 2) with The Bouncing Souls and Swinging Utters, a show that was so much damn fun that I will never forget it. I saw them again a couple of years ago, and while time marches on the velocity of those punk classics remain timeless. Get there early to check out the new changes and opening acts Night Birds ( on Fat Wreck Chords and from NJ) and Berri Txarrak ( from the Basque Country?).

3. Saturday, September 23: Ocean State Oyster Festival 2017; 1-7pm; $25 advance / $30 day of (children under 12 free); All ages; 243 S Water St, PVD. While this isn’t a traditional concert or show, there will be live music and I am also slightly addicted to our area’s delicious and briny oysters. There is a popular saying, “Pizza is like sex, even when bad, it’s good.” I don’t agree with that, but I get why you could make a strong argument. Oysters, on the other hand, are not all created equal. If you have traveled (or gotten stuck with cheap Blue Point oysters locally) and tried oysters from outside of New England, you have likely had a mixed bag experience. I don’t bother taking the risk anymore (unless they are free I guess) and stay true to the local oysters. I go back and forth between whether I like East Beach Blondes or Matunucks better, but I look forward to trying whatever I can get my hands on here at this festival. Newport’s multi-genre juggernauts Z-Boys headline the live groups, which also includes in the line up Jesus Andujar, Grupo Sazon and The Whenzdays. Also Red Dawn, Unkle Thirsty, and Providence mod music empressario Ty Jesso will be spinning records. The best local oysters combined with some of the best local craft beers and cocktails should make for the last great summer outdoor event. The event is rain or shine, if rain, consider regrouping at one of my favorite bars The Wild Colonial, which is a hop and a jump away.

4. Wednesday, September 27: Dinosaur Jr., Easy Action; $27 advance / $30 day of; All ages; The Met, 1005 Main St, Pawtucket. Bless Dinosaur Jr. They are one of the few bands that have reunited, stay together and continue to make new music I want to actually listen to. Most of the revisited ’90s indie rock icons reunions are nothing more than going through familiar motions, and new music serves best as coasters, but not Dinosaur Jr. The 2012 release “I Bet on Sky” is right up there with their late ’80s / early ’90s classics for me, and their most recent “Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not” is also a fantastic record. Dino is playing their entire 1987 album, You’re Living All Over Me, at Riot Fest in Chicago a few weeks before, so I would expect to hear a heavy helping of that. Also I would expect an ungodly amount of volume; bring ear plugs.

5. Friday, September 29: Brian Wilson presents “Pet Sounds”; 8pm; $79 and up; All ages; Zeiterion, 684 Purchase St, New Bedford, Mass. Road trip! Did you forget to leave Providence this summer? Did you not go see The Beach Boys play in East Providence perhaps with Uncle Jesse because you wanted something more pure? Have you ever been to New Bedford? Solve many of these conundrums and more with a trip 45 minutes east. Hell, if its warm you could potentially combine this with a trip to Horseneck beach. And if you want the true experience, find marijuana (I think its legal in Mass? Or maybe that’s not til next year and its only decriminalized?), park downtown, inhale, find No Problemo (tell them A Wilhelm Scream sent you), get loaded at Pour Farm Tavern (tell them Raindance sent you), inhale, find Zeiterion and watch “Pet Sounds” fully enlightened. Bliss.

Also worth checking out :

Sep 7: The Shakes (Album Release) @Dusk
Sep 9: of Montreal @ The Met
Sep 12: Cold War Kids @ The Strand
Sep 12 Ne Hi / The Tapestries @ AS220
Sep 13: Bastille @ The Strand
Sep 14: Never Shout Never @ The Met
Sep 15: Bim Skala Bim / The Agents / Copacetics @ The Met
Sep 16: An Albatross / What Cheer Brigade / Hairspray Queen @ The Met
Sep 17: Arcade Fire @ TD Band Garden(Boston)
Sep 19: Matthew Sweet @ Narrows Center
Sep 22: George Clinton @ The Strand
Sep 23: The Spits @ Alchemy
Sep 23: Dave East @ The Strand
Sep 23: Quicksand @ The Paradise (Boston)
Sep 29: The Silks @ The Met