There is a distinct kind of magic reserved strictly for Cat’s Cradle Backroom—where the low end rattles your sternum before it even hits the back wall. Karina Rykman rolled through Carrboro with fresh tracks from Late Checkout, a blistering set from openers Wax Monkey, and enough four-string firepower to cure any case of the Sunday scaries.
Review and Photography by Thom HooperBright Eyes with Lullaby for the Working Class | The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC | October 10, 2026 The drive into Asheville on Saturday evening was anything but pleasant, as torrential rain battered the interstate, leaving substantial amounts of standing water across the roadway and creating conditions where hydroplaning was... Continue Reading →
Experience pure superhero ska-punk energy as The Aquabats! hit The Underground in Charlotte, NC on their Gigantish Tour 2026, alongside Crazy and the Brains and sullvn. Read the full concert review!
Experience pure superhero ska-punk energy as The Aquabats! hit The Underground in Charlotte, NC on their Gigantish Tour 2026, alongside Crazy and the Brains and sullvn. Read the full concert review!
An evening of '90s rock nostalgia hit the open-air stage at Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre this past Saturday as three defining alternative acts delivered a high-energy, hit-packed performance in Charlotte.
Umphrey's McGee brought heavy jams and face-melting peaks to Charlotte's TD Amp Ballantyne. Read our review of their explosive set on the moe.mentUM tour.
Photography & Review by Thom Hooper Fifteen years is a long time to wait for a Kittie show in North Carolina. The last time the band came through the state was 2011, with back-to-back dates in Fayetteville and Jacksonville, respectively, during the In The Black era. Since then, the story around Kittie has shifted. What... Continue Reading →
The String Cheese Incident brought their Just Keep Spinning Tour to Charlotte's TD Amp Ballantyne, delivering a spectacular night of deep grooves, intuitive jamming, and community connection.
Charlotte got a night of pure magic: genre-bending jams, jaw-dropping musicianship, and the kind of weird, wonderful energy that only a legend like Les Claypool can orchestrate. Whether navigating the prog-heavy waters of the Frog Brigade, the psychedelic swirl of the Delirium, or the funk-metal frenzy of Primus, the "Claypool Gold" tour proved to be an absolute masterclass in stage presence and chemistry.
Frasco belongs to a rare lineage of stage madmen—somewhere between John Belushi's "Joliet" Jake Blues and Jimmy Buffett. Yet beneath the rowdy showmanship and stage-diving lies what critics overlook: a devastatingly sharp songwriter, tireless champion of empathy, and a man who pauses his heaviest rock storms to gush about his mom.
