Pen & Page

Mastodon (James Minchin photo)

Shortly after revealing punk rock band NOFX will be performing Billings on April 23, promoters 11:11 Presents and Jade Presents followed up with news of Atlanta, Georgia metal band Mastodon stopping in Billings.

The hard rocking metal quartet is embarking on a spring headline tour presented by Volcom, which begins April 16 and will feature support from Between The Buried & Me, Baroness, and Valient Thorr on May 13 at the Shrine Auditorium.

The all ages show starts at 6:30 p.m. General admission tickets costing $24 go on sale at noon Friday. Tickets are available at the Shrine box office, Ernie November, Rimrock Mall, by phone at (800) 514-3849 or online at www.tickets300.com.

Country/folk troubadour Steve Earle performed to a sold-out crowd at Sheridan’s Wyo Theater on Saturday evening.

At 54, folk troubadour Steve Earle is just two years older than his teacher, mentor and friend Townes Van Zandt was when he died.

During a sold-out performance Saturday at Sheridan’s Wyo Theater, Earle said nothing could have prepared him for the series of shows in which he performs songs from his newest album, “Townes,” comprised entirely of covers originally written and performed by Van Zandt.

“I wish he could have been here to see it,” Earle lamented, and spent the evening playing songs from “Townes” and discussing Van Zandt’s influence on his life.

Earle’s musical path took quite a course from Van Zandt, who died in 1997 at the age of 52 from health issues related to substance abuse. Though Earle spent many years living hard with Van Zandt, even pawning his guitars for heroin, Earle cleaned up in jail and launched a noticeably more successful musical career following his release.

Read full story: Steve Earle channels ghosts of his past

Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes takes the stage at Billings Shrine Auditorium in October, 2007. (Photo by Casey Riffe)

Some obsessions are healthy. Take mine, for instance.

Back when people were still making mixed tapes on actual tapes, a friend introduced me to indie rock band Bright Eyes with “Sunrise, Sunset,” an adaptation of the song from “Fiddler on The Roof.”

And then the “Fever” played. Something in frontman Conor Oberst’s voice struck an intimate chord in me. I was an instant junkie, purchasing the band’s 2000 release, “Fevers and Mirrors.”

Oberst’s gritty honesty reached out and grabbed my pounding heart, screamed into my ears and related to me in a way no artist had since The Dead Kennedys provided inspiration for my teenage rebellion.

The songs on “Fevers and Mirrors” collectively represent a desperate loneliness, longing and lingering delusion. Indulgent and full of self-loathing, the album is riddled with sputtered words and warbling vocals, Oberst’s breath drawn long into the microphone, his life a book for anyone to read if they’d only open the cover.

Blog Posts: Nothing that the road cannot heal, Bright Eyes delivers, and then some
Print articles: Bright Eyes singer returns to Billings with new band, Bright Eyes bright light illuminates one fanatic, 
Album reviews: Bright Eyes go live, Album set charts progression of Oberst, Bright Eyes, Bright Eyes frontman’s lyrics tackle tough subject matter

The Hold Steady lead singer Craig Finn performs a MySpace Secret Show in Billings in July, 2008. (Casey Riffe photo)

The Hold Steady let out its secret and took the stage to a full house at the Railyard for their MySpace Secret Show — which was also their first show in Montana.

Without hesitation they jumped into a riveting set, opening with “Constructive Summer” from the new album. The sound was muddy in the small venue but it didn’t matter — the show was intimate, just as a “Secret Show” should be.

Event preview: MySpace Secret Show announced in Billings
Concert review: Hold Steady lets out its ‘secret’

Sasquatch Music Festival at The Gorge in Washington, 2008.

 Friday
12:30 p.m. I’m buzzing. It’s as though I’m crawling out of my skin. I just found out I have a tix to Sasquatch AND a ride. The National…The Cure…Death Cab for Cutie…Tegan and Sara…The Mars Volta…The Flaming Lips…I’m hardly here. I’m already there, on the terraced lawn, watching my life’s soundtrack…I’m a lucky, lucky girl.

7:50 p.m. Hop in the backseat with a couple friends and we’re on the road to Missoula.

Saturday
10 a.m. Still in Montana but finally on the interstate. Stocked up on food, beer and whiskey in Missoula. Thinking we’ll make it in time to see Beirut at 2:10 p.m.

2:50 p.m. Arrive. Wrong about timing. Anxious. The National takes the stage at 4:20 p.m. Leave group to check in at Media Will-Call. Venue setting is more beautiful than I imagined.

4:20 p.m. The National is late. Rescheduled to smallest stage at 7:45 p.m. Bands of note until The National takes the stage include Crudo (bizarre hip-hop group led by of Mike Patton and Dan the Automator, both dressed in aprons stained with fish guts), and Destroyer (with New Pornographers contributor Dan Bejar).

The National performs at the Sasquatch Music Festival, 2008.

7:35 p.m. Step on 29 sets of toes and leave a wake of angry fans to get to the front of the crowd. The National is still late. Finally Rainn Wilson (of “The Office” sitcom) comes out to introduce the band. He is loudly booed. Flabbergasted that we couldn’t care less about him, he turns tail and the band takes the stage. Worth all the angst and travel. A National chorus surrounds me, singing every word. “We’re half awake in a fake empire…” “I’m the new blue blood, I’m the great white hope…” “Raise our heavenly glasses to the heavens! Squalor Victoria! Squalor Victoria!…” Nothing can possibly be better than this.

9:15 p.m. The National ends and the sounds of Modest Mouse waft down the hill. The Breeders are playing on the second stage. Hurry past them to catch Modest Mouse but their set has ended. Still grinning like a love-struck teenager.

Read entire blog: Sasquatch Road Diary

Cloud Cult founder Craig Minowa performs at Bozeman’s Filling Station in May, 2008.

When Craig Minowa’s son died suddenly in the night at the age of 2, Minowa’s world must have come to a crashing halt. What came out of that tragic death is his divulgement, an 18-song eulogy titled “The Meaning of 8.”

Founder, singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist of Cloud Cult, Minowa became a recluse on his organic farm in Northern Minnesota, writing more than 100 songs in an effort to deal with the loss that occurred in 2002.

Minowa interview: Cloud Cult’s Minowa channels loss, pain; Interview overflow with Cloud Cult’s founder
Concert review: Joining the Cult