Upcoming North Coast Shows: The Shondes and The Idan Raichel Project

You know it's fall in the North Coast (aka Michigan) when the bars take down the "Welcome Nascar Fans" banners and put up the "Welcome Hunters" banners. It's just one of the ways I know that Channukah is on it's way. It's a little isolating being a Conservative Jew up here on the Coast. But not too bad, my local synagogue is good and I hang out at the Chabad house pretty regularly. There's a local klezmer band that's cool but doesn't seem to gig much. Everyone once in a while, I drive wife and wigglers into the Detroit suburbs for our fix of kosher restaurant meals and Judaica shops. And, a once or twice a year, I get the change to catch a Jewish band playing in Ann Arbor, that lighthouse college town culture.

Right now I've two upcoming shows to get excited about, though realistically I'm probably only going to get to one of them. The first show is The Shondes, (Yiddish for 'a shame, a disgrace) a Brooklyn punk band that I've written about them a couple of times and am looking forward to finally see live (and, of course, to nab their new album). They'll be playing in Ann Arbor on Nov 28 at She-bang @ TC's Speakeasy on 207 W Michigan Ave at 8pm. It's an 18+ with a $5-$10 cover.

If you're not a North Coaster, their tour schedule is on their MySpace page. If you want to know more about them, check out their their website or posts: The Shondes and the 2007 Heeb 100.

The second concert, which I'll probably not get to, is the Idan Raichel Project. Idan Raichel is a "an Israeli keyboardist, composer, producer...fascinated by the music of Israels growing population of Ethiopian Jews, and many songs feature members of Israels Ethiopian community, Arab musicians, traditional Yemenite vocalists, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname and a South African singer, among others." He also features prominently on a great mix CD my buddy Liz (from Lizraeli Blog) sent me. According to his MySpace page, he'll be playing on November 6th at Live at PJs.