Locals Only? Venice Comes to Santa Monica, East L.A. Meets UCLA, This Week on the Westside

Los Lobos y Los Lennons

Compiled by Tomm Carroll, Music Critic

Fri., Mar. 4-Thurs., 10 -- Musicwise, March is certainly coming in like a lion, with a particularly busy weekend schedule. Here’s the forecast:

Friday
Venice -- named for the Southern California community in which the members live -- has been around since the 1980s with its surf-scented harmonies and folk-pop sounds.

Cousins and brothers (from left) Mark, Michael, Kipp and Pat Lennon have earned the respect of some of the industry’s most revered folk rock musicians. In fact, when they opened the Santa Monica Pier concert series five years ago, Jackson Browne joined them as a guest performer.

David Crosby, who has toured and performed with Venice in the company of Stevie Nicks, Warren Zevon, Phil Collins and Brian Wilson, has called the group "the best vocal group in the country and one of the best groups of any kind I have ever heard." So there’s no guessing just who may show up at the Lennons’ show tonight at the intimate McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.

Venice’s most recent release is Pacific Standard Time, currently available in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, with a U.S. release date imminent. Their last record, Spin Art, was a compelling blend of 12 original songs and an engaging version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 hit “Landslide.” Also available is a DVD, Venice Live at the Royal Carré Theatre.

Saturday
A true product of Los Angeles, the music of Los Lobos perfectly embodies the many myths and cultures that make up this great metropolis. From the gritty punk strains, Mexican garage rock, and dance-hall power ballads of their early work to the soulful urban grooves and sun-bitten twang of their current albums, Los Lobos has defied categorization for three decades.

Renowned for clean, masterful songwriting, brilliantly showcased on such classic albums as 1984’s How Will the Wolf Survive and 1992’s visionary Kiko, the group continues its road trip along the vast and varied American musical terrain with their current roots-rock extravaganza, The Ride. The album features guest artists Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Café Tacuba and Mavis Staples, to name a few.

There’s also a new live album, Live at the Fillmore, just out. But tonight, you can see and hear Los Lobos at UCLA’s Royce Hall on the Westwood campus. They’ll be performing music from The Ride and a couple choice covers, as well as the songs that have made them an L.A. legend.

Mexican-American singer-songwriter Perla Bertalla opens the show.

Saturday
What do you get when you cross the incendiary guitar work of Jimmy Page, the infectious riddims of reggae, and the incredulity of an Elvis Presley impersonator? Longtime fans of Southland bands know there can be only one answer: Dread Zeppelin.

Fronted by the rotund would-be King, Tortelvis, the tongue-in-cheek Zep crank out corny but contagious hard-rocksteady, with such hybrid hits as "Heartbreaker Hotel," and "(You Ain't Nothin' but a) Black Dog" in their reggae-ized repertoire.

Dread Zeppelin returns to its favorite Santa Monica “House of the Holies,” 14 Below, for a headlining gig. Also on the bill are 5 Alarm, Silver Needle, Gia’s Fix, and Stupid Rich.

Sunday
ECM recording artist Savina Yannatou is one of the most respected singers in Greek music today, hailed for a style and versatility that is “little short of astonishing as she adapts her voice -- sweet and childlike in some cases, harsh and masculine in others -- to songs from Greece Sardinia, the Hebrides, the Caribbean, Sephardic Spain and beyond,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

In tonight’s intimate, acoustic concert at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall on the Westwood campus, Yannatou and her group, Primavera en Salonico, will mesmerize audiences with their combination of authentic traditional music and free improvisation.

Monday
Get the week off on the right foot by dancing up a storm to Flor de Serena and its decidedly Latin grooves at Santa Monica’s Temple Bar.

Opening the evening is singer-songwriter Scott Huckabay.

Tuesday
It’s your regular Tuesday tune-up at Harvelle’s blues club in Santa Monica, with Torque, which manufactures “off-the-cuff turbo jazz with a twist” – whatever that is.

Wednesday
Rusty’s Surf Ranch on the Santa Monica Pier must be taking an early “spring break” from its regular weekly “Battle of the Bands” face-offs. Tonight, the Crossroads Jazz Band performs, and competes with no one.

Thursday
Okay, tonight’s your last chance to catch acclaimed alto and tenor sax virtuoso Ted Nash and his peerless band Odeon at Culver City’s Jazz Bakery, where he concludes a three-night stint.

Nash and Co. deftly merge tango, Eastern rhythms, klezmer, classicism and country with New Orleans heat and Ellingtonian sophistication. Odeon consists of Nathalie Bonin, violin; Clark Gayton, trombone/tuba; Bill Schimmel, accordion and Matt Wilson, drums.