Thursday, July 10 THE PICKLE BALL with Van Goat and John Brothers Piano Company (co-headline) plus Cave Clove 7 pm doors $15 adv, $18 doors All Ages “Back in the ’30s and ’40s, swing was a high-energy dance music that people would dance to ’til they passed out. These days, if a band starts up with the clarinets and the ride cymbals, you’ll probably start picturing your great grandpa doing the jitterbug. Oakland’s Van Goat breathes a healthy dose of punk rock into swing by stripping it down, raw and so energetic that you’ll want to upstage your granddaddy on the dance floor.” - Good Times Santa Cruz Van Goat’s second album ‘Nobody Cares’ is a joyful song cycle of genre and dynamic extremes. The album finds the band incorporating a wider swath of genres into their already eclectic arsenal. Opener “Bad Boy Drunk” is decidedly country, with a soaring chorus evoking Mutations-era Beck and the refrain “I started to count up all my junk/ but ended up gettin’ bad boy drunk” is decidedly Hank Williams-esque in its self-deprecation. ‘Maia’ is a surf-rock explosion of guitars, high vocals and rhythmic breakdowns. On the album closer, ‘Nobody Cares’, Lindsay Alexis belts out the titular line ‘nobody cares’ like classic-era Etta James. https://www.vangoatband.com/ John Brothers Piano Company is an Oakland-based instrumental quartet whose compositions oscillate between incisive part-writing and unrestrained improvisational energy. Guided by this interplay, seemingly disparate influences, from chamber music to hot jazz, are focused through emphatic lyricism. https://www.johnbrothers.net/ Cave Clove: https://www.instagram.com/caveclove