In a piece of news that sent shockwaves throughout Indianapolis, one of the city's most beloved figures, MERLE VINCENT GRIGGS, died Friday afternoon in his home.

Formerly a member of the band HELEN SHIELDS, Merle, who was only 28, was also a giant bear of a man who always had a good word and a smile for everyone. In 1997-’98, Merle was the host of The Merle Show, a TV talk show taped live at the PATIO.

In the past few years, he had become involved in the local wrestling scene and wrote hilarious articles for wrestlecrap.com, a Web site he co-created with one of his friends.

A gathering of his friends is planned for Wednesday at 8 p.m. at BIRDY'S (formerly Where Friends Meet) at 71st and Keystone.

His friend, STEVEN PRATT, has created a tribute to Merle at the Web address www.geocities.com/riotmrrrl/. The site contains video files of The Merle Show as well as mp3 recordings of some of his music. A guestbook on the site contains entries mourning Merle from all over the world, proof of how highly regarded he was.

On a personal note, I can testify to the fact that there was nobody who met Merle who walked away disliking the man. Large in stature, he was also large in humor and generosity and all of us who knew him, even slightly, are the richer for it.

Look for more coverage in NUVO in the coming weeks about the life of this larger-than-life man.

In other, happier news around the music scene:

The annual BLOOMINGTONFEST is going on this weekend in Bob Knight's city to the south. And the lineup of bands playing around town is a great one. In fact, perhaps the world's greatest band, Minnesota slowcore legends LOW, will be playing Thursday night at Rhino's All Ages Club, along with INTERSTATE GREEN, MANNERS FOR HUSBANDS, EARLY DAY MINERS and UNWED SAILOR. The independent label SECRETLY CANADIAN will be holding a showcase Friday and Saturday at the Waldron Arts Firebay Room, featuring DANIELSON FAMILE, SWEARING AT MOTORISTS, MANISHEVITZ, ONEIDA, BEVEL, DAVE FISCHOFF, JUNE PANIC, SPOKANE, PATRICK PHELAN and THE PANOPOLY ACADEMY LEGIONNAIRES. For complete show listings, go to http://www.bloomington.in.us/~fest/.
Of course, if rioting students force a state of martial law to be declared, all bets are off.

RON SEXSMITH will be playing an exclusive in-store show at LUNA music on Thursday, Sept. 14. Expect the sounds to start at 6 p.m. Admission, of course, is free. There is no Indianapolis show on this tour for Sexsmith; this will be his only local appearance.

On Sunday, Sept. 17, LUNA music will host a duel in-store with BEVEL (members of DRUNK and MANISHEVITZ) and SPOKANE (members of DRUNK). Both bands have new albums out soon on the Bloomington-based label JAGJAGUWAR. Admission is free and the music starts at 5 p.m.

Here are some upcoming local all-ages shows at The Volcano Room ...
Thursday, Sept 14: SULLIVAN'S GARAGE (ska/pop) with CRACKERS PLAYING JAZZ (funk/rock) and TBA. On Friday, it'll be THE SIMPLETONS (ska/punk) with THE BEDROCKERS (Columbus, Ohio, pop/punk) and KID ICARUS (Flint, Mich., ska/punk).
Saturday will bring THEE IMPOSSIBLE SHAPES (experimental rock art) with RED BADGE MOMENT (experimental pop rock), CHUCK EDWARDS (solo pop rock) and JUSTIN VOLLMAR (solo pop/rock). And Sunday's show will feature IMPASSE with DOWN WITH HIS SHIP (melodic rock) and TBA.

Don't forget to check out LE TIGRE (Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Julie Ruin) live at THE VOLCANO ROOM Friday, Sept. 22 along with THE ANOMOLIES (New York B-Girl Collective) and THE SISSIES (Girl Punk from Bloomington). Show starts at 7:30, $7 admission.

The STEPCHILDREN will be appearing live at Peppers South (formerly Bogies, AKA John Wayne's 135) on Friday.

The JIMMY PAGE AND THE BLACK CROWES show scheduled for Friday, Sept. 29 at Deer Creek Music Center has been CANCELLED. Tickets for the canceled shows will be refunded at the point of purchase.
They've been forced to cancel the upcoming leg of their North American tour as a result of Page's continued back problems. Page has been ordered to have complete rest for the next six weeks, at which point his consultant will reassess him, with surgery as a possibility.

JOE WELCH AND THE AURELIANS will be playing at the Melody Inn Saturday, Sept. 23 with PHYLLIS.

BLUNT will appear Friday Sept. 15 at Tailgators and Sept. 21 and 22 at Peppers.

Don't forget about X-FEST, coming up at Deer Creek on Sept. 20. The list of acts includes GREEN DAY, the STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, FUEL, PAPA ROACH, P.O.D., DISTURBED and the lovable group KITTIE. Tickets are on sale now.

It's time for the INDY BLUES PROJECT "Live at Chubby’s Club Lasalle" CD release party. It will be held Thursday, Sept. 21 at -- where else? -- Chubby's! Many of the 22 original players will be there plus more for another giant jam session and recording session. The show starts at 8 p.m.

Here are some live concert reviews, starting with a review of Monday night's show at the PATIO by an anonymous writer who calls him or herself THE MISANTHROPE:
Monday night at the Patio, musical researchers MAB LAB dissected jazz, soul and rap with the precision of a mortician, delivering a tight sound that crossed PORTISHEAD's trippy jazz vocals with the sound of LAURYN HILL's soul-infused hip-hop.
Mab Lab, a.k.a. Mabulous Laboratory, recently knocked off the MUDKIDS, BLUNT and DENT to win a battle of the Bands at the VOGUE. Now that I have seen them, this shouldn't be a surprise.

The core of the band consists of vocalist Kate Lamont and drummer Eric Brown, both Indianapolis residents. One intoxicated bystander described the music as "a light, jazzy Rage Against the Machine." And while Mab Lab certainly unfurled the banner of millennial rock-rap fusion, their sound benefited from Lamont's outstanding jazzy vocals.

Final analysis: a delicately mixed cocktail consisting of 2-ounces of Marvin Gaye's “Sexual Healing,” 1-ounce of Portoisehead's “Dummy” and a splash of the Common. As a side note, Louisville-based The Pennies headlined the show. During their set, they walked a fine line between genius and preposterousness by aping Radiohead's rock epic histrionics. I'd have to hear their CD to make up my mind about this band. Regardless, it was Mad Lab that stole the show. Go out and see them if you can.

Next on the list is bluesman MATT SOCEY'S account of Sunday night's show at DEER CREEK:
The Indianapolis blues were not at the I-Still-Call-It-the-Hoosier-Dome during the Colts game on Sunday. It was at Deer Creek during the B.B. King Blues Fest where one of the biggest concert crowds of the season saw a mix of the new blues generation with a blues giant and a King, B.B. KING. This year's King fest was all-guitar but a good mix of blues for different audiences.

Due to health problems, King (representing the old school crowd) now performs the entire concert with his trusted guitar, Lucille, sitting down. The image was not that of a man in the last quarter-century of life, but the king of the blues on his throne who doesn't have to move for anyone and can still burst slick guitar licks at the flick of the wrist.

His show staples ("Thrill is Gone," "Caldonia," "Let the Good Times Roll") are faster than in previous King shows, so he shows no signs of slowing down. Tipping his hat to the next generation of blues folk, he brought out (but not to play) his daughter SHIRLEY and RONNIE BAKER BROOKS (son of LONNIE BROOKS). King even performed a rare acoustic number, giving Lucille a rest while he played "3 O'Clock Blues." The man is in his 70s and he's still taking chances.

King is one of the must-see blues shows (along with John Lee Hooker), at the very least to pay your respects. So it was frustrating to see so many people leave early during King's set.

It's a concert, folks; you're supposed to be tired at work on Monday. That's how people know you went.
BUDDY GUY (representing the rockin' guitar nut crowd) can turn into a blues jukebox by playing snippets of "Strange Brew," "Voodoo Chile," "Boom Boom," "Hoochie Coochie Man" and (shudder) "Mustang Sally." However, his blazing guitar, fiery vocals and his don't-give-a-shit attitude (he'll stop a song if he doesn't want to play it anymore and will tell a yelling fan to "shut the fuck up") still make him a marvel to watch.

During "Five Long Years," he walked amongst the mostly-white crowd (praising their blues-rock messiah) and beat his strings with a drumstick. Guy was the showman of the night, plus he brought Susan Tedeschi up to sing on "Feels Like Rain" and Ronnie Baker Brooks to solo on Albert King's "I'll Play the Blues For You."

SUSAN TEDESCHI (representing the young female crowd) has been an Indy favorite, playing here some half-dozen times in the last two years. Yes, she played her radio favorites ("Rock Me Right," "It Hurt So Bad," "You Need To Be With Me"), but her best work that night was her quieter material, so people can quit with the Janis Jopin/Bonnie Raitt comparisons. Tedeschi still gets points to recording and performing "Angel from Montgomery," which Raitt recorded back in 1974.

The biggest surprise of the day was the amount of people who arrived early. They were treated to a pre-concert performance by ON CUE at 5 p.m. (who helped drown out the non-blues blaring the from the WTTS van) and actually paid attention to the eclectic solo acoustic set from COREY HARRIS (representing the eclectic acoustic crowd).

It was an impressive crowd to see some blues at Deer Creek. Now if all of those people could go to the clubs and support our local blues scene. After the concert, I was at the Slippery Noodle watching NO REGRETS. Where were you?
Back to you, Steve.

Thanks, Matt. I was at the KISS concert Saturday night at CONSECO FIELDHOUSE. And while it may qualify as price gouging when a beloved band plays two alleged "farewell" concerts within a few months, the Kiss Army converged one final time to hear their grease-painted heroes.
It wasn't the exact set they played at Deer Creek — there were some different songs played — but it was the same show they've been playing for 27 years now. GENE SIMMONS spit fire, PAUL STANLEY took off his shirt, ACE FREHLEY was mostly silent and PETER CRISS looked amused.

But when you're dealing with as deep a pool of goodwill as Kiss, you can play as many farewell shows as you want. These fans weren't looking for variety as much as they were looking for communion. And on that front, Kiss certainly delivered.

Critics never cared for the band; they were too commercialized in the ’70s and too predictable in the ’80s for them. But true Kiss fans never stopped listening to them. This farewell tour was a present for them.

What the hell do critics know, anyway? After a quarter century, the band is still tight as hell and definitely knows how to drive a crowd into a frenzy, from the opening notes of "Detroit Rock City" to the final bars of "Rock and Roll all Night."

Kiss may be the only band that has played every venue in the city, from the Convention Center to MSA to Deer Creek and now Conseco. The one common denominator in all of those shows was a workman-like desire to give the audience what it wants. And that's what rock and roll is all about — at least for the generation that grew up listening to Kiss. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Another version of giving the crowd what it wants came the week before at the BRITNEY SPEARS concert at DEER CREEK. Brit, who can't decide if she wants to be a wholesome girl or a full-fledged slut, tried to have it both ways during her show. She alternated shaking her allegedly surgically enhanced chest at the crowd with golly-gee stage patter and mannerisms.

Let others debate the sociological import of Ms. Spears' act. In the final analysis, what matters is the music. The question remains: Did she give the crowd the full value of her $40 concert ticket?

It depends on what you were looking for, I suppose, but the answer would probably have to be no. First of all, her voice is wafer-thin and is unable to recreate her radio hits without going as flat as her washboard-like tummy. As a dancer, she's no JANET JACKSON or even TONI BASIL. Try the decidedly unfunky moves of her spiritual predecessor, DEBBIE GIBSON.

Her show, while skillfully paced and staged, lacked the overall verve that headliners have to have in this day and age. That's not necessarily as negative a comment as it may seem. Even hugely talented artists, such as JEWEL and ALANIS, have trouble putting on a powerhouse of a live show.
She played every song she knew, including a sacrilegious version of the Stones' "Satisfaction" and Sonny and Cher's "The Beat Goes On." She showed plenty of skin. She flashed her creepily winsome smile over and over.

But the diehard Brit fans — the children — didn't seem too pleased with the show. As we bought gas in Noblesville after the show, several kids were milling about the Shell parking lot, looks of keen disappointment on their faces.
But the show accomplished its higher purpose — namely, selling loads and loads of merchandise. The souvenir stands at Deer Creek couldn't meet the demand, so several auxiliary selling points were set up throughout the facility. And the lines were incredible for the $30 T-shirts and the $10 posters.

On that level, the show was a smashing success.

Keep the music news and notes coming in. Thanks for reading, those of you who've made it this far.