INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Kate Lamont and Blueprintmusic

with J. Bala
Earth House, 237 N. East St.
Friday, June 27, 8 p.m., $10, all-ages

Kate Lamont and Blueprintmusic know how to pick offbeat downtown venues, like last December’s performance at the Indiana War Memorial’s Pershing Auditorium, where you have to trade off the advantage of excellent acoustics vs. that imposing portrait of Gen. John Pershing overlooking the audience with the imperiousness of Kaiser Wilhelm. There’s no such tradeoff for this Friday’s performance at the Earth House, a new collective that has planted itself in the basement of the Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church. The Peace and Justice Center, LAMP Fine Art Gallery and United States of Mind are all sharing space, and an Earth House Café and Bookstore will be launched coincident with the Fringe Festival this August. More on the Earth House in these pages as things evolve, but for now, plans include weekly Friday night shows from 8-10 p.m., kicking off with the Blueprint show featuring opener j. bala.

“KL & BPM always have some tricks up our sleeve when we produce our own shows in town,” Lamont says. “This one promises to be exciting.”

Speaking of acoustics, Blueprint has picked another space with history, character and resonance: Lockerbie Central UMC’s 250-seat sanctuary, constructed in 1882. Blueprint’s balanced and textured chamber-folk sound was made to reverberate, as is opener j. bala’s balafon, a West African wooden-keyed percussion instrument similar to the marimba.

Earth House Coffee and Books: www.myspace.com/earthhousecoffeeandbooks

Kate Lamont and Blueprintmusic: www.blueprintmusic.com