Music

Beat Happenings

Music news you can use

By Kristyn Pomranz 

Happy HoliGLTBA: What are your favorite holiday memories? When you received your first Popple at age six? When you baked your first pumpkin pie at age twelve? When you came out of the closet at age seventeen? Whoever you are and whatever you treasure, BandTogether — St. Louis' GLBT concert band — merrily invites you to its free annual winter concert, "Holiday Memories," this Saturday, December 17, at 8 p.m. at E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall (560 Trinity Avenue, University City; 314-968-5953). Donations appreciated.

Harbinger of haggis: Scottish Santa, wit'a sprig o' a thistle, welcomes all ye lasses and laddies t'a very Celtic Christmas! He'll be bringing 'is bagpipes fer some Scottish music, wurin' his kilt fer some Scottish dancin' and droppin' a spot o' whiskey fer some Yuletide stories. (Ho ho, jus' kiddin': Santa stays sober till New Ye'rs Ayve!) Keltic Reign will be taking o'er Sheldon Concert Hall (3648 Washington Boulevard; 314-533-9900) Thursday, December 15, at 7:30 p.m. Adult tickets are $10 and children are admitted for $5 — but bringing a donation for Toys for Tots gets a child admitted free!

When shopping gets rough: ...get Rough Shop. Not even a sadist wants to be at the Galleria on the weekend before Christmas. So why not flee the mall for the Maya Café Series at the Focal Point (2720 Sutton Road, Maplewood, 314-781-4200) on Saturday, December 17, at 8:30 p.m.? For $5, you can attend the CD-release party for local Americana-pop sextet Rough Shop's debut album, Far Past the Outskirts. And I'll be damned if buying the CD and supporting local music doesn't make one helluva stocking stuffer.

For the Grinch in you: If all this Christmas music is giving you a ho-ho-headache, local hardcore metal band Desecrhate might just be the antidote. If the name doesn't speak for itself, just refer to the title of the CD the band's releasing: Heathens in Black Live. You know Jesus won't touch that with a ten-and-a-half-foot pole. Desecrhate performs at Just Bill's Place (2543 Woodson Road, Overland; 314-427-2999) Friday, December 16, at 8 p.m. (cover: $5, CD: $8) with Icarus, Fallen Arches and Soul Descenders.