Now more than ever, a band's future is on its own shoulders. With a great deal of the fat cats squeezed out of the equation, the power and control and responsibility is returning to the musicians. And it's also returning to the fans - especially young fans. And bands: you gotta listen to the kids; they'll make you, they'll break you.My niece is at that wonderful early-teen age where digging on something without mass appeal is cool, discovering new bands is cool, and sharing that band with friends is cool. A lot of this flies below grown-up radar, so we

The free organ concerts that the Memorial Art Gallery hosts every Sunday aren't your typical display of boogaloo grooves pumping out of a Hammond B-3 in some smoke-filled juke joint.  Not even the instrument is the same. The organ in one of the rooms on the MAG's second floor is massive, yet curiously small  - the pipes stretch 15 feet or more into the air, and a small keyboard, like those handheld Casios, is built waist high into the wall. In an adjacent room a girl worked the bellows, pushing the air through the organ's pipes by stepping back and

The last claps of Blue Spark and Flame's thunder were fading into the evening cool as I crossed Monroe into The Bug Jar Wednesday night. The double bill's star attraction, Monotonix, was setting up in the middle of the floor. Except for a few stray road cases, and some Blue Spark and Flame shrapnel, the stage was empty. The hype around this band was so immense - just from fans I'd run into days before - that it was beginning to resemble a threat.Now, I've seen a lot of shows - a lot. I've watched people on and off stage

Frank's in Vegas this week (something about girls and cars), so, after taking advice from friends on how to handle the column (say "cats" and "swagger" a lot, apparently), I'm gonna fill you in on some music action.Caught 40 Rod Lightning's small-screen debut when the band played a taping at the WXXI studios last Tuesday night. I've seen this band plenty of times at the Dino and the Bug Jar, and usually get so caught up in dancing, drinks, and company, that I listen, but almost forget to watch the band in action. Throw 40 Rod into a television studio

Last night’s Hanson show at Water Street was a culmination of two years worth of in-jokes at City. Ever since I started, music editor Frank De Blase has been posing rhetorical questions about new concert announcements. “Guess who’s coming to town?” he’d say. And I’d always reply, apropos of nothing, “Hanson?!” And then, one magical day a few months ago, it happened. Frank excitedly broke the news that Hanson was, in fact, coming to town. And by god, I was going to have to cover it. I arrived to the show to find up-and-comer Kate Voegele in the middle of

Collective Soul collectively sold out Water Street Music Hall last Monday night, and I liked it. Rochester ex-pat Ron Mesh tour manages the whole affair, so what the hell? I figured I'd pop in. The band may be used to strutting on slightly larger turf, but it expertly made its big 90's rock fit. This band is king of the guitar hook; riffs that are melodic and instantly recognizable. I was surprised by how many tunes I recognized and liked... really liked. I guess I've always been a fan and just didn't know it. You gotta give it a chance.

The Syracuse Dinosaur's second Naughty Lil' Pig show was a perfect blend of sleaze, cheese, tease, and please. Post-modern vaudevillians juggled, jiggled, wiggled, and giggled to a packed house. It got steamy, lemme tell ya, and you could smell the lust wafting about the room with the BBQ smoke, especially when three young ladies did a bloodthirsty striptease with scissors. The betwee- set music was great, featuring the dyn-o-mite Dino-man who gets things done, son -- Scott Sterling -- beating the hell out of his black beauty over the funky drummer's beat. It reminded me of a lot of that wicked

The summer concert season is heating up: Foo Fighters with guests Supergrass have announced a show Monday, July 28, at Blue Cross Arena, 1 War Memorial Square, 232-1900. Show starts at 7 p.m., tix $40-$46.50. For more information visit Ticketmaster.

With a lot of the technology pimping music to epic heights, there is a danger of the organic, off-the-cuff, spur-of-the-moment immediacy getting trampled. Artists today often make sure everything is in place before taking a stab. And though this pre-flight check may be wise, it isn't always good for the soul. Then you have the two nameless buskers I heard at the Public Market Saturday morning. Sipping coffee and digging the parade with my old lady and the hoi poloi under umbrella'd shade, the duo's rapidly picked country blues plinked and plunked exuberantly. When pressed for their name, they looked