Tim’s Picks: A super-hot edition
5 choice suggestions for a hot Greater Lafayette weekend and beyond. Plus, the latest out of Delphi murder trial, Mitch Daniels weighs in Indiana elections and end of the line for a ‘Jeopardy’ champ
Hello, Thursday. Hello, Based in Lafayette correspondent Tim Brouk, back with his weekly five suggestions for your hot, hot Greater Lafayette week …
By Tim Brouk / For Based in Lafayette
The Scratch Thing, 9 p.m. Friday, June 21, Knickerbocker Saloon, 113 N. Fifth St., Lafayette — Once you’re done dancing around a bonfire in your robes, crowns of woven greenery and prayer ribbons for fertility, celebrate the Summer Solstice with downtown Lafayette rockers The Scratch Thing for an official summer kickoff show. Expect much jamming led by guitarist/vocalist Chris Xioufarides, who will ensure your mid-summer will turn into a summer of much rizz and rock.
Lafayette Roller Derby vs. Windy City Haymarket Rioters, 7 p.m. Saturday, June 22, Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, 1406 Teal Road, Lafayette — Your Lafayette Roller Derby Supernovas are the pride of the flat track here in Greater Lafayette as the team will celebrate Pride for its bout this weekend. After a tough loss against Ann Arbor Roller Derby on May 11, the Supernovas take on another powerful opponent in Chicago’s Windy City Haymarket Rioters. The action will be fast, hard-hitting and exciting. Win or lose, we are proud of all the skating Supernovas every bout but be sure to root them on extra loud this weekend. $12. Tickets.
JT Hickman, 8 p.m. Saturday, June 22, Sixth Street Dive, 827 N. Sixth St., Lafayette — Longtime Lafayette singer-songwriter JT Hickman’s “feel good” music has been a staple at downtown Lafayette venues like the Knickerbocker for years. This weekend, he will be among the first wave of local musicians to play Lafayette’s newest venue — Sixth Street Dive. The bar and restaurant brought back the live tunes several weeks ago and looks to keep it going with familiar names young and old. Most shows are on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The Dive’s previous regimes flirted with live bands since before the pandemic but under the trustworthy ownership that has booked acts at the ’Bocker and Digby’s Pub for years, the solo musicians and small groups slated so far should only enhance Sixth Street Dive’s momentum since its spring reopening.
Pantheon, Severe Headwound and King’s Gambit, 7 p.m. Monday, June 24, Eleventh House, 116 N. Third St., Lafayette — A death metal tour emanating from the depths of Little Rock, Arkansas, will creep into downtown Lafayette for an all-ages rager. Not to be confused with “Massive Headwound Harry,” Severe Headwound has been dishing out the brutality for about a dozen years in the Natural State. Tourmates Pantheon are equally epic in riffage and dark, blood-curdling songs like “Head on a Stick,” “Penetration by Maggots” and “Slit the Throat.” These bands put the rusty razor in Razorback. Opening will be central Indiana’s chaotic hardcore faves King’s Gambit. The five-piece band is fresh off an EP release, “Look and Feel,” which has the young musicians crisscrossing Indiana and Ohio for shows. $10.
The Goldenrods, 7 p.m. Tuesday, People’s Brewing Company, 2006 N. Ninth St., Lafayette — St. Louis country trio The Goldenrods will make its Lafayette debut next week. Fiddler/vocalist Ryan Koenig has played Indiana several times years previous as part of Pokey LaFarge’s stellar band. Like his time with LaFarge, Koenig performs a mix of old-time Americana styles tunes that heavily feature frenetic fiddle action while his bandmates Jess Adkins and Kellie Everett keep the rhythm on acoustic guitar and upright bass, respectively. The Goldenrods are not shy about its Midwest roots as the band’s chops transcend geography, which can be heard on the new album “Cry Time.” The clever yet mournful “WCRY” is a great song about heartache that can only be relieved by some old school country music on the AM dial. Then there are tunes like “A Dream in a Dream,” which has Koenig put down the fiddle for a guitar and Adkins takes the accordion for an almost zydeco sound. Meanwhile, Everett should just Airbnb in Lafayette because her other band, The Hooten Hallers, are set to headline The Hollow on July 3 at The Hollow. $10. Tickets.
Tim Brouk is a longtime arts and entertainment reporter. He writes here (almost) weekly, tracking things to do for Based in Lafayette.
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
Things continue to be contentious leading up to the trial of Richard Allen, the Delphi man accused in the 2017 murders of Delphi eighth-graders Abby Williams and Libby German. This week, Allen’s attorneys again called for Judge Fran Gull to recuse herself, filing new court documents that indicate they plan to call the special judge to testify as a defense witness to show that investigators acted in bad faith in handling the case. Specifically, the new accusation is tied to a June 2023 hearing when police said they’d been told by the judge not to bring a prison inmate to a court hearing to testify for Allen. Allen’s attorneys point to a recent court ruling – one that denied a motion for Gull to step aside – in which the judge says that decision wasn’t directed by her. In their motion, attorneys Brad Rozzi and Andrew Baldwin contend that Gull “failed to inform the defense that Carroll County Sheriff’s Office fabricated facts in a report filed in her court. … Because the defense is claiming that law enforcement has acted in bad faith and bad faith is an important component in its motions to dismiss … it must be able to call Judge Gull to the stand to testify.” Meanwhile, the trial is still scheduled to start Oct. 14. No other hearings have been scheduled, as of Wednesday. For more, including one legal analyst’s conclusion that “this is another Delphi-unique scenario,” here’s a report from WTHR’s Bob Segall: “Defense attorneys in Delphi murders case tell the judge she is now a defense witness.”
Mitch Daniels is … 1. Sure Indiana's already picked its next governor in the Republican primary. 2. Sure that Indiana is revealing the real consequences of one-party rule. Here’s a column from the former Indiana governor/former Purdue president, falling in the Washington Post days after the GOP state convention and the nomination of conservative pastor Micah Beckwith over Mike Braun’s choice of state Rep. Julie McGuire for lieutenant: “Indiana is revealing the real consequences of one-party rule.”
Indiana Capital Chronicle’s Leslie Bonilla Muñiz had a report on the property tax questions being wrangled this summer by the legislature’s State and Local Tax Review Task Force. A lot of moving parts here: “Farmers ask for property tax ‘intervention’ as communities, schools talk challenges. The two-year tax task force has less than six months to deliver legislative recommendations.”
And finally: More on this story later, but for now …
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Ah, Mitch...in the Washington Post article, "The roots of this (supermajorities in most states) phenomenon have been well studied. They include the cultural aggression of elite institutions and the predictable reaction to it, " Cultural aggression? WTH is he talking about? Institutions that honor all races and genders? THEY are not the ones trying to force others to conform to their beliefs. I see cultural aggression from the right, especially here in Indiana.
"The contours of the current system don’t conduce to those outcomes; until that changes, we have to hope for..." How does he propose we change this? I don't disagree that one-party rule is bad. How do we fix this? I'm sure not wasting my time "hoping" that Mike Braun realizes there are Democrats in this state, too.