NOISE

This is your second time playing Las Vegas' Jazz in the Park series in five years. What brought you back so soon?

It's an awesome thing, and what a cool place that is, out there in the desert in a grassy amphitheater. I'm really glad they had us back. It's a way to play Vegas without playing Vegas. You actually play Vegas for the people who live and work in Vegas, as opposed to playing Vegas for the people who come to debauch.

You've played in all sorts of configurations, but I've read that the trio is your favorite musical vehicle. Why is that?

A trio setting is a great setting for me, for anyone, really, because you get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. And you also get the most ability to move really fast from idea to idea because it's only two other people. [Drummer] Derrek Phillips and [saxophonist] John Ellis and I have been together forever, and this is actually the last gig for this trio, in Vegas. I'm putting together another trio with a younger drummer and a guy who plays keyboards, but like really messed-up analog keyboard sounds. So I'm gonna go in that direction and see where that takes me.

You also have tour dates scheduled with Bobby Previte's Coalition of the Willing, in which you play a regular, six-string electric guitar. How strange does that feel after doing your eight-string thing for so long?

It had been years, probably since my late-teens, maybe 20, since I'd done that. It was fun for me to do it, to get a break from what I do and to give me a fresh perspective on what I do when I get back to doing it. It's really easy; technically it's a walk in the park for me after doing what I do. It's not physically very demanding. But conceptually it's a whole different thing, so that's where the hard part is.

My six-string guitar vocabulary is kind of stunted.

The Sand Dollar Blues Lounge has been a blues stalwart in Vegas for 16 years, a milestone that hasn't gone unnoticed by the party-throwers over there. They've scheduled a two-day, 10-band blowout: Jude Bowerman, Scott Rhiner and the Moanin' Blacksnakes, Cold Shot and more, including John Earl and the Boogieman Band, of course.

16th Anniversary
Where: Sand Dollar Blues Lounge, Spring Mountain and Polaris.
When: Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m-3 a.m.
Price: $10 for locals.
Info: 871-6651.

With this week's appearance of Phil Collins tribute band Inside Out at the Tailspin, it seems to us that the tribute band has lost all meaning. Now that Phil Collins has his own covers act, who might be next?

From Justin to Justin: A Tribute to Justin Guarini

Sunglasses at Night: A Tribute to Corey Hart

Fabber: A Tribute to the Fab

Most Excellent: A Tribute to Wyld Stallyns

Tribute! At the Disco: A Tribute to Panic! At the Disco

Dropping Daylight


Brace Yourself (2.5 stars)

Combining the whiny angst of emo with the whiny angst of piano balladeers, Dropping Daylight sound like Ben Folds fronting Fall Out Boy, and on their more hard-rock tracks they're not particularly distinguishable from other emo acts. When they embrace their inner Coldplay, though, as on the ballad "Answering Our Prayers," they come a little closer to capturing what could be unique about their piano-and-punk mix.

MELLOWDRONE


Box (2.5 stars)

Don't let the band name fool you. Opener "C'mon Try a Little Bit" aside, Jonathan Bates' major label debut is no shoegazing affair. It's comprised of semi-poppy indie rock, lots of bright, but under-realized ideas and far too many cringe-worthy lyrical turns.

Jon Secada


Same Dream (1 star)

It's hard to believe that someone can be this bland and yet still be all over the musical board. Hall and Oates give away "I Can't Go For That" on one track, another features watered-down Latin influences and a third has folksy strings. Along with 13 tracks of pap only a tween could love are a clip of Secada saying how he's still got a spark, and making-of videos for "She's All I Ever Had" and "Coming Out of the Dark." Be still my flat-lining heart.