Happy Anniversary Fulton 55! It's time to celebrate

Plus, Wilderado plays NewRock 104.1 Soundhouse and Mandolin Mondays with Eva Scow.

Fulton 55 would have like to have gone all out and had itself one heck of a 10-year anniversary party last year.

Obviously, that didn’t work out, the world being what it was and the pandemic keeping venues closed and then in a strange holding pattern through the majority of 2021.

So, we get an 11th-year celebration instead.

The venue split it over two weekends, which started on Friday with return of the Emo Night tour. Long Beach soul singer Trish Toledo played on Saturday.

Next weekend, LMC Presents hosts its Great Big Thank You Party on Friday, with the main celebration on Saturday night with an absolutely stacked lineup of local rock bands — The Morning Drive, We Hunt Like Wolves, Cloudship and Style Like Revelators.

The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.

Each of these bands could pull a headlining spot on its own and points to the kind of well-curated lineups Fulton 55 has become good at putting together.

It’s hard now to imagine a Fresno scene without Fulton 55, but the 7,500 square foot, 500 capacity nightclub was notable when it opened.

It’s become a stopping point for notable mid-level touring bands (Bostich + Fussible as a recent example) as well as one-off concept shows (Vince Warner’s themed tribute concerts).

More than that, it’s exactly what every good music venue should be: A “remember when” kind of place.

Remember when Let’s Go Bowling played the venue’s opening weekend?

Or when Fierce Creatures used to pack the place to the rafters?

Remember when Dinosaur Jr. (or insert your favorite semi-obscure favorite) played there?

I remember being one of five or so people in the audience to see Greg Ginn and the Royal We and it still being amazing.

Wilderado@New Rock Sound House

Radio stations — the music kind, not the talky-talk kind — love or break new bands. It builds listener loyalty.

One of the cool things about having a good station in your town (like New Rock 104.1 let’s say) is that they tend to have the hookups with those bands, the bubbling just under the surface kind of bands. The ones love to play radio gigs because it puts them in direct touch with their fans.

Such is the case with Wilderado, who is doing a run of radio shows in preparation for a six-week headlining tour.

The run kicks off on Tuesday at Tioga Sequoia’s Beer Garden with a performance at New Rock 104.1’s Sound House. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. No tickets necessary, but space is limited, so show up on time.

Wilderado released its debut EP in 2017 and quickly hit the road as an opening act for the likes of The 1975, Band of Horses and Lindsey Buckingham. They’ve also done the festival circuit with main stage slots at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Bottlerock.

The band’s self-titled full album (recorded in an old church in Tulsa, Oklahoma) was released in October on Bright Antenna Records. On Thursday, the band released an acoustic version of its song “Help Me Down.”

Sound House is New Rock’s collaboration with Tioga Sequoia and takes place at the brewery’s beer garden on Fulton Street downtown. Over the years, it has landed performances from Cannons, Meg Myers, Iration, Nothing But Thieves and The Struts.

In full disclosure, I host New Rock’s local music show Sunday nights.

Mandolin Mondays with Eva Scow

Mandolin Mondays is a Youtube video series from David Benedict, who is a name in the bluegrass and mandolin scene (Google him if you need). Each week Benedict invites a mandolinist to share a video (which is then also shared on the Mandolin Cafe website).

Last week’s episode (number 315 for those counting) featured Fresno’s own Eva Scow, who Benedict called “incredible.” She played “a stunning solo arrangement” of the jazz standard “I’ll Be Seeing You,” on an Eastman MD805/V.

You can watch the video below.

That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com