The Second Weekend of NOLAxNOLA

Louis Michot, by W. Rush Jagoe V

The fifth year of the annual festival celebrating New Orleans’ music and the venues it lives in wraps up this weekend.

The fifth year of NOLAxNOLA continues through the weekend, showing off New Orleans’ music and music venues at their best. There’s a lot going on, much of it free, so check out the official website for listings. Here are some of my highlights for the weekend.

New Orleans’ High is ‘90s punk in spirit but more agnostic in their musical expressions, pulling a healthy variety of sound into a coherent, slightly slack mix. On Friday, they’ll play a record release party for their new EP, Moving Echoes, at The Banks St. Bar.

Also on Friday, the Bob James Quartet will perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Blues Market (tickets), and the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra will play two shows of dance music from the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th at Snug Harbor (tickets).

The heart of NYC’s Daisy the Great is the vocal interplay between Mina Walker and Kelley Dugan, but their recent album The Rubber Teeth Talk isn’t precious. Musically, it has the restless energy and range that comes with being young and artsy in New York. They’ll play Gasa Gasa with The Ophelias opening (tickets).

Also that night, Erica Falls will front an all-star tribute to Curtis Mayfield with Irma Thomas, Bill Summers, Tarionna “Tank” Ball and more at Chickie Wah Wah (tickets), and R. Scully and Rough Seven will play NOLAxNo Cover show at The Broadside, sharing the bill with Clint Maedgen and the Bandapandas.

On Saturday, The Lost Bayou Ramblers’ Louis Michot (pictured) will do double duty. He’ll start the day with a free show at Bywater Bakery at 11 a.m., and he’ll perform with his psychedelic, experimental band Swamp Magic that night at Chickie Wah Wah (tickets).

Also that night, the Morning 40 Federation will ride again, this time at a rare Uptown show on the back patio behind Snake & Jake’s. It’s a NOLAxNo Cover show benefiting the Louisiana SPCA. NOLAxNOLA took care of the band so that you can take care of the SPCA.

That night there will be another NOLAxNo Cover show, this time in the Bywater with Cuba Heat at BJ’s benefiting ISLA Immigration.

NOLAxNOLA wraps up on Sunday with a day of very different music scattered around town. At 4 p.m., The Columns will host “Havana on d’Avenue,” a Cuban pig roast with Alexey Marti and his Cuban Quintet.

At 5 p.m., Santos Bar starts a night of old school punk with The Oxys, The Pallbearers, and Miss Amerikan Vampire. (tickets). Snug Harbor will feature a tribute to the organ great Dr. Lonnie Smith (pictured) with Donald Harrison, Will Blades, Joe Dyson, Kyle Roussel, and Joe Ashlar. (tickets) The Toulouse Theatre will feature the Open Mic from Hell, a comedy show that’s part open mic stand-up and part improv. (tickets)

Psychedelic cumbia band Los Guiros will play a NOLAxNo Cover show at Vaughan’s Lounge benefiting ISLA Immigration. In 2024, Los Guiros gave My Spilt Milk a crash course in the music that influenced them.

For the second year, NOLAxNOLA includes NOLAxNOLA Talks, a two-day series of panel discussions on issues relevant to New Orleans’ musicians, music venues and music fans. It started on Thursday at the New Orleans Jazz Museum and finishes on Friday with talks that run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Here’s the schedule:

Idea Village Metronome Pitch Day (11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.): This pitch event will feature eight local founders focused on developing music industry platforms and businesses .

Keepers of the Flame: Are Traditional Forms of Music at Risk? (1:15-2:15 p.m.): As older generations of musicians age out of performing from musically rich areas like New Orleans, other areas of the South and Native American tribal lands, a younger generation musicians are leveraging digital technology and social media to help preserve and ideally expand the distinctly analog forms of music their performing by creating engaging content for newer, broader audiences.

Panelists: Emily Madero (French Quarter Festivals), Chief Dr. Gerald Paige, Nate Cameron (Them People Production & glbl wrmng) and Aurelien Barnes (Cha Wa,). Moderator: Soul Stu (WWOZ radio).

Beyond the Music: Managing Hospitality & Venue Vibes (2:30-3:30 p.m.): While the music being presented onstage is the motivating factor why someone walks through a venue’s doors, the experience within plays a factor in how someone experiences a show. Great bartenders, dirty bathrooms, friendly security, overpriced food and bad sightlines are factors that venue operators have to navigate with varying degrees of agency. Here we look inside what venues are doing, with what they have, to make the show experience a memorable one in the best ways possible.

Panelists: Pamela Blackmon (Preservation Hall), Abby Jones (ASM / Legends), Anny Ayers (Brooklyn Bowl) and LayNasha Sallis (City Winery Atl, Pitt, StL).