Events

[ROCK] Peter Case may be thought of as a California-based musician, but he’s originally from right here in Western New York. Having dropped out of high school at 15, he traveled for several years and eventually landed in San Francisco in the early 1970s. By 1976, he emerged as a founding member of the power-pop trio The Nerves, who wrote and recorded the original version of the song “Hanging on the Telephone,” later made famous by Blondie. The Nerves were short lived, and Case—who’d by then become a fixture on the burgeoning Los Angeles punk scene—went on to form The Plimsouls (our own Goo Goo Dolls have covered their tune “A Million Miles Away”). By the mid-1980s he’d begun a solo career, landing him more songwriting accolades than sales, but he did score a top 20 hit with “Dream About You” before parting with his major label contract. Since then, he’s released music both on Vanguard and independently, veering away from the smart, new-wavey pop that launched his career and closer to a roots/Americana vibe. His most recent disc, 2015’s HWY 62, was recorded with a band that includes Ben Harper. One of his most politically conscious collections, Case uses Route 62—a roadway that connects WNY with the American southwest—as a springboard for storytelling about corporate greed, the prison system, environmental concerns, and the evils of capitalism run amok. Hear the newer songs mixed in with the old in an intimate, solo gig on Sunday, October 29, at Babeville’s 9th Ward.