Events

[ROCK] Buffalo-born Willie Nile has spent his 50s and 60s having a much deserved career renaissance after years of contractual issues that kept him from a rumored breakthrough going back to the 1970s. A consummate storyteller and urban poet, Nile comes from the Springsteen school of hard knocks, but he also pulls some of his musical energy from the scrappy downtown punk scene and the new wave that grew out of it. If the piano ballads of 2015’s If I Was a River left you cold, Nile’s latest, World War Willie (River House) comes galloping out of the gate with the power chords and cinematic glory of “Forever Wild.” He sneers his way through “Bad Boy” and channels George Thorogood on “Citibank Nile.” The closing cover of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” finds him paying tribute to another obvious influence while making it very much his own. Reed would approve, as does Buffalo, allowing Nile to play a two-night engagement at Buffalo Iron Works this Friday and Saturday, December 9 and 10.