This Weekend: Kiosk Benefit this Saturday featuring Midnight Vinyl, Def Ear

If the phase “college literary magazine” strikes fear into your heart, you’ve obviously never picked up a Kiosk. The long-running University of Kansas publication bucks the trend year after year with great short stories and poetry woven together with immaculate graphic design. The kids who put it together take great pride in it, and it gets out to the people for free thanks to benefit shows like Saturday night’s (April 4) soirée at the Jackpot Music Hall.

Headliner Midnight Vinyl splits the difference between the Hold Steady and Lucky Town-era Bruce Springsteen. It’s always a crowded stage when the seven-piece group performs, looking the part of a high-school ska band that wised up and started writing good songs. Singer Gavin Snider (who also contributes to this blog) plays the part of a younger Craig Finn when he belts out half-spoken lines like Maybe there was mercury running through my veins/The room was heating up/I felt like I was rising. There’s a firm and reckless belief in the power of rock and roll alive here, which could presumably either translate to great shows or very drunken nights (or both).

Opener Def Ear is a new Lawrence hip-hop combo featuring rapper Forest and producer Kind Budd. The group recently iced down a debut album called Skeet 2.0 – The Taint Sessions and is presumably prepping more uncouth material for its next release.

DJ Coldfish will wind down the evening with a pants-off dance off. Bring your journal and $5.