Tonight: Jonah Matranga + Friends Play Far’s Water & Solutions at The Continental Club

I know that for a long (long) while there, I kinda cringed every time somebody brought up the whole “nu-metal” wave of the late ’90s; I couldn’t help it, y’know? With Fred Durst’s face everywhere and each new godawful mashup of metal and hardcore and hip-hop getting worse and worse, it felt like a dark time for music.

Looking back now, however, I’m better able to see the bright spots in that darkness — some truly amazing bands came out of that era, like System of a Down and Sevendust and the Deftones, and alongside that last band, another band of fellow Sacramentans (Sacramentites?), Far. From the first time I heard them, the guys in Far seemed to be going in a very different direction than a lot of their compatriots, melding elements of emo and early-’90s DC post-hardcore in a way that made a hell of a lot more sense to me than Limp Bizkit’s lame-ass antics ever did.

And, of course, a large part of that reason is singer/guitarist Jonah Matranga. Since Far first broke up in 1999, Matranga has been an insanely prolific songwriter and musician, lending his songwriting skills and voice to a bunch of different projects, from Onelinedrawing to Gratitude to New End Original to probably a half-dozen more I’ve yet to hear. Throughout, he’s remained a great, great singer and songwriter, and even as I listen to the old Far stuff, it feels like what I’m hearing is (in part, at least) just another facet of the guy’s music.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see Matranga live a few times over the years, and each time it’s been a hell of a memorable performance. There was that show where Jonah sat on the porch of Fitzgerald’s after the actual show, singing and playing softly to a gaggle of die-hard fans, or the time Jonah rocked out alone in the half-finished back room/garage of somebody’s house, when he did the best goddamn version of Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” that I swear I’ve ever heard, or, yes, that time I put on zombie makeup and let Jonah strangle me with a belt for a music video. (Reading back on it now, that sounds pretty awful, but trust me, it was fun. And professional zombie makeup is really hard to take off.)

Along the way, the guy’s music has become an integral part of my life, from the Far era onwards. I count “Every Mistake”, “Aeroplanes”, “Water & Solutions”, “14-41”, “Love American Style”, “Yr Letter”, and “Lukewarm” all as being among my favorite songs of, well, ever. He’s just really damn good at what he does.

Now, for the good part: Jonah Matranga will be in town tonight, Wednesday, August 22nd, up at The Continental Club, where he and a full band(!) of friends will be playing Far’s classic 1998 release, Water & Solutions, in its entirety. Hot damn. Granted, I’m a little bit bummed that he probably won’t be doing poppier stuff like “Aeroplanes” or “14-41”, but since I missed out on seeing Far live the first time around, this is a very, very cool thing to me.

Some excellent local pals will be playing, too, specifically Another Run, whom I like quite a bit — and who I can kinda-sorta see as the spiritual heirs to the better side of the era that birthed Far — and texture: Yellow, who are different and jazzy and soulful but very good, too. There’s also touring friends The Pauses, about whom I know very little, sadly, although I’ve heard good things.

The whole thing is gonna be a blast, honest. It’ll kick off at 8PM, and the cover’s $12; get there early for the openers, alright?