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The State Theatre in Red Bluff will present Tommy Castro and the Painkillers, 7:30 p.m., Sat- urday, May 14. Night after night, Tommy Castro, a fierce and fiery road warrior, fer- vently delivers his driving, blues-soaked, soul-baring music to fans all over the world. The road is where he honed his guitar playing to a razor's edge. It's where he learned how to capti- vate an audience with his intensely passionate vo- cals and his memorable songs, licks and grooves. It's where he learned to turn his band into a dy- namic, high-performance engine, able to bring down the house with a soul- ful ballad and then bring fans to their feet with a blistering blues rocker. In the words of Blues Revue, "Tommy Castro can do no wrong." Over the course of his four-decade career, Cas- tro has played thousands of shows to hundreds of thousands of fans, pack- ing dance floors, always leaving them screaming for more. He has released 14 al- bums filled with original blues, soul and West Coast rock, each one standing alone. Hailing from the San Francisco area, Cas- tro, along with his band, The Painkillers (currently featuring bassist Randy McDonald, keyboard- ist Michael Emerson and drummer Bowen Brown), play music that is guaran- teed to fire up fans and leave critics searching for new words of praise. Bill- board says the band plays "irresistible contemporary blues-rock" with "street- level grit and soul." Now, with Method To My Mad- ness, the group turns the intensity up another notch. Ticket prices will be $35 for all seating sec- tions. Tickets will be available at Tehama Country Visitor Center, 250 Antelope, online at statetheatreredbluff.com and at the box office that evening. REDBLUFFSTATETHEATRE Tommy Castro and the Painkillers coming Saturday TommyCastroandthePainkillers. The Tehama Concert Se- ries brings the Axiom Brass concert, 7:30 p.m. May 21 at the Red Bluff State Theatre. Axiom Brass' broadly ap- pealing repertoire includes traditional brass quin- tets, string quartet tran- scriptions, early music and unique arrangements of American and Latin jazz. The ensemble's commit- ment to new music has led to several world premieres and ongoing commission- ing projects. This Chicago- based quintet is dedicated to enriching the lives of its audiences, as well as to edu- cating future musicians and appreciators of great music. This concert is free to subscribers of the Tehama Concert Series who have purchased a season ticket. Non-members may pur- chase tickets at the the- atre box office just before concert time. Single-con- cert ticket prices are $30 per adult and $10 for stu- dents. Concert Series mem- berships/season tickets for the Tehama Concert Series — which includes admis- sion to this performance — will be available for pur- chase in the Theatre's lobby. Those who purchase a new 2016-17 membership will get this concert as an added bo- nus, which means $60 for a new adult membership will admit the purchaser to the Axiom Brass concert plus all five of next season's concerts. The box office will open around 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 727- 8727. RED BLUFF STATE THEATRE Tehama Concert Series continues with Axiom Brass Axiom Brass CHICO Stand-Up Standish Comedy Showcase will fea- turethereturnofJohnRoss, founder of the Last Stand Comedy Venue and spiritual father figure of The Chico Comedy Scene, TV mogul Kyle Bowen who just de- buted his new comedy show on BCAC-TV, Sydney Hupp, Cassidy Erin O'Brien, and Don Ashby from The Chico Comedy Scene, and Marty Trendler from Red Bluff, 8 p.m. May 14 at Duffy's Tav- ern in Chico. It will be hosted by Aaron Standish with John Bertoli. Cost is $5. For more information, go to the Merry Standish Comedy website at http:// www.merrystandish.com/ home.html. COMEDY SHOWCASE Locals to perform Saturday in Chico By Leila Rodriguez Correspondent Expect hilarity to ensue during Steve Swim's Cold Beer Report slated 8 p.m. Friday at the Blue Room Theater, 139 W. First St. Sacramento funny man Johnny Taylor Jr. will be reprising his place on stage with new jokes. He will also be joined by Chico comedic favorites Jerm Leather, Becky Lynn, Don Ashby and Justin Bar- ron with live music by Ka- trina Rodriguez. Taylor will be perform- ing a 30-minute set. "It's been awhile since the audience has seen me," Taylor said. "There's going to be a lot of new stuff, probably." It's been one year since the comic has performed a headlining show in Chico, though Taylor did perform short sets last month for the Chico Comedy Fes- tival. The audience can expect some dark, auto- biographical storytell- ing from Taylor. His style dances on the side of dry humor with some self-dep- recation but his deliveries are pretty good. "My last album was de- scribed as 'dark' a lot of time, but I think this new album that I'm doing isn't nearly as dark as the last one," he said. "It's more silly. It's a lot more kind of my personality off stage." Though Taylor said he always considered himself a funny guy, he only re- centlydelvedintostand-up. "I started in comedy kind of late, I was in the my 30s," Taylor said. "I kind of stumbled upon an open mic and I thought maybe I should try this at least once, you know? I just wrote five minutes of material that day and went and tried it out." It went well enough that Taylor performed at the following open mic. "That second time didn't go nearly half as good as the first time," he said. "I bombed hard." The catalyst for the hin- dered new comedian to continue in comedy was receiving another chance at redemption by secur- ing a spot at Luna's Cafe in Sacramento. "That went really well, and getting up every other week or so really kept me going," Taylor said. "It was such a positive environ- ment to do stand-up com- edy. It removed a lot of the pressure and the pretense. It was just kind of like a large open-mic with 30 other comics silently judg- ing me from the back." Five years later, Taylor is regularly circling the Sacramento comedy scene, making appearances on Comedy Central's improv, panel game show @Mid- night and SF Sketchfest. The comedian has even shared the stage with the likes of Robin Williams, whom Taylor fondly re- members how the late co- median treated him "way better than he had any need to," Taylor said. Even though Taylor had a rough start in the scene (He was once told he was theworstcomicever,which Taylor took as a compli- ment), he continues to hone a style effortlessly. "I think, in a way, you don't know how to do it," Taylor said. "You're imper- sonating what a stand-up comic is and that can last awhile where you don't re- ally have your own voice on stage." STAND-UP Steve Swim's Cold Beer Report coming to Chico on Friday CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Sacramento comedian Johnny Taylor is coming back to Chico on Friday for a 30-minute set with several Chico favorites at the Blue Room Theatre. When/where: 8p.m. Friday at the Blue Room Theater, 139W. First St. Cost: $8 The show is for mature audiences. STEVESWIM'SCOLD BEERREPORT 734MainStreet 530-690-2477 11am-9pm Mon.-Thur. 11am - 10pm Fri. & Sat. 11am-8pm Sun. 9 CRAFT BEERS ON TAP Pizza Restaurant TUSCANPOOL SUPPLY hasmovedto 40 CHESTNUT AVENUE (530) 527-3262 Licensed, Bonded & Insured CLS#944446 SharonWilkes, Sole Proprietor Dropin&seeournewdigs We are no longer associated with Mike Jenkins. A+E » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, May 12, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A5