Mister F guitarist Andrew Chamberlaine is leaving the band.
Chamberlaine, also known as Mister A, announced the news on his Facebook page today. “Making music with my best friends Ben, Matt, Scott, and Mike while visiting at least 20 new states will always be one of the best memories I’ll ever have, however it is something I will not be continuing in 2016,” he wrote in the announcement.
He notes that he will continue his involvement with music, writing songs and playing as much as possible while building his student base at Parkway Music in Clifton Park.
The Albany-based jam band, which formed in 2013 with members of Timbre Coup (including Chamberlain) and Capital Zen, has two New Year’s shows lined up — Dec. 31 at the Monopole in Plattsburgh and a post-moe. show Jan. 1 at Albany’s The Hollow. They will be Chamberlain’s last two shows with the band. The band has an extensive tour schedule for January and February, but there is no news yet from the band as to whether Chamberlain will be replaced for those dates.
The full announcement from Chamberlaine’s Facebook page:
Dear Friends, Family, And Fans of Mister F, I’d like to start off by saying that this last 3 years has been one…
On Saturday, December 19, the historic Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY is hosting a holiday poster art show, presented by NYS Music and PhanArt. The poster art show will feature Woodstock based artists Mike DuBois and Erin Cadigan, who will both be selling their work, as well as PhanArt, which represents a collective of poster artists from around the country. Come and buy that holiday gift for the music lover in your family, or treat yourself!
Mike DuBois will be on hand, and is one of the official poster artists for the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well tour, as well as one of the official poster artists for the recent Dead & Company tour. Mike will be selling some of his highly sought after limited edition prints, and those prints will be announced on The Bearsville Theater Facebook page during the week leading up to the show.
Erin Cadigan is an illustrator whose clients include High Times Magazine, Central Park Summer Stage and Adidas. She spent decades selling her art as a vendor at Grateful Dead and Phish shows. Erin will be selling t-shirts from her THREE Erin Cadigan line, Phanart posters and art prints including her just released DRINKING ALE print. Local folks might know her best as the owner and designer of The White Dove Rockotel.
The Poster Art show will run from 4-8pm, and The Bearsville Theater bar will be serving those over 21 during that time. From 9pm until midnight or beyond, Bearsville Theater will be hosting a Good Ol’ Grateful Dead dance party for those over 21, which will be illuminated by a psychedelic light show from Delilah Rain’s Ambient Experience.
The poster show is free and open to all ages (4-8pm) and the dance party is $5 and 21+ (9pm-12am)
Catskill Chill may soon become “Adirondack Chill” with plans to move the festival to Lake George.
The Post-Star of Glens Falls reported today that Chill promoter Dave Marzollo met with the Warren County committee that allocates money raised through the county’s bed tax and told them, “We really think this is the perfect home for our festival.”
The festival is set to be held Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at Charles Wood Park in Lake George, and will receive $15,000 for marketing from Warren County via the county’s occupancy tax. If it moves to Lake George, Marzollo told county officials that “Catskill” will be removed from the festival’s name.
Marzollo told the county that he sold 5,000 tickets to this year’s Chill, the sixth annual edition, which was held at Camp Minglewood in Hancock. Marzollo didn’t want the festival to leave Camp Minglewood, but he announced last year that he had to move it for reasons beyond his control.
This year’s Chill was headlined by moe. and included bands like Lotus, Zappa Plays Zappa, Lettuce, Twiddle and The Motet, among many others.
The year after its 20th annual edition, popular music festival Gathering of the Vibes will take a break in 2016.
Festival founder Ken Hays announced today that he needs a “time out,” calling producing the festival as an independent promoter a challenging endeavor.
According to the statement posted on the festival’s website and social media and emailed to the festival’s mailing list:
This is not the end of the Vibes, my friends; it’s simply a pause, an opportunity for us all to reflect on the memories, explore new and exciting festival initiatives while planning our triumphant return in 2017.
The four-day festival started as a gathering at SUNY Purchase for people mourning the loss of Jerry Garcia in 1996, and it has had strong ties to the Grateful Dead community ever since, hosting all of the original band members at various points throughout the festival’s 20 years. The festival was held in several New York locations before relocating to Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Gathering of the Vibes 2016
moe.’s Tropical Throe.down planned for January 2016 has combined forces with Little Feat’s Feat Camp.
Little Feat is no stranger to these types of trips: Feat Camp will be Little Feat’s 14th annual Feat Fan Excursion.
Island Gigs representatives have assured moe.rons attending the Jamaica jaunt that Little Feat’s presence will not interfere with moe.’s performances at all. But it will give attendees access to three full Little Feat shows in addition to three moe. shows at night, plus an acoustic day set (for the first 200 people who booked) and three shows from special guests Medeski Martin and Wood.
The addition means the sale of packages for Throe.down were put on hold temporarily, but they will be available for fans to purchase again at 10 a.m. Monday, Sept. 14. According to moe.’s website, “Space is limited and fans are encouraged to book early, as the rooms are expected to move quickly.”
The joint festival will be held Jan. 10-14, 2016, at the all-inclusive Jewel Paradise Cove Beach Resort & Spa in Runaway Bay, Jamaica, though Feat will play an extra show on Jan. 9 for those who choose to add the extra pre-night to their vacation.
This is not the first time moe. has collaborated with Little Feat. The Hollywood-based band played at moe.’s 2007 Snoe.down in Lake Placid, and Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne played with moe. for the band’s Big Lebowski-themed Halloween show in Las Vegas last year.
The Phish from Vermont will head to Mexico in January and take those fans who can afford it with them.
The all-inclusive vacation/concert experience will take place from Jan. 15 to 17, 2016, in Mexico’s Riviera Maya at the recently renovated, five-star Barceló Maya Beach Resort. It’s “on one of the most amazing beaches in the Mexican Caribbean. It stretches 1.2 miles where you will find white sand, crystal clear waters, and a coral reef,” according to the resort’s website. It boasts three restaurants, a nightclub, a pool and a hot tub. Attendees will be allowed to stay at other hotels and still join the music festivities, though.
The vacation includes three nights of Phish shows with a beachfront stage just a few feet away from the Caribbean.
Prices range from $1,640 per person if you book a room for four to $2,056.50 if you book a room for two.
The trip is being billed as family friendly, and packages can be added with tickets for children at a few hundred dollars, depending on the child’s age.
Residents of the North Country are mourning the loss today of one of the most legendary concert venues around. The Waterhole closed last night after decades of serving up amazing music along with countless beers and strong cocktails.
Hope remains that the Saranac Lake watering hole will reopen soon under new ownership, but for now, the dim lights of the downstairs bar and the bright stage lights will be dark for the future.
For a venue of its size in such a small town — Saranac Lake has around 5,000 residents, and it’s a strong population center in the middle of the sparsely settled Adirondack Park — the Waterhole’s stage has been graced with some heavy hitters, as well as nurturing plenty of local talent.
In 2013, the venue held a two-month-long celebration to mark 20 years since owner Billy Allen converted the second level of the bar (which was open for more than 40 years) from apartments into the Upstairs Music Lounge. Since then, some significant bands have filled the two-level concert hall with music: moe., the Del McCoury Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Soulive, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Man Man, Gov’t Mule, Leftover Salmon, the Infamous Stringdusters, Max Creek, and Donna the Buffalo, among many others.
It’s also been a regular gathering place for locals and visitors during the village’s popular Winter Carnival, with music every night and often two acts a day, as well as its Party on the Patio series that meant a free show every Thursday night, usually from May through October.
On Friday night, EMEFE played the last show there for a while, and near the end of the show they dedicated the song “Good Future” to the Waterhole and the crew who have been running it.
Traveling bands have appreciated the Waterhole as a venue with character as well as an opportunity to build up their fan base in the Adirondacks, but few have appreciated it as much as the local bandswho got their start there. Lowell Wurster, percussionist for Lucid, posted kind words yesterday on Facebook:
“So tonight marks the end of a North Country legacy. The beloved Waterhole in Saranac Lake is closing its doors. It really makes me sad, but I understand the reasons. Lucid first played there about 10 years ago and to this day, its one of our favorite venues. Thank you Brenda and everyone who has worked there over the years.”
Eric Munley, mandolin player for the Blind Owl Band, also booked music there for the last handful of years.
“The Waterhole is temporarily closing its doors tonight, between change of ownership. While it is a sad day for the bar, town and Upstate music community, we all look to the future with hope that soon enough the doors will reopen and live music will again fill its walls. The Waterhole has always been a blessing. A true music venue with focus on nothing besides music. Every musician that has gotten to play there knows the love that exists with in its walls. We all want to thank Brenda and her crew for so many great years of music. I know I would not be where I am today if the Waterhole was not there to inspire my path.”
This drawing was seen on the chalkboard at the Waterhole the last few days it was open. Photo courtesy of Katrina Lauber. Drawing done by John?
Are you a musician or a music lover with fond Waterhole memories? Tell us about it in the comments!
Many Magnaball attendees were foggy rather groggy Sunday morning after an epic Saturday of music, so it was good that fans had all day to recover and gather their strength for a final night of revelry with Phish.
Sunday’s show started out with a cheer as fans recognized the opening chords to “Punch You in the Eye.” That segued into a rarity, “Buffalo Bill.” The song hasn’t been played since Ohio in June 2012 and the set continued with “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing,” then “Limb By Limb,” which featured a jam that built to a quick payoff. The melancholy “Waiting All Night” moved into “Theme From the Bottom,” with a beautifully melodic breakdown in the middle. That transitioned into “Maze,” the only song of the night off Rift, the album released on vinyl for the first time the previous day. “Maze” built to a frightening frenzy multiple times before breaking back into the dark, sparse end section.
The mood lightened with the lyric-heavy “The Line” while “Stash” got everyone dancing with a jam that included some great guitar/bass interplay and piano builds. “Reba”’s nonsensical recipe for disaster was super fun, as always.
Band members then sang “I Didn’t Know,” until Trey asked the Little Beast Boy (Fishman) to come forward and play the vacuum and “suck love” at a long list of people Trey read off that the band wanted to thank, ranging from the band’s crew and staff to local officials. The set finished off with a high-energy version of “Character Zero” that left the crowd hungry for more.
A loud appreciative roar from the crowd accompanied the opening audio segment of “Martian Monster” whose words of blasting off on a voyage of discovery undoubtedly rang so true for so many at Magnaball. An energized but fairly standard jam soon followed before the music shifted towards ambient spacey tones and, soon after, the opening bass notes of “Down with Disease.” As they’ve done regularly this summer, Phish stretched out a second set “Disease” jam into a beautiful one that started out with a slow ambient groove that slowly and surely evolved into a raging rock and roll blissed out jam.
After reaching an apex and stagnating for a few minutes, the music shifted seamlessly into a far less common song of late, “Scents and Subtle Sounds.” Although not played with the full intro section as it was in Philadelphia two weeks prior, this newly revived 2.0 gem ushered in a new wave of beautiful improvisational rock with standout fills from Page on piano and Trey repeating some soaring and beautifully dissonant chords on guitar. The short and power packed jam was not even finished yet as the opening chords to another rarity, “What’s the Use?” started up with Fishman still singing along to a petering out “Scents and Subtle Sounds.” This along with “Dirt” that followed seemed to serve as a chance for everyone to conserve some energy for the stretch run and for some to cross some rarer songs off their lists.
The final leg of a magical weekend began with a “Mike’s Song” that was played to perfection with Page again shining on the clavinet and Trey unleashing a relentless attach of high octave shock waves courtesy of the Echoplex. While some held their breath for another go round of the second Mike’s jam, instead, the group launched right into “Fuego” which brought its signature brand of powerhouse rock to the second set. While the composed section was run through perfectly, it was a fairly short version with no jam as the music immediately shifted gears into “Twist.” One of the true MVPs of this summer tour, “Twist” featured some of the more improvisational moments of the second set as a quick run through of the composed section gave way to a nifty guitar and bass breakdown between Trey and Mike. A quick blues based jam with the whole band involved soon followed which escalated into yet another full on rock barrage replete with “Immigrant Song” vocal teases from Trey and Fishman. Although it may not have been as stretched out or as epic as previous summer “Twist’s,” this version served as a clear example of how effortlessly the band can shift from one musical mode to another. The customary “Weekapaug Groove” that followed was also a prime example of this as some light-hearted toying around with the song’s tempo towards the end of the jam gave way to a reemergence of “Martian Monster” and all the audio samples that come along with it. If it was the band’s intention to pack as much different music and madness as they could into a short “Mike’s Groove,” then they succeeded most admirably.
A show and a weekend like this one could only have one fitting encore and the group’s seminal classic “You Enjoy Myself” fit that bill. This final musical sendoff gave Phish one last chance to delight the crowd with its mastery of ambient noise, blissful cohesiveness, trampolines and vocal jamming. At its completion, a majestic fireworks display went off to the right of the stage that left revelers with minds blown and mouths agape. It served as both the final page of a fantastic and memorable Magnaball and the initial call to arms for those fortunate fans ending the summer tour with the annual summer ending party in Colorado in two weeks.
Set 1: Punch You in the Eye > Buffalo Bill, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > Limb By Limb, Waiting All Night > Theme From the Bottom > Maze, The Line, Stash, Reba, I Didn’t Know[1], Character Zero
Set 2: Martian Monster > Down with Disease[2] -> Scents and Subtle Sounds[3] -> What’s the Use? > Dirt > Mike’s Song > Fuego > Twist -> Weekapaug Groove[2] -> Martian Monster
Encore: You Enjoy Myself
[1] Trey thanked the crew, production staff and local officials.
[2] Unfinished.
[3] No intro.
Aqueous will be changing drummers after this week.
The band’s current drummer, Ryan Nogle, will be leaving due to health issues. He will be replaced by Tom Vayo, who the band calls an “INCREDIBLE musician/multi instrumentalist.”
Today, we bring you some important news from camp AQ- Ryan Nogle will perform his last gig as Aqueous’ drummer this week at Peach Music Festival (strangely enough, the same location that he began his career with us one year ago)- Ryan has a medical condition that is preventing him from continuing on with the band any further; He’s got severe carpel tunnel and nerve damage in both arms, and for the sake of him being able to play drums AT ALL later in life, it will require him to step down from his position as AQ’s drummer. We’ve been aware of this issue since February of this year, and have in turn been auditioning drummers with the help of Ryan and our previous drummer Nick to find EXACTLY the right fit for our sound; We are very in tune with the fact that our friendships offstage directly dictate the quality of our music, and have searched high and low for someone who not only has the chops, but also fits within our cannon of friendliness, drive, and creative vision that we care so deeply about- I’m happy to report that we’ve all come to agree that Buffalo’s own Tom Vayo will replace Ryan as Aqueous’ long term drummer. Tom is an INCREDIBLE musician/multi instrumentalist, and shares our same drive, passion, and commitment to putting on the best shows possible every night, and to writing the best music we can for you guys- He was a natural choice after auditioning many different drummers, and we are thrilled and excited to have him join our family! That being said, it’s important that we take a moment and appreciate how much Ryan (and his family) have done for Aqueous both offstage and onstage for YEARS. Although Ryan has only been performing as a full-time member for one year, he is behind ALL of our studio and live releases, has repaired and or built half the equipment we’ve used since our inception, been our live audio engineer for many shows, and has been a close friend and supporter of the band for nearly a decade. Even though the scenario is tough, we here at AQ headquarters all feel incredibly grateful that our friendships are stronger than ever and that we can all move forward with each others’ help- Our new drummer Tom has been spending time with us on the road and at shows, and is working directly with Ryan in multiple facets to come in strongly as he steps up to the huge task of filling Ryan’s shoes. We’re all confident that he’s the man for the job, and we look very forward to the exciting future ahead. We appreciate everyone’s sympathy and understanding with this situation; it was absolutely beyond any of our control, but we feel poised to welcome in the next chapter of our already exciting story. We wish to truly thank Ryan for his dedication and his incredible talent, and to thank you good folks for sticking with us through the obstacles over the years- We really, really do appreciate it. Here’s some words from Ryan himself: “It’s hard for me to comprehend that a year has already passed since I joined Aqueous. All the shows and people I’ve met; it’s almost like a blur. August 15th we’ll be playing at Peach MusicFest in Scranton. Right back where I started from one year ago. It was a spectacular experience. My second show since officially joining the band. What I had longed for, and worked toward for so long had finally come to fruition. I was touring with a band playing drums. Not just any band though. The band that I wanted desperately to be a part of since the first time I mixed sound for them at a dumpy little theatre back in 2007. My patience had paid off. The transition was easy. These guys were already my best friends. There was no awkward “get to know you” phase. Just four friends on a stage making some heavy duty music. I’ve jammed with these guys in various formats over the years but nothing compared to actually being part of this well-oiled machine. As time passed and more shows were performed, it just kept getting better. The music expanded and became more adventurous. Chances were being taken. It was phenomenal. Now we fast forward to a year later. Heading back to Scranton for another go round. It’s hard to imagine that this will in fact be my final performance with Aqueous. Leaving this band is the last thing I ever thought I’d be doing. This past year has been one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling years of my life. I’ve met the most incredible people on the road and have played some of the coolest gigs I could have ever imagined. I have friends all over the country now that I would always look forward to seeing at shows. That aspect is one of the most difficult parts to come to terms with. Those we meet in our lives help define who we are as humans and help shape and create these experiences. Interacting with all of you who I have met on the road have contributed to some of my favorite memories. I thank every single person who I’ve met on this journey for your kindness and support. I have experienced so much love from this community. I also thank Mike, Dave, Evan, and Josh for giving me the opportunity to be thrown into this unique life and truly “live the dream.” Without you guys, I would have just been some chump making noise in his basement. I appreciate everything that life has given me and bare no negative feelings about how things have played out. I loved every moment of this experience and those memories will last a lifetime. Thank you for those memories.” Ryan J. Nogle Much love everyone, see you out there- Mike, Dave, Evan, Ryan, and Tom
Ryan will definitely be missed. Here’s a video of him rocking out “Don’t Do It” last week in Buffalo:
And another of one of his great solos at Buffalo Ironworks last year:
July 10 – Rusty Old Guys
July 17 – Georgie Wonders Orchestra
July 24 – Back 40 Band
July 31 – Welcome home night
August 7 – Harmony Rocks
August 14 – Switch Band
August 21 – Three Quarter North
August 28 – Rymanowski Brothers
Sept. 11 – Al Bruno
Sept. 18 – Halfway to St Patty’s Day
Concerts on the Market
5 to 7 p.m. Fridays
June 12 – Frankie Lessard
June 19 – 2 Broads with Alotta Sound
June 26 – Double D
Sept. 18 – Fall Festival
Oct. 2 — Frankie Lessard
The rain location for all shows is Cohoes Music Hall. Stop down early for the Cohoes Farmer Market for an excellent selection of local foods and gifts starting at 4:00 p.m.
The festival is set to be held Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at Charles Wood Park in Lake George, and will receive $15,000 for marketing from Warren County via the county’s occupancy tax. If it moves to Lake George, Marzollo told county officials that “Catskill” will be removed from the festival’s name.
