Category: News Desk

NYS Music presents Phish SPAC after-parties with Mister F and friends

Part of the fun in attending a Phish show is often the plans we make for the before and after parties. For those heading to Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) July 1 to 3 to see the boys, you’re now completely covered.

The Capital Region’s own Mister F will host three nights of after-parties at Nanola in Malta to keep the fun going long after Phish’s encore. Shuttles will be available to and from SPAC – a quick 10-minute ride.

Mister F recently welcomed Mike Candela as new guitarist to a band that formed in 2013 from regional acts Timbre Coup and Capital Zen.

While a schedule is to be determined, they will be joined by the McLovins, Lespecial, Strange Machines and Hayley Jane and the Primates.

Presented by NYS Music, the bread to this Phish sandwich includes pre-parties on Saturday, July 2 and Sunday, July 3.

Nanola features a full bar, great beer selection and traditional pub fare in addition to creole favorites like jambalaya, oysters and po’ boys.

Tickets are available in a variety of options. Shows are $10 per night. Shuttles are also $10. A combo pass including all shuttles and after shows is $50.

Additional details including the daily schedule and ticket information will be announced soon.

May 12, 2016
Marco Benevento Bringing Fred Short to Upstate New York

Marco Benevento, touring in support of his recently released half-concept/half dance-inflicted rock anthems album The Story of Fred Short, will make a run through upstate New York this week. Of the new album, the LA Times says, Marco “continues a rewarding effort to straighten his twisted sound into the guise of an indie-rock singer-songwriter, harnessing his inventive sonic palette into rewardingly bite-size pop songs that touch on disco and soul” while Boulder Weekly calls it “a swirling pastiche of deep grooves, buoyant pop filigrees and grinding old-school psychedelic reveries.”

Benevento has been keeping busy with sporadic dates in Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, playing with The Arcs and The Barr Brothers, and gearing up for the long-awaited reunion of the Duo. But his main focus has been his solo band, which features fellow JRAD-ian Dave Dreiwitz on bass and Andy Borger on drums. Seeing Benevento’s solo performances is to catch him in his element.

Starting on Thursday at the Montage Music Hall in Rochester, the band will continue to Hector at the Stonecat on Friday the 13th (watch out!) before hitting the Tralf Music Hall in Buffalo on Saturday night. Rochester’s own Mikaela Davis will open the shows with her gorgeous and unique harp-lead indie folk rock. And who knows, maybe she’ll even sit in with Benevento for a song or two, like she did recently in Brooklyn.

May 11, 2016
Star-Studded ‘Modern Vaudeville’ to Benefit Woodstock Day School

What began as a senior project for high schooler Diggy (Elijah) Lessard has transformed into a celebrity event at Woodstock Day School.

This month, a star-studded cast of actors, musicians and the like will perform in “Modern Vaudeville” to benefit the Kingston school’s music program. The one-night only event is scheduled for Sun., May 22 at 7 p.m. at BSP Lounge Kingston.

Lessard has plans to attend Sarah Lawrence (Class of 2020), and created the original theatrical production as part of his WDS graduation requirement. The show has garnered guest stars like Diggy’s father, bassist Stefan Lessard of the Dave Matthews Band, as well as Bobby Tisdale of Bob’s Burgers and the Hudson Valley’s own Marco Benevento. Other featured performers include burlesque artist Veronica Varlow, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not magician Albert Cadabra and the Strangecoats. More well-known names are expected to be added to the lineup, too.

“Modern Vaudeville” is based on the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” which Diggy Lessard read in 10th grade and was immediately drawn to its theme of “brothers and the fierce love between siblings.” The variety show will be a staging of art forms from circus to comedy to dance, music, magic and drama.

“I have such a huge connection and passion for performing,” Lessard said in a press release. “And I wanted to put on a unique and special show. My parents introduced me to this genre of entertainment and I was hooked.”

When creating his project, Lessard set a fundraising goal of $20,000 with creative sponsorship perks for local businesses like original advertisement jingles starring the Strangecoats. The collective house band includes drummer Jason Bowman (Five Points Band), Peter Dougan (WDS music teacher), Will Bryant (Connor Kennedy/Gene Ween Does Billy Joel), Amy Helm, Simi Stone, singer/songwriter Elizabeth Mitchell (Ida), Acacia Bowman (Five Points Band), Lisa Green (co-founder of The Paul Green Rock Academy) and Lessard’s father, Stefan, along with fellow Rock Academy students. So far, several thousand dollars’ worth of sponsorships have already been sold.

Tickets for the PG-13 “Modern Vaudeville” show are $10 in advance and $15 at the door and can be purchased online here. Check out this rehearsal video for a 15-second preview of “The Scarlet Ibis.”

May 10, 2016
Catching up with Holly Bowling, Returning to The Massry Center on May 12

Time has flown. It’s been half a year since we last spoke with Holly Bowling, who has been traversing the country performing the music of Phish, The Grateful Dead and more through her classical transcriptions of music from the two, and stops at the Massry Center on May 12.

Since October, Bowling has found herself at two major festivals – Jamcruise, AURA, and performances in New Orleans during Jazz Fest, and is now amid a tour of the Northeast, with stops in Burlington (a birthday show at Higher Ground, May 11), New York City (a midnight set at Blue Note Jazz Club, May 13), and Syracuse (Westcott Theater, May 14).

Holly’s live show has evolved and developed quite a bit over the past six months as she has incorporated more Grateful Dead songs into her shows. Bowling says she “loves how the two catalogs can meld together and allow for an expanded range of musical styles and emotions.”

Beginning last fall, when a show at the the Winery in Pittsburgh, PA, sold out, she quickly added a second show, but wanted something unique for the second night, and decided upon a show not strictly of Phish but also of Grateful Dead songs. Bowling says this is part of what she has found gives her “freedom to improvise into uncharted territory, take risks and see where it leads to, bringing the music to new areas and provide room to grow in the spirit of both of the two bands improvisational histories.”

As a result of this catalog expansion, later this year, Holly will release an album of Grateful Dead songs arranged for classical piano, in a manner similar to her 2015 debut album Distillation of a Dream. Fresh out of the studio weeks ago before last weeks’ New Orleans Jazz Fest and her Northeast Spring Tour, the album’s music is slated to be quite different with a larger focus on improvisation, allowing more space for Holly’s own style of improv to come through, as opposed to Distillation where the songs were much more tightly arranged, closer to the original compositions. “There is a really interesting parallel between the two albums and the mix of the bands and freedom of the songs. It will be interesting to see how that develops in live shows as well as the album,” said Bowling.

2016 began with Jamcruise 14, a first for Bowling both as a fan and performer. “The thing that really blew me away how it’s a multi-day music festival where each band who plays is still there for multiple days; it is unparalleled and special, on the water and in the tropics, it’s all pretty magical. The opportunity for connection and community when everyone is there really sets it apart.”

Bowling recently performed at New Orleans Jazz Fest, having attended as a fan and now for the first time as a performer. A performance at The Little Gem Saloon, was ideal for Bowling: an emerging artists showcase for bands from New Orleans and other areas around the country who shared the bill together. With pianos upstairs and down, Bowling remarked that Little Gem “you have my heart.” Her show at Howling Wolf in the Den, a small room off to the side, was performed in between sets of Turkuaz (covering The Band) and Jazz is Phish (which followed ‘Thankful for Amy,’ a tribute to Amy Winehouse fronted by Elise Testone) “This was a super fun gig to play because the energy was super high. I came on at 2 am and the town and energy were electric and had the best energy going. Turkuaz was a tough act to follow, but I find it easy to get fired up by others and playing music is always a nice segue. I was already in that happy musical head space when I went out for my set.”

Now in the Northeast, Bowling will offer a different show at The Massry Center than last October, factoring in Phish, The Grateful Dead and and “more improvisation, as the show concept has developed and as she’s gotten more comfortable with the music.” The Massry Center, frequently a venue for jazz and classical music, is a premier performance space and with Bowling in the room, the show can push the envelope in terms of the music people are typically seeing. “Bringing in different music to venues that is counter to what type of music typically appears there creates a hybrid of the two musical worlds that I love seeing music in.”

Expect a unique and memorable show on May 12. Tickets are $20 or $10 for students.

May 9, 2016
Twenty One Pilots Announce Tour, Includes Albany and Brooklyn

Twenty One Pilots will play the Times Union Center in Albany on January 25, 2017 as a part of their Emotional Roadshow world tour.

The Twenty One Pilots tour begins in Cincinnati and continues throughout North America. It has already sold out two shows at Madison Square Garden in addition to two nights in Boston.

Twenty One Pilots have garnered much success recently with their hit “Stressed Out,” which has spent months on the Billboard Top 40 chart and won iHeartRadio’s award for Alternative Rock Song of the Year. They’ve also recently received nominations for the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.

Tickets go on sale beginning May 13 at noon, and pricing begins at $46.50. In addition to Albany, they will also play Brooklyn on Jan. 20.

JANUARY
17 Providence, RI Dunkin Donuts Center
18 Bridgeport, CT Webster Bank Arena
20 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
21 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
22 Charlottesville, VA John Paul Jones Arena
24 Allentown, PA PPL Center
25 Albany, NY Times Union Center
27 Pittsburgh, PA Consol Energy Center
28 Chicago, IL United Center
29 Moline, IL iWireless Center
31 Madison, WI Alliant Energy Center Memorial Coliseum

FEBRUARY
1 Omaha, NE CenturyLink Center
3 Wichita, KS INTRUST Bank Arena
4 Sioux Falls, SD Denny Sanford Premier Center
7 Bozeman, MT Brick Breeden Fieldhouse
8 Boise, ID Taco Bell Arena
10 San Jose, CA SAP Center
11 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center
14 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
15 Anaheim, CA HONDA Center*
18 Las Vegas, NV Mandalay Bay Events Center
19 Tucson, AZ The Tucson Arena
21 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
22 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
24 Birmingham, AL BJCC Arena
25 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum Complex
26 North Charleston, SC North Charleston Coliseum
28 Tampa, FL Amalie Arena

MARCH
2 New Orleans, LA Smoothie King Center
3 North Little Rock, AR Verizon Arena
4 Memphis, TN FedEx Forum
5 Louisville, KY KFC Yum! Center
24 Wellington, NZ TSB Bank Arena
25 Auckland, NZ Vector Arena
27 Brisbane, AU Entertainment Centre
29 Adelaide, AU Entertainment Centre
31 Melbourne, AU Rod Laver Arena

https://youtu.be/VRpU9KJmVGs

May 9, 2016
The Show Goes On: WRPI’s Steve Daub Bids Farewell to ‘Stormy Monday Blues’ This Week

It’s a Monday night in Troy, and radio host Steve Daub shuffles into the WRPI studios with a small duffel bag of CDs in hand, ready to pick through some of the new local and national blues records on the shelf. At the top of the 8 o’clock hour, his distinct voice carries the words, “You’re listening to Stormy Monday Blues on WRPI-Troy,” over the intro riff of the blues tune of the same name. This Monday, he will give that intro on the radio one more time.

Steve Daub in the studio, May 2016

Underneath the stadium-style lecture halls of the Darrin Communications Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute resides the university’s radio station. WRPI pumps out music and programming with all sorts of content from the whacky musings of Harmando in the morning to the Capital District EDM staple of DJ Scooter’s “The Sounds of Now” on Friday nights. In between sits many other notable programs, including Steve Daub’s “Stormy Monday Blues.”

Daub began officially hosting the program in April 2000 after co-hosting it with former host Bill Burdick on a few occasions. Just over 16 years later, “Stormy Monday Blues” will again be passed on in a similar fashion. The program was started in the early 1980s by Jim Barrett (River Street Beat Shop, Troy) as a spin-off of his long-running program, “Kaleidoscope,” which currently airs on WVCR at Siena College. Since then, some of the hosts include Dave Thomas, former Smithsonian post-doctoral associate Kip Lornell, and Bill Burdick.

A mainstay of “Stormy Monday Blues” over the past few years has been frequent, live in-studio performances and interviews with local blues artists, some such as Rhett Tyler and Professor Louie & The Crowmatix taking residency status. On top of being a prominent figure in advocating for the patronage of live, local blues performances, this lead to Daub’s November 2012 induction into the NY Blues Hall of Fame.

Soon after Daub’s concurrent retirement from his professional career comes a relocation that will make him unable to make it to the studios to keep doing the show, but he is leaving it in good hands. Regular listeners of the program have become familiar with the new voice of the show over the past few months.

Though Daub is leaving “Stormy Monday Blues” this week, he by no means will part ways with music. While he wraps up some odds and ends around the Capital District through part of the summer, he plans on filling in some air time on WRPI, perhaps making an encore appearance on “Stormy Monday Blues.” He is looking forward to splitting more of his time between New York and New Orleans to take in the rich music scene and culture of the city where he already makes an annual pilgrimage for the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and he may look to pick up some on-air time in the Crescent City at Tulane University or the renowned jazz and blues station WWOZ.

Prof. Louie, a frequent “Stormy Monday Blues” guest, performing at Paramount Hudson Valley in Peekskill, Oct. 29 2015

An inductee of the New York Blues Hall of Fame as a musician (February 2015), Sonny Speed has a wealth of knowledge of the blues, which he will bring with him as the new host of “Stormy Monday Blues.” As an accomplished musician and record producer, Speed has opened for some big names including the Zombies, Cactus, Leslie West, Leon Russell and Toby Walker, among others. On top of that, he has shared the stage with Joe Louis Walker, the Drifters, Murali Coryell, Taz Cru and Chubby Checker to name a few. Speed has been getting acclimated to the radio environment as a co-host with Daub for the past handful of months.

Sonny Speed at the keyboards

It wasn’t entirely a chance encounter that brought Speed to the WRPI studios. Daub and Speed have worked together in the past judging blues events, meeting at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs.

As Sonny recalls:

I was hosting the Capital District Blues Network jam at Caffe Lena some time this past December. Steve was there watching the acoustic jam and later that night he called me to the back room and says ‘I want to talk to you about something. I’m going to be retiring and I’d like you to take over my show. I think you’ve got a good fit with what I’m doing there.’ He didn’t want to go to just anybody who didn’t have a depth in the blues.

Speed owns Sun Spot Studio in Saratoga Springs and has produced more than 75 albums, so hosting a radio program that incorporates live sessions will be a natural fit for him.

Rhett Tyler performing on “Stormy Monday Blues,” Nov. 23, 2015

Speed lists several big-name blues artists as his favorites starting with Toby Walker, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Keb’ Mo’, and New York-based artists Slam Allen and Joe Louis Walker. Though he has a similar taste in the blues to Daub, Speed is looking forward to presenting his own take on the genre while bringing in new and returning live studio guests and continuing his own music activism to get people out to see live music.

Although “Stormy Monday Blues” will just be CDs from the studio this Monday, be sure to tune in as Steve Daub signs onto the show one last time to share some memories and words of thanks before drifting into the night as Sonny takes over to finish the rest of that evening’s show.

Catch “Stormy Monday Blues” as it continues every Monday with Sonny Speed from 8 to 10 p.m. on WRPI, broadcasting to the Capital District at 91.5fm and worldwide at wrpi.org.

May 7, 2016
Larkin Square Announces 2016 Summer Concert Series in Buffalo

Music lovers in Buffalo have more options for free music this summer. Larkin Square will return for a fifth summer season showcasing 38 Buffalo-bred musical acts including Aqueous and Savannah & the Kings during their weekly 2016 Wednesday night concert series.

Live at Larkin offers a free, family-friendly event packed with music, food trucks and community groups. The concert series will run through Aug. 31. The free series is made possible through sponsorship with First Niagara and Independent Health.

The series will kick off on June 1 with a six-act opening night headlined by annual favorites John and Mary & the Valkyries, with each of the acts representing at least one local music nonprofit organization.

The series also host theme nights. This year will include an evening titled “Buffalo ’66: Cash & Stones Revisited,” marking the 50th anniversary of the week in which both legends performed in Buffalo. “Latin at Larkin” will feature complete dance lessons before each band, while “Sinatra’s Second Century” will feature music from Frank Sinatra.

“We’re excited to welcome the public to a new chapter of Live at Larkin with this most ambitious lineup to date for our original flagship event,” said Larkin Square Director of Fun Leslie Zemsky in a press release. “We continue to be amazed at the depth and quality of the Buffalo music scene – We can’t wait to hula hoop to these sounds of summer!”

Live At Larkin

June 1 John and Mary & the Valkyries w/ Fredtown Stompers, Freightrain, Verve Dance Studio, Carol McLaughlin & Magnitude, French Quarter Hounds

June 8 Aqueous w/ Jettison

June 15 Outer Circle Orchestra w/ Tiger Chung Lee

June 22 Unity Band w/ Will Holton, 4 B-Lo, Buffalo Concertina All Stars

June 29 Stoneflower w/ A Band Named Sue ft. Ring of Fire Cast Members

July 6 La Krema w/ Sol y Sombra, Salsa Sarah Dance Lessons

July 13 Tom Stahl & the Dangerfields w/ Savannah & the Kings

July 20 Miller & The Other Sinners w/ Preach Freedom & Connect

July 27 Reign of Kindo w/ The Tins

August 3 Brian Higgins & The Exchange Street Band w/ The Stone Bridge Band, Keith Shuskie ft. John Higgins

August 10 Dive House Union w/ Jony James Band

August 17 Rear View Ramblers w/ Uncle Ben’s Remedy

August 24 Nelson Starr & The Franciscans w/ Joey Giambra Jazz Orchestra

August 31 The Buffalovebirds w/ The New Good Neighbors

May 5, 2016
Canalside Announces Annual Summer Concert Series 2016
The free summer concert announcements are keeping music fans in Buffalo excited. The city’s popular and free Canalside series announced its Thursday night concert series this week. Canalside is hosting 12 concerts starting June 9 and running through August 25, 2016.

This year’s lineup includes a variety of acts that span over a wide variety of musical genres. The Buffalo Philaharmonic Orchestra will take the stage once again in “A Tribute to David Bowie.” Other highlights of the lineup include Public Enemy, Zappa Plays Zappa, and Claypool Lennon Delirium.

Canalside‘s weekly events will include a variety of food trucks and vendors. All of the concerts are free and open to the public, and all start at 6 p.m. VIP packages are available.

Event organizers will be offering local area musicians the chance to open this summer’s concerts through a Battle of the Band contest held in conjunction with local arts magazine The Public.

Canalside Thursday concert series lineup:
- June 9: Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaries
- June 16: Frank Turner with special guest July Talk
- June 23: Public Enemy
- June 30: Frankie Ballard
- July 7: Dweezil Zappa Plays Frank Zappa
- July 14: Shakey Graves and Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Wild Child
- July 21: The Arcs and Mariachi Flor De Toloache
- July 28: BPO “A Tribute to David Bowie”
- August 4: Tritonal
- August 11: Lowest of the Low and Serena Ryder
- August 18: Coolio
- August 25: Claypool Lennon Delirium
May 5, 2016
New York AG Announces Settlement With Ticket Brokers Worth $2.76 Million

As NYS Music reported in January, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a report putting the concert ticketing industry on blast. That report found that at least 54 percent of tickets for the biggest shows were being set aside for privileged pre-sale or industry insiders. The report also found ticketing agencies using bots to purchase tickets to be resold at much higher prices on resale sites.

Last week, the AG’s office announced a settlement has been reached with six ticket brokering companies as a result of this report. This week, Schniederman pressured the major players, including StubHub, Ticketmaster and VividSeats, to level the playing field for the general public looking for tickets to big-ticket shows.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

New York law requires ticket re-sellers to be licensed in the state and prohibits them from using bots to buy tickets for resale. The six firms found to be in violation of state law that are settling with the state on this issue are TicketToad.com, Flying Falco Entertainment of California (doing business as Avery Tickets), Charm City Entertainment, All Events Utah (all out of state) and two New York-based brokers, Just in Time Tickets and A2Z Tix. All but Charm City were found to have used bots in purchasing tickets.

The settlement among the four brokers has thus far totaled $2.76 million. Charm City skated with a $100,000 settlement, while Flying Falco coughed up the largest settlement at $1,125,000.

In a statement, Schneiderman said:

Ticketing is a fixed game. The industry’s tactics prevent New Yorkers from getting tickets at affordable prices, or even getting them at all. Now we are calling on the major industry players to take steps to address these issue.

According to the Daily News, ticket brokers are willing to work with the attorney general. StubHub has issued a response: “We are in receipt of the letter and are currently reviewing the AG’s request.”

In his press release, Schneiderman laid the gauntlet:

Our office has zero tolerance for ticket resellers that use illegal bots to scoop up large numbers of tickets for popular events before consumers can obtain them, and then resell those tickets to those very same consumers at a large markup. New Yorkers deserve a fairer ticket marketplace. Our office will continue to enforce New York’s ticket laws by investigating ticket brokers who are breaking our laws, and making them pay for their illegal acts.

Schneiderman is making the effort and succeeding thus far. It only serves the music industry as a whole for ticket brokers to follow suit. True fans have been getting shut out of tickets for their favorite shows for too long and government is finally catching up with the technology that has kept these fans from those tickets.

Fans can support face-value ticket re-sale by using websites like cashortrade.org.

May 4, 2016
Del the Funky Homosapien ‘Iller Than Most’ Tour Stops in Brooklyn

Del the Funky Homosapien inhabits a world of his own. It’s a world in which George Clinton occupies a role like that of a creator-god and Del with the rest of the Hieroglyphics crew are on a mission to ensure that the forces of funk win over the forces of non-funk in a never-ending cosmic saga.

Luckily for the race of Homosapiens on Earth, Del’s world is accessible to us through his records and live shows. Three years after rebooting the futurist hip-hop group Deltron 3030, Del continues to perform occasionally with that group as well as on his own, performing original music stretching back to 25 years of underground emceeing.

Del’s music is compellingly original. The rapper-producer has admitted in interviews that he listens to very little new music and spends his time working on his own. The result: an unheard of lyrical flow tightly woven over self-produced tracks; it’s a veritable rhythmic tour de force. To be in the presence of such a funky person is humbling. Del fans are dedicated and hang on every cadence that issues forth from the stage at his shows. The opportunity to be among them should not be considered lightly.

Del the Funky Homosapien will manifest his far-out rhyming for one night only at the Brooklyn Bowl on May 7. DJ Shiftee and Sean Anonymous will kick off the show at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are available online through the venue’s website.

May 3, 2016