NYS Music 20​16

Tag: westcott theater

  • Dopapod and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Plan Huge Fall Tour

    Dopapod and Pigeons Playing Ping Pong announced today a co-headline tour kicking off October 5 in Jacksonville, FL and ends December 17 in Indianapolis, IN.  The more than 30 shows will cover much of the eastern half of the country, making stops in Saratoga Springs, Buffalo, Syracuse and New York City along the way. The two bands bring an incredible dose of funk with them, and have become staples on the festival circuit for many years.

    Rochester native and Dopapod vocalist/guitarist Rob Compa shared his thoughts on the tour. “Pairing up made too much sense not to do!  We’re always crossing paths, whether it be barely missing each other along tour or at festivals.  After a while it became clear that we ought to do something cool together.  I’m happy that this finally came together.”

    Pigeons Playing Ping Pong’s frontman Greg Ormont added jokingly, “We’ve always wanted to tour with a band whose name is a palindrome but ABBA and Emily’s Sassy Lime are always too busy, so we ended up with Dopapod. Fortunately, they’re great friends and even better musicians, so it should be an epic few months on the road.”

    Both groups recently shared the stage in Philadelphia, PA at The TLA where Dopapod keyboardist Eli Winderman sat in with Pigeons on their original song, “F.U.”

    Dopapod & Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Fall 2016 Tour Dates:

    10/05 Jacksonville, FL: 1904
    10/06 Gainesville, FL: High Dive
    10/07 St. Petersburg, FL: State Theatre
    10/08 Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Culture Room
    10/09 Orlando, FL: Venue 578
    10/11 Macon, GA: Cox Capitol Theatre
    10/12 Columbia, SC: Music Farm
    10/14 Darlington, MD: Luna Light Music Festival
    10/26 Saratoga Springs, NY: Putnam Den
    10/27 New Haven, CT: Toad’s Place
    10/29 Northampton, MA: Pearl Street
    11/02 Syracuse, NY: Westcott Theater
    11/03 Buffalo, NY: Iron Works
    11/04 TBA
    11/10 TBA
    11/11 Charlottesville, VA: Jefferson Theatre
    11/12 TBA
    11/17 TBA
    11/18 New York, NY: Irving Plaza
    11/30 Asheville, NC: The Orange Peel
    12/01 Atlanta, GA: Terminal West
    12/02 Charleston, SC: Pour House
    12/03 Raleigh, NC: Lincoln Theatre
    12/06 Chattanooga, TN: Revelry Room
    12/07 Nashville, TN: Exit In
    12/08 St. Louis, MO: Old Rock House
    12/09 Iowa City, IA: Gabe’s
    12/10 Chicago, IL: Bottom Lounge
    12/14 Ann Arbor, MI: The Blind Pig
    12/15 Kalamazoo, MI: Bell’s Brewery
    12/16 Milwaukee, WI: Mirimar Theatre
    12/17 Indianapolis, IN: The Vogue Theatre

  • Hearing Aide: Devon Allman ‘Ragged and Dirty’

    Life on the road, the sights in the rearview mirror and the hard lessons learned along the way, Devon Allman and his latest album Ragged and Dirty is the perfect soundtrack to crank on the speakers over a nice long summer road trip, perhaps one marked with a few stops at some biker bars and dives.

    Devon Allman’s latest album “Ragged & Dirty” debuted at #4 on the Billboard Blues Charts upon its release on Ruf Recording last October.

    Raised in Texas by his mother, Shelley, he did not meet his famous father, Gregg Allman, until he was 16 years old. Now 43, he’s been touring nationally and has released eight albums with bands including Honeytribe and Royal Southern Band.

    Ragged and Dirty, Allman’s third solo work, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Blues Charts upon its release on Ruf Records last October. It’s produced by Grammy winner Tom Hambridge, who also co-wrote three songs on the album. Allman shakes the dust off his father’s signature style of guitar-driven blues and rock and infuses it with his own modern, hard-hitting licks and powerful lyrics in this latest incarnation.

    You can almost feel the grit in your teeth throughout this professional, polished album, which runs the gamut of styles from country roots in track one, “Half the Truth,” to blues and rock n’ roll with a slight edge of funkiness in the album’s title track 11, “Ragged and Dirty.” Get lost in the soulful, sultry steam guitar-laden sixth track, “Midnight Lake Michigan,” and then find yourself in the honky-tonk stylings of track 10, “Times Have Changed.”

    A highlight for me was track number three, “Leavin’,” which reminds me of a mix of Joe Cocker and the Allman Brothers Band in a song about running away from the same old problems and falling into old routines. A solid rock n’ roll journey with heartfelt lyrics, it’s a great song for a road trip without a destination.

    The seventh tune, “Ten Million Slaves,” a song about the journey and trials faced by millions of slaves as they were ripped from their homeland and brought to America to be sold, came as a timely surprise as the original A&E mini-series “Roots” recently aired on television.

    Track 10, “Times Have Changed,” is a good reminder to stay relevant and not get caught up in looking back on the past and making up your mind to change things. As the lyrics note, “I’d do anything you say, and now there ain’t no way/ That was yesterday, and times have changed/You’ve got to pick and choose, and I was bound to lose, but I’ve got some news for you, times have changed.”

    Track 12, “Leave the City,” is the perfect way to wrap up this album, with Allman’s soothingly familiar voice gently commingled with sounds of a resonator guitar seeping through to wash you clean, as you leave the dirty city for land of riversides and mountain tops.

    It’s clear this an album inspired by life on the road. To steal a line from the fifth song, “a road runner baby, Citadel platinum frequent flier,” Allman brings his tour to New York with a June 15 show at Iron Works in Buffalo, at the Wescott Theater in Syracuse on June 16 and Albany’s Empire State Plaza on June 29. Catch him before he travels on.

    Key Tracks: Times Have Changed, Midnight Lake Michigan, Leave the City

  • Buckethead Has Returned: Westcott Theater Performance Coming May 3

    After four long years of waiting, fans of Buckethead finally have the chance to see him live once again. The man who sports the white mask and bucket on his head is coming to the Westcott Theater this Tuesday, May 3. Tickets are on sale for $25 and are available at the door.

    bucketheadFor those who may not know who Buckethead is, he’s a guitarist who can practically play anything. Buckethead is a guitar virtuoso who covers many different genres including metal, funk, classical and more. Starting in the late ’80s and learning from the great Paul Gilbert, Buckethead has been attached to his guitar ever since. Bucket’s first solo album, Bucketheadland, came out in 1992, and that’s where the journey began.

    Since 1992, Buckethead has released 264 studio albums. The lineup of musicians that Bucket has worked with is extensive as well. That list includes Bootsy Collins, Iggy Pop, Les Claypool, Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Mike Patton and many more. Buckethead was also the lead guitar player for Guns N’ Roses from 2000 to 2004. The long-awaited Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy features Buckethead on all but two tracks.

    Not only does Buckethead play guitar, but he is also a fantastic bass player, a talent which he displays at his live shows as well. Watching Buckethead play live will certainly leave everyone in the audience in a daze. For those who think watching a guy play guitar for over an hour straight may be boring, Buckethead will certainly prove them wrong. Complete with dance moves, nunchucks and toy giveaways, Tuesday’s show is sure to be one to remember from Buckethead.

    Although his official website hasn’t been updated, Buckethead has an entire tour planned for the next few months. For those interested in seeing Bucket’s show, the Westcott Theater is the only place to see him in New York except for his show at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill on May 7. The rest of the dates can be found at this link.

    To purchase tickets to the show this Tuesday, visit the Westcott Theater website.

  • John 5 and The Creatures Terrorize Syracuse’s Westcott Theater

    There was no shortage of excitement this past Friday in Syracuse; The Syracuse University Men’s basketball team crushed the Dayton Flyers in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the SU women’s basketball team dominated Army West Point for a huge win and nestled in the culturally diverse Westcott Street neighborhood, the Westcott Theater hosted the infamous and incredibly talented guitar legend, John 5! John is on his current headlining solo instrumental tour.
    John 5 Westcott Theater 1

    It was an awesome sight to see so many music fans in attendance. To say that this was just a night of instrumental music would be understating it. I would describe it as an artistic live performance of a horror movie set to an intricate, perfectly designed musical score.

    John lurked out onto the stage with his fine-tuned band, The Creatures, and from the moment the first notes hit the air, they tore up the stage with selections from the most recent album “Careful with That Axe” along with some surprises from earlier albums.

    For those who recognize John 5 as Rob Zombie’s current guitarist and as a horror aficionado, it was probably not shocking that the band paid a little tribute to the horror genre.  John and company played a very kooky and cool version of the classic “Munsters Theme.” During their rendition, a macabre looking skeleton tossed out guitar picks. The audience was definitely getting into the whole vibe.

    John 5 Westcott Theater 7

    I have to say what truly amazes me, and I think I have said this before, is how John’s guitar playing is incredibly diverse! From tearing through intense solos, to a very laid back, warm country sound and a revved up killer version of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”  I can’t wrap my head around the precision in his delivery and his ability to make it look effortless.

    Some of the song highlights of the evening included: “This is my Rifle”, “Mad Monster Party”, “Black Grass Plague” and a medley that pays homage to classic rock and metal music icons!

    After the smoke cleared and final notes faded away, John 5 and the Creatures took a moment to express their thanks and appreciation to those who attended. If you didn’t get the chance to experience John 5 and the Creatures on this tour, you definitely missed an incredible experience musical experience.

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  • Geoff Tate Brings Operation: Mindcrime To The Westcott Theater

    After exiting Queensryche in 2012, vocalist Geoff Tate has kept busy by continuing to make new music and touring. On Thursday, March 3rd, Geoff brought his band Operation: Mindcrime to the Westcott Theater in Syracuse for a headlining performance.

    As the only act of the night, Geoff and Operation: Mindcrime took the stage at the Westcott shortly after 8PM. The band kicked off the night with “Neue Regel”, a Queensryche song off of the Rage For Order album from 1986. With Rage For Order being out for 30 years now, it was appropriate for Geoff to play “Screaming In Digital” as the second song of the night. These two songs got the crowd right up out of their seats and up to the barrier in front of the stage. Geoff’s band seemed to get in the groove of things as the crowd showed their love for the music.

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    Geoff Tate

    Just after the two song intro, Geoff took time to address the crowd and express his gratitude. After the short break, the band got back into things with songs such as “I Am I” and “I Don’t Believe In Love”. The band’s choice of songs for the evening stretched over the entire Queensryche catalog it seemed. The die-hard fans knew all the material, while the casual fans knew all the words to songs like “I Don’t Believe In Love” and other hits but not songs from the lesser known albums such as Hear In The Now Frontier and American Soldier.

    For the next portion of the show, Geoff and his band performed a few songs acoustically. The acoustic set consisted of songs, “Jet City Woman”, “Take Hold Of The Flame”, “Silent Lucidity” and “The Weight Of The World”. While hearing those songs in a different form was new and fresh for some people in the audience, others hoped to hear Geoff blast out the powerful notes of “Take Hold Of The Flame”. Unfortunately, Geoff seems to know his vocal limitations nowadays and simply does what he can. Changing the songs wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because the audience still sung along and seemed to really enjoy the show. The rest of the guys in Operation: Mindcrime stayed true to most of the Queensryche material by only making some minimal changes here and there.

    Operation: Mindcrime Acoustic
    Operation: Mindcrime Acoustic

    Last year, Operation: Mindcrime released their first of a series of three albums. The first album is titled, The Key, and the band jammed through four songs off of it. The songs Geoff and the band chose to perform from The Key were excellent. The four of them consisted of, “Re-Inventing The Future”, “The Stranger”, “Burn”, and “The Fall”. It’s apparent that Geoff was going back to his roots on The Key with the progressive metal sound. For instance, “The Fall”, is a track that sounds like it could be right off of a Dream Theater album and the fans definitely enjoyed hearing this song live.

    The evening ended with a bunch more Queensryche classics such as “Walk In The Shadows”, “Eyes Of A Stranger”, and “Empire”. Fans were left wanting more after the surprising “evening with” performance by Operation: Mindcrime. Overall, the band sounded great and Geoff’s interpretation on his old Queensryche tunes produced a great show that everyone in the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy.

    Since the band has two more albums scheduled within the next year or so, fans of Geoff Tate can look forward to him coming back to the area in the near future. To keep track of Geoff’s schedule and album progress,  fans can check his official Facebook Page and the official Operation: Mindcrime Facebook Page.

    Setlist: Neue Regel, Screaming In Digital, I Am I, One More Time Around, I Don’t Believe In Love, SpOOL, At 30,000 Ft, Jet City Woman, Take Hold Of The Flame, Silent Lucidity, The Weight Of The World, Re-Inventing The Future, The Stranger, Burn, The Fall, Damaged, Walk In The Shadows, Eyes Of A Stranger, Breaking The Silence, Empire

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