Our annual recap of the Best of 2019 has arrived at music festivals. Just like when fans arrive at these ever-popular weekend extravaganzas, we’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed looking forward to what surprises lay around the corner. Our staff has been to dozens of festivals around the country, and of course, across New York State, where we have the most music festivals of any state! Whether it’s the original Woodstock, Summer Jam at Watkins, The Clifford Ball, Mountain Jam or Jazz Fests, New York is home to some of the most historic music festivals in American music history.
If you missed our earlier selections for 2019’s best “under the radar” bands, and our albums of the year, go here and catch up. What festivals had the kids dancing and shaking their bones? Let’s take a look at the best festivals in New York State.
Best New York State Festivals
Adirondack Music Festival
In only it’s fifth year, Adirondack (aka, ADK Fest) Music Festival has established itself as the Labor Day weekend event in Lake George, with fans pouring in from across the Northeast to see Twiddle, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Pink Talking Fish, Everyone Orchestra, G. Love and Special Sauce, and many more. For two days and two crazy late nights, Charles R. Wood Park, just a stones throw from the shores of Lake George attracted thousands of live music fans in one of the most intimate settings you’ll find for a music festival. Miles Hurley said of the festival:
All of this top-notch live music was met resolutely throughout the weekend with a positive and welcoming vibe, upheld via a sense of strong community and creativity. For mid-size festivals Adirondack Music Festival is one of the best you can experience in the ever-musically-fertile land of upstate NY—yet here’s to a steady growth from mid-size to who knows how big.
Here’s to another fantastic year of ADK Fest in 2020!
Governors Ball
Despite most of Sunday’s performances being cancelled due to intense storms in the area, Governors Ball was a rousing success, with performances by Tyler the Creator, Florence and The Machine, Nas, Lily Allen, Lil Wayne, and The 1975 among others. The 2020 edition will return to Randall’s Island June 5-7, although the festival has been looking into relocating to the Bronx for future installments.
CGI Rochester International Jazz Fest
Now in it’s 18th year, one of the most well known annual festivals in New York, CGI Rochester International Jazz Fest, brings together musicians and jazz luminaries from across the country and the world. The eight day-long festival will introduce you to new artists, hard to catch acts and significant musicians who should be on your radar.
Eli Stein profiled 10 artists that caught his eye (and ear) at the 2019 installment, including Girls in Airports, Enemy, Paris Monster and Spaga, to name a few. Read more about these acts and get ready for the 2020 edition, to be held July 19-27.
Night Lights Music Festival
A staple of Western New York, Night Lights Music Festival once again brought a diverse lineup to the Heron Farm and Event Center in Sherman, NY. Staples such as Aqueous, !!!, Big Something, and Girl Talk headlined the affair, but the visual thrill is a major draw year after year.
Kat Horton, Night Lights Marketing and Artist Relations specialist said to NYS Music, “While creating the lineup for the festival each year it is always a priority to make sure to share new music. We want to be your gateway festival, we want you to trust us and trust that we will blow your mind.” She also explained that while curating the lineup, the focus is to tell a story. “We try to create an ebb and flow to the layout of each daily schedule, we want the weekend to create a story.”
Check out some of the action from this year’s installment from Strawberry Island Dweller here.
Best Out of State Festival
Peach Fest was the runaway winner this year, and for good reason. The lineup for this year was stacked top to bottom with a who’s who of jambands, classic rock acts and up and coming groups, including Goose, who put on a memorable set that burst them out into as of the strongest and most exciting new acts. Writer Jared Lindquist said of the festival, “This weekend was full of great music and rarely ever had a lull in things to do. Spirits were high and the weather was great until the yearly rain on Sunday night. Peach is an event not to miss.” His detailed take on the festival, covering sets from Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Trey Anastasio Band, Mungion and more can be found here.
The 2020 edition of Peach already is a contender for lineup of the year, with Oysterhead, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, String Cheese Incident, moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Twiddle, Turkuaz, and dozens more. Find out more info on Peach Fest 2020 here.
If one band is on the lips of live music fans around the Northeast, it’s Goose. And for good reason – the group has had a break out year, with an instantly memorable Peach Festival set, a Fall Tour that saw them sell out and upgrade venues left and right, and now have sold out the Wall Street Theater in Norwalk, CT for their sixth annual Goosemas year-end, hometown show.
In addition to bringing in over 300 pounds of food for Open Doors shelter in Norwalk, Goose performed two sets – The Ghost of Goosemas Past, and The Ghost of Goosemas Future. The ‘Past’ set featured The Band’s “Christmas Must Be” to open the night, original Goose guitarist Peter Castaldi joining for “Gringo,” Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Carol of the Bells” and a set closing “Linus and Lucy” seen below.
The ‘Future’ set was bookended by fan favorite “Wysteria Lane,” followed by a debut of Robert Johnson’s “Sweet Home Chicago,” made famous by The Blues Brothers. Debuts of “Arrow” and “Honey Bee” were surrounded by songs released earlier this year, “White Lights” and “Creatures.” An improv heavy jam on The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” was dark and went deep, prompting a few nearby to ask “Is this still ‘Creatures’?” The venue had loyal fans packing every inch of the venue until past 1 AM, and energy flowing from eveyone touched by the magic of Goosemas.
Opening the night was TalkPeck Soundsystem, featuring a combination of covers of Talking Heads, Vulfpeck and LCD Soundsystem, all of which were knocked out of the park to warm up the crowd, and then some.
Goosemas, Wall Street Theater, Norwalk, CT
Set 1: Christmas Must Be, Tumble, Gringo, All I Need, Carol of the Bells, Rosewood Heart, Christmas Wrapping, Yeti, Linus and Lucy
Set 2: Wysteria Lane, Sweet Home Chicago*, Arrow*, White Lights, Honey Bee*, Slow Ready, Creatures, Tomorrow Never Knows Jam, Your Ocean, Wysteria Lane
Mountain Jam has announced the festival will return to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in 2020. Dates for the festival are May 29-31, 2020 with lineup and more information coming in the new year.
The Nest, a basement dive bar located in Brooklyn, will host Eliza Moon, Nautics, Layla Ku, and Earth Dad on December 29 for a space themed lineup. Fans are encouraged to wear astronaut and/or holiday themed attire.
Nautics, an independent four-piece band from New York City. After meeting in high school, Nautics quickly began playing some of New York’s iconic venues such as the Bitter End, Sidewalk Cafe, and Webster Hall before any of the members reached the age of twenty. The band has continued to actively play gigs and record new records well into the member’s college careers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcEpPUB0fo8
Recently Nautics have played the Johns Hopkins spring festival and have had their single “Post-Madonna” featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds playlist. The band has stayed together through formative moments of each of the members’ lives. Nautics has been a reflection of the bands transition from childhood to adulthood. Staying together throughout this tumultuous time, the band has created cathartic songs that resonate not only with the members, but, hopefully, with all those who listen.
Doors open at 6pm for a 6:30pm showtime. Cover is $10 and more info on the event can be found here.
This past Thursday night, Brooklyn was treated to an incredible metalcore/industrial triple bill: Daughters, HEALTH and Show Me The Body. Both HEALTH and Show Me The Body are still supporting new releases from earlier this year (Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear and Dog Whistle, respectively) and Daughters is still going strong behind their excellent and genre-defining release You Won’t Get What You Want from late 2018.
Show Me The Body was up first and the room was already packed to see the group open the night. Frontman Julian Cashwan Pratt had an intense level of energy on stage – violently throwing his body back and forth all while playing hardcore riffs on a heavily distorted banjo. Several friends of the band came on stage for brief guest vocals, and subsequently stage dove into the pit to amp up the crowd even more.
Show Me The Body at Brooklyn Steel. Photo by Buscar Photo
Next up was electronic-infused industrial rock greats HEALTH. Their intoxicating bass and melodic vocals were a sharp contrast to openers SMTB, but fit so nicely in the middle of the triple bill. Their latest release, Vol. 4 :: Slaves of Fear, sees the band soundtracking an industrial rock dance club, reminiscent of where Neo met Trinity in The Matrix. They present a stripped back stage with blinding, beat-synced strobes that overwhelm your senses regardless of where you are in the room.
Daughters have been looked up to in the metalcore, industrial rock cloud ever since their debut in 2003. But in 2010, their self-titled LP made a firm statement as one of the best records in the genre, only to see the band then break up and go on a long hiatus. They briefly reunited in 2013 for a one-off show, but it would not be until 2018 that the band returned with the excellent You Won’t Get What You Want. This record is essentially the soundtrack to your worst nightmares. With shrill, spine-tingling guitar riffs; despondent, brutal lyrics; and a relentless flow from start to finish, the record taxes your emotions no matter how many times you’ve heard it. The rare slow down on the album comes from the track “Less Sex.” The song opens with a funky bass groove, but the high pitched guitar riff and haunting, repetitious monologue conveys a hopeless feeling for the listener.
Alexis Marshall of Daughters at Brooklyn Steel – Photo: Joseph Buscarello
Frontman Alexis Marshall has a stage presence that truly conveys the tortured sentiment of the record. Several times during the show he would appear to choke himself with his microphone chord, his fist (or the fist of a lucky(?) audience member) or his clothing. His facial expression would convey the darkest emotions of the human mind and he would frequently jump down to the audience to mosh and engage with the energetic fans. As dark as Daughters’ music is, the connection between the band and those listening cannot be understated.
The show at Brooklyn Steel was one of the last of the combined tour, which wrapped up on December 21 at a sold out show at Paradise Rock Club in Boston. HEALTH have shows in Europe next April while Show Me The Body play New Year’s Eve at the newly opened NYC venue The Dance.
This iteration of the Daughters lineup seems to have a deep connection on stage, and they deliver an intoxicating performance. This was my second time seeing them on this tour cycle and the presentation of YWGWYW somehow got substantially better the second time around. Hopefully we see more from the group in the near future!
Along the banks of the Hudson River, new music is flourishing. New York towns like Beacon, Kingston and Woodstock are emerging as musical meccas. Last weekend, Nyack joined this burgeoning trend when it served as the location for Manic Kat Records’ 5th anniversary festival. This two-day event, held at Olive’s, served as an opportunity for Manic Kat to showcase their stable of artists. With a mantra of “Real Punk. Real Attitude,” the music ran the gamut from Metal to Ska, Pop Punk to Rock and Roll.
Cult Classic
The spectrum of talent possessed by the label was on full display over the two days. Local favorites Cult Classic and Philly’s A Likely Story joined Bay Area pop punkers Neverlyn and Central California’s For the Record as part of a 15-act smorgasbord of music. Keeping things running smoothly, Suicide Girl, Paijee Suicide, presided as host of the festival lending her charm to the merriment.
Neverlyn
Rockland County-based, location hasn’t limited Manic Kat’s reach when searching for talent to fit their brand. Having acts now hitting Billboard Magazine’s Hard Rock Album Sales and Heatseekers Album charts, be looking for bigger and better things to come from this Pomona, NY label as their roster grows. The tide on the Hudson may ebb and flow, but one constant is that Manic Kat Records is Real Punk, Real Attitude and Real Music.
Charley Orlando may be best known to the jamband world as the former frontman for psychedelic ’90s road dogs Dexter Grove, who toured incessantly for the better part of ten years. The Syracuse area knows Orlando as not just a musician but also one of the area’s biggest music ambassadors. This Sunday, Dec. 22 the Syracuse community will come together at the Westcott Theater with a full day of music to celebrate his contributions while also raising money for a recent emergency spinal fusion surgery Orlando had performed.
Photo: Ian LaRochelle
Tickets for the all-ages benefit are $20 and can be purchased online, at Sound Garden in Armory Square, Syracuse, or Funk ‘n Waffles on Clinton Street. Doors open at noon. Artists scheduled to perform include Sophistafunk, Root Shock, Pearly Baker’s Best, The Old Main, Chris Merkley, Chris Eves, Bea, and Joe Driscoll. See the schedule below.
Orlando’s recent projects include the Grateful Dead tribute band, Pearly Baker’s Best, who has a Monday residency at Funk ‘n Waffles. He also has done work as a solo artist and with his bands Ruha and the Charley Orlando Band. His work managing the Little Rock Music Group has helped bring many national, international and regional acts to Syracuse-area venues such as Funk ‘n Waffles, Ray Brothers BBQ, along with the Seedstock Festival in Cortland and the Middle Ages Brewing Company Brewfest in Syracuse. Little Rock Music Group also represents David Gans along with such up-and-comers as Root Shock, Big Sexy & the Scrambled Eggs, All Poets & Heroes, and Steven Cali.
All proceeds from the event will go towards Orlando’s medical bills. Those who cannot attend the show can contribute funds through Facebook here.
New Jersey folk-punk duo The Front Bottoms have been forced to cancel a string of shows this week due to Brian Sella’s emergency appendectomy on Monday.
According to a post on the band’s Twitter feed, the surgery went well but the band was unfortunately forced to cancel all dates scheduled for this week, including one in Amityville on Thursday and Albany on Saturday while Sella recovers.
Last night Brian was diagnosed with appendicitis and was rushed into emergency surgery. Luckily, the surgery went well. Unfortunately we need to cancel this weeks shows as Brian needs time to recover. All refunds are available at point of purchase. Hope to see ya at Champagne Jam pic.twitter.com/APUZ9DKIot
Refunds for the shows are available at point of purchase. The Front Bottoms are next scheduled to perform at their annual curated Champagne Jam at the Fillmore Complex in Philadelphia on Dec. 21. This year’s event is sold out.
Tommy Stinson is perhaps best known for his time in one of the most influential American alternative bands of the past 40 years, The Replacements. However, he also spent 16 years as Axl Rose’s bassist in the Chinese Democracy-era version of Guns N Roses and now performs as a solo act as well as with his bands Bash & Pop and Cowboys in the Campfire. Stinson has certainly lived a rock and roll life, one that included him joining The Replacements at the age of 15.
The road antics of The Replacements read like a movie script. At one point, while holed up in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock recording what would become their 1989 album Don’t Tell a Soul, the band shared the grounds with Metallica. The exploits of The Replacements scared even the hardened metalheads in Metallica during this period. Author Bob Mehr documented many of these stories in his 2016 biography of the band, “Trouble Boys – The True Story of the Replacements.”
The Hudson resident recently sat down with NYS Music in advance of his series of solo New York “living room” shows taking place in early December. Tommy Stinson discussed his latest projects, his time with Guns N Roses, being a dad and of course, his time in The Replacements.
Bash & Pop’s latest album Anything Could Happen was released in early 2017 and Stinson is currently working on the band’s third as well as two other projects — a solo album and one with Cowboys in the Campfire. Anything Could Happen is a raw, bluesy, rock and roll album filled with songs that would fit nicely in a playlist alongside The Rolling Stones, The Faces and obviously, The Replacements.
Mike Kohli: You’re coming from Montreal for this little run of shows in New York.
Tommy Stinson: I’m going to go up to Montreal to do this Joe Strummer benefit thing that happens a lot. Jesse Malin is a big part of how this happens. I’m starting in Montreal and going to Hamilton and Toronto and Buffalo…
It’s kind of my way of keeping myself active a bit. Like I’m working on three different records right now. But I gotta play for the peoples a little bit because it’s what keeps me alive. And I don’t want to make a big fuss about it because I’m in between things and stuff like that, but I can stand there with my acoustic guitar and just sing ya a bunch of shit, a bunch of songs or whatever.
MK: Did you come up with this idea of playing in these types of venues?
TS: Yes, I did and I’ll tell you why. I’m in between records and have been for a while. The intimate gigs with just the bare minimums are a cool part to like – ya know, I’ve played all kinds of places all over the world – What’s interesting to me is to switch it up and do different things, get right in people’s faces and sing a song right to them, that kind of thing. It makes sense sometimes. I figure if I do six to eight gigs a month, I have the rest of the month to work on the other three records I’m trying to finish up and do a thing with and it will work out.
MK: You’ve played in front of 50,000-60,000 people at a time when you were with Guns and the Replacements reunion gigs were big shows too. When you guys first started out, you were probably playing in front of basically a roomful of your friends, right?
TS: Kegger parties and shit, yeah.
MK: You’re coming from a place with a punk rock heart in a way, right?
TS: I’m trying to get myself to a place where I can do it on my own terms. If I feel like getting out and playing new songs, stuff I’ve been working on for Bash & Pop, Tommy Stinson solo stuff, Cowboys in the Campfire…whatever it is. If I feel like going out and playing some songs, not stretch myself out too much. I’ll go do that. Test the songs out. See what people think. See if people like them and all that crap. It gives me a place to start with new material.
MK: But do you feel exposed doing that? Or are you past that stage at this point in your career?
TS: It’s beyond naked. It’s beyond the skin. It’s like you’re fucking up there in your bones going, “Heyyyy, here’s a song I wrote last week…” It’s that kind of thing.
MK: These projects you’ve been talking about, you’re working on albums for all three of these projects?
TS: I’m working on all three at once.
MK: Is that all going to be done at your studio?
TS: Um, no. And I’m not gonna tell ya where they’re going to be done because I don’t know yet. Certainly, a good hunk of it will be done at my studio here in Hudson, New York. A good portion of it could be done in other places too, like Muscle Shoals or Memphis. I got things going on.
MK: I ran into your one-off gig in Ithaca about three years ago. You had a gig canceled in Toronto or something and picked this one up…
TS: That was Ithaca, what was the name of that bar?
TS: Wow. I loved that night. It was fucked up. We got a canceled gig but we’re going that way anyway. Where do we pick one up? That was totally fucking awesome. I lost my voice in the middle of that one. That was kinda fucking weird.
TS: But ya know what? All the dudes I play with are old comrades. They’ve been down the road before. That’s the reason I play with these kinds of people. It’s an important thing. It’s good to get in the trenches with people you love and pull shit like that. I remember that night pretty well, as messed up as my voice got in the end. What a cool bunch of people.
MK: So the guys you played with back then, these are the same guys you’re playing with as Bash & Pop now, right?
TS: Yup.
(Editor’s note: The current lineup of Bash & Pop includes Steve Selvidge of The Hold Steady on guitar, Joe Sirois of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on drums and Justin Perkins of Screeching Weasel on bass.)
MK: Do you feel like you guys are really starting to gel as a band now?
TS: Well, ya know what? We did that record and toured behind it. And now we’re working on new material for another one. I went down to Memphis to work on some stuff with Steve…I gotta get Joe Kid up here to work up some of these songs before we get everyone in it. The reason I’m saying this is because I really don’t want to produce this one in my studio on my own again. I’d like us to get a good 10-12 song set together of new songs that we could ultimately learn one way or another–over the phone or whatever the fuck–and ultimately come together and play it live in the studio and record it in a heartbeat.
MK: So you’resharing files over the internet to get everyone on the same page?
TS: Only to get the bits down. What I don’t want to do, is get to the studio and do 20 takes of one song. I just can’t do that. I’ve never been able to do that. So my core idea of how to make a record that I would want to listen to again would be to go in the studio and make a record in three days, tops.
MK: Efficient.
TS: That’s the way we did it in the ’80s. You can look back at Queen. They made their first record, they kept re-running the tapes. They basically wore the tapes out to get “Bohemian Rhapsody” and it was a huge hit. There are all kinds of tales of that. But most of it comes from, the band plays live in the studio. You capture what you get in a three-hour session or whatever. And if you don’t get it then you try to get it the next day. The clock’s ticking.
MK: And it creates a sense of immediacy that everyone has to all be together to make it work.
TS: Absolutely! The best Replacements records were done that way. My favorite records were all done that way. It was only because of the advent of multiple…more than eight tracks of sound, 16, 32 tracks…it just became masturbatory. And you could just sit and fuck around and waste a fucking year making a record. No, no, no, we don’t have any money. The best records are made when you’ve got no money and you gotta make a record in a weekend.
MK: So that’s how you approach it these days?
TS: Yeah, totally. Because I hate…no one cares about the sound quality and all that bullshit. The overthinking is overthinking always. People are listening to it on their iPhones or their computers or their iBuds, whatever the fuck they got. It doesn’t really matter. What it comes down to is the song.
MK: I agree.
MK: When I listen to the Anything Can Happen album, it’s got a really raw, Stones-y/Faces feel to it. That’s something you probably grew up listening to, right?
TS: A little bit, yeah.
MK: But it’s still got that Replacements-y sound to it as well. Which you’re not going to escape. You were a Replacement at the age of, what, 11? 12? It’s ingrained in your DNA at this point.
TS: Exactly
MK: Just listening to it, it’s almost like a great lost Replacements album in its sound.
TS: Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
TS: I wouldn’t boo-hoo that. I mean, I came from where I came. I’ve made the records I’ve made. Jeez, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I didn’t learn a lot from Paul Westerburg (Replacements vocalist) or Peter Jesperson (Twin/Tone Records owner) as well or my brother (guitarist Bob Stinson of The Replacements) or Chris Mars (Replacements drummer). I learned a lot from all those people. We were all buddies and pals and turned each other on to different shit. I’d be remiss if I didn’t cop to it and say, yeah, I’m proud of all that and certainly, I learned a lot from all of them.
MK: When you put this album together when you put any of your albums together really, are you sitting down writing parts for each individual musician you’re planning on playing with? Are you allowing input from them? Is it a collaborative effort?
TS: Ya know it’s mostly a collaborative effort. If I can do that. If I have a song idea, I’ll send it to Steve or Joe or Jeff or Justin…I’ll throw it out, “Do you have an idea for this? For bass or guitar here?” and try to work it out as a group effort. My whole theory is that it’s a group effort the best it can be. If I write the song, I write the song. But if they come up with parts, I always give them their due on the parts that are important. That’s the way I’ve always known how to do that.
MK: Did Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) play on this latest one too?
TS: Yeah, he played on Anything Can Happen.
MK: I read that he was in the studio during the production of (1987 Replacements album) Pleased to Meet Me that his dad (famed producer Jim Dickinson) was producing for you guys in Memphis. He jumped in during the recording of “Shooting Dirty Pool.” Is that true? Because he was like, what 14-15 at the time?
TS: Yeah, yeah. He was a kid. He was totally a kid. It was kind of a part of a thing and a story and a bit. And um, yeah, that all happened. I can’t go down that road too much cuz it’s sad that Jim’s not here anymore (Editor’s note: Jim Dickinson died in August 2019). But um, Luther is like a fucking little brother to me.
MK: During that recording, is that when you two struck up a friendship and kept it going all these years? You probably weren’t that much older than he was then, right?
TS: Yeah, I’m a bit older than he is but um, yeah, that’s where we struck up a relationship. But then we also hit it back up. We started a band together, him, Cody (Dickinson) and I. I went to Memphis seven or eight years ago to work up some songs for a new project that I’m gonna leave the name out of. Ya know, we’ve got way deep history I can’t really go into it. It’s a lot.
MK: Is that project something that will see the light of day?
TS: That’s why I’m not talking about it.
MK: OK, fair enough.
(long pause)
TS: Yes. (laughter)
MK: So when you’re playing these solo gigs. I’m assuming you’re doing strictly your stuff. Solo material, Bash & Pop stuff…do you get into any Replacements material? And if you don’t, do you get a lot of guff from the fans looking for you to play Replacements?
TS: No, because I didn’t sing any Replacements stuff. I’d be stupid getting up there trying to fucking sing fucking “Alex Chilton.” I didn’t sing that. I played bass on it and helped write it. I was part of writing I suppose. No, no, I wouldn’t do that. The only Guns N Roses song I would sing would be the one that I fuckin’ wrote that apparently has leaked all over the internet the past 15-20 years. Whatever.
MK: That project there. Going back to what you said previously about getting a recording done quickly, that project, the Chinese Democracy album became almost a punch line in the media for how long it took to complete. What kind of project was that for you? Was that something you were in and out of for years? Did you work on your own stuff too?
TS: Nah, that was a fucking huge undertaking. You’re trying to reinvent the wheel at that point, ya know? Without being able to reinvent the wheel. There was a lot of good stuff that was on that record and I’m totally proud of being a part of it and all that. And you can’t, I can’t get too far into it right now, but you can’t underestimate how important it was to try and make a great record. With all the great records they already made as Guns N Roses from the ’80s. It was a different period, a new time, a new place. And Axl is always forward-thinking in a lot of ways, Mike, ya know? He’s always like, he wants to step 20 years ahead and fucking make a record. And the rest of the guys are like, “But this is what we are. This is how we do it.” And he’s just always pushing the envelope in a way. You’re always gonna have a conundrum with that.
MK: Well that’s the mindset of a creative person. They don’t want to look back. They want to keep looking forward.
TS: EXACTLY
TS: And ya know what? For all practical purposes, it was a great gig for me. And I’ll tell you what, I have nothing but respect for those guys, all of them. A bunch of them are my friends. The only one I don’t know is Slash so much. It was a great gig. And ya know, I wouldn’t take any of it back.
MK: Do you miss it?
TS: No
TS: I miss the people.
TS: I don’t miss the schedule and the touring and all that stuff, the way that was. I did almost 20 years of that and it takes its toll, ya know?
MK: I bet.
MK: So when you left Guns N Roses in 2014, it was during a pretty tumultuous time in your personal life. And so you became a full-time dad at that point. Your daughter was young then.
TS: She’s 11 now. I had to kind of basically (sighs)…I had to say I couldn’t do a bunch of tours right around the time my relationship with my soon-to-be-ex fell apart and had to basically, had to be a stay at home dad. And luckily at the same time, as I was not able to do a four to six-week tour, the Replacements went out and did the reunion stuff on weekends. The weekend gigs I could manage with being a stay-at-home dad and all the stuff going on in my life. But the reality is, I really couldn’t do a four-week tour of Europe or a six-week tour of this or that. I had to say I couldn’t do it because I had a little kid. And I don’t regret any of that. And ya know what? If that’s what spurred on Duff and Slash coming back and playing with Ax, that’s fantastic. People are loving it. It’s great. As well it should be. That’s all I got to say about that.
MK: Your daughter, does she appreciate music?
TS: She’s 11 years old. She sings, dances around. She’s more into gymnastics than vocalizing. (laughter)
MK: What’s she listen to? Does she try to turn you on to stuff she listens to?
TS: Yeahhh, it’s music 11-year-olds listen to, ya know. She knows a good amount of other stuff. One of her big (laughter) — because she asked, which I appreciate so much — one of her favorites is (AC/DC’s) “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” (laughter) She’s done videos for that. I don’t want to put my kid’s face up on Twitter and all that. She’s funny as shit. She knows the solo, the whole thing. She plays air guitar and sings it. She knows the words. I don’t know why it’s one of her faves…
MK: It’s a fun song.
TS: Well yeah, obviously it’s a fun song. I love it as well. I can’t put it out there. I want to be as private as I can and not have her thrown out in public. Ya know, that kinda thing.
MK: Is she aware of your place in music?
TS: Yeah, yeah…her teachers know who the fuck I am and why and all that crap.
MK: Is there any respect for that legacy?
TS: There’s respect for it but it’s a pain in the ass. Some teachers are inappropriate about it sometimes. So you gotta watch out for that.
MK: One thing I wanted to bring up, I don’t know if it’s even touchy…Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you guys have been on the ballot for a few years. I think you guys should definitely be in. Thoughts?
TS: Well, I’ll give you one last anecdote before I gotta go. I gotta go to a parent-teacher meeting right now. One last anecdote on that particular question. Questlove is working his ass off to get the Replacements in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And that’s all I’ll say to you.
MK: No shit, Questlove? Nice.
TS: No shit.
MK: That’s great.
TS: (laughter)
MK: Let’s hope it happens.
Stinson brings his solo set to Wildflowers Armory in Syracuse Thursday, Dec. 12 as part of a string of New York dates in unorthodox performance spaces. He’s performing a private show in somebody’s living room in Hamburg just outside of Buffalo on Tuesday, Dec. 10 and at Rochester’s Bop Shop Records on Wednesday, Dec. 11. The mini-tour wraps with a performance at Barry Family Cellars in Burdett on Dec. 13. Tickets for all but the Hamburg show are still available and range in price from $25 to $100 for a special “Drinks with Tommy” ticket.
Like a great sandwich of leftovers from Turkey Day, the Vermont-based band Twiddle served up two nights of their homegrown musical jam at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY. Dubbed “Frendsgiving” by the band, the weekend show is now becoming an annual event, this being the third time around.
Twiddle
With the theme of “Frendsgiving,” a portion of each night’s door sales was donated to the non-profit organization White Light Foundation. The foundation, run completely by volunteers, assists various charitable organizations and community causes. WLF describes itself as “founded on the principles of community, love, generosity, and passion” and is inspired by the music of Twiddle.
Aqueous
I caught the second night of this two-night run which had Aqueous, who played both nights, opening the show. They kicked out a blistering 45-minute set, including a cover of Vampire Weekends “Sunshine,” stoking the house’s appetite for the main course. Twiddle took the stage to cheers from the crowd, serving up two sets of nonstop music to the delight of all. The second set opened up with “Latin Tang” which had Mike Gantzer and David Loss of Aqueous joining the band and taking the show to the next level .
Mike Gantzer and David Loss of Aqueous w/Twiddle
With this being the beginning of the holiday season, the band gifted the audience with two new songs: “Mistakes,” which closed out the first set, and “Just Gravy” which was featured in the latter part of the second. “Lost in the Cold,” from Plump, took it home as the encore for the night. To make the evening complete, before the band left the stage they had the entire house join them for one big “family” picture to cap off the holiday weekend.
Aqueous Set List
On The Edge, Kitty Chaser (Explosions), Come and Go, The Median, Sunflower, Skyway
Twiddle Set List
Set I Orlando’s, Jamflowman, Gatsby the Great, Hattigan Mcrat, Orlando’s, BeeHop, Carter Candlestick, Mistakes
Set IILatin Tang, The Box, Zelda Theme, The Box, Syncopated Healing, Machine FRENDS Theme, Just Gravy, Gatsby the Great (Ending)
