MT Ed’s production of the musical American Idiot (director Tina Crandall-Gommel, vocal director Heather Lonardo, music director David Curry) was performed at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center on September 14 as part of Rochester’s Fringe Festival. Inside of a house-turned-community-center, the local teenagers cast in the production sang their hearts out to the familiar tune of Green Day’s politically charged discography.
For a musical named after a song released over 15 years ago now and featuring the messages of a band formed in 1986, the content expressed in American Idiot seems to have ever-increasing political relevance. The show gave the spotlight to sensitive, nuanced, and often overlooked and taboo subjects such as patriotism, sex, drug use, teenage pregnancy, and loss. In a generation where existence is inherently political, the subversive messages in American Idiot presented themselves as a sense of relief from modern society to both the audience and the young performers.
It’s difficult to express one continual, overarching plot line using bits and pieces of a scattered discography. However, the direction of this musical managed to create substance in a challenging adaptation. Each scene felt like a moving, breathing snapshot of a story; each story stitched together like a quilt. The choreography was visually captivating and often reflected the compositions seen in Renaissance paintings. The music was well executed by a 5-piece band seated high atop a balcony that almost reached the ceiling. The stripped down production featured a set and props which accomplished much despite their minimalism. The lighting was also simple. Using mostly just a red, white, or blue wash, it sarcastically referenced the musical’s titular themes of American patriotism. Throughout the show, American Idiot consistently proved itself to be a worthwhile and entertaining experience for Green Day fans.
For more information about MT Ed and upcoming performances of American Idiot and other shows visit their website.
“Shooting Star,” the guitar and vocal-laden song, off of 19-year-old alternative-pop artist Kyle Stockman’s debut-project, Hearts, is more than worth a listen. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Stockman himself, the record, incidentally, did not start off as one his favorites, going through a metamorphosis before taking its present form. “It started out as a very different song than it ended,” Stockman reveals. “It sounded a lot different and I went back at the end of the album and rewrote the chorus and re-wrote one of the verses. At that point, I realized I really liked what it had become.”
The song serves as a transition in the album. In context with the rest of the project, its purpose is to be a relaxed and melodic break from some of the edgier produced songs. “It took on a more relaxed vibe and its content matter shows a transition from what I was talking about in the beginning,” says Stockman.
On its own though, the single possesses high replay value. With distinctive guitar riffs that are bound to be embedded in the listener’s brain and effortless vocals from Stockman, the record remains melodic while not being overzealous in its attempts at being catchy. It is a song that begs to be repeated throughout the day.
While the album was released on June 29, the Harlem native is still keeping up with the promotion, releasing a three-part music video on Sept. 9, that features three of the songs from the album, including “Shooting Star.”
Listen to “Shooting Star” below and check out the newly-released video for “Hearts” here.
Ahead of its 2020 season, the WinterWonderGrass Music & Brew Festival has announced details surrounding its annual “Caravan to WonderGrass” campaign taking place this October. The series will kick off at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO on October 3rd, stopping in Tahoe City and Truckee, CA over three days before the culminating event happens on October 26th in Manchester, VT.
Caravan to WonderGrass aims to curate intimate, pop-up events in the festival’s host states–namely Colorado, California and Vermont–to produce gatherings that celebrate both the release of the annual festival lineups, while also offering an opportunity to connect more deeply with the local community. A “caravan,” after all, is defined as, “a group of people, especially traders or pilgrims, traveling together,” and with three national locations to its name, WinterWonderGrass, and the events leading up to it, embody just that.
“The journey is often the greatest part of the adventure–the anticipation, the allure of reconnection, the enthusiasm and camaraderie,” WinterWonderGrass founder, Scotty Stoughton, shares about the Caravan concept. He elaborates, “We absolutely love the communities where WinterWonderGrass has found a home over the years, and we enjoy spending more time connecting with the culture of each of these unique villages. Part of our mission during the Caravan events is to highlight the incredible local food, talent, farms, train depots and lakeside porches inherent in each community, and use them to welcome the next iteration of WinterWonderGrass each year.”
WinterWonderGrass kicks off its annual Caravan to WonderGrass series during this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO over October 3rd – 5th in front of 60,000 people. Great American Beer Festival attendees can experience four days of music across each session with performances by Vince Herman and Andy Thorn (Leftover Salmon) featuring Silas Herman on October 3rd; a special WinterWonderWomen showcase on October 4th featuring Bridget Law (Elephant Revival), Shelby Means, Courtney Hartman and Bonnie Sims; and to close the Colorado edition, WinterWonderGrass will host two sessions on October 5th, with Meadow Mountain performing the early session and Telluride Bluegrass winners, Wood Belly playing the evening session. All showcases will take place at the WinterWonderGrass Presents the Ikon Pass® Stage.
Additionally, Caravan to WonderGrass will host dual shows at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom and Cervantes Otherside in Denver, CO on October 3rd ,with a lineup including The Bluegrass Generals featuring Andy Hall and Chris Pandolfi (Infamous Stringdusters), Drew Emmitt (Leftover Salmon), Andrew Altman (Railroad Earth) and Adam Aijla (Yonder Mountain String Band) plus another WinterWonderWomen showcase, this time featuring Bridget Law (Elephant Revival), Megan Letts, Shelby Means, Courtney Hartman and Bonnie Sims, with additional performances from Pickin on the Dead, Meadow Mountain and Banshee Tree.
By October 11th, the Caravan makes its way up to Steamboat, CO, with showcases happening at The Depot Art Center in downtown Steamboat from 5:00 – 9:00 pm, presented by WonderGrass & Steamboat Creates. Music will be provided by a collective of local and regional acts, billed as The WinterWonderGrass All-Stars. This event is free and open to all ages, with food truck offerings from Skull Creek Greek onsite, and chances to win exclusive festival merchandise and tickets to the 2020 Steamboat, CO event.
The California Caravan encompasses three events, taking place over October 17th, 18th and 19th. On October 17th, WonderGrass & The Tahoe Food Hub present The Supper Club at the Tahoe Food Hub in Truckee, CA, with food prepared by Chef Wyatt Dufresne, formerly of PlumpJack Squaw. Attendees can expect a seasonal 4-course menu sourced locally and prepared collaboratively between the chef, and the farmers and ranchers who cultivated the ingredients. Tickets are $110 and admission includes food, conversation, music and a chance to bond with fellow members of the WinterWonderGrass community.
Over October 18th and 19th, WonderGrass Presents two pop-up performances from Midnight North, taking place at Moe’s BBQ in Tahoe City, CA on the 18th, and Alibi Brewing in Truckee, CA on the 19th. Both shows will last from 9:00 pm – 12:00 am and are free and open to all ages. During both performances, there are chances to win tickets to the festival and exclusive festival merchandise. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early because From 6:00 – 9:00 pm both nights, tickets to WinterWonderGrass 2020 Festival events are available for sale with no processing fees.
The Caravan to WonderGrass culminates on October 26th at Earth Sky Time in Manchester, VT from 5:00 – 10:00 pm. For this Halloween-themed Caravan event, music performances will be provided by Andy Falco (the Infamous Stringdusters), Saints and Liars and Terrible Mountain String Band. Food offerings will be provided by Earth Sky Times Farm. Tickets are $10 and the event is open to all ages. Attendees are eligible to compete in a costume contest, where prizes include tickets to the 2020 Stratton, VT event and exclusive festival merchandise.
A limited quantity of fee-free tickets to WinterWonderGrass festival stops will be available for purchase during all Caravan to WonderGrass events. Visit for tickets and more information on specific Caravan events.
WinterWonderGrass will go on sale Thursday, October 3, 2019, at 10:00 am MST with all 2020 events including Steamboat Springs, CO (February 21-23), Squaw Valley, CA (March 27-29) and Stratton, VT (April 10 & 11). The lineup announcement will take place the same day.
King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard is one of the most prolific rock bands currently out there. Starting with their debut album 12 Bar Bruise in 2012, the boys from Melbourne have released almost 2 albums per year since then, pushing it to 5 full length releases in 2017 alone! With a quick break in 2018, King Gizzard is back with a headline show at Summerstage in Central Park.
Fishing for Fishies, released in April of 2019, showed the band
embracing a boogie-sound and mixing this groove into their blend of psych/heavy
rock. Then, King Gizzard began to tease what sounded like a new thrash-metal
album, delivering the incredible Infest
the Rat’s Nest this past August. This album is a true homage to the genre
with their signature style mixed in seamlessly.
It’s no surprise that the audience was intrigued as to how King Gizzard would fill the set at Central Park Summerstage on August 28. The band kicked things off with fierce renditions of Infest the Rat’s Nest tracks “Self-Immolate” and “Perihelion.” The show itself was well organized as the band tended to group tracks from the same album together, allowing them to dig deep into the style of each album: three tracks in a row from Polygondwanaland early on, with three straight tracks from Murder of the Universe later in the set.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard at Central Park Summerstage – 8/28/2019
A last-minute addition of “Planet B” to the setlist paved the way for the final leg of the show. The band ditched the outdated tradition of leaving the stage and resurfacing for an encore, but instead powered through using every last minute of the early show to play for the fully engaged audience. The band was sure not to let up one minute before curfew. A constant stream of crowd surfers, full throat singing, and mosh pits all over the Rumsey Playfield made for a very high intensity show.
King Gizzard embarks on a fall tour of Europe in October and November, with a final show at the Maho Rasop Festival in Bangkok, Thailand in mid-November. Does that leave enough time for one more full-length release in 2019?
Setlist: Self-Immolate, Preihelion, The Great Chain of Being, Plastic Boogie, Inner Cell, Loyalty, Horology, Boogieman Sam, Evil Death Roll, Digital Black, Vomit Coffin, Murder of the Universe, This Thing, The Bird Song, Planet B, Mars for the Rich, Cyboogie, Am I in Heaven?
Their identities may be under wraps but Here Come the Mummies are the high power funk band you didn’t know you needed in your life. Playing to a crowd at Albany’s Skyloft, most didn’t know what to expect but found themselves moving to the consistently energizing funk.
This 11-piece group is anonymous, supposedly cursed after deflowering a great Pharaohâs daughter, or perhaps they are reincarnated Grammy-Winning studio musicians. Either way, the performance from a Mummies show is second to none and more visits to the Empire State are in order.
Over the course of their two hour set full of originals, many with suggestive lyrics, had the audience cracking up while they’re getting down. “Pants,” “Shag Carpet” and “Freak Flag” all had their own elements of kink and double entendre, while “Bring that (Bootie) Down” and “Ra Ra Ra” filled in with big band funk that is a rare find these days.
The attentive ear could even catch riffs of Wreckx-N-Effect “Rump Shaker” that beckoned for the crowd to get down. An encore of “Dirty Minds” summed up the band’s style in both sound and lyrics, and kept the audience waiting for more. Here Come the Mummies will surely rise again in the Capital District.
Over Father’s Day weekend next summer, Fins Up LG will bring the sounds and flavors of Key West to Charles R. Wood Festival Commons in Lake George. Parrotheads and Mardi Gras lovers will be drawn to this weekend long festival on the shores of Lake George, with music, margaritas, daiquiris and more in store.
This three day music festival will feature more than 20 musical acts on two main stages for a continuous musical adventure. Featuring a who’s who of Trop Rock Award winners, the lineup also features Jimmy Buffett tribute acts, and some incredible Zydeco, Cajun, and Country acts.
Featured artists include Jimmy and the Parrots (2 days), Mike Nash & Southern Drawl, Donny Brewer and the Dock Rockers, The Boatdrunks, ZBTB (acclaimed Zac Brown Band Tribute), Jesse Rice, John Patti, John Frinzi, Cory Young, Buckwheat Zydeco, Jerry Diaz and Hanna’s Reef, The Detentions, Caribbean Chillers, Rich Ortiz, Big Fez and the Surfmatics, Tropical Beat and more. Craft and food vendors will be on hand, as well as a huge margarita and daiquiri bar. VIP options are available for the weekend as well, and the event will be held rain or shine.
Because Jewish, whose mission is “to bring Judaism into the now,” will host their eighth annual “musically and spiritually driven” High Holidays services at various NYC venues, and they’ve got some cool musicians lined up to help out as usual.
All four services will be led by Rabbi Daniel Brenner and musical director Jordan McLean (of Antibalas), who will lead a house band featuring other Antibalas members as well as drummer John Bollinger (Barbez, Antony and the Johnsons, Sway Machinery) and Yula Beeri (The Hive/Hyrda). Rabbi Dan Ain and Jeremiah Lockwood (who was a live member of Balkan Beat Box) will also serve as “musical and spiritual supervisors remotely.” Sydney Faith Rose will also lead a meditation at each service. “Hopefully, we will have a few other familiar faces joining us throughout this special period, too,” the organizers say.
The services include the First Night of Rosh Hashanah at 7:30 PM on September 29 at Nublu Classic with special guest musicians Stuart Bogie (Superhuman Happiness, Arcade Fire, Craig Finn, etc), Lenny Kanye (Patti Smith Group), Dave Harrington (Darkside), and Amir Zir, with Stuart Bogie leading a jam session after the service.
On September 30, they’ll host Bowl Hashanah at Brooklyn Bowl, starting at 10 AM, with guest musician Aaron Diskin (Golem). After the service, Armo, “a spiritually driven Antibalas configuration,” will perform during the complimentary lunch.
They’ll observe Kol Nidre at Cutting Room on October 8 at 7 PM with special guest soloist Anthony Russell chanting Kol Nidre and Avinu Malkeinu, while accompanied by McLean and his band.
Finally, Yom Kippur will be celebrated at 10 AM on October 9 at Cutting Room, once again with Anthony Russell, and The National collaborator Josh Kaufman will be one of the guest musicians at this one.
The High Holidays Pass that gets you into all four events. More info here and on Facebook.
It has been eight years since Of Monsters and Men released their mega-hit song “Little Talks” from their debut album My Head is an Animal. This past July they released their third full-length project, Fever Dream, and have now embarked on a North American tour in support.
The second stop on the tour found the band playing a sold out show at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall with support from Lower Dens. The hall quickly filled with a crowd of truly all ages and backgrounds, from teenagers to adults, with many different foreign languages represented. Of Monsters and Men have a reach that is truly worldwide and fans in NYC could not wait for their chance to see them.
Photo by: Buscar Photo (www.buscarphoto.com)
The show kicked off with the opening track from Fever Dream, “Alligator.” The band ended up playing nearly 3/4 of the new album throughout the show. It was not until the second to last song of the main set where OMAM finally gave in and played “Little Talks” to a crowd shouting the entire song.
Photo by: Buscar Photo (www.buscarphoto.com)
The band continues their run of US shows until the end of September, with one Vancouver show on September 28. They wrap up the tour with a triumphant hometown festival appearance in Reykjavik, Iceland at Iceland Airwaves 2019 on November 6-9.
This Thursday, September 19, Saratoga Springs is in for one heck of a party, when Andy Frasco and the U.N. descend upon Putnam Place for one of the best shows you’ll see all fall. The high energy performance Frasco and his band bring to the stage, coupled with local Indie rockers Wild Adriatic opening the night, means an intense night of music you won’t soon forget is on tap.
Renowned for a jubilant jambalaya of rule-breaking rock n roll his career kept rolling ahead at full steam, Andy Frasco has been busy. He has released three independent albums, chronicled a German gig in front of 15,000 screaming fans on the recent live opus Songs from the Road, made jaws drop at festivals such as Grandoozy, Firefly, Mountain Jam, Summer Camp, Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park and Electric Forest, generated millions of streams, launched Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast, and performed at festivals alongside icons such as Peter Frampton, Gary Clark Jr., The Revivalists, Snoop Dog, Dr. Dog, Joe Walsh and Kendrick Lamar, to name a few.
Wild Adriatic has added more depth and dimensions to the band’s expansive rock and soul filled sound over the course of 2019, including a brand new collaboration EP release and their tour in support of partners-in-crime Andy Frasco & the U.N. Get ready for an incredible night in Saratoga on Thursday, September 19! For more information visit PutnamPlace.com
The Stone Temple Pilots have been playing since the late 80’s, and even with a new face on the mic, they don’t seem to be slowing down. Droves of fans packed the wide room of Upstate Concert Hall in Clifton Park, NY on Tuesday September 10th. The crowd was a sea of late 40’s dads and also a young crowd that will keep these memories alive.
The quartet came out to a massive roar as they took the stage. They started off strong, working through “Coma,” “Wicked Garden” and “Vasoline.” After a few classics they moved into their newer songs. They did an incredible job weaving through their repertoire, at one point playing two of their most memorable songs sandwiching their newest singles.
You can catch STP on the last leg of their tour coming up on September 19 and 22 in Philadelphia and New York City. Check out the setlist and photos from Zatchmo Lives Media below.
Setlist: Coma, Wicked Garden, Vasoline, Crackerman, Lounge Fly, Big Bang Baby, Glide, Big Empty, Plush, Meadow, Interstate Love Song, Roll Me Under, Dead and Bloated, Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart.
