Aqueous has revealed the themes for their New Years Run shows at The Town Ballroom in Buffalo to end 2019. The hometown band will present “Almost Dazed and Confused” on December 30, and “Fast Times at The BreAQfast Club” on New Year’s Eve.
The Buffalo-bred quartet has also asked fans to dress in their “funkiest 70’s gear” on the 30th and to “get your spandex ready, cause we’re headed straight to the 80’s” on New Year’s Eve. Tickets to both shows are on sale now.
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.
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.
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 .
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 II Latin Tang, The Box, Zelda Theme, The Box, Syncopated Healing, Machine FRENDS Theme, Just Gravy, Gatsby the Great (Ending)
Encore Lost in The Cold
Buffalo-based four-piece, Aqueous, explores their indie dance-rock roots with their latest EP ‘Burn it Down.’ Comprised of Mike Gantzer (vocals/guitar), Dave Loss (guitar/keys/vocals), Evan McPhaden (bass), and Rob Houk (drums), Aqueous has been evolving, and this EP embodies that evolution. It consists of four songs, all between 3 to 4 minutes long. Though each song has it’s own Aqueous groove, but you can also hear the heavy influences in each one; going from a rebellious indie-rock jam in the album’s title song to an electro-pop rock dance anthem with “On the Edge.”
Burn It Down signifies a straight up paradigm shift for Aqueous. We dove headlong into our rock, indie, and dance roots, and put a much sharper focus on concise, badass rock and roll song writing. We really wanted to further explore a certain attitude that has always been a part of all of us but that might’ve been a little underrepresented in our music up until now.
Mike Gantzer – Aqueous (guitar/vocals)
The band is in the first leg of an extensive fall tour, and they have been subtly teasing fans with the EP by covering songs that heavily influenced the music. These include songs from Weezer, Chromeo, Blink-182, Queens of the Stone Age, Tears for Fears and more.
While the EP is not what fans would normally expect from Aqueous, it is no doubt catchy and exciting. Aqueous has always been well known for their songwriting, and this is highlighted in the EP. Burn it Down sends a powerful message about living your personal truth. It tells a story of a fresh start rising from the ashes.
This EP is about not being afraid to stand up and make a change that will get you closer to living your truth, whatever that might be. It’s about self honesty, and about questioning unhealthy situations and relationships, and calling bullshit when it needs to be called. It’s meant to say ‘whatever your situation is, it’s never too late to just tear the whole thing down and start over’.
Mike Gantzer
Burn it Down is available on all streaming platforms now.
Key Tracks: On the Edge, Little Something to Me
One of the fall’s best tours made their way to Putnam Place on Saturday, October 26 for a night of PR&J (prog-rock and jams) with Aqueous and Lespecial, two bands that highlight the fantastic Northeast music scene, who are just starting out their 13 shows together, which run through November 10 in Louisville, KY.
For Lespecial’s opening set, the Massachusetts power trio performed an industrial set of standards “Donut Ghost House I” and “Gallows Hill.” They dipped into their Primus playbook for “Too Many Puppies” and invited up Jaq from Burning Monk, a Rage Against the Machine tribute band out of Burlington, for “Know Your Enemy,” which had the crowd jumping up and down as if Morello and De La Rocha were on stage.
For Aqueous, their two sets were a build over the night from prog-inspired tunes “20/20” and fan favorite “Warren in the Window” in the first set towards more dance-filled numbers including “Strange Times” and “Half In, Half Out” in the second set. A cover of the Raconteurs “Steady as She Goes” and a debut of Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know the Better” gave fans a taste of familiar and new tunes inspiring Aqueous. An encore of “Uncle Phil’s Parachute” found drummer Rob Houk working the drum pad for a venue filled get down.
The bands next perform at The Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh on October 31, then The 8×10 in Baltimore on November 1, and Richmond Music Hall in Richmond, VA on November 2. Find more tour dates here and download the show from Nugs.net.
Lespecial photos by Sean Bemand, Aqueous photos by Jim Gilbert.
Lespecial Setlist: Improv > Donut Ghost House I , Gallows Hill , Fruit Wolf Dance, Too Many Puppies > Hello Skinny > Too Many Puppies+, New Fish, Know Your Enemy*, The Vessel, Tonberry^
*Rage Against the Machine, with Jaq from Burning Monk
+ Primus
^bad guy, Billie Eilish tease
Aqueous Setlist:
Set 1: 20/20, Warren in the Window (1), Realize Your Light, Steady As She Goes (2) > Weight of the Word, Going Nowhere
Set 2: Strange Times (3), Mosquito Valley, Pt II, The Less I Know the Better (4), Half In, Half Out, They’re Calling For Ya > Kitty Chaser (Explosions) (5)
Encore: Uncle Phil’s Parachute (6,7)
1- Closer to the Heart (Rush) tease
2- The Raconteurs
3- Gordon’s Mule tease
4- Tame Impala cover, debut
5- Crepes the Sloth Jam
6- Schism (Tool) tease
7- Falling Away From Me (KoRn) tease
Aqueous and Lespecial kicked off their Fall Tour on Thursday, October 24 in Syracuse at the Westcott Theater, playing to a full house with two sets stuffed with prog-rock and jammy goodness.
Check out a gallery of the night below, and don’t miss the Aqueous and Lespecial when they perform at Putnam Place in Saratoga Springs on Saturday.
Lespecial setlist: Snell’s Fleet, Fruit Wolf Dance, Jackwise, Onlookers, The Vessel, Machine Elf, Tonberry*, T Mobil
*first time played
Aqueous setlist:
Set One: What’s the Connection?1, How High You Fly, Be the Same, Numbers and Facts2, Dammit, Eon Don2 > Timmy’s Blades > Pseudo Suicide3 > Eon Don
Set Two: Dave’s Song4 > Skyway5, Jealous, Complex Pt. I2 > Wandering2 6 > Complex Pt. II
Encore: Origami7
NOTES:
1 Rebel Rebel (David Bowie) teases
2 New arrangement
3 I’ll Be There For You (Rembrandt’s) tease
4 Let’s Go Buffalo quote
5 Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix) teases
6 BUSTOUT: LTP 2018/4/21 (111 shows)
7 Rastaman Chant (Bob Marley) teases
Buffalo-based band Aqueous makes the first stop on their extensive fall tour tonight in Syracuse at the Westcott Theater. Comprised of Mike Gantzer (guitar/vocals), Dave Loss (guitar/keys/vocals), Evan McPhaden (bass) and Rob Houk (drums), Aqueous is known for their heavy improvisation and their “near psychic” level of on-stage chemistry. As a band, they are always exploring musically, and there is bound to be some exciting surprises for fans throughout the course of the tour. The band is eager to get back on the road and reconnect with fans after an extremely successful festival season this summer, which included appearances at Peach Music Festival, Summer Camp Music Festival and Cobblestone Live.
“You can’t beat the intimacy and connection with the crowd during headlining AQ shows at clubs, and we’ve got some big plans for this tour.”
Mike Gantzer
Highlights for the upcoming tour include a special “Hero’s Halloween” themed night in Pittsburgh which will also feature a collaboration with Pittsburgh’s own pop/funk horn section, Steeltown Horns. There will be VIP “King For A Day” packages for dates in Chicago and Denver. VIP Packages include early entry to the venue, photo opportunity with the band, a download of the show’s soundboard and limited edition VIP merchandise. Additionally, Aqueous will be making their debut at the famed Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY with their Vermont-based frends Twiddle. The tour will close out with a hometown two-night run at the Town Ballroom for New Year’s Eve with Buffalo based band Witty Tarbox.
New York and Connecticut-based trio lespecial will be joining Aqueous for a few dates on the tour. Lespecial seamlessly fuses a myriad of genres, veering from hip-hop to metal, prog to house, pensive indie-rock to apocalyptic dub.
See the full list of tour dates below, and visit the band’s website for ticket information.
10/24 – Syracuse, NY – Westcott Theater *
10/26 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Putnam Place *
10/30 – Harrisburg, PA – XL Live *
10/31 – Pittsburgh, PA – Rex Theater *
11/1 – Baltimore, MD – The 8×10 *
11/2 – Richmond, VA – Richmond Music Hall *
11/3 – Virginia Beach, VA – The Bunker *
11/6 – Raleigh, NC – Pour House *
11/7 – Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5 *
11/8 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Music Hall *
11/9 – Nashville, TN – Exit / In *
11/10 – Louisville, KY – Gravely Brewing Co. *
11/13 – Ann Arbor, MI – Blind Pig *
11/14 – Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi
11/15 – Grand Rapids, MI – Stache @ Intersection
11/16 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall $
11/17 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
11/19 – Saint Paul, MN – Turf Club
11/20 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
11/22 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theatre $
11/23 – Steamboat Springs, CO – Old Town Pub
12/6 – Covington, KY – Madison Live
12/7 – Columbus, OH – Woodlands
12/30 & 12/31 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom
* w/ Lespecial
$ notes dates w/ “King For A Day” VIP Experience Option
Buffalo’s MFDF Funk Night returns to Nietzsche’s on Thursday, November 21, with special guests Sam Pavlovich (Intrepid Travelers) on bass and Matt Felski (Scarlet Begonias) on drums. They’ll be joined by hosts Matt Fantini of Space Junk and Donny Frauenhofer of Intrepid Travelers, DF3 and The Truth.
Presented by NYS Music, MFDF Funk Night is only $5 for two sets of fun(k) starting at 9pm at Nietzsche’s. Hosts Fantini and Frauenhofer bring a rotating cast of local, regional, and national artists each month for a night of improvised heavy funk.
The final funk night of 2019 is set for Thursday, December 21. Save the date!
Meet Witty Tarbox. The funky surf-rock jam band hailing from Buffalo, NY that just packed the Town Ballroom to celebrate the release of their debut album, Origins of Schmitty. Comprised of Cody Tarbox (bass), Bryan Williams (guitar/vocals), Alex Khoury (guitar/vocals), Seth Bykowski (saxophone) and Colin Gray (drums), this band has quickly made a name for themselves in the WNY music scene. This year they made their debut at Night Lights Music Festival, and have opened for notable bands such as Consider the Source and Litz.
How this band came to be is a perfect representation of Witty Tarbox – spontaneous and weird. One night, Bryan and Alex were at Nietzsche’s bar in Buffalo and after a drink or two, Bryan asked Alex if he wanted to start a band, and Alex said “Yeah!” After that Bryan got up for a few minutes and came back to say “Awesome, just booked us a show here, it’s in three weeks, we need a band.” They called up their friends from college, Cody and Colin and they opened up for a sold-out Delicate Steve show with a setlist composed of about 90% covers, including the Arthur theme song, and the first original song they played together, “Trevor.”
As Witty Tarbox started to gain momentum, they met Seth, who was playing with another local Buffalo band at the time. They asked Seth to sit-in with them and after that Seth found himself sitting-in on almost every show for about a year, until he was asked to officially join the band.
From there, the band has become a staple in the WNY music scene. Their shows are always high-energy, fun and most importantly, weird. One thing you will hear walking through the crowd at any Witty Tarbox show is “Wow these guys are really good, but they’re weird!” As a band, they pride themselves in that. For their album release party they asked everyone to wear costumes and go all out weird, and all out weird it was. Their performances bring a fun new take to the jam band scene. See for yourself in this video of ‘Prepare To Launch’ from this past weekend at Riverboat Bar in Alexandria Bay, NY.
Witty Tarbox released their debut album, Origins of Schmitty, just over a week ago. Schmitty is a character that has been in the Witty-verse for some time now, as the band uses characters to tell stories with their music. The album tells a story of heartbreak, debauchery, and healing; the story of Schmitty. It starts off with a deep acoustic song, “Group Therapy,” which was never actually recorded in the studio. When they went to record it, the band felt that they couldn’t capture the same feeling they had when they recorded the video of Alex and his guitar one late-night in Cody’s living room. So, the audio on the album is actually ripped from that original iPhone video.
“Prepare to Launch is probably one of my favorites [to perform] because the monologue that Alex does and watching like the front row of people, who probably have mostly never seen us before, and just watching their faces and tapping their buddies like ‘What the … what is going on?’ ”
Cody Tarbox
If you have seen Witty Tarbox live before, you might recognize a few of the songs, such as “Fa Napoli” and “Goodbye, Jackie.” Both songs, which were debuted under different names, evolved as the band experimented with new jams and finding new elements to try in the songs. Cody makes his debut on vocals in “A Universal Feeling or Two,” which has also been in rotation for about a year and a half under a different name, without lyrics. When the lyrics were introduced, Colin hated them, but once he heard Cody record it (in one take no less), it quickly became one of his favorite songs off the album. Well, either that or “Norman,” which is a favorite among the Witty team. The album ends with “Kokiri,” named after Colin’s favorite place in his favorite video game, and features Mike Gantzer of Aqueous. You can give the whole album a listen below.
He’s a cool guy, cool attitude … and I think [Aqueous] likes to support Buffalo and the music scene here, and just in general, everyone is kind of really supportive of each other. I like how everyone works together in Buffalo, because it’s so small and there is this sense of comradery here that’s really nice and it helps everybody grow.
Alex Khoury, on working with Mike Gantzer and the Buffalo music scene.
Witty Tarbox had an extremely successful summer, and they owe a lot of it to their team. They are incredibly grateful to their management, Tim Merrill and Jes Tarbox, for keeping them on their toes and keeping them focused. Another big part of the Witty team is Brandon Kempisty, who collaborates on a lot of their costumes and props for shows that help keep it weird. Together they’ve created this wonderful Witty-verse that fans have fallen in love with.
We wouldn’t be where we are now without everyone else. It takes a village as they say.
Cody Tarbox
Check out their upcoming shows below, and visit their website or Facebook page for more information and even more exciting announcements for this fall/winter.
October 6 – Folkface’s Fest – Darien Center, NY
October 26 – Brick Bar – Oswego, NY
November 2 – King’s Rook club – Erie, PA
November 15 – Unofficial moe. After Party – Nietzsche’s – Buffalo, NY
On Tuesday, Twiddle announced their return to the historic Capitol Theatre in Port Chester for a two-night FRENDSGIVING run on November 29 and 30, 2019. Joining them both nights, for their debut at the Cap, will be Buffalo-based groove-rock band Aqueous. With the exception of Resonance Music Festival, Frendsgiving looks to be the only shows Twiddle will be playing between now and their New Year’s Eve run in Boston, MA.
Tickets for the Frendsgiving run go on sale Friday, Sept. 13, however, VIP packages will be available for purchase on Thursday Sept. 12. VIP packages will include GA tickets for each night, early entry into each night, limited edition signed poster, commemorative VIP laminate, limited edition VIP variant pin, and an exclusive invite to Saturday’s VIP Pre-Party at Garcia’s from 4-6 PM. At Garcia’s VIP’s will have the opportunity to hang out with the band and see a very special and intimate musical performance.
Additionally, Twiddle frontman Mihali Savoulidis has announced a run of solo dates this fall. The tour kicks off at Ocean Mist in Wakefield, RI on Oct. 11 and includes stops at the Pearl Street Pub in Albany on Nov. 1 and The Haunt in Ithaca on Nov. 16. For a full list of dates, check Savoulidis’s website.
Night Lights Music Festival 2019 once again warmed the souls of music lovers with a diverse lineup on the Heron Farm and Event Center in Sherman, NY. Patrons from Western New York and far beyond descended upon the beautiful grounds for three nights of revelry and artistic expression. Topping the bill this year was Night Lights staples Aqueous along with !!!, Big Something, and mash-up DJ extraordinaire Girl Talk. Check out some of the action at the gallery bellow by strawberry island dweller.
