This coming week marks the start of Hanukkah, and once again Matisyahu will bring his famed ‘Festival of Light’ shows to fans, through FANS, on December 10, 11 and 17. The performances will take place at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester and will be streamed on FANS.
Matisyahu’s Festival of Light shows are an annual celebration and some of the most notable performances of his career. Each end-of-year celebration spreads the traditions and light of Hanukkah, sharing the holiday in a relevant way to both Jews and non-Jews alike, and an universal experience that transcends themes of peace and prosperity.
The streamed event is billed with each night featuring classic, show-stopping hits, and the powerhouse ballads and powerful energy that Matisyahu is known for. Meet Matisyahu beneath the glittering dreidel-disco ball and send out good vibes to the world during this Festival of Light.
The stream is available for purchase for one or all three nights. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
Joining Matisyahu will be Aaron Dugan on guitar, Jason Fraticelli on bass, Rob Marscher on keys, and Tim Keiper on drums.
What makes this music so engaging and unmatched, is that Matisyahu; a vocalist with no other instrument at his disposal, is an integral creative part in the improvisation. Dugan and Yuki work well beyond the constraints of the “solo” constantly working to modulate the improvisation, while Brook’s pocket is so deep and harmonically smart, that regardless of how far the melodic elements of a jam may get pushed, it’s impossible not to feel rooted to the core of any tune performed.
Matisyahu allows his band to breathe within each tune, finding his place with a wordless melody that serves to enhance the harmonic elements of an improvisation, developing the rhythmic ideas with his beat boxing, or crowning a jam with a full-on lyrical call-to-the-heavens and the great unknown. It’s that cathartic moment as a jam summits and the audience lets out its release that tells the performers we are all in it together.
Update: Twiddle’s Frendsgiving performance will now take place in Vermont this weekend. As reported by Relix, due to an abundance of caution for COVID-19, Twiddle have decided to switch locations for their annual Frendsgiving shows.
The crowdless livestreams performances were set to take place on Nov. 27 and 28 at Port Chester, N.Y.’s Capitol Theatre. They will now take place at an undisclosed location in Twiddle’s home state of Vermont. The shows will still be broadcast on FANS.
Original article follows below:
Every soul looking forward to Twiddle‘s annual Frendsgiving, which found a home at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester since 2017, bringing fans together for a celebration as the holiday season kicks off. Twiddle will continue the tradition over November 27 and 28, streaming a live performance from The Cap.
Pre-sale discounted passes and limited edition screenprint bundles are on sale now, with a general on-sale beginning Wednesday, November 18, at 10a.m. ET.
In the true Twiddle spirit of loving relentlessly, the band plans to donate a portion of each Frendsgiving ticket sale to the White Light Foundation in support of forthcoming winter initiatives. Fans also have an opportunity to win one of seventy-five Paul Kreizenbeck Screen Prints, seen below.
To win one of these prints, go to Twiddle’s Frendsgiving Facebook Post, tag three “frends,” and share your favorite memory of Twiddle at The Cap – extra points for photos, sharing, and making people happy – three winners will be chosen at Noon on Thanksgiving Day!
Order stream passes (pre-sale code: FRENDS). For more information, visit TwiddleMusic.com
It is now July 2020, the fifth month with minimal, if any, live music performances throughout New York State, let alone the country. Our venues are not yet open, but as the threat of COVID-19 decreases, parts of New York will enter Phase 4 and beyond, with the hope that live music will return, even if gradually.
While we may be stream weary, the prospect of live music is a motivator for many, and staying safe is the key given that New York and much of the Northeast are faring better than other areas of the country.
From viewing these photos taken during mid-late June, we can see the presence of the Black Lives Matter protests that spanned all 50 states. In all corners of New York there were protests, particularly in New York, protests that continue to push for defunding of the NYPD.
Working with 13 photographers to document more than 60 venues in 20 cities across New York State, NYS Music presents the second edition of our monthly series that looks at the current state of our beloved venues. When the venues reopen, we will share photo documentation recording the changes over time in all corners of the state.
Immense thanks goes out to all photographers and venues who are taking part in this monthly series. We’ll start this month in the Capital District, with a drone montage from Zach Culver, covering the venues we long to return to, sooner, rather than later.
Need some fresh moe.? Well you’re in luck. For This is Not, We Are, moe.’s first studio album in six years, the band will release individual tracks over the next few weeks, leading up to a June 26 release date. Released so far are “Crushing,” “LL3,” “Jazz Cigarette,” “Who You Calling Scared?,” “Dangerous Game,” “Skitchin Buffalo” and the latest track, “Along for the Ride,” have been released and can be found below.
photo by Frankie Cavone
This is Not, We Are, which is available for preorder as a digital (only) album, will be released on June 26.
“We kind of went back to our roots a bit,” Derhak says. “We just wanted to do something that made us feel inspired like we had felt when the band first started. But it also has everything that we’ve picked up along the way, all the good baggage – and maybe some of the bad – that we’ve dragged along for the past 30 years.”
Rob Derhak
Additionally, moe. has shared video via Relix of the live debut of “LL3” from February 2, 2018 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester. Read our review of the band’s return from hiatus following Rob Derhak’s successful battle with cancer.
Just released on June 9 is the video for “Jazz Cigarette,” a xylophone-heavy jazz odyssey that was filmed from studio sessions.
Released on June 11, “Who You Calling Scared” is a Derhak-penned tune, with Garvey singing lead. Derhak explained to Relix:
“The song is also a tribute to some of the funk and fusion guys that I discovered when I was younger, like Rocco Prestia from Tower of Power. When I sat down and tried to sing and play the basslines, I realized, ‘This is never going to happen. I can’t sing and play those bass lines at the same time.’ So I recruited Chuck to sing the song for me. He was a little reluctant at first but then he jumped on board.”
The latest track, “Dangerous Game,” written by Al Schnier, gives us two takes – one from the studio spliced with a live version from the song’s debut at the State Theatre in Portland, ME on February 16, 2019. Schnier explains about the song:
“This song came from me watching and reading a little bit too much news these days. I don’t want to say that this song is political in nature; it’s more about the personalities of the people in power and maybe the cult of personality and those things we all contend with. I don’t want it to come across as some leftist, liberal rant against the current people in power. It’s more a song about my personal concerns about anyone who would be in a position of power.”
The latest track, “Skitchin’ Buffalo,” looks back at moe.’s early days in the Queen City. The performance from Observatory North Park in San Diego on March 7, 2020 can be seen below, along with insight on “Skitchin’ Buffalo” from Derhak as shared to Relix:
The song looks back on the group’s early days. Rob Derhak was prompted to write it following a conversation with Mike Norris, the singer for Monkey Wrench, one of the band’s early contemporaries. Derhak recalls, “The first time I had ever heard of ‘skitching’ was when I was hanging out with him and it was icy and snowy in Buffalo on some winter night. We were on our way home and he grabbed onto the bumper of the back of a car that had stopped at a stop sign and then just got in a squatting position and the car took off. He hung on and it’s basically like water skiing off the back, except you’re holding onto the bumper. He called it ‘skitching’ and we called it ‘bumper sliding’ where I grew up, and he thought it was funny. He held on and kept getting dragged. His belt buckle was completely scratched up and it looked like he was completely shiny and we were laughing about that incident. And then later, I was like, ‘This is what the song can be, about the memories of Buffalo.’ Basically, I took a bunch of memories of fun stuff we did when we were in college and playing in the band and I put it into one incident. One thing after another.”
The last track to be shared prior to release, “Along for the Ride,” gives fans a mix of studio and live takes, the latter pulling from their February 28, 2020 performance at Revolution Hall in Portland, OR.
Vinnie Amico spoke to Relix about the Derhak-penned song:
“Part of it changed before we got into the studio. The whole slow part that gets kind of spacey, coming out of Chuck’s solo, changed over time. That wasn’t there and we morphed it into that, which ended up making the song a little more interesting because all of a sudden we go into this different part, different tempo, different soundscape. Production-wise, it’s one of the coolest parts of the whole album.”
moe. 2021 Summer Tour
June 24 – Birmingham, AL – Avondale Brewing
June 26 – Pelham, TN – The Caverns
June 27 – Black Mountain, NC – Pisgah Brewing
June 29 – Wilmington, NC – Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre
June 30 – Raleigh, NC – Lincoln Theatre
July 1 — Rocky Mount, VA – Harvester Performance Center
July 1-4 – Scranton, PA – Peach Music Festival
July 9 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
July 9-11 – Marshfield, MA – Levitate Music & Arts Festival
As we enter June, the fourth month where live music performances are postponed until it is deemed safe to have mass gatherings due to COVID-19, we take a look at the music venues across the state that are closed for now, but in the coming months will hopefully reopen.
Working with 13 photographers to document more than 60 venues in 20 cities across New York State, we present this monthly series that will look at the current conditions of these beloved venues. As they reopen, we will provide photo documentation recording the changes over time in all corners of the state.
Great thanks to all photographers and venues who take part in this series.
Grateful Dead cover band heavyweight champions Joe Russoâs Almost Dead (JRAD) continue their reign at a legendary venue with three nights at the historic Capitol Theatre, starting on Friday, February 21, 2020 (2/21/20)
The 14th Annual NolaFunk Mardi Gras Ball was headlined by Voodoo Dead at The Capitol Theatre on February 6. The impressive supergroup consists of Steve Kimock, Dead & Company’s Jeff Chimenti, moe.’s Al Schnier, Wally Ingram, John Morgan Kimock, and The Meters’ George Porter Jr.
The night was kicked off by Breakdown Brass, a large band of horns from Brooklyn. It was their first time playing The Capitol Theatre. The large group of horns managed to sound really clear and not all on top of each other, full of intricate rhythms and dance worthy grooves. Breakdown Brass even played “Mary Jane” & “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy.
Voodoo Dead, the super group… You’ve got some heavy hitters like Chimenti from Dead & Company, Al Schnier from moe., and the gosh darn bassist for the funkiest funk that ever funk’d The Meter’s very own George Porter Jr. His bluesy, rugged vocals really shined on “Sugaree.” The funk could definitely be heard, added with taste, not to stray too far from the composition of the tunes. He went on to describe how the song “Look-Ka Py Py” came to be written… one day a broken piston on a long car ride inspired this song.
The band went on to play “I Walk on Guilded Splinters” a nod to New Orleans, honoring the great Dr. John. “Eyes of the World” and “After Midnight” featured intricate jams and amazing vocals by Porter. They closed up the night with a heart warming “Turn on Your Love Light.”
The band has announced a tour that features shows in Ardmore, PA, three shows in Japan, and will headline the 2020 Skull & Roses Festival in April out in Ventura, CA, a festival celebrating The Grateful Dead.
Setlist: Shakedown Street, Sugaree, Look-Ka Py Py (The Meters cover), Ophelia, I Walk on Guilded Splinters (Dr.John cover), Eyes of The World, Drums, Space, After Midnight, Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles cover, instrumental), Turn on Your Love Light.
“It started out because of the love of Queen, and today it’s still going because of the love of Queen,” is how Randy Gregg characterizes his New York City based tribute band, Almost Queen. Now in their 16th year, Almost Queen is selling out shows across the U.S., including the The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. where we caught the band performing.
Joseph Russo (as Freddie Mercury)
Paying homage to one of the UK’s most iconic bands are Joseph Russo (as Freddie Mercury), Steve Leonard (as Brian May), John Cappadona (as Roger Taylor), and Randy Gregg (John Deacon). I spoke with Gregg a few days before the Capitol show to gather some insight into a “tribute” based rock and roll band.
“Almost Queen is first and foremost, a proper band,” he proclaims. “I see a lot of tribute bands out there and they do a great job, but I see that they focus, (are) so focused on trying to emanate and trying to do this, that they have lost the sight of your first reason: to be a band and play. We play. If we weren’t doing Queen music and we were doing the Rolling Stones, we’d kill that too because these four guys are first and foremost, a band.”
Almost Queen – The Capitol Theatre
“Back fifteen; sixteen years ago, I don’t even know if there were any Queen tribute bands around.” Randy recounts. “It was like a dare you even try to attempt playing Queen music. We did a lot of rehearsal in that first year. Our goal was to perform the songs you hear on the radio, studio versions is what we wanted to shoot for. ”
Randy Gregg (as John Deacon)
It started out because of the love of Queen, and today it still going because of the love of Queen
Randy Gregg, Almost Queen
Almost Queen – The Capitol Theatre
“We wanted to get as close to Queen as possible,” Gregg shares. “ We knew that we never could be what that band was. But we wanted to get into the ballpark. That’s why we call the band Almost Queen. ‘Cause there is no way we could be Queen and that’s just the end of it. So from day one we had an excuse that if you don’t feel we were that good, it’s called Almost Queen.”
John Cappadona (as Roger Taylor)
With 15 studio, seven EPs, two soundtracks and other recordings to draw from, determining what Queen songs to play on any given night can be a challenge. Gregg incorporates a technique based on where the band is performing. “If it’s the first time going into a venue, here’s the hit’s list. ‘Cause there is an expectation. You don’t want to hit them with anything out of the ordinary right away. Then boom, we did great, we are coming back for that next gig and here are these couple of songs we are going to take out and put these couple of songs in. Give it a different flavor. Third time back, lets put in a couple more, deeper cuts. I have set lists saved on my computer for years. If we’re playing (a) venue for the eighth time, in eight years, I will pull out eight different set lists. I never wanted to have it were we get a revue that says Almost Queen was great, but same set list. It’s always about keeping it fresh.”
Almost Queen – The Capitol Theatre
With 16 years performing as Almost Queen under their belt, I asked about the preparation before a show. “It’s a pretty cool vibe backstage. One or two people could be cranking some tunes in the back. It’s a lively vibe; it’s an exciting vibe. We know what we are going to be doing in a half hour. It’s pretty chill but it’s pretty exciting. We are just doing our normal routine, getting dressed, stretching out, warming up vocals, having a beer, putting on makeup everything that’s involved with a rock and roll show. The excitement builds per minute as that goes on. “
Steve Leonard (as Brian May)
Being a tribute band, what happens as you walk on stage for that first number? Is there a loss of person and a transformation? A transformation into Queen? “It is very close to that,” Gregg reveals. “When the lights go out, the place becomes hysterical as the intro comes on. That moment of walking out on stage when that intro comes on, it’s like a real deal rock show. That is the vibe that you get when you walk out into it. Within that time of the intro, you are absorbing this energy coming from the crowd, this excitement, here it is, you feel it all. Then, at that first start of the note, all of our minds go right to the music.”
Almost Queen – The Capitol Theatre
The energy level at The Capitol Theatre was peaking the dials. The band played for almost two hours, with people singing and dancing throughout the night. Mid show, lead singer Joseph Russo engaged the audience in an impromptu a cappella vocal round, making everyone a member of the band. The love for Queen was in abundance, emanating from the stage and being returned exponentially by those in the house.
Almost Queen – The Capitol Theatre
Taking the night to another level, the proceeds from the Almost Queen merch table are donated (as they are with every show) to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, which was founded by Brian May, Roger Taylor and Jim Beach in memory of Freddie Mercury, who died from HIV/AIDS in 1991. The goal of MPT is to fund the work of global charities fighting aids worldwide. “We are very proud to donate our merch,” Randy noted with a gratifying tone to his voice.
Almost Queen – The Capitol Theatre
What started as love for a band, that has snowballed into sell out shows, and promotes compassion for one’s fellow man to boot, has me thinking that maybe the band should change its name from Almost to Absolutely Queen.
Those were the days of our lives, yeah The bad things in life were so few Those days are all gone now but one thing’s still true When I look and I find, I still love you I still love you
These are the days of our lives Brian May / Freddie Mercury / John Deacon / Roger Taylor
Umphrey’s McGee has announced the long awaited return of their football game-themed live concert experience, UMBowl, taking place on May 1 and 2, 2020 at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, the event now takes place over two days, instead of the traditional single day show.
UMBowl began in 2010 in Chicago and continued to be an immensely popular and immersive fan event, running each year through 2016. Each show consisted of a single four-set show, with each set representing a ‘quarter’ of a football game. Each set had a unique theme, with various ways for fans to interact with the band, including voting in real time on what song they should play next. Past themes to sets have included ‘Choose Your Own Adventure,’ with fans voting in real time, ‘Raw Stewage’ where fans cast ballots on their favorite moments of improv over the years, which the band then turns into “real” songs, and ‘Stew Art’ sets where the band improves based on audience suggestions in real time.
This year, with the show held over two nights, the band will continue to have an interactive side of the event, playing three-set shows each night, with two sets of interactive ‘quarters’ and a third set of simply Umphrey’s McGee.
For more information on UMBowl and Umphrey’s upcoming tour dates, visit umphreys.com or thecapitoltheatre.com. Read our coverage of UMBowl V and watch “All Things Ninja” below.
The Capitol Theatre has announced a partnership with the B.B. King Estate, leading to two incredible nights of music that will celebrate the music of legendary blues guitarist B.B. King.The Thrill Is Gone: A Tribute To B.B. King will feature some of music’s greatest blues and rock legends, celebrating the King of Blues.
The Thrill Is Gone: A Tribute To B.B. King will feature two nights of music with performances by Anthony Hamilton, Bob Margolin, Bobby Rush, Buddy Guy, David Hidalgo, Derek Trucks, Ivan Neville, Jamey Johnson, Jimmie Vaughan, John Scofield, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Little Steven, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, Shemekia Copeland, Southside Johnny, Steve Cropper, Susan Tedeschi, Tony TC Coleman, Warren Haynes, and William Bell. The lineups for each day will vary, and even more special guests will be announced in the coming weeks. Grammy® Award-winning producer and legendary drummer, Steve Jordan, will serve as musical director.
A portion of proceeds from The Thrill Is Gone: A Tribute To B.B. King will benefit the Seva Foundation, a global nonprofit eye care organization that transforms lives and strengthens communities by restoring sight and preventing blindness. The SEVA Foundation was co-founded by Wavy Gravy, a close friend of B.B. King for over 40 years and whose moniker was given to him by King at the Texas International Pop Festival in 1969.
