On Friday November 18, Day 1 of The Wonderfront Music and Arts Festival kicked off for an unbeatable weekend. Located in San Diego’s marina, the forefront of downtown welcomed the return of the multi-genre festival WonderFront, which hit the ground running with Joey Purp as his very first show in Southern California. Purp uplifted the crowd with gratitude for their support and pursuit in his music career. Joey gained attention in 2012 after his first mixtape release “The Purple Tape,” and jumpstarted the feel for the festival and anticipation for the rest of day one.
Darling Greatly a group composed of The Croome Brothers, drummer Brayden Tario and electric Guitarist David Mills. introducing classical rock into modern alternative. The band truly rocks on and their style says it all. David Mills performs with a cig in his mouth and all time classic aviators, as the Croome Brothers rock with a trippy button up and ruby red electric guitar. Paying their respect to the loyalty of the fans, Darling Greatly opened with top hit “Shine” as part of their first album released in 2016.
As the day progressed, Saint Motel, Lainey Wilson, Quinn XCII and Young The Giant enticed the crowd and fan appeal. Saint Motel lead with top hits “My Type” and “Cold Cold Man” as lead singer AJ Jackson ran onto stage wearing a bright red tail coat, knee high boots and a black homburg hat. AJ fascinates the fans with his style and Indie pop music genre.
Lainey Wilson, performing since a young age, brought her country groove to the festival. Singing her top hit “Things A Man Oughta Know”, Wilson engaged with fans and danced among band members. An enticing an interactive show, Lainey continues her funk and groove as a female country artist.
Rising Artist Quinn XCII gave a stunning show at the Coors Light Stage. Fans filming, singing, dancing and pulled up their flashes to light up the main stage. Beginning his career back in 2011, Quinn XCII is best known for top hits “Stacy,” “Flare Guns” and “Straightjacket.” Quinn stands for ‘Quit Unless Your Iinstincts are Never Neglected’ and XCII represents the Roman numeral of Mikael Temrowski birth year 1992.
Another top show from day one had to be Young The Giant and they gave a set to remember. The euphoric lighting, mic stands strung with flowers and erratic dancing were part of lead singer Sameer Gadhia and his unpredictability as he moved across the stage and screamed with fans who floored for intro song “Wake Up.” The strobe lights, euphoric blues and purples made for an outstanding set that concluded with a well remembered hit performance of “Mind Over Matter” released in 2014.
To represent the East Coast, New Jersey-based singer and songwriter Bea Miller led an impressive set at the Tustreams Community Stage located at Ruocco Park. Grasping her career at only the age of 13. Miller is best known for hit album Aurora released in 2018 and her fans were ecstatic to hear “Song Like You,” “Burning Bridges” and “Crash&Burn” live. Bea’s facial expressions and assurance to the loyalty of her fans says it all.
To conclude Day 1 of WonderFront Music and Arts Festival, headliners The Zac Brown Band and EARTHGANG closed the day out with a well-remembered performance at the main stage. The Zac Brown band is most known as an American Country Band based in Atlanta with a classic “Chicken Fried” that captivated the crowd as they sang along ‘Cold Beer on a Friday Night,’ on a Friday night.
Headliner EARTHGANG featured hip-hop duo Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot raised the bar as the duo synced up, fist pumping the air, jumping towards the crowd and engaging their fans. The fans showed their loyalty for EARTHGANG as the duo’s songs have a fascinating range of musical influence. Attempting the notion of the conscious and subconscious of their lyrics and musical output, their closing of Day 1 of The WonderFront Music and Arts Festival of 2022 set the tone for what’s to come on both Saturday and Sunday.
In the early stages of a 24-date North America excursion that kicked-off last week, The Smile (a side project by Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, along with Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner) came to New York City this past weekend for a set of three consecutive shows.
Thom Yorke (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael Dinger
The run began with two nights at the majestic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn (November 18-19) and the third at Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan (November 20), a turn-of-the-century opera house. NYS Music was front and center for The Smile’s opening night at King’s Theatre on Friday evening and the NYC finale at Hammerstein Ballroom Sunday night.
The Smile, who take their name from a collated poem in Ted Hughes’ 1970 literary work Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow, are touring in support of their 13-track debut album that was released in May 2022, A Light for Attracting Attention (XL Recordings). Furthering the Radiohead connection, the record was produced by longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. Born during the 2019 COVID lockdown, as many creative endeavors have, The Smile released a string of singles and eventually, the announcement of a world tour.
The current trek marks the first shows on American soil for Yorke and Greenwood since August 2018, when Radiohead wrapped up their world tour in support of 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool. Yorke was slated to tour North America in 2020 with stops at Kings Theatre behind his excellent solo album Anima, but this tour was ultimately postponed and canceled as a result of the pandemic.
Supporting The Smile for the tour’s duration is Robert Stillman, a multi-instrumentalist and composer born in Maine who has called the United Kingdom his home for the past decade. Like his tour mates (with whom he contributed to their album), Spillman is presenting new material from his eighth studio album What Does It Mean to Be American? (Orindal Records/KIT Records), released in January 22.
Robert Stillman (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael Dinger
Taking the stage at approximately 8:15 pm each night, dressed in white from head to toe, Stillman unassumingly acknowledged the audience for a moment before taking to his synthesizer. For approximately 30 minutes, Stillman mesmerized the audience each night with a deliberate looping process between his synthesizers and a tenor saxophone, curating an eclectic sonic palette drawing on elements of jazz, drone and psychedelia.
Kings Theatre (Friday, November 18)
On Friday night, fans lined up early ahead of doors at Kings Theatre in Flatbush, donning various Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Sons of Kemet and other associated apparel. The recently renovated classical movie theater is an exquisite example of how a modern music venue can be incorporated into a historic space. The cavernous venue, decorated with red velvet and ornate gold accents, boasts a deep sonic experience that continually attracts artists of all genres who want their music experienced in such a gorgeous space.
The show got underway with Yorke, Greenwood and Skinner taking to the front of the stage as they basked in a thunderous ovation, with a return of gratitude to the fans. With Yorke behind a familiar piano, Greenwood on bass guitar and Skinner behind the kit, “Pana-vision” started the festivities. The song begins with a swirling piano arpeggio before a dark, jazzy rhythm kicks in. Yorke drives the song with his signature falsetto as his voice swells and calms for several waves of the song. The band then dove into a tight rendition of “Thin Thing”, a psychedelic Kraut-rock song which highlights The Smile’s style perfectly. The music is “stripped back” in a sense that it is confined to a trio, but the blend of dissonant vocals, driving punk rock infused strings, and jazzy percussions creates a dense palette which overwhelms in a live setting.
In addition to the songs from A Light for Attracting Attention, the band has been playing many unreleased songs on this tour. On Friday at Kings Theatre, Stillman joined the band and contributed his saxophone for two such songs “Colours Fly” and “People on Balconies”. Other new songs performed Friday were “Bending Hectic” and “Read the Room”. The main set ended with the vintage punk sounding “You Will Never Work In Television Again”, which got fans bouncing all over the venue. The final song of the night was surprisingly long-time favorite Thom Yorke solo song “Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses”, self-released back in 2009.
Although doors were more than two hours away, a large (and rapidly growing) contingent of fans already lined the West 34th Street sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan on a near freezing late Sunday afternoon. Mercifully, at 6:30 pm, the shivering fans hoping to get a spot on or near the stage rail were ushered into the warm confines of the Hammerstein Ballroom lobby, housed within the Manhattan Center. Extensively renovated in 1997, elaborate architectural decorations adorn the historic venue which seats 2,500 (all of which would be sold out tonight) – complete with box seats, three balconies, a proscenium arch and a hand-painted ceiling mural 75-feet above depicting an “orchestra of angels on a heavenly stage”.
At approximately 9:20 pm, The Smile took to the stage, with Yorke pausing along the stage apron as the audience’s applause and wild cheers rained down. After assuming their stage positions (Yorke at stage right, Greenwood at center stage and Skinner on his kit at stage left), The Smile commenced their 90-minute set backed by a large video screen displaying broken, horizontal line patterns. Bathed in red stage lighting, the first of ten offerings from A Light for Attracting Attention was “The Same”. With Greenwood seated at the piano, Yorke took up his vintage Guild Starfire II bass and let his haunting, signature falsetto do the rest.
Thom Yorke (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael DingerJonny Greenwood (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael DingerTom Skinner (Hammerstein Ballroom) | Photo by Michael Dinger
Throughout the evening, Yorke and Greenwood seamlessly interchanged their instruments, each playing guitar, bass and piano. Ensuing magnificent presentations of “Thin Thing”, “The Opposite” and “Speech Bubbles”, guided by the loose-limbed Skinner and his punishing rhythmic dialogues, Yorke briefly addressed the audience as he took his seat at the piano for “Pana-vision”. “We’re a new band called The Smile, but I guess you knew that”. Up next was “A Hairdryer”, with Greenwood bowing his Fender Precision bass during the opening refrain of the 8-minute masterpiece.
The night’s only snafu followed approximately one-third into the show, a technical malfunction that led to “Waving a White Flag” being scratched from the set. While two other tracks (“Open the Floodgates” and “Free in the Knowledge”) from The Smile’s debut album were not performed Sunday night, fans were treated to three new, currently unreleased songs – “Bending Hectic”, “Read the Room” and “Bodies Laughing”.
Up next was “Skirting on the Surface”, developed from an unreleased Radiohead song and featuring Greenwood’s guitar arpeggios. As Yorke introduced “People on Balconies”, he acknowledged The Smile fans in attendance a second time. “I very much enjoy being back to New York City. We wish we had another week, or two, at least”. After welcoming Robert Stillman and his sax back to the stage, The Smile gave us “The Smoke” and “You Will Never Work in Television Again”, a banger in every sense of the word. Following an encore break, the last fifteen minutes of the epic show comprised “Just Eyes and Mouth”, “Colours Fly” (with Stillman rejoining the band) and “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”.
The Smile will continue their string of U.S. dates until a pair of Los Angeles concerts on December 21 and 22 close out the run for the year. A 2023 show has also already been announced at the Bluebird Theater in Denver on February 16.
Kings Theatre Setlist: Pana-vision > Thin Thing > The Opposite > Speech Bubbles > Free in the Knowledge > A Hairdryer > Waving a White Flag > Colours Fly (with Robert Stillman) > We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings > Read the Room > Skrting on the Surface > Just Eyes and Mouth > People on Balconies (with Robert Stillman) > The Smoke (with Robert Stillman) > You Will Never Work in Television Again (with Robert Stillman) > Encore: Open the Floodgates > The Same > Bending Hectic > Encore 2: Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses (Thom Yorke song)
Hammerstein Ballroom Setlist: The Same > Thin Thing > The Opposite > Speech Bubbles > Pana-vision > A Hairdryer > Bending Hectic > We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings > Read the Room > Bodies Laughing > Skrting on the Surface > People on Balconies (with Robert Stillman) > The Smoke (with Robert Stillman) > You Will Never Work in Television Again (with Robert Stillman) > Encore: Just Eyes and Mouth > Colours Fly (with Robert Stillman) > Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses (Thom Yorke song)
On October 29, two bands who got their start in Buffalo, moe. and Aqueous combined forces for only the second time. Watch the rare below moe.queous performance below.
The Town Ballroom show found the two bands donning a musical costume with a theme of ‘animals’ leading to covers of Phish, The Beatles and Pink Floyd, as well as songs from the moe. and Aqueous catalogs that centered around various creatures and critters.
The lineups for the two band combo included Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico from moe., and Mike Gantzer, Evan McPhaden and Rob Houk from Aqueous. David Loss of Aqueous would also make a surprise appearance on vocals of “I Am The Walrus.”
Gantzer said of the collaboration, “It’s a cool full circle thing to intertwine the AQ and moe. worlds so directly-Both bands have history at Town Ballroom and share strong roots being from Buffalo, too. There’s something really connective about that, and I’ve always felt a unique kinship and chemistry when making music or even just hanging with those guys. Much of AQ’s early inspiration came from seeing moe. too, so that should tell you just how truly special this will be!”
Schnier agreed, saying “We love our boys in AQ almost as much as we love Buffalo! Last time we all got together for a moe.queous throw down, it was such an awesome amalgamation of our two bands, and we knew it was something we should definitely do more often.”
photo by Curtis Kruetter
Check out the moe.queous setlist and watch videos from across the evening below.
Set 1: Bearsong > Strange Times > Bearsong, Birds of a Feather > Kitty Chaser > Downward Facing Dog, Marty, I Am The Walrus*
Set 2: Moth > Pigs > Moth, Warren in the Window, Terrapin Station > Four#, Buster#
On Friday, April 21, 2023, folk-slinger Arlo Guthrie will settle down at The Egg in Albany for a stop on his “What’s Left of Me’ tour. Guthrie had announced his retirement from touring in 2020, but admitted that “retirement was fun while it lasted” and returns with a spoken word show.
The show will be moderated by author, music historian, and former director of the Grammy Museum Bob Santelli. It will also include rarely-seen video footage and an audience Q&A.
photo by Steve Malinski
Anyone who has had the good fortune to attend a performance by Arlo Guthrie knows that while the songs are wonderful, the stories are what really make the show something really special.
As the oldest son of Woody & Marjorie Guthrie, Arlo first made his appearance onstage at age 13, made music history with the composition “Alice’s Restaurant” and a legendary performance at Woodstock. After 60 years on the road there should be a lot to talk about.
Read NYS Music’s interview with Arlo Guthrie on Thanksgiving traditions and his family legacy.
The son of legendary Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie is best known for the Thanksgiving song/saga “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” the classic “The City of New Orleans,” and “Coming into Los Angeles.” He also performed at Woodstock in 1969 on Saturday, August 16.
Tickets for Arlo Guthrie “What’s Left of Me” are currently on sale online at theegg.org or by telephone at 518-473-1845, or in person at The Egg Box Office Monday – Friday from 11 AM – 3 PM.
Frat houses, bars, stadiums, and theatres. Daryl Hall has played them all, including the Oncenter Civic Theatre in Syracuse on November 19. With special guest Todd Rundgren, the mostly over 50 crowd was treated to a night of mellow jams.
Rundgren opened the night with set of approximately 75 minutes including “Hello it’s Me,” “Black Maria,” and “I Saw the Light.” Although he has been playing shows since the late 60s, his look hasn’t changed much as he still flaunts his famous locks and flashy attire while performing.
Touring in support of recently released 2 disc retrospective album, Hall played a great selection on songs from his solo career as well as from Hall & Oates. The stage for this tour is a replica of his house from his 2017 webcast series, Daryl’s House. Lights, props, stairs, everything is there and lighting was amazing.
Highlight for me, personally, was his rendition of 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Eurythmics Here Comes the Rain. With his own little spin on it, Hall made the song his own. By far, my favorite song from Annie Lennox, but Daryl Hall knows how to change it up and make it sound brand new, 30+ years later.
Made famous by Paul Young, Hall also put his piano bar style on Paul Young’s “Every Time You Go Away,” which was a Daryl Hall original in the mid 80s. Truly amazing to hear these songs again, for the first time and live as well.
While the crowd was mostly over 50, there was a surprising amount of under 30 and I heard many of them complaining that Daryl Hall didn’t play any of his heavier songs, as they were falling asleep. I couldn’t help to think maybe they thought they were going to see Dimebag Darrell, which might have been pretty epic in an alternate universe.
Regardless, go see these guys. For me, it was nice change of pace from the chaos I call life, and with the chaos ramping up over the next month or so, I welcomed the opportunity to kick back and chill to a couple of legends.
That being said, get your tickets, get your beverage of choice and kick back for a couple hours.
Todd Rundgren Setlist: Real Man/Love of a Common Man; It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference; We Gotta Get You a Woman; Buffalo Grass; I Saw the Light; Black Maria; Unloved Children; Hello It’s Me; Sometimes I Don’t Know How to Feel; I’m So Proud/Ooh Baby Baby/I Want You; The Want of a Nail
Daryl Hall Setlist: Dreamtime; Romeo is Bleeding; Problem With You; Philly Mood; Cab Driver; Everytime You Go Away; Sacred Songs; Babs and Babs; Here Comes the Rain; Sara Smile; No Can Do; Wait For Me; Can We Still Be Friends; Expressway; Dreams
SUNY Fredonia’s student body is an active partaker in the local music scene, as demonstrated from the Rocktoberfest event which rocked the crowd on the night before Halloween from 6-9pm in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Williams Center.
At the October event, which was held through the collaborative coordination between SUNY Fredonia’s Sound Services program and Music Industry Club, students dressed in festive-themed costumes to rock out to the high-energy performances delivered by the Fredonia-based band Relentless Moisture and Buffalo-based musicians Cooler and SAINT BLIND.
Rocktoberfest Poster
Taking a look at the Rocktoberfest lineup, Cooler is a three-piece band from Buffalo comprised of Alley Sessanna, Nick Sessanna, and Jake Sessanna, who performed at the special occasion. The group creates pop and rock songs that are heavily accented by guitar chords.
Cooler Band
Aileen (Alley), Cooler’s vocalist and bassist, opened up on details around the music, performances and influences of the band:
Heather Occhino: When did Cooler form and who else is in the band?
Alley Sessanna: We started in 2014. Our current lineup is me on vocals and bass, Nick on guitar and vocals, and Jake on the drums.
HO: How would you describe the music of Cooler?
AS: Dream-o. We really love heavy guitars and emotional lyrics people can relate to with a catchy melody of course.
HO: How was your performance at Rocktoberfest? Have you played SUNY Fredonia before?
AS: We’ve played at Fredonia before, but not for this specific event. We play at Fredonia any time we can. There’s just something special about the music scene.
Cooler at Rocktoberfest
HO: It seems like your most recent work is your single “Cringe.” Is this what you performed at Rocktoberfest?
AS: We did! If you’ve ever laid in bed at night and had intrusive thoughts about something embarrassing you did 10 years ago, this one’s for you.
HO: Are there any artists who’ve inspired you or influenced your sound?
AS: All three of us have very different music tastes, but some common ground bands are Smashing Pumpkins, Tigers Jaw, Pity Sex, Now Now, Mansions, and Pinback.
AS: December 2nd at Mohawk Place with Quit Yourself, Amateur Hockey Club, and BP & the Oil Spills.
Single by Cooler, “Cringe (Reprise)”
Fredonia’s own Relentless Moisture, a post-psychedelic musical ensemble also played at Rocktoberfest, bringing with them an experimental sound as their foundation. The group described the concept behind ‘moistcore’ and much more in their chat with NYS Music.
Relentless Moisture at Rocktoberfest
Heather Occhino: In your bio for your Instagram and Twitter account, I saw that you included that your band is a moistcore band. Can you define ‘moistcore’ and how does that correlate with your group’s name?
Relentless Moisture: Moisture is something you can’t exactly describe, but you know it when you hear it. Sounds can absolutely be wet. Moisture is a mind set.
HO: How would you define the music you make?
RM: …Moisture.
HO: Are there any artists, whether rising or prominent, who’ve influenced your sound or who’ve inspired you creatively?
RM: There’s a lot of Ween mentality to the music, and there’s hints of Deftones, Nirvana, Michael, Nickelback, and the Big Bopper. Alongside Rihanna, those are our major inspirations. It’s actually mostly Rihanna and Shakira.
HO: How was your performance at Rocktoberfest? Was this your first time performing at the event/SUNY Fredonia?
RM: This was our first non acoustic show on campus and certainly our first time playing at Rocktoberfest, and we loved it. The crowd was awesome, and we didn’t expect people to mosh but they certainly did. Also, Saint Blind and Cooler were amazing. We love playing music, and we love performing.
HO: When is your next show?
RM: We are pulling up to Stamps in Tonawanda on January 13, it’s like 40 minutes off campus, absolutely come down if you can and get stamped.
SAINT BLIND, a Buffalo-born alternative/indie rock and synth-pop musician (real name Aaron) is a musician familiar with the Fredonia music scene and played Rocktoberfest. He has previously performed at the Main Street Studios and interacted with music lovers there, as was the case on Saturday, October 15th, when he shared the stage with other alternative bands Karrot Kake and Personal Style.
Five days after the Fredonia concert, on the evening of November 3, notable Buffalo venue Nietzsche’s hosted live performances by a trio of up-and-coming bands, Power Creep, Breakfast Beers, and RAM! The three bands also sat down with NYS Music to discuss their backgrounds, creative outputs and shows delivered in Buffalo.
Liam Slater and Jon Andrews are part of the Buffalo-based rock band Power Creep, fronted by singer Tyler Will. Power Creep has two debut singles that were published this year, the most recent, “Defy Belief” from July and “Hideous,” which was released in February.
Power Creep Band
In a taped interview, the band’s frontman Tyler Will went into further depth about the history of the foundation of the group, the band’s released works, and their show at Nietzsche’s.
https://youtu.be/e8vM6iU1s9c
Interview with Lead Singer of Power Creep Band, Tyler Will
Justin McKernan, Alex Couturier, and Jacob McKernan of the three-piece band RAM!, are also from Buffalo, and are all blood-relatives. Following RAM!’s formation in 2020-the year the pandemic broke out–the group’s debut album, Mr. Russo’s Class on Teaching a Generation, was released in August 2021.
RAM! Band
In a recorded conversation, RAM! discussed the band’s music, the challenges being a budding band from Buffalo and the group’s formation.
https://youtu.be/k_ACYKToGf0
Interview with Members of RAM! band
The eight-piece rock group Breakfast Beers are based in Buffalo and call Nietzsche’s home, as well as Philadelphia.
Breakfast Beers members Andrew Ajaka, Darren Valdera, and Paul Guardiola, talked about how their band came to be, their musical influences, and their live performances.
Heather Occhino: I read on your website that your band is based in Buffalo, NY and Philadelphia, PA. Can you elaborate on how this is?
DarrenValdera: Well, when Breakfast Beers first started we were 9 people and due to school and life we’re a little separated right now. Two of our members (Sofia Fasullo and Matt Guardiola) are currently going to school in Philly, and have the capacity/permission to play as Breakfast Beers if they wanted to. So we’ve got two “branches” of Beers HQ so to speak.
Andrew Ajaka: Also Darren and I are originally from NYC!!
HO:What led you guys to form your band?
DV: (I feel like someone else can answer this better than me but…) PORCHFEST!! An event in the community we lived in – in Binghamton where anyone with a porch can sign up their porch for festivities or enter to play at a specific time slot on a porch. I was originally planning to just come and watch it but the week of, Andrew asked me if I wanted to play a song or two with them and I joined Breakfast Beers!
AA: Yea Porchfest was for sure a big part of it, but it really started during the pandemic! Paul and I were living together in Binghamton and were playing a bunch of music with our roommate Jacob Parker, and started very loosely writing stuff together with our roommate Hannah Nathanson. Moving in with Sofia Fasullo and deciding to do Porchfest were really the deadline; we all needed to really focus on our instruments and come together as a band that was actually prepared to perform live for an audience.
Breakfast Beers Members [from left to right], Sofia Fasullo, Andrew Ajaka, Paul Guardiola (on drums), Darren Valdera (wearing hat) and Jacob Parker (Photo Credit: Sullivan Harris)
HO: Are there any artists/bands who inspired you to make music and/or influence your style of sound in your music?
DV: A band I’d say that inspired us to make music is the Droogz (shoutouts to them for FINALLY putting out their first EP). Their music and stage presence is just insane. They’re all little rockstars. And just everyone in the local Binghamton scene is so inspiring, and our music really is an amalgamation of everything we listen to. My current rotation of artists are Pinkshift, Hello Sleepwalkers, and Good Game.
AA: I feel like we’re constantly talking about all the ways the music we’re listening to at the time sort of bleeds its way into our writing in different ways. Sweet Pill and Carly Cosgrove have been heavy on my rotation lately and their new records have been super inspirational for me.
Paul Guardiola: I definitely draw a bunch of inspiration from other local bands we see and play with. There are so many cool people in the northeast making really inspiring music, and being able to digest it while we’ve been growing as artists has been a big part of how I write. Shoutout to Bunk, Happy To Be Here, Stay Off The Fence, Dirty Band-Aid, Feeble Little Horse, Bug, and Waxgirl. We also have a whole 8 hour playlist of all our different favorite songs and inspirations on our Spotify page.
HO: You had a show as part of Foxhead Fright Night on Saturday, Oct. 29. How was your experience performing at Main Street Studios? Do you think events like Fright Night allow for your listening/fan base to grow?
BB: It was super sick! The venue was super cute, and everyone’s costumes were adorable. It was also a blast to meet all the heads running Foxhead and to see Ozymandias rip some Black Sabbath that night!
AA: For sure! Events like Fright Night give us the opportunity to play our music for people and show them who we are and what we care about. Hopefully that begins to invite people into the community we are trying to create between us and our audiences. It was a super fun time playing for Foxhead Fright Night! Shoutouts to everyone at Foxhead for having us join them, everyone’s costumes were awesome and the venue was so cool!
DV: Events like Fright Night are definitely one of the main ways we grow as a band! It puts us in touch with cool artists who we can play with/plan events with again and lets us share our art and sound with new people who might vibe with us.
HO: Do you have any upcoming work to be released soon?
DV: Hopefully! We have a lot of songs in our rotation that are done that we just haven’t recorded yet. Some of them you heard at Foxhead Fright Night like Crabapple and Post Modern Baseball Reunion Tour Pt. 2. (Taylor’s Version). We’re taking a short writing/recording period break for December through January so hopefully we’ll have some new things to release by then.
PG: Yeah nothing official to announce yet but we’re always writing new material to play out, and finding time to record when we can.
The Western New York music scene has been home to bands like Goo Goo Dolls, Ani Difranco, Rick James, Aqueous, and dozens more. Artists including Breakfast Beers, Relentless Moisture, Cooler, SAINT BLIND, Power Creep and RAM! are among the next generation of bands from the greater Buffalo/Fredonia music scene. Catch them at clubs while you can!
Phish’s Trey Anastasio has announced the release of The Beacon Jams which will commemorate the artist’s legendary eight-show virtual residency at New York City’s legendary Beacon Theatre in the Covid-riddled fall of 2020. These iconic shows will now be encapsulated in the form of an 18-track, 145-minute new anthology that will be available digitally on Friday, November 25. Proceeds will benefit The Divided Sky Foundation, an initiative launched by Anastasio to finance a residential recovery program in Ludlow, VT, which is set to open next year.
Photo Credit: Danny Clinch
Performed at an empty Beacon Theatre and livestreamed around the world over the course of eight Fridays, The Beacon Jams saw Trey teaming with a range of collaborators to boldly reimagine music spanning his three-decade career. It includes performances from Trey Anastasio Band cohorts like Cyro Baptista (percussion), James Casey (saxophone, vocals), Natalie Cressman (trombone, vocals), Jennifer Hartswick (trumpet, vocals), Russ Lawton (drums), Ray Paczkowski (keyboards), and, in his final performances with the group, the late Tony Markellis (bass).
Also featured are frequent collaborators Jeff Tanski (keyboards), Celisse Henderson (vocals), and Jo Lampert (vocals), as well as the debut of The Rescue Squad (Katie Kresek – violin, Maxim Moston – violin, Rachel Golub – viola, Anja Wood – cello).
In addition to great music and different interpretations of Phish and TAB songs, the Beacon residency also saw Anastasio interacting with fans via Twitch between songs for a completely unique live music experience in a time where pandemic restrictions made such things close to impossible. “What made it feel successful to me was that we weren’t trying to recreate a live concert,” Anastasio says. “What I was hoping was that it would be a fresh form of entertainment – turning lemons into lemonade. I feel like that turned out to be the case.”
photo by Jake Silco
Tracklist: Corona, A Wave of Hope, What’s The Use, And Flew Away, The Moma Dance, The Silver Light, Pebbles and Marbles, Bouncing Around the Room, Carini, I Never Left Home, Money Love and Change, Last Tube, Quantegy, You Enjoy Myself, Goodbye Head, Tube, Slave to the Traffic Light, First Tube
On Saturday, November 19, Duke Amayo, former lead singer of Antibalas, returned to New York City after taking time at home in Nigeria. It was there that he performed at Felebration Festival over October 10-16, launching his career as “Amayo,” a name which means “If you don’t go, you never know.”
The free show at BAMcafé in Brooklyn featured Amayo’s new band, featuring some of the original Antibalas members, of which he was frontman for 23 years. In the course of bringing Afrobeat to a global audience, channeling Fela Kuti as he celebrates the genre of Afrobeat.
It was true when I first came to America at age 17, when I first joined Antibalas, when I departed the band, and now for my pilgrimage back home with some of the original Antibalas members and friends performing in Nigeria for the first time.
Amayo
Amayo is dedicated to his rich Nigerian heritage and martial arts teachings, merging Chinese and African rhythms. Amayo sings traditional Yoruba and Edo lyrics and is joined by a band featuring chekere, flute, violin, percussion, horn, and more, while also playing piano, electric keyboard, organ, and the gbedu spirit drum.
Kameron Marlowe’s first headlining tour, “We Were Cowboys” rolled into Horseheads, NY on Sunday, November 13th. The North Carolina native performed his second of three stops in NY on the tour. Opening the show was the Southern Tier’s very own Brian Hughes and Nashville singer/songwriter Wyatt McCubbin.
Kameron Marlowe, photo by Allison Marie.
Marlowes’ career kicked off in 2018 – a contestant on season 15 of The Voice. After being eliminated, he moved to Nashville where he independently released his first, now certified Gold single in 2019, Giving You Up, which surpassed 15 million streams in less than a year. He is signed with Columbia Nashville. Kameron’s debut single from Columbia was Burn Em All which is still climbing the country charts. His debut album, We Were Cowboys is available now.
Horsehead’s local rocker Brian Hughes opened the show and set the tone by performing some classic covers and originals. The singer/songwriter and talented musician also performs with the band Rust. Hughes recently released a solo album, I Surrender which can be found on all streaming platforms. His website can be found here.
Wyatt McCubbin, photo by Allison Marie
Southern Ohio/Nashville singer/songwriter Wyatt McCubbin was the second opening act which makes perfect sense as McCubbin co-wrote a handful of songs on Marlowe’s debut album, We Were Cowboys, such as “This Old Town,” “We Were Cowboys,” and “Does It Have To Be Over.” Writing hits for artists like Riley Green, Dustin Lynch, Cody Johnson, Tracey Lawrence and others, McCubbin is the next artist to follow!
Marlowes’ career is just taking off and with a show like at The L, he is sure to keep fans excited for more!
Kameron Marlowe, by Allison Marie
Setlist: Sober, This Old Town, Over Now, Steady Heart, Folsom, Tequila Talking, We Were Cowboys, Raise One Up, Save a Horse, Leaving To Me, Aint Enough Whiskey, Stay Here and Drink, Saying Goodbye, Money Aint Shit, Country Boys Prayer, Im Over You, Running Out on You, In Color, Fool Me Again, Trouble, Does It Have To Be Over, Girl On Fire, Giving You Up Encore: Burn Em All
For tour dates and more on Kameron Marlowe, visit his website here.
Since the very beginning of Rock and Roll way back in the 1950s, every decade seems to have an iconic album that is representative of the time period in which they were recorded. In the 1950s, the decade that saw the birth of Rock and Roll there was Elvis Presley’s smash Elvis Presley. In the 1960’s the Beatles owned the decade with their apex being 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.In the 1970’s, the decade that was known for its god-like guitar heroes and exceptional live concert albums, there was a young English player named Peter Frampton who produced the wildly popular Rock and Roll classic ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ in 1978.
Frampton, who the former guitarist and vocalist for Humble Pie, the super group which he co-founded with Steve Marriot, left the band and went solo in 1971 after achieving moderate success in both the UK and America with albums like Town and Country and Humble Pie.
Frampton went on to release his debut solo album Camel in 1973 and spent the remaining years of the decade producing another 5 solo albums. The unsurpassed crown jewel of which was his fifth offering, the multi-platinum double-album Frampton Comes Alive! was the record that cemented the English guitar slinger’s legacy in Rock and Roll history. After it’s debut in January 1976, the live concert double album sales rocketed and eventually rose to the top of Billboard albums chart for the week ending April 10th of that year.
The tracks that were featured on ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ were chosen from selected performances that were recorded in the summer and fall of 1975, at historic venues such as, Bill Graham’s historic Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco and the Long Island Arena in Commack. The 70’s rock and roll classic also includes recordings from a concert that took place on the evening of the 22nd of November in 1975 at the little known Memorial Hall located in the heart of the SUNY Plattsburgh campus.
Frampton’s Plattsburgh performance was organized by the SUNY Plattsburgh concert committee, headed by then-student Neil Jacobsen. Neil took a chance on booking Frampton who was up to that point was still relatively unknown. According to an article published in 2016 by VPR, Jacobsen felt that it was worth taking the gamble, “I knew about Humble Pie. I had their records,” Jacobsen says. “I knew Frampton was a great guitarist and then he was solo. And I said, ‘You know what, we can get him cheap. I think he means something, and let’s go for it.’ Back then, we had a certain amount of money to lose. So we were given the opportunity to really program and be adventurous.”
The cost of the Peter Frampton concert was a whopping $2.00 for students and $4.00 for the general public, which is equivalent to about $11.00 and $22.00 in today’s dollars, which still seems an excellent bargain for a chance to see a gifted guitarist and singer/songwriter of his caliber. The performance was recorded by Frampton’s road crew and which provided three tracks to the Frampton Comes Alive! LPs, including ‘All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side),’ ‘Wind of Change’ and the iconic, ‘Baby, I Love Your Way.’ Peter Frampton would go on to sell more than 17 million copies of Frampton Comes Alive! worldwide and in the process became an international super star that helped define a decade. “He was a really nice guy,” Jacobsen continues. “I didn’t speak to him much. Maybe for a minute or two just to say, ‘Hi, hello.’ But it was a good day for them. You know, he was on a small tour, playing small theaters and clubs, and he had an enthusiastic crowd and it was great.”
The SUNY Plattsburgh setlist included a rendition of Frampton’s now legendary of “Do You Feel Like We Do?” which features his now iconic Talk Box. The revolutionary device was first introduced to Frampton by legendary Nashville-based peddle steel player Pete Drake in 1970, while at a Abbey Road Studios recording session for George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass LP. The effects unit allows the musician to adjust the sound of the guitar which then mimic’s the sound of speech. The device directs sound from the instrument into the musician’s mouth usually by means of a plastic tube that is then picked up by a vocal microphone. The musician controls the alteration of the instrument’s sound by changing the shape of the mouth, “vocalizing” the guitar’s output into a microphone. This resulting effect was something that listeners in the mid-70s were mostly not exposed to and has since then become forever linked to Peter Frampton’s unique guitar playing style.
The success that Peter Frampton achieved from Frampton Comes Alive! was the stuff of legends, but with all the perks and the glitzy trappings of fame it also came with the heavy burden of being overworked and an exhaustive schedule in order to satisfy an ever increasing public demand. Frampton spoke to Gold Mine in June 20, 2013 and tried to describe the effect that the sudden success of Frampton Comes Alive! had on him. Well it was all a bit surreal, to be honest … It’s something that very few people have experienced, and you can’t really put that into words. You kind of have to be there to know what that was like. Surreal is the right word. It’s almost like it’s not happening to you, and it’s happening to somebody else, because you haven’t changed, but the world has changed the way they think about you. Lots of people who didn’t know about you now know who you are, so notoriety on that level is a very strange thing (laughs)……I was 25 years old when that record came out, and I was at my prime of growing up, basically. Your brain doesn’t stop growing until you’re 30 (laughs), so I was still developing a personality and who I was at that point, so it definitely had a major effect on me.
Frampton would come back to Upstate NY and have a repeat performance at SUNY Plattsburgh four years later in 1979, but this time performed at the campus’ Fieldhouse. The University had stopped presenting concerts there due to old wiring and limited seating capacity. Rob Buran Plattsburgh State concert committee member in 1975 spoke with VPR about Frampton’s return performance. “Now, Peter Frampton came back in ’79 and played at the Fieldhouse and strapped on an acoustic guitar and came out and said, ‘This is one of the songs that appears on my album from Plattsburgh,’ and he went into ‘Baby, I Love Your Way.’
When Buran was asked by VPR if current Plattsburgh students were aware that the University played such an important role in Peter Frampton’srock and roll legacy, he replied, “Once in a while I’ll come to the college and I’ll ask them, ‘Do you know the song, ‘Baby, I Love Your Way?”’ Buran says. “I might sing a part of it. ‘Yeah, I know that.’ ‘Did you know it was recorded across the street at Memorial Hall?’ ‘No, I had no idea.’”
Peter Frampton’s career would never see the dizzying heights that he achieved in the 1970s, but he would go on to have continued success in the music business. From his 1986 hit ‘Lying’ off of his ninth solo album Premonition to his 2006 Grammy Award winning Fingerprints, Peter Frampton continued to be a productive musical artist producing a vast quantity of material until his retirement in 2009 after disclosing his diagnosis of inclusion body myositis (IBM), a progressive muscle disorder. When asked in 2016 by Azcentral about the legacy of Frampton Comes Alive! he reflected back on his career. “Hey, I’ve done a lot of other things but I’m also very aware that when I kick the bucket, the first paragraph will be “The man responsible for ‘Frampton Comes Alive’ just dropped dead. ‘Frampton Drops Dead’ after coming alive all these years.” It’s just one of those things. Who knows why?”
Peter Frampton – Memorial Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh – November 22, 1975
Setlist: Baby (Somethin’s Happening), Baby, I Love Your Way, Do You Feel Like We Do, Penny for Your Thoughts, (I’ll Give You) Money Encore: Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Shine On
