After two years under wraps, The Wonderfront Music Festival makes its first return since 2019. Running from November 18-22, 2022, Wonderfront was started by CEO Paul Thornton and is located right in the marina along the waterfront piers and parks of downtown San Diego. Wonderfront is a multi genre annual festival hosting over 80+ artists, including award winning headliners Gwen Stefani, Cage The Elephant, G-Eazy, and The Zac Brown Band.
WonderFront 2019
One of Southern California’s biggest cities, San Diego has become the perfect location for festival grounds in the SeaPort Village Marina. The Wonderfront Festival is bringing a full package to the comeback lineup for 2022 with many art installations, food vendors like Sophias Kitchen, Pressed and Smash City Burgers, in addition to hosting various retail vendors and partnering with The San Diego Museum of Art, one of the region’s largest and most-visited art museums to accentuate the visual arts experience.
WonderFront Music and Arts Festival Lineup
The lineup includes artists coming from around the globe. Headliners include Gwen Stefani, G-Eazy, The Zac Brown Band, Cage The Elephant, Young the Giant and EARTHGANG. While hosting over 80 artists, Wonderfront pulls from rock, alternative, rap, pop rock to appeal to a wide range of community for the fans. Not only does Wonderfront bring award-winning headliners but brings deserving attention to many more well established artists. Other artists featured on the lineup include Fitz and The Tantrums, Bea Miller, Joey Purp, Hippie Sabotage and many more.
NYS Music will head west for WonderFront Music and Arts Festival and will be reporting back on members of the East Coast music community, several of which are making an appearance at Wonderfront Festival 2022. Bea Miller from Maple Wood, New Jersey, launched her career after placing 9th on X- Factor at the age of only 13. Some of her top hits from album Aurora include “Song Like You,” “Like That,” and “Motherlove.” Another artist representing the East Coast is Two Feet, originally from Manhattan and gained attention in 2016 and rose to success after releases Pink and Max Marco is Dead Right? in 2021.
The night of Saturday, November 12 was a bitter and cold, and at The Rapids Theater in Niagara Falls, The Thom Conde Project, Buffalo’s newest hard rock band, opening the night’s show. Next up, was Buffalo’s Red Letter, followed by Sirens & Sailors from Rochester taking the stage. And among the crowd was unreal anticipation for STEMM to the start their set. Even Rob Arnold, guitarist from the band Chimaira made the trip to see this show from Ohio.
By showtime, the building had filled up and it didn’t feel like a bitter cold night anymore. STEMM has been working for over a year to bring back their old vocalist TJ Frost to play their album Songs for the Incurable Heart in its entirety. TJ flew in from Boise, Idaho for two weeks of constant rehearsals – and let me tell you, it surely paid off. They started with original STEMM songs before TJ was brought out on stage. At this point, the entire vibe in the building was through the roof – it was hot, It was humid and it felt like a jungle inside the venue.
This is where things got fun. Having personally known the guys in STEMM for 25 years and shared the stage with them with my band countless times (before I traded in my gear and became a photographer.) When you add STEMM and TJ Frost – the roof was blown off the building by the crowd. There were multiple people crowd surfing including a 10 year old kid who was witnessed crowd surfing at least 5 different times, like it was his favorite theme park ride. When you think you’ve seen it all, you see a security guard crowd surf, and you know you’re at an amazing show, with all the incredible vibes at this point.
STEMM is Joe Cafarella- Vocals/Guitar; Danny Nelligan – Drums; Alex Scouten- Guitar; TJ Frost- Vocals; Louis Penque – Vocals; Fred Blackwell- Guitar, and Joe Scouten- Bass Guitar. With seven members on stage during STEMM’s set, including their original vocalist Louis Penque from the beginning of their days, to TJ Frost himself, both vocalists were boucing all over the building. On the speakers and on the security gate they were both reaching out as far as they could in the crowd just to give a fan a high five. This is personally the most amazing performance I have seen STEMM perform in more than 20 years. Yet the band is not done – they plan on one-upping this show in the future.
Not only has STEMM became a staple of the music scene in Niagara Falls for the past 25 years, their songs have been used by the UFC, including “Face the Pain” being the UFC’s main theme song from 2002-2018. The UFC has used 25 different STEMM songs as background music over their history. This is saying A LOT from a little band from a the second largest city in NYS, Niagara Falls, NY. And Recently heard at Buffalo Sabre’s and Buffalo Bills games; more STEMM songs.
STEMM – The Rapids Theater, Niagara Falls, NY – Saturday, November 12
Setlist: Wish, Dead Inside, House of Cards, Don’t Act Surprised, Inside, Casualty for Prayer, The Memory Remains, A Song for the Incurable Heart, Till I Die, MONSTER, Pandemic, Numb, On the Surface, 13 Years, Incomplete, Holding On, Between now and Forever, The day the Earth Stood Still, Face the Pain
The Disco Biscuits have announced even more dates for the 2023 Winter Tour, adding 12 more shows to their previously announced shows for the new year. Included in the tour dispatch is a show at Town Ballroom in Buffalo on Thursday, January 19 and The Palace Theatre in Albany on February 3. This follows word that they will make their annual return to the Capitol Theatre over March 23-25, 2023.
The Philly group have played the Port Chester venue 11 times previously, most recently March 31 through April 2, 2022.
The spring shows are the first U.S. dates for The Disco Biscuits in 2023, with a TranceAtlantic music event held in Reykjavík, Iceland, over May 20 through 22. They’ll wrap up the year in Chicago with three nights at the Riviera Theatre.
Disco Biscuits Winter Tour 2023
1/18 – House of Blues Cleveland – Cleveland OH 1/19 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo NY 1/20 – Penn’s Peak – Jim Thorpe PA 1/21 – Penn’s Peak – Jim Thorpe PA 2/1 – Higher Ground – Burlington VT 2/2 – Higher Ground – Burlington VT 2/3 – Palace Theatre – Albany NY 2/4 – The Anthem – Washington DC 3/10 – The Caverns – Pelham TN 3/11 – The Caverns – Pelham TN 3/12 – The Caverns – Pelham TN 3/23 – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester NY 3/24 – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester NY 3/25 – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester NY 3/29 – Belly Up, Aspen – Aspen CO 3/30 – Belly Up, Aspen – Aspen CO 3/31 – Mission Ballroom – Denver CO 4/1 – Mission Ballroom – Denver CO
Read more on the Disco Biscuits history at The Cap here. Tickets for the Capitol Theatre shows are on sale here. Tickets for all the band’s newly added shows will be available on Friday, Nov. 18 at noon E.T. via discobiscuits.com.
Radio Woodstock 100.1 WDST has announced the next installment of the “Saturday Night Takeover” series on Saturday, Nov. 19, with Melissa Auf der Maur, who was the famed bassist of American bands Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins.
Radio Woodstock, tagged as the New York Times’ “favorite thing about driving around the Hudson Valley,” has been the recipient of numerous national, regional, and local awards for its innovative programming. Radio Woodstock is one of the most influential rock music stations in the world and is unique for being both listener and advertiser-supported. It has been locally run and operated for over 40 years.
The DJs and programmers present the best emerging artists alongside the largest rock n’ roll library in the world. Radio Woodstock’s live events division has put on experimental live events and is most known for creating Mountain Jam and Taste of Country, which grew to become the largest music and camping festivals in the Northeast, together drawing over 100,000 attendees each year. Recently, the department has produced CannaStock, the first cannabis festival in the Hudson Valley.
Featured on the “Saturday Night Takeover” segment is Melissa Auf der Maur. She is a musician, photographer, curator, multidisciplinary event producer, and film producer. In 2010 she co-founded the multidisciplinary art venue Basilica Hudson in the Hudson Valley Region. She released two solo albums between 2004-2010.
You can tune into Radio Woodstock on Nov. 19 at 10 p.m. to hear Melissa Auf der Maur on the air here or via the iHeartRADIO app.
Following their record-breaking Los Angeles arena residency and their Latin America stadium run, Maná has announced the 2023 leg of their México Lindo Y Querido tour featuring 19 shows across the United States.
The U.S. leg of the tour kicks off with two more dates of Mana’s current L.A. residency at the Kia Forum on February 10 and 11 and continues with stops in Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Chicago, including a stop at UBS Arena at Belmont Park, in Elmont, NY, on Saturday, April 22, before wrapping in Sacramento, CA, at Golden 1 Center on September 23. Tickets go on sale starting on Friday, November 18 at 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster.
Maná’s Mexico Lindo Y Querido complete tour dates
Mexico Lindo Y Querido
México Lindo y Querido kicked-off on June 10 in Tijuana, México. With Maná performing multiple nights in Medellin, Bogota, Puerto Rico and México. The tour is a timeless celebration of their love and admiration for Mexico and the multigenerational Latino community. The five-city México run brought the band to sold-out stadiums with over 150,000 fans. Moreover, that total includes 60,000 ecstatic fans at the prestigious Foro Sol stadium in Mexico City. In order to kick-off the announcement of their U.S. leg, MANÁ will host a launch party at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Beach, featuring a special live performance from the band. Moreover, Mexico Lindo Y Querido is a part of a three-decade run that has seen Maná amass a diverse audience of fans of all ages that continue to celebrate their music around the globe.
The México Lindo y Querido U.S. run comes on the heels of Maná’s record-breaking residency with 12 sold-out shows and 165,000 tickets sold to date.
Get ready, we’re coming with a brand new production and all our hits. We’re excited to be back on the road and see all our fans in the US. This isn’t just a concert tour, it’s a celebration of life.
– Maná
Considered one of the most influential Latin rock band in the world, Maná has transcended generations with their music. Maná — meaning positive energy in Polynesian — began in 1986 when four friends from Guadalajara came together and fused rock sounds with Latin and Caribbean rhythms. The group includes Fher Olvera as vocalist, guitarist and main composer, Alex González on drums, Sergio Vallín on lead guitar, and Juan Diego Calleros on bass.
Maná is one of the most decorated latin groups ever
Furthermore, the group has amassed 133 Certified Gold Albums, 256 Certified Platinum albums, 4 Grammy Awards, 9 Latin Grammys, 26 Billboard Latin Music Awards, 15 Premio Lo Nuestro Awards, and honors such as the 2018 Latin Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award & 2018 Latin Grammy Person of the Year Award and more recently the 2021 ICONO LATIN BILLBOARD Award.
Their current collaboration project, which began in 2019, revisits some of their greatest songs, accompanied by renowned and diverse artists.
Pop punk is alive and well these days. The fanbase now spans multiple generations who are selling out festivals and reunion tours all while spawning a thriving scene of up and coming bands with a new found energy and creativity. This was all on display on Sunday, November 13th at Brooklyn Steel for State Champs third show of the ‘Kings Of The New Age’ tour. The Albany-based pop punks led a deep quadruple bill also featuring California natives Hunny along with relative newcomers Young Culture and Between You & Me on support.
Fresh off their appearance at When We Were Young Festival (the Las Vegas pop punk festival featuring almost every band you ever heard of) State Champs were in fine form as they celebrated Kings Of The New Age, their fourth LP released back in May. Frontman Derek DiScanio and bassist Ryan Graham bounced from one side of the stage to the other, greeting a relentless stream of crowd surfers rushing the stage. The band breezed through a career-spanning, 18-song setlist with many of the new songs already becoming crowd favorite sing alongs.
Brooklyn Steel was only the third stop on the tour, with North American dates running until mid December. State Champs close out the stretch with a hometown show at Albany’s Empire Live on December 10th. Tickets for that show are still on sale. Check out the full photo gallery from Brooklyn below and from their last performance at Empire Live in 2021 here. Also make sure to listen to the band’s recently released acoustic singles “Act Like That” and “Outta My Head”.
The Gibson Brothers, hailing from Plattsburgh and calling Nashville home, will perform two North Country Christmas concerts in mid-December, one in Schenectady at Proctors, and another in Ellenburg Depot. The pair will release a new album on January 27th, 2023, Darkest Hour, produced by Jerry Douglas and includes guest musicians Justin Moses, Guthrie Trapp, and Alison Krauss.
Darkest Hour spans from trad-grass to country-soul and back again, utilizing classically bluegrass instruments as well as electric guitars and drums to craft a sound fit for the songs it surrounds. Kicking off with a flurry of traditional bluegrass excellence, The Gibson Brothers’ new single “Dust” is more than a just statement of musicianship, it’s the whole package, with world-class picking, clear and refined vocals, and rock-solid songwriting. An ode to leaning into down-and-out—“Left in the dust” by ex-lover—“Dust” puts a clever, positive spin on being left behind. “Me and dust, we do fine.”
Every song written feels like a little victory to its writer. Sure, some are better than others, and from time to time—if you’re lucky—you write something special. But every one counts. They all add up to something, whether they are keepers or not, and the writer is in constant pursuit of topping what he or she has done before. The fact that our longtime musical hero Jerry Douglas likes what we do and encouraged us to send him all originals is a real feather in our caps. Making this record of songs Jerry deemed as keepers with him is a dream come true. The songs reflect where we came from, where we are, and where we go from here.
Eric Gibson
The songs recorded in the first recording period featured Mike Barber (bass), Justin Moses (mandolin), Eamon McGloughlin (fiddle), and of course, Jerry Douglas (dobro), adding in John Gardner (drums), Guthrie Trapp (electric guitar), Todd Parks (bass), and Alison Krauss (vocals) for the final tracks, Darkest Hour showcases just how easily Eric and Leigh move from what Dan Auerbach dubbed “country soul” (“I Go Driving”) to high octane bluegrass (“What a Difference A Day Makes” and “Dust”) with Douglas always keeping the spotlight on the songs themselves.
Fans can purchase or stream “Dust” today at and pre-order or pre-save Darkest Hour ahead of its January release right here.
The Gibson Brothers will close out 2022 with two shows in New York. Their annual Gibson Brothers North Country Christmas show will be held at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady on Friday, December 16 (ticket link) and Ellenburg Depot at the NACS High School Auditorium on December 17th (ticket link).
On Saturday, November 12 at the Broome County Forum Theatre, Maestro Daniel Hege led the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra in “Green Places,” a program named for a featured concerto by American composer Gary Schocker. The concert began with an unscripted reading of the National Anthem, sung heartily by the audience, followed with the brief fourth Novelette by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a work for strings and percussion.
“Green Places,” a three movement concerto for flute, featured principal flutist Karen Bogardus, whose stunning green gown helped set the tone for the fanciful piece. Bogardus’ virtuoso playing was fluid and flexible as she led the orchestra in playful calls and responses. Concertmaster Uli Speth concluded the first half of the program with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” Speth, dressed in an open vest and bowtie suitable for the English moors, held the audience in rapt attention as his soloistic lines soared over the muted strings.
The Philharmonic rose to the many challenges of Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, one of the least known but most technically difficult of the nine. Highlights were the tight string sections, spot-on winds, and remarkably fine timpani playing.
The next event for the Binghamton Philharmonic is Winter Wonderland on December 10, featuring performances of music from Home Alone 2 (John Williams), The Polar Express (Alan Silvestri), Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman), The Snowman (Howard Blake) and many more.
Akshatha Ganesh and Ashwyn MuthukumaraswamiAmanda Green and Mark GreenAmi Titus and Barbara ReardonKimburlee Stewart and Kevin OriolPokey Crocker and Ann Scala 2Reenie Wilson, Ann Machlin, and Kathie Winckler
The Church of the Messiah in Rhinebeck will host a performance by pianist Nielson Chen on December 4, as well as a quartet from the Bard Vocal Arts Program presenting vocal chamber music. Let it be Forgotten: Shades of American Identity, an anthology of works, will be presented at 4pm and touches on complicated identities and relationships in America.
The series of tracks will explore the different backgrounds of people living in the U.S., highlighting equally the good and the bad, as well as the joy and pain experienced by citizens of different cultural backgrounds. Included in the Let it be Forgotten: Shades of American Identity program will be Bard musicians, Zihao Liu, Montana Smith, Jonathan Lawlor, Neilson Chen, and Katherine Lerner Lee.
With this recital, we want to communicate how important it is for us to listen to one another. There is no amount of sharing one’s own experience that takes away space from someone else to do the same. On this program, everyone’s voices are given ample room to be heard, and my hope is that it encourages our audiences to be open and active listeners in their daily lives.
Montana Smith, soprano and co-curator for December’s vocal chamber performance
Bard Vocal Arts Program members
Zihao Liu is a Chinese tenor whose been featured in many solo appearances, including for several recitals, largely involving opera and orcherstrative concerts. His recent appearances include his tenor soloist performances in Beethoven 9th Symphony with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra and Handel’s Messiah with The Orchestra Now.
Tenor, Zihao Liu
Montana Smith is an emerging soprano musician and is currently continuing her education in graduate studies at the Bard College Conservatory of Music in the Vocal Arts Program. She has participated in a plethora of opera productions, holding a vision which emphasizes the importance for young people to be represented in world opera art, while attempting to express more effective and open communication with her audiences. Smith’s performances vary across the range of the classical genre, and she holds a focus in representing the musical expression of Black and American artists.
Soprano, Montana Smith
Baritone, Jonathan Lawlor, has built experience working with established Baroque musical groups, as well as being actively involved in the opera music scene, through collaboration with opera ensembles. Lawlor carries an interest in evolving the composition techniques utilized in classical music sound production, grounded in the intent of diversifying the musical background of the musician, hence also the performance.
Baritone, Jonathan Lawlor
Katherine Lerner Lee, a soprano living in Brooklyn, has a breadth of performing experience and a versatile repertoire. She received the 2021 Concerto Competition this past season while obtaining her Masters at Bard Conservatory, played the part of “Gold Spurs” in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and debuted in concerts at the Fisher Center and with the Broad Street Orchestra in Kinderhook. She delivered a performance in December that included Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs and Pauline Oliveros’ Silences.
Soprano, Katherine Lee Lerner
Taiwanese-born Neilson Chen is a collaborative pianist assistant at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and a music PhD candidate at Arizona State University. He has given numerous performances not only in the United States but also in countries like Germany, Luxembourg, France, Ireland, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The Saarburg International Music Festival in Germany, the Vianden Music Festival and School in Luxembourg, and the Rocky Ridge Music Center in Colorado are just a few of the music festivals that Neilson performs at it during the summer as a staff pianist.
Pianist, Neilson Chen
Featured in the afternoon’s performers are composers William Grant Still, Juhi Bansal, Chihchun Chi Sun Lee, Charles Ives, and Alex Weiser, delivering songs with texts included in English, Mandarin, and Yiddish. The church has provided service to the community area, being a host for an Afghan immigrant family in Spring of 2022. All proceeds from the recital event at the church will go into supporting the family.
On Thursday night, November 11th, Guthrie Bell Productions threw another fantastic party at The Hollow in downtown Albany and things got more than just a little bit strange. The lineup of Bella’s Bartok and The Dust Bowl Faeries was yet another great move as the entire night was a delicious ride from “creepy carnival music” to “foot-stomping freak folk.” And despite the fact that it was a Thursday night show, no one left early and no one really even sat down.
The Dust Bowl Faeries
The evening opened up with a local band called The Dust Bowl Faeries. It was my first time seeing this band, but it certainly won’t be my last — and everyone I spoke with had the exact same reaction. Self-described as “dark carnival music” this band was unlike anything I have ever seen or heard before. I knew it was going to be good when the lead singer hopped on stage with a taxidermy ram’s head on her back, and they exceeded my expectations.
If you are curious about The Dust Bowl Faeries, and you should be, you should check out their website immediately. They have a new album titled Carnival Dust coming out in January and on December 6th you can check out their brand new video by Thin Edge Films.
Bella’s Bartok
I have to admit that Bella’s Bartok has been a favorite of mine for many years now — they are one of the most energetic, unique, and entertaining bands in the scene. Their set on Thursday night was well over two hours long and despite that, it seemed like they could have kept right on going. I can’t get enough of this band’s on-stage chemistry and their lead singer’s antics, including hopping off the stage and walking around while singing in the crowd.
Other bands have to work really hard to get the crowd to participate. Bella’s fans — AKA “The Strange Ones” are the exact opposite because the energy is palpable and the band is electric. If you missed them last night, they have several dates coming up in the northeast so get your tickets fast.
Shenanigans
All in all, it was a perfect night with a perfect lineup of strange shenanigans and creepy delights. Check out our full gallery below.
