In the world of classic rock, there’s a lot of love for the Young Dubliners. One reason perhaps is Keith Roberts, who co-founded the band with a fellow Irishman in the early ’90s, grew up watching Top of the Pops, and decided that home country bands like Big Country and Boomtown Rats were more interesting to him than traditional Celtic reels.
The biggest factor, though, is the number of rock stars who love them.
After Bernie Taupin watched the Young Dubs (what most fans call them) light up L.A.’s House of Blues in the late 1990s, he gifted them with the lyrics to “Red.” It became the title track of a 2000 album, one of their best. However, a certain Sir Elton almost kept that from happening.
Roberts wrote the music quickly, and Taupin loved it, Roberts recalled by phone recently. “Then right as it was recorded and ready to go, Elton suddenly tells Bernie, ‘I’m working on something for that song.’ Bernie said, ‘no you’re not, Elton. I’ve given it to the boys.’ I always joke about how I’ve never met Elton John, but I’ve [screwed] with him.”
Red was helped by a tour opening for Jethro Tull, during which Tull’s front man found ways to make every press avail about the Young Dubliners. “That album blew up massively because of Ian Anderson talking about it, and everything he did. Every interview, he would make me come in and do all the media stuff.”
They’ve toured with a bevy of bands over the years.
“We just became friends with these people,” Roberts said. “Following an appearance at the Deadwood Jam in the Black Mountain Hills of South Dakota, Ed Roland of Collective Soul recruited him for a night of partying, along with Spin Doctors lead singer Chris Barron.
“Ed said to me in his southern drawl, ‘I hear you like to drink whiskey.’ I said, ‘I’ve been known to,’ and he’s like, ‘Well, why don’t we go do that?’” They headed into the Deadwood Saloon. “The girl just kept putting bottles of Jameson on the table, and we just kept going.”
The next night, Collective Soul’s road manager asked Roberts, “‘Would it be OK if I didn’t take Ed out again?,’ because he was hurting pretty bad. I’m like, oh, crap, really? Then I’m doing it again.”
In August, they will join On the Blue, a cruise hosted by the Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward, with acts like Alan Parsons, Dave Mason, Starship with Mickey Thomas and more. This year’s cruise originates in Boston; because of the city’s Irish heritage, the Young Dubliners will play the ship away from the dock and off to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
So, more than six decades down the road, this affinity for the Young Dubs’ anthem-y Celtic rock endures. This may seem at odds with their name. However, they didn’t choose it; it chose them. Roberts moved to Southern California with hopes of becoming a rock journalist, but ended up opening a pub and starting a band instead.
“Me and Paul O’Toole, who started the band, he was from Dublin and I was from Dublin, and people would say, oh, the young lads from Dublin are playing,” Roberts recalled. “They started making backdrops from sheets that they just spray-painted Young Dubliners on.”
They never dreamed of getting a record deal, but when it happened they had to agree on the fan-bestowed moniker, which needed to be cleared by Ronnie Drew, leader of The Dubliners in Ireland and a family friend. “I had to call him and ask him, was it all right, because the label wouldn’t let me change the … name.”
They received his blessings — “Keep the faith,” he said — and later got an even more satisfying validation.
“When my dad passed away, at the funeral, they took a picture of me and my brother and Ronnie Drew,” he said,. It was printed in the local paper. “It said, ‘Old Dubliner and Young Dubliner say goodbye to Charlie.’ It was the biggest gift you could give me, because that made the Irish accept the name.”
Young Dubliners When: Sunday, March 30, 7 p.m. Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry Tickets: $35 and up at tupelohall.com
• Song man: A fixture on the New England roots scene since the mid-’90s Willy Porter has three New Hampshire shows upcoming, one at a venerable brewpub and restaurant’s weekly series. Porter’s most recent album is 2023’s The Ravine, with the sweet father and son bonding song, “Baseball on the Radio.” Singer, songwriter and painter Tom Pirozzoli opens the show. Thursday, March 27, 7:30 p.m., Flying Goose, 40 Andover Road, New London; 526-6800 for reservations.
• Big pair: The White Stripes formed a few years before Sirsy launched, and while the upstate New York duo may not be in the running for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, their raw power is undeniable. Guitarist Rich Libutti plays a weathered Rickenbacker through a multitude of pedals while Melanie Krahmer furiously pounds on the drums and sings with the energy of Janis Joplin reborn. Friday, March 28, 9 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester. More at sirsy.com.
• Funk fun: A double bill for locals to love has UP – The Band and The Kenny Brothers sharing the stage and players for a raucous, funked up basement party. The two recently did an energetic Seacoast show. UP is led by Eric Reingold, with fellow JamAntic Freeland Hubbard and Johnny Santana on guitars, Wayne Summerford playing drums, and guests often joining in. Friday, March 28, 9 p.m., Penuche’s, 16 Bicentennial Square, Concord, facebook.com/penuches.concord.
• Dad jokes: The state’s longest-running comedy club hosts Mike Hanley, who in his bio sums up his riffs on parenthood thusly: “If you are married you will laugh at Mike’s hysterical stories. If you are single you will want to stay that way.” A joke about accidentally confusing a tube of Desitin with toothpaste, and how the poison control helpline responded, lands perfectly. Saturday, March 29, 8:30 p.m., Headliners at Doubletree, 700 Elm St., Manchester, $20 at headlinersnh.com.
• Irish mist: Keep basking in a green glow with Altan, considered one of Ireland’s finest musical exports, led by vocalist and fiddler Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh. Their most recent album, Donegal, celebrates the county where they formed, a bustling part of Ireland’s folk scene. The record is also the first with new fiddler and singer Claire Friel, who takes a lead vocal on “Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa.” Sunday, March 30, 3 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $49 at ccanh.com.
The search for Symphony New Hampshire’s next Music Director, reported in a March 6 Hippo cover story, has led to the selection of five finalists, each of whom will present their vision for the state’s premier orchestra over the course of next season.
Over the 2025-26 season, each finalist will curate and conduct a concert. In addition, finalists will engage with the public at meet-and-greet events across the state. Audience members will provide feedback through post-concert surveys.
The search was driven by a desire to select a Music Director who was already a New Englander, and all of the candidates live at least a reasonable drive from the New Hampshire border. One, Filippo Ciabatti, is a resident of the Upper Valley.
“We believe having an artistic leader embedded in New Hampshire’s cultural fabric will shape our programming and community engagement,” SNH Executive Director said in a recent press release announcing the candidates.
Here’s a look at the conductors vying for the job of Symphony New Hampshire’s Music Director.
Adam Kerry Boyles holds three current positions: Assistant Conductor of the Hartford Symphony, Director of Orchestras at MIT, and the Brookline Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director Emeritus. Last year, he stepped in for Keith Lockhart at the Boston Pops, after several years as cover conductor.
Boyles has worked with other artists across multiple genres, including James Taylor and Doc Severinsen, as well as groups like Cirque de la Symphonie and Aardvark Jazz Ensemble. He’s also a singer who’s performed in operas and had leading roles in musical theater productions like Little Shop of Horrors.
Taiwanese-American conductor Tiffany Chang’s credits include nine years as Music Director of Boston’s NEMPAC Opera Project. She’s been engaged as a conductor by the Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Portland Opera, and Minnesota Opera.
Chang is the author of Conductor as CEO, a blog aimed at facilitating growth for conductors, arts leaders and musicians. “My mission,” she writes, “is to help musicians feel more valued, seen, and fulfilled.” Since 2013 she’s served as an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music.
Filippo Ciabatti currently leads the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. The Florence, Italy, native was named Assistant Conductor of Boston Baroque in 2023, the first such appointment in their 50-year history. He also founded Upper Valley Baroque, a professional orchestral and choral ensemble.
The well-rounded Ciabatti is also the Music Director of the Opera Company of Middlebury, where he debuted in June 2023, leading a production of Fidelio. He’s also conducted productions with Opera North in Lebanon, and the Lyric Theatre at Illinois.
Jotaro Nakano conducts the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston, which serves the city’s health care and medical communities. As part of his association with Longwood, he also leads the Healing Art of Music Program, which assists with fundraising for local nonprofit organizations.
Nakano, a Japanese-American, has shared the stage with musicians in Mexico — he’s Musical Director of the SA’Oaxaca Strings International Music Festival Orchestra, a tuition-free chamber string music festival. He’s also toured in the Czech Republic, in Romania and all across the United States.
Tianhui Ng has been called “one of the most sought-after interpreters of new music in the United States.” As Music Director of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts’ Victory Players, Ng has led performances on public radio and television and toured in Puerto Rico and Illinois.
Ng is Music Director of White Snake Projects, when’s he’s led more than 50 premieres, including Jacobs and Sosa’s Alice in the Pandemic, a production selected by the Library of Congress for their special collection of the most significant works of art during the pandemic.
SNH’s Executive Director Hoying expressed her approval of the selection committee, led by search professional (and former SNH Operations Director) Nick Adams. It began with 30 applications that were narrowed to 20 semi-finalists; 10 advanced to the interview stage.
“Each of these conductors brings remarkable expertise and vision,” Hoying said of the five in the March 19 press release. “Now, it’s about how they engage with our musicians, audience, and the broader community.”
On the first day of February, a packed gathering of the goth-clad, pierced and tattooed felt the rumblings of a revolution. To the untrained eye, it was a modest milieu, a back room of a Manchester American Legion Post lined with rows of booths, each offering everything from taxidermy to tarot card readings, art and apparel.
For Janelle Havens, however, the Queen City Black Market was a dream come to life.
The New Hampshire native had experienced similar events below the border in Massachusetts and at tattoo conventions. Along the way she was inspired to open a platform shoe store in Manchester, Lustshroom, Etc. She wondered why there weren’t similar efforts in her home state, and decided to launch one of her own.
Hoping for the best, Havens had scheduled an afterparty at the nearby Shaskeen Pub. The market’s success made the three-band show, organized by Aaron Shelton, that much more momentous. Shelton’s Kinetic City Events books regularly at the Shaskeen, helping to boost bands like Cytokine, who headlined the afterparty.
A slashing heavy metal band, Cytokine’s lineup includes guitarist Rob Kulingoski, another thread of the many moving this community forward. Along with Shelton, who spent a lot of time in punk and metal bands before focusing on being a promoter in the early 2010s, Kulingoski kept the fire burning after many venues closed mid-decade.
With nowhere else to go, Kulingoski repurposed the basement of his home in Litchfield for shows, and lived the metaphor for five years until the town shut him down.
“I’ve been a part of the underground hardcore and metal scene probably since I was 16, and I’m 39 now,” he said recently.
Kulingoski and many others are buoyant these days. The New Hampshire alternative scene is by all accounts thriving. Along with Kinetic City at the Shaskeen, BAD BRGR in Manchester has been open over a year and is, Kulingoski said, “a breath of fresh air for us” as it showcases original music. Over on Canal Street, Jewel Music Venue continues to host EDM, punk and other fringe events.
To illustrate the interwoven nature of the scene, Havens will be at Jewel’s Goth & Industrial Night in May, she and Shelton are at work on new projects, and Kulingoski’s Five/Nine Printcore makes T-shirts for bands and businesses like Fishtoes, a new vintage clothing store in Manchester where many scenesters shop.
Terminus Underground. Photo by Eleanor Luna.
“Underground” may not be the best word for this bustling community. “It’s almost misleading … it makes it sound secretive,” Aaron Shelton said by phone recently. “It’s just a broad term for things that aren’t quite in the mainstream. I mean, a band that claims to be underground could be mainstream the next day, if they get signed to a record label.”
Once upon a time, Metallica was underground. Now their logo is on premium whiskey bottles.
Shelton does allow, “it’s a term that people are comfortable with that adds a sense of belonging; this is ours, it’s not the mainstream. This doesn’t belong to Spotify, or MTV, or major record labels, this is our scene, we control it. It’s our community. We decide the successful bands, not the radio.”
It’s also not synonymous with an oath of poverty. This philosophy drives a Nashua-based organization that works with creative independents looking to make a career of their art. Clients include musicians, like Whole Loaf and 6 Minds Combined, along with graphic artist Keegan Fitzgerald’sMyArtbyKF and author Ellie Beach.
New Hampshire Underground is a micro entertainment complex that serves as a comprehensive resource for artists, musicians and writers. Founded by music business maven Eleanor Luna, it offers business guidance to creative professionals to assist with branding, marketing and financial management.
How to turn art into enterprise can get lost in the act of creation, Luna explained in a recent phone interview.
“When you’re really talented and focused on your particular passion, you might not know how to get yourself out there like a business would,” she said. “That’s what I do. I guide people.”
It’s modeled after a fitness center; Luna has also worked in that world. She acts as personal business trainer for her customers. Services are membership-based; VIP “Rockstar” level members have weekly meetings to go over topics like how to optimize an online presence and effectively reach out to industry insiders.
“These are the paths that you can go down,” she tells them. “This is the avenue that I recommend, these are the people that I would talk to. This is what I would do for your social media or your personal brand presence on the Internet.”
Like a lot of efforts to boost the independent creative scene, Luna’s started when the world started to emerge from the pandemic. Everyone was still unsure what that meant for the music business, and she saw a chance to finally use her Berklee MBA and multiple decades in marketing to make a difference.
“I sat on it for a number of years kind of wanting to do something like this, but not really knowing if there was a market,” she said. “But then I started to see lots of people asking questions. How do I copyright? How do I sign up for MusicPro? How do I navigate social media? How do I become a brand? I’m thinking, I know the answers … I literally could start a business.”
Luna picked a price point reasonable enough for the scrappy artists she hoped to mentor.
“I wanted to make it accessible to people but still be able to give them good value, and I knew a membership model would work better than an a la carte or hourly rate,” she said. “It’s more comfortable for people to say, ‘I’m going to have a commitment, and this person will provide what I can’t get on my own on the art side of it.’”
There’s also an entry-level Community Member tier that offers access to the Musician and Artist Lounge, a networking hub best described as Panera Bread for cooler people. It has a wi-fi-equipped co-working space, along with couches and other amenities. The lounge is open Tuesday through Thursday from 7 to 11 p.m. and access can also be booked for an hourly rate.
Other on-premise perks include a podcast studio, a backline-equipped community jam space, and an art gallery. Finally, there’s Terminus Underground, a performance space that serves as NHU’s public hub. It hosts regular events — the next is Night of the Fools, with Sunset Electric, Dog 8 Dog, and Questing Beast.
Queen City Black Market. Courtesy photo.
The NHU complex is on the second floor of a suburban warehouse in Nashua. For several years it has served as a rehearsal space for Dead Harrison, the doom rock band Luna manages that’s led by her partner Andre Dumont. It grew into its present configuration when more room opened up and Dumont, experienced in construction, built out an expansion.
Its efforts to foster the underground scene extend to the Nashua arts community. NHU collaborates closely with the city, including participating in last year’s Fourth of July River Fest. They provided live music at the event and helped raise enough funds to feed 40 veterans, while drawing a crowd of 150 attendees.
Luna also serves on the Nashua Arts Commission, which meets monthly to facilitate, advocate, coordinate and educate on behalf of the city’s arts and cultural assets.
“A voice for underground or alternative music wasn’t there previously,” she said. “Now we’re bringing it to light, which is really exciting.”
All this supports NHU’s role as a one-stop shop for music professionals, Luna continued.
“People get advice on how to run their band as a business, how to do their taxes, how to market themselves, strategies for selling their products and merch branding. Anything you can think of that you can use to create a regular business, the same strategies can be used to create your music business.”
When asked to define “underground,” Eleanor Luna’s answer was as much about what it wasn’t. “Unsigned bands, independent artists, indie music, writers, anything independently driven … any genre really,” align with the term, she said. Ultimately, though, “Underground to me means anything that’s not of the mainstream.”
For the live music scene, mainstream was exemplified by venues who primarily book “cover artists that could make your club money,” she said. “Not that we’re not trying to make money … but it’s not the priority now. The priority really is to support the musicians. It’s almost like a labor of love.”
To that end, the majority of NHU shows are held at Terminus Underground, although they do promote some events below the border. The next one happens April 11, a Beats & Bridges hip-hop concert starring 6 Minds Combined at Koto Underground in Lowell.
Film from the underground
Johna Jo Toomey is a videographer, and her youtube.com/@johnajomedia archive is a treasure trove of punk and metal music, including full sets from many local shows. Toomey’s story reflects the scene’s tight knit community and the support it provides to its own.
“I got into punk rock as a teenager. I was drawn to the subversive lyrics, chaotic energy, and working-class ethos. It was also this mystical thing that I never got to experience in person because I grew up in a small farm town with no shows nearby. After high school, I moved to NorCal and earned my B.A. in photojournalism and cultural anthropology, so documenting (sub)cultures for posterity is really ingrained in me. It’s so important to have these archives to look back on, on both individual and collective levels. While living in San Francisco, I covered shows for local print media, and got to shoot some of my early favorites such as Social Distortion and Dropkick Murphys. Eventually I moved back to New England, and in 2017 I started photographing metal and hardcore shows near Boston. As a woman in a male-dominated space, I felt proud to be an active contributor instead of a passive observer (not that there’s anything wrong with that). When I started to focus more on hardcore instead of metal, I made the switch to videography, because everybody wanted to see the mosh pit, but nobody wanted to stand near it. Then in 2019 while filming a basement show in Lowell, Mass., I got punched by a crowdkiller and broke my nose and eye socket. What happened next was eye-opening (no pun intended). New England hardcore friends showed me love and support, and took care of me when I needed four surgeries in 13 months. Meanwhile, my other friends and family victim-blamed me and said, “you shouldn’t have been there, you should find better friends.” So then I doubled down and started a YouTube channel … I’ve been filming hardcore shows around the country ever since. My style is always evolving, but I’ve always been heavily inspired by gonzo journalism.
For Aaron Shelton, his business is a way to support the community he loves, not the other way around. When he began doing the emo-centric Live Free or Cry nights at Shaskeen Pub, his primary objective was to provide a gathering place for people who missed a bygone time the same way he did.
“I grew up in that community, I was in metal bands and post-hardcore bands and emo bands, so that’s where it comes from,” he said. “It’s not a cash grab for me, it is a revitalization of one of my most informative eras…. I think that for so many people, it is that same thing.”
In Shelton’s case, his evening of bands playing Get Up Kids, Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance songs would turn Luna’s mainstream analogy upside down.
“A lot of these bands that play cover sets are original bands,” he said. “I’ve had bands tell me, ‘This has given us the opportunity to make extra money to pay for our recordings or meet bands that we’re playing original gigs with now.’ It still gives to the underground scene, and I think that’s one of the best parts about it.”
It’s also created a ripple effect. Down the street, smashburger restaurant BAD BRGR is offering live original music on multiple nights. Rob Kulingoski called the venue “the new saving grace for extreme music in New Hampshire.”
BAD BRGR owner Ian Tufts moved to Manchester a few years after opening in Hampton Beach just as Covid-19 upended everyone’s life. A musician himself, he held an all-ages hip-hop show in mid-2020 that ran afoul of social distancing requirements and nearly shut down his business.
His vision for the new location always included live original music.
“From the onset, we’ve totally been about embracing artistry,” he said by phone recently. “There’s such an energy that comes from original music, art, creativity. Harnessing that and allowing that to thrive, it’s so powerful.”
Tufts found help from a few area musician/promoters with shows there. Joe Chubbuck, who plays in both Ratblood and Bleach Temple, has been instrumental with booking. “He’s the most significant metal and hardcore promoter,” Tufts said, noting that he has help from his partner, photographer Ashley Seiferheld.
“I love the direction the scene is going in and love everything that Ian and BAD BRGR is doing,” Seiferheld said in a recent text exchange. She also co-hosts a podcast with Death’s Hand guitarist Ed Hamaty called Angry Advocate. “It’s about local artists and musicians, anything to bring more awareness to our scene.”
Others helping to fill the BAD BRGR calendar are Irongate lead singer Jeff Higgins, who’s booked some metal shows. On the indie/alternative side, Cade Earick, a prolific recording artist who’s also a producer and audio engineer, is doing promotion.
For many if not most, the underground scene goes beyond music and art; it’s a tool for survival.
Videographer Johna Jo Toomey, who frequently films Shaskeen shows, said that after a mosh pit injury in 2019, “New England hardcore friends showed me love and support, and took care of me. Meanwhile, my other friends and family victim-blamed me.”
Kulingoski credits the scene for helping his mental health. During his days running basement shows, he organized awareness days to support others in need.
“We would all come together and just talk about our problems and how much the scene has helped us, how much of a positive impact it’s had,” he said. “It’s so much more than just music. It’s art, it’s friendship, it’s small businesses. It really is a welcoming community that I think some people don’t know about, but it’s not hard to find out about.”
Upcoming events from the up-and-coming
New Hampshire Underground Terminus Underground, 134 Haines St., Nashua. Tickets: newhampshireunderground.org/shows. All shows 21+, BYOB, $15 general admission, $20 VIPizza tickets
• Night of the Fools, Sunday, March 30, 6 p.m. – Sunset Electric (punk-flavored alt rock), Dog 8 Dog (dual female fronted indie/alt rock) and Questing Beast (concept-driven metal) • Punk Rock Masquerade Ball , Saturday, April 12, 8 p.m. – Ragz to Stitchez (NH), Vallory Falls (Vermont), Marianne Toilet and the Runs (Mass.) and Lobotomobile (NH) • Requiem for the Apocalypse: A Death/Doom Metal Explosion, Friday, April 25, 7 p.m. – Dead Harrison, Oxblood Forge, A World Worth Burning and Swarm of Eye • Lily Angelique Desrochers (LAD) art exhibit, Saturday, April 26, 6 p.m. free • Music Industry Networking Night, Wednesday, May 7, 7 p.m. free
Kinetic City at Shaskeen Pub 909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/KineticCityEvents
• Saturday, April 12, 9 p.m. — Gina Fritz w/ Anaria, Proelium and Arcantica, $10 at the door • Thursday, April 17, 8 p.m. — Showcase 603 w/ Black Hatch, 2000s, Cellar Door and Dead Time, $5 at the door • Friday, April 18, 9 p.m. — Candy Striper Death Orgy, Psycho and Summoning Hate, $10 at the door • Saturday, April 19, 8 p.m. — The Doldrums, Still Sleeping, Regals and Birds, In Theory, $10 at the door • Saturday, April 26, 9 p.m. — Live Free or Cry Emo Night w/ Heely & the Moon Shoes and A Blockbuster Summer, $10 at the door
BAD BRGR 1015 Elm St., Manchester; schedule at instagram.com/bad_brgr
• Friday, March 28, 9 p.m. — Street Trash, Wrought Iron Hex, Joe Grizzly and Abel Blood, $15 at the door • Saturday, March 29, 9 p.m. — Donaher w/ Better Sense and New Norde, $10 at the door • Friday, April 11, 9 p.m. — Guns of Brighton (punk), Sotah and Glue, $10 at the door • Friday, May 16, 9 p.m. — The Whole Loaf w/ Alana Corvette and Vale’s End . $10/door
Jewel Music Venue Canal Street, Manchester; find them on Facebook
• Saturday, March 29, 7:30 p.m. — A Night of Black & Death Metal with Angel Morgue (NH), Shitangel (Vermont), Infernal Occult (RI), Commuted (Maine) and Respiratory Secretion (Mass./NH), 18+, $15 at dice.fm • Wednesday, April 23, 7 p.m. — The Planet Smashers, PWRUP, Threat Level Burgundy, $20.77 at dice.fm
For over a decade, Zane Lamprey traveled the world and drank for a living.
His pub crawl series Three Sheets ran for four seasons starting in 2006. In 2010, Drinking Made Easy launched on Mark Cuban’s HDNet, followed by the crowd-funded Chug. Lamprey’s most recent series, Four Sheets, aired its final episode in early 2020.
Since then Lamprey has done a lot of standup comedy, primarily at places like Henniker Brewery, where his Another Round tour stops on March 22. He began playing the craft beer circuit out of necessity; clubs and theatres were slow to open after the pandemic, and he needed work. He’s now done more than 500 brewery gigs, with 10 in New England on the current run.
“I have a lot of great relationships at breweries because of the shows I’ve done, and I reached out to them,” Lamprey said by phone recently. “They loved the idea of having me come in and bring attention to their brewery, fill it with people, do a night of comedy, and so it was a very synergistic kind of thing.”
Unlike many who use stand-up to launch a television career, Lamprey took an inverse route, and after he finishes writing a memoir in progress he’ll begin a book about becoming a comedian at age 49. He says it’s all a natural progression: “I’ve always been someone, in all the shows that I’ve done, who needs to understand comedic timing and how to tell a joke.”
Through his years of imbibing across the planet, Lamprey has gathered more than enough material for multiple comedy specials. His latest, The Medium Club, premiered in January. “I’ve made a lot of poor decisions that have led to some great stories,” he said.
He’s also drunk many strange concoctions in his years, like rum aged in a bottle with a drowned snake. He once knocked back 23 shots, each containing a preserved scorpion. Later he realized that “your body is not designed to digest exoskeletons.” The shoot-and-chew experience led to an excruciating, barrel-full-of-monkeys situation.
But Lamprey has never declined a proffered glass, because entertainment.
“I always said that my job in any of the shows I’ve done was creating a water cooler moment,” he said. “Doing those shots are what people talk about. For that reason, I’m happy to do it … to take one for the team.”
Non-liquid challenges can be different, and Lamprey recalled one time he did draw the line.
“The only thing that I said no to is balut.” The popular Philippines snack is a two-thirds gestated duck egg hard boiled and served with salt and vinegar. “Basically a baby duck sitting on the yolk or the amniotic sack…. I was like, absolutely not. I tried drinking enough beers to bring myself to do it, and I couldn’t get to that place. It was too vile.”
Lamprey prefers to remember beautiful moments, like the time he rented out the Eiffel Tower for a Champagne party that wrapped as the sun was rising, or filming in Croatia a decade after their civil war. “It was very eye-opening,” he recalled. “These people weren’t war-torn and bitter because of what they went through, they were … embracing life and moving on — without forgetting about the past.”
While there, he ran into a restaurant owner singing with his friends in the street, and went in for a drink.
“We weren’t even going to shoot there … and it was one of the best experiences of my life,” Lamprey said. “But you could name any episode, and I would tell you about a moment in it that I was so grateful to be doing what I was doing.”
When Lamprey is asked why he left television, his response is that it left him.
“People every night are just like, ‘Please go back and do one of those shows again.’ I would love to.” Networks that ran his shows, like Spike, Fine Living and HDNet, are long gone, supplanted by YouTube and TikTok.
“I’ve had the privilege of being able to go and do some of the coolest things ever and be followed by a camera crew,” he said. “But the landscape of television has changed. Places where Three Sheets would have fit perfectly … no longer exist. They drop the vowels in their name, and all they do is paranormal shows.”
That said, Lamprey’s not about to stop telling jokes to crowds.
“I would actually choose the stand-up over those shows,” he said. “Which is probably why now discussions to do another TV show have resurfaced; but it would have to be perfect for me to do it.”
Zane Lamprey
When: Saturday, March 22, 8 p.m. Where: Henniker Brewing Co., 129 Centervale Road, Henniker Tickets: $25 and up at eventbrite.com
• Wine and comedy: An eclectic wine bar celebrates its third year with Mona Forgione, who leans into motherhood for laughs. She got into standup late in life, initially to talk about a pair of surgeries gone wrong, and has a colorful history that includes a stint in the roller derby. Klia Ververidis opens, ahead of her slot at New York’s Laughing Buddha Comedy Festival. Thursday, March 20, 8 p.m., Vine 32 Wine + Graze Bar, 25 S. River Road, Bedford, $25 at eventbrite.com.
• Java jam session: A monthly coffeehouse gathering features a headliner set from The Treetellers, an acoustic string trio led by Scott Heron of married bluegrass duo Green Heron, on banjo, mandolin and vocals, with guitarist Joey Clark, who also sings and plays harmonica, and upright bassist Larry Houghton. The show kicks off with an open mic; signups at 6 p.m. Friday, March 21, 8 p.m., Highland Lake Grange Hall, Route 11 and Chase Hill Road, East Andover, andovercoffeehouse.org.
• Before The Beatles: Early on, the Fab Four were a five-piece, with drummer Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe on bass. Though Ringo Starr replaced him, Best continues the raw sound The Beatles had during their days at Liverpool’s Cavern Club and in the raucous Hamburg, Germany, bar scene. An area show from Best and his band includes music and memories from the days prior to world fame. Saturday, March 22, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $50 and up at tupelohall.com.
• Junk rock jubilee: Thirty years after a trio of Goffstown High kids played drums in a talent show, Recycled Percussion continues its unique junk rock sound, and a local show celebrates the anniversary of the group, which went from a humble start to playing shows across the globe, including a years-long Las Vegas residency following their big run on America’s Got Talent. Saturday, March 22, 3 and 7 p.m., Dana Center, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, $50 and up at anselm.edu.
• Poetry and music: Soon after graduating from Berklee College of Music in 2010, Liz Longley was regularly selling out area venues months in advance, powered by sensitively crafted songs like “Unraveling” and the metaphor-rich “Camaro.” . Sunday, March 23, 7 p.m., Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road, Exeter, $19 at portsmouthnhtickets.com.
