Author: Michael Witthaus

Billy Joel tribute act returns to Tupelo

In a crowded milieu, there are some tribute acts that stand out — for their authenticity, an innovative approach, or a clear love of the music they’re recreating. Gloucester-based Captain Jack & the Strangers, who cover Billy Joel’s songbook, manage to tick all three boxes. Since forming in 2022 they’ve become a favorite on the New England circuit.

The group began after Jack Favazza and a group of musician friends traveled to see Joel perform. A piano player in his early twenties, Favazza was already a fan, as was his bass-playing friend Mike Parsons. The rest, all members of well-known North Shore bands, were curious but not as committed.

By the show’s end all were in agreement. Favazza and Parsons, along with percussionist, sax and keyboard player Mike Lindberg, drummer Steve Russo and guitarists Mark Pelosi and Jim Frontiero, were ready to start a Joel-centric band. They started crafting a setlist that included both well-known hits and tasty deep cuts.

They began with a swagger Joel might appreciate. Though veterans of the nightclub circuit, all wanted the act to work in big venues.

“Not that we don’t like the music in the bar scene, but we wanted to get on a stage, we wanted to sell tickets,” Favazza recalled in a recent phone interview. “We wanted to take it a little more seriously.”

A good instinct, it turned out. An early show at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Mass., happened because Favazza knew someone at the venue who was willing to take a chance on a new band. They sold the place out in seven weeks. “So after that, she said, ‘We’ll be having you back next year.’”

Another high point came this year when they played Toad’s Place, a legendary New Haven, Connecticut, club where stars like Bob Dylan and Steve Earle have performed.

“It was kind of a short-notice thing and that’s OK,” Favazza said. “They gave us a chance [and] they loved the show.”

They’re building a fan base in New Hampshire, having appeared at Nashua’s Center for the Arts, and multiple times at Tupelo Music Hall.

“A lot of the other venues say, ‘Yeah, we’d like you to come back next year or in six months.’ That’s when you pick up the momentum and your confidence goes up,” Favazza said.

Though the song selection ranges across Joel’s career, the band maintains the exuberant energy of his mid-’70s to late ’80s prime. During the show, Favazza bounds across the stage for the in-your-face hit “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me” and lays a tablecloth on his piano to perform his favorite, “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant.”

Even seasoned fans can be surprised by the mix of material, Favazza continued.

“After every show, someone comes up to us and goes, ‘I didn’t know that Billy Joel wrote all those songs. When we dive into the B-sides, they’re like, ‘I remember that song, it was in this movie.’ These songs are tied everywhere in our culture.”

Favazza plays solo gigs in Boston and around the North Shore. His sets include Elton John and Barry Manilow along with Joel’s material. He’s been doing it since a college friend helped him secure a gig in a Gloucester restaurant. After playing a couple of songs, he was invited to appear weekly.

“Billy Joel is the only tribute act I do,” he said. “I figured, who’s the No. 1 piano man? OK, I found him.”

He’s drawn to Joel’s music because he discerns a thread in it that dates back to rock’s beginnings. Many musicians were inspired in 1964 when The Beatles appeared on national television for three consecutive Sunday nights, like Joel. “You can hear The Beatles in his songs — that’s what I think makes it timeless, whether it’s lyrics or feelings or the music itself.”

Though Favazza enjoys honoring the music of one artist in his act, he has original songs, and their time may come.

“I haven’t published anything for the public, but maybe someday,” he said. For the time being, he continued, “I play these songs because I want to.”

Captain Jack & the Strangers
When: Saturday, Jan. 3, at 8 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $40 at tupelohall.com

Featured photo: Captain Jack & the Strangers. Courtesy photo.

New Year’s Eve is all about comedy

The best way to look back at a year like 2025 is with laughter.

Looking at New Year’s Eve in New Hampshire, that’s the prevailing wisdom. There are no fewer than 14 comedy events, 16 if you count Dueling Pianos. From the big rooms — Manchester has Jimmy Dunn, Bob Marley is in Rochester and Juston McKinney’s Year In Review is back in Nashua — to Underground Comedy on the Seacoast, it’s all about the funny.

Comedian Rob Steen recognized this idea a long time ago and has produced New Year’s Eve parties throughout the state for years. To ring in 2026, Steen’s Headliners Comedy is holding two bashes each in Manchester and Nashua and another in Concord, along with supplying a comic for a Dover show that he isn’t promoting.

The event in Manchester is a variety show with DJ dancing and Beatles tribute act Studio Two. New York comic magician Kevin Lee tops a bill including regional favorite Harrison Stebbins and newcomer Jolanda Logan, who hails from Derry and came up through a process that resembles minor-league baseball.

“I started booking her about a year and a half ago, and I’ve been giving her tons of work to kind of get her into … call it a farm system,” Steen said in a recent phone interview. It’s a process many newbies have endured, performing at the many places his production company books throughout New England.

From campsites to greenhouses, Steen will do a show pretty much anywhere.

“There’s no venue that’s not appropriate for comedy,” he said, which means new comics can experience a wide range of audiences. “I’ll give them, like, three Elks Clubs, four summer camps, a private, a corporate and a club gig, and see how they do. Because they’re all different.”

One of Steen’s newer venues is Concord’s Arts Alley. This year he’s doing a Dueling Pianos show on New Year’s Eve, and next year Frank Santorelli of Sopranos fame will launch standup there with a Valentine’s Day show, with others to come. He also launched comedy recently at nearby Pembroke City Limits in Suncook; it will return Feb. 18.

2026 will also mark four decades as a comic for Steen. He began as a teenager, telling jokes along with street performing as a juggler. Getting booked there was tough due to his age, so he headed north.

“I took a bus to Manchester and started doing shows at the Center of New Hampshire, when it was a Holiday Inn,” he said. “Been at that location ever since.”

Through a variety of name and ownership changes, Headliners Comedy Club has been a fixture at what’s now Doubletree Hotel on Elm Street in Manchester. For years, shows were held wherever space was available until the hotel restaurant was remodeled, becoming New Hampshire’s first venue dedicated to comedy.

Forty years is many lifetimes in entertainment promotion, and Rob Steen has seen many aspirants come and go along the way. Believing that while one effort was admirable, many meant a trend good for all, he’s wished each of them well.

“It’s refreshing to see the guys doing it,” he said, adding that he tries to offer guidance when he can. “I talk to them about the do’s and the don’ts [and urge them to] be ethical, I guess. To have a moral compass. Don’t go and put on crappy shows, and try to be nice to everybody.”

Featured photo: Rob Steen. Courtesy photo.