Author: Michael Witthaus

Rock ’n’ roll revival

A classic celebration with The Dreamboats

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

The musical world of The Dreamboats begins with Elvis and ends around the time The Beatles stopped touring, but the tribute quartet casts a wide net within that time frame. Their sets include everything from “Wooly Bully” to Fats Domino’s deep track “My Girl Josephine,” along with “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Jailhouse Rock” and Motown favorites.

Performing in matching attire, they exude energy onstage, dancing in sync and showing genuine passion, even if none of them were born in time for the era.

“We’re just four young guys that truly grew up loving this music,” Dreamboats front man Chris Hummel said recently. “We don’t have anything else in our lives, performance-wise, other than this band.”

The band formed 16 years ago in Ontario, Canada, after singer and guitarist Hummel met drummer Johnny “G. Whiz” Marco at a music store jam session. The two bonded over a shared appreciation of ’80s movies like La Bamba, Great Balls of Fire and Back to the Future — their name came from a Lea Thompson line in the latter film.

After years of playing in their home country and occasionally touring Europe, the band received a life-changing invitation to perform in Palm Springs in 2017. They played the kickoff party for Modernism Week, a celebration of architecture that annually attracts crowds of up to 50,000. It went over so well that they were asked back the following year.

“They said, ‘We’ve never booked the same band twice in all the years we’ve had this festival,’” Hummel recalled. “So we ripped the place up again, and we gained this staple reputation. Then we did this other thing called Camp, and had more of a response in two weeks than we did for six years back in Mississauga.”

After the pandemic decimated live entertainment and reduced The Dreamboats to just Hummel and Marco, the two made a decision to relocate.

“We had a built-in crowd here,” Hummel said to explain the move to Coachella Valley. “There’s only so many places you can play in Canada … so much more of the vibe and demographic we’re going for is all here.”

That said, it wasn’t an easy journey.

“There was a lot of stress, tears and finances we had to work through,” Hummel said. “I’m thankful we did, because now we’ve got great momentum. We’re getting a lot of gigs, I have great support on the left and right-hand side of me, and people have really fallen into the place. I feel like we’re an unstoppable machine.”

That support comes from bass player Justin Zoltek, and lead guitarist Andy Alvarez, whose stage name is Andy Zappa. In a business where tribute acts often pay the bills for musicians who’d rather make their own music, The Dreamboats are the rare exception, Hummel insists.

“This isn’t just some whipped up thing, we’re a group of guys that’s on a mission,” he said. “We honor the ones that are still with us, we try to meet up with them and play their songs and also contribute to the people that influence us that are not with us anymore. We’re always trying to keep the vibe of ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll alive.”

Their lead guitarist’s frenetic fretwork adds a modern flourish to music — Andy Zappa can shred. Beyond that, every band member gets a spotlight vocal, even though Hummel is mostly the front man. It’s a nod to The Beatles, who were the first popular band of the British Invasion partly because everyone in it was personally endearing.

Overall, they tear into the music with both studied precision and good-time gusto.

“We honor the classic way it was delivered,” Hummel stressed. “No bells and whistles, nothing crazy. Real, raw guitar, no auto-tunes, no fancy effects. What you see is what you get when it comes to us. We’re doing our best to take that original, minimal approach and still try to blow your mind in the process with everything else in the show.”

The Dreamboats

When: Saturday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
Where: Stockbridge Theatre, 44 N. Main St., Derry
Tickets: $33 and up at pinkertonacademy.org

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/09/25

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

• Funny guys: In partnership with Reed’s North, Jody Sloane’s comedy showcase has Tony V and Ken Rogerson. Sloane calls her hometown series Happy Accident “because I literally am one. Born of peace, love, and questionable decision-making, I was conceived in 1967 during the Summer of Love — when everything was groovy, and plans were … well, optional.” Thursday, Sept. 25, 6:30 p.m., Warner Underground Comedy, Kearsarge Saint Ext., Warner, $25 at simpletix.com.

• Local crew: Those looking for an after work diversion should check out Paul Hodes & the Blue Buddha Band, led by the ex-Congressman. They exude raucous energy on “The Night I Met John Lennon,” which has a Neil Young & Crazy Horse vibe. “Swimming With Sharks” may be a nod to Hodes’ D.C. days. The show celebrates the band’s second album. Friday, Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m., Stark Brewing Co., 500 Commercial St., Manchester, starkbrewingcompany.com.

• Woods metal: Eleven bands on two stages, indoor and out, play at the all-day Dysfunction Junction festival, along with multiple vendors and craft beer in a bucolic setting, perfect for anyone looking to combine leaf peeping and heavy metal music. Performers include Cytokine, Bonginator, Conforza, The Summoned, Overtime and Taxicab Dismemberment. Under 12 free. Saturday, Sept. 27, noon, Henniker Brewing Co., 129 Centervale Road, Henniker, $10 at eventbrite.com.

• Idol music: Unlike some who used American Idol as a springboard to overnight success, David Cook had toiled in the Midwest rock scene for a decade before the show made him a big star. Since then, the singer’s had big albums and made his Broadway debut in 2018 in Kinky Boots. Cook has released a lot of singles over the past few years; the latest is July 2024’s “Dead Weight.” Sunday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $45 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Country bash: Local stars perform classic songs at The Grand Ole Opry Through the Years with Rob Azevedo, a free Walker Lecture Series event. The John Zevos & Friends Band backs Paul Driscoll as Hank Williams and 16-year-old Olivia Conway doing Trisha Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe,” along with tunes from Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and others. Wednesday, Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m., Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord, walkerlecture.org.

Concord underworld

Homegrown indie film Granite Orpheus premieres

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Watching Granite Orpheus is akin to stepping on board a time machine, but that wasn’t the plan when a group of upstart filmmakers and actors set to work over Concord’s long Market Days weekend in 2015. The movie, which has its official premiere Sept. 26, retells the star-crossed lovers’ tragedy amidst the milieu of the Capital City.

Ongoing construction along Main Street juxtaposed with the annual three-day street fair and music festival gave Rick Broussard the idea for the project. He and John Hession run Resurrection Films, a company focused on energizing New Hampshire’s film community. The two began building a script and recruiting actors.

“Downtown was in this kind of weird upheaval; half the street was in construction, the other half was basically complete,” Broussard recalled. “It seemed like a transitional moment, and it reminded me of a movie I’d seen in my college days — when I was pretending to go to college — called Black Orpheus. It’s this classic Greek myth set in Rio during Carnival.”

With Bryan Halperin and Gina Carballo cast as Orpheus and Eurydice, and a motorcycle-riding Yarrow Farnsworth as Hades, they filmed what Halperin called “a love letter to Concord,” with shots of Bicentennial Square, the Train Yard, Pitchfork Records and other landmarks.

In a scene that opens Granite Orpheus, the beloved but now defunct Pat & the Hats play in Penuche’s basement.

“One of those little local miracle bands,” Broussard said. “You just knew that they could do anything and go anywhere, but the limitations of fame and time and space don’t let everybody great become great; but they were a great band.” Their involvement was the spark for bringing Brian Coombes of Rocking Horse Studio on as the film’s Music Director.

The team wanted to use the downtown bar for a scene reminiscent of the Yardbirds’ appearance in the ’60s art film Blow Up. “It’s a very underworld kind of feeling,” he said. “Our Orpheus has to ascend the stairs out into Bicentennial Square, a beautiful plaza full of stonework, sculptures and such, and a fountain. And there’s a band playing out there.”

David Shore’s Trunk O’ Funk, one of a few annual event bands routinely at Market Days, was performing its set during the scene.

“We tried to get as many [festival performers] into the movie as we could because … this was Concord’s portal into Hades. Every place has a different one.”

An initial three-day filming schedule grew.

“We originally said we’ll just cut it off and work with what we got,” Broussard said. “But what we got was all these great additional talents like Bryan and everything that he brought to bear. Friends of John Hession’s who were talented musicians, had a motorcycle gang, and also had great attitudes … it was too big.”

The effort continued for another week.

“Nobody said no, so we just kept working on it,” Broussard said. A year later, they set about cleaning up the footage, hoping to feature it at the next Market Days. Around that time, life got in the way. He and Hession both “went through at least four personal familial crises, and a global pandemic.”

A decade later, they finally got back to work on Granite Orpheus. Early last May, a final scene was filmed at Red River Theatres. Halperin arrived with two pieces of good news: “I had saved the unique black shirt they’d given me years ago, and luckily, I haven’t changed too much in 10 years.”

The crew was further buoyed by the response to a casting call for extras.

“We got about 40 people from our little mailing list,” Broussard said. “Some of them were very talented, and wind up getting featured to a degree [in the Red River scene]. It was a connection of what we had done, and what we needed to get to pretty much the end of the movie.”

For Broussard, the delay was a blip.

“Ten years later was not really that long, particularly when you’re talking in classical Greek terms,” he said. The upcoming premiere will include a post-film discussion with the crew and actors. There will be more screenings of Granite Orpheus, including at Pembroke City Limits, date to be determined, and the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester.

He likens the project to Rocky, and not because he believes it’s Oscar-bound.

“It’s going to win by not getting knocked down, it’s not going to knock out everybody else,” he said, adding, “I am perfectly happy to show it to any audience and take their feedback and feel content that we did a great job.”

This faith guides Broussard and Hession’s film company, giving it a higher purpose.

“We need to seek art as desperately as Orpheus sought Eurydice, despite being doomed to crushing disappointments and failures almost every time,” Broussard said. “It’s for those brief glories, and I guess for the permanent illusion that we can all be artists in our lives and in our afterlives, that we carry on. Because it’s one of those myths that won’t die.”

Granite Orpheus

When: Friday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m.
Where: Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia
Tickets: $20 at etix.com

Flags from many countries

Multicultural Festival returns to Concord

There’s something for everyone at the 18th annual Concord Multicultural Festival happening on Sunday, Sept. 21, in Keach Park. That’s the core philosophy of the constantly evolving event. It was introduced as the Refugee Resettlement Program was altering the capital city’s demographics, according to the festival’s director.

“It was a way to introduce new cultures and our new neighbors to the community, and the best way to do that is through food, music and art — and Concord loves its festivals,” Jessica Livingston said by phone recently. “Now it’s about just celebrating the people who are here, whether you came recently or your family immigrated here many years ago.”

A high point of the celebration is a flag parade.

“Every year, we add on a couple more flags based on what’s requested, so we know what the diversity is,” Livingston continued. “We have flags from almost 80 different countries for this year, which means that we are extremely diverse here.”

It’s apparent in the entertainment. Percussive guitarist Senie Hunt came to Concord when he and his sister were adopted from war-torn Sierra Leone. He’s now in Nashville, but was so impressed by his first festival a few years ago that he’s returned since. Last year, he urged people to “come up and really see for themselves how vibrant the community can be.”

The wide and varied lineup continues with Anya Vaidya performing an ethnic Nepali dance, Afrobeats and hip-hop from Martin Toe, the soulful Nashua singer Ruby Shabazz, Roy Caceres doing Argentinian tango songs, a French-language set from the Linda Pouliot Quartet, Nusantara Kreasindo doing traditional Indonesian dance, among many others.

Barranquilla Flavor, a local group of dancers both young and adult, will perform several different styles of dance during the day, including traditional African, Afghan, Cumbia and hip-hop. The troupe is led by Sindy Chown, who is both co-chair and performance director for the festival. Chown will also do a salsa dance with her daughter, Soraya.

Chown and her daughter teach in Concord.

“She’s from Colombia, and her dance group is a diverse group of children, but anybody is welcome,” Livingston said. “They learn all kinds of different cultural dances, and they travel to other festivals in the region to perform, and it’s free for kids to participate, which is awesome.”

For many years the festival was held in front of the Statehouse. It moved to Keach Park after taking a year off due to the pandemic. Factoring into the decision was the challenge of downtown parking, and an awareness that “most of the new Americans live up on the Heights,” Livingston said, “That’s actually the most diverse neighborhood in the entire state.”

Getting people downtown from there was always difficult, she continued. “So we’re like, wait a minute, why are we down here? So we thought we should be at Keach Park, in the community, that is the most diverse. And a park is just a much better location to do a festival of this size and scope.”

Livingston has worked with the festival since 2013, something she said happened by accident. The previous organizers were organizing it one year, and she was working on a different event. “We were going to partner and host both of our events at the same time, to kind of bring in more people,” she said.

The following year, Livingston reached out to the festival’s team only to find out that they were bowing out.

“They were like, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to do it again, you can do it,’” she said. She tried availing other groups in the city, but soon learned that everyone wanted it to happen, “but nobody wanted to take the lead.”

Many were willing to help, and together they made it happen. Oddly, it was Livingston’s first Multicultural Festival, but she was hooked.

“I grew up here in Concord and was never really exposed to any other cultures,” she said. “I was a very sheltered New England girl.”

Seeing the festival come together flipped a switch, she continued.

“I just remember that day,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Is everything in place, is the DJ here, is the table set up?’ Then I stopped for a minute. There were hundreds of people there, and the vibe was just so beautiful. I just continued doing it … it kind of changed my career path.”

Concord Multicultural Festival
When: Sunday, Sept. 21, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: Keach Park, 20 Canterbury Road, Concord
More: concordnhmulticulturalfestival.org

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/09/18

Local music news & events

• Natural man: If he weren’t singing and playing guitar, fishing enthusiast Zak Trojano would “be out there cleaning a river,” he said a few years back. Instead, he’s making records like 2018’s acclaimed song cycle Wolf Trees while touring with Chris Smither, Jeffrey Foucault and Peter Mulvey. He’ll perform an early evening set at a restaurant/pub near his parents’ home in Contoocook. Thursday, Sept. 18, 5 p.m., The Local, 15 E. Main St., Warner, facebook.com/zaktrojano.

• Monster bash: An evening of guitar-driven rock and blues benefits Rockin’ 4 Vets, with Johnny A., Jon Butcher, Chris Anderson supplying the fretwork with high-kicking singer and harmonica player James Montgomery, who helped form the charity in 2015, leading the band. The raucous setlist will include songs from the Yardbirds, Johnny Winter, the Outlaws, Jimi Hendrix and others. Friday, Sept. 19, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $30 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Acoustic aces: Few bands have elevated the genre of bluegrass music like Alison Krauss & Union Station, still going strong more than 40 years after teenager Krauss and her fiddle began wowing audiences. Friday, Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m., BankNH Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, $50+, livenation.com.

• Lyrical lady: Along with writing country music hits, Lori McKenna has released several albums; her latest is 2023’s 1988. She earned a Grammy nomination for 2016’s The Bird and the Rifle, and a Songwriter of the Year prize from the Academy of Country Music in 2017. Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Tim McGraw and Little Big Town have all performed McKenna’s songs. Saturday, Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia, $54 and up at etix.com.

• Emerald shine: With the release of their 2024 album Odyssey, Celtic Thunder made a return to its roots, offering a slate of patriotic songs telling the story of the Irish state’s foundation in the early 20th century. “People are very passionate about that historical side to Ireland … it’s given us so much of our identity,” the group’s singer Emmet Cahill told the Hippo at the time. Sunday, Sept. 21, 7 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $64 and up at nashuacenterforthearts.

Granite State Comicon conquers downtown

22nd annual event continues its growth

The first Granite State Comicon, in 2003, was a modest affair that helped celebrate the recent opening of Double Midnight Comics.

“There hadn’t been a comic book show in Manchester in a while,” store owner Chris Proulx recalled recently, so he and his cohort decided to do one.

The one-day, one-room, no-celebrity comic book and gaming show turned out to be a big hit, and the event has experienced steady growth ever since. This year’s Granitecon, as it came to be known, is spread across the city, anchored by a slate of activities at DoubleTree by Hilton and the SNHU Arena. There’s even a Granitecon Lager, brewed by Great North Aleworks.

It begins with a preview night on Friday, Sept. 19, that includes Just Cos’ Wings, where cosplayers eat chicken wings and discuss their shared passion, and a D&D-themed show from local troupe Queen City Improv, both at the DoubleTree. Next is the 8-Bit Karaoke Bash, Granitecon’s official kickoff party, at nearby Shaskeen Pub.

The retro video game-themed title was chosen as a nod to the 40th anniversary of the Nintendo gaming console. The event is an annual fixture.

“People love karaoke, and it’s always a great turnout,” Proulx said. New to Granitecon this year is an afterparty at Harpoon Brewery, in the just-opened Queen City Center.

Among the big first full day events is an afternoon Q&A with voice actor Will Friedle to mark Batman Day, followed by an evening screening of 2000’s animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker at the Rex Theatre. It’s their second collaboration with the Rex. In 2024, the 40th anniversary of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was honored there.

Born in New Hampshire, TMNT is a part of every Granitecon. This year, there’s a gaming panel discussion about the next release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG with designers Kevin Siembieda and Sean Owen Roberson, along with comic book artists Steve Lavigne, Jim Lawson and Luis Delgado.

Another Granite State-centric event is a free one, a screening of Jumanji at dusk on Sept. 20 in Veterans Park. The event is sponsored by the City of Manchester.

“I had been in touch with the department of economic development, and they were like, ‘We’d like to sponsor something,’” Proulx said. “I replied, ‘It’s Jumanji’s 30th anniversary, and it was filmed here.’”

One of the things Proulx is looking forward to is Big Dumb Robot Con, where robot builders have the chance to show off their movie-themed work. “This is the second year, and we’re giving these guys some room,” he said of the SNHU Arena meetup. “They love to build robots and talk to people about how they build their robots.”

There’s now an educational component to Granitecon. It includes panels on topics like working in game publishing (Sunday, Sept. 21, noon), the process of creating a graphic novel (Saturday, Sept. 20, 2 p.m.) and a forum that covers how to bring gaming to novels (Saturday, 11 a.m.). The idea came from Doug Shute, founder of Victory Condition Gaming.

“He brings in all kinds of different developers,” Proulx said. “Whether it’s role-playing games or board games … they want to share their expertise, and he’s built that up to taking over half the ballroom at the hotel. We’re trying to figure out how to continue to grow that.”

Far from its humble beginnings, Granite State Comicon is an event that now attracts guests from around the world.

“When we first started, we’d have been excited if somebody came from New York,” Proulx said. “Now, there are people coming from Australia, Europe and South America…. That’s really cool.”

The ripple effect is filled hotel rooms, and folks coming from out of town who are looking for great places to dine. Proulx attributes a lot of this success to the event’s inclusive spirit.

“We don’t do any gatekeeping,” he boasts. “We’re like, ‘If you’re a fan of wrestling, if you’re a fan of video games, come on in.’ Everybody’s nerdy about something.”

Granite State Comicon

When: Friday, Sept. 19, from 3 to 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 20, and Sunday, Sept. 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Downtown Manchester, including DoubleTree by Hilton, SNHU Arena, Shaskeen Pub and Rex Theatre
Tickets: $20 to $125 at granitecon.com (day-of tickets sold at DoubleTree by Hilton, 700 Elm St., Manchester)
Full schedule and more: granitecon.com

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