Author: Michael Witthaus

Mood Swing

Faith Ann Band refines sound, adds guitarist

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

In January, with some new songs done, but not enough for a studio album, the Faith Ann Band chose to put out their first live EP instead. Recorded at the Stone Church in Brattleboro, Vermont, it’s a blistering collection, a solid document of a hard-charging quartet hitting its stride, driven by feral frontwoman Faith Ann Mandravelis’s raw energy.

It kicks off with “Route 2,” its lead-in strum giving way to bashing and growling. With provocative lines like, “your breath on my neck is a whole kinda mood” — a studio version released in March ends with heavy metal vocal jousting — it captures the many vibes convincingly struck by the band on the live record.

There’s a proto-metal cover on Live at VT Stone Church: “The Wizard,” from Black Sabbath’s 1970 debut. The show was on Good Friday 2024, and while the song’s selection wasn’t intentional, one audience member noticed. Faith Ann said in a recent phone interview that included bassist Nate Sanel and drummer Nick Johnson, “This guy rushed right up to us right after we played it. He was like, ‘Black Sabbath on a Good Friday in a church — that’s so metal!’”

A show at Manchester’s Shaskeen Pub on Friday, May 30, will give New Hampshire fans a chance to hear where the band is landing these days — a more collaborative creative process that will be displayed on Say Less, the upcoming follow-up to 2022’s In Bloom.

“It’s definitely a different sound … a bit more poppy, more driving, maybe a little more funky,” Nate Sanel said. “With a different band and a different lineup. Faith is still writing the lyrics and the songs, but now there are three different people contributing overall — and we have a different producer on this album, too.”

Faith Ann said her songwriting these days was removed from the take-no-prisoners stance on In Bloom. Lyrically, that LP was an immediate, often visceral response to leaving corporate life and other complications. At the time, she called it a healing journey and talked about stepping out of the shadows from a toxic relationship.

That’s changed.

“I’m trying to be more whimsical,” she said, adding that the group’s new dynamic is a contributing factor. “Although I’m still bringing songs that I’ve thought of, the band is taking up space now; that’s a cool thing. [Also], we’re concentrating more on the performance, getting people dancing and invested into the set.”

The Shaskeen show will feature the newest member of the group, Eric Shea on lead guitar. While not exactly the same as Spinal Tap’s drum chair, the Faith Ann Band has had its fair share of guitarists over the years. “We’ve talked about that a lot,” Faith Ann agreed. Lately, they’ve carried on as a trio, and are looking forward to the extra power Shea will add.

Sharing the stage in Manchester is Andrew North & the Rangers. Faith Ann admired the Concord band’s efforts to support its local scene, like the monthly open mic it hosts at BNH Stage. “You’re getting the passion and the talent … they’re trying to push it,” she said. “When I think about who’s going to put the effort in to bring a crowd, it’s a good choice; and it’s been a while since we’ve played with them.”

Between their leader’s frequent solo gigs and other shows that are set for the coming months, the group is keeping busy. At the end of June they’ll be on the main stage for this year’s Concord Market Days. They’re also booked for Troutstock 2025 in Montague, Mass., July 25-27, and the Barefoot Festival in Greenfield on Aug. 2.

On June 22 they’re leading an all-day Summer Kick-Off at Auburn Pitts, a show Faith Ann organized.

“Some people just want a day of it, and they don’t want to be committing their whole weekend,” she said of the event, which also has Glitter Tooth, The Whole Loaf, Tumbletoads and Jesse Rutstein. “I’m trying to bring more of the day-fest vibes to the Manchester area, because it’s a bumping city.”

Faith Ann Band w/ Andrew North & the Rangers

When: Friday, May 30, 8 p.m.
Where: Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester
Tickets: $20 at eventbrite.com

Featured photo. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/05/29

Local music news & events

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

• Shedheads: There must be something about the Lakes Region that Zac Brown Band loves. They’ve played the al fresco venue there since it was named after a phone company, and keep coming back, even if they have a show at Fenway Park. Their latest record is No Wake Zone, which includes “Pirates & Parrots,” a duet with Jimmy Buffett’s old bandmate Mac MacAnally. Thursday, May 29, 7 p.m., BankNH Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford, $69 and up at livenation.com.

• Jamtastic: Named after a late ’90s song by ska punk band Catch 22, Supernothing has a percolating rock reggae sound that’s perfect for the board shorts and sandals of the coming season. Last week, the Concord band dropped a new single called “Summer Soul,” a smooth wave-y jam with an infectious chorus featuring Kurdistan-born singer-songwriter B. Positive. Friday, May 30, 6:30 p.m., Henniker Brewing Co., 129 Centervale Road, Henniker. More at supernothing603.com.

• Brotherly: Given that Liam and Noel Gallagher doing an American tour is unlikely, the Oasis tribute SuperSonic will have to suffice. After all, a lot of English pounds have already been wagered on the two fractious siblings brawling before their English reunion run gets to Wembley. So enjoy “Wonderwall,” “Champagne Supernova” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger” here instead. Saturday, May 31, 7:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $35 at palacetheatre.org.

• Bobness: Her 2017 album Songs of Bob Dylan showed Joan Osborne to be a solid interpreter of his catalog. This year, she revisited it with Dylanology Live, supported by Amy Helm, Robert Randolph and Jackie Greene on “Masters of War,” “Buckets of Rain” and other songs. For an area show, Cindy Cashdollar, Nicki Bluhm and Gail Ann Dorsey will perform with her. Sunday, June 1, 7 p.m., Chubb Theatre at CCANH, 44 S. Main St., Concord, $53 and up at ccahn.com.

• Folkified: On songs like “Tom’s Diner,” “Frank and Eva” and the poignant ode to 9/11 “Anniversary,” Suzanne Vega is a vital chronicler and erudite ambassador to her New York City home. She’ll play those songs, along with her timeless hit “Luka,” and others that reveal what one critic called her “clinically poetic eye” during a show at a venue she helped open back in 2023. Wednesday, June 4, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $54 and up at etix.com.

Make a thing

See and learn at 2025 MakeIt Fest

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

An upcoming free event in Nashua will showcase creations from a group of dedicated tinkerers, DIY-ers and crafters. However, the 2025 MakeIt Fest isn’t just about buying hand-thrown pottery or admiring contraptions like the kinetic vehicles that will be on display. Although who doesn’t want to see two people power a giant lobster?

“Craft fairs and flea markets, things of that nature, are typically about showing people what exhibitors have done, and what you can buy,” MakeIt Fest organizer Bradley Goodman said recently. “We’re an organization of artists and engineers and mad scientists … and that’s a lifelong thing.”

Thus, the event’s aim is that folks don’t just marvel but are inspired to get involved. “The goal,” Goodman said, “is to show off what you can do, not what we have done.”

That could mean learning a skill like woodworking or even changing a car’s oil. Someone with a particular talent might consider teaching at event sponsor MakeIt Labs, or somewhere else. Representatives from makerspaces in Manchester, Claremont and Lowell, Mass., will be on hand, along with robotics nerds and the team behind the self-propelled lobster.

Though memberships are limited to adults, MakeIt Labs does outreach, like working with the local First Robotics team; members will have a booth at the festival.

“Even though our members have to be 18 and up, we have high school kids that come and use us as a workshop,” Goodman said. “We also support organizations for things like Eagle Scout projects, and we’ve done stuff for Boys & Girls Clubs.”

To that end, “we’re also going to have a lot of other age-appropriate stuff” at the festival,” he said. “Everything from static displays to arts and crafts, like making a little soaps and cosmetics, to hands-on screen printing, where people can get their names engraved on little metal keychains … interactive things not just for adults … it’s definitely a wide age range.”

MakeIt Labs first opened in Worcester, Mass., then moved to Lowell and then Nashua. Goodman got involved after reading a news article that described Nashua officials showing up at the organization’s first building to shut it down due to safety issues, but eventually finding money in the city’s budget to bring it up to code.

“I’m looking at it and thinking, wow, this is pretty interesting,” he recalled, adding he received his first membership as a Christmas gift. “I started going knowing very little about what they actually did, just taking some classes on some new things. That’s the first time I ever saw or used a 3D printer or a laser cutter. I just started one by one taking classes and learning things. That’s how I became involved, and that was about 14 years ago.”

Among the engaging activities at MakeIt Fest is the Sumo Robot Competition. Anyone who had a Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots game as a kid will recognize the concept, but this is much more high-tech. Robotics enthusiasts can bring their own entries, but attendees also have an opportunity to program one themselves.

There’s the MakeIt A Thing contest, which Goodman explained is limited solely to one’s imagination. “If you’ve made it, you think it’s cool and want to show it off, and if you think other people are going to look at it and say hey that’s really cool … then it’s probably something you should bring in and enter,” he said.

“A neat thing about MakeIt Labs and other makerspaces is they’re a very multimedia type of organization,” he continued. “Whether it’s fabric, sewing, textiles, pottery, metal, wood, 3D printed stuff … every type of technique and media you can think of is game for the type of things that people create. Electronics, music, sound, whatever it is.”

Additional attractions include the Caddy Couch, a battery-powered “cozy-cruising-creation” built at MakeIt Labs, an old-school demo on worldwide radio communications from the MakeIt Labs’ Ham Radio club, along with workshops, hands-on classes and guided tours of the facility.

MakeIt Fest isn’t a fundraiser, Goodman stressed.

“It’s something we are doing for the sole purpose of raising awareness about what we do and what other makerspaces, clubs and maker organizations do. We want to say hey, this is the kind of thing you should get involved with if it fancies you.”

MakeIt Fest

When: Saturday, May 31, noon to 5 p.m.
Where: 25 Crown St., Nashua
More: makeitfest.com

Featured photo: Jonathan Vail, resource manager of the electronics department at MakeIt Labs, on the Lobster Roll Kinetic Vehicle.

Chicken Man

Comedy Coop comes to Kettlehead

Like the classic rock song, Joe Fenti has learned to roll with the changes. In 2019 he got his bachelor’s degree and started a consulting job that had him at client sites when he wasn’t in airports. Six months later he was living in Zoom world, as the world shut down, and, he said recently, “we were just trying to figure out what does our workday even look like?”

So he made it funny on social media, creating a fictitious company called Fenti Fried Chicken to skewer corporate life, its Patagonia-vested bros, and guys like Brandon the Intern who responds to demands for Excel reports with, “Sure thing, is Excel the green one?”

It was a pivot from Fenti’s college days, when he thought memes were the best path to comedy success.

“I noticed that the joke wasn’t about something, the joke just became what the joke is. It would be a reference to something that no one had ever heard of but if you got it you knew what it was,” he said. “Humor evolves.”

Fenti’s quick-hit reels built his profile, as did his takes on other topics. His pitch-perfect “Yes, Chef!” impression of The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White got 12 million hits. As the world opened back up, though, he moved from content creation to stand-up comedy. Three years later he’s doing it full time and preparing his first national tour.

His online disposition is still on display, but he’s not trying to translate his TikTok and Instagram humor for a crowd.

“The jokes you can make on stage can be a little more fleshed out, you can build … a story; on the internet you have to be very relatable very fast,” he said. “To work it has to be, ‘Who would I send this to?’ or ‘Who is someone I think of when I see this video?’ With stand-up, I can … bring you into my life rather than trying to make stuff for everyone.”

He’ll still touch on life in the business world.

“Return to office or hybrid work culture, there’s always something for me to riff on because I did experience that,” he said. “But now it’s more like, ‘Here are things that have happened to me … things I’m noticing about being a 28-year-old guy now living with my girlfriend for the first time.”

With hundreds of clips, his online life does pop up. He’ll talk about being recognized as a web celebrity, noting that men often can’t say why his face is familiar. “I’m a stand-up comic,” he’ll explain, only to hear in reply that’s not it, nor is his content. So he’ll say something like, maybe you know me from my job as an actor — in court-ordered training videos.

Building on his stand-up success, Fenti began booking shows under the name Comedy Coop, chosen to reflect his Fenti Fried Chicken social media handle. He’ll be at Kettlehead Brewing in Nashua on May 22, celebrating the opening of Za Dude Pizza there, along with Boston Comedy Fest winner Liam McGurk, Troy Burditt, Ryan Ellington and El Kennedy.

Fenti promises a well-balanced showcase.

“I try to book a lot of different comedians so you’re not getting five Joe Fentis,” he said. “You’re getting someone who does one-liners, someone who does storytelling, someone who likes joking about parenthood or teaching or whatever. I’m trying to give a whole show.”

Fenti’s own comedy is inspired by absurdists like Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg. He has a recurring series of videos with him in sunglasses delivering his own jokes in Hedberg’s style that are hilarious. “If I’m ever in a room, and I don’t want people to talk to me, I pretend to be an elephant,” he says with the late comic’s deadpan delivery.

“I just love comics who do things that are a little weird and a little different,” Fenti continued, citing Demitri Martin and Bo Burnham as other guiding lights.

“People who can tell a story so smoothly and bring weird life moments to the stage,” he said. “I look to Mitch in so many ways. How he perceived the world, like an escalator is never broken, they just become stairs, that’s such a funny way to look at it [and] I try to bring that to a lot of the jokes I write now, and put them into my style. Which is still evolving; I’ve only been doing comedy almost three years. There’s always room to try new things and see what works.”

Joe Fenti w/ Liam McGurk, Troy Burditt, Ryan Ellington and El Kennedy
When: Thursday, May 22, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Kettlehead Brewing Co., 97 Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $20 at eventbrite.com

Featured photo. Joe Fenti. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/05/22

Local music news & events

• Fab Faux: Unlike many Beatles tribute acts, Studio Two sticks to John, Paul, George and Ringo’s rise to fame and all-too-brief touring years. It will feel like a black and white evening in a more innocent time as the group rolls through early hits like “Please Please Me,” “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Hard Day’s Night” wearing their trademark suits and boots — they’re among the best. Thursday, May 22, 8 p.m., Labelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry, $40 at labellewinery.com.

• Home town: The latest edition of the Locally Sourced showcase has Cozy Throne, a band that would have been right at home in the early ’70s NYC punk scene with front woman Amara Phelps evoking Patti Smith. They also have a fun grunge vibe going; fans of Garbage and Hole will love them. Baby Wah Wah, a student and adult music group led by area history teacher Eddie Phelps, will also perform. Friday, May 23, 8 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $15 at ccanh.com.

• Big sound: The Seacoast-based YellowHouse Blues Band packs a punch, with two female vocalists, a horn section and a pair of guitarists, along with a strong rhythm section and a well-traveled keyboard player. Their material ranges from the classics like Howlin’ Wolf to contemporary artists such as Tedeschi-Trucks and Larkin Poe. They also do a killer version of Steely Dan’s “Pretzel Logic.” Saturday, May 24, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $30 at tupelohall.com.

• Island music: When the weather gets warm, outdoor shows from area band Reggae Tones return. Check out the first of four this season at a favorite Nashua restaurant/bar, with the final one on the first day of autumn. The group draws from favorites like Bob Marley & the Wailers and Toots & the Maytals.Sunday, May 25, 4 p.m., Penuche’s Ale House, 4 Canal St., Nashua, reggaetonesband.com.

• Golden tone: There are classic country throwbacks, then there’s Melissa Carper. “One of the greatest classic golden era country singers and composers of this generation,” one critic wrote. On the title song from her latest release Borned In Ya, she name-checks everyone from Hank Williams to Lead Belly and Hazel Dickens on a track whose title was inspired by a Ralph Stanely quote. Monday, May 26, 7 p.m., The Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road, Exeter, $25 at thewordbarn.com.

Crafting the written word

Manchester market hosts author event

A collection of new books written by local authors isn’t something one expects to find in a crafts store, but the Manchester Craft Market is not typical. Along with titles like S.M. Stevens’ award-winning novel Beautiful and Terrible Things and a history of New Hampshire’s soda industry called Granite Fizz by Dennis Sasseville, the store also offers food, delicacies like artisan granola and charcuterie board meats. There’s even fresh sourdough bread for sale.

How does this explain the upcoming “Meet Our Local Authors” event, where writers will gather to discuss their many varied books?

“They’re creating something, and they’re local,” store owner Jessica Moores said in a recent phone interview. “A lot of their titles are based in New Hampshire. We have a few different guides for things to do in the area, that sort of thing. There are some history books…. It’s bringing all that local creativity to the written word.”

Moores opened the store in 2016 with a mission to sell only items made locally. She’s stayed true to it.

“I don’t let anyone bring in imported things or resell stuff. No antiques. All handmade in New England. They pay a membership fee to get a space in the store. They get their own section on our website. They can teach classes in our classroom. We have an online shopping group with close to 18,000 followers … lots of little perks and bonuses.”

Among the wares on offer are home décor products, clothing, jewelry, food items, arts and crafts, beauty products, crafting kits, greeting cards and stationery, pet items, toys and more. The store also features regular crafting classes and workshops led by its artisans and artists, like a recent Paint Your Jenga event.

Originally it was located in an empty storefront on the outside of the Mall of New Hampshire. By 2023 it had moved inside, a couple of doors down from Macy’s. It also evolved, from a humble shop to something that resembles Etsy on steroids, or at least a three-dimensional version of the online superstore that allows customers to touch the merchandise.

That aspect is reinforced on MCM’s website, which recreates the store so customers can virtually walk through it, stop to inspect things, and click to learn about vendors. In the case of the book section, located in a corner next to the register, it’s possible to find out about a title, glance at a few pages, and read the author’s biography.

“That was a big goal of mine to get done one day; that was a lot of work,” Moores said, adding that the effort was a blend of envisioning and delegating. “I can see what tech can do, and I’ll say to someone, ‘This is what I want’ and then connect with the right person to help me. I added logos and links … someone else did the actual footage.”

Most sellers have dedicated spots, but when Moores introduced her “Read Local” section last year around the holidays she took a different approach.

“The model of renting a space doesn’t work as well for someone who only has one or two things to offer,” she said. “So I kind of combined all of our authors into one area to give them a shared space so they didn’t have to worry about that.”

Authors participating in the event include Stevens and Sasseville, along with Karen Coulters, Stefanie Jolicoeur, Dawn Reno Langley, John Clayton, Darcy Cates, Marti Suerst, Connie Evans, Jennifer Hallock, Walker Hound, Emily Kordas, Ellen H. Reed, David Rouleau, Killarney Traynor and Jim Wilcox.

For Moores, one of the benefits of running the store is being able to read new writers when their wares arrive. She expects the Meet Our Local Authors event will include a few new titles.

“I come to know and appreciate them through the store,” she said, “There’s definitely a lot to choose from…. I get to check them all out and find something new all the time.”

The book corner is a relatively new initiative at the store. Moores is encouraged by the initial response.

“It’s growing,” she said. “We’re getting a lot of interest in new authors coming in to join us. So I think once it’s grown a little bit more it will be almost like your little bookshop in the mall.”

Meet Our Local Authors
When: Saturday, May 24, 11:30-1 p.m.
Where: Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of New Hampshire, 1500 S. Willow St., Manchester
More: manchestercraftmarket.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

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