Anyone searching for hope in the regional music scene will be heartened by No More Blue Tomorrows. The Nashua trio’s eponymous first album covers a bevy of bases, all of them well. The opening track, “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” pulses with power, recalling a young, hungry Green Day. It’s followed by the cowpunk rave-up “Lonely.”
This scorching one-two punch continues with a masterpiece of symphonic pop. “If You’re Around” is a lost-love power ballad that builds to a roaring crescendo recalling the Goo Goo Dolls’ ’90s hit “Iris.” With cello, violin and layered harmonies, the song improves with each listen.
Lead singer and principal lyricist Connor Coburn co-wrote it with Cameron Gilhooly, his former bandmate in Hunter. Coburn left the group, along with NMBT bass player Peter Davis, in 2019. The way it came to be is, to continue a theme, something of a funny story, Coburn explained in a recent phone interview.
“Me and Zak [Lombard, NMBT guitarist] started recording it at the studio one night, really late,” he said. “We’re drinking, smoking cigarettes. Peter was out partying somewhere, and he came back. It’s like two in the morning, and I say, ‘Hey, Peter, record your guitar parts, record your drum parts.’ We’re doing all this recording at three in the morning when we’re all kind of drunk, and it just works.”
The band’s moniker references a line from the David Lynch movie Inland Empire. Its cool sound is the main reason Coburn and his mates chose it, but also because picking a name can be harder than writing a song, and they were exhausted by the process. “It’s the worst part of being in a band,” he said, adding that maybe there is a bit more to it.
“If you want a deeper … fake explanation, it’s in a very dark scene in the movie, but it has kind of a positive sound to it. So it has this kind of duality…. I think our music kind of has that too. It’s a little dark and a little somber and a little edgy, but also kind of upbeat and fun.”
They do get playful, on “For Forever,” an Americana romp with honey-sweet pedal steel guitar that’s another of many album highlights. Another gem is “Real as a Heart Attack,” a country punk car chase of a song that draws from many of Coburn’s biggest inspirations.
“Whiskey Town is a big influence of mine, and Ryan Adams,” he said. “Rhett Miller, obviously Old 97s is a huge influence, but also old-school ’70s punk and ’80s punk. It’s a lot of different things, but we managed to bring it together.”
Many of the songs came out of Coburn leaving Hunter after five years with the NEMA-winning group. He and Davis quit on the same night.
“We were both feeling like we had outgrown the band in a sense,” he said. “It just kind of stopped working at a certain point. I needed to do my own thing and have a little bit more freedom.”
There aren’t any hard feelings, he continued; it was simply time to move on.
“We all still talk, there’s no animosity, but things had gotten kind of rocky at the end. I was like, yeah, I’m already writing songs with them and for them, I may as well just do this for myself with more creative leeway. Peter was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do that.’”
The first song completed in the wake of Hunter’s dissolution was “Chaperone,” which Coburn began while still in the band. “I wrote it in the van while we were on tour,” he said. “We had even started playing bits of it in shows. Me and Cam would sound check with it, play a verse or two. That was kind of the first song that really got me out of that band. … Musically, it signified a pretty big shift for me. It’s kind of a punky, anti-conformity song.”
NMBT first played live in mid-2021 and have gigged “relentlessly” all over New England. They have four area appearances to close out the month. They’re in Nashua at Penuche’s Aug. 17, San Francisco Kitchen Aug. 24 and Peddler’s Daughter on Aug. 25 — the latter is a release show, then Labelle Winery in Amherst on Aug. 31.
With an album finally out, they’re ready to take the next step and tour nationally, but for now will savor the achievement.
“We listened to the final mix [and] the whole time, we were like, holy crap, did we create this?” Coburn said. “It’s funny when it goes from the stage of a dive bar to a record that sounds really good and you’re really happy with.”
No More Blue Tomorrows When: Thursday, Aug. 17, 6 p.m. Where: Penuche’s, 4 Canal St., Nashua More: nomorebluetomorrows.com Album release show on Saturday, Aug. 25, 9:30 p.m., Peddler’s Daughter, 48 Main St., Nashua
Featured photo: No More Blue Tomorrows. Courtesy photo.
• Active rock: A triple bill in Concord is topped by Any Given Sin, a Maryland quartet that can’t be pegged down to any single rock genre, though “Dynamite,” the track that helped them on SiriusXM’s Octane Test Drive a while back, lines up with any Motley Crüe power ballad. They’re joined by Alabama alt rockers Shallow Side. Thursday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m., Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $23.75 at ccanh.com.
• Alfresco country: Since debuting with the 2002 heartstring-tugger “The Impossible,” Joe Nichols has steadily topped the country charts.” His latest album, Good Day for Living is highlighted by a title track celebrating life’s small pleasures. He performs at a driving range that’s also a music venue; local musician April Cushman opens. Friday, Aug. 18, 7 p.m., The Range, 96 Old Turnpike Road, Mason, $48 and up at etix.com.
• Twang ’n’ roll: Before finding their cowpunk form, the Supersuckers followed the lead of the Ramones and Stooges; 30 years on, sole founding member Eddie Spaghetti is nostalgic, and the title cut of the new Play That Rock N’ Roll name checks some of his punk and metal inspirations. The rest of the disc celebrates fast living, loose morals and hard partying with irreverence and bashing bravado. Saturday, Aug. 19, 8 pm., Jewel Music Venue 61 Canal St., Manchester, $15 and up at eventbrite.com.
• Americana master: In the early 1990s Mary Chapin Carpenter’s star rose on country radio, but un-Nashville songs like “This Shirt” and “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” soon found her in a niche occupied by rootsier artists like Shawn Colvin and Marc Cohn. Her latest, One Night Lonely (Live), got a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Brandy Clark opens her area show. Sunday, Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $73 and up at ticketmaster.com.
• Downunderful: Named after their small Australian hometown, Seaforth is the duo of lifelong friends Tom Jordan and Mitch Thompson, now in Nashville. Their love of country music was inspired by fellow Aussie Keith Urban, whom they jokingly call “Uncle Keith.” Songs like “Good Beer,” a collaboration with Jordan Davis, go down as easy as the brewing company sponsoring their area show. Monday, Aug. 21, 7 p.m., The Goat, 50 Old Granite St., Manchester. See weaareseaforth.com.
In terms of bang for buck, it’s hard to beat the upcoming Gov’t Mule show at Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion. It includes guitarist Warren Haynes leading his band through an opening set including familiar tracks and up to half a dozen songs from Peace… Like a River, their just released gem of an album. Without a break, they’ll morph into Pink Floyd, reviving Dark Side of the Mule with enough lasers and lights to transform the audience back to the 1970s.
Gov’t Mule is bringing back the show, first performed at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on Halloween 2008, to mark Dark Side of the Moon’s 50th anniversary. They aren’t playing the classic 1973 album from start to finish, though they’ll touch on a lot of it. Rather, they’ll draw from the entirety of Floyd’s catalog, from Meddle to The Wall.
On “Have a Cigar” drummer Matt Abts changes one lyric to, “Oh, by the way, which one’s the Mule?” In other words, this is a tribute, but stamped clearly by the band performing it.
“It’s a tough line to draw because we want to be very reverent and respectful of the original versions,” Warren Haynes said by phone recently. “At the same time, there’s no point in just copying it…. If we can’t do it our own way, then there’s really no reason to do it.”
Halloween cover shows are a Mule tradition. “We do some crazy theme and give ourselves permission to play somebody else’s music,” Haynes explained. But when fans began clamoring for a release of the Boston Floyd set, it surprised them a bit. “In the past, we’ve only done it once and never looked back.”
On this tour, Mule — Haynes, Abts, David Louis on keys and new bassist Kevin Scott — is joined by Jackie Greene on guitar and vocals and saxophone player Joe Holloway. Machan Taylor and Sophia Ramos on backing vocals add an authentic stamp. “Machan toured with Pink Floyd, and she was on the original live recording … that started this whole thing,” Haynes said.
As expected, the set list changes from night to night, though not as much as Gov’t Mule switches things up, with nuggets and familiar tracks.
“You’ll dig it if you’re not a hardcore Floyd fan, but if you are, you’ll dig it as well,” Haynes said. We’re trying to cover a lot of ground, especially the stuff that we connect with, that we feel we can capture and make our own thing.”
Led Zeppelin, in the form of Jason Bonham’s tribute to his father’s classic rock band, opens the packed night. For Haynes, the combined Zep/Floyd punch is a lot of fun. “His band is great, let’s start with that,” he said. “They came to Island Exodus, the Jamaica destination event that we do every January. Jason and I, and Jason and Gov’t Mule, have played together in the past. When it got brought up, everybody seemed to think that from a fan perspective it would be fantastic.”
Tucked between the classic rock songs is some of the band’s best work in years. During the pandemic Haynes experienced a creative tsunami that produced two albums, the Grammy-nominated Heavy Load Blues and Peace… Like A River. Both were done at the same time in late 2021 at Power Station New England. A big room was set up for the new songs, and a smaller studio was equipped with vintage gear for making blues.
“We didn’t wear headphones; I was just singing through a small monitor like we [were] in a little club or something,” Haynes said of the setting for Heavy Load. “We would go in around noon and work on Peace… Like A River till about 9 p.m., then take a dinner break and then move next door and play blues the rest of the night.”
Songs like “Made My Peace,” “Same As It Ever Was” and “Peace I Need” are reflective, brimming with the sense that it was a crossroads moment of sorts for Haynes. On the other hand, there’s hope on the gospel-tinged “Just Across the River,” which has Celisse guesting, and “Dreaming Out Loud,” with co-lead vocals from Haynes, Ruthie Foster and Ivan Neville. The latter includes samples John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other inspirational leaders.
“I love the way that turned out,” Haynes said. “It made sense to have different voices singing these different quotes.”
He added that lyrically there’s a balance leaning toward better days. “I didn’t want to go into some dark place that I’d be uncomfortable confronting years down the line. I wanted to think of it more like an awakening … moving forward, getting past the challenges,” Haynes said. “A lot of the songs are written about the search for inner peace and awakenings and reckonings within yourself. Some of it is very universal and a lot of it even has a positive message. But it’s more about coming to terms with how to move forward when things are a bit dire, you know?”
Gov’t Mule w/ Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening When: Thursday, Aug. 17, 7 p.m. Where: Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford Tickets: $25 and up at livenation.com
Featured photo: Gov’t Mule. Photo by David Simchock.
• Treble effort: There’s history and the occasional “Blue Rondo a La Turk” in Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play. It’s not just that the trio’s leader is the son of an iconic figure in the jazz world. Bass and pianist Brubeck and harmonica player/guitarist Peter Madcat Ruth have played together since 1969. Guitarist Joel Brown was in Crofut & Brubeck starting in the mid-’90s, with the three coming together in 1999. Thursday, Aug. 10, 7 p.m., Sawyer Center Theater, 37 Academy Quad, New London, $25 at summermusicassociates.org.
• The champions: More than a few singalongs will happen when Kings of Queen take the stage for a two-night Lakes Region stand. Front man Emo Alaeddin is a Freddie Mercury look- and sound-alike on “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio Gaga” and other hits. Thursday, Aug. 10, and Friday, Aug. 11, 8 p.m., Lakeport Opera House, 781 Union Ave., Laconia, $40 and up at etix.com.
• Funny man: Before gaining fame as an actor, Kevin Pollak was a standup comic. Pollak’s act was packed with spot-on impressions; his Peter Falk as Colombo was particularly brilliant, as were his Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy. Then came The Usual Suspects and A Few Good Men, . Lately, he was in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as Moishe Maisel, winning two Emmys on the hit show. Saturday, Aug. 12, 7:30 pm., Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester, $59 and up at palacetheatre.org.
• Swing kings: After three decades as a band, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is still performing with its original core lineup. The Ventura, California, group shot to stardom with an appearance in the mid-’90s movie Swingers. They continue to tour relentlessly, offering an energetic and rousing mix of jazz, swing, and Dixieland. Sunday, Aug. 13, 7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $45 at tupelohall.com.
• Dynamic duo: Another free outdoor show has Cold Chocolate, the pairing of Ethan Robbins on vocals and strings along with percussionist, banjo player and singer Ariel Bernstein. The Boston-based band are critical darlings; Simon Waxman of the Boston Review raved that their music “sounds softer than the dew on the mountainside, harder than a Harley pushing back red dust, sweeter than true love.” Tuesday, Aug. 15, 6:30 p.m., Angela Robinson Bandstand, Community Park (Main Street), Henniker; more at henniker.org.
Michael Witthaus checks in with comedians and bookers about the state of the local comedy scene and looks at some upcoming shows
Comedy catch-up: Jimmy Dunn’s Beach Party
What began 14 years ago as a backyard barbecue for fellow comics at Jimmy Dunn’s beach house that ended with a show has now stretched out to five nights and become a midsummer fixture on the sandy shore. But the Hampton Beach Comedy Festival, beginning Wednesday, Aug. 16 at McGuirk’s Ocean View, has remained true to its origins. It’s a party first, with admission contingent on making the host laugh.
“It’s my real comedy friends,” Dunn said by phone recently. “I’ve been working with them forever, and the show almost becomes secondary. We just have so much fun up here at the house … we hang out, then go down there and have a blast.”
Dunn has thought about letting fans eavesdrop on the offstage action, but it hasn’t happened. “I pitched it; I made a demo of it as a cartoon, trying to film our poker game,” he said. “But when you threaten to do that, a lot of the guys dummy up. They don’t want people hearing the real stuff that we’re saying.”
The gang ventures out for fried dough on the boardwalk; kayaking and surfing are popular as well. Given the prevalence of rip currents and other ocean dangers, Dunn does a safety check first. “Every time anybody gets to the house, before I take them in the water, I go, all right, what’s your swim level? Let’s see what we’re dealing with — how many life jackets I gotta put on you?”
That said, the wake of a storm is a magnet for Dunn and his daredevil buddies. One year he and Mark Riley hit the water after a coastal hurricane. “We went off the north beach, rode into a monster wave, and then we flipped; it was so big that people on the beach called the cops,” he said. “I heard from one of my cop buddies later, he said, ‘We got a call that two idiots were out in a kayak.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that was us.’”
Riley is back for this year’s festival, so the Coast Guard should be advised. Opening night has Harrison Stebbins, whose credits include Comedy Central and Dave Attel’s Insomniac Tour. He’s joined by Carolyn Plummer, who last year did her first Comics Come Home benefit at Boston’s TD Garden. Kelly MacFarland, Jimmy Cash and Ryan Gartley round things out, plus Dunn and Dave Rattigan, who are at all five shows.
Thursday includes Jim Colliton, who has a new Dry Bar Comedy special, and Mike Donovan, a Boston mainstay and published author. Dunn is looking forward to Friday’s show, which is a multigenerational affair.
“Tony V’s son Gus has turned into a great comedian,” he said. The young comic spent last winter in Southern California, working with Dunn on a television project that he’s not allowed to discuss due to the current actors and writers strikes.
“Everybody in L.A. is getting shut down and it’s tough,” he said. Dunn is in both guilds. “I support them a ton. Whatever they’re doing, they need to be paid fairly. I feel badly for professional actors and TV writers … they’re fighting for their livelihoods. I do what I can to support them. I am very lucky that I got to go back to stand-up comedy when those doors got closed out there.”
Dunn cautioned comedy fans about actors who might decide to jump into his livelihood to make ends meet.
“This is going to draw a lot of people who aren’t stand-up comics out to the comedy rooms, so buyer beware,” he said. “People that are funny on a show have writers. Standup is a different thing, man. You gotta be out doing it all the time. Anybody with a little bit of background can make the show look good, but do your homework before you go spend an evening with a comedian you never heard of.”
He points to a few comics that embody his ideal.
“Every time you see Gary Gulman, you’re going to see a whole new hour. Bob Marley’s got an unparalleled work ethic. He makes it look so easy on stage, but he works harder than anybody I know. I was talking to Juston McKinney a few weeks back, same deal. These are guys that every time you see them it’s a new thing.”
To that end, Dunn has some new material.
“My uncle used to be a bookie. That’s how I learned to gamble at a young age. But now you can bet pretty much anywhere legally. So one of my favorite new bits explores those two different worlds and what Uncle Sully would see if he walked into Draft Kings today. He ran his book out of a sandwich shop in Beverly. Guys would come in and buy a cheese steak and then give him $609. I’d be sitting there going, ‘I think he overpaid you, Uncle Sully.’”
While in California, Dunn encountered another new normal, the many marijuana stores that are now open. He’s less focused on weed’s new ubiquity than on whoever’s in charge of branding. “I will not do business with anyone that uses a ‘Z’ as a plural,” he said. “That means that someone already beat them to the S, and they’re hacks. Hair salons do it all the time. Now all the weed places have a Z as a plural too. It seems like every weed pun has been written, trademarked and put on a sign. I know they think it’s funny because they’re high, but these are bad puns.”
Hampton Beach Comedy Festival When: Wednesday, Aug. 16, through Sunday, Aug. 20, 8 p.m. Where: McGuirk’s Ocean View Hotel, 95 Ocean Boulevard, Hampton Beach Tickets: $20 per show at eventbrite.com Lineup: Aug. 16 Carolyn Plummer, Kelly MacFarland, Jimmy Cash, Ryan Gartley, Harrison Stebbins; Aug. 17 Mike Donovan, James Dorsey, Ken Rogerson, Paul Nardizzi, Jim Colliton; Aug. 18 Tony V, Gus V, Steve Scarfo, Jason Merrill, Tony Moschetto; Aug. 19 Karen Morgan, Will Noonan, Casey Crawford, Dan Miller, Chris Zito; Aug. 20 Andrew Della Volpe, Mitch Stinson, Mark Riley, Steve Bjork, Dan Crohn. Jimmy Dunn and Dave Rattigan appear all nights.
Female forward: Mother of a Comedy Show
Kerri Louise. Courtesy photo.
Like the Hampton Beach Comedy Festival, camaraderie is the guiding force for three women performing Mother of a Comedy Show, an occasional event happening Friday, Aug.18, at Nashua Center for the Arts and Saturday, Sept. 23, at Laconia’s Colonial Theatre. Its slate of standups ― Kelly MacFarland, Kerri Louise and Christine Hurley ― have equal star power; each is a headliner.
For the shows, MacFarland opens and Hurley closes, which suits Kerri Louise just fine.
“The middle spot is the sweet spot,” Louise said by phone recently. “Everybody’s warmed up, no one’s coming in late, they’re all set up. I hit it out of the park and then go home … they’ve laughed for a whole hour nonstop and then Christine goes up, but she kills it. We’ve done it for so many years now and it’s just like clockwork.”
The fully female lineup is unique in the comedy world, she continued. “Usually, you don’t ever work with other women. I’m always the one woman on the show, the token woman, and when I get to go and work with these girls, it is so fun. We just bring energy and excitement; we’re like little kids.”
Audiences do tend to be more female. “It depends on the market and what time of year we’re in,” Kerri Louise said. “In September, it’s mostly women. The kids get back in school, they’re out and about and they can come to shows.” Jokes lean in that direction as well; one of Kerri Louise’s best deals with something she calls a “period bump” being confused with early pregnancy.
The three don’t need a target audience for their material to land, though. There’s a frustratingly enduring notion that female comics aren’t as funny as men, but it’s more self-fulfilling prophecy than anything supported by data. In Kerri Louise’s view, the situation is improving, but the battle is far from over.
“We’re getting better, but we’re not past it,” she said. “I think there’s just not enough of us and that’s why. Bookers usually are men and they’re afraid to headline women because they feel the numbers aren’t going to be there, but men are so dumb. Women decide what they’re doing for the weekend, and they tell their husbands. ‘We’re going to go to a comedy show.’ Why not headline a woman?”
The success of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon’s popular show about a housewife stumbling into standup, may have a halo effect, she agreed, but she offered a caveat. “They can’t be it if they can’t see it, so I think it helped for younger women to glorify being a comedian,” she said. “I love the show. I love the outfits. I love the ’50s. Here’s what I didn’t like about it ― it’s not easy. They make it look that way; I mean, she was a mother.”
Her husband is also a comedian. She and Tom Cotter have three sons, including a set of twins. One night she told a crowd that her twins were outside in the car while she did her set. “The reason why that’s a joke is it was true,” she said. “I didn’t have time to drop my kids off because I was in major traffic…. I did have someone in the car watching them, but I ran up on stage and I’m like, ‘Hey, how are you? I have twins in the car,’ and it got a huge laugh. I use it all the time, and now they’re 21.”
Another time, she played Atlantic City for a week. Through the casino she was working at, she hired an overpriced babysitter, who was unavailable at the last minute. “Then they got this crack addict,” she said. The show is minutes from starting and she’s telling her new care provider to please leave her sons in the bathroom in their pack-and-play for the 15 minutes she needs to open. She comes back and the kids are up and jumping on the bed, watching a movie that the babysitter has purchased.
Here’s the problem: Kerri Louise has another set to do, and for the moment this ne’er-do-well is her sole child care option.
“The only saving grace is I’m in a casino and there are cameras everywhere,” she continues. “I ran downstairs, and I said to the security guy, ‘If a woman comes with two babies, they are mine, stop her.’ I don’t know how I got through my set. I just put it on autopilot, ran back and said, ‘You’re fired.’ It wasn’t even her fault but whatever. I called the agency and then the next day I had to look for another babysitter situation. So that’s my real Marvelous Mrs. Maisel story.”
Booker report: Big rooms are back (mostly)
Lenny Clarke. Courtesy photo.
Beginning with booking a 1989 Lenny Clarke show in the back room of a Nashua gym, Jim Roach has been a force in New England’s comedy scene. His involvement began earlier; Roach worked a Henny Youngman show in 1984. He’s had a hand in appearances including George Carlin, Jay Leno, Sam Kinison, Denis Leary and an early ’90s Jerry Seinfeld/Adam Sandler double bill in Lowell, Mass.
His “all-time best” night was comedy legend Don Rickles’ show at Manchester’s Palace Theatre in 2006, when Rickles, his musical director and his road manager — who had a similar job with Frank Sinatra — took him to dinner. The evening produced some great stories.
Roach still books comedy at the Palace, along with a long list of opera houses and showcase rooms in New Hampshire. He’s got upcoming shows at Nashua’s new Center for the Arts, the Capitol Center in Concord, the Lebanon Opera House and both Colonial Theatres, in Keene and Laconia.
So Jim Roach is a good person to take the pulse of professional comedy. A recent phone interview began at a familiar point, the transition from socially distanced events to something approaching normal: “Two summers ago, when the Colonial in Laconia opened up with Bob Marley, we did seven shows and we sold them all out. That was when we felt like, OK, we’re on the right side of this.”
Demand was met with an onslaught that included some subpar efforts.
“Everybody was doing comedy shows, little bars and little places,” Roach said. “Not all of it was great … people that weren’t ready to do even those small rooms were doing it, but it gave them stage time and that’s the most important thing for any comedian.”
Overall, Roach remains cautiously optimistic.
“It really has jumped up quite a bit,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re exactly back where we were before the pandemic where everybody’s feeling like coming out, but we’re very close and I think it’s going to continue to grow over the next couple of years.”
Time-worn patterns with his client comics Bob Marley, Juston McKinney and Jimmy Dunn haven’t fully returned. “I like to be on a calendar circuit; every November Marley is at the Capitol Center, every spring he’s at the Palace. Then we’ll usually do the spring in Keene and the fall in Lebanon,” Roach said. “We’re not back in the routine yet.”
On the other hand, he said, “There’s also a lot of rooms that took time to do work on the venues, like the Lebanon Opera House is in their second phase.” Keene added its Showroom, to complement midsize spots like Manchester’s Rex Theatre and Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord; Lebanon Opera House is reportedly working on a second room.
“It really does help; when you’re booking big national artists, agents love it when you can book their smaller acts,” Roach said. “I love working with a lot of young comics, and I’ve worked with a bunch of young kids recently.”
He names Kathy Ferris, Emily Ruskowski, Carolyn Cook and Kristy Kielbasinski as some of his recent favorites. The latter is a working mother of three who published her first children’s book in 2022.
“Nick Hoff is a national comedian, he was at the Rex for me, what a great kid. He’s on the road with his family, his wife and three kids. They’re touring the country trying to do as many states as possible this summer. What a cool thing — they’re experiencing America, he’s getting to work and they’re doing it together.”
Justin Hoff is another up and comer, a mid-30s comic Roach booked to open for Marley’s recent run of shows at Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury Beach, Mass.
“There’s a lot of good stuff coming out and there are so many tools now for comics to get their message out there,” he said.
Roach is also pleased with the response to the all-female, all-headliner Mother of a Comedy Show. “I love the Mothers, getting and putting that together with them and working with them closely on it,” he said. “However, I will tell you than when I go to the show, I can’t get a word in edgewise, because they’re all brilliant and extremely funny, and all they want to do is torture me.”
On balance, “I think comedy is in a good place right now,” Roach said, adding that a plethora of venues may be a double-edged sword, but it’s good that aspirants have time and space to experiment and learn.
“They need to figure out who they are on stage, what their particular brand of comedy is,” he said. “Listen, we’re all messed up … when you go on stage, you’re able to talk about stuff that’s real in your life. Maybe exaggerate it, build it up a little bit, but if you’re coming from a place of love in your heart and the craziness that’s in your life, people in the audience are going to get it, they’re going to understand it — because we’re all messed up.”
The fan: Alt comedy has a new producer
Geneva Gonzales. Courtesy photo.
When it debuted as Laugh Free or Die 15 years ago in the back room of Shaskeen Pub in Manchester, weekly standup was an open mic affair. When cofounder Nick Lavallee and Dave Carter took it over in 2013, it evolved into an alt comedy hub, with national performers like W. Kamau Bell, Kyle Kinane, Dan Soder and Emma Willmann often stopping by. Local comics like Jay Chanoine and Drew Dunn parlayed early open mic success at the Shaskeen onto bigger stages.
Geneva Gonzales began attending shows there around 2016 and quickly became a regular. As live comedy returned after the pandemic, Lavallee announced he was leaving his role as a comedy producer, along with Carter. A worried Gonzales begged him to not let shows end permanently. His response surprised her.
“He was like, ‘Why don’t you run it?’” she recalled while sitting outside the Shaskeen, where headliner Ryan Donahue and three other comics would perform later. “I was like, OK, I will.’” Her company, Ruby Room Comedy, produced its first show on Sept. 8, 2021, and has been operating steadily since.
It turned out that Gonzales was just getting started as a comedy producer.
Last year she was approached by Don’t Tell Comedy, a national effort that sponsors pop-up shows at mystery locations, to be its lead producer in New Hampshire. More recently she began running weekly comedy shows at BLEND.603, a Portsmouth art gallery. Her new goal is “balancing those three rooms and getting them to work together,” she said.
Gonzales sounds like a seasoned pro as she discusses luring comics from New York City with the promise of routing them to gigs in multiple rooms, but seven years ago she hadn’t even seen live standup.
“I just heard people at work talking about it, and I wanted to see a comedy show,” she said about venturing to the Shaskeen that first time. “I always loved SNL, Mad TV…. When I came to this one, the level of talent opened my eyes to a whole world that I went head over heels into.”
Among the shows Gonzales has booked at the Shaskeen are Eddie Pepitone, Mary Mack, Daniel Simonsen, Mo Mussa, Shaun Murphy, Jenny Zigrino and Andrew Della Volpe. Many have performed multiple times, and the Irish pub’s beloved back room hasn’t lost a step in the transition. It continues to offer a brand of national comedy unlike anywhere else in the region.
Most unique is Don’t Tell Comedy and its unconventional way of luring fans to shows. It’s reminiscent of the movie Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, where a couple search for a private location where a band named Where’s Fluffy is playing, but it’s a bit easier than that, Gonzales said.
The next one happens Friday, Aug. 11, an early and late show somewhere in Portsmouth ($25 at donttellcomedy.com), and the 21+ event is BYOB. “You buy a ticket, but you don’t know who the comics are until the day of show, when you get an email with the location. We’ve done the Bookery, the Currier, yoga studios, art spaces, usually places where you wouldn’t expect to have a comedy show, and it could be a huge comic from L.A. or a local guy.”
As far as her favorite comedians, Dunn and Chanoine are high on the list, but Gonzales is hesitant to name a top moment in her two years as a producer. It’s electricity that’s happened many times.
“When you get those loud moments of laughter, you feel the energy shift in a room of people that are enjoying themselves and letting themselves go,” she said. “There’s no control sometimes when you laugh and there’s that wave … that’s the best thing. I crave it; it’s dopamine for me.”
Gonzales tries to keep an open mind with her booking. She tries to offer enough variety to please everyone, not just herself. She does try to be inclusive. “As a Hispanic female in comedy it’s been really important to me to promote diversity in my shows,” she said. “In the past we’ve celebrated different cultures with shows that include all Hispanic and all Asian line-ups and I hope to do more in the future.”
She’s also part of a group that runs monthly mental health meetups. These are “conversations about the importance of maintaining mental health and supporting each other in the New England comedy community,” she said. “In past meetings we’ve had guest speakers from NAMI, and guided meditations.”
Through it all Gonzales is still the same fan who showed up at the Shaskeen back when looking for laughter.
“Honestly, I enjoy comedy,” she said. “I’m putting on shows that I want to see, but I try and make sure that I’m getting well-rounded talent. I may not find all of them funny, but I know other people will find them funny. Ultimately I want to put on a good show. As a fan, I have that perspective where I’m playing the politics that a comedian would need to play … then at the end of the day, I sit down and watch the show and I’m ready to laugh.”
Just a joke?: cancel or consequence
There’s a growing sentiment among fans and some purveyors of comedy that goes a bit like this: “Almost anything a comic says on stage these days might get them canceled.” Most comedians get it, though — the trick is don’t be more mean than funny.
Comedy veteran and national touring standup Steve Hofstetter, who will perform in October at Nashua’s Center for the Arts, has a formula for whether a bit has crossed the line. “Jokes need to be more than fifty-one percent funny than whatever else they are, or it’s not a joke,” he said. “If there’s a joke about race that is less than fifty-one percent funny, it’s not a joke at all, it’s just a racist thing…. If something is so funny that it eclipses the subject matter that a comic is talking about, that’s what makes it a joke. If something is a little bit funny, but overwhelmingly something else, then the funny of it doesn’t matter at all.”
Two of the comics interviewed for this story offered their takes on how far is too far.
Jimmy Dunn: “There are certain things that no matter who you are you’re not going to make it funny, but people will try to make it funny. The No. 1 rule is it must be funny. Look, people are not coming out to be challenged or for you to insult their sensibilities. They’re just coming out for a good time. My attitude is usually I can write a joke that would have a point and would piss half the audience off. I have no interest in doing that. My job is to make everybody laugh, have everybody leave and have a good time. I don’t want controversy. That’s not what I do. There’s some great comics that do that that I follow and some of my friends have made great livings being the ‘I can’t believe he said that’ guy, you know? Not what I want to do. I want the husband and wife to have a great time and have a couple of drinks. I want the guy who owns the club to hand me a big bag of money and say, ‘Thanks for coming in. We’ll see you next week.’”
Kerri Louise: “I do think there is a line, but mine is so far north it’s unbelievable. The line has come down so far where you can’t even talk about a black crayon and someone’s gonna be like, ‘Wait, that’s racist.’ That’s where I get so angry and sad for every comedian. It does make you work harder; it makes you think, but it shouldn’t. Years ago, there was a line. You’re not going to be mean but you’re going to make fun of what everybody else makes fun of. When you make fun of a stereotype, everybody can get the joke at the same time. If no one has that common knowledge, how can we make fun? We’re all making fun and having a good time, so relax. Kathy Griffin, I read her book, and she’s like, ‘Find your audience, because I know I’m not for everybody.’ It’s true. But what’s happening is people are seeking you out just to cancel you. I can only wish to be canceled; that means I’m popular. But no one’s canceled me right now, so I don’t have to worry about it.”
Steve Hofstetter, again: “I happen to think that cancel culture doesn’t exist. I cannot name a single comedian who has been canceled. I can name some who have been fired. I can name some who have been arrested. But anyone that someone holds up as a canceled icon, like Louis C.K.? He hosted SNL; that doesn’t sound canceled. Shane Gillis was canceled? No, he was fired from SNL. But now he’s playing venues twice the size that he was playing before that happened. There’s no one that’s gotten canceled, because the entertainment industry is direct to consumer these days. They determine whether or not you work. So the people who are worried about getting canceled or complaining that they’ve been canceled are either liars or people who don’t want to bother writing a new joke.”
Comedy shows
Chunky’s Cinema Pub in Manchester 707 Huse Road, Manchester; chunkys.com. Most shows start at 8:30 p.m. Ticket prices vary. Friday, Aug. 11 Lenny Clarke Saturday, Aug. 12 Harrison Stebbins Saturday, Aug. 19 Jody Sloane Saturday, Aug. 26 Phillip Anthony Saturday, Sept. 2 Tim McKeever Saturday, Sept. 9 Brad Mastrangelo Saturday, Sept. 16 Steve Bjork Saturday, Sept. 23 Chris D Saturday, Sept. 30 Kyle Crawford Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7 Greg Fitzsimmons Saturday, Oct. 14 Marty Caproni Saturday, Oct. 21 Pat Napoli Sat., Oct. 28 Harrison Stebbins
Don’t Tell Comedy Donttellcomedy.com. Shows are at locations and with comedians announced after you obtain tickets. Upcoming shows include Aug. 11, Aug. 19 and Aug. 25, with 7 and 9 p.m. shows in a Portsmouth location.
Palace Theatre 80 Hanover St., Manchester; palacetheatre.org Saturday, Aug. 12, 7:30 p.m., Kevin Pollak (in conjunction with the Manchester International Film Festival) Sunday, Sept. 17, 7 p.m. Colin & Brad: Scared Scriptless Saturday, Oct. 7, 5 and 8 p.m. Juston McKinney
Tupelo Music Hall 10 A St., Derry; tupelomusichall.com Saturday, Aug. 12, 8 p.m. Lenny Clarke Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m. Tupelo Night of Comedy: Tony V, Sean Sullivan and Dave Decker Saturday, Sept. 23, 8 p.m. Paula Poundstone Saturday, Oct. 7, 8 p.m. Tupelo Night of Comedy: Paul Gilligan, Paul Landwehr Thursday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m. Brad Mastrangelo, Steve Bjork and Kennedy Richard (NH Chiefs of Police Fundraiser)
Murphy’s Taproom, Manchester 494 Elm St., Manchester; scampscomedy.com/shows. Shows are Saturdays at 8 p.m. See website for tickets. Aug. 12 Janet McNamara Aug. 19 & Aug. 26 TBA Sept. 2 Dave Rattigan
Headliners Manchester At the DoubleTree Hilton Manchester (700 Elm St. in downtown Manchester); headlinersnh.com. Tickets cost $20. Saturday shows start at 8:30 p.m. Ticket sales at the door begin at 6 p.m. Aug. 12 Jody Sloane Aug. 19 Dan Crohn Aug. 26 Steve Bjork Sept. 2 Chris D Sept. 9 Amy Tee Sept. 16 Skip Daniels Sept. 23 Kyle Crawford Sept. 30 Cory Gee Oct. 7 Tim McKeever Oct. 14 Amy Tee Oct. 21 Brad Mastrangelo Oct. 28 James Dorsey
BLEND.603 Gallery 82 Fleet St., Portsmouth; blend603.com. Tickets start at $20. Saturday, Aug. 12, 8 p.m. Jason Cordova Friday, Aug.18, 8 p.m. Gary Petersen Saturday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m. BLEND.comedy TBA
Shaskeen Pub 909 Elm St. in Manchester; shaskeenirishpub.com. Comedy by Ruby Room Comedy, rubyroomcomedy.com. Find them on EventBrite for tickets to Wednesday, 9 p.m., shows. Tickets start at $10. Aug. 16 Ashton Womack Aug. 23 Matt Lopes Aug. 30 Jon Tillson
Colonial Theatre of Laconia 609 Main St., Laconia; coloniallaconia.com Thursday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m. Tony V, Steve Scarfo and Ryan Gartley (Franklin Animal Shelter Comedy Night) Saturday, Sept. 23, 8 p.m. Mother of a Comedy Show Thursday, Oct. 12, 8 p.m. Daniel Sloss Friday, Dec. 8, 7:30 p.m. Brad Upton
Nashua Center for the Arts 201 Main St., Nashua; nashuacenterforthearts.com, 800-657-8774. Friday, Aug. 18, 8 p.m. Mother of a Comedy Show Saturday, Oct. 7, 8 p.m. Steve Hofstetter Saturday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m., Chelcie Lynn
Rex Theatre 23 Amherst St., Manchester; palacetheatre.org. Most Friday Night at the Rex shows start at 7:30 p.m. and ticket prices are generally $25. Aug. 18 Al Park Sept. 15 Tony V. and Friends Sept. 22 Brian Glowacki and Friends Sept. 29 Robert Dubac’s The Book of Moron
Bank of NH Stage 16 S. Main St., Concord; ccanh.com Saturday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. Jimmy Dunn
Music Hall The Music Hall Historic Theater is at 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth; the Lounge is at 131 Congress St., Portsmouth. themusichall.org. Sunday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m. Jen Kober (Lounge) Saturday, Sept. 2, 8:30 p.m. Nick Callas (Lounge) Thursday, Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m. Pinky Patel (Theater) Friday, Sept. 29, at 6 and 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 30, at 6 and 9 p.m. Bassem Yousef (Lounge) Friday, Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m. Michael Carbonaro (theater) Wednesday, Oct. 18, 7 p.m. Howie Mandel (Theater) Saturday, Nov. 4, 6 and 8:30 p.m. David Koechner: The Office Trivia with “Todd Packer” (Lounge) Thursday, Nov. 9, 6 and 8:30 p.m. Ben Bailey (Lounge) Saturday, Nov. 11, 6 and 8:30 p.m., Brian Glowaki (Lounge) Tuesday, Dec. 26, at 7 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 27, at 7 p.m., and Thursday, Dec. 28, at 8 p.m. Juston McKinney’s Comedy Year in Review (Theater)
Chunky’s Cinema Pub in Nashua 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; Chunkys.com. See website for Saturday show times and ticket prices. Sept. 2 Al Ghanekar Sept. 9 Mike Hanley Sept. 16 Peter Lui Sept. 23 Brian Beaudion Sept. 30 Tim McKeever Oct. 7 Steve Bjork Oct. 14 Ace Aceto Oct. 21 Kyle Crawford Oct. 28 Brad Mastrangelo
Amato Center 56 Mont Vernon St., Milford. See bmarley.com for tickets. Friday, Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m. Bob Marley
Capitol Center for the Arts Chubb Theatre, 44 S. Main St., Concord; ccanh.com Saturday, Sept.16, 8 p.m. Demetri Martin Thursday, Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m. Jonathan Van Ness Saturday, Sept. 23, 8 p.m. Nurse Blake Sunday, Oct.15, 7 p.m. Penn & Teller Present: The Foolers Friday, Nov. 3, and Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m. Bob Marley
SNHU Arena 555 Elm St., Manchester; snhuarena.com Saturday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m. Bill Burr
An impromptu party a couple of summers ago is the impetus for a two-day event blending live music, movement, camping, inclusion and environmental responsibility. The Barefoot Music & Arts Festival happens at a yoga center in the woods of Hillsboro that’s popular for healing retreats and farm-to-table community dinners. It’s not the first place that comes to mind for a mini-Woodstock, and that’s part of the inspiration.
The Evocatives, an eclectic, electric reggae sextet, played an evening show at Bethel Farm Yoga and Living Art Center that was closed out with a DJ set by the son of farm owner Steve Bethel. The vibe was infectious, as revelers danced late into the night.
“It put a little bug in our brains,” Evocatives singer Jennifer Bakalar said by phone recently. “Maybe we want to turn this into something that we could do again … share it with more people.”
Fifteen performers are booked to perform over two nights, but this is no simple rock show, Bakalar said.
“We really wanted to have a clear intention, so we decided on two founding principles,” she said. “Whatever we did needed to live up to the names ‘Leave No Trace’ and ‘Radical Inclusion.’”
The first principle is easy to understand and is detailed in a National Park Service article linked on the festival website. The second is less concrete. “It’s just about being the kind of human that you’d want to run into at a festival,” Bakalar said, “and a willingness to tolerate ambiguity or open-endedness. Maybe not necessarily understand but be OK with it.”
It begins with a varied musical lineup that includes singer-songwriters Tyler Allgood, Caylin Costello, Jon Stephens and Ian Galipeau doing sets, Cajun and zydeco dance music from Bayou X, led by New Orleans native Peter Simoneaux, along with the jammy Modern Fools. Electronica duo Deep Seize blends hand pans with hip-hop and funky grooves; psychedelic folk band Party of the Sun and indie rockers Hug the Dog are some of the other acts.
In addition to leading his eponymous jazz trio, Ben Jennings will help in a community kitchen. “We expect people to bring a lot of their own food because they’re camping,” Bakalar said, “but we also want to offer something for the crew and the volunteers, and for people that might not have packed enough. He has a great chili recipe, so he’s going to do a huge batch.”
Such collective spirit is the underlying ethos of the festival. All musicians are donating their time, but any profits beyond production costs will be split.
“Anyone who had a stake, who was really invested and involved” will share, Bakalar said, adding, “it’s been amazing how things have kind of fallen into place; any time there’s been a real significant need, someone has stepped up and found a way for us to fill it.”
When onstage performances are over, the festival crowd will provide the music.
“We have a drum circle planned around a fire,” Bakalar said. “Bring your drums, sit around the fire, and drum until it’s time for bed.”
There’s plenty beyond music; everyone is encouraged to participate.
“It’s going to be whatever people make it to be,” Bakalar said. “If you don’t try a class or… explore the art, you’re only going to have a limited experience of the festival.”
Bakalar is an art teacher and enjoys giving her brethren a platform.
“I don’t think they get that opportunity often enough in a way that really does them justice,” she said. “We have two visual artists that are coming to do an installation and make their work on site, [and] we have a vendor village full of artists making things and selling things that they’ve made, artwork, face painting, temporary tattoo, artwork, that kind of stuff.”
The living arts aspect is particularly unique. “Yoga, breathwork classes, movement workshops, self-massage, things that I’ve never even tried I’m really excited about,” Bakalar said, adding that all yoga classes are complimentary. “Really, if you were a yoga fan, coming for all the free workshops that we’re offering would be well worth the value of the ticket.”
When attendees leave their tidy campsites, carrying anything non-recyclable in a compostable trash bag provided by the festival organizers, Bakalar wants no one to feel exhausted.
“It’s a festival where you’re not walking away from it feeling like you need a few days to recover before you can go back to work; it’ll feel inspiring and rejuvenating and creative,” she said. “It’s not just a crazy music festival. It’s about community and really building something that’s sustainable that we could do again and keep doing in years to come.”
Barefoot Music & Arts Festival When: Friday, Aug. 4, at 5 p.m. through Saturday Aug 5, at 10 p.m. Where: Bethel Farm & Yoga Studio, 34 Bethel Road, Hillsboro Tickets: Two-day passes $90.57, Friday only $43.61, Saturday only $54.92 at theticketing.co
Friday lineup: Tyler Allgood Caylin Costello Lord Magnolia Bayou X Superbug Evocatives Saturday lineup: Jon Stephens Ian Galipeau Party of the Sun Deep Seize Modern Fools The Ben Jennings Trio Evocatives Hug the Dog DJ Flex
