Author: Michael Witthaus

Lewis Black keeps pace with the world

On Friday, March 13, 2020, as the pandemic’s wave crashed down on the world of live events, Lewis Black stepped onto the stage of a Michigan casino. The comic greeted his audience with these words: “Thanks for risking your life.” He ended his set with an analysis of what’s wrong with America, likening its two dominant political parties to ideological mystery meat. “They both sort of taste like chicken,” Black said.

It would be Black’s last performance for a year and a half, and his latest special. He returned last fall with a run of club dates that nearly wiped him out. “I was literally like a boxer who hasn’t fought in a long time [who] punches himself in the face,” he said recently. His new show, “Off The Rails,” will stop in Concord on Thursday, March 10.

Black has made a career out of sputtering fury and frustration — with the ruling elite, thick-skulled hoi polloi, and everyone in between, always with an ear to the ground. Every show is new and up to the minute. That night in Michigan, he sensed what was coming. He and fellow comic pal Kathleen Madigan played armchair epidemiologists as the news from Wuhan seeped out, joking that they were the Fauci and Birx of the comedy world. To them, the science was clear; but even he did not anticipate the willful ignorance of many.

“I was stunned by the way in which people are acting and thinking … it’s like going back to when I was 12,” Black said in a recent phone interview. The gulf between red and blue is a moronic chasm, he continued, and not just when it comes to fighting a virus. “In a country that doesn’t want to vote, you’re going to worry about voting? Banning books? You’re going to worry about critical race theory when most kids don’t know how to spell it?”

Though obviously fodder for Black’s act, the onslaught of absurdity wasn’t exactly welcome. “It’s difficult to satirize what is already satiric,” he said, aiming special ire at purported news outlets dutifully repeating every outrageous social media post instead of doing their job. “Read the tweet … what they were reading was pathology, not policy. It’s not what did he say, it’s what do we do now?”

It was almost too much. “To be more insane than what I see, that’s my job as a comic,” he said. “That took a long time to understand. Really, just before the pandemic, I got it — wow, that’s what I’m doing. And then I realized … I couldn’t be more insane than what I was seeing, or I’d be insane, literally.”

Every Black show ends with “The Rant Is Due,” an afterparty that finds him musing over complaints offered by fans online. Few comics go so far to connect with their audience, but he sees it as rage transference — why should he be the only one angry all the time? As he scrolls his iPad submissions, Black will echo their fury and occasionally offer a lusty rebuttal, as when one fan griped about mask mandates.

“It is a show written by the audience and where I add my f-ing two cents,” Black said of his web request for fans to take a moment in advance to unburden themselves. The segment always offers a local focus. He recently addressed legal weed generally and pot prices specifically with a crowd in Humboldt County, California, along with the region’s winding roads and poor internet service.

It’s anyone’s guess what the Granite State will bring to the mix. After a recent stint in the Midwest, Black is hoping for better weather along with fans’ homegrown winging about taxes, tourists and other topics. “I love coming back to New Hampshire,” he said, “but I need you guys to warm the state up a little bit.”

Along with performing, Black is involved in a few pet causes. He’s chairman of an Indiana museum dedicated to writer Kurt Vonnegut, and he also works on behalf of the National Comedy Center. “I’ve done a lot with them,” he said of the Jamestown, New York,-based facility. “What they have done is extraordinary, incredible. Museum doesn’t describe it; it’s a living breathing thing, and 80 percent of it is interactive. You can literally go in there for six hours and go, what? It’s gone — and you learn a lot.”

Lewis Black
When: Thursday, March 10, 7 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $55 and up ccanh.com

Featured photo: The Brit Pack.

Brit Pack spans multiple eras

Among a trove of tribute acts, the ’60s British Invasion is well represented. What sets The Brit Pack apart is that their target isn’t one band or decade but a wide breadth of music from across the pond. Sure, they’ll crank up “Satisfaction” or “Twist and Shout” with alacrity, but a typical set list will also include Led Zeppelin, Oasis or Adele.

Consisting of four Berklee grads, The Brit Pack reflects not just the first wave led by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, but a representation of artists that came in the ensuing years — the British Occupation, if you will.

“You get a whole journey through all of these bands,” guitarist Mark Johnson said recently. “That same energy a tribute act would give you, but with every single band you might know from the British Invasion through the modern days.”

Occasionally they veer away from strictly British, playing “Go Your Own Way” — though Fleetwood Mac’s makeup is similar to theirs. Johnson and drummer Will Haywood Smith are U.K.-born like Mick Fleetwood and the two McVies, while Matt Nakoa and Bryan Percival serve as the group’s Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

In a joint interview with Nakoa, Johnson offered some logic-bending to explain the inclusion of “Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy.

“They’re a good Irish band,” he conceded, “but we figured they were close enough to the U.K. … there’s probably some English blood in that band.”

Since forming in 2011, they’ve gone where the audience takes them, even when that finds lead singer Nakoa channeling Johnny Rotten, as happened when they played one fan’s wedding. This led to a secret side project called The Sex Beatles.

“We deliver classics in the Sex Pistols manner,” Johnson said.

The bit was born in the days of playing late-night residencies in their New York City home base.

“Bleecker Street and the Village … there’d be beers flying over the drum kit and random people sleeping on the stage,” Johnson said. “These days it’s a raucous show, but you won’t get hit by a flying amp or anything.”

While covering well-known songs, the group tries to put itself in the mindset of bands like Led Zeppelin or The Who.

“We improvise and really capture the essence of the songs, but we’re not doing it exactly like the record, because they wouldn’t have done it exactly like the record,” Nakoa said. “We own the music as if it was our own; unfortunately, we don’t get compensated that way.”

When they first set out, “It was the usual suspects, ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Hard Day’s Night’ — but we were talking about doing Oasis and stuff,” Johnson said. “Through the years, people just keep requesting songs and we’re like, that’s a good idea, and there are times where we’re driving somewhere in the car and we hear a record and say, these guys are British — or at least somebody in the room when the record being made was British.”

“What’s so great is it’s a liberal interpretation,” Nakoa said. “We’re only going where the audience tells us we should be going. I mean, we go where the reaction is.”

Asked to name some favorite songs from their set, Johnson quickly answered, “anything Queen or Zeppelin, for the simple reason that it’s really fun to play.” He voiced gratitude for having a capable band of friends and singled out Nakoa, whom he also supports as a solo artist.

“When you’ve got a singer who can do this stuff as well as he does … as a performer, and as an audience member, it’s really a joy to be around,” he said. “It’s also very rare to get a chance where you can play it with a band this good. … I just enjoy playing with these guys, because they make it sound so cool.”

The Brit Pack
When: Sunday, March 6, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester
Tickets: $23 at palacetheatre.org

Featured photo: The Brit Pack.

Green Martini memories coming to Bank of NH Stage

It’s Best of Hippo time again, and don’t be surprised if there’s a vote or two for the Green Martini as top bar in Concord — even though a kitchen fire closed the downtown hub 10 years ago. Its denizens were a family of misfit toys bound by smoke-hazed windows, funky furniture and a no-nonsense vibe. To them, the place forever remains much more than a tavern.

Musicians held it in special esteem, and several of them will gather at Bank of NH Stage on March 3 to celebrate the Green Martini and its role in fostering the city’s music community. Steve Naylor, who hosted the open mic sessions there from the mid-2000s through its demise in February 2012, will reprise the format for an evening full of memories.

A handful of former regulars, including Hank Osborne and Rachel Burlock (whose last name was Vogelzang back then), approached fellow musician Lucas Gallo with an idea. “They wanted to pay homage (honor it 10 years later) to the Green Martini,” he wrote in a text message.

Gallo and Burlock put together a list including Gary Banker, Scott Fitzpatrick, Mary Fagan, Alan “Doc” Rogers, Addison Chase, Blake Patria, Dusty Gray, Noah Brochu and Shelby White, Andy Laliotis and Rob Farquar. When contacted about the show, former bar owners Paul and Paula Lord were immediately on board.

“They just won’t let it go,” Paula Lord said recently with a laugh. “Literally for the past 10 years, it’s like a nonstop thing. When Lucas messaged me and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to do this,’ I was like, ‘Oh, that would be so cool.’”

Along with a fond recollection of the music, Paula remembered the community fostered by her husband’s and her oasis. Patrons lining up outside every day prior to opening, Sunday Fun Day board game events and Halloween parties.

“We always had the best, with smoke machines and all kinds of crazy stuff,” she said.

Every night began with a family meal, and they regularly held holiday feasts for friends with nowhere else to go.

One customer, antique collector John Cook, wrote a book about the bar. Singer-guitarist Kenny Weiland immortalized it in a jazzy song containing the line, “cut loose and shake your monkey,” a nod to the large stuffed collection of creatures that hung from the ceiling pipes. Still a mystery is a series of abductions, each followed with a photo of a duct-taped monkey mouth accompanied by a demand of free PBR as ransom.

Furnishings — or lack of them — were one reason the place was special, Steve Naylor said in a recent phone interview.

“The Martini did not have a television or pool table, or any other distraction. … Everyone was pretty much focused on the music,” he said, adding that such undivided attention was unique and welcome. “I’ve done many open mics in just about all the bars in and outside of town. People are very sensitive to what’s going on around them when they’re trying to play their song, and I don’t think they need to hear a hockey game while they’re trying to play.”

Midweek open mic nights were acoustic affairs, though Friday and Saturday often got pretty raucous.

“It was like sort of an ‘around the campfire’ feeling,” Naylor said of the sessions he hosted. “That atmosphere had something to do with giving people an impression of how nice it was to be able to just be around.”

The Lords, along with former bartender Christopher Prescott, will have honorary seats for the show, where they’ll likely field requests to bring back their beloved funky watering hole.

“There are so many people that still say, ‘Would you guys open again?’” said Paula. “The neon sign is still sitting in my shed, but I’m not sure if the mice have gotten to the wires.”

Remembering the Green Martini – A Musical Celebration

When: Thursday, March 3, 7 p.m.
Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets:$15 at ccanh.com
Proceeds from the show will benefit the Concord Community Music School.

Featured photo: Rachel Bulock. Courtesy photo