Author: Michael Witthaus

Big stage night

Pointless Culture performs local showcase

The upcoming “Locally Sourced” show at Concord’s BNH Stage is a two-band affair. Granite Staters Pointless Culture draw from a range of influences for a sound that’s equally raucous, angsty and melodic. From Billerica, Cosmic Triumph brings full-throttled abandon to their energetic original songs.

The two groups have a history of helping each other out, Pointless Culture band members said in a recent Zoom interview. “Anytime they have a big show going on down there, they always call us,” guitarist Harrison Fantasia said. “So we make sure to call them. They go good with us, like cheese and wine.”

“We’ve played with them quite a bit,” drummer Harrison Hinman agreed. “So it was kind of a no-brainer to ask them.”

Yes, the two share a first name.

It’s something they bonded over the day Hinman walked into an Upper Valley guitar shop to buy drumsticks a few years back. Fantasia, who worked there, was strumming a tune he wrote and asked Hinman to check it out.

“You didn’t even introduce yourself, right?” Hinman said to Fantasia in the interview, who nodded in assent. “Eventually, we did. He said, ‘My name’s Harrison,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, my name’s Harrison. How can I help you?’ We didn’t know what to say. We’re like, ‘Wow, two Harrisons.’ That took us as a surprise. He played the song, and I loved it.”

The two ended up practicing together after hours in the shop — until Fantasia quit. “I’m a carpenter,” he said. “I tried working at a guitar shop and I didn’t like it, but I met this guy through it.” Sadly, they wouldn’t connect again for another two years, when he asked Hinman to support him at a festival in Acworth.

The gig went very well, as did a few jams after. In 2022 the two decided to get serious.

“We’re like, ‘We gotta make a band; I can’t believe we let that slip for two years,’” Hinman recalled. “I’d thought he didn’t like me anymore, but it’s funny — we just realized that we’re both really bad at texting people back.”

Fantasia “begged” childhood friend Ben Schultz to be lead guitarist, but it took some time for their schedules to line up.

“I couldn’t practice because I was always working at like seven o’clock at night,” Schultz said. Eventually he got a first-shift job and was able to join the band.

Guitarist Nolan Cota had played with Hinman in a “couple of failed metal bands” and really wanted to join his new one.

“I could tell he was jealous of what I was doing, and I felt bad,” Hinman said, but the multi-instrumentalist was undeterred. “Nolan was like, ‘You guys need a bass player?’”

Their first single, “Severed Ties,” came at the end of 2022, followed by “Breakfast Song,” a quirky ode to morning meal proclivities that helped raise their profile. Both were on Can’t Stand the Rain, an EP released in December 2023. Preceded by a few singles, the debut LP Better Off Dead came last summer, including the song Fantasia played in the store that day.

It’s hard to pin down Pointless Culture’s music. The playful “Little House,” from the new album, is sweet and brims with innocence, while “Warning Signs” rocks harder and comes off a bit darker, with a grungy angst, and the new “Squirrel Food” is, Fantasia said, “written from the point of view of an acorn.” Yes, the band delights in being a moving target.

“One of the biggest compliments I get at the end of the shows is people can’t compare us to anybody, and they really like what we’re doing,” Fantasia said. “It’s like classic punk and rock, but then we play a little bit of bluegrass. We play a little bit of everything. We just want to see people out having fun … come have fun with us.”

Pointless Culture w/ Cosmic Triumph
When: Friday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $18 at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Pointless Culture. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 26/02/26

• Blues power: Though Willie J. Laws will be there, the 16th Annual New England Winter Blues Festival favors singers over guitar slingers. John Németh tops the bill, joined by singing harmonica players Kevin Burt, Darrell Nulisch and Nick David, who created the event. Németh, wrote No Depression in 2022, “is one of the best soul singers in the business, with a floor-to-ceiling range.” Thursday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $40, palacetheatre.org.

• Eighties glow: Hearken back to the days of MTV with Neon Wave totally covering The Cure, Duran Duran, The Fixx, and others. Their letter-perfect redo of Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” is a set highlight, and they also do a banging version of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” The band recently added singer Natalie Turgeon to the fold, but it’s not clear she’ll be at this show. Friday, Feb. 27, 8 p.m., Stumble Inn, 20 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, neonwaveband.com.

• Glimmer twins: With Keith Call as Mick Jagger, and Bernie Bollendorf doing Keith Richards, Classic Stones Live™ are, writes Dan Geringer of the Philadelphia Daily News, “the spitting image Rolling Stones tribute band.” Their secret weapon, he continued, is their ability to “demonstrate the dramatic difference between a cover band that plays the tunes and a tribute band that lives them.” Saturday, Feb. 28, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $44, tupelohall.com.

• Sunday grass: Brunch and bluegrass combine with The Bottom Dollars, a harmony-rich trio that includes ubiquitous fiddler Betsy Green (Hazel Project, The Green Sisters), Dave Shaw (Bear Bridge Band, Newfound Grass) on mandolin and banjo, and guitarist Tim FitzGerald. The group performs originals and revives many neglected but quite worthy songs from the bluegrass canon. Sunday, March 1, noon, Chapel + Main Brewing, 83 Main St., Dover, chapelandmain.com.

• Roots master: In the course of a nearly 50-year career, Keb’ Mo’ has won multiple Grammys, performed at the White House and Carnegie Hall, and collaborated with a who’s who of the music world, including Jackson Browne, The Chicks, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson. The singer, guitarist and arranger even has acting skills, appearing on The West Wing and Sesame Street. Tuesday, March 3, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $68 and up, etix.com.

Millyard movies

Two films chronicle ’60s-’70s urban renewal

To bookend an exhibit that’s run for the past several months, the Manchester Historical Association will screen two films that together offer a view into a city in transition. One is a 1978 PBS documentary, The Amoskeag Transcripts, the other a collection of footage from an MHA project that never came to fruition.

“The Lost Films of Amoskeag” will be shown on Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Millyard Museum. This follows “Amoskeag Revisited: A Fifty-Year Retrospective,” which opened in September. That exhibit looked back at a Manchester urban renewal project that saw demolition of mill buildings and the filling in of canals in a once-thriving but by then largely abandoned area.

Both of the 30-minute films are illuminating. Particularly moving is the work of Tobe and Alan Carey, two brothers who in 1968 walked around the Millyard with movie cameras capturing the area before it was leveled. It’s a nice counterpart to The Amoskeag Transcripts, which aired on WGBH a few years after the renewal work ended.

“It’s almost like looking at old home movies,” MHA Executive Director Jeff Barraclough said recently. “Now, really for the first time, they’re available to be shown … I mean, we’ve seen some photographs, but to see it on film and see people walking through, it’s very exciting.”

Stored in MHA’s archives, the footage was rediscovered in July, just in time for the current exhibit, which recalls a similar one 50 years ago at the Currier Gallery of Art. “Amoskeag, A Sense of Place, A Way of Life” was designed by architectural historian Randolph Langenbach, and opened after the renewal project was completed.

That exhibition used historic images, Langenbach’s before and after photos, and millworker recollections along with salvaged machinery and equipment. At the time, it helped raise awareness of the area’s historical importance, while the Millyard Museum’s current exhibit is examining its lasting impact on Manchester.

Langenbach’s Currier exhibit “began to change people’s perceptions [and] created a newfound respect for the Millyard; it was something that began to be recognized as important and almost celebrated,” Barraclough said. “Eventually, [people] came to respect that this was the lifeblood of the city of Manchester for over a century.”

The WGBH documentary was adapted from Dr. Tamara Hareven’s book, Amoskeag: The Oral History of a Factory City, as well as drawing from Langenbach’s Currier exhibit. The two were married at the time, and later divorced. Hareven passed away in 2003.

A memorial tribute from a colleague at University of Delaware offered clues to Hareven’s interest in the Millyard. “She reached into the 19th century and then traced its modern impact through her in-depth interviews and her analysis of the historic patterns of women’s work to support their families in industrial New England,” Professor Barbara Settles recalled.

Langenbach now lives in California. He attended the Millyard Museum opening in September.

“He’s sadly not in good health, but was able to come back out,” Barraclough said, noting that Langenbach was a Harvard architectural student when demolition began. “He took it upon himself to go in, and not only photographed the Millyard both before and during some of the demolition, but he was able to save certain pieces of architectural fragments.” Those included windows, doors and cornice pieces. “He was able to store them away so that they were salvaged. Some of those items have been given to the MHA, and we use them in our permanent display at the Millyard Museum that talks about the history of the Millyard.”

Barraclough looks forward to opening up a time capsule for museum patrons, who can watch the movies with admission.

“I think it’s just going to be a fun program,” he said. “We hope we’ll have a good turnout and people will come and get to watch these films, one of which has never been seen, one that hasn’t been seen in almost 50 years; it’s a great way to spend the morning.”

The Lost Films of Amoskeag
When: Saturday, Feb. 28, at 11 a.m.
Where: Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford St., Manchester
Tickets: Free with admission ($12 adults, $10 seniors & students, $6 ages 12-18, no charge under 12). RSVP at 622-7531 or history@manchseterhistoric.org
More: manchesterhistoric.org

Featured photo: The Amokseag Transcripts

Whole Lotta Zep

Get the Led Out comes to Concord

Paul Hammond has an extra ticket for Led Zeppelin’s reunion show. The caveat is that anyone looking to claim it will have to time travel. Hammond plays lead guitar in Get the Led Out, a band that outflanks other tribute acts via exacting attention to detail. One of his more memorable Zep moments, however, was as a spectator. It was a rock ’n’ roll fantasy come true.

It’s no stretch to say Zep’s one-off 2007 concert was the hardest ticket ever; 20 million fans entered a worldwide lottery to purchase a mere 18,000 seats. Hammond, however, knew someone connected to a charity run by Jimmy Page’s wife at the time, who got him in, and then some.

Prior to the show, he watched soundcheck with Queen guitarist Brian May for company, and the two enjoyed the concert from the VIP section. Also, and what explains the wayback machine requirement, Hammond had access to six additional tickets. Sadly, he couldn’t find anyone able to quickly jet to London and use them.

“I was with the top of the top rock stars, the inner circle of rock royalty,” Hammond said in a recent phone interview. He may perform the music of the gods, and convincingly, but he enjoyed the perks of one that night. “In the A100 section, with Brian May, and then three rows down in front of me was Ronnie Wood and Jeff Beck.”

Hammond also met Page backstage that night. He had another Zep-adjacent moment, courtesy of the band he co-formed in 2003 with singer Paul Sinclair, with a mission to perform note for note songs from the iconic band’s studio recordings. It came as GTLO was preparing to go on stage at Portsmouth’s Music Hall a few years back.

After a phone call, the show’s promoter informed him she’d been speaking to Robert Plant. “He asked her, ‘What band is playing tonight?’ and she said, ‘It’s Get the Led Out,’ and he says, ‘Oh, Get the Led Out, that’s a great band,’” he recalled. “He knows us! Our sound man told us he’d come to our show in Nashville.”

GTLO delivers a concert experience that’s currently rivaled only by Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening. The son of the late Zep drummer was also behind the kit in 2007 at O2 Arena. They play the iconic band’s entire catalog, almost. A few songs just don’t translate well to their arena rock show.

“Like, ‘Hats Off To (Roy) Harper’ from Led Zeppelin III is a bizarre song with the effects, and doesn’t have a lot of crowd appeal,” Hammond said. “‘Carouselambra’ from In Through the Out Door is essentially a John Paul Jones experimental record. I don’t know what Jimmy Page was up to then, maybe hanging out in the pub … but it’s a long and a weary song.”

The good news is GTLO plays everything else in their two-and-a-half-hour show, even Zeppelin’s lone B-side, “Hey, Hey, What Can I Do.” To call the band’s approach exacting is an understatement. Songs are not only transcribed precisely, but they are also true to both key and pitch, which provides a big dopamine hit for true fans.

“It brings back that memory, that sound, because intrinsically people know,” Hammond said. “Some Led Zeppelin bands, if the singer can’t hit the notes, they’ll tune a half-step down, and it just doesn’t sound the same, and the audience knows it, whether they know it or not. Because it’s just been ingrained for so many years, hearing it the way you want to hear it.”

The band grew out of a residency at Bridgeport Rib House in Pennsylvania. Zeppelin was one band they covered in a set that included Aerosmith songs, but patrons there kept asking for a Zep-centric show.

It works because Hammond and his mates revere Zeppelin as much as their audience, and deliver accordingly.

“Basically, we want to give people all the stuff that they know and love,” Hammond said. “When we go into deep cuts, they’re deep cuts that people also would know, that true die-hard Zeppelin fans would be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe they did ‘In The Light’ or we’ve delved as deep as ‘Sick Again.’”

Get the Led Out
When: Saturday, Feb. 21, at 8 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, Chubb Theatre, 44 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $45 and up at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 26/02/19

• Metal moments: The weekend starts early with four bands on the heavier side gathering at Showcase 603. Abel Blood, from Manchester, brings the dirge-y, 11-minute epic “Mental Note” and the sinister “Keeping Pace With the Elephants.” Next is Nashua quartet Stoned Shadows; the bracing “Losing My Mind” is a standout. Rounding out the bill are Mercury Burns First and Project H. Catch them all Thursday, Feb. 19, at 8 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester, abelblood.bandcamp.com.

• Modern country: With a new album, Oklahoma Stars, due in days, Houston Bernard plays at a Nashua craft brewery. The title song is a power ballad sweetened with love and honeysuckle, but when the NEMA-winning country singer gets rocking, he’s even better. Friday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m., Lost Cowboy Brewing, 546 Amherst St., Nashua, houstonbernard.com.

• Comedy tonight: A local brewery with a nice saison collaboration hosts a comedy show headlined by Corey Manning, a motivational speaker who helps others beat challenges by day and keeps it funny when the sun goes down. Joining him is a deep lineup of area comics including Mona Forgione, Bill Douglas, Joe Nahme, Ryan Ellington and Nathaniel Allen. Saturday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m., Sunstone Brewing Co., 298 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, $15, eventbrite.com.

• Classical beats: Their 2020 release Take The Stairs earned Black Violin a Grammy nomination. Led by Kev Marcus on violin and Wil Baptiste on viola, the group mashes up classical music and hip-hop. Saturday, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $57 and up at nashuacenterforthearts.com.

Bite sized

One-act plays in Nashua

An upcoming weekend of short plays in Nashua gives aspiring playwrights, directors and actors an opportunity to dip their toes — and pens — in the water. The yearly Celebration of One-Acts has six works, each ranging from 20 to 45 minutes long, the fruits of a community-wide call that went out last August.

All six one-acts will be performed each of the three days. Evening shows happen Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21, and a Sunday matinee closes out the event, presented by Nashua Theatre Guild. Catherine Sweet, the show’s producer as well as a writer of one play and an actor in another, promises lots of variety.

“It’s been a blast to watch six directors bring six very different original pieces to life,” she said recently. “I know each writer is proud to see their work on stage — I know I am! Every performance you will get to see six original, completely unique shows. You’ll be crying one minute and laughing until your stomach hurts the next.”

Sweet, also an NTG Board member, wrote Here Come the … Baby? Directed by Miah Rhodes, the play centers on best friends Carol (Liz Ronai Fontanella) and Susan (Pamela Thornhill) and their conversation at a family wedding, where “they excitedly spill some hot tea, trying to weave together the tangled web of gossip, as one does.”

“Humor and heart” guide Tess Hodges’ What Comes Next. Directed by Paige Lucier, it reads like a twist on the ’90s movie Ghost. As four people, including Sweet as Saidee, cope with the death of a loved one in offbeat ways, the deceased, Sarah (Morgan Mierzwa-Winters), watches from above with her “personal well-dressed grim reaper,” played by Emily Soleil.

Such Dreams as Stuff is Made On, written by Dan McGeehan and directed by Colleen Deitrich, stars Chris Hoffman, Lindsay Garneau, Bryan Hebert II and Max Von Markgraf. Its description sounds caper-ish: “How far would you go to prove that your house was the best place on the block to rob? A couple gets some sage advice straight from the experts.”

Written by Kade Shea and directed by Katie Sibley, My Better Half looks at the dating travails of May (Milo Kruczynska), who’s ended a relationship and is uncertain about the new one she’s in with the lovely Megan (Danielle Chisholm). When best friend Anna (Nicole Straussberg) becomes May’s roommate, she has a moment of truth.

Too many adverbs and plenty of laughs characterize Story Time by, written by Brian Daly and directed by Vicky Sandin, who just finished directing Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B for Community Players of Concord. In the comedy, three students conspire to frustrate a pompous writing teacher by interpreting his class outline very literally.

The elements of New Adventures in Air Travel, written by Bruce Kalter and directed by Steve Kalter, will be familiar to anyone who’s ever booked a budget flight and regretted it later. There’s an internet video with a plane full of passengers asked to pay an upgrade fee to fly around turbulence from a while back — it sounds a bit like that.

Alyson Galipeau is in the cast of the farce about paying “optional” travel costs that most would consider essential. In a recent email Galipeau said she was thrilled to be on the stage. Also an NTG Board member, she sees the Celebration of One-Acts as “a great way to showcase the talents of our community and give regional writers a chance to shine.”

It’s also a great way to recruit reluctant thespians.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity for new actors to give theater a shot,” she said. “The plays are shorter in duration, which can be less daunting for people who want to try acting but might feel overwhelmed by learning the many lines of a full production.”

She’s enjoying rehearsals for her play, about the cleverly named Icarus Airways.

“Steve Kalter finds new ways to insert jokes and humor,” she said. “My castmates are particularly good at acting via facial expressions. It’s been difficult not to break character and laugh witnessing these expressions. I think the audience will crack up as much as we have been.”

A Celebration of One-Acts
When: Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m.
Where: Janice B. Streeter Theatre, 14 Court St., Nashua
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, nashuatheatreguild.org

Featured photo: New Adventures in Air Travel rehearsal. Courtesy photo.

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