Author: Michael Witthaus

Halloween dance party is right for the times

Among the many entertainments challenged by the pandemic, EDM — electronic dance music — faced a unique hurdle. A lively audience is integral to the experience, almost as important as the DJ throwing beats. Manchester DJ Omari Nkosi summed up the problem succinctly.

“It’s not that easy to keep people six feet apart on a dance floor,” he said recently by telephone. “You run into issues.”

Nkosi and his promotion company Pangea have weathered Covid-19’s choppy waters since lockdown was lifted to stage a number of events. They did it by presenting clear screening, masking and distancing rules for shows at hometown spots like Jewel Music Venue and Whiskey’s 20.

The upcoming Covenant Halloween Vampire’s Ball at Whiskey’s 20 will offer one less difficulty, because everyone will gladly wear a mask.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Nkosi said. “Having a costume party just kind of makes it a lot easier.”

DJs appearing at the event include Nkosi, Trippa, Wiggles and Midas.

Midas — real name John Manning — will be spinning in Manchester for the first time since lockdown began. His one post-quarantine show happened in Providence, Rhode Island, an early October event he described as “straight out of a Stanley Kubrick movie” in a recent phone interview.

“Each section had like five people and you were in your own little plastic case,” he said. “It was so surreal.”

Working in front of a crowd that night, however, provided a familiar rush.

“It filled my soul,” Midas said. “I needed that. It’s like I forgot that I needed it, like a plant needs sunlight. I forgot that I need to do gigs and be able to play and see people and actually be able to send energy back and forth. Now that being said, everyone’s dancing in their own section with their five friends and it’s back to the Kubrick movie.”

Midas is a veteran of the city’s dance scene as well as the radio host of Late Night Delight every Saturday on WMNH 95.3. The latter is an alter ego experience, he said.

“I love the station; everybody there is awesome and it’s its own living breathing part of Manchester,” he said. “I love all kinds of music, and my show is an opportunity for me to not play for a dance floor … it’s listening music. If I want to just do some ambient type of stuff or play five different styles or a tribute, I can and often do. I really try to reinvent the wheel every week.”

Though his radio sets often lean to classic artists like The Beatles, Midas’s touch isn’t old-school.

“The digital age is great for a DJ, because I can have all my music at my fingertips,” he said. “I love it, I embrace it, I can’t wait to see what’s next. Things just keep getting crazier and crazier.”

His appearance at Whiskey’s 20 will lock into a club groove.

“I’m going to try all kinds of surprises,” Midas said. “Things that make you go, ‘Hell, yeah, I can’t believe I’m hearing this right now!’ It’s an electronic music event, so I’m going to stay within the realm of that and party with everybody. I also want it to be dirty and scary at times. So I’ll walk the line between a few different feelings that will definitely be fun. Lots of remixes, because it seems like that’s the kind of thing you want to hear — a bunch of awesome remixes.”

Nkosi looks forward to sparking a creative vibe at the upcoming party.

“Halloween tends to bring out the wild side of people,” he said, recalling a performance at the now-closed Red Door in Portsmouth a few years back. “I was playing techno at 100 to 124 BPM. … Now, I’m a 128 to 130 guy. I like to rock straight techno, but people were just eating it up. Halloween definitely makes you do a lot of things that you normally wouldn’t be able to do.”

Covenant Halloween Vampire’s Ball
When: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 8 p.m.
Where: Whiskey’s 20, 20 Old Granite St., Manchester
Tickets: $10 at the door

Featured photo: Midas. Courtesy photo.

Young indie rockers make big stage debut

As live music resumes at Concord’s downtown Bank of New Hampshire Stage, a direction that started with the summer In The Park series continues: the showcasing of regional talent. Social distancing requirements now limit capacity, creating a sweet spot for acts like Grenon, a quartet of indie rockers who are more than excited for their upcoming show on Oct. 17.

The band is led by namesake Kacie Grenon, a 17-year-old singer-songwriter who began performing as a preteen. Grenon, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, exudes an artistic maturity well beyond her age. “Imaginary Friends,” a song she wrote about social anxiety, has garnered over 53,000 Spotify streams since its spring release, along with a Top 10 Indie Rock Café pick and press notice in SoCal’s venerable L.A. Weekly.

It’s been a challenging time for the music business. As the band prepared to roll out a new video for “Imaginary Friends” in early May and hit the road to support it, Covid-19 shut the world down. Online Grenon Pity Party shows became the norm.

Though working through the pandemic via Facebook Live and other platforms was a breeze, it didn’t substitute for the real thing, Grenon said in a recent interview with bandmates Nick Turgeon and Zach Stone.

“We all grew up in the generation raised with technology, so it wasn’t a hard switch for us,” she said. “Although it’s super fun and we love doing them, playing online doesn’t really capture everything that we love. And we’re just so excited to actually be doing another live show.”

Grenon began writing “Imaginary Friends” as she completed internet-based high school. The feelings it describes — stuck at home while the world goes on outside — were very real.

“I didn’t really hang out with a lot of people,” she said. “So I was pretty lonely.”

With the pandemic, the song’s sentiments found a larger audience among Quarantine Nation, she said.

“Everyone’s pretty lonely. So I think that might be why people are resonating with it right now. But it’s just really cool to see a song that I wrote in my bedroom when I was feeling pretty low be pretty huge for us at this point,” she said.

Recognition from the virtual world for the new single surprised and delighted Grenon and her bandmates.

“We were supposed to go on a radio tour right after it dropped but we obviously could not get outside of the state,” she said. “It is pretty organic that a lot of people are seeing ‘Imaginary Friends.’ I give a lot of credit to our managers for helping us out so much.”

Bassist R.J. Wood, who joined Grenon in July, will play his second show with the band when they appear in Concord. Although enlisting a new member during a pandemic might appear difficult, Grenon said it was ideal.

“This gave us the perfect time to really practice with him without any pressing deadlines, like, ‘Oh we have a tour that we have to go on in like a week, can you learn all these songs?’” she said. “We’re super excited to finally have him show off for everyone.”

As for the band’s future plans, “just like everyone else in the industry right now we’re kind of waiting to be able to travel and tour,” Grenon said, noting that they’ll debut a follow-up to “Imaginary Friends” at Concord, Part 2 of their mental hell[th] EP.

Then, with all members now high school graduates, the entire band plans to share an apartment — hopefully one with thick walls. No word yet on when TikTok videos of at-home antics will begin appearing — “It’s such a weird app,” Grenon said — as they’re relatively new to the social media tool.

“We’re moving in so we can stay together and make a lot of cool behind-the-scenes stuff,” Grenon said. “We’re just trying to find ways to be creative and safe, and keep moving.”

Grenon
When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m.
Where: Bank of New Hampshire Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $20 at banknhstage.com

Featured photo: Grenon. Courtesy photo.

Live music changes with the season

Much to the relief of live music purveyors reeling from the hardships and challenges of life during a pandemic, weather wasn’t a problem over the last several months. A festive mood, albeit with face masks on patrons spaced six feet apart, prevailed, and songs filled the air at pop-up venues throughout the region. The only real climate danger was heat waves.

Portsmouth Music Hall Executive Director Tina Sawtelle called it a “Covid silver lining” that not one of the downtown Under The Arch outdoor shows presented by her venue was rained out. Scott Hayward, whose Tupelo Drive-In in Derry was one of the first parking lot concert facilities to open in the nation, agreed.

“We didn’t lose any shows, we didn’t cancel any, and we rescheduled one show,” he said in a Sept. 18 phone interview. “We are one of the very few concert promoters that can say we actually had a successful summer; we made money, had all of our employees back, and that was partly due to the fact that the model we chose worked in our sleep.”

Other al fresco efforts included a series of local showcases in Fletcher-Murphy Park, behind Capitol Center for the Arts and adjacent to Concord Community Music School. Swanzey Drive-In, which boasted a huge 750-car capacity, offered top-level acts like country star Chase Rice and classic rock band Blue Oyster Cult. Manchester’s Delta Dental Stadium did a series of Socially Distanced concerts, with clear skies throughout.

There was another benefit from the awful season: Local musicians owned the spotlight for a rare moment. National touring acts mostly bowed out, unwilling or unable to navigate the morass of what Hayward termed “50 dates with 50 different sets of regulations,” allowing bands like Boston’s Neighbor to break out in a big way.

As temperatures cool, however, the music must move indoors, a transition that raises many questions. Paul Costley, probably the biggest booker of bars and dining establishments in New Hampshire, has a few.

The re-opening of restaurants for outdoor service in May, after two months of quarantine, was a bonanza for his company, NotSoCostley Productions.

“A lot of the smart people in the early days got tents and then they had an outdoor venue,” he said by phone in mid-September. “In normal times, I usually have 60 to 80 events booked a week. … I was up to 135.”

That’s shifting quickly, a situation compounded when a hoped for Oct. 1 state decision to make playing indoors at dining establishments easier didn’t arrive. Currently, performers must stay a minimum of 25 feet away from patrons — easier for venues with a deep stage, but a rule that would eat up far too much space in most restaurants.

“Both Gov. Sununu and the Economic Reopening Task Force appreciate the eagerness of musicians to perform in restaurants again but public safety must remain the predominant priority,” D.J. Bettencourt, chairman of the Governor’s Economic Reopening Task Force, wrote in an email to the Hippo. “The task force has put forward a recommendation for consideration. However, Gov. Sununu, in consultation with state Epidemiologist Dr. Ben Chan, will determine the appropriate time to proceed based on a diversity of data points to ensure public safety comes first.”

Costley is crossing his fingers that the change will be come soon, as it affects so many performers in his roster.

“[If] that happens, it will be a game-changer,” Costley said. “Without it, everything’s going to come to a screeching halt.”

A few of the Lakes Region venues Costley books have suspended outdoor music, like Cactus Jack’s in Laconia. He expects most others in the southern part of the state will follow suit by the end of October.

While it’s tempting to add heaters to keep outdoor music going, it would only be for a few more weeks before winter cold really set in, he said.

“Everyone is waiting to see what they have to do indoors before they do things like heat their tents,” Costley said. “They’re expensive to rent and that’s money they won’t get back. … Anyway, what’s the difference between being inside a tent or inside a restaurant?”

Costley believes there are ways to make music work inside.

“I think they should put Plexiglas at face level for the performers,” he said. “Keep it small, see if the numbers change. Everything is going to be based on that anyway.”

Venues dedicated to live performances received a green light open at 50 percent capacity in late June. Some, like Hayward’s Tupelo Music Hall, are taking it slowly. So far, he’s only booked a Dueling Pianos show on Nov. 21 and two early December Gary Hoey dates. Other than those, he’s adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

“Being open is one thing, and being able to stay open is another thing,” Hayward said. “If we don’t have the capacity to do the shows we normally do, it doesn’t work. A good show for us is 500 people [and] a big show for a small club is 60 people. But I can’t live on 60 people.”

In the spring, Tupelo shows postponed by lockdown were optimistically rescheduled for October and November. Many of them are now pushed out until 2022, as artists “hunker down, taking time with making albums and other things,” Hayward said. “We need enough attendance to be open … national artists to be on tour. We can back fill a little bit with small local acts and stuff, but there’s not enough of it to have a full schedule.”

His popular Tupelo Drive-In shows continue, with Hot Tuna front man Jorma Kaukonen booked for the final musical performance on Oct. 25, closing after a Nov. 1 benefit auction for Derry family resource center The Upper Room.

The Music Hall plans a hybrid of outdoor and indoor shows through the end of the month, when Will Dailey of Barefoot Truth performs the final Chestnut Street show on Oct. 29. At that point, everything moves indoors.

“We must have gone through a hundred permutations of how we could do them, only to get down into the nitty gritty to find out it’s not going to be feasible,” said Monte Bohanan, venue marketing director of the outdoor series, which seated up to 108 guests at 24 tables set six feet apart. “The amount of work for the return on it landed squarely with Live Under the Arch shows, which have been hugely successful.”

The ability to draw from a large regional talent pool for the events proved “incredibly important,” Bohanan said.

“We’ve always had an eye to local originals,” he said. “Over the past decade we have been doing a lot and built some of those relationships. It has been invaluable during this time.”

With a pair of venues available, shows normally held in the intimate Loft are now moved to the larger Historic Theatre.

“The kind of performers that would come to our venue are on hold, hitting the pause button,” Sawtelle said, echoing Hayward’s comments. “So we’re trying to leverage what we have, but the artists that we can bring in for 250 seats is a very different level, much more akin to what we’ve been successful doing in the Loft.”

The Historic Theatre’s upcoming show calendar includes The Mammals on Oct. 9, Sons of Serendip on Oct. 17, Josh Turner the following Saturday, and a slate of Boston comics on Nov. 6.

Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord also runs a second, smaller venue, and the majority of shows will happen there. Similar to Portsmouth, they are leveraging regional talent, like young punk inspired Grenon on Oct. 17, the fun and funky Mica’s Groove Train on Nov. 14 and harmony-rich folk quartet River Sister in early December.

A few shows are set for the 1,300-seat Chubb Theatre. Johnny Cash tribute act Cash Unchained performed Sept. 18 in a shakedown cruise of sorts, according to Capitol Center Executive Director Nicki Clarke.

“We needed an opportunity to experiment,” she said by phone. “How does it work? Can we really have 300 people and do all the protocols that we need so people feel comfortable, so that we can do more of these?”

The days of big names returning look to be a way off.

“There are three things that have to move … before we really can get back to anything that’s truly more normal,” Clarke said. “We do have to have national touring acts that are out on the road. We need to have our capacity limitations lifted and we need an audience that’s ready to come out. Those three things are not really there at the moment. So we are going to continue to do small things down at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage for the next few months.”

Manchester’s Palace Theatre returned to live entertainment with a weekly residency from Juston McKinney, who also brought his Comedy at a Distance show to Portsmouth, Salisbury and Concord. He’s back at The Palace on Oct. 17.

Though none happened outdoors, many events were held at The Rex Theatre, renovated and reopened in 2019. A healthy slate is set for the near future at the city’s newest venue, including comic Kelly McFarland Oct. 9. Elvis and Billy Joel tribute nights are set for Oct. 10 and Oct. 17 respectively, and local Americana stalwarts Town Meeting perform Oct. 24. Matt Nakoa plays Oct. 29, and a Halloween acoustic Grateful Dead night from John Zevos is also scheduled.

Though the State of New Hampshire allows venues to operate at half capacity, most don’t plan to seat more than 25 to 30 percent. Thus, the short term is a money-losing proposition. But offering live entertainment is about more than moving to the music. The ripple effect is crucial.

“For every dollar that somebody spends at our venue, they’re spending $20 to $30 in town, whether that’s parking or restaurants or hotels or whatever. … Having an arts and cultural center in the heart of downtown that is thriving drives everybody’s business,” Bohanan said. “If we were forced to shut for even six months, it’s going to slow down everybody else’s ability to recover.”

On Monday, Oct. 5, Gov. Sununu announced the Live Venue Relief Program: $12 million provided by the state’s CARES Act Coronavirus Relief fund to benefit venues “hosting live theatrical presentations, musical entertainment, or sporting or racing events that are seated, ticketed, and open to the public,” according to a press release.

It’s a welcome gesture, Hayward said.

“We’re getting into winter now, so there’s no way we could possibly produce enough income to pay the bills,” he said, noting that this will provide a lifeline to venues that, unlike Tupelo, have been closed since March. “If they’re paying their mortgages right now, they’re generally taking loans to do so if they’re not paying rent. This really helps people catch up to their baseline.”

Outdoor events
Tupelo Drive-In
Saturday, Oct. 10 – Foreigners Journey ( 1 and 4 p.m.)
Sunday, Oct. 11 – Will Evans of Barefoot Truth
Saturday, Oct. 17–  Comedy Fundraiser with Kenny Rogerson and Francis Birch
Sunday, Oct. 25– Jorma Kaukonen (noon and 3 p.m.)
Sunday, Nov. 1 – The Upper Room’s 19th Annual Auction
Music Hall Live Under The Arch
Thursday, Oct. 8 – Great Bay Sailor
Saturday, Oct. 10 – Clements Brothers
Friday, Oct. 16 – Dwayne Haggins
Thursday, Oct. 22 – Kelly McFarland (comedy)
Thursday, Oct. 29 – Will Dailey
Swanzey Drive-In
Friday, Oct. 9 – Badfish
Thursday, Oct. 15 – Smith & Myers
Thursday, Oct. 22 – moe.
Friday, Oct. 23 – Dirty Heads
Indoor events
Capitol Center for the Arts
Friday, Oct. 9, and Saturday, Oct. 10 – Bob Marley (comedy), five shows total
Bank of New Hampshire Stage
Saturday, Oct. 17 – Grenon
Saturday, Oct. 24 – Rob Steen, Robbie Printz, Paul Landwehr
Saturday, Nov. 14 – Mica’s Groove Train
Saturday, Dec. 5 – River Sister
Rex Theatre
Friday, Oct. 9 – Kelly McFarland (Comedy)
Saturday, Oct. 10 – A Night of Elvis (Tribute)
Saturday, Oct. 17 – David Clark Songs in the Attic (Billy Joel Tribute)
Saturday, Oct. 24 – Town Meeting w/ George Barber
Thursday, Oct. 29 – Matt Nakoa
Saturday, Oct. 31 – Acoustic Grateful Dead w/ John Zevos & Friends
Palace Theatre
Saturday, Oct. 17 – Juston McKinney Comedy at a Distance (6 and 8:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 23 – British Rock Experience (runs through Oct. 31)
The Music Hall
Friday, Oct. 9 – The Mammals
Saturday, Oct. 17 – Sons of Serendip
Saturday, Oct. 24 – Josh Turner
Friday, Nov. 6 – Boston Comedy
Saturday, Nov. 7 – Nellie McKay
Friday, Nov. 13 – Combo Sabroso Quartet
Saturday, Nov. 14 – Patty Larkin
Sunday, Nov. 15 – Dan Brown’s Wild Symphony Benefit Concert
Sunday, Dec. 27 – Juston McKinney
Tupelo Music Hall
Saturday, Nov. 21 – Dueling Pianos 
Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5 – Gary Hoey Christmas 25^th Anniversary Show

Featured photo: Dwayne Haggins. Courtesy photo.