Author: Michael Witthaus

Tom Petty tribute show at Rex Theatre stars locals

Just a week after closing out a tour marking the 40th anniversary of his band The Heartbreakers by playing “American Girl” to a sold-out Hollywood Bowl crowd, Tom Petty was dead, of an accidental prescription drug overdose. Time hasn’t healed the wound to rock ’n’ roll, particularly for musicians who found him an inspiration.

Tributes aplenty popped up in the wake of Petty’s death, including a jam organized by Granite State of Mind radio host and music maven Rob Azevedo. At the time, he looked back on a long string of losses in the world of music with a feeling that this one hurt the most.

“When Lemmy passed, it was like I couldn’t believe he wasn’t dead yet; with Bowie there were rumors of cancer,” he said. “But nothing prepared me for Petty.”

Three years later, he plans another tribute, on the anniversary of Petty’s death: Friday, Oct. 2. The upcoming show at Manchester’s newest venue, the Rex Theatre, will shine a spotlight on the city’s music scene.

“I hand-picked artists from the Queen City,” Azevedo said in a recent phone interview. “I chose them because when they’re out gigging, they always include a couple of Petty tunes, and they do Petty better than I’ve ever heard anybody do Petty.”

The lineup includes downtown fixture Jonny Friday, who’ll open the show with “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” and singer songwriter Becca Myari, who caught Azevedo’s attention with a majestic version of “Free Fallin’” one night at the Wild Rover a while back. She’ll reprise that one, along with the double-entendre-laden “Cabin Down Below” and “Angel Dream (No. 4),” a nugget from the She’s The One soundtrack.

Scotty Cloutier, who divides his time between playing out and running sound at Shaskeen Pub, is “a guy that sometimes does Petty better than Petty,” Azevedo said, adding, “I know that sounds crazy … he must play 25 of his songs, and I know he just loves him more than anybody that I’ve ever met.”

The Graniteers feature singer guitarist Nick Ferrero, who is, according to Azevedo, “a bulletproof rocker from Manchester with a little punk in him,” with Monica Grasso on bass and vocals. The two are a couple; fittingly, one of the songs they’ll tackle is “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” done originally by Stevie Nicks and Petty.

Who Knows What is well known as the house band at Manchester’s Ukrainian Club but is pretty much obscure everywhere else. That’s by choice.

“The thing about them is they don’t leave the damn place,” Azevedo said. “They are one of the best bands around, but they don’t play anyplace else unless I book them for a show.”

Concord will represent in the form of Lucas Gallo, a musician, promoter and civic booster from the Capitol City, who recently premiered his new solo album at an outdoor show there. Gallo plans a mashup of “Breakdown” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” a move that Azevedo calls “very Jamantics” — referencing Gallo’s longtime band.

Having the show at the newly modernized Amherst Street venue will be a real treat for the performers.

“A lot of these artists are bangers, you know what I mean?” Azevedo said. “They don’t normally get to play a state-of-the-art place like The Rex Theatre.”

He praised Rex Executive Director Chuck Stergiou for booking hometown shows.

“I’ve had to do a bit of selling on the local music scene … to grow it takes time. Chuck has been behind us every step of the way, and we need people like him on our side,” he said.

This probably won’t be the last time Azevedo rounds up local talent to honor Petty, for him a legend and a hero, whose music is timeless and always welcome. “Every time you hear ‘American Girl’ on the radio,” he said, “it’s a song that you never not turn up, whether it’s the dead of winter or the blazing sun of summer. … You crank it up the minute you hit it.”

Three Years Gone – A Tom Petty Tribute
When: Friday, Oct. 2, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester
Tickets: $19 at the door, reserve by calling 668-5588

Featured photo: Tom Petty. Courtesy photo.

Boston supergroup plays free Concord show

With not quite two years behind them as a band, Neighbor has become a force on the New England music scene. They played two doubleheaders at Tupelo Drive-In this summer; both sold out in hours. Everywhere they go, fans follow for a sound that blends jam band joie de vivre with technical brilliance and lyrical savvy.

What began as an informal Tuesday night meetup that gave keyboard player, singer and songwriter Richard James (Pink Talking Fish) and guitarist Lyle Brewer (Ryan Montbleau Band) a chance to play together grew into a word-of-mouth sensation — particularly when they moved the party from a local craft brewery to Thunder Road in Somerville, Mass., in early 2019. Dan Kelly joined on bass along with drummer Dean Johnston, and crowd sizes from their early gigs grew exponentially.

One reason for this fervid response is that Neighbor is prolific — astonishingly so, with over 50 original songs, including a James/Brewer rock opera called Silver. Also, every show is different; James opined in a recent interview that the band’s devotees, who self-identify as “Neighbors,” deserve nothing less.

This was especially true when Neighbor ruled Tuesdays at Thunder Road. Then Covid-19 shut everything down on St. Patrick’s Day. Sadly, the pandemic forced the club to close permanently in late August.

“It was something more than just a residency, or a band doing their thing,” James said. “We had these people every week who were depending on us to not let them down musically … we would push the limits so they could have a new experience every week.”

The idea for a residency came to James after he went to New Orleans to study with pianist Jon Cleary, one of his idols.

“He’s trying out his new original music and playing classic New Orleans tunes, doing his own spin on it, and he’s staying relevant doing these residencies,” James said.

He went to see Cleary at Tipitina’s and a couple of his other regular gigs.

“When I got home I said, ‘I gotta get a residency,’” he said.

Neighbor hasn’t made a studio album — surprising for a band sitting on a box set or two of material. Instead they found a path like Phish or the Grateful Dead, both clear influences.

“When more and more people started paying attention, tapers got more serious about videoing each show,” James said.

There are now hours and hours of live clips on YouTube, some shot with multiple cameras, and 25 live albums currently available.

James, a vintage equipment buff who plays a Hohner Clavinet at shows, likes to package up the disks.

“Digital is cool, but when you actually hold something it’s just that much more important,” he said, adding with a wry laugh, “even if it’s, you know, something dead — people just love getting it, popping it in, and knowing where it came from.”

Granite State success was only a bit unexpected.

“The Neighbors say they want to keep it small, just for themselves, because they’re enjoying it so much; but they really do care about the growth of the band,” James said. “There happened to be a whole bunch of people in New Hampshire who got in on it … but I was a little surprised that the shows sold out so quick.”

Fortunately an upcoming Concord appearance at the Capital Arts Fest is free. Originally booked for Bank of NH Stage, the show was moved outdoors, in front of the Capitol Center for the Arts, just down the street.

James had to engage in last-minute negotiations with the promoters when he learned the expected length of Neighbor’s festival set — one hour.

“I said, ‘That’s not OK; we need more time,’” he said, noting that the demand stunned the venue. “They said, ‘Honestly, you’re the first band that’s ever wanted to work longer.’ But people are going to be coming from Maine, Cape Cod and the South Shore … to come all that way for an hour? Seventy-five minutes is still a little short, but it just means we’re going to have to do something that much more special.”

James’ thought was a continuation of something he’d said earlier, while attempting to state the band’s mission.

“It’s to really get stars in people’s eyes, make them say, ‘Oh my God, this is interesting — this isn’t just a show, this is something more,’” he said. “Getting the people involved is just so important for us.

Capital Arts Fest
Spend the first weekend of fall outdoors, browsing fine arts and crafts in downtown Concord while listening to live music from bands like Neighbor. The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s third annual Capital Arts Fest will take place Saturday, Sept. 26, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Compared to last year’s event, which featured more than 70 craftsmen, this year’s festival will be smaller in scale, but Miriam Carter, executive director of the League, said the two dozen juried artists who are participating are eager to get out and interact with the public and showcase their work.
“People get to experience crafts on the street in a really wonderful way — maybe a different way, but still a wonderful way,” Carter said.
The difference this year, of course, is that the League will follow all of the city’s Covid-19 safety protocols, including its mask ordinance and social distancing guidelines, Carter said, with the tents set up 10 feet apart.
But there will still be all kinds of art and fine crafts to shop for, including jewelry, porcelain pottery, prints, mosaics, wood furniture, decorative and wearable fiber crafts, glass sculptures and more.
Carter said League member Stephen Procter, a potter who makes oversized clay pots that are several feet high, will be doing demonstrations throughout both days.
“He builds them in sections, and it’s really a fascinating process to see a large pot come together,” Carter said.
The artists will be set up outside the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen headquarters at 49 S. Main St., across from the Capitol Center for the Arts, which is sponsoring the live music that’s scheduled throughout both days of the festival.
“We’re just trying to adapt and find the silver lining in anything we do,” Carter said.

Capital Arts Fest Live Music Lineup
All shows will take place in front of the Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord.

Saturday, Sept. 26
11 a.m. – Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki & Matt Jensen
1 p.m. – Don Campbell Band
3 p.m. – The Rebel Collective
7 p.m. – Neighbor

Sunday, Sept. 27
11 a.m. – Wellfleet
2 p.m. – Young Frontier

Featured photo: Neighbor. Courtesy photo.

Conniption Fits deliver solid new album

Quarantine produced a variety of reactions from the music community. Some performers polished and completed projects long in progress. Others played nonstop on Facebook Live, while dreaming of an open bar. Some were too busy homeschooling their kids to write songs. And a few made creation a mission — like Stevens Blanchard, who decided to build a new record from scratch. The result, This Useless Thread, is one of the best things done by his band, The Conniption Fits. It’s full of the present moment, from the modern struggle to find harmony in “Harder Than It Is,” which leads things off, to “Forms in the Gaslight” and its complaints about lying leaders.

It offers layered harmonies and majestic guitar swathed in sonic sheen evoking ’90s power rockers like Foo Fighters, Green Day and Muse. Blanchard echoes The Edge on “Slipping Jimmy” and crushes the crunch funk of “Money Goes” without being derivative. Ditto the double entendre pop of “White Lies” and the pulsing title song; the sound is all their own.

This Useless Thread is their first album of all new material since 2012’s Friends With Benefits, though the “greatest hits” CD Misinformed Informant, released three years ago, contained a smattering of new songs. The band’s current lineup is Blanchard on guitar and vocals, bass player Jamie Hosley and drummer Jeff Samataro.

In a recent interview, Blanchard talked about the process of creation and how it kept him going in a difficult, challenging time.

“I made it a point that every morning I would get up and go into the studio and lay down some tracks,” he said. “It’s crazy; you do the work and you actually … are productive.”

Blanchard returned from a trip to Switzerland at the end of February “just in time for everything to shut down for three months,” he said.

He had a lot of ideas kicking around.

“All Conniption Fits albums start with me,” he said. “I come up with chords, melody, lyrics, then put it together in some sort of form.”

Once he finished a rough track, it was sent off to Samataro.

“Jeff put his drum input on it, his rhythm things, and that sometimes made us go back a little bit and retool,” Blanchard said. “Then we have the benefit of doing Jamie on bass last. … He can really lock in with whatever Jeff did. I always like to say he replaces my crappy tracks with real ones.”

There’s a cohesive, well, thread throughout the new album.

“That’s the really cool thing about doing things so fast; you’re very consistent in thoughts, and I was in a very specific head space,” Blanchard said. “I listened to a lot of stuff. … Sometimes I want to do a song that leans more electronic or one that’s sort of rootsy and organic, then run it through the Conniption Fits mill. It sort of comes out being us, you know?”

The band is usually one of the busiest in the state, a solid draw at places like Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester, Goffstown’s Village Trestle and Stumble Inn in Londonderry. Since June, though, it’s been an average of just one gig a week.

“That’s like a quarter of what we normally do through the summer, and we’re lucky to get one,” Blanchard said. “It’s usually decent money, but that’s all it is.”

On Sept. 27 — Blanchard’s birthday — they’ll close out Rochester’s Porch Festival with an “afterparty” show at The Garage, adjacent to the Governor’s Inn, a venue the Fits have played for years.

“They have been gracious enough to have us,” Blanchard said, adding that he energetically pitched his band for the event.

“I was just thinking of all the venues possible that could do public shows,” he said. “Because we’ve been doing all these private shows, and while they’re great we still want to perform for fans, where people can attend and also feel safe and comfortable. I think that’s one of the best outdoor venues to try something like this.”

The Conniption Fits
When: Sunday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
Where: The Garage at Governor’s Inn, 78 Wakefield St., Rochester
Tickets: $10 at the door