Author: Michael Witthaus

Currier hosts Doctor Gasp & the Eeks

In October 2001, inspired by being a moaning cowboy ghost in a haunted house, Dan Blakeslee wrote his own Halloween song and performed it a few nights later at the Press Room in Portsmouth. The moment he finished, Blakeslee apologized and promised the crowd he’d never attempt anything like it again.

The audience, however, had other ideas.

“I wrote one song, and I didn’t like it, but everyone there said, ‘man, you gotta do more of this stuff,’” Blakeslee recalled in a recent phone interview. The next year, he began a tradition that’s lasted for two decades, appearing as his spooky alter ego Doctor Gasp, with his band The Eeks — Mike Effenberger on keys, bassist Nick Phaneuf and drummer Jim Rudolf.

Blakeslee even managed to perform 10 frosty shows outdoors during the pandemic year.

“I love doing this stuff so much, it really feeds my soul,” he said. “It’s my favorite holiday, since I was a kid.”

Eighteen dates are booked for the 20th anniversary, including the first in Manchester since an early 2010s appearance at Jewell & the Beanstalk, a now-shuttered restaurant. The free show on Oct. 13 at the Currier Museum is part of the weekly Art After Work series. It will feature selections from the two Doctor Gasp & The Eeks albums, 2003’s Vampire Fish and 2013’s Vampire Fish For Two.

Setlists always include Blakeslee’s bang-up version of Bobby Boris Pickett’s “Monster Mash” and “Witchtrot Road,” the song that started it all in 2001. Always a highlight, “Teeth of Candycorn” should be a seasonal standard. It’s a hurdy gurdy howler with a haunting and addictive chorus, based on a real person.

“I wrote that about a friend of mine who I call the King of Halloween,” Blakeslee said. “Go into his place, and it’s literally Halloween year-round in there. It’s crazy, it’s awesome. Early on, when we were first starting to get to know each other, he told me he was born with teeth of candy corn. I’m like, ‘OK, I have got to write a song about this.’”

In 2012 the band mapped out a tour itinerary in the shape of a pumpkin, an effort that found him playing in a few strange places simply to connect the dots. This time around, “it looks more like a scribble” according to Blakeslee. But he did do something special for the two-decade landmark, illustrating a novella written by friend and fellow musician Brian Serven called Lore of the Jack-O’-Lantern.

Blakeslee’s reputation as an artist almost overshadows his music. He’s drawn posters for Newport Folk Festival, the iconic Hearts For Boston riff on Zakim Bridge, created in response to the Marathon Bombing in 2013, and Alchemist Brewing’s Heady Topper label, voted the industry’s best in a craft beer poll.

His pen and ink talents were a natural for the task, but it took a while to happen.

“Brian asked me if I would illustrate the book, and at the time things were just too hectic,” he recalled. “I was going on my first cross-country tour and there was a lot of activity that year, so he kind of put the book on the back burner. In 2021, he asked again if I could do it, so I carved out a good chunk of this year to make it happen, and I’m so glad I did. The book is so beautifully written, it’s super intriguing and it’s a great read for all ages.”

A first printing sold out at a Sept. 30 book release show, but Blakeslee held out hope that there may be a few copies at his Currier appearance. Barring that, the singer always has plenty of his own works of art on the merch table — lithographs, posters and other collectibles.

The tour will again end on Halloween night at the Press Room, where Blakeslee will share the stage with Soggy Po’ Boys front man Stu Dias’s band Cirque Desolate. As winter approaches, the Doctor Gasp persona will give way to Christmas — Blakeslee released an album in 2020 to honor his second-favorite holiday.

He’d like to blend both into a single show one day, sometime during the sweet spot between pumpkin spice latte and mistletoe seasons. “I did that during the pandemic, set up my kitchen with Halloween décor and then turned the camera to my living room, which is decorated completely for Christmas. We changed costumes and everything; it was pretty wild.”

Doctor Gasp’s 20th Annual Halloween Special
When: Thursday, Oct. 13, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester
Tickets: doctorgasp.com and currier.org

Featured photo: Doctor Gasp. Courtesy photo.

Jewel hosts Evanoff’s return to Manchester

With the February release of Singularity, Denver-based power trio Evanoff gave its signature “dream rock” sound a harder edge. Though not the stuff of nightmares, the new album reflects the many discontents brought about by technology and its ubiquity. Each track on the all-instrumental effort ends with a statement about what lead guitarist J.J. Evanoff said in a recent interview is “a very special point in humanity, where technology and us have become nearly inseparable.”

Singularity is not all techno dystopia, however, though the music is often jarring. It’s more metal than the arena rock cum jamtronica that made Evanoff a headliner in their hometown and a big draw in places like Manchester. They appear in the city for the second time this year on Friday, Oct. 7, at Jewel Music Venue.

“We need to be aware of how technology is affecting us and our perception of reality, both good and bad,” keyboard player Brennan Forrester explained as the band headed toward Ohio after shows in Chicago and Grand Rapids. “People talk a lot about how addicted we are to social media, but information has never been accessible like this. If you use it for your benefit, it’s like a superpower.”

However, their first studio effort after several live releases was inspired less by Big Tech angst than by a need to make a cohesive statement that speaks loudest as a force of musical power. Evanoff noted he and Forrester came up with the record’s spoken word vignettes during a six-hour mezcal-fueled writing session. Its songs, on the other hand, took months of development in open-ended jam sessions to find their form.

“Getting to finally create a real concept album is something I feel like I’ve dreamed of since I was 10 years old,” Evanoff, who cites the Who’s Quadrophenia and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon as influences, said. “So the fact that we were actually able to do that was extremely creatively fulfilling.”

It also spurred a burst of new music, much of which they’re playing on the current tour. Along with fresh songs is a better stage show than they’d previously been able to mount on the road. “The set we’re running has a unique, almost storyesque-like flow to it, mixing in all these monologues and different pieces from our debut,” Evanoff said. “It showcases what the album was all about essentially, in a more long-form musical piece.”

Forrester added, “we spend a lot of time just thinking about what’s going to make the show the most fun and entertaining for the audience, and for us. So we’re getting away with a lot of things that we wanted to do for a while now; it’s super fun to play.”

The new music, Evanoff said, “definitely has a more aggressive, heavy sound … but I’d say on Singularity, apart from the heavy guitars and rock elements, there’s a lot of lush spatial things. I feel like that’s where we’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from for the new stuff.”

Far from being a different direction for the group, “for us it was really going back to our roots a little bit,” Evanoff said. “We all grew up listening to heavy rock music. It was really powerful to channel where we came from as musicians.”

Headier still is merging it with their well-honed sound. Lately, the band has taken to revamping earlier songs with their newfound edge. “During our live show, it gives this beautiful contrast,” Forrester said. “It speaks to the narrative of Singularity, the dark and light side of the technological revolution that we’re all experiencing in the world right now.”

Asked about the quick return to the Granite State — the band played a sold-out show at Shaskeen in mid-April — Evanoff answered, “We can’t stay away, man. We love Manchester. It really is becoming like a second home. When we’re on the road, it’s like a little island among all of our tour dates. I know we’re going to have a great time just because of the people. They are so much fun and bring so much energy.”

Forrester agreed. “We’ve developed a real community there,” he said. “I look forward to it every single year; that’s one of my favorite shows.”

Both stressed that even local fans who’ve seen the band before will be surprised this time around. “There’s going to be parts of the show that I don’t think people will expect,” Evanoff said. “We’ve got some tricks up our sleeves Manchester hasn’t seen yet.”

Evanoff
When: Friday, Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St., Manchester
Tickets: $20 at azpresents.com

Featured photo: Evanoff.