Category: Featured Content

Granite State Songs

Rex triple bill spotlights New Hampshire talent

A showcase of singer-songwriters coming up at Manchester’s Rex Theatre will depart from the more common in-the-round “song pull” format and instead will allow the three featured performers — Cosy Sheridan, Kate Redgate and Jon Nolan — to stretch out with their bands.

The show is dubbed 603 Folk, though the music ranges beyond that to roots, rock and pop-inflected Americana.

Born in Concord, Sheridan is the veteran of the evening. She came up in the early ’90s folk boom after winning both Kerrville Folk Festival’s NewSong Award and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour Contest. She was a fixture on the regional festival circuit, appearing at Newport and Falcon Ridge, among others. After a long stint living in Utah, she recently moved back to New Hampshire.

The other two have a lot in common, in their music and life choices. Redgate made an impact in 2009 with her LP Nothing Tragic but left the business soon after to raise her two children. However, as recounted in 2023 to writer Chris Hislop, Redgate didn’t stop writing, she simply “stopped trying to have a career doing it.”

That would change when the potent Light Under the Door was released a year ago. Nolan, who’s best-known for his time in the band Say ZuZu, produced, played guitar and co-wrote all but one song on the album. He’s a close friend of Redgate’s; like her, the singer-guitarist has recently returned to making music after leaving it to focus on family.

After lots of buzz, a few near record deals and 11 years together, Say ZuZu disbanded in 2003. After that, “I’d kind of broken up with music,” Nolan said by phone recently. He built a studio, did some solo work, but otherwise, “leaned into my day job for a minute.” While writing for the now defunct The Wire magazine he launched the RPM Challenge, which asks musicians to record and release an album during the month of February; it’s grown into a worldwide effort.

In the middle of the pandemic, a label that had almost signed Say ZuZu suddenly reached out.

“It was sort of this left at the altar thing,” Nolan said of the near-miss with New West Records. Twenty years later owner George Fontaine Sr. “called us back and said, ‘Hey, sorry about that; do you want to do that now?’ We were like, ‘Yes, George, we would.’

He created Strolling Bones Records for them and released Say ZuZu’s back catalog as Here Again: A Retrospective (1994-2002). In 2023 the group made No Time to Lose, its first studio album since 2002’s Every Mile. The revival helped Nolan “fall back in love with music and find a new way to experience joy,” he said.

Soon he was writing solo songs again, many of which will be in an upcoming Jon Nolan & Good Company album. The group includes Geoff Taylor, Rick Habib (who’s also Redgate’s drummer), Zach Tremblay and Roland Nicol.

“I found sort of a creative renaissance; it really feels like it uncorked a thing I had when ZuZu broke up,” Nolan said. “I think I just needed to break through something personally, and we’re all kind of doing that together as Good Company. I turned over the soil for all of us, found some fresh roots.”

The surprising Say ZuZu reunion inspired a documentary about the band, currently being worked on by Mississippi filmmaker Christian Harrison. He’d heard about the band from Kevin Guyer, who ran beloved Rock Bottom Records in Portsmouth for a couple of decades before moving south 15 years ago.

“It’s an unheard-of story in the music industry, and it’s not born of some desire to get rich,” Nolan said. “It’s not, ‘what I need to do is call a bunch of 50-year-old guys who haven’t been on the road in 10 years, that’ll be the next hit.’”

Asked about the upcoming show at The Rex, Nolan called himself “a longtime admirer of Cosy,” adding, “she was a couple years ahead of me when I was coming up … a staple in the folk scene before she moved out west and returned. I don’t think I’ve ever played a gig with her, but I’ve enjoyed her music for decades now.”

He and Redgate may join each other during the evening, he continued.

“I’m looking forward to playing in a different room; it looks charming,” he said. “I love the idea of three different writers, three different voices and three different perspectives coming at music from a similar pantry of ingredients, but each with their own distinct style.

603 Folk: An Evening of NH-Based Singer-Songwriters
When: Sunday, Feb. 3, 7:30pm
Where: Red Theater, 23 Amherst St., Manchester
Tickets: $29 at palacetheater.org

Featured photo: 603 Folk. Courtesy.

American Fiction (R)

A writer creates a drunken joke that wins wide acclaim in American Fiction.

Fun note: that’s also kind of the plot to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and American Fiction also shares some structural similarities with Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and both those things make me love this movie even more.

We meet author Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), called Monk by nearly everybody, as he tangles with a college student (who is white) in the class he’s teaching over assigned readings that use racial epithets. It’s literature of the American South, his prickly explanation goes, if he can get over it so can she. She leaves the class in tears and Monk is called into a meeting with various deans where it’s explained that maybe he should take some mandatory time off. He heads to a book festival in Boston where he finds himself on panel discussion with an audience that could be generously described as a “smattering” of people. He learns his panel is at the same time as an event featuring Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), whose book We’s Lives in Da Ghetto is the hot book of the moment. It’s gritty and real and honest and raw, says everybody. To Monk, it’s a crass money grab by Golden, an Oberlin graduate who works in publishing, who is just feeding white editors and white readers a stereotype of Black life.

Monk’s life frustrations continue as he spends time with his family: his sister Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) is a busy doctor still recovering financially from her divorce and caring for their widowed mother Agnes (Leslie Uggums), who lives in the family home with longtime housekeeper Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor). Lisa tries to explain that Monk and brother Clifford (Sterling K. Brown), who lives in Tucson (Monk lives in L.A.), haven’t been home enough to realize that their mom seems to be fading in terms of her memory and possibly her ability to live alone. When Lisa suddenly dies, Monk finds himself basically out of work and dealing with a mother who possibly needs very expensive care. With Lisa gone, Clifford struggling after his own divorce and Monk not receiving money, his only hope is his recent book, which agent Arthur (John Ortiz) is struggling to find a publisher for. It’s not “Black enough,” is what Arthur says he’s being told by the publishers, despite Monk’s arguments that he is Black and these are his stories.

Thus does a beleaguered Monk get drunk and get writing. He pens a story called My Pafology (after starting with “My Pathology”) full of every stereotype and flat depiction of hacky portrayals of African American life he can think of, with bad dialogue we see his characters work out in front of him. He jokingly sends it to Arthur and later tells him to send it around as something between a prank and a protest over what publishers seem to think constitutes “Black stories.” Except, of course, a publisher loves it, offers him more money than he’s ever been paid before for a book and quickly there’s talk of a film.

While the book by “Stagg R. Leigh” (Monk’s pen name for his prank) is receiving increasing acclaim (and even FBI interest because Arthur decides on the fly that “Stagg” is a criminal on the run), an ill-at-ease Monk is trying to find the nicest possible assisted living facility for his mom. He’s not delighted that cheeseball producer Wiley Valdespino (just a perfect Adam Brody) is looking to make a movie of his book but he also isn’t in a position to turn down an offer that includes the word “million.”

Of course the horrible thing is going to be the thing that hits — The Producers and 30+ years of the internet have taught us all this — but American Fiction tells this story through the lens of Monk’s late middle-age frustrations at all the things that have not worked out. Monk is funny like a sad three-legged dog, is how Clifford describes him to Coraline (Erika Alexander), the woman Monk starts dating. Jeffrey Wright perfectly captures this, sort of the quality of a guy tangled up in his own sweater and not able to fight his way out. He tries to operate as somebody on a higher plane, somebody who doesn’t see race (as he explains while not getting a cab that instead stops for the white guy half a block away) and doesn’t tolerate Gen Z discomfort. But he is also delightfully petty (attempting to move his books in a chain bookstore and getting into a fight with a college colleague about the quality of the colleague’s “airport novels”) and, as his family points out, is more emotionally detached than evolved. Even his frustrations with Sintara, who he eventually sits on a judging panel with, seem to have as much to do with the fact that she’s successful (and at such a young age, comparatively) as with his feelings about how she found that success.

The comedy of American Fiction is, of course, fun and has its laugh-out-loud moments. But the movie also has a lot of truly poignant little bits about family — the way Monk relates to his siblings, the way the family is still operating with the memory of their father who died years earlier, what it means to become a parent’s caretaker. And it’s all delivered via one killer performance after another. Wright and Brown both received Oscar nominations (for actor and supporting actor, respectively; the movie is also nominated for adapted screenplay and best picture) but Tracee Ellis Ross and even smaller roles, like Keith David’s appearance as a character Monk conjures up for his book, hit their notes just right. A

Rated R for language throughout, some drug use, sexual references and brief violence, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Cord Jefferson (and based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett), American Fiction is an hour and 57 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures & Orion Releasing.

Featured photo: American Fiction.

Catching up with Oscar

A look at some of the films on the nomination list

First and foremost, Oscar nominations are a list of movies worth checking out.

While the Oscar nerds among us might still be arguing whether Gretas Gerwig and Lee were robbed (yes) or if Saltburn should have been a contender somewhere (eh), it’s nice to occasionally remind oneself (me) that the Oscars can also help you catch up on the movies from the previous year you may have missed and the movies, like most of the International Film list and pretty much all but one of the shorts, that you (I) haven’t even heard of. (Find a list of all the nominees, announced last week, at oscars.org.)

And, many of these films are available at home.

Of the 10 Best Picture nominees, currently, American FictionandPoor Things (in theaters) and The Zone of Interest (in theaters in Boston and slated to come to Red River Theatres in Concord in February) are not available for home viewing. (The Zone of Interest is the one movie on the list of 10 I haven’t seen yet.) Anatomy of a Fall, Past Livesand Oppenheimer are available for rent or purchase. Barbie (Max), The Holdovers (Peacock) and Killers of the Flower Moon(Apple TV+) are available via VOD and through a streaming service. Maestro is only on Netflix.

Plenty other nominees are also available for home viewing.

Rustin (Netflix) was the one movie on the list of five acting nominees I hadn’t seen yet (and the only one that doesn’t have a movie in the “best picture” category). Colman Domingo plays Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist for the middle chunk of the 20th century who had a hand in a variety of movements for racial and workers rights, including, as documented here, in the 1963 March on Washington. Rustin was smart, funny, highly competent — and gay, a fact that made him a target for those in (old guard politicians) and out (the FBI) of the movement. Though this movie was written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black, it has that very Aaron Sorkin feel — with people listing off accomplishments, learning to compromise, finding common ground. I don’t know if that makes it competence porn, exactly, but there is a very “chicken soup for a politically liberal soul” feel to the way it shows Rustin working with all the coalitions involved in the event. We also get his friendship with Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen), drawn in a way that helps to remind you that this iconic figure was also a political person, who had to deal with the same pushes and pulls that would be familiar today. B+

Nyad (Netflix) is the actress category version of this (biopic, no Best Picture nomination, I hadn’t seen it yet). Annette Bening is Diana Nyad, an athlete whose claims to fame include distance swimming. After trying but failing to swim from Cuba to Florida as a twenty-something in the 1970s, she decides to try again in the 2010s, shortly after turning 60. This requires Nyad to train for distance swims again — first spending hours in a pool and then heading to more open water. In addition to just the physical differences of being 60, other challenges of the swim include strong (and changing) currents, weather, sharks and jellyfish. Jodie Foster, playing Nyad’s longtime friend and an athletic trainer who agrees to help Nyad train Bonnie Stoll, is also nominated for a supporting actress award. Bonnie and Diana are, as they both explain at various parts in the movie, each other’s person. Though not a romantic couple, they help to get each other through and bolster each other. Bonnie also helps Diana be more of a human who can relate to other humans. Diana Nyad as shown here is the personification of the phrase “she’s A Lot.” At a toast with her crew before one Cuban attempt, Nyad basically talks about herself and how great this is for her, with Bonnie having to step in to thank the team. Nyad is driven, sometimes to the exclusion of everyone around her. She is also extremely hard on herself and carries all sorts of baggage from a turbulent childhood and sexual assault by her swimming coach as a teen. Bening’s performance is a solid “great but flawed” athlete performance but there really is something extra to what Foster’s doing, something that gets to the emotions of a long-term partnership. B+

The only other acting nomination going to someone not in a Best Picture nominee is Danielle Brooks’ supporting actress nomination for The Color Purple, the musical based on the book of the same name and currently available via VOD and on Max. I reviewed the movie last week and thought it was fine, with Brooks definitely a standout performance.

In the writing categories — original and adapted — there is only one nominee not up for a Best Picture nod. Killers of the Flower Moon did not get a writing nod, but May December (Netflix) did. With a screenplay by Samy Burch, this Todd Haynes-directed movie (which I reviewed a while back) stars Natalie Portman playing an actress who has come to meet and study a woman (Julianne Moore) who decades earlier as a thirty-something had an affair/criminal relationship with a 13-year-old boy that sent her to jail. They later married; the movie is set when their youngest children are graduating from high school. It’s a dark, occasionally bleakly funny movie but it is also extremely hard to watch.

Some of the other nominees I’ve caught up with recently:

• The Creator(VOD and Hulu) This sci-fi movie starring John David Washington is set in a future where America is at war with a country called New Asia where AI robots of all sorts — from robots that kind of resemble those pointed-headed Phantom Menace bots to simulants that look almost human — live in relative peace with the human population. America is dead set on eliminating AI creatures and is on the hunt for a rumored weapon that could take down the U.S.’s NOMAD aircraft, a giant metaphor for drones, I mean, a large plane thing that blows up villages with both precision and widespread destruction. Washington plays a former Army sergeant lured back for one more mission with the hope that he will be able to find Maya (Gemma Chan), the wife he thought had died years earlier. It is a solid adventure story and is nominated in the sound and visual effects categories. B+

• The Last Repair Shop (Hulu & Disney+) Nominated in the Documentary Short Film category, this 39-minute film about Los Angeles students, the instruments they play and the adults who fix those instruments is a charmer. We hear the stories of kids talking about what music means to them and we hear from the adults talking about how they came to repair instruments, many with their own musical journeys. A

• The ABCs Of Book Banning (Paramount+) Another short that makes good use of kid interview subjects, this Documentary Short Film (27 minutes) talks to kids about books that have been banned, challenged or restricted at public school libraries. The standouts here are the incredibly thoughtful kids who don’t get why a picture book about two penguins adopting a baby penguin (And Tango Makes Three) or, for older kids, books about the Holocaust (The Diary of Anne Frank, Maus) are not appropriate. The other star: a 100-year-old World War II soldier’s widow speaking at a school board meeting against book banning. That lady deserves her own doc. B

• Ninety-Five Senses (on smallscreenings.org/mast/ninety-five-senses/film) I found this Animated Short Film nominee thanks to the Oscar movies guide on AllYourScreens.com. Tim Blake Nelson’s voice accompanies the beautiful watercolor and sketch visuals of the story. A man on what we come to learn is his last day discusses his life as connected to his five senses. B+

• The After (Netflix) This Live Action Short Film nominee (18 minutes) stars David Oyelowo as a grief-overwhelmed man just trying to get through his day as a driver for a ride service and facing what finally breaks him. Oyelowo’s performance makes the movie. B

• Four Daughters (rent or purchase or streaming on Kino Film Collection) A Documentary Feature Film nominee, this movie about a Tunisian mother, Olfa, and her four daughters is a blend of documentary and reenactment, with actors playing her two oldest daughters, who ran away to join ISIS (and are now in jail in Libya), the real life younger daughters and another actor occasionally playing Olfa. The movie is not what you think at first, not a straightforward afterschool special-ish take on teen girls being sucked in by a dangerous organization — there are shipping containers of baggage related to Olfa’s young life, her turbulent relationship with her daughters, the violent men who were in their lives and the violence that was a part of their lives out in the world. The movie is mournful and disturbing but you also can’t look away. B+

• 20 Days in Mariupol (available for rent or purchase and at pbs.org) This Documentary Feature Film nominee features footage shot by AP journalist Mstyslav Chernov, one of the very few journalists in Mariupol, Ukraine, during the Russian invasion. Though we hear some of Chernov narrating what he’s seeing or how the war makes him worry about his own family elsewhere, the documentary is at its strongest when it’s just showing regular people trying to get through the war — sheltering underground, trying to get information about how to keep their families safe, trying to get medical help after a bombing. Footage of a mother crying “why, why” after hospital staff telling her they couldn’t save her child or a father sobbing “my son, my son” after his teenager is pronounced dead — both children killed in bombings — is among the movie’s most impactful moments. B+

Featured photo: The Creator.

What’s in your glass?

Learn about wine for fun or profit

Wine on Main is not only a cozy storefront where shoppers can acquire locally created artisanal crafts or boutique bottles of wine from New Hampshire and beyond. It’s also a place where people can quench their thirst for knowledge about wine.

Wine on Main, at 9 N. Main St. in downtown Concord, is owned by Emma Stetson. “My job is to pick the best wine for the customers at the store,” Stetson said.

Two courses from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust will be hosted here later this month. WSET, which sets industry standards for wine and spirits across the globe, selected Wine on Main as an official location for its Level I & II certification courses.

“There are only a handful of those around the world, so it is exciting that they are coming to Concord,” Stetson said. “They want to make sure we are following all the rules since this is an industry standard certificate.”

Stetson said “the WSET was invaluable” in deepening her understanding of wine.

The Level I course takes two evenings to complete and will run Tuesday, Feb. 20, and Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 6 to 9 p.m.; the cost is $399 per person. Level II will take place over that weekend of Saturday, Feb. 24, and Sunday, Feb. 25, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and costs $899 per person. Wine enthusiasts who participate in Level II will have an option to take the exam at another time if needed. Both tests, for levels I and II, are multiple choice.

“If people want to do the two courses together, there is a discount,” Stetson said. Participants may skip Level I and go straight to Level II as well. Group discounts apply too.

This is not the first time these courses have been offered at Wine on Main. The inaugural classes held last August were an enormous success with a 100 percent passing rate for both levels.

“A lot of people who took the Level I course were customers who were interested in learning more,” Stetson said.

She said the course “is not just a fun wine class that you take with your friends on a Tuesday night” — Wine on Main has many of those, such as a recent wine-pairing collaboration with New Hampshire Doughnut Co. But participants regardless of their level of wine knowledge should expect a good time. This course “caters to wine enthusiasts who want to know more,” as well as those in the wine business, “to put on their resume.” With WSET courses, participants “walk away with a certificate that is internationally recognized.”

The courses are taught by Master of Wine and New Hampshire native Lindsay Pomeroy, who also taught the courses at Wine on Main in August. There are only around 400 people in the world able to claim the Master of Wine title.

Pomeroy, a lifelong teacher who started a wine education company called Wine Smarties in San Diego in 2006, welcomes students of any level of expertise to Wine on Main this February. “Some of my best students are not even in the industry. Level I is very fun,” she said. The course “gives you a perspective, grounding, and a foundation,” she said, noting “you can’t be a great wine taster without any knowledge.” Pomeroy exudes joy about helping anyone willing to sign up “to be able to unlock and explain the wine. It is a fun puzzle.”

Stetson, a Level II & III WSET certificate holder herself, explained that those signed up for the Level I course “learn how to taste the wine and you learn how to describe the wine. You learn about the grapes, and you learn about the region.” The Level II course is longer and builds on Level I. Participants learn to decipher wine labels and select the best wine for the occasion. Level II delves into “more specific regions and more atypical grapes and wines,” Stetson said. The registration deadlines are Feb. 3 for the Level I class and Feb. 9 for Level II.

Wine and Spirit Education Trust classes
Wine on Main, 9 N. Main St., Concord
Level I

Tuesday, Feb. 20, and Wednesday, Feb. 21, 6 to 9 p.m.
$399 per person; $340 group rate
Level II

Saturday, Feb. 24, and Sunday, Feb. 25, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
$899 per person; $801 4+ group rate

More info: wineonmainnh.com, winesmarties.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Wine and Chocolate

Classes create pairings for dinner and dessert

Other than red roses, nothing says “valentine” more than chocolate and wine, and LaBelle Winery will capitalize on this tantalizing pairing with two classes in February, available at LaBelle’s Derry and Amherst locations. Classes will meet from 6 to 7 p.m. and admission for each session is $40.

Chocolate Desserts & Wine Pairing is described as a special wine pairing event for lovers of decadent chocolate desserts.

“This is one of my favorite classes,” said LaBelle Winery Sommelier Marie King. “We pair four delicious wines with four specially made desserts made with white, milk, dark and spiced chocolates made by our amazing pastry chef, Sara Mercier.” The wine menu for the evening will include White Chocolate Mousse paired withLaBelle Cranberry; Milk Chocolate Pot de Creme paired withLaBelle Americus; Dark Chocolate Brownie paired withLaBelle Dry Blueberry; and Chocolate Cayenne Truffle paired withLaBelle Petit Verdot.

“I like to keep the class informal, fun, and have guests leave with a little more knowledge about wine and how to pair it,” King said.

Cooking with Wine & Chocolate, facilitated by Amy LaBelle and Executive Chef Justin Bernatchez, is an entertaining interactive cooking class demonstration. Guests will have the opportunity to sample fried chicken with chocolate BBQ sauce, steak with The Winemaker’s Kitchen Cocoa BBQ Spice Blend, Mexican mole sauce, and Chocolate Decadence Dessert — each paired with a LaBelle wine.

One of the surprising things people learn about cooking with chocolate is that it can be used to make savory dishes.

“Think of Mexican mole sauce,” King said. “The sweetness is an underlying note to the savory spicy notes of the dishes. Cocoa powder and dark chocolate, which are most often used for cooking, are actually quite bitter. The sweetness we equate with chocolate is from the sugar, milk and flavorings added to the bitter cocoa.”

What makes wine and chocolate compatible?

“Everything is better when paired well,” according to King. “We like to say that pairing wine and food well elevates the enjoyment of both. Finding what is compatible or contrasting between the wine and chocolate makes for fantastic pairings that neither the food or wine can create separately.”

Although many people tend to think that red is the only wine that can be paired with chocolate, King disagrees: “It does not have to be red wine with chocolate. It especially does not work well with white or ruby chocolate. Fruit or dessert wines are also fun to pair with chocolates.”

“Milk chocolate is sweeter, has less of a perception of tannins and is creamier on the palate. Dark chocolate is more bitter; you can perceive the tannins more easily and [it’s] less creamy on the palate. You might be able to pair both with a wine that is fruit-driven but also tannic, but one chocolate will generally pair better than the other depending on which characteristic dominates,” King said.

Which wines are best paired with white chocolate? “We like to use our Cranberry and Cranberry Riesling, but I have also had success with Seyval, riesling and Shimmer. If the white chocolate has citrus notes, it makes it even easier,” King said.

King noted that rosés have “more tannins than the average white and more acidity than the average red.”

“I am a sparkling girl, so I always try to find foods to pair with sparkling wines,” she said. “Our Tempest sparkling wine is great with milk chocolate as it has raspberry notes and the bubbles help to cleanse the palate from the buttery texture.”

Chocolate Desserts & Wine Pairing
Wednesday, Feb. 7, from 6 to 7 p.m.
LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101, Amherst
$40

Chocolate Desserts & Wine Pairing
Wednesday, Feb. 14, from 6 to 7 p.m.
LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry
$40

Cooking with Wine & Chocolates
Thursday, Feb. 15
LaBelle Winery, 345 Route 101, Amherst
$40

Cooking with Wine & Chocolates
Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 6 to 7 p.m.
LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry
$40

For more info or to register, visit labellewinery.com/public-winery-events

Featured photo: Wines paired with chocolates. Courtesy photo.

Roller Revival

A look at a new roller risk and advice on picking your perfect skates

A New spin

Remix Roller Rink offer all-ages fun

By: Michael Witthaus

Remix Roller Rink. Courtesy photo.

With the opening of Remix Skate and Event Center in December, New Hampshire now has a commercial roller rink, its first since 2019, when Great View Rollerskating in Enfield closed. The new business, however, isn’t a throwback, even if their logo’s stripey lettering evokes the ’70s roller disco craze. Rather, it’s a modern take on the concept, aimed at multiple demographics.

Along with a capacious hardwood rink, Remix offers several swankier touches, like upscale pub food, craft beer and a machine that makes design-etched cotton candy. Children’s birthday parties are a staple, but Remix also hosts things geared to an older crowd, like an 18+ R&B Night held Jan. 6, and similar ’90s and Latin events.

Matt and Kelly Pearson were rollerbladers in high school but haven’t skated much since. They’re also entrepreneurs, who tend to start businesses that align with their lives at a given moment. Before they met, Matt was a wedding DJ. After marriage and kids, they opened Cowabunga’s Indoor Kids Play & Party Center on Huse Road in Manchester.

Their oldest child, a son, is now 16 and has outgrown jungle gyms. Rather than buy him a minibike or snowmobile, the Pearsons began eyeing the now-vacant space next to Cowabunga’s and thinking about a solution for other teenagers like theirs. They considered opening a bowling alley, which didn’t particularly excite them, then thought about expanding the indoor playground, but soon the two began conceiving Remix.

“That kind of vibe is ingrained in me. There’s no better place for a hang than a roller-skating rink,” Matt Pearson said. “There’s not really any places for teens to hang out … so we were like, alright, if we make a roller rink, what would that look like in 2023? Would it be neon floors and birthday parties … a roller-skating rink of the ’80s and ’90s? No, it would be what those kids would want in modern times.”

Finding a way to make it work was the first and biggest challenge, beginning with the size. Matt called the Huse Road location “a little bit of a boutique venue.” Poles and an odd floor layout meant the skating area would only be around two-thirds the size of a regulation rink. The Pearsons turned this liability to their advantage.

“We learned through Covid that we can capacity control,” Matt said. “With back-end ticketing, we have limits. The rink was smaller than others we were accustomed to, but at the same time, we don’t have to pack it with that many people. That’s how you find a sweet spot of capacity, seating space and other amenities to make the whole thing jive.”

On the other hand, the idea of hosting roller derby matches had to be scrapped. “We worked with the New Hampshire Roller Derby Girls, had them in early to take a look at the space, to see if an opportunity was there,” Matt said. “They said, ‘it’s great and we love it … for dinner and drinks, but we can only use this maybe for practice.”

A few of the Derby Girls, however, work at Remix as servers and rink hosts. “It’s a relationship that’s worked out pretty well,” he said, adding, “one thing we learned is we weren’t necessarily bringing roller skating back to New Hampshire, because there is an underground scene with a lot of skaters.”

Remix has enough space for live music, when the time comes.

“Roller rinks of old just needed a DJ booth, but we’re trying to remix this idea, so we made the stage a little bit bigger,” Matt said. “Maybe an ’80s cover band that we love will come over and do a night with us, with pro skaters…. It’s an amazing opportunity for really fun nights.”

For now, skaters can reserve two-hour slots Tuesday through Sunday, with either classic quad skates or rollerblades included in the $20 cost. Skaters can switch from one to the other midway as well. Initially, more patrons are opting for old-style wheels.

“Blades are the minority,” Matt said, “but for my generation, I think we’re a rollerblade crew.”

The Pearsons are pleased to offer wholesome fun for all ages.

“It’s still a family entertainment venue,” Matt said. “All the little characteristics that we brought to Cowabunga’s, we’re bringing here. There’s no better place to do a birthday party than a roller rink, and we can execute that on the weekends. But the after-work scene, 18-plus and 21-plus nights out, is the unspoken opportunity.”

Deciding what to call this new place turned out to be the easiest piece of the endeavor.

“It’s really a remixed version of roller skating in modern times,” Matt Pearson said. “What better name to call it than Remix?”

Find your skates

Expert help for picking your new set of wheels

By: Angie Sykeny

Bruised Boutique Skate Shop. Courtesy photo.

Eric Jones, manager at Bruised Boutique Skate Shop in Nashua, discussed the essential considerations and tips for new and experienced roller skaters, emphasizing the importance of proper fit, safety gear and skating etiquette.

What should beginners consider when choosing roller skates?

Beginners should prioritize finding skates that best fit their foot shape. Budget is an important consideration, but the trickier aspect is ensuring a good fit. Since people’s feet come in various shapes, it’s recommended to visit a store, like us — we’re the only one in New England, though — to try on different skates. This approach helps in finding a pair that is best suited to the individual’s foot shape, whether they are kids or adults.

How do you determine the right size?

In a store, it’s a matter of guess and check to find the right fit. Online it’s more challenging, and exchanges might be necessary if the fit isn’t right. However, most introductory-level skates are designed to accommodate a wide variety of foot shapes, making it less likely to get the wrong fit. … For adults, most roller skate brands size their skates close to men’s shoe sizes as a standard. Generally, using your men’s shoe size should give you a relatively safe fit. For women, that’s typically about one-and-a-half sizes down from their shoe size. Children’s roller skates are made in kid sizes, which should match their shoe size. Sizes range from Junior 10 through 13 and then size 1 and 2. It’s advisable to consider room for growth, so kids often leave with a size larger than their measured size.

What safety gear is necessary for skating at a roller rink?

At roller rinks in our area, safety gear is optional, so you don’t necessarily need anything. However, for kids it’s common to use knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and sometimes helmets, especially if they’re going to be skating outdoors. Combo packs that include knees, elbows and wrists are available and affordably priced for kids. For adults, they usually opt for knee pads and wrist guards, skipping elbow pads. Wrist guards are particularly smart to have since falls can impact the wrists. While safety gear is not strictly necessary for rinks, it is recommended for activities like roller derby, skating in skate parks, and outdoor skating, where helmets are advised.

What types of helmets are available for skating?

The helmets available for skating are mostly derived from skateboarding styles. There are basic helmets designed to be cushy and cost-effective for general use. For those engaged in more practical purposes like skating outdoors or activities like roller derby, certified helmets are available. These certified helmets have the same safety certifications as bike helmets and are made of a hard foam that can crack under a significant impact to provide better protection.

What additional protective gear would you recommend for people who are prone to accidents?

Besides the standard ensemble of knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards and helmets, we also recommend padded shorts, often referred to as butt pads. These padded shorts are especially useful for those engaged in roller derby, skatepark activities and outdoor skating. They provide extra protection for falls and are a good option for anyone who feels they might be prone to falling a lot at the rink, especially for adults who are just learning to skate.

What tips would you give to first-time skaters for a safe and enjoyable experience?

Go slow and wear safety gear while learning. It’s also important to be aware of the unwritten rule at roller rinks: fast skaters should stay on the outside, while slower skaters should stay closer to the middle. This helps maintain safety and order in the rink.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!