Category: Featured Content

Crafty sips and casual eats

Industry East Bar opens in Manchester

Jeremy Hart and Dan Haggerty have around four decades of combined bartending experience across the Granite State. Now the two have gone into business together to open their own craft cocktail bar, complete with a rustic ambience and a unique food menu to match.

Industry East Bar, which opened Feb. 2 just a stone’s throw from Elm Street in Manchester, was in its planning stages well before the start of the pandemic. Hart and Haggerty first came across the vacant storefront on Hanover Street in mid-2019. During continually delayed renovations that lasted more than a full year, repurposed butternut wood was brought in for the bar, as well as additional wood paneling for the walls to give the bar rails a distinctive look.

According to Haggerty, the bar’s name comes from its development as a destination spot for professionals of all types of service industries to enjoy a meal or a cocktail at the end of the work day — the word “east” comes from its being on the east side of downtown.

“Even before we wrote the business plan, we knew we wanted it to be a place that’s super laid back and unpretentious to anyone that comes in,” he said. “We wanted it to be nice, but not too nice where you feel like you need to wear a suit or anything. … Just a super-cool place with high-quality cocktails and wicked awesome food. That was our main goal.”

The bartending duo recruited Jeff Martin, formerly the sous chef at The Birch on Elm, to oversee the food menu. There’s no hood system in the kitchen, so they can’t serve any fried or sauteed items; instead, Martin has been working on a menu of charcuterie boards, flatbread pizzas, paninis, and shareable plates, from duck confit-stuffed popovers to braised short rib toast points.

“We’re also going to be doing things like shrimp cocktail, beef or tuna tartares, ceviche, oysters, some crudos … and gourmet hot dogs,” Haggerty said. “We’ve done a kimchi dog with gochujang sauce and our housemade pickles and sesame seeds. … Jeff is really good at making his own mignonettes, sauces and aiolis and just making everything taste great.”

Some featured desserts that Industry East has introduced right out of the gate have been a brownie sundae trifle with chocolate mousse and whipped cream, and a s’mores sundae with a graham cracker crumble, bruleed marshmallow and chocolate drizzle.

As for the cocktails, that menu combines modern takes on the classics with all kinds of experimental concoctions, all using syrups, juices and other ingredients made in house. The Gentleman’s Choice, for example, incorporates orange and carrot flavors with vodka or mezcal, while the Participation Trophy is a cocktail featuring Branca Menta and vodka, with flavors of strawberry and lemon.

“My approach is … that I never try to think of something,” Haggerty said. “You just kind of play with it and then maybe you add something in or take something out. … There are some things, though, that you just can’t mess with, so we’ll definitely always have the classics, your Old Fashioneds, your Manhattans, things like that.”

Industry East can sit about 20 people at a time with social distancing regulations in place, including nine at the bar and additional tabletop seating. By the spring and into the summer, Haggerty said, outdoor seating will also be available, both right outside the front of the bar and under the adjoining alcove next door.

Industry East Bar
Where: 28 Hanover St., Manchester
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to midnight (may be subject to change)
More info: Visit industryeastbar.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram, or call 456-7890

Featured photo: Industry East Bar co-owner and bartender Jeremy Hart serves a cocktail. Courtesy photos.

Small acts of kindness

14 ways to spread a little happiness this Valentine’s season

This Valentine’s Day, spread the love without spreading Covid with these acts of kindness that you can do right from home (or just outside your home). From leaving a small gift in your mailbox for your mail carrier to giving the critters in your backyard a place to escape the cold, here are 14 ways to bring some joy to family and friends, local businesses, and people and animals in need, all from a safe distance.

By Matt Ingersoll & Angie Sykeny

Purchase a wish list item for a local charity

For a more personal way to lend a hand than just donating money, most charities in the Granite State will post a “wish list” accessible on their website, kept up to date with items of the greatest need. Some also provide a link to an Amazon Wish List page as well — items can be ordered online and shipped directly to that organization’s address.

Marguerite’s Place, for instance, a transitional living program in Nashua for women and children in crisis, is in need of basic home essentials like laundry detergent, towels, trash cans and storage bins. The full wish list is available to view on the website, according to director of development and public relations Christa Tsechrintzis, with an additional link to Amazon to help you choose the right product brands.

The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness, office administrator Teri Gladstone said, is in the greatest need of boots, ski gloves, jackets and other hand, foot and body warmers.

“Due to Covid restrictions by the CDC, we can only accept brand new clothing items,” she said. Items can be shipped to its temporary location, at the First Congregational Church of Concord.

Pick up litter

Show some love to the environment by picking up litter around your neighborhood. “Picking up litter not only helps make the environment safer and healthier for people, but also for the plants and animals in the community,” said Kimberly McCloy of Litter Crew (littercrew.com), a group of New Hampshire residents who are working to make the state litter-free. “Even if you only spend five minutes a day, it will make a noticeable difference.” All you need is some gloves and a trash bag, she said, and beware of any litter that could be hazardous to you, such as needles or any items that have been in contact with bodily fluids. “You can contact your local authorities to come dispose of these items safely,” McCloy said.

Send a care package overseas

Make the day of an Army, Navy or other military branch member from New Hampshire who is currently serving overseas by assembling and sending your own special care package.

Deborah Luszey of Operation Care for Troops, a nonprofit based in Nashua, has worked to send care packages out to local troops since around 17 years ago, when her son was first deployed to Iraq.

She said the process starts with obtaining a flat rate shipping box — you can order military service kits online for free from the United States Postal Service and have them shipped directly to you. The kits include address labels, custom envelopes and enough tape for six boxes.

Many of the most requested contents you can fill your care package with may also be items you already have in your home.

“It’s usually very dry where they are, so a lot of times you can put some lotions or some hydration products in the box,” Luszey said. “Food is also a great thing, so things like protein bars, beef jerky, peanut butter, coffee [and] tea. We’ve done canned fruit. … Zip-lock bags can be good, because you can roll them up tight and oftentimes they’ll reuse them for other things.”

You could even include a handwritten letter, or puzzles cut out of newspapers or magazines.

“Anything you can do to just give them five minutes where they can be somewhere else from where they are,” she said. “You can get friends or your kids to draw pictures … and put that stuff on top so that it’s the first thing they see when they open it up.”

Although Operation Care for Troops organizes several bulk shipping events, the next of which is scheduled for late March at the Hudson Fire Department’s Burns Hill Road fire station, care packages can be sent at any time. More details can be found at octnh.org, or you can email Luszey directly at [email protected].

Foster a pet

If you want to help a pet in need but don’t have the means to give it a forever home, consider fostering, which allows you to care for an animal at your home temporarily until it gets adopted or can return to the shelter. Since kittens cannot be sold or adopted until they are at least eight weeks old, according to New Hampshire law, foster homes are most commonly needed for pregnant and mother cats and their kittens until the kittens are old enough to return to the shelter and be put up for adoption.

“In order to provide for these kittens and nursing feline mothers, we need a strong cadre of foster homes ready and able to take these creatures into their homes,” says the New Hampshire Humane Society website.

Fostering protocol varies from shelter to shelter, but the most standard requirements are that you own your home or have permission from your landlord to foster a pet; any other pets currently living in your home are up to date on their vaccinations; and you have a space where you can secure the foster pets from other pets or young children in your home. Check with your local animal shelter to see if they have any pets in need of foster homes.

Buy Girl Scout cookies for someone

It’s Girl Scout cookie season, and this year for the first time you can also get Girl Scout cookies delivered through GrubHub. Go to girlscoutcookies.org, where you can enter in any street address for them to be shipped to.

“[The cookies] are $5 per package, with proceeds staying right in the troop you ordered from,” said Ginger Kozlowski, communications manager of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.

She said it normally takes anywhere between two and 15 business days for your shipped order to arrive at its destination.

The Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains also has a Gift of Caring program, which gives you the opportunity to buy cookies to donate to military service members and hometown heroes, like firefighters, police officers and EMTs. Visit girlscoutsgwm.org for details.

Knit for a cause

Use your knitting or crocheting skills to help someone in need. New Hampshire volunteer groups like Neighbors Helping Newborns, Stitching up the World and the New Hampshire chapters of Project Linus collect donations of handmade knitted and crocheted items like blankets, caps, scarves and shawls and distribute them to patients at local cancer centers, premature babies at local hospitals and children dealing with illness or trauma. “We’ve had people as far away as Arizona donate hats for cancer patients,” Stitching up the World’s website states. “We gladly accept completed items and will make sure they get to the proper destination.” If you need some inspiration, the groups also have a variety of patterns for knitted and crocheted items online.

Donate life

There are more than 5,000 people in New England waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, according to the Donate Life New England website. Registering to be an organ donor means that, in the event of your death, your organs could add years of life or provide a better quality of life to as many as 50 people. If you aren’t yet registered, you don’t have to wait until the next time you renew your driver’s license or go to the DMV in person; you can do it right from home in minutes online at dmv.org/nh-new-hampshire/organ-donorregistering. Not only could you be helping people in need of an organ transplant, but you could also, in a different way, be helping your grieving loved ones, said Susan Diggins, RN, Quality Management Coordinator of the Center for Quality & Safety at Southern New Hampshire Health. “We understand [a death] is a difficult time for family members,” Diggins said, “but knowing their loved one’s death may help another person brings some level of comfort to them.”

Leave a gift for your neighborhood mail carrier

Even though ethics guidelines prohibit postal employees from accepting cash from customers, or any gifts with a value greater than $20 per household, there are still all kinds of small gestures you can make to show your gratitude for your local mail carrier.

“We have seen a swell recently in homemade cards and window or lawn signs, sometimes created by children … to show their appreciation,” said Steve Doherty, strategic communications specialist for the United States Postal Service’s Northeast Region. “Around the holidays many people will reward their carrier with a small gift, such as a mug or tie, or a gift card to a local restaurant or coffee shop.”

If you know your neighborhood letter carrier personally, Doherty said, treats like home baked goods or store-bought candy can make good gifts. In the past year homemade masks, small hand sanitizer bottles and even rolls of toilet paper have become common, he said.

Talk on the phone to someone stuck at home

You can help someone who has experienced loneliness from the pandemic just by picking up the phone and talking to them — in fact, that’s exactly one of the tasks you can volunteer to perform through the CareGivers, a program of Catholic Charities New Hampshire that services clients over the age of 62 in the Greater Manchester and Nashua areas.

They’re known as reassurance calls, according to CareGivers executive director Jim Wilkie, and they’re one of several volunteer opportunities you can sign up for, in addition to sending birthday cards to clients, delivering groceries to their doorstep and driving them to medical appointments.

“With the pandemic, we’ve recognized the need to really reach out to our clients that have been stuck at home and feeling really isolated,” Wilkie said.

He said volunteers may be given a short list of phone numbers of clients who have expressed interest in receiving calls, talking once or a few times a week and building relationships.

“We always hear these little narratives … from people sharing their happy moments and just talking about their lives,” he said.

Have a meal delivered to a family member or essential worker

Give a relative, friend or essential employee the gift of delicious food right on their doorstep. Local Baskit in Concord is offering online options for gift meals to be delivered to local health care workers and first responders, as well as to tip delivery drivers — go to shop.localbaskit.com and click the “tipping/donation” tab for details. Owner Beth Richards said she’s arranged for meals to be delivered to employees at Concord Hospital and at Merrimack County Nursing Home in Boscawen, as well as to the local fire department.

“It can be either a meal kit or prepared food option from one of the selections that we have that week,” Richards said of the available meals.

Ding Dong Deliver, a ghost kitchen launched last year by Great New Hampshire Restaurants, provides ready-to-heat meal packages to all addresses in Manchester and Bedford.

“We’ve seen a lot of people with older parents who aren’t going out do dinner use Ding Dong Deliver, and even Realtors who gift the meals to new homeowners,” said Nicole Barreira, director of marketing and menu development for Great New Hampshire Restaurants. Deliveries are made on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, between 1 and 5 p.m.

Make backyard friends

Show some kindness to the critters in your yard by providing them with places to shelter. According to research by the UNH Cooperative Extension provided by Natural Resources Field Specialist Wendy Scribner, there are around 45 species of birds and mammals in New England that use cavities in trees and other wood materials and structures for denning, roosting and nesting. You can lay out some logs or brush piles, or install a birdhouse or bat house.Bats can be a bit picky, so if you’re new to bat houses, be sure to do some research first. (Scribner recommends Bat Conservation International as a resource for building, buying and installing bat houses; visit batcon.org/about-bats/bat-houses.) Making your property more hospitable to wildlife benefits not only the animals, Scribner said, but also yourself if you’re someone who enjoys having nature around. “There is joy in being able to watch wildlife, birds, and, yes, the squirrels too, and feel that you are helping them,” she said. “Most of all, you will enjoy the opportunity to see and appreciate the creatures with whom you share your land.”

Order a personalized gift basket

You don’t need a special reason to show a friend, family member or even your local mail carrier that you appreciate them. Caring Gifts in Concord takes orders for its own specialty or customized gift baskets and packages for all occasions, including “just because.”

“People can call or email us … and we ask them how much they want to spend, or maybe they give us a dollar amount, and then we go from there,” shop co-owner Donna Mark said. “We can ship nationwide and we deliver within the greater Concord and Manchester area.”

The shop has several of its own themed baskets and packages to choose from that will often feature foods or personal care items — a movie lover’s package, for instance, features a jumbo popcorn box filled with caramel corn, chips, candy and cookies, while others can include wine bottles, crackers, bath gels, soaps and more.

“We recently did one for a corporate gathering where we shipped small bottles of sparkling cider or Champagne and different snacks … and they enjoyed them during a cocktail party they had over Zoom,” Mark said, “so they really can be for any occasion.”

The Manchester Craft Market, a store located inside the Mall of New Hampshire, features all kinds of locally made items that can also be shipped as gifts, according to owner Jessica Moores, including cookie mixes, jams and jellies, teas and coffees, maple products and more. Sellers post details on their items to a public Facebook group, which can be accessed through the shop’s website. Pop-up Facebook live sales are often featured too.

Make a mask

What better way to show someone you care during a pandemic than with a homemade mask? Seacoast Mask Makers, a group of New Hampshire volunteers who made masks for medical facilities and essential businesses when masks were in short supply, has written instructions and photo and video tutorials on its website for simple, pleated, and nose-fitting cloth masks. With some super basic sewing skills, you can make a simple mask with just a nine-inch by 12-inch piece of cotton fabric in a color or design you think your recipient would like, and a seven-inch-long piece of rope elastic or flat elastic. (For a pleated mask, you’ll need an eight-inch by 14-inch piece of fabric, and for a nose-fitting mask you’ll also need some flat plastic twist ties.) Visit seacoastmaskmakers.org/get-involved/#mask-making for the full instructions and tutorials and other mask-making information and resources.

Cherish memories

Send someone you’re missing this Valentine’s Day a personalized photo card or gift. “We are oftentimes reminding our customers that many photos they have on their phones … of friends, children, and events are memory makers that can make wonderful gifts for family and friends,” said Michael St. Germain, owner of Concord Photo Service. Through Concord Photo Service and other local shops that offer photo services, you can place an order online to turn your digital photos into a print, collage, canvas wall art or photo book, or have them printed on mugs, jewelry, T-shirts, calendars, ornaments and even face masks. “Items as simple as a custom card with a photo on the front can tell a story that we have forgotten,” Germain said.

Local animal shelters with foster programs
• New Hampshire Humane Society (Laconia, 524-3252, nhhumane.org/adopt/foster)
• Salem Animal Rescue League (893-3210, sarlnh.org/foster)
• Pope Memorial SPCA (Concord, 856-8756, popememorialspca.org/volunteer)
• Humane Society for Greater Nashua (889-2275, hsfn.org/get-involved/volunteer)
• Manchester Animal Shelter (628-3544, manchesteranimalshelter.org/fosterform)
• Greater Derry Humane Society (434-1512, derryhumanesociety.com/we-need-volunteers/fostering-a-rescue-animal

And for your sweetheart…
There may still be time for you to get your Valentine’s Day reservations or takeout orders in – visit hippopress.com for our annual dine-in and takeout listings at local restaurants, candy shops, bakeries and more. Be sure to call or visit a participating eatery’s website directly for the most up-to-date availability.

Knitting and crocheting charity groups
• Neighbors Helping Newborns (serves southern New Hampshire, 382-8504, neighborshelpingnewborns.org, donations will be held until March due to pandemic)
• Project Linus (projectlinus.org; facebook.com/nhseacoastprojectlinus; facebook.com/projectlinussouthwestnewhampshire; drop-off locations in Candia, Derry, Raymond, Concord, Goffstown, Henniker, Hooksett, Manchester, Milford, Nashua, the Seacoast and other parts of the state.
• Stitching Up the World (based in Candia, 587-0603, candiawomansgroup.org/stitching)

Photo prints and gifts
• Concord Photo Service (31 N. Main St., Concord, 225-5891, concordphotoservice.com)
• Hunt’s Photo & Video (4 Vinton St., Manchester, 606-3322, huntsphotoandvideo.com)
• Chris Digital Photo Print (346 Merrimack St., Manchester, 264-6205, chrisdigitalphotoprint.business.site)
• EverPresent (99 Rockingham Park Blvd., Salem, 435-2202; 1301 Elm St., Manchester, 819-5182; 800 Islington St., Portsmouth, 967-4385; everpresent.com)

News & Notes 21/02/11

Covid-19 updateAs of February 1As of February 8
Total cases statewide66,05868,499
Total current infections statewide4,6623,245
Total deaths statewide1,0591,106
New cases3,290 (Jan. 26 to Feb. 1)2,441 (Feb. 2 to Feb. 8)
Current infections: Hillsborough County1,5871,106
Current infections: Merrimack County389292
Current infections: Rockingham County1,096771
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Covid-19 news

On Feb. 3, Gov. Chris Sununu issued a statement in response to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s announcement earlier that day that data shows returning to in-person learning can be done safely and successfully. “I urge the Union leadership in New Hampshire that have been resistant to follow the science, to embrace the Biden administration’s call for schools to reopen,” Sununu said in the statement. “The will of the students is there, the will of the parents is there, and the science is there. It’s time to get these kids back in the classroom.” All K through 12 school and child care staff will be eligible to receive their first doses in Phase 2A of the state’s vaccination administration plan, beginning around the March to May timeframe.

During a Feb. 4 press conference, state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said that, on average, there have been between 400 and 450 new cases of Covid-19 in New Hampshire per day, “down significantly” from a few weeks prior. Both the test positivity rates and the number of active infections in the state also continue to be on the decline.

Later during the same press conference, Sununu announced changes to the state’s scheduling process for Covid-19 vaccines in New Hampshire. As of Feb. 7, everyone will automatically be given a date and time for their second dose appointment as they leave their first dose appointment, he said. The state is also moving away from the federally run Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) website in favor of a new state run online system that is currently in development. If you’ve already received your first dose and the date of your second dose has been pushed back, you can go back into the VAMS system and reschedule for an earlier appointment within one week of your recommended window.

Opioid settlement

New Hampshire will receive $3,332,762 over five years as part of a $573 million multi-state settlement with McKinsey & Co. for the company’s role in promoting the opioid crisis, according to a press release from the state Attorney General’s Office. New Hampshire will share the settlement with 47 states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories. The settlement “resolves investigations into the company’s role in working for opioid companies, helping those companies promote their opioids, and profiting from the opioid epidemic,” according to the release. The complaints against McKinsey claimed that the company helped opioid manufacturers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, promote their opioid products to maximize profit. Proceeds from the settlement will go into a fund that will be used to abate problems caused by opioids.

Health insurance

Following President Joe Biden’s recent executive order to reopen enrollment on the Federal Affordable Care Act Exchanges, New Hampshire residents will have a chance to buy health insurance for 2021 during a special enrollment period from Feb. 15 to May 15, according to a press release. Any residents who are uninsured can sign up for coverage without waiting until open enrollment at the end of the year by visiting healthcare.gov. New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner Chris Nicolopoulos said in the release that the premiums available on the Exchange are lower than they have been in the past. Plans are available from three insurance companies on the New Hampshire Marketplace: Anthem, Ambetter from NH Healthy Families and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. “Given that New Hampshire insurance companies are offering significantly lower average premium rates for the third year in a row and given the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an important opportunity for individuals to get an affordable health insurance plan,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in the release.

Budget concerns

Last week, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen hosted a virtual meeting with New Hampshire mayors and municipal leaders, including Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, to discuss severe budgetary shortfalls, according to a press release. The budget issues, which are due to a drop in state revenue stemming from the pandemic, could affect the ability to provide essential services within the state’s communities, and teachers could face layoffs, the municipalities’ leaders told Shaheen. Shaheen said she’s working with the Biden administration to get direct local and state aid and funding for vaccinations, schools, housing and nutrition programs in the upcoming relief package, according to the release.

The NH Audubon team “Birding with Impunity” in Rye took home the Rockingham County Award for the most points in the county during the Semi-Superbowl of Birding that was held Jan. 30, according to a press release. During the competition, which is run by Massachusetts Audubon’s Joppa Flats Education Center, teams look for as many bird species as possible in 12 hours.

The Old Academy Building at Pinkerton Academy in Derry has been named to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. According to a press release, it was the school’s first building when it opened in 1815.

Nashua high school seniors are invited to apply for the Rotary Club of Nashua’s annual scholarship. According to a press release, applicants must plan to attend an accredited technical college, trade school or two- or four-year college. Visit nashuarotary.org.

A Salem resident rescued a neighbor from a burning home on the morning of Feb. 5, according to a post on the Salem Fire Department’s Facebook page. The department thanked all of the neighbors on Lou-Al Lane who helped prior to the arrival of rescue personnel. The patient was transported to Parkland Medical Center with serious burns and smoke inhalation injuries and was later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to the post

Educational giveway

Some Republicans in the New Hampshire House are pushing legislation that could give about $4,100 to anyone sending their kids to a private school or home schooling them. As currently envisioned, it should not pass.

Arguments for direct grants to parents, like the ones this bill would set up, are that families should have the freedom to find a private school or home-school option if their public school is failing their children. It’s a powerful argument. It is unfair that children can be deprived of a good or adequate education by being stuck in a failing school.

But this legislation does not focus on the needs of the low-income families who have the least financial ability to leave poorly performing schools. Let’s be blunt here. This is largely a handout to parents who can already afford to send their children to a private school. If this legislation really wanted to address educational freedom then it would specifically target children in underperforming schools whose parents don’t earn enough money to send them to a private school. This legislation as currently envisioned doesn’t offer enough to truly bring school choice to those families. The proposed $4,100 is probably not enough to completely cover the cost of a private school. (For example, the non-parish-sponsored tuition listed on the websites of Manchester area Catholic elementary schools seems to be over $5,000 annually and many nonreligious schools are much more.) And it’s highly unlikely that low-income parents would be able to afford to stay home and home-school their children. For the parents and students who need it most, the legislation is still likely to leave families paying some of the private education bill.

This legislation could be re-envisioned to target those in need by means testing and targeting districts that fail to meet agreed-upon standards. Kids going to those schools could be eligible for a grant covering the entire cost of tuition to private school, charter school or a different public school district if their parents met agreed-upon low-income guidelines.

Rather than $4,100 going to 16,000 private school students (or possibly more, if additional New Hampshire families jump on this universally available deal), New Hampshire could focus the aid on a few thousand families who really need help. An additional benefit would be continuing to provide aid to those schools in districts that aren’t meeting expected standards for their students.

If we are truly trying to give each child the best opportunity to succeed then let’s target our aid to those that need it most.

Northern song

Record release show among Area 23 events

An off-the-beaten-path Concord restaurant and taproom is doing all it can to keep original music alive in New Hampshire. Area 23 was among the first venues in the state to revive live entertainment when lockdown was lifted last spring. Owner Kirk McNeil continues in these cold months, lately offering Saturday night “swap sets” that give two local artists an opportunity to showcase their talents.

“We all have something to say about our experiences in the world; we’ve all been touched by a certain song or songs in our lives,” McNeil said recently, when asked to explain his commitment to the regional scene. “Supporting local music helps those fresh voices and experiences come into the world and reach more ears.”

Many of the acts appearing at Area 23 began at the midweek open mic, including Littleton-based Thrown to the Wolves, which will celebrate its first full-length CD with a release party on Feb. 26. The rootsy duo consists of singer-songwriter Higher Frequency — who answers to Freak while declining to reveal his birth name — and fiddler JD Nadeau.

Freak is an amalgamation of a high-country Tom Waits and the Illustrated Man. Ink covers much of his body and all of his face. The habit began as a fascination with his father’s tattoos, and eventually he became an artist. He said in a recent phone interview that he first thought of facial tattooing as a seven-year-old.

“Doing it for the first time was revelatory,” he said. “I wasn’t really comfortable with me until I started. … When I looked in my mirror after I had my first session on my face, I said, ‘Oh, there you are!’”

Musically, Freak’s moaning, growling songs are filled with images of hellhounds, fire and fury; mostly, his unbridled singing is about rejecting all of that.

“I don’t need to believe one way or another to be a good human being,” he said.

“Just love your fellow man and cherish your own soul,” sings the minister’s son on the lead track to the forthcoming Right Side of Wrong, Wrong Side of Good. “I don’t need your Heaven, and I don’t need your Hell — to be a better man, I just found myself.” 

Freak is self-taught; he picked up guitar a few years back.

“As soon as I could put three chords together I wrote my first song,” he said.

The woman he wrote it for was not as enamored of his foray into music.

“The more I wrote, the more she hated it, and the more in love with it I became,” he said.

Nadeau’s galloping fiddle adds a wealth of spice to their tunes; it’s hard to think of them without the texture he provides. When they met at an open mic in Newport Center, Vermont, a couple of years back, Freak thought he only played guitar. They did a dozen songs together that night and met up a few weeks later at Nadeau’s apartment.

“Our styles weren’t fitting,” Freak said, noting that when Nadeau mentioned his other instrument, “I was like, ‘You play fiddle? Why didn’t you bring that up before?’”

The spark thus lit, the two would play their first gig at a festival in upstate New York originally booked for another band that, in Freak’s words, “went south.” He didn’t want to give up the slot, and meeting Nadeau made it an easier choice. A line from a song in progress gave the duo an appropriate name; that was over two years ago.

In mid-2019 a friend in the Concord band The Rhythm Upstairs invited him to Area 23’s Wednesday open mic. He and Nadeau got up and played a few songs. Soon after, they were offered a gig.

“First time I met him I was not expecting his music to be what it was,” McNeil said. “But I was in no way disappointed.”

Given its interesting beginnings, his growing audience is a pleasant surprise, Freak said.

“I never expected when I picked up the guitar that I would play in a band, or that people would like my music,” he said. “It even took me a few years to be like, ‘OK, there’s not that many people lying to me.’ So I just kind of rolled with it. Everything that I’m doing now is like a bonus … because it was never expected when I started this.”

Upcoming at Area 23
Friday, Feb. 5 – Dillan Welch
Saturday, Feb. 6 – Ross Arnold and Steve Butler
Friday, Feb. 12 – Brian Munger
Saturday, Feb. 13 – Hometown Eulogy
Friday, Feb. 19 – Mikey G
Saturday, Feb. 20 – Chip and the Figments
Friday, Feb. 26 – Thrown to the Wolves
Saturday, Feb. 27 – Ken Clark and Chris Fitz
Every Wednesday – open mic
Every Saturday – jam (2-5pm)
All shows run 7 to 11 p.m. except Saturdays

Featured photo: Thrown to the Wolves. Courtesy photo.

The Little Things (R)

The Little Things (R)

Three difficult loners find themselves in each other’s orbit during the investigation into a serial killer in 1990 Los Angeles in The Little Things, a pretty standard midwinter thriller movie.

In the mix with horror movies, the occasional goofy comedy and, in February-ish, romance-y movies, the early part of the year usually tends to bring sort of procedural, man-on-the-hunt-for-enemy movies. Sometimes the enemy is the human trafficking organization that kidnapped the guy’s daughter (Taken), sometimes it’s wolves (The Grey). Sometimes it’s a woman on the hunt (Miss Bala). These low-pressure movies fill the space around the Oscar releases that are still coming into theaters during these weeks that, in normal times, are the thick of awards season. And even though everything about movies and awards is all haywire right now, The Little Things still feels like it’s meeting the need for a “police-y thriller starring an older but still credible-as-action-hero actor.”

In this movie, that actor is Denzel Washington, playing sheriff’s deputy Joe Deacon, called “Deke.” He works in the Bakersfield area now but was once an L.A. County sheriff’s detective. He’s sent back to L.A. to pick up some evidence and so we get to see him interact with old friends and coworkers who are basically not happy to see him. He was one of those great but difficult detectives and he left under … circumstances.

He bumps into Jim Baxter (Rami Malek), a rising star detective who also seems pretty difficult. Baxter is tightly wound and cocky — and under a lot of stress as he is the lead investigator in a serial killer case. A handful of women have been found murdered with similar patterns to the violence and state of the bodies.

Aspects of those cases remind Deke of a never-solved case featuring murdered women from his days in Los Angeles, a case that seems to have led to, as we’re told, a divorce and a heart attack and his move to a new city. Because Baxter has heard impressive things about Deke’s investigative abilities and because Deke is still obsessed with that old case, the men eventually start working to solve these new murders together.

Which is how loner number three enters the picture: Albert Sparma (Jared Leto). Even if he never killed anyone, Albert would be described as a “creepy serial killer type.” Violent crime seems to be, whether he actively participates in it or not, a hobby he has really gotten into, with his books on famous serial killers past, his active-at-all-times police scanner, his gross response to seeing crime scene photos and his whole “I am a serial killer” vibe. He is de-Li-ghted when Deke and Baxter take an interest in him. Are they going to Break The Rules in pursuit of him? Would I have ordered a large popcorn and said “heck, why not” to at least a small amount of butter?

You can currently see this movie in theaters or you can make your own popcorn and watch it on HBO Max through Feb. 28. And, sure, go ahead, watch it. This movie is fine. I’ve seen worse things in winter movie viewing. Would I recommend building a whole move night around it? Maybe not; the extremely “what you’d expect” story beats and the general “it’s a grim world out there” perspective of this movie doesn’t exactly add up to anything fresh or surprising. The movie is unnecessarily over two hours long and needed to either shave off a good 30 minutes or add some kind of more substantial subplot to justify its length.

The movie comes off, I think, as generally better than it is because of the lead actors. I could probably watch a made-weary-by-the-job Denzel Washington pick up dry cleaning and search for a missing library book and would find it at least medium-compelling. Rami Malek is every young cop character ever trying to balance the bleakness of the job with a sunny home life. He plays Baxter with just enough weirdness that it gives the character a twitchy edge. Leto feels like he’s at least having fun, throwing All The Acting at his role.

If that doesn’t sound like much of a recommendation it’s because it’s not — it’s more like “if you are already paying for HBO Max and can basically see this movie for free there’s no specific reason to avoid it.” In a normal time, this movie probably would have come and gone with little notice and become a thing you could snooze to on cable six months later. (It was the No. 1 movie in theaters last weekend, according to media reports.) But, hey, silver lining I guess, now you can fall asleep at the slow parts or give up at one of the umpteen flashbacks that very slowly unfurl Deke’s Bad Thing that Happened Back When all from the comfort of your own home. C+

Rated R to violent/disturbing images, language and full nudity, according to the MPA on filmratings.com Written and directed by John Lee Hancock, The Little Things is two hours and 7 minutes long and distributed by Warner Bros. It is available on HBO Max through Feb. 28.

Featured photo: The Little Things (R)

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