Category: Nightlife

Johnny A. revisits guitar icon Jeff Beck

There’s history between guitarists Jeff Beck and Johnny A.

The two jammed together multiple times, beginning a few years back in Portland, Maine, when Beck invited Johnny A onstage after his band opened for him. Later, the Massachusetts-born axeman toured with the re-formed Yardbirds, Beck’s (and Jimmy Page’s) first band, playing all the guitar parts. Heady stuff for a guy who’d said if he could jam with anyone in the world, it wouldn’t be Jimi Hendrix or his idol John Lennon; it’d be Jeff Beck.

However, when asked in the weeks after Beck died last year to put together a band to remember him, Johnny A declined — firmly.

“I said, I’m not really into doing tribute things, first of all, and b, the guy is not really copyable,” he recalled in a recent phone interview. “He [the promoter] called me again and I turned him down. Then he called me again.”

By then, he’d thought more about his time playing songs like “For Your Love” and “Shapes of Things,” and conceded the tireless promoter might have a point. “He said, ‘Hey, listen, you played in the Yardbirds for three years. The reviews I’ve seen of you capturing that era of music with those guitar players were always very, very positive.’”

He agreed to consider putting a band together but made clear it would not be a tribute.

“I’d approach it like I approached the Yardbirds … pay respect to the artist, don’t really try to copy, try to conjure the spirit of the music, and keep my own personality injected in there somehow,” he said.

The result is Beck-Ola, a band named after the guitarist’s second solo album. It includes the rhythm section from his trio, drummer Marty Richards and bassist Dean Cassell, singer Mike Gill (Beyond Purple) and keyboard player Steve Baker. The latter is a great fit for Beck’s jazz fusion era, having played with Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham and Allan Holdsworth.

The two-week tour, which will include a Saturday, April 27, show at the Flying Monkey in Plymouth and a Sunday, April 28, show at the Nashua Center for the Arts will focus exclusively on Beck’s solo career.

“We’re doing 21 songs from different albums that go all the way back to Truth; nothing really from the Yardbirds,” he said. “I’m calling it ‘A Celebration of the Music of Jeff Beck,’ because we’re trying to capture the spirits of different eras.”

He plans to follow the guitar legend’s unique approach to his material.

“He never really played melodies the same way twice, they were always interpreted like a singer would sing a song, differently every time,” he said. “Even though it’s really the same melody, the inflections and the nuances and the phrasing are altered.”

It’s an approach he’s had since taking up guitar in the mid-1960s.

“I’m influenced by a lot of people but it’s more about what makes them tick,” he said. “If you can conjure up that little spark … maybe re-imagine that energy and bring it to your own playing. Maybe it echoes the personality that you’re trying to, I wouldn’t say emulate, but pay tribute to.”

The final two nights of the brief tour will be special, as Beck-Ola co-headlines with Journeyman, an Eric Clapton tribute led by young phenom Shaun Hague.

“Fans of British blues rock guitar will get their fill,” he said, adding, “I think people will like it, if they come out and have an open mind and they like the music of Jeff Beck, and they miss it.”

Songs will span from the days when Rod Stewart sang lead on “Morning Dew” and “Ain’t Superstitious” to the revelatory instrumental albums Wired and Blow by Blow, and beyond. But Johnny A. re-affirmed that costume changes won’t be part of the show.

“I’m not getting a shag haircut and I’m not wearing metal arm bands,” he said. “It’s going to be a band that’s paying homage, hopefully respectfully, to a great artist and iconic guitarist.”

British Guitar Blowout – Beck-Ola and Journeyman
When: Sunday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $29 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Shaskeen show latest from busy promoter

An upcoming four-act show at Manchester’s hub for alt rock promises to be a raucous affair. Atop the bill is Wargraves, a punk rock powerhouse featuring members from gone but well-remembered area bands The Caught Flies and Ready Steady Torpedo. Building on the success of last year’s debut album One Last Look Upon the Sky, Dust Prophet will provide direct support for the headliner.

Opening the show are Conduit and ThunderHawk, the latter making its first appearance in a long time. A doomy, metal-edged quartet, they released an EP in 2014, Do Or Die with five originals and a faithful cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” They haven’t performed since mid-2018, though their Facebook page shows they were in the studio later that year.

Otto Kinzel, front man of Dust Prophet, said that his band and Conduit have shared the stage before and have plans to hit the road together later this year. “They’re from the school of Tool in the Ænima era, very proggy but also very heavy,” he said in a recent phone interview. “We have sort of the same vibe as we’re also becoming much heavier.”

Kinzel continued that the self-described stoner rock band’s metallic shift began when he moved to lead vocals and Jason Doyle took over on guitar. They’ve written several songs that reflect this more aggressive sound, along with re-recording four tracks from the first record for a new EP. “The album was in drop C and now we’re playing in drop B,” he said. “It’s got a harder edge.”

The show is presented by Kinetic City Events, a Manchester-based promotion company that’s long hosted the semi-regular Live Free or Cry emo night at the Shaskeen. In recent months it’s expanded to new cities as well as genres. Live Free or Cry will happen at Tandy’s Pub in Concord on April 27, and a nu-metal show at Bank of NH Stage was just booked for late summer.

Kinetic City head Aaron Shelton said in a recent email that his company’s growth includes events in Lowell, Mass., which bodes well for the scene overall.

“New and developing relationships … should allow me to open up more opportunities for local bands,” Shelton said. “I’ve done shows in New Hampshire for over 20 years, but I’ve grown more in the last five than the prior 15 combined.”

It’s a welcome injection of energy for the underground music scene, Kinzel concurred.

“When we played Shaskeen this past November, he’s the one that booked it, and it was an awesome night,” Kinzel said. “Aaron is throwing some great shows; well-attended too, people are coming, and not just to drink, but to have a good time and be engaged with the music. Very enthusiastic and active crowds. It’s been fun.”

A problem that has beset local shows in the past, one band’s fans leaving as soon as their favorite finishes its set, seems less likely if Kinzel’s enthusiasm for the upcoming show’s line-up is any indication. He’s clearly a fan of Conduit but also of the other two groups on the bill.

ThunderHawk will “come out throwing haymakers in terms of getting the audience ready,” he said. “They’re a band that has a massive vibe, the rhythm is in the pocket, it’s tight; I think people are going to have their socks blown off by them. And then Wargraves is just super heavy; they’re going to just come out and annihilate.”

Shelton is equally energized by his latest effort.

“We’re very excited about the show, as it’s a collection of some of the best bands of this genre in the area,” Shelton said. “Not only are Dust Prophet, Wargraves and Conduit killing it, but it’s also the triumphant return of ThunderHawk.”

Wargraves, Dust Prophet, Conduit & ThunderHawk
When: Saturday, April 20, 9 p.m.
Where: Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester
More: $10 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Dust Prophet. Courtesy photo.

Challenging comedy from Daniel Sloss

Jokes can be made about anything, Daniel Sloss believes; nothing is off-limits. Among the topics the Scottish comedian has tackled are his sister’s death from cerebral palsy, toxic masculinity and a close friend being raped by a man they both knew. What’s most remarkable is that his act comes off as a TED Talk with punchlines — pain that’s very, very funny.

Speaking via Zoom recently, Sloss said he strives for balance on stage.

“I think you can and should make jokes about anything, but just because you’re making fun of something … doesn’t mean you have to be disrespectful or disparaging,” he said. “You can be provocative and empathetic at the same time; I think there’s a responsibility on the comedian to do both.”

In 2018’s Jigsaw, he mocked relationships with brutal efficiency. “We have romanticized the idea of romance, and it is cancerous,” he snarled. “People are more in love with the idea of love than the person they are with.” Acknowledging this would lead most to break up with their partners, he said, and asked for anyone who decoupled to let him know.

Hundreds of thousands of replies arrived, among them requests to autograph divorce papers. Sloss celebrated this outcome when he taped his Socio special in 2019. Since then, however, he’s married and welcomed a son. As he prepared to launch an American tour of his latest show Can’t, he sounded almost sheepish.

Jigsaw was, he said, “a very angry show [written] after a particularly bad breakup. I didn’t know it was going to have the effect it did, but I’m very glad it did. It does mean that whenever I talk about my wife on stage, people are like, ‘Oh, you’re a hypocrite’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t believe I have to explain this again.’ But … that’s the job.”

It’s work Sloss began doing at a young age, achieving quick success early on. He was 17 when he did his first sets; two years later, in 2009, his Teenage Kicks show made him the youngest comic to have a solo run in London’s West End. So his rant on modern love may just have been a twentysomething’s passion talking, though he claims data proves him right.

In Socio he turned his knives on woker-than-thou leftism, noting that the right doesn’t mandate a check in every box on their list. “You don’t hate gay people? That’s OK, you’ll learn,” he quipped. “Welcome aboard.” In the new show, Sloss expands on that, going after cancel culture, or more to the point, disassembling the popular notion of getting canceled.

“People lose bits of work because of things that they’ve said in the past due to some people going on the internet to dig up all their old dirty history, and I acknowledge that,” he said. “I do think there’s a lot of false flags. I think a lot of comedians claim they’re being canceled when they’re not. They’re just getting online feedback to a degree we’ve never had before.”

Having just returned from a tour of India, where people are arrested for criticizing the government, it’s clear Sloss finds the many snowflakes on this side of the world a bit daft. “We met a guy in Turkey who made a joke about some ancient prophet, and it wasn’t even particularly offensive, but one person took umbrage, and he spent 10 days in jail. I’ve seen the cost and the consequences of real cancel culture.”

That said, Sloss loves coming Stateside, and looks forward to traveling by bus with his family as his tour kicks off April 11 in Laconia.

“In America, I can make fun of any president that’s ever been,” he said. “I can say really awful things about them.” But he especially enjoys the many contrarians who attend his shows.

“As much as people feel like people are more sensitive than they’ve ever been, I’m also finding that because of that, there is the other side of the spectrum where people are like, ‘You can say whatever you want, we don’t care,’” Sloss said. “They want me to know that they’re not all soft and easily offended. Those are the people I try to make laugh.”

Daniel Sloss
When: Thursday, April 11, 8 p.m.
Where: Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia
Tickets: $39 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Jade Trio EP release show

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Andrew North & the Rangers are a busy band. Along with frequent gigs, they lead the First Wednesday open jam session at Concord’s Bank of NH Stage. They began hosting it at the lush downtown venue after their regular Ranger Zone open mic night ended when Area 23 moved a few miles down State Street to become The Forum Pub.

The lottery-based open session is unique in offering local musicians the chance to play with a full group. Also, the venue has top-notch lights, sound and multimedia, which makes it a great place to shoot promotional photos. The opportunity extends to performers who typically can’t take advantage of an open mic, like a young drummer who stopped by recently.

“He can’t go to an open mic and be like, here’s my snare drum, I’m going to play three songs for you. It doesn’t really work,” North said in a recent phone interview. “So we got to jam with him and come up with some funk jams and things like that. It’s cool to get musicians who aren’t able to provide the full expression of what they do in a traditional open mic setting.”

North also encouraged non-musicians to come for the entertainment.

“The talent level is shockingly high most months,” he said.

In addition to their musical endeavors, however, the band — original members North, Rob O’Brien, Chip Spangler and Dale Grant, along with recent additions Jillian Rork and Randy Hunneyman — all have busy day-to-day lives, and getting all six together is difficult at times. “We’re made up of people who are parents and professionals, with a whole lot going on in their lives,” North said. “From a scheduling perspective, there’s often times when somebody can’t make a gig.”

A year ago, only three people came to a scheduled practice session — North, Grant and Rork. Rather than bail for a month, they began jamming. They called the result Jade Trio, a stripped down, intimate effort. Songs like “Ben Folds’ Mind” and a new take on the instrumental “Epiphone” originally on the Phosphorescent Snack album have an easy, neo-jazz quality.

They enjoyed playing together enough to document the sessions in Concord Community Music School’s rehearsal hall. A four-song self-titled EP will be released on April 5. On the same day, in the same practice space, the three will play a one-off show, followed by a full Rangers acoustic set.

A benefit concert for the school, the event exemplifies the tightly knit Concord music community. Back when Area 23 was preparing to relocate, North and his bandmates did a final show there. Fiddler Audrey Budington, who has played with North in the Senie Hunt Project and is currently a member of Rebel Collective, joined in for a few songs.

“She works at Concord Community Music School and was like, ‘We need to do something with you guys this spring,’ so that’s where this show came from,” North recalled. “It’s really fortuitous the way everything came together.”

Making it an all-acoustic evening was an easy call for North.

“They have a Steinway piano on the stage, and we’re going to take advantage of that,” he said. “We’re really excited to see what this ends up sounding like, because we haven’t played a show quite like this before. Also, because it’s out of our regular wheelhouse [of] music venues and nightlife type places that have a bar and things like that, we’re not sure what to expect as to who’s going to come.”

He’s eager for what may be Jade Trio’s only public performance. However, it can be a challenge to come up with a rhythm section while working in a piano, drums and baritone saxophone configuration.

“Between the three of us, we’re all kind of juggling who’s holding down that low end of things, so when Jillian is going to take a solo on the saxophone I’ll drop my left hand lower to make sure we’re covering that frequency range,” North said, adding, “I really enjoy that process of three people making music together in the moment and sort of intuitively passing off that kind of stuff. It’s really a pleasure to get to play with people on that level.”

Andrew North & the Rangers w/ Jade Trio
When: Friday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Concord Community Music School, 23 Wall St., Concord
Tickets: $10 suggested donation

Featured photo: Jade Trio. Courtesy photo.

Jake McKelvie solo project plays Milford

Few New England songwriters have Jake McKelvie’s command of clever wordplay. In just two lines from “Eat Around the Pudding,” from 2020’s delightful LP Here’s What You Do, he rhymes homeowner, combover and organ donor while still delivering a jaunty tune that’s either a breakup song or musical self-therapy. It’s hard to tell which.

The fun continues on a new solo McKelvie project that’s separate from his longtime band the Countertops. A preview of the 12-song collection due later this year promises an album sparkling with charm.

On various tracks, McKelvie alludes to Rodney Dangerfield, drily notes that a fire in the belly can’t heat a room, and tells the object of his affection, “it’s a lie to imply you complete me, but you’re still a big part of the meal,” sung in a voice that walks the wire between childlike wonder and crusty bemusement. It’s all simply delightful.

A new, as yet unnamed band will back McKelvie at Union Coffee Co. in Milford on March 30. It includes bassist Mike Holland (Dutch Tulips) and Countertops drummer Matt Bacon, along with a second guitar player, a position that’s being filled by a few different people based on availability.

McKelvie’s lyrical sensibility remains, but musically, it’s something of a pivot. “Which is another one of the reasons why it’s kind of distinct from Countertops stuff,” he said in a recent phone interview. “The songs are a little bit slower. I don’t wanna say slow per se, but it leans more into the folk-like, songwriter aspect of what I do as opposed to the kind of rambunctious goofy thing that the Countertops lean into more.”

The impetus for starting a new effort came down to scheduling. Fewer Countertops gigs meant bass player Nick Vontruba and Bacon had to fill in the gaps.

“Basically, everyone’s got their hands in a few different projects,” McKelvie said. “That’s just the way things go.”

Creatively, he was feeling another pull.

“I had a batch of songs that I’ve been eager to do something with, and it just wasn’t really feasible for us to do them with the group,” McKelvie said. “We haven’t broken up or anything, we’re just kind of in a dormant phase. We’ll still probably play shows here and there and whatnot, but this is what feels right to do right now.”

The new band formed in November and has played a handful of shows, including four so far this year.
“It’s been kind of a slow build-up,” McKelvie said. “Now the record is finished; I’m figuring out release plans. I’ve got a tour mostly booked for April and I’m starting to work on some additional tours for later in the year.”

Both Bacon and Holland played on the forthcoming album. “They’re locked in,” McKelvie said, adding, “I’ve gotten lucky getting some good guitar players who are fast learners and have done a great job picking them up really quick. The shows we’ve played, I’ve felt pretty good about, and it does feel nice to be playing some new songs.”

He’s especially pleased with the new material.

“I’ve wanted to do this songwriting forward type of record for a while,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of scrappy home recorded solo things over the years, but this is like a proper studio version of that…. I just think it’s a pretty good record.”

Fans can expect to see a lot more of Jake McKelvie & Friends, or whatever name he finally comes up with.

“I’m trying to play as much as possible this year, so there’s a good chance I’ll be skipping around New England and other parts of the country as much as I can,” he said. “I’m just looking forward to playing a bunch of shows this year.”

He’s performed at Union Coffee many times in the past and looks forward to returning.

“I love playing there,” he said. “We’re playing with this band Trash Sun who I did a show with a few months ago. They’re kind of a newer New Hampshire band, I think, nice guys. Union Coffee is a great spot. They have always treated us really well, and I’m looking forward to getting back.”

Jake McKelvie
When: Saturday, March 30, 7 p.m.
Where: Union Coffee Co., 42 South St., Milford
More: facebook.com/JacobCMcKelvie

Featured photo: Jake McKelvie. Courtesy photo.

Comic Koutrobis films special in Nashua

One of the reasons comics decide to make a special is inertia. Unlike the case for musicians who can lean on their hits forever, once a set of jokes is committed to video, a comedian needs to write some new ones. When Mike Koutrobis greets a hometown audience at Nashua’s Center for the Arts on March 21, he’ll say goodbye to his tight 60, ready to face the blank page.

It makes sense. When Koutrobis began standup 30 years ago, he was a single guy, and the laughs came from trying to remember who was in the photos on his girlfriend’s apartment walls and being stymied by one hung with a sample picture still in it, like some kind of weird test.

These days, he’s married and a father.

“The material’s writing itself now,” Koutrobis said in a recent phone interview. “My son just turned 5 and I’m turning 53. He’s getting more active; I’m getting less active. He’s learning new ways to do things; I’m learning new ways to cope with an injury.”

Entertainment is in his blood. In high school, Koutrobis worked as a professional clown, juggling fire and riding 6-foot unicycles. Upon graduation, “I literally joined the circus,” he said. “The day out of high school, I was a performing clown at York’s Wild Kingdom in Maine.”

At 21 he started hanging out at bars, and soon was hosting karaoke.

“I couldn’t sing, so I made it funny,” he said. “I love the attention — middle child syndrome. It just kept going, and I’ve never turned back. Anything to do with entertainment or being in front of people just attracts me.”

A booking agent pointed him to an open mic night at Stitches in Boston. “He says, you’re funny, do you write jokes? I go, ‘I don’t know … I’m just being myself,’” Koutrobis said. “I went down, and I was absolutely horrible; I still have it on tape, I’ll never get rid of it. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.”

Rising to the challenge, he kept at it, studying other comics, looking for clues to their success. He recalls Boston comedy legend Patrice O’Neal complimenting him early on. “He goes … ‘I don’t know what the hell it is, but you have something.’ I thought, now I gotta figure out what the hell that is.”

Since then, Koutrobis has done a little bit of everything, appearing in movies and on television, promoting shows, teaching other comics, working as a DJ, and that’s for starters.

“I have 72 jobs,” he said. “I’m literally in a parking lot right now about to be a hospital clown at Tufts Medical Center … there’s not much I don’t do.”

When he quit his day job, Koutrobis realized that ubiquity was his key to success in entertainment.

“I need to be the guy where someone goes, ‘We need this for a party, let’s call Mike — either he does it, or he knows somebody that does.’ My business card says, and it’s my favorite quote of all time: ‘Eventually, you’ll hire me for something.’”

Koutrobis is excited to appear at the newest venue in the town he’s called home since he was a toddler. Advance sales for the show have been brisk.

“I’m already beyond what I was hoping for,” he said. “People from high school that I haven’t spoken to in years are messaging me, and they bought tickets. We’re already over 300 sold, [and] honestly, that was my number.”

A retirement party for material that long served him well had to happen, Koutrobis concluded.

“I got lazy with my writing, but when you put something out there it’s, ‘OK, that stuff’s done now.’ Look at Juston McKinney or Bob Marley, speaking of two local guys. As soon as they put out a CD, or Juston does his Christmas shows, it’s pretty rare you’re going to hear any of those jokes ever again.”

Mike Koutrobis Comedy Special
When: Saturday, March 23, 8pm
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $27 at nashuacenterforthearts.com

Featured photo: Mike Koutrobis. Courtesy photo.