Category: Nightlife

Fools duo play intimate Manchester show

November is a time of year when Mike Girard is usually getting ready to star in the annual Christmas Buzz Ball or doing shows with either his longtime band The Fools or the oversized side project, Mike Girard’s Big Swinging Things. Since the pandemic put the kibosh on most live music last March, however, he’s done exactly one gig: an early August drive-in Fools show at a Manchester by the Sea fitness club parking lot.
Girard’s performance output will double when he and Fools guitarist Rich Bartlett play an intimate show at the Rex Theatre in Manchester on Nov. 28. They’ve done the duo act once before at a house concert, “and we really had a terrific time,” Girard said in a recent phone interview. “The songs were stripped down, with lots of stories in between. We called it the Naked and Afraid Tour; this is a continuation of that.”
The setlist will include favorites like “Life Sucks, Then You Die” and “It’s A Night For Beautiful Girls,” reworked for the spare performance.
“I guess the words are going to be a lot more audible, for good or ill,” Girard said. “If you don’t like it, you’ll know why. There’s [one] song in particular, a slow one called ‘Just Give Up’ — it’s kind of an inspirational song about just quitting.”
A natural raconteur, Girard is more than ready to perform, despite the time off. He’ll share tales of his band’s beginnings in the late 1970s, when hits “She Looks Alright In The Dark” and “Psycho Chicken” were all over Boston radio, and talk about international tours opening for Van Halen and The Knack.
Fans will also gain insight into his songwriting process, Girard promised.
“For instance, ‘Night Out’ occurred to me in a dream — it really did,” he said. “In the dream, we were playing in a small club, doing this song. I woke up and wrote the verse and chorus. I knew where it was going and I went back to bed.”
In the morning, Girard finished the song.
“I called up Richie and said, ‘I had this dream we’re playing this song in a club; I wrote it down and I want to play it for the band.’ He said, ‘How many people were in the club?’ I said, ‘Not too many.’ He said, ‘Call me back when there’s more people in the club.’”
For his part, Bartlett is always ready to hit the stage, Girard said.
“I could show up at his place pretty much any hour of the day and he’ll be sitting on the couch playing guitar into his headphones while watching one TV show or another,” he said. “I tell him, ‘Your life hasn’t really changed at all; we’re all [not used to] staying at home, but that’s just what you do.’”
The upcoming stripped-down show will be The Fools’ second at the Rex; they were there last Feb. 22, a few months after Girard published a new book, A Fool In Time. Like 2010’s Psycho Chicken & Other Foolish Tales, he admits that it’s loosely a memoir, quoting Bartlett’s response to Psycho Chicken in the preface: “The story is pretty much true, even if the details aren’t.”
The Fools have a long history in Manchester, dating back to the raucous mid-’80s days of The Casbah Club, when they and performers such as GG Allin, Jim Carroll and The Ramones would frequently visit.
Girard is looking forward to playing at the city’s newest venue again.
“We’re going to add to the foolish population of that town,” he said with a laugh. “I love the Rex, the place is great. It’s got that feeling of history about it, being an old theater. Nice high ceilings, lots of space.” And it’s ideal for a safe, socially distanced evening.
“We won’t be selling merch, or hanging out with the audience after or whatever, all the things that we would normally do,” Girard said. “We’ll have our own separate entrance, everyone will wear a mask when they’re out of their seat, you know? But once we start, it’s going to be fun — that’s the whole point of every show.”

An Intimate Evening With A Couple of Fools
When: Saturday, Nov. 28, 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester
Tickets: $29 in advance at palacetheatre.org, $39 at the door

Featured photo: Mike Girard and Rich Bartlett. Courtesy photo.

Fogelberg tribute is a gem

A careful return to concerts at the Franklin Opera House includes a hybrid live and livestream show on Nov. 14, with Maine singer-songwriter Don Campbell playing the music of Dan Fogelberg. Employing a voice that closely resembles the soothing tenor that propelled hits such as “Leader of the Band,” “Same Old Lang Syne” and “Go Down Easy,” Campbell will perform both solo on piano and guitar, and with an expanded band.
For Campbell, hearing Fogelberg’s Souvenirs album as a teenager in the early 1970s was a transformative experience.
“It made me want to become a songwriter,” he said in a recent phone interview. “It felt like he was singing directly to me. A common thread with fans that I meet is it’s almost like you knew him through his music.”
Campbell has had a lot of success with his chosen craft. He’s a six-time winner of the Maine’s Best Singer-Songwriter poll and took top honors at a Grand Ole Opry competition of original artists that earned him $50,000 and a Gibson Les Paul custom guitar. He’s made 14 CDs of original music, including a pair of Christmas albums. His most recent release is 2014’s The Dust Never Settles.
It’s Campbell’s tribute act that’s getting the most notice in recent years, however.
When prostate cancer claimed Fogelberg in 2007, Campbell began recording his favorites to memorialize him, ultimately releasing a double album in 2012, Kites To Fly – The Music of Dan Fogelberg. Its title is a metaphor, not a lyric reference.
“His songs are like beautiful kites that you take down from the wall and outside to fly a little bit,” Campbell said. “That’s the only way I can describe them for someone who doesn’t know Dan’s music.”
The tribute was noticed by the Fogelberg Association of Peoria, Illinois (the singer’s hometown). The family trust invited Campbell to perform at their annual Celebration Weekend in 2013 and endorsed his act on its website.
“I got to speak to his mother through the foundation president, who put me on the phone with her,” Campbell said. “It was really quite an honor.”
The upcoming Franklin show will be Campbell’s first livestream, and he said he’s relieved to be performing for an in-person crowd at the same time.
“We like to play for people, not at people, where you can talk to the audience,” he said. “So I love opera houses. They always sound great, and they were built for carrying sound. We’re not a loud band; we’re more about playing the parts.”
He’ll bring a seven-piece band that includes fiddle and mandolin players for the evening. It will span Fogelberg’s career, from his gentle, semi-confessional early work to mid- ‘70s jazz rock and the 1985 bluegrass classic High Country Snows, a record Campbell names as one of his most beloved in the catalog.
“It was a special project,” he said.
Over the summer, Campbell and his band did a few outdoor, socially distanced shows. One memorably happened in the parking lot of The Clambake, a favorite seafood restaurant in his hometown of Scarborough, Maine; he and his band played atop a flatbed truck.
“People got lobster rolls and sat in lawn chairs between each car or in the back of a pickup truck,” he said. “We put on a three-hour concert and it was really great. I’ve always said, ‘Evolve or dissolve.’ Everybody’s had to evolve in 2020 to keep things going.”
Asked what he’ll remember most about this challenging year, Campbell answered quickly.
“Playing in close proximity to people,” he said. “Being able to play in venues where there are dancers right in front of you, it’s hard to replace that.”

The Music of Dan Fogelberg – Don Campbell Band
When: Saturday, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Franklin Opera House, 316 Central St., Franklin
Tickets: $18 & $20 ($17/livestream) at franklinoperahouse.org

Featured photo: Don Campbell. Courtesy photo.

Country rockers play Hudson, host song circle

The initials in EXP Band stand for “experienced players” — front man Rob Randlett, bassist Erik Thomas, lead guitarist John Andrews and drummer Curtis Marzerka are all veteran musicians. Their modern country sound, however, arrived a bit late in their careers.

Randlett spent his early years rocking hard, but in 2014 he got some advice from Hillsboro producer Ted Hutchinson that sent him in a southern direction.

“He told me, ‘I know you like doing the rock thing,’” Randlett said recently by phone, “‘but country’s where you need to be, and that’s where your voice suits you. If you do that, you’ll see things will change.’”

Hutchinson had good ears; Randlett guested with Jodi Cunningham’s band a few times, and soon her fans were asking when his band would be coming to town. So piece by piece he put one together and started playing out.

“Everything was modern country,” he said. “Fresh, because it was right on the radio.”

Since then, the group has gigged all over New England, playing NASCAR and Bike Week, while Randlett himself won New Hampshire Country Music Association and national honors — best male vocalist in 2018 and best modern country male and band the following year.

With Covid-19, their schedule has constricted, but EXP is still doing shows. The next one is Friday, Nov. 6, at The Bar in Hudson, a favorite spot for them, Randlett said.

“It’s just a very homey, feel-good type of a place … a small venue, and it’s very relaxing,” he said.

A Nov. 7 date at Concord’s Area 23 has been moved to December, but they will be at the Manchester VFW the following week, on Friday the 13^th.

Along with playing Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Chase Rice covers, Randlett is an original artist. The Army vet’s latest endeavor is a Bluebird Café styled song circle, fittingly happening Nov. 11 at Tower Hill Tavern in Laconia. He hopes this Songwriters Night event will be the first of many.

“We’re just starting out,” he said. “The music industry is tough right now, along with everything else. Because of Covid, they’re not really allowing full bands inside, but there are solo artists some places, depending on the ownership.”

Tower Hill regularly books Randlett and jumped at the chance to host the event.

“As soon as I posted asking, if I did a songwriters night, would anybody want to do that, he was like, ‘I wanna do it here; we have to do it here,’” Randlett said.

All musicians are welcome.

“It’s kind of like a Nashville thing, but it doesn’t have to be all country,” Randlett said. “It could be blues, rock, whatever you want it to be. If there’s some 16-year-old kid that’s a great songwriter, you know, and his mom and dad want to bring him down to show off his talent, that’s cool. It’s all about bringing musicians together again.”

He looks forward to hosting Songwriters Night on Veterans Day, noting that he hopes to draw attention to a holiday that’s often misunderstood by the general public.

“I thought it was a cool day because military is a big part of my heart and my music. To be able to share this on Veterans Day means a lot to me,” he said.

EXP will appear as a full band on Nov. 6, at The Bar. Randlett is optimistic that it’s a harbinger.

“I think things are moving in a positive direction,” he said. “People are now becoming accustomed to what the outlook is when they go out in public [and] I feel as long as you follow the rules and work with the bar owners, music can continue. When things get out of control and people don’t abide by the rules and do the wrong thing, that’s when problems happen.”

EXP Band
When: Friday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.
Where: The Bar, 2B Burnham Road, Hudson

Songwriters Night
When: Wednesday, Nov. 11, 6 p.m.
Where: Tower Hill Tavern, 264 Lakeside Ave., Laconia
More: Facebook.com/EXPBandNH

Featured photo: EXP Band. Courtesy photo.

Music and comedy with a Halloween twist

With all the horrors already unleashed by 2020, what’s the point of Halloween? Everyone already has a mask, and fright is a constant condition. What could be added to that?

In a word, laughs. Of all the entertainments that carefully made their way back into public spaces, comedy has provided special relief to the shell-shocked citizenry. On Friday, Oct. 30, in Nashua and on Halloween night in Manchester, Chunky’s Cinema Pub continues a tradition begun last year with a Dueling Pianos costume party. Area favorite Jim Tyrrell appears at both events, with Jeff Gaynor joining him one night and Julian Chisolm the next.

The format is right out of a Billy Joel song, with tips and requests stuffed in a jar — and with this special event, there will be plenty asking for “Monster Mash,” “Thriller” and “Purple People Eater.” Add to that a crowd that’s encouraged to dress up for the occasion.

But there’s an additional twist, said Rob Steen, whose Headliners Comedy Club is presenting the shows, in a recent phone interview. Audience participation drives the evening.

“Say you want to hear ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ — you put a dollar in and they play it,” he said. “But your wife might not want to hear that song, so she could put two or three dollars in to stop them. For the players, money is more of a device to dictate where the show goes.”

This makes the crowd a third instrument for the two keyboard warriors.

“So every show is different, you know?” Steen said. “In some venues I booked I’ve heard, ‘The pianos weren’t really funny last time, but they’re really good this time.’ I say, ‘Well, your crowd kind of sucked.’ I mean, I shouldn’t say it like that, but it’s all dictated by what the crowd does.”

Steen has booked the three New Hampshire Chunky’s (the other is in Pelham) for several years, but when the curtain lifted to permit live entertainment in late spring, his shows were especially vital for the venue.

With the pandemic, film studios froze release dates, Steen said.

“Chunky’s called me and said, ‘We can’t play any movies because there’s nothing coming out … we need live entertainment.’ So we did the comedy, the pianos, we got the tribute acts, and we also had kids’ shows, which have been selling out crazy.”

Having the cinema/restaurant available provided a critical lifeline to Steen in return, as his showcase comedy club in downtown Manchester shuttered on March 13 and has been dark since — though it will open again on Nov. 7, with headliner Will Noonan joined by local comic Paul Landwehr and Steen.

Staffing problems and uncertainty about regulations nearly delayed Headliners’ reopening to December, but as of Oct. 22 all systems were go.

“Capacity limits is the biggest concern, as we need a certain amount of seats to be viable,” Steen said. “They have increased a bit, which is good. However, distancing and safety regulations make it nearly impossible to have more capacity, and the cost to have plexiglass around every table would be very expensive. We still would lose lots of seating.”

Chunky’s doesn’t present the same problems, Steen said.

“It’s a very large room, so spacing isn’t an issue. Ceilings are very high. We are 25 feet from the crowd. So guidelines are easier to follow. … Smaller venues have a bigger challenge, mainly due to space restrictions.”

Steen, New England’s busiest comedy promoter, presses on, meeting each challenge with the same pluck that makes his crowd work as a comic look easy. Weekly shows are planned for his showcase club, along with weekend events at both the Manchester and Nashua Chunky’s. One-off shows happen often at Murphy’s Taproom in Bedford, Nashua’s Flight Center, the Pasta Loft in Milford and other places, as well as larger events at the Capitol Center and Palace Theatre.

New Year’s Eve is Steen’s biggest night of the year, and though it won’t be the same as in the past, Steen is determined to ring in 2021 at several venues throughout the state, whatever Covid-19 brings.

“My friends say I’m like a cockroach, [that] I don’t get killed, that I’m lucky,” he said. “When preparation and opportunity meet — that’s what luck is.”

Dueling Pianos Halloween Party – Two Shows
When: Friday, Oct. 30, 8 p.m. at Chunky’s Cinema, 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua, and Saturday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m. at Chunky’s Cinema, 707 Huse Road, Manchester
Tickets: $20 at headlinerscomedyclub.com
Also: Headliners Comedy Club at Hilton Doubletree Manchester is expected to reopen Nov. 7 with Will Noonan headlining.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Halloween dance party is right for the times

Among the many entertainments challenged by the pandemic, EDM — electronic dance music — faced a unique hurdle. A lively audience is integral to the experience, almost as important as the DJ throwing beats. Manchester DJ Omari Nkosi summed up the problem succinctly.

“It’s not that easy to keep people six feet apart on a dance floor,” he said recently by telephone. “You run into issues.”

Nkosi and his promotion company Pangea have weathered Covid-19’s choppy waters since lockdown was lifted to stage a number of events. They did it by presenting clear screening, masking and distancing rules for shows at hometown spots like Jewel Music Venue and Whiskey’s 20.

The upcoming Covenant Halloween Vampire’s Ball at Whiskey’s 20 will offer one less difficulty, because everyone will gladly wear a mask.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Nkosi said. “Having a costume party just kind of makes it a lot easier.”

DJs appearing at the event include Nkosi, Trippa, Wiggles and Midas.

Midas — real name John Manning — will be spinning in Manchester for the first time since lockdown began. His one post-quarantine show happened in Providence, Rhode Island, an early October event he described as “straight out of a Stanley Kubrick movie” in a recent phone interview.

“Each section had like five people and you were in your own little plastic case,” he said. “It was so surreal.”

Working in front of a crowd that night, however, provided a familiar rush.

“It filled my soul,” Midas said. “I needed that. It’s like I forgot that I needed it, like a plant needs sunlight. I forgot that I need to do gigs and be able to play and see people and actually be able to send energy back and forth. Now that being said, everyone’s dancing in their own section with their five friends and it’s back to the Kubrick movie.”

Midas is a veteran of the city’s dance scene as well as the radio host of Late Night Delight every Saturday on WMNH 95.3. The latter is an alter ego experience, he said.

“I love the station; everybody there is awesome and it’s its own living breathing part of Manchester,” he said. “I love all kinds of music, and my show is an opportunity for me to not play for a dance floor … it’s listening music. If I want to just do some ambient type of stuff or play five different styles or a tribute, I can and often do. I really try to reinvent the wheel every week.”

Though his radio sets often lean to classic artists like The Beatles, Midas’s touch isn’t old-school.

“The digital age is great for a DJ, because I can have all my music at my fingertips,” he said. “I love it, I embrace it, I can’t wait to see what’s next. Things just keep getting crazier and crazier.”

His appearance at Whiskey’s 20 will lock into a club groove.

“I’m going to try all kinds of surprises,” Midas said. “Things that make you go, ‘Hell, yeah, I can’t believe I’m hearing this right now!’ It’s an electronic music event, so I’m going to stay within the realm of that and party with everybody. I also want it to be dirty and scary at times. So I’ll walk the line between a few different feelings that will definitely be fun. Lots of remixes, because it seems like that’s the kind of thing you want to hear — a bunch of awesome remixes.”

Nkosi looks forward to sparking a creative vibe at the upcoming party.

“Halloween tends to bring out the wild side of people,” he said, recalling a performance at the now-closed Red Door in Portsmouth a few years back. “I was playing techno at 100 to 124 BPM. … Now, I’m a 128 to 130 guy. I like to rock straight techno, but people were just eating it up. Halloween definitely makes you do a lot of things that you normally wouldn’t be able to do.”

Covenant Halloween Vampire’s Ball
When: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 8 p.m.
Where: Whiskey’s 20, 20 Old Granite St., Manchester
Tickets: $10 at the door

Featured photo: Midas. Courtesy photo.

Young indie rockers make big stage debut

As live music resumes at Concord’s downtown Bank of New Hampshire Stage, a direction that started with the summer In The Park series continues: the showcasing of regional talent. Social distancing requirements now limit capacity, creating a sweet spot for acts like Grenon, a quartet of indie rockers who are more than excited for their upcoming show on Oct. 17.

The band is led by namesake Kacie Grenon, a 17-year-old singer-songwriter who began performing as a preteen. Grenon, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, exudes an artistic maturity well beyond her age. “Imaginary Friends,” a song she wrote about social anxiety, has garnered over 53,000 Spotify streams since its spring release, along with a Top 10 Indie Rock Café pick and press notice in SoCal’s venerable L.A. Weekly.

It’s been a challenging time for the music business. As the band prepared to roll out a new video for “Imaginary Friends” in early May and hit the road to support it, Covid-19 shut the world down. Online Grenon Pity Party shows became the norm.

Though working through the pandemic via Facebook Live and other platforms was a breeze, it didn’t substitute for the real thing, Grenon said in a recent interview with bandmates Nick Turgeon and Zach Stone.

“We all grew up in the generation raised with technology, so it wasn’t a hard switch for us,” she said. “Although it’s super fun and we love doing them, playing online doesn’t really capture everything that we love. And we’re just so excited to actually be doing another live show.”

Grenon began writing “Imaginary Friends” as she completed internet-based high school. The feelings it describes — stuck at home while the world goes on outside — were very real.

“I didn’t really hang out with a lot of people,” she said. “So I was pretty lonely.”

With the pandemic, the song’s sentiments found a larger audience among Quarantine Nation, she said.

“Everyone’s pretty lonely. So I think that might be why people are resonating with it right now. But it’s just really cool to see a song that I wrote in my bedroom when I was feeling pretty low be pretty huge for us at this point,” she said.

Recognition from the virtual world for the new single surprised and delighted Grenon and her bandmates.

“We were supposed to go on a radio tour right after it dropped but we obviously could not get outside of the state,” she said. “It is pretty organic that a lot of people are seeing ‘Imaginary Friends.’ I give a lot of credit to our managers for helping us out so much.”

Bassist R.J. Wood, who joined Grenon in July, will play his second show with the band when they appear in Concord. Although enlisting a new member during a pandemic might appear difficult, Grenon said it was ideal.

“This gave us the perfect time to really practice with him without any pressing deadlines, like, ‘Oh we have a tour that we have to go on in like a week, can you learn all these songs?’” she said. “We’re super excited to finally have him show off for everyone.”

As for the band’s future plans, “just like everyone else in the industry right now we’re kind of waiting to be able to travel and tour,” Grenon said, noting that they’ll debut a follow-up to “Imaginary Friends” at Concord, Part 2 of their mental hell[th] EP.

Then, with all members now high school graduates, the entire band plans to share an apartment — hopefully one with thick walls. No word yet on when TikTok videos of at-home antics will begin appearing — “It’s such a weird app,” Grenon said — as they’re relatively new to the social media tool.

“We’re moving in so we can stay together and make a lot of cool behind-the-scenes stuff,” Grenon said. “We’re just trying to find ways to be creative and safe, and keep moving.”

Grenon
When: Saturday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m.
Where: Bank of New Hampshire Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $20 at banknhstage.com

Featured photo: Grenon. Courtesy photo.