Category: Nightlife

Manchester emo night celebrates a birthday

From disco nights to Taylor Swift sing-alongs, attempts to cash in on musical trends are legion. However, Live Free or Cry, a bimonthly emo-themed night at the Shaskeen Pub in Manchester, is and always has been a passion project. It’s lasted eight years, but since the pandemic ate one of them, 2024 is technically the seventh anniversary.

“The people running it and the people in the bands genuinely have been in the scene for 20-plus years,” founder Aaron Shelton said by phone recently. “We’re not following bandwagons, we’re playing songs that we listened to; we watched all these bands, even toured with some of them…. It comes from a really honest and heartfelt place.”

In the early days, bands like Taking Back Sunday, Paramore or Panic! at the Disco weren’t lumped together as emo.

“We always called it The Scene, which included emo, pop punk, hardcore, metalcore, all offshoots of, I guess punk rock would be the father of it all,” Shelton said. “One of the beautiful things about it was it always felt like a place for all the people who didn’t have a home, the outcasts, quote unquote. All the punk rock kids who didn’t know where to go.”

It’s an inclusive milieu.

“The emo image is always Hot Topic, black hair and nail polish, [but] I see nu-metal kids show up and metal kids and goth kids,” Shelton said. “It’s born out of a genre where the Get Up Kids and Bane would play the same show, and everyone would be psyched about it. It really is a place for everybody.”

Shelton worried the first Shaskeen emo night in 2016 would be a one-off. It included a set from The Nintendos and a pair of Boston DJs. Six months later The 603 Emo Collective performed; it included Shelton and members of a few other area bands. When it fell apart, Shelton started Early 2000s, which became Dangerous Nights, and something of a house band.

“That’s been kind of the constant,” Shelton said. “We’ve played 80 percent of the Emo Nights at this point.”

The effort has evolved and grown. Shelton promotes emo nights in Concord, at Tandy’s, as well as Lowell and Salem, Mass. It’s become a community along the way.

“Between the bands and the audience, it’s kind of found itself,” Shelton said. “In the first years, the crowds were rarely the same. Now I see a lot of repeat people; you can almost predict the type of audience that will show up at this point.”

The celebration on June 29 will include two bands. My Chemical Chungus, a Worcester area band, will be making its LFOC debut. “They’re normally a My Chemical Romance tribute band,” Shelton said. “They recently started branching out and playing more songs. I spoke to them, and they were excited about the set that they had.”

The second act, A Blockbuster Summer, “is your all-encompassing cover band; they do ’90s, ’80s, emo, basically whatever the show calls for,” Shelton said. “They’re just a very talented group with really incredible harmonies out of two singers…. I think it’s going to be musically a very strong night.”

Asked what has surprised him most over the past seven years, Shelton had a fittingly emo response.

“I joke with my band and my fiancée that every time we do one, it’s going to be the last,” he said, “and it just sells out again and again. I think there are four other emo nights in New Hampshire because it works so well. That’s been the surprise; not that I thought it was going to phase out immediately, because it’s been a constant in my life for over two decades, but I didn’t expect it to be this successful for this long. I’m constantly surprised year after year that it just keeps working and working.”

Live Free or Cry w/ My Chemical Chungus, A Blockbuster Summer
When: Saturday, June 29, 9 p.m.
Where: Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester
Tickets: $10 at the door, 21+, facebook.com/LiveFreeorCryNH

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Jon Anderson recreates ’70s era with new group

By Michael Witthaus
[email protected]

On June 13, Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks released a video for “Shine On.” The original song recalls “Siberian Khatru ‘’ and other classics from his former band Yes. Guitarist Andy Graziano’s frenetic arpeggio caused a YouTube commenter to exclaim, “Jon turned to Steve Howe & said, ‘hold my beer’” and another to say “This IS Yes. … The spirit is with Anderson and always has been.”

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will weave a few tracks from True, a full album due this summer, with 1970s Yes material on June 22 in Concord. His collaboration with the Band Geeks — Graziano, multi-instrumentalist Richie Castellano, Andy Acolese on drums, and keyboard players Christopher Clark and Robert Kipp — began in 2018, when he saw them cover “Heart of the Sunrise” on their classic rock-centric podcast.

“I went, wait a minute, they sound just like us; they sound perfect, and they look so happy,” Anderson recalled in a recent phone interview. A month later he called Castellano to thank them. “In the middle of the conversation, I said, ‘Why don’t we go on tour?’ He kind of went, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Yeah, we could go on tour and do sort of epics and classics.’”

For still unclear reasons, Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman had dissolved earlier in the year, so the singer was looking for a backing band. However, Castellano is in Blue Öyster Cult, so logistics were tricky. When the pandemic happened, he had to wait some more. Late last summer, after intense rehearsals, they finally were able to play for audiences.

“I couldn’t believe how good it was when we actually performed,” Anderson recalled. “We did 12 shows together and that really inspired me to want to work with them more, because they were just very open, grateful, thankful and everything about life.”

An original from the upcoming LP that’s been previewed at shows is “True Messenger,” which Anderson wrote over a decade ago. It includes elements of “Wondrous Stories” and “Roundabout” along with many tempo changes.

“I’d been working with a guy called Jamie Dunlap, who does a lot of the music for South Park; I found him to be a great musician,” he said. “We wrote two or three songs and that was one of them that I sent to Richie … he opened it up with ideas.”

Castellano was initially “kind of freaked out” at the thought of going into the studio, but Anderson reassured him, “I think we’d make a great album that probably would sound like Yes, and people who love Yes will like it; that’s what we aim for. There are two large 15-minute pieces, and the rest are very happy-go-lucky, rock ’n’ roll, and who knows what.”

The new project has charged up Anderson’s creative energy, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

“I want to tour the world with this band, and after that, who knows?” he said. “For the next couple of years I’m just going to go out there and perform the Yes classics and epics, plus the True album. New music is new music; by the time you’ve got it on the road, it blossoms. It’s just one of those natural things.”

In 2017 Yes was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, an occasion that marked the last time its original members played together, performing “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and “Roundabout.” Sadly, it was without original bassist Chris Squire, who’d died two years before.

Still, Anderson has fond recollections of the experience.

“I was very happy,” he said. “I think one of the things that was exciting about it was that we shook so many hands during the course of the evening. I was there with my beautiful wife, Jane. We were just having a good time, sipping Champagne. Then I remembered, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve got to go on and sing. I’ve got to be careful.’ We got up there and did two songs with the band. It was really fun, and the energy backstage was fantastic.”

Yes Epics, Classics & More featuring Jon Anderson & the Band Geeks
When: Saturday, June 22, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St. Concord
Tickets: $59 and up at ccanh.com

Featured photo: Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks. Photo by Steven Schenck courtesy Glass Onyon PR.

Hootie & the Blowfish, Collective Soul hit Gilford

Back in the ’90s, when there was still a record business, both Collective Soul and Hootie & the Blowfish were among a gaggle of Southern acts signed to major labels. The two bands spent time on the road playing shows together and forging friendships. Thus, the current Summer Camp With Trucks Tour, arriving June 13 at BankNH Pavilion, will be a happy reunion.

“We’re good friends,” Collective Soul front man Ed Roland said by phone recently. “To be able to go out and do a whole summer tour is really exciting for us. There’s no ego in any of the bands; everybody gets along. It’s like a fraternity getting back together.”

Along with the Gilford show is a date at Fenway Park, with Barenaked Ladies on the bill. Playing the Red Sox shrine is a first for Roland, who once lived in Boston while attending Berklee.

“I’ve seen some good baseball games there,” he said, adding that when he noticed the date on the band’s schedule, “I was blown away, actually. I told my mom I’m flying her up so she can be proud of me for something.”

It was a tongue-in-cheek joke; more than three decades past their breakthrough hit “Shine,” Collective Soul’s success is undeniable, and they’re still making records; their latest is Here to Eternity, an expansive 20-song effort. It opens with a solid one-two punch. “Mother’s Love,” which echoes “Where The River Flows” from their eponymous 1995 album, and “Bluer Than So Blue” are both driven by the band’s signature guitar-forward sound.

The rest continues apace; it’s fair to say there isn’t a weak track on Here to Eternity. The band hadn’t planned on making a double album; the project began with a dozen songs. Recording in Elvis Presley’s former Palm Springs home inspired him to stretch it out, however.

A standout among the tracks Roland wrote there is “Matter of Fact,” a direct homage to the King — and Queen. He was alone for a bit in the desert house.

“They staged it for us with cool, hip, mid-century, modern furniture, and we just set up shop,” he said. “I slept in Elvis’s bedroom; it was my house.”

Among the furnishings was a record player and a stack of about 50 albums that Roland grew up on, including Queen’s The Game. Thus, “Matter of Fact” has a “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” intro that echoes “Don’t Be Cruel” — but that’s not where the riff was born.

It’s the first riff Roland ever wrote.

“I used it to get into Berklee College of Music. It’s a little jazzy, and I was like, that’s cool. Now let’s put a little rockabilly-type vibe to it and see if it works.”

“Sister and Mary” has an “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” vibe that was also inspired by Roland’s record sessions. “I like listening to my heroes and studying on vinyl,” he said, adding that The Beatles, Elton John, Jeff Lynne, The Cars and Tom Petty are “my professors … I’m like, see what he did right there?”

One of the collection’s best is a live version of a song Roland wrote just before lockdown.

“Bob Dylan, Where Are You Now?” is a lament for a bygone time that he’d like to see again. Dylan was “one of my favorite professors…. He made you aware of what was going on without being preachy [and] that’s kind of what I was trying to do … set a tone of what was going on, from the pandemic to everything. It was an ode to him.”

Hitting the road again is always good for the energetic singer, songwriter and guitarist of a band with an ability to upstage headliners.

“To be honest with you, this one’s going to be really special,” he said of the upcoming run. “Just to enjoy each other’s company and then get up there and do what we all love to do. Edwin and the Hootie boys, they still love what they do, it’s inspiring. So, we gotta get up there and do our job, that’s for sure.”

Hootie & the Blowfish, Collective Soul and Edwin McCain
When: Thursday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Where: BankNH Pavilion, 72 Meadowbrook Lane, Gilford
Tickets: $56 and up at banknhpavilion.com

Featured photo: Collective Soul. Courtesy photo.

Bike Run party with James Montgomery Band

By Michael Witthaus
[email protected]

The yearly Laconia Motorcycle Week is returning, which means drivers should check their rear-view mirrors twice for the next 10 days while heading to the Lakes Region. It also signals the return of the Peter Makris Memorial Run, on June 8. Now in its 18th year, the charity ride attracts hundreds of motorcyclists and benefits area first responders

Motorcycles assemble at Naswa resort and are escorted to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for a few laps, followed by a ride around the lake that ends back at Naswa. Now part of this tradition is James Montgomery, who began playing the bike run’s afterparty in the mid-2010s. The blues harmonica stalwart is back again with his band for an afternoon set.

He’ll also help kick things off.

“I play ‘Amazing Grace’ at the beginning of the bike run,” Montgomery said by phone recently. “Last year we must have done at least 500 bikes, something like that. It’s a pretty big run, and raises money, and then we have a party afterward — and, you know, nobody gets hurt.”

Montgomery has been a fixture on the New England blues circuit since coming here in the early 1970s. He attended BU with plans to be a teacher, but instead fell into a music scene that included the J. Geils Band, Bonnie Raitt and Duke & the Drivers. He was signed to the Allman Brothers’ label Capricorn Records, where he worked with studio legend Tom Dowd on his second album.

Montgomery discovered the blues in his hometown of Detroit, seeing legends like Muddy Waters, Junior Wells and John Lee Hooker perform and learning his harmonica and singing style from James Cotton and Paul Butterfield. His reverence for the genre’s progenitors spawned a career in film. He’s participated in documentaries on Butterfield and fabled Boston radio station WBCN.

He also co-produced Bonny Blue, a documentary about Cotton, who he had a father/son relationship with prior to his death in 2017. The film’s centerpiece is a five-camera shoot done at Boston’s House of Blues while Cotton was still alive, with Huey Lewis and the late Jay Geils also in the harp legend’s band.

Montgomery beams while discussing the film, which debuted last year on the festival circuit and will see a general release later this summer.

“We were one of five finalists for the Library of Congress Ken Burns Prize,” he said. “It’s one of the highest awards you can get.”

His current movie project is non-musical, and close to home for Montgomery. America, You Kill Me is a documentary about his late brother Jeffrey, a pioneering gay rights activist in Detroit. His advocacy began when his partner was shot outside a Detroit gay bar in 1984, and he learned that local police were not aggressively investigating it or other LGBT-related murders. It’s played in a few movie houses, and Montgomery is working on a national release.

Musically, his most recent album was a duet effort: 2020’s Cadillac Walk, recorded with guitarist and singer Jay Willie. The title comes from a Mink DeVille song that’s one of several covers on the disc, like the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman.

Each one is given its own spin on the original.

“Jay Willie’s like me — don’t just cover something; he really wants to make an additional statement,” Montgomery said, adding, “I had a ball making that record…. They gave me a bottle of wine and 20 bucks, and I went, ‘OK, I’ll do it for that.’ The wine cost more than what they paid me, but anyway, we had a great time.”

His signature kung fu kick is still operational, though the 71-year-old harmonica player jokes that a hip replacement may change that someday.

“The generation that grew up playing in rock ’n’ roll bands in the late ’60s and ’70s always thought we were going to be young forever … none of us have this mentality that we’re old,” he said. “I say I’m on the ‘too stupid to stop’ tour, because if you don’t stop, you don’t even notice how long you’ve been playing.”

James Montgomery Band
When: Saturday, June 8, 1 p.m. (following Peter Makris Bike Run)
Where: Naswa Resort, 1086 Weirs Beach, Laconia
Info: naswa.com

Featured photo: James Montgomery. Courtesy photo.

Dueling piano bar new in Manchester

Sonya Gelinas embodies the spirit of an entrepreneur. She and her husband, Josh Philbrick, run The Smoothie Bus, a mobile business that now has brick-and-mortar locations. Gelinas is also CEO of CARE Counseling Services, with offices in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and she’s one of the company’s therapists.

So when Gelinas strolled past the former Black Brimmer in downtown Manchester a few years back and imagined turning it into a dueling pianos bar, it was inevitable that she’d see the idea through to fruition. When Penuche’s shuttered, she and Josh began to make a move.

On May 2, Keys Piano Bar & Grill had its soft opening; a bigger celebration will happen later. For now, every Friday and Saturday has a pair of pianists playing audience requests, bantering and leading sing-alongs to favorites like “Friends In Low Places.” There’s also a spinning wheel containing several NSFW stunts.

Gelinas became a fan of dueling pianos while she was attending college in Tampa, Florida, where she regularly went to Howl at the Moon, a chain of bars. “I had so much fun, so those memories are embedded in my mind forever,” she said during an interview in Keys’ downstairs sports bar.

She’s looking to recreate that feeling at Keys.

“We want to be in line with what Howl at the Moon has created. We want a very interactive experience,” she said. “We want to have a place where people can go out and sing along and have fun and interact with the pianist…. That’s our goal, really, just a lot of audience participation.”

When she first began dreaming about opening Keys, Gelinas wanted a franchised version of the place she fell in love with in Tampa. “I said, I’m going to turn that into a Howl at the Moon one of these days. But Howl at the Moon doesn’t franchise, so we couldn’t do that. We had to build our own,” she said.

A Manchester native — she graduated from Central High in 2001 — Gelinas has a sentimental streak for the energy at the old “Brimmer” and hopes to bring it back.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories,” she said. “We had one couple come in, and they’re like, do you know we met here? Twenty years ago, we met here at the Brimmer. That’s really cool … it is kind of a hallowed space.”

Keys has launched a Caribbean-themed menu with jerk chicken, a Cubano sandwich and Island Fusion Tacos among the dishes. Also, they offer an adult take on the couple’s daytime business.

“We have eight different frozen boozy smoothies, which will be nice on a hot summer day,” Gelinas said.

Shows are free, but the only way to guarantee a seat at the bar is by signing up on the Keys website. Every performance is preceded by a party. “People can come in and eat during that time or have a couple drinks,” Gelinas said. “That way when the show’s on they’re just ready to have fun.”

A rotating cast of performers is provided by Shake, Rattle and Roll Pianos, a New York City agency.

“Every weekend we can expect a different combination, which makes it really exciting, but these aren’t just pianists, they’re entertainers,” she said. “That’s what makes them special. I’ve been to enough dueling piano shows to know that the personality of the guy behind the keys is way more important than whether or not they can play or sing.”

Keys Piano Bar & Grill has a lot in common with the couple’s other ventures.

“We build businesses based [on] passion,” Gelinas said. “My husband and I were really fond of helping people live happier lives, which is perfectly in line with the smoothie shop…. I know when I drink a smoothie every day I feel good. My health care business is about making people better. Now we have this venue, which is all about bringing people together, in happiness and fun.”

Dueling Pianos
When: Fridays and Saturdays (pre-party 6:30 p.m., show 7:30 p.m.)
Where: Keys Piano Bar & Grill, 1087 Elm St., Manchester
Tickets: keysmanch.com

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.