The Music Roundup 23/04/06

Local music news & events

• Early coverage: Perhaps more than any other classic rockers, Led Zeppelin has left it to bands like Get The Led Out to carry the torch, having performed only three times since drummer John Bonham died in 1980. Lead singer Paul Sinclair is a convincing Robert Plant doppelgänger, as the tribute act moves through Zep’s catalog, spending a lot of time during the period when album titles, when there were any, were numbers. Thursday, April 6, 8 pm., Colonial Theatre, 609 Main St., Laconia, $29 and up at etix.com.

• Poetic music: Returning to a venue she began selling out soon after graduating from Berklee, Liz Longley is an uber-talented singer-songwriter. From watching her grandmother endure Alzheimer’s in the sensitive “Unraveling” to the metaphor-rich “Camaro,” Longley cuts to the heart of the matter. When she released Funeral For My Past, produced by Nashville whiz Paul Moak, it was the third most successful project in Kickstarter history. Friday, April 7, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $25 at tupelohall.com.

• Celtic outreach: The outsized American celebration of St. Patrick’s Day is, Máiréad Nesbitt opined a few years ago, “a great compliment to such a little country.” The fiddler has done her part as an Irish ambassador; a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Celtic Woman, she toured the world, playing iconic venues like Red Rocks and Carnegie Hall. Local favorites Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki Trio open at her downtown show. Saturday, April 8, 7:30 p.m., Rex Theatre, 23 Amherst St., Manchester, $35 at palacetheatre.org.

• Heavy noise: A feast for fans of experimental music, the two-day Slabfest includes Pleasure Coffin’s “interdisciplinary performance art with handmade noise machines” and New York-based Swollen Organs, who promise “power electronics, death industrial, and harsh noise about unfulfilled lust, obsession and worship” — an unquiet glance at the current zeitgeist, with waveforms as weaponry. Saturday, April 8, and Sunday, April 9, 5 p.m., Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St., Manchester, $25 ($15 single day) at wyrdrecords.bigcartel.com.

• Deep tracks: A record store and a craft brewery join up for the Modern Records Pop-Up, an event that offers vintage vinyl for sale and listening. Cousin Richard, who owns the curated store, will preview any record pre-purchase. It’s quite the emporium — “Southside” Johnny Lyon stopped in recently to pick up a few 45 RPMs prior to playing a show with his band the Asbury Jukes at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club. Wednesday, April 12, 6 p.m., Earth Eagle Brewings, 175 High St., Portsmouth. See cuzinrichard.com/modern-records.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (PG-13)

Chris Evans and Michelle Rodriguez make a good questing-buddies pair in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

And I should explain up front that I’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, so surely there are Easter eggs about characters and gameplay that I missed. But not knowing that world doesn’t get in the way of understanding or basically enjoying what is a pretty straightforward adventure tale set in a magic-y world.

Edgin (Chris Pine) and Holga (Michelle Rodriguez) are partners in a smash-and-grab operation in the land of Neverwinter (it reads as a more chill Middle-earth) — a team that over time expands to include the so-so sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and the con artist Forge (Hugh Grant). We meet Edgin and Holga as they are rounding two years in prison after a heist they planned at the behest of the wizard Sofina (Daisy Head) goes wrong and they get caught. Edgin only took the job because the location contained a magical scroll that he hoped could bring his wife back from the dead, reuniting her with Edgin and their daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman), who was only a baby when her mother died. She was mainly raised by Edgin and Holga, and for the last two years has been living with Forge — or so Edgin hopes. He asked Forge to take care of Kira when it became clear Edgin wasn’t going to escape and now he devises a somewhat stupid plan to bust himself and Holga out of prison so he can go and find his daughter.

Once they’re free, they find that Kira has been taken care of by Forge, who has really grown to relish his fatherly role. He’s enjoyed it so much, in fact, that he has convinced Kira that her dad was a jerk who abandoned her and, now that Forge (with the help of the wizard Sofina) has made himself lord of Neverwinter, he’s provided Kira with a very comfortable life and is reluctant to give it or her up.

When it becomes clear that Edgin and Holga will have to go a sneaky route to win back Kira, Edgin searches for sorcerer Simon, who now has a mediocre magic show (but a very capable pickpocket racket), and for a druid named Doric (Sophia Lillis) whose shapeshifting abilities can help the team make their plan to get into Forge’s castle, rescue Kira and find the life-giving scroll so Edgin can reunite his family.

Meanwhile, Forge and Sofina, who is secretly one of the bad guys known as Red Wizards, have some sort of nefarious plan of their own connected to a forthcoming tournament.

Showing up for too short a time is Xenk (Regé-Jean Page) as an extremely noble lone wolf warrior. The chemistry between him and the more cynical Edgin is a nice note.

“Nice” is probably an overall fair descriptor for this movie — which can sound like faint praise but isn’t really. It’s unrealistic that every movie be the best thing ever or a total mess. Honor Among Thieves is neither, it’s just light fun and uncomplicated good times. It cribs a bit from the Avengers movies, it has the fairy-tale-ish vibes of many other things but without the grimness (Game of Thrones) or the self-seriousness (many a Tolkien property) that can weigh that sort of thing down. The core characters are basically enjoyable to spend time with, even if Edgin is the only one we really get to know. And Pine is just enough of a scruffily charming hero to make that work, without ever tipping over into aggressive glibness.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the sort of movie you don’t need to rush out to see but that is entertaining enough if you find yourself in a theater watching it. B-

Rated PG-13 for fantasy action/violence and some language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein with a screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley and Michael Gilio, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is two hours and 14 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Paramount Pictures.

Featured photo: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

The Half Known Life, by Pico Iyer

The Half Known Life, by Pico Iyer (Riverhead, 225 pages)

Pico Iyer is primarily known as a travel writer, but it should not be surprising that he delves into the spiritual in his latest book, given that he spends a part of each year in silent retreat at a hermitage in California. In The Half Known Life, Iyer rummages through his experiences traveling from Iran to Israel to Sri Lanka to North Korea.

The book is a travelog, of sorts, and the subtitle (“In search of paradise”) suggests that he intends to write an examination of how different religious traditions view the afterlife. But Iyer’s purpose is more complex than that.

Our longing for paradise after death is simply an extension of our longing for paradise on Earth, whether it be a place or a state of mind. He quotes Omar Khayyam, “Take care to create your own paradise, here and now on earth.” He is more concerned with how we live together in this realm, on this planet, given our vastly different perspectives on life’s biggest questions. How, he asks, can we “keep faith with even the hope of Paradise when nearly all the paradises I’d seen were, sometimes for that very reason, war zones?”

Ultimately, he offers no prescriptions, only musings, and a wealth of trivia on different cultures’ views of death and what comes after.

In Japan, for example, cemeteries are called “cities of tomorrow,” a hopeful take on human remains. Iyer writes of his Japanese wife’s custom of maintaining an altar in their home dedicated to her deceased parents, of leaving food and tea for them there every morning, and visiting their graves to tell them everything that’s going on in the family. “The doors between the living and the dead are kept open across the land, and at intervals throughout the year, lanterns are lit so the dead can make their way back to earth and look in on their much-missed loved ones.” To some Japanese, the dead are even closer to the living than they were in life.

In Sri Lanka, Iyer retraces the steps of the famed monk Thomas Merton, who was found dead in Bangkok shortly after his travels. Although a Christian, Merton had been moved by a 46-foot Buddha in deathly repose, so much so that he later wrote, “I know and have seen what I was obscurely looking for.” Iyer marvels at this, “that a man who had devoted his life to the Christian God had been so stirred by the face of the Buddha, as if heaven was not the private property of any group.”

In Australia, Iyer visits the coastal city of Broome, where he is confronted by hostile Aboriginal people who resent the encroaching tourism. He notes that although a majority of Aboriginals identify as Christians, “they did not understand why Europeans needed to go into a special house to talk to God, eyes closed. For them, the promised land was nowhere but the land around them.”

And in Kashmir, the contested region which has territory that belongs to Pakistan, India and China, he visits the places that once represented earthly paradise to his mother and extended family, and muses on Salman Rushdie’s poignant question, one that can keep you up all night: “Was happiness God’s gift, or the Devil’s? He’d begun his book on Kashmir by quoting the local poet Agha Shahid Ali: ‘I am being rowed through Paradise on a river of hell.’”

And of course, he visits Jerusalem, which he has come to believe is “the place where everyday morality and religion part ways, on grounds of irreconcilable differences.” The constant tussling over holy spaces by Muslims, Jews and Christians (and within Christianity, that tussling between various denominations) renders the city a crowded and harsh cacophony that contradicts the heart of the various faiths. Jerusalem, he writes, is “a riot of views of paradise overlapping at crooked angles.” It is, he writes, “an unusually rooted place … that was always about to go up in flames.”

Iyer is a thoughtful, spiritual man of great intellect who writes beautifully, as in this description of Broome: “Nighttime clouds were illuminated by long, silent flashes, as if the heavens themselves were submitting to an X-ray.” The biographer of the Dalai Lama, he stands outside the biggest Abrahamic faiths — Islam, Judaism and Christianity — yet is reverential to religious faith of all kinds and writes respectfully even as bringing a critical eye to their battles and contradictions.

Still, the book struggled to hold my attention, as it never established a clear storyline other than the author holding forth on the myriad places he has visited; the paradise theme seems thin connective tissue that does not rise to its promise and its usual power. More memorable than Iyer’s own reflections were those of others, such as the Sufi koan about man: “Though drowned in sin / Heaven is his lot.”

Commenting on a particular type of film, Iyer writes, “they hold you for two hours with supple and constant swerves, and at the end you’re farther from a clear conclusion than ever.” The same could be said of this book. Paradise is neither lost nor found here; The Half Known Life is more of a purgatory. C+

Album Reviews 23/04/06

Poh Hock, Gallimaufry (self-released)

According to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, the definition for the word “gallimaufry” is “a confused jumble or medley of things.” That tracks with respect to this EP, as Poh Hock Kee’s latest songwriting foray blends jazz, prog, classic rock, soul and disco. This one launches with a spazzy bang with “Forward,” a light-speed tune that sounds like Al di Meola invading a Tonight show band rehearsal, and that leads into something even more show-stopping, “Another One Of Those Times,” which combines straight-ahead Return To Forever-ish prog rock with a highly melodic pop vocal that would have fit fine with peak-career Janet Jackson (Debo Ray does the honors on the singing end). But wait, there’s more, “I Don’t” reads like Eddie Van Halen jamming with Talas but much bigger-sounding and more sweeping. Whatever, I have no idea where this guy’s been, but this is truly groundbreaking stuff, demonstrating a deep love for wonky experimentation without ever getting bogged down with academic tedium. If you’re a prog guitarist, get on this immediately, this guy’s a genius. A+

Glorious Bankrobbers, Back on the Road (Sound Pollution Records)

“Swedish sleaze-rock,” these guys call what they do, but first we should talk about how this band would have made a few thousand bucks, maybe enough for a second-hand 1982 Toyota Corolla or a nifty barbecue smoker-barrel, if their manager hadn’t sold all their promotional freebie records in secondhand stores for beer money, which (spoiler) resulted in this band being denied any reviews or radio airplay, and of course they broke up soon after the release. It’s awful what happens to nice, totally innocent dudes who just want to get drunk and steal girlfriends, it’s just the worst, it’s almost like no one cares about us, but anyway, the guitar sound pulled me in for a second here, and I was expecting to hear some sort of New York Dolls vibe, which always gets props in this newspaper column, you guys know the drill by now. But no, this is basically a Poison clone band, as in the singer sounds exactly like Brett Michaels, which means the overall effect isn’t all that sleazy, but I get what they mean. All righty then. B-

Playlist

• Like every Friday, a new batch of albums will appear this Friday, April 7, whether you plan to buy them or not. This is a devilish plot that hatches every week because the record companies know that you’re going to have to spend all your money someplace on Fridays, so they figure that if you happen by chance to see new albums, you’ll buy them, even if they’re from Van Morrison or someone who used to be in the Smiths, because you can’t control yourself. But enough of that sort of talk, let’s dig in to this week’s foul-smelling pile and see what we — ah, look, it’s an album from Thomas Bangalter, who is one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, whom you know as weird techno nerds in motorcycle helmets. I was honestly never big into Daft Punk, preferring instead to listen to more traditional deep house stuff as well as being a bit allergic to Auto-Tuned singing in general and bands hiding their faces for no reason whatsoever in particular, not to mention the fact that if there’s any band I can’t stand, it’s Phoenix, but anyway, you get the picture. Bangalter’s debut solo album, Mythologies, comprises the score of a 90-minute ballet of the same name, which premiered in July 2022, featuring direction and choreography by Angelin Preljocaj. All I’ve heard so far from this record is “L’Accouchement,” which isn’t in waltz time so I doubt there’s much dancing, it’s just really melancholy sad-face sturm und drang. Hard pass from this critic.

• Heather Woods Broderick is a singer-guitarist who’s originally from Maine, which is near New Hampshire; otherwise I probably wouldn’t be giving her any free publicity in this column. She has released solo material under her own name, as well as having been a member of Efterklang, Horse Feathers and Loch Lomond. She has a new album coming out this Friday title Labyrinth, which includes the push-single “Crashing Against The Sun,” a very nice, lush slow-burner that has a shoegaze tint to it while rooted in something along the lines of Lana Del Rey as far as woozy, halcyon vibe. It’s decent, even if the keyboards sound like they came from 1993.

• If you’re a GenXer who hates to feel old, don’t read the rest of this sentence, because it will tell you that the very first Mudhoney album came out 34 years ago. That band is sort if the Ed McMahon of ’80s/’90s grunge, like, basically they were awful, but because they were from Seattle, like Nirvana and Soundgarden and all those guys, they were given recording contracts and studio time and groupies, just as long as they didn’t blow up really really bigly, not that there was ever any danger of that actually happening. So, right, the band’s new LP, Plastic Eternity, is led off by the single “Almost Everything,” which is decent insofar as having a no-wave/noise-rock feel to it, like it sounds like Michael Stipe doofing around with a garage band that has a deep love for neo-psychedelica a la Brian Jonestown Massacre. That genre’s been done to death, sure, but this is a pretty good attempt.

• For my last trick, look, it’s Billie Marten, a British singer-songwriter and musician from Ripon in North Yorkshire, whatever that’s supposed to designate in the British language. She first appeared on the acoustic folk scene at the age of 12, when a YouTube of her singing attracted thousands of views, or so it’s claimed (seriously, go look, Wikipedia doesn’t quite believe it but it’s still in her Wiki page). Drop Cherries, her new album, includes a tune called “This Is How We Move,” an unplugged bit powered by guitar and a string section. It’s kind of Joni Mitchell-ish, if that’s your jam; it didn’t immediately grab me but it’s OK.

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

Fig and cheese tarts smothered with bacon

Since this recipe starts with figs, I know some people may look away. However, I am hoping the phrase “smothered with bacon” keeps most of you reading. Figs may not always sound appealing, but in this recipe I am pretty sure they are going to be a hit.

Although I am a fan of all figs, dried or fresh, I think what makes this recipe such a success is that the fig used in this recipe is actually fig preserves. You may wonder what you will do with the remainder of the jar after making this recipe, but the answers are many. First, you could make multiple batches of this recipe. Second, you could serve it as a condiment with a charcuterie tray. Third, it makes a great topping for toast, biscuits and more.

Now that I have you assured on your purchase of fig preserves, the other ingredients are pretty straightforward. I do have to let you know that it did take some searching to find the phyllo cups. My regular grocery store doesn’t seem to carry them anymore, but another one did. For those of you new to phyllo cups, you will find them in the dessert portion of the freezer area.

For the bacon in this recipe, I used regular sliced, as I wanted it to be extra crispy. However, if you prefer your bacon to be heartier, a thick-sliced version will work as well.

These tarts can be served straight from the oven. (Just don’t burn the roof of your mouth!) They also work well either at room temperature or cold. If you won’t be serving them immediately, be sure to store them in your refrigerator in a covered container.

Fig and cheese tarts smothered with bacon
Makes 15

5 strips bacon
15 phyllo cups
4 ounces goat cheese
4 1/2 Tablespoons fig preserves

An hour before cooking, place goat cheese on the counter to soften.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.
Add bacon, cooking until crispy (about 5 minutes).
Transfer bacon to a paper-towel lined plate.
Place unfilled phyllo cups in a mini muffin pan or on a baking sheet, and bake for 2 minutes.
While they bake, combine goat cheese and fig preserves in a small bowl, stirring until well distributed.
Remove cups from the oven.
Divide cheese mixture evenly among the cups.
Return the cups to the oven, and bake for 5 minutes.
While cups bake, dice bacon.
Remove tarts from the oven, and top with bacon.

Featured photo: Fig and cheese tarts smothered with bacon. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.

In the kitchen with Kevin Anctil

Kevin Anctil of Litchfield is the owner and pitmaster of Smokin’ Spank’s Barbecue (smokinspanks.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @smokinspank), a 22-foot food trailer he launched last fall. Anctil, who is affectionately known in his college friend circle as “Spank,” describes his concept as traditional Southern barbecue, but with some New England roots. His brisket, for instance, is smoked Texas-style with salt and pepper in tribute to his own travels, while other items include maple baby back ribs that are finished with maple syrup as a glaze. Anctil grew up on family-owned farmland in Lewiston, Maine, where his late grandfather was revered in the community for his barbecued chicken. He even pays homage to his family’s roots on the trailer, using the same original basting sauce and finishing sauce recipes for his own barbecue chicken, as well as a custom-built pit that implements the same type of sandwich grating techniques his grandfather once employed. Find Smokin’ Spank’s in the parking lot of New England Small Tube Corp. (480 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield) most Sundays, from 1 to 5 p.m. Online pre-orders are often also available.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

I guess I’d have to say my smokers. That’s really where the magic happens. If I didn’t have my smokers, I’m just another kitchen.

What would you have for your last meal?

A homegrown tomato sandwich. If you’re feeling fancy, you might do it on toast or with a little olive oil, some basil or something like that.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

I want to shout out the entire Litchfield food scene here. There’s a lot of stuff going on locally in town. … We’ve got Tammaro’s Cucina, which is a new Italian place, and Romano’s Pizza who has been around longer. We’ve got Day of the Dead doing fantastic Mexican, and then the Bittersweet Bake Shoppe does some fantastic desserts.

What celebrity would you like to see ordering from your food trailer?

I’m going to date myself a bit, but Ray Bourque. He was the legendary captain of the Boston Bruins when I was growing up. … He was just the pinnacle of an athlete to me, both within his sport and just being a gentleman and a classy guy and role model. … I know he’s a foodie too … so it would be pretty cool to be able to serve him some barbecue.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

That would be my brisket. … The only things that go on my brisket are salt, pepper and smoke, and I serve it to you sliced fresh to order. You do get some Texas table sauce along with your order, if you choose to use it or not.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

Poutine seems to be making a comeback, and I’m here for it!

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

If I’m cooking for myself, then a ridiculously big steakhouse-style steak dinner, [with a] baked potato, a big, thick steak and spinach — the works. If I’m cooking for the family, chicken soup. I do a chicken soup that takes me like two days to cook. It’s phenomenal.

Texas table sauce
From the kitchen of Kevin Anctil of Smokin’ Spank’s Barbecue in Litchfield

2 cups ketchup
1 cup white vinegar
1 lemon (juice and zest of)
½ cup white onions, grated

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat over medium heat, until it just begins to boil around the edges. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. For a smoother sauce, use an immersion blender, or allow to cool and transfer to a blender. For the best results, allow it to sit overnight in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Serve at the table, allowing your guests to add to a smoked meat for a tangy counterpunch.


Featured photo: Kevin Anctil, owner and pitmaster of Smokin’ Spank’s Barbecue. Courtesy photo.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!