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Jewel hosts Evanoff’s return to Manchester

With the February release of Singularity, Denver-based power trio Evanoff gave its signature “dream rock” sound a harder edge. Though not the stuff of nightmares, the new album reflects the many discontents brought about by technology and its ubiquity. Each track on the all-instrumental effort ends with a statement about what lead guitarist J.J. Evanoff said in a recent interview is “a very special point in humanity, where technology and us have become nearly inseparable.”

Singularity is not all techno dystopia, however, though the music is often jarring. It’s more metal than the arena rock cum jamtronica that made Evanoff a headliner in their hometown and a big draw in places like Manchester. They appear in the city for the second time this year on Friday, Oct. 7, at Jewel Music Venue.

“We need to be aware of how technology is affecting us and our perception of reality, both good and bad,” keyboard player Brennan Forrester explained as the band headed toward Ohio after shows in Chicago and Grand Rapids. “People talk a lot about how addicted we are to social media, but information has never been accessible like this. If you use it for your benefit, it’s like a superpower.”

However, their first studio effort after several live releases was inspired less by Big Tech angst than by a need to make a cohesive statement that speaks loudest as a force of musical power. Evanoff noted he and Forrester came up with the record’s spoken word vignettes during a six-hour mezcal-fueled writing session. Its songs, on the other hand, took months of development in open-ended jam sessions to find their form.

“Getting to finally create a real concept album is something I feel like I’ve dreamed of since I was 10 years old,” Evanoff, who cites the Who’s Quadrophenia and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon as influences, said. “So the fact that we were actually able to do that was extremely creatively fulfilling.”

It also spurred a burst of new music, much of which they’re playing on the current tour. Along with fresh songs is a better stage show than they’d previously been able to mount on the road. “The set we’re running has a unique, almost storyesque-like flow to it, mixing in all these monologues and different pieces from our debut,” Evanoff said. “It showcases what the album was all about essentially, in a more long-form musical piece.”

Forrester added, “we spend a lot of time just thinking about what’s going to make the show the most fun and entertaining for the audience, and for us. So we’re getting away with a lot of things that we wanted to do for a while now; it’s super fun to play.”

The new music, Evanoff said, “definitely has a more aggressive, heavy sound … but I’d say on Singularity, apart from the heavy guitars and rock elements, there’s a lot of lush spatial things. I feel like that’s where we’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from for the new stuff.”

Far from being a different direction for the group, “for us it was really going back to our roots a little bit,” Evanoff said. “We all grew up listening to heavy rock music. It was really powerful to channel where we came from as musicians.”

Headier still is merging it with their well-honed sound. Lately, the band has taken to revamping earlier songs with their newfound edge. “During our live show, it gives this beautiful contrast,” Forrester said. “It speaks to the narrative of Singularity, the dark and light side of the technological revolution that we’re all experiencing in the world right now.”

Asked about the quick return to the Granite State — the band played a sold-out show at Shaskeen in mid-April — Evanoff answered, “We can’t stay away, man. We love Manchester. It really is becoming like a second home. When we’re on the road, it’s like a little island among all of our tour dates. I know we’re going to have a great time just because of the people. They are so much fun and bring so much energy.”

Forrester agreed. “We’ve developed a real community there,” he said. “I look forward to it every single year; that’s one of my favorite shows.”

Both stressed that even local fans who’ve seen the band before will be surprised this time around. “There’s going to be parts of the show that I don’t think people will expect,” Evanoff said. “We’ve got some tricks up our sleeves Manchester hasn’t seen yet.”

Evanoff
When: Friday, Oct. 7, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Jewel Music Venue, 61 Canal St., Manchester
Tickets: $20 at azpresents.com

Featured photo: Evanoff.

The Music Roundup 22/10/06

Local music news & events

• Lotta laughs: A solid evening of standup comedy led by Jimmy Dunn promises a bonus special guest. Dunn is well-known for his summer festival in Hampton Beach and the sitcom The McCarthys. Tony V., who opened Bill Burr’s record-breaking Fenway Park show, and Karen Morgan, a one-time finalist on Nickelodeon’s Search for the Funniest Mom in America, are featured, along with rising star Emily Ruskowski. Thursday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m., Amato Center, 56 Mont Vernon St., Milford, $20 at eventbrite.com.

• Taco festival: Along with food trucks, craft beer and various vendors, the first Beyondopalooza, named for its taco-selling host, has a bevy of local bands performing. The varied lineup ranges from the banjo-guitar-mandolin roots trio White Mountain Rounders to Boston indie rockers Zygote Theory, along with The Megs and Superbug, a fun band that recently played halftime at a Monadnock Roller Derby match. Friday, Oct. 7, 5 p.m., Taco Beyondo, 53 Henniker St., Hillsborough, see facebook.com/tacobeyondo

• Super jam: There’s a lot of live music at this year’s Warner Fall Foliage Festival, including Mike Stockbridge, a guitar player with a deft jazz fusion touch. His band is filled with veterans of the regional scene: keyboard player Chris Decato, and a rhythm section of Ben Butterworth on bass and drummer/singer George Laliotis. Their set will feature the tunes of Jeff Beck, Bill Withers, the Allman Brothers and more. Saturday, Oct. 8, 1:45 p.m., Warner Main Stage, 16 E. Main St., Warner, facebook.com/mike.stockbridge

• Boogie down: A downtown restaurant, taproom and longtime friend of area music welcomes back Lisa Marie & All Shook Up. This time the “never the same show twice” combo has the singer, known for moving between R&B, soul, jazz, zydeco and a myriad of other genres, backed by Johnny Juxo on piano, organ, accordion and vocals, Silvertone Steve on guitar and drummer Mickey Bones. Saturday, Oct. 8, 9 p.m., Strange Brew Tavern, 88 Market St., Manchester. See facebook.com/LisaMarieAllShookUp.

• Pond crosser: This week’s Dead Archer Presents showcase has Five Feet, a Manchester quartet that its website says is “influenced by artists that utilize soft harmonies and the quieter side of dynamics, like Andy Hull and Fleet Foxes.” They are joined by Holy Pinto, a British indie rocker who, echoing the movie Love Actually, left his home country a few years ago for Milwaukee, and Have A Good Season. Wednesday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m., Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket, $10 at the door; stonechurchrocks.com.

Bros (R)

Bros (R)

Billy Eichner plays a man who is perfectly happy by himself, absolutely doesn’t want a relationship but uncertainly navigates a possible romance with the very handsome Aaron in Bros, a sweet, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny rom-com co-written by Eichner.

I feel like I’ve seen a run of movies lately where I think “ha, funny” but don’t actually have the spontaneous reaction of laughing. That I actually out-loud laughed is one of the delights of this movie.

And Eichner, of course, gives his character Bobby the mix of clever dialogue and solid delivery that allows for plenty of comedy. Bobby is working to open a museum of LGBTQ+ history in New York City; he has a popular podcast, a solid group of friends and all the casual hookups he wants. He has no need for some conventional-style coupledom, he emphatically explains. But when he sees Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) at a club, he finds himself not just awkwardly flirting but interested enough to be hurt when Aaron seems to walk away from him. He is excited when he and Aaron go on a date but seems sort of pre-angry at the rejection that he thinks is coming from Aaron. Bobby keeps setting Aaron up to tell him that Bobby is not Aaron’s type, but Aaron, who is also wrestling with an unfulfilling career choice, is intrigued by and attracted to the confident Bobby.

This is not your standard Hollywood romance, Billy and Bobby (both Eichner and his character) argue, because gay relationships and the relationship dynamics are different from straight relationships. The movie works to examine that, while also, with a bit of a wink at the Hallmark movie conventions, hitting a lot of the classic romance beats. (Macfarlane has a baker’s dozen of Hallmark movie credits on his filmography, with names like The Mistletoe Promise and Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen.) We get real — or real enough — people navigating relatable emotional stuff with specifics to the community Eichner is portraying, which is always a solid recipe for creating an appealing story.

Even the slightly stilted moments — including some of Eichner’s performance, which at times reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld’s Seinfeld Jerry — work because the movie is able to root itself in believable characters who give some dimension to their rom-com-trope-ier elements. Guy Branum is a standout in the movie’s supporting cast but there are lots of note-perfect smaller roles and cameos, including the always excellent Bowen Yang.

And then surrounding all of that are just pleasurable moments of fun — from your Debra Messing cameos to your jabs at online culture. The office politics of Bobby’s museum, Aaron’s skill at dealing with what he calls weird rich people — it all makes for some highly enjoyable silliness.

Bros mixes just enough tartness and broad comedy, plus some moments of honest introspection, to balance the sweetness of its swoony romance. B+

Rated R for strong sexual content, language throughout and some drug use, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Billy Eichner & Nicholas Stoller, Bros is an hour and 55 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Universal Studios.

Featured photo: Bros.

Babysitter, by Joyce Carol Oates

Babysitter, by Joyce Carol Oates (Knopf, 448 pages)

My desire to read books about abduction and murder of children was never strong even before I had children of my own. After becoming a parent, I wondered how anyone could.

As such, I wasn’t sure if I could get through even two chapters of the long-awaited novel from Joyce Carol Oates, which is built around a serial killer who specialized in children. Dubbed the “Babysitter,” because he abducted children between the ages of 11 and 14 who were neglected and unattended, the killer murdered five children near Detroit, Michigan, when the novel opens in 1977.

The victims speak collectively to reveal details: “When we died, our bodies were carefully bathed, the smallest bits of dirt removed from every crevice of our bodies and from beneath our (broken) fingernails, and the fingernails cut with cuticle scissors; rounded and even, as our hair was washed with a gentle shampoo, combed and neatly parted in such a way to suggest that whoever had so tenderly groomed us postmortem had not known us ‘in life’.”

Even as we may want to run screaming from what came before and what will surely come after, we cannot.

Joyce Carol Oates didn’t become one of America’s most celebrated writers for lack of talent, and with that horrific opening, she glides seamlessly into what at first seems an unconnected story: The budding affair between a wealthy housewife in Far Hills, Michigan, and a man she met only briefly at a fundraiser.

Hannah Jarrett is 39, beautiful, privileged, vapid, taught by her parents to prize elegance, simplicity and taste: “Never take a chance of appearing common” is a mantra to which she clings. Her life and her marriage somewhat resembles that of Don and Betty Draper in Mad Men — outwardly perfect, if vaguely hollow, with picture-perfect children, a girl and a boy. Unlike Betty Draper, Hannah Jarrett has a live-in housekeeper, who, despite Hannah’s belief that she is an attentive mother, seems to do a significant amount of the mothering in the household.

When Hannah is contacted by the man with whom she shared an electric moment at a charity event, she decides to meet him at an elegant downtown hotel, enabled by her husband’s business trip and the housekeeper, who will be with the children no matter how late Hannah returns.

On the drive to the hotel Hannah tells herself a reassuring story: she’s only going to satisfy her curiosity, to feel beautiful and desired for an afternoon; she won’t break any vows, but will have a satisfying and fulfilling conversation with the man in the hotel bar about their mutual and ultimately thwarted desires.

That, of course, is not what happens. In her skillful narrative, Oates makes Hannah’s drive to the hotel, and even the ride up the elevator to the man’s suite, suspenseful and chilling. It is a drama seemingly completely unconnected to the “babysitter” killings, but also, we know, somehow entwined. Moreover, there are hints of future — or are they past? — events that push their way into the telling, making it unclear if what happens on any given page is, as Ebenezer asked of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, things that definitely happened or things that simply could happen.

The dynamic between Hannah and her Manila-born housekeeper, Ismelda, is polite, but fraught, as perhaps all housekeeper/employer relationships are. Hannah is both grateful and resentful of the help, and at times the similarities between “the Babysitter,” serial killer, and the babysitter/nanny/housekeeper are a bit heavy-handed. While Hannah’s children, we are led to believe, are not neglected in the way that the Babysitter’s victims are, their mother’s deficiencies are revealed in her interactions with her housekeeper.

Coming home distracted after a tryst, Hannah is so consumed by her fantasy life (“I have a lover!”) that she is unaware that her daughter is gravely ill until the housekeeper apologetically wakes her. While in no way evil or even deeply unlikeable — she is much too bland a person for that — Hannah is not a sympathetic character, even though her upbringing was in many ways troubled. Which is why it’s a shock to so quickly care so much about what happens to her and her family.

When Oates writes, “Despair of women, that men are unknown to them, essentially,” she speaks not only of the overt monsters but also of the hidden lives of husbands and friends. But women, too, have parts unknown to others and also to themselves, as Hannah learns as she is drawn deeper into a relationship despite the frantic screaming of conscience.

Babysitter is no cheap thriller but offers sharp cultural commentary on racism, class, religion and modern-day parenting. Give all the credit to Oates, who has crafted a finely tuned horror story that, like the film Fatal Attraction, is all the more horrific because of its placid suburban setting. A

Book Events

Author events

• DONALD YACOVONE will discuss his new book Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com).

• STEPHEN PULEO visits the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., 589-4600, nashualibrary.org) on Sunday, Oct. 2, at 2 p.m. to discuss his book Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Registration is required.

• RENEE PLODZIK, Concord author, visits Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 6:30 p.m. to present her cookbook Eat Well Move Often Stay Strong.

• MARGARET PORTER presents The Myrtle Wand at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 6:30 p.m.

• JOSH MALERMAN, horror novelist, will be at Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) to present his newly released bookDaphne on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 6:30 p.m.

• JOHN IRVING The Historic Music Hall Theater (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, 436-2400, themusichall.org) will host novelist and Exeter native John Irving to present his newest release, The Last Chairlift, at the Music Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Tickets are $49 and include a book voucher.

• LYNN LYONS, psychotherapist and anxiety expert, returns to Gibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 4:30 p.m. with The Anxiety Audit: 7 Sneaky Ways Anxiety Takes Hold and How to Escape Them.

• JOSH FUNK & KARI ALLEN Children’s authors Josh Funk and Kari Allen present their newest books, The Great Caper Caper: Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast Book No. 5 and Maddie and Mabel Take the Lead, atGibson’s Bookstore (45 S. Main St., Concord, 224-0562, gibsonsbookstore.com) on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 11 a.m.

Album Reviews 22/10/06

Alexis Castrogiovanni, Someday My Thoughts Will Be Like a Range of Mountains (self-released)

Debut EP from this Canadian singer-songwriter/cellist, steeped in ’90s throwbackism in the vein of Tori Amos and tinted with Minski, more or less. Castrogiovanni loves her some angst, as the above influences would handily indicate, but lyrically she’s more concerned with her own inner journey than the usual suspects on which “angry girl music” of the ’90s (exes, bad boyfriends and the patriarchy) focused. This is no Alanis clone, in other words, more an Ani DiFranco thing, characterized by her rapid-fire ranty-singing in “Ex-Girl,” whose beat is driven by the artiste plucking a bass-like line on her cello. I expect most listeners would hit Eject right off if they’re not into Ani or Tori or even PJ Harvey, and that’d be too bad, because the title track fares a lot better, sort of a Bjork-on-meds trip, and the effects she put on her instrumental weapon of choice keep it from being entirely disposable. B-

Chez Kane, Powerzone (Frontiers Music)

Cheerio, Bob’s your uncle, I’ll take any excuse to go check out a gorgeous British hard-rock-singing girl who dresses in basically nothing to shoot her videos, and bonus, fam, she’s actually a sweet, rather shy person, or at least she plays one on YouTube. This is her first solo album, one that doesn’t involve her sisters, who play with her in a band called Kane’d, whose 2013 single “I See Ya” was a pretty neat cross between Alanis Morissette and Joan Jett, if you can imagine. That wasn’t bad, even if it was kind of derivative, but time’s passed. Now Chez is older and is on a mid-1980s Heart trip; opener “I Just Want You” is basically “What About Love” but without an orchestra. “The Things We Do When We’re In Love” rips off Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69,” and so on and so forth. It all sounds great, but it’s also literally all been done. B-

Playlist

• Watch out, kids, here comes Friday, Oct. 7, bearing albums aplenty, and with that, you can make a note that I have indeed used the word “aplenty” in this award-winning column, as of today! No, there will be lots of albums coming out on the 7th, I’m sure of it, since Halloween is over and it’s basically the holiday shopping season until we get to the snow-and-abject-misery quarter of our year, can’t we just get it out of the way now so we can start thinking about eating fried fish and chips on the beach? I’d love for it to be over already, wouldn’t you? But there’s nothing we can do other than to press on, do our best to avoid getting frostbite, and listen to all the great new rock ’n’ roll albums, like for instance Under The Midnight Sun by U.K.-based ’90s-hard-rock fellers The Cult, you know, the band where the guitarist and the singer beat each other up on stage when their drugs wear off and they remember how much they despise each other. One of those two guys definitely earned some hatred, and I’d nominate whichever of them decided to abandon the slithery, almost psychedelic awesomeness of their breakthrough 1985 album Love — you know, the one with “She Sells Sanctuary,” “Revolution” and all that groovy hippie stuff — and decided to turn the band into some sort of straightforward and boring Buckcherry tribute band on their 1987 Electric LP, with all those stupid bonehead tunes like “Love Removal Machine.” Ha ha, I’ll bet it was the singer’s idea, remember how he had that stupid possum-fur hat on the album cover and all the songs were extra dumb, and you were “RIP, rock ’n’ roll, again?” Man was that album a disappointment, but hey, a lot of water’s gone under the bridge with these guys, so hey, man, maybe there’s something to like about this new album, as in maybe they realized how awful they became 35 years ago and there’s something cool on this album. Just call me a dreamer, folks, I’m going to go listen to the latest “cut” (I hate when that moron bass player Needle Drop uses that word to describe a “song” or “tune” in his CD reviews on YouTube; I only used the term to remind you that I detest Needle Drop as much as the guys in the Cult detest each other) “Give Me Mercy,” and frankly I already have high hopes, because the sample loop of the video shows Ian Astbury dressed like Anton Lavey at a devil conference, and there’s a spooky tree. OK, to the song itself, because that’s why we’re even here in the first place. Huh, look at that, they’re dancing in devil robes, and the guitar sound is awesome, almost kind of emo, maybe they did figure out that they needed to sound like they did in 1985. But wait, singer Ian Astbury’s voice is boring and old-person-sounding. Eh, it’s just the shell of The Cult, but with a great guitar sound, a lot of you would probably like it.

• Holy cats, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard has a new album coming, called Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava – do I even have room for all that text? “Ice V,” one of the tunes, is an electro-tinged Flaming Lips thingie, it’s OK. Needle Drop had words to say about that “track”/”cut” but I didn’t listen to them.

• Ermagerd, look out, it’s super-heavy (from what I’ve heard) metal band Lamb of God, with their new one, Omens! The title track is metalcore, surprise, and it isn’t as fun or cool as Heriot, if that affects your buying decision.

• In closing we have idiotic ’90s band Bush with The Art Of Survival. Leadoff single “Mor Than Machines” is ’90s-hard-pop oatmeal but with bendy guitar bits reminiscent of Korn added for no reason whatsoever.

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).

Rosés for fall

The pink drink with seasonal flexibility

The autumnal equinox, denoting the first day of autumn, fell on Thursday, Sept. 22, at 9:04 p.m. Yes, school is back in session. Yes, the nights are getting cooler, but the days remain warm and the skies are a crystal-clear blue. OK, it is fall, but we don’t want to give up on those warm afternoons and times to spend with friends and family. We still have time to prepare for winter. There are opportunities to go apple-picking, to have that afternoon picnic, to schedule that barbecue of chicken or sausages or to just “kick back” and enjoy the day and embrace the evening.

Rosé wines are growing in popularity, simply because they are so flexible. They pair well with many cheeses, chicken, pork, shellfish and, let’s not forget, vegetables. In this column we will explore two rosés that are not only created in different parts of the world but created with very different grape varietals. Rosé wines are made from red grapes whose skins spend limited time in the pressing process. Rosé wines are light and have a limited lifetime, once bottled. That’s not a negative; it is in fact a contribution to the very essence of what they are. Rosé wines are youthful and bright and can be sipped with or without a pairing with food. But, as with all wines, the experience of the tasting is changed with proper pairing with food, and thus enhanced. So. Let’s explore some rosés!

Our first rosé is from where else but Provence, France! The 2021 Crépuscule Coteaux D’Aix-en-Provence Rosé (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally priced at $39.99, reduced to $12.99) is a classic rose from the south of France. Coming from Château Paradis, it is a blend of 30 percent syrah, 30 percent grenache, 20 percent Carignan and 20 percent cabernet sauvignon. Crépuscule is the noun the French use to define that time of day at twilight when the sun sets and the sky is a wonderful collection of golds and pinks, casting these warm colors of various shades of pink on the landscape. This is the perfect description of this wine, its color, its presence.

The grapes of this wine are grown at an elevation of 850 feet at the northern edge of Provence, in a rich clay-limestone terroir. They are blessed with a warm Mediterranean climate with strong Mistral winds, blowing from the Bay of Biscay to the Gulf of Genoa, resulting in clear skies and warm weather. The color is a rich peach, and to the nose the peach carries through along with floral notes, coupled with minerality. The fruit is dense, slightly spicy, and crisp. This is a wine to be enjoyed with grilled meats and vegetables, flavored with herbs de Provence. The crispness and minerality of the wine work very well with this blend of herbs, and so it should, as they speak of the same terroir.

Our second rosé is from Washington State. The 2020 CasaSmith Vino Rosé (available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets, originally priced at $13.99, reduced to $6.99) is made from 100 percent sangiovese grapes. The sangiovese grape is grown throughout Italy and may have its roots in Roman times. It is most famously known as the grape of Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti, but when used to make rosé, the earthy tea leaf notes of these reds recede, producing a wine with lighter mineral notes. In his tasting notes posted on his website, Charles Smith states, “The 2020 vintage might be the best vintage that we have ever had in Washington state history.” This may very well be the case. Coming from the Columbia River Valley, this wine has pale straw color tinged in pink. To the nose there are berries along with some floral notes. The minerality of the soils of the river valley carries through to the tongue with a refreshing, crisp finale. Noted wine critic James Suckling described it as a “dry, chewy rosé with sliced-cherry and peach-skin character. Flavorful finish…. Drink now.” With his score of 91 points, this is a wine to be tried, and per his instructions, now! At this most inviting price, this is a wine not to be passed by!

So extend your summer by a few weeks. Pick up one or both of these rosés, grill some food and enjoy that beautiful sunset a fall day can bring.

Featured photo. Courtesy photo.

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