Tag: 250925

Rock ’n’ roll revival

A classic celebration with The Dreamboats

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

The musical world of The Dreamboats begins with Elvis and ends around the time The Beatles stopped touring, but the tribute quartet casts a wide net within that time frame. Their sets include everything from “Wooly Bully” to Fats Domino’s deep track “My Girl Josephine,” along with “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Jailhouse Rock” and Motown favorites.

Performing in matching attire, they exude energy onstage, dancing in sync and showing genuine passion, even if none of them were born in time for the era.

“We’re just four young guys that truly grew up loving this music,” Dreamboats front man Chris Hummel said recently. “We don’t have anything else in our lives, performance-wise, other than this band.”

The band formed 16 years ago in Ontario, Canada, after singer and guitarist Hummel met drummer Johnny “G. Whiz” Marco at a music store jam session. The two bonded over a shared appreciation of ’80s movies like La Bamba, Great Balls of Fire and Back to the Future — their name came from a Lea Thompson line in the latter film.

After years of playing in their home country and occasionally touring Europe, the band received a life-changing invitation to perform in Palm Springs in 2017. They played the kickoff party for Modernism Week, a celebration of architecture that annually attracts crowds of up to 50,000. It went over so well that they were asked back the following year.

“They said, ‘We’ve never booked the same band twice in all the years we’ve had this festival,’” Hummel recalled. “So we ripped the place up again, and we gained this staple reputation. Then we did this other thing called Camp, and had more of a response in two weeks than we did for six years back in Mississauga.”

After the pandemic decimated live entertainment and reduced The Dreamboats to just Hummel and Marco, the two made a decision to relocate.

“We had a built-in crowd here,” Hummel said to explain the move to Coachella Valley. “There’s only so many places you can play in Canada … so much more of the vibe and demographic we’re going for is all here.”

That said, it wasn’t an easy journey.

“There was a lot of stress, tears and finances we had to work through,” Hummel said. “I’m thankful we did, because now we’ve got great momentum. We’re getting a lot of gigs, I have great support on the left and right-hand side of me, and people have really fallen into the place. I feel like we’re an unstoppable machine.”

That support comes from bass player Justin Zoltek, and lead guitarist Andy Alvarez, whose stage name is Andy Zappa. In a business where tribute acts often pay the bills for musicians who’d rather make their own music, The Dreamboats are the rare exception, Hummel insists.

“This isn’t just some whipped up thing, we’re a group of guys that’s on a mission,” he said. “We honor the ones that are still with us, we try to meet up with them and play their songs and also contribute to the people that influence us that are not with us anymore. We’re always trying to keep the vibe of ’50s and ’60s rock ’n’ roll alive.”

Their lead guitarist’s frenetic fretwork adds a modern flourish to music — Andy Zappa can shred. Beyond that, every band member gets a spotlight vocal, even though Hummel is mostly the front man. It’s a nod to The Beatles, who were the first popular band of the British Invasion partly because everyone in it was personally endearing.

Overall, they tear into the music with both studied precision and good-time gusto.

“We honor the classic way it was delivered,” Hummel stressed. “No bells and whistles, nothing crazy. Real, raw guitar, no auto-tunes, no fancy effects. What you see is what you get when it comes to us. We’re doing our best to take that original, minimal approach and still try to blow your mind in the process with everything else in the show.”

The Dreamboats

When: Saturday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m.
Where: Stockbridge Theatre, 44 N. Main St., Derry
Tickets: $33 and up at pinkertonacademy.org

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 25/09/25

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

• Funny guys: In partnership with Reed’s North, Jody Sloane’s comedy showcase has Tony V and Ken Rogerson. Sloane calls her hometown series Happy Accident “because I literally am one. Born of peace, love, and questionable decision-making, I was conceived in 1967 during the Summer of Love — when everything was groovy, and plans were … well, optional.” Thursday, Sept. 25, 6:30 p.m., Warner Underground Comedy, Kearsarge Saint Ext., Warner, $25 at simpletix.com.

• Local crew: Those looking for an after work diversion should check out Paul Hodes & the Blue Buddha Band, led by the ex-Congressman. They exude raucous energy on “The Night I Met John Lennon,” which has a Neil Young & Crazy Horse vibe. “Swimming With Sharks” may be a nod to Hodes’ D.C. days. The show celebrates the band’s second album. Friday, Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m., Stark Brewing Co., 500 Commercial St., Manchester, starkbrewingcompany.com.

• Woods metal: Eleven bands on two stages, indoor and out, play at the all-day Dysfunction Junction festival, along with multiple vendors and craft beer in a bucolic setting, perfect for anyone looking to combine leaf peeping and heavy metal music. Performers include Cytokine, Bonginator, Conforza, The Summoned, Overtime and Taxicab Dismemberment. Under 12 free. Saturday, Sept. 27, noon, Henniker Brewing Co., 129 Centervale Road, Henniker, $10 at eventbrite.com.

• Idol music: Unlike some who used American Idol as a springboard to overnight success, David Cook had toiled in the Midwest rock scene for a decade before the show made him a big star. Since then, the singer’s had big albums and made his Broadway debut in 2018 in Kinky Boots. Cook has released a lot of singles over the past few years; the latest is July 2024’s “Dead Weight.” Sunday, Sept. 28, 7 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $45 and up at tupelohall.com.

• Country bash: Local stars perform classic songs at The Grand Ole Opry Through the Years with Rob Azevedo, a free Walker Lecture Series event. The John Zevos & Friends Band backs Paul Driscoll as Hank Williams and 16-year-old Olivia Conway doing Trisha Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe,” along with tunes from Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and others. Wednesday, Oct. 1, 7:30 p.m., Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord, walkerlecture.org.

Swallows, by Natsuo Kirino, translation by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

(Alfred A. Knopf, 352 pages)

Riki is a temp worker at a hospital, barely making enough money to feed herself and pay the rent. She is responsible enough and punctual, showing up promptly at 8 in the morning and working until 5:30, taking a break only to eat her lunch, often a hard boiled egg dipped in soy sauce. But Riki is bewildered by people who know what they want to do with their life, people with energy and ambition. She doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life; she just knows she wants to escape the constant worry about money, to be able to occasionally splurge on a cup of coffee from 7-Eleven.

Then comes an offer to bear a child for a married couple for what seems a life-changing amount of money. It would require a complete upheaval of her life, the subjection of her desires to others, and going against the mores of her family and culture.

This is the ethical quandary at the heart of Natsuo Kirino’s Swallows, translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda and released in the U.S. this month. (It was published in Japan in 2022 with the title The Swallows Always Come Back.) The novel explores the issues surrounding surrogacy, which, while legal, is more controversial in Japan than in the U.S.; here, the auxiliary issues of class and privilege might resonate with readers more.

Riki, who is 29, didn’t set out to become a surrogate; a younger coworker, who supplemented her own insufficient income with sex work, suggested they both look into “donating” eggs to help couples struggling with infertility to conceive. While that’s not allowed in Japan, they would travel to Thailand for the procedure and be paid 500,000 yen, about $3,500 in U.S. dollars. But during Riki’s interview, she is asked to consider going further and being a surrogate, since she looked remarkably similar to the wife of a couple who needed one.

That couple, Motoi and Yuko, then become the focus of the narrative, and we learn how they got to this point. It is Motoi’s second marriage, the first having broken up because of his adulterous relationship with Yuko. They have tried unsuccessfully to have a child through IVF, and Yuko is resigned to its not happening, but Moito, growing older and wanting to see his DNA passed on, is increasingly adamant, even if they have to hire a surrogate. His mother offers to pay for the IVF and surrogacy — a surrogate would receive about $20,000 plus living expenses throughout the pregnancy, medical costs and gifts.

Motoi and Yuko proceed down this path even as a rift is developing between them. Motoi is a professional ballet dancer and teacher, the son of a mother and father who were also famous in Japan’s ballet world. Yuko is an outsider to their world — she had simply been a fan when she met Motoi. His motives for wanting a child have nothing to do with love for his wife or a desire for them to raise a family, but derive from his ego — his own star fading, he wants a child he can shape into a new star within the “ballet elite.” This, he believes, “would only confirm his own excellence. His obsession with having that proof only grew stronger with age.”

Meanwhile, Yuko, an illustrator, is increasingly cognizant of a sort of haughtiness that Motoi and his mother have toward her own family, especially a brother who is what is known in Japan as hikikomori — a young adult who rarely leaves the home and relies on his parents for support. When her brother came to their wedding, Yuko was delighted, knowing how difficult it was for him to leave the house. Her new husband, however, was contemptuous of her brother, and she later reflects that this moment was the start of the tension in the marriage.

In setting up these characters, Kirino presents a challenge for her readers: Where is a hero to be found in this cast? Who are we supposed to pull for? Despite our sympathies for Riki’s circumstances, there is a moroseness about her, and she makes decisions throughout the story that are reckless and dumb. And Yuko, despite not wanting to raise a child she has no biological connection with, and having doubts about the marriage itself, numbly goes along with the scheme.

The changing perspectives throughout the novel cause the readers to constantly reevaluate our allegiance. When Yuko and Riki first meet, there is the initial sense that they might experience a Thelma-and-Louise sort of bonding. There are some jarring events that occur as we travel from conception to birth; to call them plot twists doesn’t exactly seem right, but the dilemmas facing each character get more complicated. And Riki ultimately makes a decision that I never saw coming.

The setting adds depth for American readers, and the story doesn’t seem to have lost any power in its translation, though it moves a bit sluggishly in places. With advancements in IVF constantly making the news (the latest being the birth of a baby conceived via IVF more than 30 years ago), the field of assisted reproduction technology is ripe for exploration. While fiction, Swallows offers a compelling story that helps us process a mind-boggling world that’s getting newer and braver with each passing year.

B —Jennifer Graham

Featured Photo: Gwyneth, Swallows, by Natsuo Kirino, translation by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

The Naked Gun (PG-13)

Liam Neeson’s Frank Drebin Jr. takes over from Leslie Nielsen — spiritually portrayed here as an owl that blesses this franchise continuation — as the lady-romancing member of the LAPD’s Police Squad. The movie begins with Drebin disguised, with the aid of one of those Mission: Impossible-style face masks, as a small lollipop-wielding girl to infiltrate a bank where thieves are stealing an item from a safe deposit box that is, as labeled, a “P.L.O.T. Device.” And pretty much there, you’re either in or you’re not. This movie is extremely stupid from the title card where the spacing has been misjudged and all the letters of the title can’t fit in the screen to the end credits song where Neeson is singing about boobs. And I mean “extremely stupid” in the most complimentary terms possible. Pamela Anderson is perfect as a breathy femme fatale who urges Drebin to investigate her brother’s death as a murder. Paul Walter Hauser is solid as Ed Hocken Jr., Drebin’s capable partner, and Danny Huston is appropriately villainous as a tech guy with a very dumb apocalyptic plan. Everybody here plays all their “take a chair” “no thanks, I have plenty of chairs at home” goofiness completely straight in exactly the right way. A- Available for rent or purchase.

Album Reviews 25/09/25

Shiner, BELIEVEYOUME (Spartan Records)

This one came to my attention by way of friend-of-the-Hippo and fellow underreported author Dan Szczesny, but wait, don’t flip to the movie reviews yet, this time it’s not another opera-metal band but instead a post-prog/polite-math-rock foursome from Kansas City, Missouri. They’re quite good, these guys, able to shift gears rather seamlessly; we’ll randomly start with “So Far So,” a mid-tempo rockout evoking a harder-edged, art-rock-infused Kasabian (please tell me you’re familiar with Kasabian, I’m at the end of my rope, I swear, but if you haven’t, think Gang Of Four Krazy-glued to Alice in Chains), and then move on to the one they spent the bulk of their video-filming money on, “Asleep In The Trunk,” which launches with an obtrusive, somewhat Rush-like bass line and then shoplifts a few ideas from Muse. That brings us to “The Alligator,” a song that’s reminiscent of Live, or more accurately Collective Soul in radio-wimp-pop mode. I told you a ’90s-rock resurgence was coming, which is what this is, just please don’t shoot the messenger. A- —Eric W. Saeger

Patrick Wolf, Better Or Worse [EP] (Appaport/Virgin Music)

About time I got a record in here that sounds like the musicians wear funny European shoes. This South London, U.K.-based multi-instrumentalist is a folktronica/baroque-pop-grounded genre-tinkerer with a growing cult following; he’s played viola for Arcade Fire and Chicks On Speed among other interminably artsy acts. We find him here experimenting with largely agreeable, pub-friendly sounds, not in the stuffy unplugged fedora sense but in the manner of a crew of heathens adding pop elements to Irish jigs and sounds of that nature. The title track is an odd but very listenable duck, with its M83-style from-the-mountaintop verse, Simple Minds chorus and brightly strummed mandolin. Irish-traditional cover “She Didn’t Dance” reads like a pop-minded ode to the TV show Black Sails, combining boisterous Nick Cave belting with mournful zydeco sounds; “Mejora O Empeora” is a windows-down cruiser with world-music sensibilities. He’ll perform at Center of The Arts Armory in Somerville, Mass., on Nov. 10. A+ —Eric W. Saeger

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• Sept. 26 is your next new-album-release Friday, so a lot of albums are making their way to your Spotifies and Napsters, which brings us to the latest update in my totally informal Manchester Nightlife series, in which I try to find stuff to do in New Hampshire’s “Queen City,” which should actually be called the King City, as everyone knows! When last we left this exercise, I asked you scamps where a regular fella like me could go to do a little twerking to the latest hip-to-the-hop music from Ye and Kendrick and Skee-Lo, but no one responded, and after much informal polling past that, I’m going to assume that there is a small faction of 21- to 32-year-olds who know of such a dance club, but they’re keeping it on the DL, because they know I’m the best twerker in the state and they don’t want to be embarrassed when they “bust a move.” In the meantime, however, there is an excellent, super-friendly indie-arts community to be found here in town, namely the Slam Free Or Die slam-poetry series, operated by a super-nice bro named Christopher Clauss! It’s a nicely attended open-mic event, held at Stark Brewing Co. at 500 Commercial St. in Manchester on Thursday nights, where you can get a brewski and a burger or other pub food (the fish and chips is a very good buy) or just munch on ketchup packets if you’re broke, then, if you want to, get up in front of all these super-cool people and read a poem (or vaguely rhyme-y rant) that you wrote! It’s a great time, an opportunity to offload a little of your existential angst over the coming Apocalypse, maybe meet a celebrity (actress Amber Tamblyn spoke there once) and yes, there’s beer, so why not give your parrot a little break from watching you misery-browse through Facebook and Twitter and go hang out with some actual people, in our arts community, who want to hear your words, no matter how weird or swear-y! In the meantime, I’ll resume searching for a local twerking club, or just see what the Wild Rover is like nowadays, anyplace where I might be able to perform my hypnotic come-and-get-it mating dance in time to something from Here For It All, the new album from former important person Mariah Carey! The single, “Type Dangerous” is perfect for slow-twerking, with its afterparty hip-hop-soul-meets-new-jack-jazz beat and disposable pop flourishes, my tail is wagging as we speak!

• Robert Plant was the singer for Led Zeppelin, but then he got tired of having enough money to buy random Scottish castles and struck out on his own with some really captivating rockabilly-tinted beach-pop albums in the 1980s, and then shoved Alison Krauss in our face for a while. His new LP (and band) is named Saving Grace, featuring vocalist Suzi Dian, who plays accordion. They’re said to be a psychedelica band, but there’s a (spoiler) polka-Western edge to it, going by opening single “Everybody’s Song.” They’ll be at the Shubert Theatre in Boston on Nov. 6.

• Biffy Clyro is a Scottish alt/prog band that sounds like Braid or Reuben or a busier, feistier Killers, you get the idea, and they’re releasing their 14th album, Futique, this week. The last time I talked about them at all was probably 15 years ago, so this will be as new to me as it is to you. Yuh, new tune “Hunting Season” sounds like Reuben, the end.

• We wrap up the week with a bougie, quirky comedian who’s never made me laugh, as in not once, ever, Portlandia’s Fred Armisen and his new comedy album, 100 Sound Effects. There is no advance sample for me to critique, but one of the titles is “Romanian Crowd At Rock Club Shouting For An Encore,” isn’t that so droll (eyeroll emoji)? —Eric W. Saeger

Featured Photo: Shiner, BELIEVEYOUME (Spartan Records) & Patrick Wolf, Better Or Worse [EP] (Appaport/Virgin Music)

Junk Mail

A surprising number of cocktail recipes call for Champagne.

Cocktails made in a bar often use it to give a bit of bubbliness to a drink, and it looks good on the list of ingredients on the drink menu. If you’re drinking by yourself, it’s a nice little bit of self-indulgence, and if you’re with friends or a date, you can have fun pretending to be sophisticated. It’s no big deal for a bar to keep a couple bottles of Champagne or prosecco on ice, and use up one or two in a brunch service.

At home, it’s a slightly different story.

If you’re throwing a party, and will be using up a bottle or two of the good stuff over the course of an evening, it’s one thing. But most of us make one or two cocktails at a time, usually to celebrate making it to Friday. We don’t generally have an open bottle of Champagne, and it seems silly to open one just to make a couple of cocktails. If we’re opening a bottle of champagne, why not just drink that?

Beer, on the other hand—

This is a riff on a popular drink from the 1930s called an Air Mail Cocktail. Our version is slightly more down-market, but not less delicious for it.

2 ounces rum – whatever rum you feel like. In my particular case, I still have a quarter bottle or so of some rum I infused with peanut butter and bananas earlier in the summer. It sits on my kitchen counter, and seems to ask, “If not now, when?”

½ ounce ginger syrup – see below

½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice

1 ounce lager beer – again, whatever you have on hand.

Cheetos – Just because. They seem like a good pairing for this drink.

Pour the rum, ginger syrup and lime juice over ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake for 20 seconds or so, until there is a line of condensation on the shaker, and you can hear the ice cubes start to break up inside.

Strain into a cocktail glass, then add the beer. Don’t worry about mixing or stirring. Things will work themselves out.

Have you ever had the post office hold your mail for you while you’ve been on vacation? Then when you get back, and get your mail all at once, it is a kaleidoscope of brightly colored political flyers, seed catalogs, time-share offers, and a postcard from yourself telling you how much fun you were on your vacation? The Junk Mail cocktail is a bit like that experience. Depending on what kind of rum you use, and how gingery your ginger syrup is, bright, fun flavors will come at your mouth from every direction.

This is a drink that will remind you that you really are fun when you relax a little.

Ginger Syrup — Grate a large hand of ginger on a box grater. Don’t worry about peeling it. Combine equal amounts of water and sugar by weight in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil to make a simple syrup. Remove from heat, and stir the shredded ginger into the syrup. Cover the pot, and leave everything to steep for several hours, or overnight. Strain through a tea towel, twisting and wringing the towel, to squeeze the ginger pulp. Bottled, this will keep in your refrigerator for a month or so.

Featured photo: Junk Mail. Photo by John Fladd.

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