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The Weekly Dish 26/10/08

• Where to park when dining out: Looking for a parking spot in downtown Manchester so you can visit a restaurant? As reported in the Manchester Economic Development Office’s MEDO Minute newsletter (manchesternh.gov/Departments/Economic-Development/MEDO-Minute-Newsletter), the City of Manchester has a partially interactive parking map online to show where parking is generally available downtown, and the rates for parking there. There is real-time information for some parking garages that shows how full they are. Visit manchesternh.gov/Departments/Parking.

• Eat around the fire: From Thursday, Oct. 8, Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) will offer Come Over October, an outdoor wine and food experience for up to eight guests around a fire table in the vineyard’s gazebo. Each ticket provides two adults and a child under 12 with a tasting of four wines, a wine slushy, or nonalcoholic beverages, and a charcuterie board for up to two adults (which can be expanded upon request). The price per ticket is $79. Check available time slots through the Averill House website.

• Sample and buy chocolate: The Chocolate Expo will take place Sunday, Oct. 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree Expo Center in downtown Manchester featuring tastings and sales of chocolates and other specialty foods as well as craft beverages, according to thechocolateexpo.com, where you can purchase tickets.

• Thoughtful dining at Arts Alley: Tuesday, Oct. 13, Arts Alley (20 S. Main St., Concord, 406-5666, artsalleyconcordnh.com) will host an Art of Dining fall dining experience from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Guests will be guided through a curated selection of pairings, each chosen to complement the menu and enhance the progression of the dining experience. Each course will be introduced, giving guests a closer look at the creativity and thought that goes into every plate. Tickets are $81.88 through artsalleyconcordnh.com/events.

• Grapes you’ve never heard of: On Wednesday, Oct. 14, Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host a wine class on Unusual Grapes and Where to Find Them from 6:30 to 8 p.m. There are approximately 10,000 named grape varietals in the world, but relatively few are drunk in the United States. Many of them are consumed locally and not exported while others don’t yield enough wine to see the mainstream market. This class will discuss tracking down some of these less often seen grape varietals. Tickets are $35 through the Wine on Main website and include six wines, education and light snacks.

Finale, finally

Pop-punk band Promise Game plays last show at Shaskeen

A few weeks ago the members of Promise Game met in a rehearsal room for the first time in nearly two years. Guitarist Adam Elverson went in a little bit nervous. “I haven’t picked up my guitar in a year and a half,” he warned his bandmates. “I don’t know how this will go.”

He needn’t have worried.

“That was the best practice,” he said in a recent Zoom interview, accompanied by singer Colin VanDenBerghe. “It was full-on like riding a bicycle.” That muscle memory comes from years together in a band, but also from all the time they’ve spent together without music as the glue.

“We’re friends before the band,” VanDenBerghe said. “That’s why we started it, just to play music with our friends.” They began with punked up versions of rock hits like Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy” and “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls, the latter of which grew into a reliable set closer when they began playing out.

Because Promise Game formed a few months before the pandemic arrived, hitting the stage was hard. The upside of that was two years of woodshedding that prepared them for playing live. Their first tour grew out of an online friendship between VanDenBerghe and Justin Humenik, singer of the pop-punk band Cheer Up Dusty.

They two traded posts about each other’s music, which led to an agreement that Promise Game would do a show in Philadelphia, Cheer Up Dusty’s home base, and then follow them back to New England. Goalkeeper signed on, as did Driveways, whom VanDenBerghe recruited at their merch table after a sold-out show at Jewel.

The raucous tour that ensued is among VanDenBerghe’s best memories of his time in the band. At one show in New Jersey, 300 people eager to see Driveways came to a bar expecting 50. When the sound man bailed, VanDenBerghe took over the console. Before the night was over he’d become future headliner Driveways’ first booking manager.

On Saturday, Oct. 10, the pop-punk band plays its last show at a room VanDenBerghe calls the band’s “home court,” the Shaskeen in Manchester, a makeup date for a late 2024 farewell show that was canceled after VanDenBerghe’s father, Don, passed away suddenly on Thanksgiving Day.

Adding to the tragedy, it happened just one day before the band released its final EP, One Last Goodnight.

“Luckily, I had the guys,” VanDenBerghe said. “We’re all best friends. We’ve been friends forever; the ability to do it again is just a testament to how much we stayed friends.”

The reason for stopping after one last show is simple: life got in the way.

“We had been doing it for a long time,” VanDenBerghe said, and the members were getting busy with family. One wanted to cut back; another agreed. A lot of things happened throughout 2024, Elverson continued, “and that was like, ‘OK, we’ll put a kibosh on it.’”

The shared history of Promise Game and Cheer Up Dusty makes them essential for the sendoff. “It wouldn’t be the same if we [played] our last show without you guys,” VanDenBerghe told Humenik and guitarists Brayan Marin and Nick Silvidio. They’re making the long drive from the Philadelphia area, with another gig booked on the way.

House Lights will open the show. The Manchester five-piece mixes post-hardcore and emo, and was booked for the farewell that never happened. Also performing is True Crime, another local band who formed during the pandemic lull. Led by singer Ethan Harrison, they draw on bands like Third Eye Blind, Saves the Day and Hot Water Music.

The lineup for the last show includes bass player Matt Eisenstadter, and Adam’s younger brother Mark Elverson on drums. Guitarist Mike Cochran won’t be there due to another gig at the Milford Pumpkin Festival, but does plan to be in the audience. Adam is determined to coax him onstage for their last pass at “Iris.”

The Elversons have been in bands together since their teens, and Adam will think about that as the final notes ring out at Shaskeen. “Playing shows with my brother, I’ll miss that,” he said, as VanDenBerghe echoed his bandmate’s thoughts about what he’ll look back on.

“The camaraderie, the friendship,” he said. “Our weekly time to get together and just focus on what we love to do.”

Promise Game Farewell Show, w/ Cheer Up Dusty, True Crime and House Lights
When: Saturday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m.
Where: Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester
Tickets: $15 at the door

Featured Photo: Promise Game. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 26/10/08

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

• Capitol girl: When she was a Washington, D.C., teenager, Midge — the stage name of Megan Clancy — made her first single, the dreamy “Drunk Voicemail.” A few years ago she moved north and began performing around the region while releasing new music. Her latest, the upbeat “Funny If I Try,” fits well in the pop landscape, as does her previous release, “I Want You (Hum My Tune).” Thursday, Oct. 8, at 5 p.m., The Local, 15 E. Main St., Warner, free, midgemusic.com.

• Horn toads: Five conservatory-trained saxophone players, The Moanin’ Frogs liven up chamber music, mixing in jazz, pop and ragtime with classical music in their “entertainment-minded” show. Their setlist ranges from “Slavonic Dance in G Minor” to “Yakety Sax,” Frozen’s “Let It Go” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” All are can be heard on their eponymous debut album. Friday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 p.m., Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord, $20, ccca-audi.org.

• Rock power: Sharing their name with a 1980 Cars deep cut, Down Boys play with the rhythm and edge of mid-’80s bands like Ratt, Y&T and Skid Row. Get a good sense of what they’re about on their Live At Thirsty First album, with songs like “My Kind of Animal” and “Do It Again,” which rhymes “Jäger” and “later.” They’re on a four-band show. Saturday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m., Bungalow Bar & Grill, 333 Valley St., Manchester, downboysrock.com.

• Sublime plus: Originally formed as a Sublime tribute act, Badfish has expanded its repertoire over the years with a few excellent original songs “in the spirit” of the Long Beach reggae rockers. A bunch of URI pals formed the band very soon after Sublime front man Scott Norwell died, giving no thought to its lasting past college. Twenty-five years later, they’re still going strong. Saturday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $40 and up, tupelomusichall.com.

• Solo project: A Sunday afternoon craft brewery show by Weird Pioneer provides a respite from football and FanDuel ads to all who desire it. The moniker is an outlet for Pat Markson, who plays bass in Cozy Throne and Time Eater, as well as drums for Closed Course. “Streetlights,” from last year, is an ethereal gem, as is his cover of Sunny Day Real Estate’s “In Circles.” Sunday, Oct. 11, at 2 p.m., Candia Road Brewing, 840 Candia Road, Manchester, weirdpioneer.bandcamp.com.

• Special night: After a combined 15 years in New York and Los Angeles, comedian Joe Nahme moved to Manchester to be closer to his family and “settle down” — a tall order for a guy who tells jokes for a living. He’s continued doing standup, and in 2025 earned a Best of Hippo nod. He’ll be filming his first special at a downtown eatery that specializes in pretzels and great craft beer. Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m., The Hop Knot, 1000 Elm St., Manchester, joenahmecomedy.com.

Secrets!

Half-baked but fully fun Verity

Anne Hathaway understands how to do the most. In Verity (in theaters), Hathaway plays Verity Crawford, a famous and wealthy author, as a cartoon Disney wicked stepmother-type, all arched eyebrows and devious glares. It’s a big, fun, campy performance and I wish the movie could have given it even more room to do its big campy thing.

Verity has suffered traumatic injury from a car accident and can no longer move or talk or communicate in any way. Cared for in her home by her husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), and a nurse, Anna (Irina Dvorovenko), Verity has left behind enough notes that her publisher believes ghostwriter Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) will be able to piece together three new novels. Lowen goes to Verity and Jeremy’s secluded Vermont lake house — where Jeremy lives with his young son Crew (Brady Warner) — to dig through Verity’s notes. The couple also had a daughter, Harper (Sienna Kulovitz), Crew’s twin, who recently drowned in the nearby lake. Also, Lowen’s mother, with whom she had a difficult relationship, recently died of cancer. Also, as the movie starts, Lowen is walking to her publisher’s office when she is showered with the blood of a bicyclist who is killed just steps away from her. The absurdity of how all this is presented was, for me, “ha!”-inducing and really set the tone for the operatic wail of a movie to follow.

When Lowen gets to Vermont, she paws through Verity’s things and finds a secret — secret! — manuscript which we hear/see Hathaway narrating as though it is an entry in some sort of “It was a dark and stormy night” contest for Most Dramatic! Was Verity harboring deep dark secrets — secrets! — or is something else behind the sinister vibe in the family’s home?

The fun part of a movie like this is that for any of this to work, everybody needs to seem a little bit like a serial killer and we, in the audience, get to guess who is the killeriest. Hathaway and Hartnett both walk this line — maybe a killer? — pretty well. Johnson, who the movie even pegs as having “resting bored face,” is probably less successful, with her built in “cool girl” quality pushing her just out of phase with the playing-it-straight performances that Hathaway and Hartnett are giving. When Lowen takes an earnest turn toward the end of the movie, it also feels sort of jarring and not quite fitting.

But also, so what? This movie is amusing even when it doesn’t entirely make sense. There is a dishiness, a smooth peanut butter richness to the movie that could use more bite but goes down easy enough that I didn’t really mind the smarter, stronger structure it was missing.

Featured photo: Verity.

Immortal Rose by Alexandra Bracken

(Avon, 496 pages)

I may have picked up Alexandra Bracken’s Immortal Rose for its gorgeous cover and pretty stenciled edges, but I stayed for the story. The romantasy follows the very common enemies-to-lovers trope, but there’s not much else that’s common about this book, from the use of scent as a source of magic to the vastly disparate cast of characters.

The book centers around Viola Lockwood, the final — and illegitimate — heir of House Rosebourne, who has inherited the family’s fairy-born gift of creating fragrances with a touch of magic that can heal or hurt, emotionally and physically. Her sense of smell is so intense that she can tell who’s approaching before she sees them and often knows if someone is lying, or what kind of person they are, based on their essence alone.

Viola is living on the streets when we meet her, forced to sell her concoctions illegally, and during a raid she’s thrown into jail with ruthless guards who have no qualms about abusing women. She’s saved, though, by a stranger: royal spymaster Hugh Thornton, Earl of Foxcourt.

This unexpected act of kindness is anything but — Hugh is the one who had her thrown into jail in the first place. King Alfred III has been poisoned, and Viola is the only person alive who can create Immortal Rose, a magical perfume that can act as an antidote to save the king. If the king dies, his throne will be overtaken by the Duke of Glenmoor, a villain — such a villain — who wants nothing more than to bring down the kingdom for his own gain. Viola begrudgingly agrees to create Immortal Rose, in exchange for her eventual freedom and the rights to her Rosebourne inheritance.

And so begins her tenuous alliance with Hugh. Viola has a fraught, violent past and has learned to take care of herself, so she wants nothing to do with a male “keeper.” Unfortunately for her, Hugh has just as much at stake in this quest, so they team up to search for the magical ingredient to make Immortal Rose, facing danger every step of the way.

As with any good romantasy, there is growing chemistry between these two “enemies,” much to Viola’s frustration. Can she trust Hugh? Does she want to?

“I could feel myself softening to the possibility of this place, to these people, to him, and there were few things more dangerous to a woman than an unguarded heart,” she thinks.

Hugh, meanwhile, is frustrated with Viola’s stubbornness and unwillingness to accept help, and also because she continues to engage with Oliver Radcliffe, her childhood friend who proposed marriage to get her out of prison. But despite his air of haughty arrogance, we see over time that he’s committed to keeping Viola safe, no matter the cost.

The book gets off to a slow start. You really have to be locked in to understand what’s going on as the Regency-era world unfolds with its complicated political system and family histories, and the mysteries start to build. I had to go back a page or two more than once, trying to identify all the pieces in a complex but very intriguing puzzle.

The pace picks up in the second half, with more action and unraveling backstories. Along with the many battles and interpersonal conflicts, we also watch Viola’s development as she tries to figure out who she is within the confines of her family history. She’s given some advice about this, an exquisitely written line spoken by Felicity, aka Fizzy, a maid at Foxcourt House (Hugh’s residence and, reluctantly, Viola’s temporary home): “The past is only a backstory, unless you allow it to wield the quill.”

Fizzy is actually a wonderful side character all around; she isn’t afraid to call Hugh out on his behavior, adding a level of comfort to Viola’s stay and revealing a more fallible and compassionate side of Hugh. Brecken gifts us with other compelling supporting characters too, like the rest of the gang of “servants” at Foxcourt House, each with a distinct personality and questionable background.

This is a character-driven story from the start; really, the magic and mysteries feel like a bonus, as do some unexpected plot twists at the end. Immortal Rose is the first in a duology, and thank god, because no book should be allowed to end the way this does without the promise of a follow-up. A-

Featured Photo: Immortal Rose by Alexandra Bracken

Album Reviews 26/10/08

Remy Wolf, Mud (Island Records)

There’s a possibility that Sia Furler’s voice is too obscure (or dated; after all, it’s been a whole two years and four months since her last record) to be cited as a soundalike for this Palo Alto-bred pop diva; most music journos throw out Lola Young as a reference and call it an article, but either way she’s in the same pew with, you know, Chappell Roan and such. The days when she was singing pure unadulterated bubblegum on 2024’s Big Ideas are long past, never mind her early taste of fame as a teen contestant on American Idol as a high school senior; these days this singer’s trying to cleanse her emotional palate of the taste of tour burnout, addiction problems and a few disastrous relationships; this one focuses instead on something of a soul cleanse. The bloopy, laid-back, Lorde-pilfering, self-body-shaming “Twiggy” is precisely the sort of angst-wringing, swear-filled, arena-ready singalong that’s been the only sort of thing that’s seemingly able to make a buck these days; “Bottle” gets its edge from an acoustic guitar arpeggio that’s not hideously common in the (now ridiculously overcrowded) genre. Another country heard from, as they used to say. A

Foghat, Live & Loud Across The U.S.A. (Foghat Records)

Boomers — the generation that Generation Z only recently stopped making insulting TikToks about, mostly because they’re their doting, cookie-baking grandparents and not their naggy parents, who are mostly Generation X, the generation that’s currently getting no respect at all online despite all the life-triage they’re doing for their whippersnappers — remember this British blues-rock band quite vividly for their 1977 Foghat Live album, which catapulted them into superstar status. Everyone had a copy of the thing, a gigantic record that sounds like all-out war on party poopers: You can practically hear the giant beach balls bouncing off people’s heads while they play hits like “Fool For The City” and “Slow Ride.” Hyper-aggressive blues rock with brain-squeezing guitar solos was the thing back then, and the album was as ’70s as it got, and then time went on. There’s an unfortunate New Hampshire connection to the band’s most recent chapter, namely the death of guitarist Rod Price in Wilton in 2005, according to Wikipedia, whose mastery over slide guitar has never faced a serious challenge until, well, this LP. Along with singer Dave Peverett, Price’s “bottleneck” sound was instantly identifiable, but drummer Roger Earl, the last remaining original member, has done an amazing job putting together a very similar sounding band, led by slide guitarist Bryan Bassett. This collection of live performances takes a minute to explode, but yeah, the same party-up energy is there. I’m not exaggerating, either; their 2023 album Sonic Mojo remained on the Billboard Top 10 Blues Albums chart for 34 weeks, quite deservedly. Give it a shot. A+

_PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• Like a wicker Hobby Lobby cornucopia filled with rotten cabbages (and that reminds me, I need to put an alert on my phone for next year so I don’t miss the five whole weeks of late summer when Bartlett pears are in season, all yellow and soft and tasty, not hard, green, pear-shaped things that taste like someone’s desk), Friday, Oct. 9, will arrive with a smorgasbord of new albums, for your ears! Like every week, there are some that interest me, but let’s get the other stuff out of the way first, starting with the new one from Michigan’s most shameless Led Zeppelin wannabe band, Greta Van Fleet, called Palace For The People! I hope that by now they’ve finally gotten tired of ripping off Zep’s 1975 album Physical Graffiti (back when Zep was ripping off tunes from people like Sleepy John Estes) and have graduated to ripping off Zeppelin in their Led Zeppelin III era (when they were ripping off Stephen Foster and various obscure singers from the 1800s), but I’m sure I’ll be disappointed; I’m betting the new single “Tear It Down” will be what they imagine punk is supposed to sound like, some fast number like Zep’s “Communication Breakdown” or something, but let me go peek. Ah, it sounds pretty cool for the first part, but then it digs around in the trash for some second-generation depleted-soil Zep with a Southern rock flavor, in this case Heart’s “Crazy For You,” and why did they get so cheap with the background vocals? They sound like they were singing through a (totally vintage!) toaster. You know, it’s really lucky for these imbeciles that the real Led Zeppelin guys already own all the medieval castles they could ever want and have been pretending to encourage them, because they could sue them to Jupiter and any judge who’s ever had a radio in their car would throw them in the slammer for eleventy billion years (I’d place a joke about Sammy Davis Jr.’s old “Here Comes The Judge” Laugh-In bit here but all you twerking Bieber brats would just look at me like I stepped on one of your day-glo orange Crocs; trust me, the ’Fleets would probably sound a lot less like a tribute band if they all received a few giant foam-gavel blows to their heads).

• Aaand continuing, ugh, I suppose I could give a listen to the new Sheryl Crow album Pick You Up but I don’t wanna, OK, actually why not, we’ll get to something decent, just chill. The lyrics to the single “Freedom Bus” are completely calorie-free, something about “hate is bad”; form-wise the tune uses the second template of the only three she ever uses, the slow, really boring one where she microwaves something from The Beatles, in this case “Don’t Let Me Down,” will it ever end.

• But without further ado we should move onto something that’s practically guaranteed not to get me reaching for my big gallon jug of Pepto Bismol, because look, it’s A Man From The Future, the newest album from English synth-pop kings Pet Shop Boys, a concept album focused on mathematician Alan Turing! Yup, the single “Let The Music Play” is indeed awesome, a re-drawn low-key/gloom-pop version of the original 1984 neo-disco hit from Shannon, vocals courtesy of 66-year-old Carroll Thompson, known as “the queen of lovers’ rock.” Nothing to hate here.

• We’ll end with British drone/space-rock kooks Gnod, whose new LP, Chronicles of Gnowt Vol 2, will surely appeal to fans of crazed noise-rock. “Old Gold” is a Rickenbacker bass-driven assault on the senses, if that’s your jam.

Featured Photo: Remy Wolf, Mud and Foghat, Live & Loud Across The U.S.A.

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