There's a pair of outstanding shows coming up mid-August, separated by a mere three calendar days — but stylistically a world apart.
And a bit further below we're gonna tell you about a bonus November show that we just added a couple days ago and haven't publicized yet... however, word is out on social media and tickets have already started moving — the room is 20% full since yesterday. Sales this early are relatively rare for us, and it portends the likelihood of a sell-out. So we wanted to get this in front of you newsletter folks pretty quick in case you want to lock in tickets.
First, Sool... on a Thursday! August 15. The Boston Globe called them one of “the cleverest and most idiosyncratic bands” around. Just $10. Then on Sunday, August 18, a pair of headliners on one ticket: Grant Peeples and Fred Gillen, Jr.
Twangy experimental pop collective Sool is a hodge-podge of curiosities that you can dance to. They've been recording and making music since 1994, traversing genres in a “pin-the-tail-on-the-cosmic-monkey” approach. Their music has been featured in independent films, TV shows, and international ads.
Underlying everything is the fact that these are top-notch players who happen to enjoy getting weird.
Check out their ode to Olympic
!
Sool, which only plays live sporadically, is Kevin Quinn and Neal Spaulding of the '80s underground psychedelic-pop band The Dead Monkeys, plus musician / producer / studio-rat Pete Weiss. For this show, the original drummer of The Dead Monkeys, Ken O’Keefe — who lives in Japan — joins the fun. It’s The Dead Monkeys original lineup plus Pete Weiss, or the Sool original lineup plus Ken O’Keefe. A win either way.
This is a 6:00 PM show on Thursday, August 15, presented in association with community radio station WOOL-FM. The band will do a radio interview in the next room on WOOL-FM at 5:00, ticket holders are invited to come early and heckle them live on the air.
At the band’s request, tickets are just $10. Only 40 tickets will be sold;
... advance tickets guarantee entry.
Grant Peeples (a Roots On The River alum) tours coast to coast and is a regular performer at The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, the 30A Songwriters Festival, and The Florida Folk Festival. He’s the recipient of the Focus Foundation Award for Creative Excellence, which cited the “humor, compassion, and wisdom of his songs,” and their “unflinching social insight and cultural acuity.” He’s credited with eleven studio albums. He’s published three books of poetry.
Tallahassee born and raised, life started mostly simple and then got increasingly complicated. He started writing songs. He moved to Nashville. He left Nashville a year later. He got himself a night club and booked everyone from BB King to the Judds, The Temptations to George Straight, Jerry Lee Lewis to Dionne Warwick, Bonnie Raitt to Jerry Jeff Walker. He went broke in the night club business. He moved to a remote island in the Caribbean off the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua and stayed there for more than a decade before getting the itch back and a $100 guitar. He’s been playing every day and writing songs ever since. A self-described “tree-hugger that watches NASCAR,” Grant is known for his axe-sharp socio-political tunes, raucous humor, and heart-gigging ballads that keep an ever-critical eye on American culture and identity.
Fred Gillen Jr has released eleven acclaimed full-length albums, and has performed all over the U.S. and Europe. His live performances are spontaneous and full of storytelling, and he enjoys audience participation. His songs have been featured on ABC’s All My Children, NPR’s Car Talk, and CMJ’s New Music Marathon Sampler. His version of Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got No Home was featured on Pete Remembers Woody, a collection of Pete Seeger’s spoken stories about Woody Guthrie. Besides playing with his heroes like Pete, he’s opened for such great artists as Merle Haggard, Todd Rundgren, and the David Bromberg Big Band. His songs incorporate elements of a huge swath of folk, rock, roots, and Americana music, and though he covers a wide variety of lyric topics, his over-arching message is simple: “we are all in this together.”
These two performers each take a different path to the same destination.
Shout-out to our 33 Bridge Street friend and neighbor
for helping us bring this one to you!
August 18, 2024, at 6:00 PM. Tickets are
or at the door. Advance tickets guarantee entry.
Every once and a while we do an add-on date to our regular calendar when an opportunity to host something particularly special that would be extra good to have happen in the community comes along. This is one of those:
Jon Langford and Sally Timms with Josh Kantor, plus Wojcicki: Old punks with acoustic guitars
Jon Langford and Sally Timms are members of the seminal genre-defying alt-country punk band the Mekons. They will headline an intimate acoustic show at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls VT on Friday, November 1. They're bringing Josh Kantor with them, plus Wojcicki will open with a solo set. Show starts at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance through stage33live.com or at the door. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Only 40 tickets will be sold.
Some of you may have seen Jon at the Windham Ballroom with his band The Bright Shiners. Or exactly a year to the day before that in a solo appearance at the Flat Iron when he played before a screening of the delightful movie Pride at the Opera House. And some of you may have seen Wojcicki here in our room, both as a band and as a solo act.
But if you didn't, and none of those names rings any bells, here's some bio:
Jon Langford is a Welsh-born-and-raised rabble-rouser, painter, and punk rock pioneer. He was a founding member of the Mekons when it formed at the University of Leeds in 1977 from the emerging British punk scene, and is a Mekon to this day. Since the ’80s, he’s been one of the leaders in incorporating folk and country music into punk rock.
Among Langford’s dizzying array of musical side projects have been the Three Johns with John Hyatt and John Phillip Brennan, and the alt-country-punk Waco Brothers. He’s been in more bands than you have digits, even if you were born with a few extras. Langford is also a prolific and respected visual artist best known for his striking portraits of famous and forgotten figures from the dawn of country music.
Sally Timms, who grew up outside of Leeds, is also a Mekon, having joined the band in the band in 1985. She’s released a number of solo albums as well, and has collaborated on a wide range of diverse projects from voice acting to performing with Kathy Acker in her lesbian pirate operetta Pussy, King of the Pirates. Her singing voice has been described as alluring and powerful, and her speaking voice as a caustic English drawl.
Jon and Sally are bringing popular Boston keyboard player Josh Kantor with them to side on accordion. He's a member of The Split Squad, a supergroup featuring former members of Blondie, The Plimsouls, and The Fleshtones, and the list of other acts he's played with is wide and deep. He also happens to be the organist for Red Sox home games at Fenway Park.
Wojcicki is the musical vehicle for Matt Sharff, a refugee of the late ’70s / early ’80s NYC punk scene, when he performed at storied venues like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. His music betrays the influences of rock and roll, Americana, punk, and prog. He’s shared stages with Emmylou Harris, The Jayhawks, Bill Kirchen, Roky Erikson, NRBQ, Richard Lloyd, The Misfits, and Bernie Sanders among others, and has recorded and performed with Adam Yauch (Beastie Boys), T-Bone Wolk (Hall & Oates), Buddy Cage (New Riders of the Purple Sage), Jon Carroll (Starlight Vocal Band), and more.
Tickets are
or at the door. Admission is limited to 40; advance tickets guarantee entry. This is a 7:00 PM show on Friday, November 1. As always, the event will be recorded and filmed, and attendance is limited.
