It's a three-show month.
We've been running a Local Curator series where we turn over the room to homie heroes and let them call the shots. The next one belongs to Olivia Nied, a former Chester, Vermont, gal who still lives in driving distance. This is a 3:00 matinee on Sunday, August 9, 2026, featuring Star Lane Sox and Scott Hsu.
Olivia is half of Star Lane Sox, a guitar-and-drums indie/punk duo. Influenced by the garage rock revival bands of the early 2000s but giving it their own spin, Singer / songwriter / arranger / producer / multi-instrumentalist / performer / session musician Olivia was trained at Goldsmiths London University, the Berklee College of Music jazz program, and the Vermont Jazz Center. She's toured the US, performed at music festivals in the UK, and played clubs in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Her songs frequently draw from her lived experience as a neurodivergent, transgender young person pursuing radical joy against all odds.
"I feel like I could listen to her sing about anything forever, but also that what she does sing about is so well-chosen."
Scott Hsu is a second-generation Taiwanese-American whose multi-instrumental soul-searching romantic rock / pop blends electronica beats with live looping synthesizers, guitar, and vocal effects. His lyrics are rooted in authenticity, and gravitate toward love, nostalgia, identity, transformation, and redemption. Mandarin-English songs and cross-cultural love expressions reflect a unique identity — global, hybrid, personal, ranging from dreamy Chinglish pop/punk to plucky pop Americana.
Tickets are $20 in advance through stage33live.com, or at the door as available. All proceeds go to the performers. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Only 40 tickets will be sold. Advance sales will close at midnight the day before the show, or when 40 tickets are sold. Nobody will be turned away at the door for lack of money (only for lack of space if it’s sold out).
The following week, some mighty jazz.
The Julian Gerstin Sextet packed Stage 33 Live back in 2024, and now Gerstin has a new eclectic jazz project called Dr Julian’s Yes Yes — a fun, affirming name for a fun, affirming music experience. They take the songs in more unplanned directions than the Sextet, but still loaded with adventuresome, exciting rhythms and audience-friendly melodies.
The group is full of powerhouse ringers (the lineup varies depending on availability of the artists for a given date), including:
saxophonist / clarinetist Jeff Lederer, who has been included in the Downbeat Critics’ and Readers’ poll every year since 2014;
reed player and ethnomusicologist Paul Austerlitz, specializing in bass and contrabass clarinets;
saxophonist Jason Robinson of the Janus Ensemble, also professor of music at Amherst College;
pianist Andrew Wilcox, still young but already romping with all the big dogs;
legendary bassist Wes Brown, who has toured the world with greats from three centuries including Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, Anthony Davis, Anthony Braxton, and so many more;
versatile trumpeter Haneef Nelson, a respected pillar of the jazz community as a composer / arranger, bandleader, sideman, musical curator, and educator;
trumpeter Don Anderson, veteran of numerous groups including the Vermont Jazz Center Big Band, Zara Bode Little Big Band, Green Street Quintet, Dr. Burma, and New England Transcendental Brass Band;
interdisciplinary percussionist, composer, and polyrhythmic force Brian Shankar Adler, whose drumkit often includes tabla, bombo legüero, and an array of found objects;
drummer Ben James, who has worked with John Tchicai, Olatunji, Green Mountain Mambo, and others;
and the ringleader, Julian Gerstin, ethnomusicologist / composer / master of the drum traditions of Ghana, Cuba, Martinique, Brazil and other African / Diasporic countries, as well popular styles of Nigeria, South Africa, Martinique, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Mexico.
Dr Julian’s Yes Yes at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, VT, on Saturday, August 15, 2026, at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $20 in advance through stage33live.com or at the door. Only 40 tickets will be sold. All proceeds go to the performers. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Advance sales will close at midnight the day before the show, or when the tickets are gone. The performance will be recorded and filmed.
Rounding out August, on the 30th we've got Justin Levinson & Josh Glass and Marty Royle.
Justin Levinson is an award-winning, multi-talented singer, songwriter and musician with a penchant for lyrical whimsy, earworm melodies, British Invasion-loving songwriting, and erudite power-pop. His catalog of songs covers territory from power-pop to country to “feel-good heartbreak”, earning steady praise from audiences and critics.
His ode to small-town life, City with Two Streetlights on his debut record 1175 BOYLSTON, spent eight weeks on the top 25 CMJ charts. He’s won the Billboard Song Contest, the International Acoustic Music Awards Best New Male Artist, as well as a nomination for Sirius Song Writer Discovery of the Year.
Influenced by the greats of the ’60s, Justin draws elements from his favorite artists of that era — the Beatles, The Zombies, The Beach Boys. He’s drawn comparisons to Ben Folds.
He’ll be bringing fellow musician Josh Glass with him… a formidable duo.
Marty Royle is perhaps best known as the lead singer of the popular longtime DC indie-rock stalwarts Washington Social Club, which made fun, witty power pop for more than two decades. MTV ran a feature on them back when MTV was a music channel, and Marty once somehow made Robert Smith of The Cure laugh. This will be a solo performance.
Clever popster performing songwriters Justin Levinson and Marty Royle split the bill in a 3:00 matinee on August 30. Singer-songwriter / pianist Josh Glass will perform with Justin. Tickets are $15 in advance through stage33live.com, or $20 at the door as available. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Only 40 tickets will be sold. Advance ticket sales automatically close at midnight the day before the show, or when the tickets are gone. All ticket proceeds go to the performers.
We're currently booking 2027 from the wait list, and it's shaping up nicely. In addition to local and regional performers, we've got a guy who's in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, a guy who was in Poco, and a folk duo down from Canada. So far. Plus three Synthfest sessions.
(We actually don't have anything to do with the Altan show at the Opera House other than being a wee non-voting junior co-pro, just happy to be included. It's a Ray’s the Roof Productions event, the first of the 2027 Ray Massucco Concert Series.)
We've got performance anxiety as we wait for a grant determination coming up next month. We haven't been awarded any foundation grant that we've applied for since 2023.
(Though we have in the meantime received small grants from local businesses, arts organizations, and individuals that have kept things afloat. Shout-out to The Island Corporation, WOOL-FM, RAMP, Chroma, the Bellows Falls Opera House, Rockingham Entertainment Development, and anonymous individuals who know who they are and so do we – except for the anonymous individuals who put money in the jar at shows, who are well and truly anonymous.)
One thing that our grant pitches have lacked is testimonials from performers and audience members describing what we offer that's rare and valuable and different from other places (on the stage, in front of it, behind it, and before and after show days). It would probably carry more weight coming from the people we serve rather than us clumsily trying to honk our own horn.
We're not asking you for money, just a sentence or two that might grab a grant reader's attention that we can mix in. From attendees and performers alike. Shorter is better, facts beat hyperbole, doesn't have to use big words.
Could say something about the quality of the performers, sound, presentation. The value the project brings to the community. Our overall ethics, including the terrible business model of paying the performers rather than ourselves. The fact that we don't have a bar or kitchen, that the stage is the mission. If the documentation that we make at no cost to the performers or the public and make freely available for anybody to view and for the performers to use however they see fit has some worth. Our unsexy but remarkably thorough website. Our occasionally odd but (hopefully) entertaining newsletters. Or anything at all that strikes you.
We'll keep attendee comments anonymous (unless you're some kind of celebrity) but will cite the performers as public figures.
You can reply to this email and it'll get to us. Thank you so, so much!
A hearty Thank You to our seasonal underwriters!
We're entirely run by volunteers from stem to stern, and all donations go toward the costs of keeping the wheels on this thing. We squeeze every penny, and we'd be so happy to squeeze yours.