Archive for the ‘LIVE’ Category
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Popsy Dixon, Sherman Holmes and Wendell Holmes
The members of opening act Scrapomatic settled into their chairs onstage at The Egg. Vocalist Mike Mattison thanked the headliners not only for the opportunity to share a stage with them, but also for their dedication to keeping the American music tradition alive.
“Here’s a song that we wrote,” Mattison added. “It’s called ‘Louisiana Anna.’ 1,2…”
Suddenly, his introduction was interrupted by the intrusive ring tone of a cell phone. While members of the crowd began casting accusatory glances at their fellow audience members, Mattison sheepishly reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out his cell phone, turned it off and put it away.
Not exactly an auspicious beginning…
But wait, there’s more…
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Holmes Brothers, Scrapomatic, The Egg
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010
What do Jimi Hendrix, the Troggs, reggae star Sister Carol, comedian Sam Kinison, LA punk pioneers X, Cheap Trick, Hank Williams, Jr. and a host of other musicians over the past almost half century have in common?
All of them have performed and recorded singer-songwriter Chip Taylor’s seminal 1960’s hit, “Wild Thing.”
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Chip Taylor, The Linda
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
John Ellis
O me! O my!
I don’t even know where to start writing about the mind-blowing music that came crashing off of the stage at Red Square in Albany on Thursday night while sax master John Ellis and his exquisite band Double-Wide were celebrating the release of their new album, “Puppet Mischief.”
The dazzling instrumental virtuosity of the musicians?
The thrill of Ellis’ complex, ambitious and fully funky compositions?
The extraordinary imagination required to assemble this unlikely combination of instruments?
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Tags: Andrzej Pilarczyk, John Ellis & Double-Wide, Red Square
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Dave Mason and Leon Russell
The Egg was rockin’ on its foundation on Saturday night, as the double-bill of classic rock icons Leon Russell and Dave Mason blazed through two separate sets of songs that helped define the music of 1960s and well beyond.
Russell took the stage first, launching his 75-minute, high-energy set with “Jumping Jack Flash” and tearing through a repertoire of tunes popularized by the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and even the Temptations. From behind his keyboard, he also tipped his hat to one of his first employers with Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls Of Fire,” accompanied by rousing audience participation from the sold-out crowd.
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Dave Mason, Leon Russell, The Egg
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The Blasters' Phil Alvin
You know, it might seem easy to write off the Blasters as “hey, you know, that great old rockabilly band.” But if that’s what you were thinking comin’ into Valentine’s Music Hall on Friday night, Phil Alvin and the boys probably had your head spinning by the time you walked down those stairs at the end of the night.
Don’t get me wrong. The Blasters are indeed a great rockabilly band, but they’re also so much more than that. They were playing “roots rock” long before the term was coined. And the same goes for “Americana.”
On Friday night, they blitzed Valentine’s by cutting a mighty wide swath across musical genres.
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Blasters, The Last Conspirators, Valentine's Music Hall
Posted in LIVE | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
It’s not like singer-songwriter Michael Eck has been holed up in some deep, dark cave, hiding out. For the past several years he’s been rolling around from one area stage to another, as a member of the Lost Radio Rounders, as well as Ramblin Jug Stompers.
Or maybe you’ve seen him sittin’ in with Frank Jaklitsch. Or conducting onstage interviews with the performers for Caffe Lena’s Decades Concert Series. Or stepping up to the microphone to add his two cents at the recent Johnny Cash birthday tribute night.
But it’s been three years since he last dove head first into his old “maximum solo acoustic” mode, playing a full evening of his own music by himself.
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Tags: Andrzej Pilarczyk, Caffe Lena, Michael Eck, Saratoga Springs
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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
A little louder please...T-shirts at the Poetry Out Loud recitation contest.
Poetry has been around long before it was reduced to words on a printed page. And the national Poetry Out Loud competition aims to return poetry to its spoken word origins.
On Saturday afternoon at The Linda in Albany, a capacity crowd watched, listened and cheered as 14 high school students from all around the state participated in the final rounds of the New York State recitation contest, emceed by WAMC-FM’s Joe Donahue.
Among the finalists were several Capital Region students – Shenendehowa High School sophomore Maria Albrecht, Niskayuna High School sophomore Jason Kasman, Shaker High School junior Shauna Stack and sophomore Breanna Medina of the John Sayles School of Fine Arts at Schenectady High School.
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Poetry Out Loud, The Linda
Posted in Books, LIVE | No Comments »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
More than 40 years after his career-making performance at Woodstock, Richie Havens still walks the walk and talks the talk. On Saturday night, his performance at the Eighth Step at Proctors in Schenectady was peppered with plenty of ’60s lingo. “It’s so far out,” he said. “That’s how heavy it is.” And, “The vibe was on.”
Looking and sounding more like some spiritual guru than a pop star, Havens spoke in a hushed, intimate whisper that went way beyond “laid-back.” And he talked alot, opening the show with a ten-minute reminiscence about his early days on the Greenwich Village folk scene.
But on Saturday night, it also seemed as though perhaps Havens was lulled by his own voice. He seemed unfocused, several times forgetting the lyrics in mid-song, even during Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” a song that I’m sure Havens has sung hundreds – if not thousands – of times.
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Tags: Eighth Step, Proctors Mustard's Retreat, Richie Havens
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
John Hiatt
After numerous area solo shows in recent years, singer-songwriter John Hiatt came riding into The Egg in Albany armed with his new, somewhat unimaginatively named band – the Combo – to launch his U.S. tour on Thursday night.
And while the loose-limbed Hiatt is pretty much pegged as a roots/Americana guy these days, the Combo obviously reminded him that there was a time – pre-1987’s “Bring the Family” – when he was considered a rocker. A new wave rocker, at that.
Things started out in a fairly acoustic mode at The Egg, opening with the vintage “Drive South.” But then they slid into “Come Home to You” (from 2001’s “The Tiki Bar Is Open”), and while the instruments were still primarily acoustic and relatively low volume, it was clear from Doug Lancio’s scorching bottleneck guitar solo that things were definitely gonna heat up.
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Holly Williams, John Hiatt, The Egg
Posted in LIVE | 3 Comments »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Don Noble and Teigin Legault (photo by Laurin Trainer)
Like Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel and Richard Mulligan’s Academy Award winning film, Capital Rep’s production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a classic.
It’s a big-issue story of integrity in the face of injustice, and director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill backs it up an appropriately big production – featuring a sprawling cast of 26 actors. And yet there’s a profound intimacy to what goes on onstage.
With a huge cast like this, there are usually a few weak links, but the acting here is consistantly strong from Don Noble (as the righteous Atticus Finch) to Steven Patterson (as the despicable Bob Ewell) to Michael Anthony Williams (as the unjustly accused Tom Robinson, who is caught in the middle).
Noble has the most difficult and thankless mission – trying to create a character who has already been indelibly etched into our memories by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film – and yet he does just that with a quiet confidence and a sure-handed performance.
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Tags: Albany, Cap Rep, To Kill A Mockingbird
Posted in LIVE | 2 Comments »
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Solas
Solas rolled into The Egg in Albany on Sunday night and over the course of two dynamic sets proved why they are still one of the top Irish-folk groups touring the globe today.
What has made Solas continually fresh and successful over the last 15 years is their unique balance of both instrumentals and male and female lead vocals. This is a group of leaders who are all exceptional individual voices on their instruments and who collaborate beautifully on each others’ choices of material – whether derived from the traditional Irish music canon or self-penned originals.
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Tags: Albany, Andrzej Pilarczyk, Solas, The Egg
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
What becomes a legend most? Well, if we’re talking about one of the world’s foremost purveyors of acoustic music, then the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall was just what the doctor ordered for mandolin master David Grisman, who brought his quintet “plus…” to the acoustic marvel on Saturday night.
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Tags: Andrzej Pilarczyk, David Grisman, J Hunter, Troy, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
Posted in LIVE | No Comments »
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