Emma Torncello
NAME: Emma Torncello
INSTRUMENT: Hammond organ, keyboard, guitar, violin, vocals
1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … Sgt. Pepper’s. I was in second grade when I first got the album, and I listened to it every night, all the way through. “A Day in the Life” is still one of my favorite songs ever.
Matt Mirabile, Tommy Love and Alison Jacobs
Review by Fred Rudofsky
Photographs by Eric Gleason and Amy Modesti
In the past several months, the Troy Dinosaur BBQ has been building a solid reputation for booking free live music gigs each weekend, and a Saturday night gig by Matt Mirabile with special guest Alison Jacobs may rank as the best one yet.
In the past decade, Mirabile has established himself as one of the finest guitarists in the area, and on this night he was playing at an exceptional level, playing with passion, imagination and vision. His band – Steve Aldi (bass), Joshua Bloomfield (drums) and Jason Ladayne (keys) – followed his muse and brought their own blues verve, too. Add to the mix the dynamic Alison Jacobs, the best local female singer as Metroland duly noted a few years ago, and it was obvious that something extraordinary would transpire.
Review and photographs by Fred Rudofsky
Blues, BBQ and beer – it’s an Earthly trinity that should never go unheralded, especially when there is no cover charge. A lively crowd with good taste in all three areas showed up in force at the Dinosaur BBQ in Troy to hear the area’s finest blues band.
Since regrouping early last year after a significant hiatus, Scotty Mac & the Rockin’ Bonnevilles have been playing almost monthly. Billing this gig as the “Post V.D.” show (Valentine’s Day, just so you know), they opened with a powerful take on “Chicken Shack,” with Ted Hennessy playing some galvanic harp. The original “Just My Luck” kept the tempo up, with Scotty Mac playing his customary out of sight guitar and Johnny Ellis (bass) and Pete Vumbaco (drums) locking into irresistible rhythm.
The first set was heavier on covers than usual, but who else has the chops and imagination to play from such disparate sources? The sounds of Excello, Chess, Vee-Jay and Sun records were well represented, and The Shadows “Apache” sounded mighty fine with the jump blues of Louis Jordan’s “Saturday Night Fish Fry” following soon afterwards.
Johnny Morse
NAME: Johnny Morse
BAND AFFILIATION: The John Morse Band, Starstruck
INSTRUMENT: Guitar, Vocals
1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … “Three Dog Night Captured Live at the Forum.” Loved the photos in the album.
2. THE FIRST CONCERT THAT I EVER SAW WAS … Rush at the Palace Theatre
3. THE FIRST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT I EVER OWNED OR PLAYED WAS … Guitar at age eight
4. THE FIRST SONG THAT I EVER PERFORMED IN PUBLIC WAS … “Eighteen” by Alice Cooper, I think. Maybe Freebird?
5. THE FIRST BAND I WAS EVER IN WAS … not sure of the name. Maybe Serenity Rocks. Used to play solo guitar at age eight for pennies in the projects of Cohoes.
Singer-guitarslinger John Morse leads the John Morse Band into Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Troy for a free show at 10pm on Friday (November 2). Morse is also slated for a solo acoustic show at Bat Shea’s in Troy on Friday, November 9.
The Big Idea
NAME: Bert Pagano
BAND AFFILIATION: The Big Idea
INSTRUMENT: Guitar and vocals
1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … “Meet the Beatles”
2. THE FIRST CONCERT THAT I EVER SAW WAS … Dick Clark’s Cavalcade of Stars (Herman’s Hermits, Billy Stewart, the Dixie Cups, the Detergents, Little Anthony & the Imperials)
Right Coast Soul
1. THE FIRST ALBUM I EVER BOUGHT WAS … It depends. I used allowance money to buy a friend of mine the Police’s “Synchronicity” for his birthday, mainly because I wanted to listen to it. But the first album I bought for myself was Styx – “Kilroy Was Here,” I think. I also had a 45 of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” that I bought as well. “Domo Arigato…”
The Catbirds: Viborate
Despite the fact that we’ve often seen him performing in pajamas, we really don’t know when the hell Chandler Travis sleeps. It would seem that he must be playing music around the clock, considering that he plays solo shows in addition to leading the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, the slightly down-sized Chandler Travis Philharmonette and the Chandler Travis Three-O, not to mention the Incredible Casuals and perhaps a Travis Shook & the Club Wow reunion or two along the way.
But apparently the ridiculously restless Mr. Travis was not satisfied.
Which brings us to the Catbirds, Travis’ latest gang of musical merauders. As always, Travis has a pretty good handle on what he’s doing, and what he’s doing isn’t loopy pop or surrealist dixieland. No, the Catbirds are a straight-up, no-frills, four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band.
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