Capital SoundsMusical happenings in and around the Capital City
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Toolbox
Published: July 3, 2009
Big changes are happening for me right now, the biggest one being that I am no longer booking the Langdon Street Café (more on that at the end of the piece). For the purposes of this column, however, there are more pressing matters, as today is the single biggest day of the year here in Montpelier. For all you need to know about the live music options tonight and for the rest of the weekend, read on …
I'll start out on Langdon Street where the Dave Keller Band will be playing outside McGillicuddy's starting at 8 p.m. Dave is a local blues and soul institution, and I'm sure he's gotten together a great cast of musicians to back him for this one. He'll provide musical fireworks both before and after the real ones – dancin' in the streets, indeed.
Down the Street at Langdon Street Café, they'll have an outdoor beer garden going with the "invasive acoustic" music of Didymo outside at 5 p.m. At 10 p.m., the action moves inside post-fireworks when new local project The Concrete Rivals take the stage. They play Dick Dale-style surf-and-spy-movie music from the 1960s. You read it right! The band has become an instant sensation around these parts, with folks turning out in droves for the retro sound being re-created by Jay Ekis, Jen Wells, Ben Roy and Andy Pitt. Get your groove on for donations, daddy-o!
Around the corner in the parking lot adjacent to Julio's, live disco rockers Polyester will be playing. If a barroom hard rock band played disco … well, never mind "if" – these guys actually do it. They'll start at 8 p.m. with a break for the fireworks and then keep rockin' 'til midnight with your favorite hits from the Studio 54 era – cool!
Earlier today, there's lots of live music around town as well. Longtime local West African drum and vocal group D'Moja plays on the Kellogg-Hubbard library lawn at 1 p.m. – bring the kids out to dance in the grass. Later on down at the Statehouse, The Starline Rhythm Boys bring their retro honky-tonk sound to the party starting at 4:30 p.m.
Though downtown is the place to be today, some of the best live music is happening outside of downtown, at The Lamb Abbey in Pioneer Center, behind the VFW at the end of Pioneer Street, to be exact. They'll be hosting The Bubble Gum and Kale Freedom Festival, which features five area acts spanning a number of genres. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., folk-rockers The Rogue Birds, jam-band Frit, jazz fusion masters Vorcza, and blues-soul dudes The Eames Brothers will rock the night away. The highlight of the evening, however, is bound to be the ultra-popular soul-folk outfit Sara Grace and the Suits, who seem to draw a huge crowd wherever they play around the Capital City. That should help them pull some people out of downtown where most of the action is. No word on the schedule at press time, but the event is being simulcast by WGDR in Plainfield, so if you're in their listening range, you can hear it wherever you are. Pretty cool stuff.
Back downtown, Charlie-O's gets into the action tonight when rockers Big Boss Sausage return to town. The Sausage is sort of the ultimate bar band, playing a blend of folk, rock, disco, pop and just about every other style under the sun that's appropriate for a barroom setting. They'll be joined by The Juicy Black Cherries. I checked out their MySpace – 'nuff said.
On Saturday night at O's, The Dixie Red Delights return to town from their tour to points south. I'm sure Erin McDermott and company will regale us with tales from the road, as well as play some seriously rockin' Americana. Both nights kick off at 10 p.m. and as always at O's, "never a cover".
A bit further down Main Street The Black Door celebrates the holiday non-traditionally when the Montreal-based Turkish and Klezmer band Shtreiml return to the third floor lounge on Saturday night. The band is named for the large circular fur-lined hats that Hasidic Jews wear, but comparisons to the staid Orthodox lifestyle of the Hasidim end there. Jason Rosenblatt, the band's leader, plays chromatic harmonica, and is actually considered one of the finest in the world at it. These guys are topnotch musicians and it's a real treat to have them playing here once again. The show starts at 10 p.m. for the usual honor cover.
In the coming week, an absolutely not-to-be-missed show happens at Langdon Street Café on Thursday, when The Tractenburg Family Slideshow Players come to town. This literal family takes vintage slides they've found at yard sales, estate sales, etc. and turns them into backdrops for their indie-pop tunes. They are "an indie-vaudeville-conceptual art-rock-slideshow band," that has been described as "the Partridge Family meets They Might Be Giants." They're the real deal and have been lauded by everyone from The Village Voice to Rolling Stone. $10 at the door gets you one of the most unique shows you will ever see – super cool.
Now back to my "big changes." Indeed I will no longer be the talent coordinator at LSC (which should silence the minority that cried "conflict of interest"). I have booked July and part of August, and select dates in September. The other half of August and thereafter will be booked by Ben T. Matchstick, who now co-owns the café with his partner Meg Hammond. I've really enjoyed my time coordinating talent and developing acts there, and would like to thank all of you who've come out and supported my efforts over the past few years. I will still be booking things in the market, and will continue to bring great acts to Montpelier, rest assured.
Until next week, Happy Independence Day, pray for some good ol' fashioned dry summer weather, and I'll see ya' out and about!
Ed DuFresne is the former talent coordinator for the Langdon Street Café and occasionally produces concerts. He lives in Montpelier with an aspiring lawyer, a budding artist, an annoying bird named Lucy and a clutter of submitted CDs that are steadily being replaced by web links.
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