Last-Minute PVD Fest Music Round-Up
As you’ve probably heard, PVD Fest, the multi-cultural, multi-format behemoth, takes over downtown Providence this weekend. The fest strives to bring together artists from everywhere and throw you out of your comfort zone. Musically, it seems like there may be fewer high-profile acts than last year (2016 featured Screaming Females, The Heavy and Joy Formidable), but there will still be plenty of quality acts to take in.
Motif has brought you coverage of the Mini Maker Faire and the contributions of poet Christopher Johnson. Now here’s a preview of the musical offerings (please note that we don’t have nearly enough room to go through all the artists).
Grandiosity is part of the mission statement of PVDFest: some may remember the time a dude played a giant harp attached to the Superman building. The weekend of festivities will feature a musical event called En Masse, led by renowned composer and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, who was at last year’s fest collaborating with local student musicians. En Masse is described as a “large-scale composition created for up to 500 musicians that is entirely new every time it is performed.” It is set to feature marching bands, street musicians (including What Cheer? Brigade), Girls Rock RI and music students from all over the state. I have no sense as to how this will play out, but seems like it could be epic.
I’m probably most excited about Pallbearer, a doom metal band from Arkansas that will most likely blow the eardrums off any casual festival-goers that happen by. With their slow, bone-crushing riffs, they are one of the more notable doom acts of the last few years, and continue to push the boundaries of the genre. With comically bleak album titles like Sorrow and Extinction and Foundations of Burden, you know you’re in for a rollicking good time.
Betty Bonifassi out of Montreal is one to watch out for. Her sound is sort of a blues/hard funk with an electronic backbone, and she’s got a big voice with tons of vibrato. Kind of like Edith Piaf on acid. Or maybe more like Nina Simone on PCP. You’ll have to go to find out.
Los Cafeteras from LA bring a bright, danceable dose of Latin folk music. It’s a fun, old-school vibe, and their performances feel like an impromptu street party. They have acoustic guitars, assorted percussion and joyous vocals.
Showcasing traditional west African styles, Kalifa and Koliba will surely inspire movement in their audiences with booming vocals and a substantial rhythm section. Band leader and Berklee professor, Mohamed Kalifa Camara, expertly pulls from myriad genres, including ska, reggae and funk.
Etienne Charles is a Trinidadian-born, Juilliard-educated trumpeter who will lend an air of sophistication to the event. He’s known for his eclectic style, particularly a mastery of Creole and Pan- Carribean music. In a similar vein, Aurelio Martinez, billed as “The Musical Ambassador for a Traditional Caribbean Culture,” is a Honduran singer-songwriter known for his expressive voice, as well as skillful fretwork.
If electro pop is your thing, you’re in good hands. JLine is a electronic dance artist who you may expect to hear in the club, with a new-age haircut to match. Providence’s Bellerophon, an alternative synth-pop project, is similarly catchy, but a little more atmospheric and experimental.
PVD Fest even found room for some traditional country in Grant Maloy Smith, a singer with a super smooth voice, and whose new album details the experience of living in the Dust Bowl in the 1950s.
It wouldn’t be a festival without some acts from our fair city, and PVD Fest doesn’t disappoint: alt- country stalwarts The ‘Mericans, Liberian-American rapper Skylett White and local composer and songwriter Ben James will be strutting their stuff. Keith Munslow, an RI-lifer known for his acclaimed children’s songs and his work with Superchief Trio, is also on the bill. And of course Big Nazo, the alien puppet funk band that throws down harder than anyone, will be in attendance, so definitely check out their set on the 3rd at 4:30pm.
Even if you’re no more than peripherally interested in any of the above, you really should check out PVD Fest; the sheer magnitude of what they bring into the city is extremely impressive and worth at least a stroll downtown to take it all in.
For more info, head to pvdfest.com/artists, where you can filter artists by performance, day, and stage.
Big Nazo Rockets into PVD Fest
“Oh look, there’s a human-fly wearing a tutu.” “Did you miss the bio-mech giraffe?” “How about the rat- faced comedian, Ratso, with a larger-than-life personality?”
These characters aren’t a result of a bad acid trip, rather, a creative renaissance called Big Nazo for filmmaker and performer Erminio Pinque. Established in 1987, Erminio has built an empire around his creatures, which has expanded to include live music, daredevil stunts and comedy.
In the theme of breaking creative barriers, PVD Fest will once again host the Big Nazo creatures, which will be doing something unprecedented this year: holding down the FirstWorks Plaza Stage, the largest stage at the festival, with what has been dubbed the Big Nazo Intergalactic Creature Dance Party.
During the dance party, the Big Nazo Intergalactic Creature Band will play their assortment of space- rock-funk for what will be a multifaceted expedition through the cosmos to entertain us earthly mortals. The band will be joined by Alien Go-Go Dancers, Rowdy Robots, and a collective assortment of various interdimensional beings that can’t wait to beam dancers up to their party in the sky.
The event is scheduled to kick off at 5pm at Kennedy Plaza right after the parade on June 3, which will feature only the best interplanetary antics from the Big Nazo creatures. Your Summer Guide to Classical Music 2017
The warmer days that arrived in late May are a just a taste of what promises to be a beautiful and well- deserved summer. For classical music lovers, there are some great events to look forward to over the next few months. Here’s what’s on tap for the summer of 2017:
The 2017 Music On The Hill festival presents seven concerts of chamber music from June 1 – 14 at various locations throughout the state, including Cranston, Warwick and Westerly. For more information, go to musiconthehillri.org
The Chorus of Westerly presents its free summer pops concert on Saturday, June 24 in Wilcox Park at 8pm. This family-friendly concert is always fun. For more information, visit chorusofwesterly.org
The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra performs its summer pops concerts at Narragansett Town Beach, Independence Park in Bristol, and at Slater Park in Pawtucket. As of this review, dates for this series have not yet been confirmed. Visit ri-philharmonic.org for the most up-to-date information.
Now in its 49th season, the Newport Music Festival presents over 50 concerts of chamber music from July 7 – 23. The wide variety in programming promises to keep any music fan coming back for more. For more information, go to newportmusic.org
The 29th annual Kingston Chamber Music Festival presents a series of seven concerts July 19 – 30 at the University of Rhode Island. For more information, visit kingstonchambermusic.org
To the north, The Boston Landmarks Orchestra presents free outdoor concerts at the DCR Hatch Memorial Shell, Wednesday evenings starting on July 19. For more information, go to landmarksorchestra.org
Further north are two festivals worth considering in New Hampshire. The 51th Monadnock Music Festival runs July 8 – Aug 6. The New Hampshire Music Festival runs July 5 – Aug 5. For anyone vacationing in New Hampshire, these festivals are a wonderful addition to your itinerary. Information on these festivals can be found at monadnockmusic.org and nhmf.org
To the south, The Talcott Mountain Music Festival featuring the Hartford Symphony Orchestra performs outdoor concerts on Fridays, from June 30 – July 28. For more information, go to hartfordsymphony.org/concerts-tickets/series/talcott-mountain-music-festival/
For die-hard classical music fans, Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Mass, remains the epicenter of classical music in New England over the summer months. The season features regular concerts by the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras, as well as various pop and jazz artists. This year’s guest artists include Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, John Mellencamp, Emmylou Harris, Carlene Carpenter and James Taylor. For more information, go to bso.org/Home Alt-Nation: Here Comes the Summer!
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
Still “Tuff Enuff” after all these years, you can bet that when The Fabulous Thunderbirds roll into town they’ll be ready to preach the blues. They may be in their 43rd year as a band, with only singer Kim Wilson remaining from the original lineup, but Wilson has always had a knack for identifying upcoming guitarists. Things get hot and heavy on the dance floor when the T-Birds come to throw down.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds belt out the blues at the Greenwich Odeum in East Greenwich on June 1.
McLovins
Hartford’s McLovins return for a night of freewheeling jazzy indie rock. McLovins have honed their live show down to a science from years living out of their van and touring the world. McLovins drawn from an eclectic palette, and I hear elements of Phish, indie rock, R&B and even a little jazz in their sound.
McLovins rock The Met Café on June 2.
Folkfest
The first of the many folk fests coming this summer is headlined by Portland’s Muddy Ruckus. Muddy Ruckus remind me of a cross between a stripped-down version of Dylan in the Basement Tapes era, and a poor man’s Shovels & Rope. For more to get lit on before the show, check out Muddy Ruckus’ 2016 full-length whammer jammer, Pretty Bones. The always incomparable Michael Graham and his band also will be a’rocking and a’folking through the night. The event starts at 6pm with a cookout with the live music getting cranked out at 8pm. Come early and stay late, or just stop by on your time. This Folkfest is all about you be being you.
Folkfest, featuring performances by Muddy Ruckus, Michael Graham Band, Man & Wife, Jeff Byrd, John Coltain, David Begin, SeatBelt and Josh Grabert engulfs Dusk in Providence on June 3.
Donovan
All the shows I’m mentioning are good, but there are few that I’m as stoked for as the Hurdy Gurdy man himself, Donovan, coming to New London. I got into Donovan big time many moons ago in college when most of my friends smoked a shit ton of pot and listened to Donovan records all night. Those platters still matter, as tunes like “Mello Yellow,” Epistle to Dippy,” and of course “Season of the Witch” are classics.
Donovan comes to enchant the Garde Center of the Arts in New London, Conn, on June 3.
The B-52s
What happens when the “Rock Lobster” struts into the Whaling City? Why a pure new wave dance party, of course, as The B-52s march into New Bedford. The B-52s aren’t roaming around to not play the hits. Expect to be dragged down to the “Love Shack” on your “Private Idaho” to shake your ass and you’ll love every minute of it! The B-52s rock the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center in New Bedford on June 3.
Southern Culture on the Skids
Southern Culture on the Skids come barreling into town for what promises to be a rockabilly romp. They keep things trashy by mixing in surf and garage rock with some humorous lyrics about fried chicken and other stuff of that ilk. This show promises to be a swinging hoe down!
Southern Culture on the Skids and Thee Fabulous Itchies rock The Met Café on June 8.
Blue Oyster Cult
Blue Oyster Cult must be really feeling the Rhode island vibe lately because after not coming to these lands in years, they are back for the second time in a matter of months. I caught them in Woonsocket a few months ago and they were majestic. They play the hits one would expect like “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” (albeit with no big cowbell showoff), “Burnin’ For You” and “Godzilla.” Hopefully they change up the set a little and add “This Ain’t the Summer of Love” and their cover of “Kick Out the Jams” because their version outkicks the MC5’s.
Blue Oyster Cult rock the Greenwich Odeum on June 8.
The New Darkbuster
I don’t like calling this “The New Darkbuster” because if one is going to use the name Darkbuster, it should just be called Darkbuster even if the band is just Lenny Lashley and his hired guns. Calling names aside, I have caught this version of Darkbuster and all the sing-a-long pub punk thrills of old are still there. By the end of the night, I ended up in the pit with arms around the shoulders of two friends singing along to “Hometown Zero,” just like a Darkbuster show of old.
The New Darkbuster, The Worried, and Brunt of It bring the punk rock to The Café at Parlor in Newport on June 9.
Ha Ha Tonka
Ha Ha Tonka’s new album, Heart-Shaped Mountain (Bloodshot Records) was shaped by a hardware crash that forced them to essentially abandon everything and start from scratch. We’ll never know if the original cuts were some lost masterpiece, but the resulting Heart-Shaped Mountain has some alt- country jams with the best of them being “Race to the Bottom,” “The Party” and the Springsteen-like refrain of “Arkansas.”
Ha Ha Tonka rocks Firehouse 13 on June 9.
The Worried – You Deserve This… (Release Show)
It has been a long time coming for the first official release from punk rock pushers, The Worried, which may be why it is titled You Deserve This… for sticking it out. You Deserve This… is like a bomb of up- tempo gritty punk ‘n’ roll. Highlights include the stompers “Hey Sailor” and “Didn’t Get This Far,” and they sound like Angry Samoans and The Queers hookup-ed at the prom. “Worried Man Boogie” and my favorite, “Fire in The Hole,” are the dance floor bangers on this record. The Worried celebrate the release of You Deserve This… with a show with Party Pigs and Pyramid at The Parlour in Providence Firehouse 13 on June 10.
Kurt Vile
Kurt Vile comes to town to blast out a barrel of low-grade, psychedelic-tinged rock ‘n’ roll. I caught Vile a couple of years ago at the Newport Folk Fest and didn’t really get the appeal, but the person next to me was going ape shit over him. I’m going to give Vile another chance when he hits the Columbus, and recommend you do the same.
Kurt Vile and Julie Byrne rock the Columbus Theatre on June 22.
David J (Bauhaus & Love & Rockets)
David J returns to Firehouse 13 for another intimate living room show. The format is usually David J does a set and then DJs as everyone hangs out together and has a grand ole time. The word on the street is that Firehouse 13 is closing at the end of June so this will be one of your last experiences to soak up those great memories from all the shows, art exhibits, darts leagues, and swinger’s nights (Ed. See Open and Closed for an alternative theory). Advance tickets are usually necessary for these shows, and you can get yours here ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?eventId=7285855&pl=fh13&dispatch=loadSelectionData.
David J performs an intimate Living Room show at Firehouse 13 on June 23.
The Schemers
It is always news when The Schemers play, but this show is a little extra because it is a benefit for The Same Thing Project workshop. The Same Thing Project is a songwriting workshop at The Artist Exchange in Cranston started by Schemers vocalist/guitarist Mark Cutler and Ray Memery from Avatar. The workshop includes musicians, non-musicians, developmentally challenged and people from the general population. Participants engage in writing and recording songs together with a plan to release a CD at some point down the road. In addition to the very cool cause, this night will feature great rock ‘n’ roll from The Schemers and Hope Anchor.
The Schemers and Hope Anchor rock The Parlour in Providence on June 24 to benefit The Same Thing Project.
Tall Teenagers – CD Release Show
Tall Teenagers will release their sophomore album with a show packed with some of my favorite local bands. I heard rough mixes of two tracks, “Lights Out “and “The Bottom,” a couple of months ago, and both featured the fuzzed-out guitars that are Tall Teenagers’ calling card.
Tall Teenagers, Pyramid, Eric & The Nothing and Party Pigs rock Dusk on June 24.
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats have a new biscuit titled Goths (Merge Records), which is a pretty hysterical name for an album from an indie folk band. I only just got an advance copy of the record, but I’m so digging with “Rain in Soho” in particular jumping out. I recommend getting advance tickets because The Mountain Goats sold out the Columbus last year when they came to town.
The Mountain Goats come to the Columbus Theatre on June 28.
Wailing Souls
The Wailing Souls are part of the small surviving group of reggae and roots originators that date back to the late 1960s. The Wailing Souls members got their start learning from reggae icon Joe Higgs in Jamaica’s Trench Town yards and sung alongside other emerging groups at the time, including Bob Marley & The Wailers. By the ’70s, The Wailing Souls attracted interest from preeminent reggae producer Coxson Dodd, and began a recording career that has earned three Grammy nominations.
Wailing Souls bring the reggae to The Café at Parlor in Newport on July 2.
Revival Festival
I guess now it is safe to say that Liberty Fest is officially dead. Long live Liberty and long live Revival Fest. For the third year, Revival Fest takes Dusk, and the bands I’m excited to see include The Z-Boys, Bad Motherfucker, Civility, Atlantic Thrills and Beta Motel.
The third annual Revival Festival returns to Dusk on July 4. The music kicks off at 1pm and runs all day and night.
Swamp Stomp 10
Swamp Stomp turns 10 this year with a wallop of show headlined by The Waco Brothers. The Waco Brothers do one of my favorite tunes from the last year or so in “DIYBYOB” from their Going Down in History (Bloodshot Records) album. The Waco Brothers have been holding it down for 20 years, belting out three-chord country with a punk rock soul. This is a stacked day that includes the return of a Swamp Stomp favorite, The Sadies, for a third time. Swamp Stomp is a BYO-everything event from beverages to food to whatever turns you on, and enjoy what promises to be a hot day of rock ‘n’ roll at a beautiful property situated in the swampy backwoods of West Kingston. Grounds will open at 1:30pm on the day of the event, with music beginning at 3pm and continuing until 9pm or so.
Swamp Stomp 10 featuring performances by The Waco Brothers, The Sadies, Eric Ambel and Al Scorch takes place in West Kingston near the entrance of The Great Swamp on July 8. Suggested donation to attend Swamp Stomp 10 is $42. Information for Swamp Stomp can be obtained by contacting Roots Hoot House Concerts via email at [email protected] or by phone at 401-965-0833. Advance tickets are usually mandatory so do not sleep on this!
Electric Six
As I enter my fourth term as mayor of the Providence Electric Six Fan Club, I will once again stress that you need to get your shit together and go see this band. It might have been 16 years since their seminal release of Fire, which gripped a nation (England, not the US), but the Electric Six has continued to pretty much release an album every year. They are up to 13 albums of which the best are Switzerland, Flashy and KILL. Electric Six take the blueprint of the Talking Head and mash it with the PEDs, that include the hard rock of K.I.S.S., the groove of Motown, and the swagger of Captain Beefheart, to create some of the best tunes of the millennium. Electric Six return to rock Alchemy on July 11.
Crimetown Podcast
The Crimetown Podcasts on the history of corruption in Providence have provided a fascinating look back at corruption from the days of the mob rule under the Patriarca Family and the Cianci administration. I don’t know anyone other than Mayor Jorge (The Parking Meter) Elorza that hasn’t loved listening to them. It is, of course, understandable that the mayor does not want to shine a light on the city’s corrupt past. It was just odd that he chose to speak out against it the same week the president of the city council was being indicted. Anyway, the creators of Crimetown come to the Columbus Theatre for two nights to discuss all things Crimetown, and it should be a hoot!
Crimetown comes to the Columbus Theatre on July 13 and 14.
WBRU Summer Concert Series
WBRU’s Summer Concert Series returns to Waterplace Park for four shows this summer. On July 21, Unlikely Candidates and Cannibal Ramblers kick off the series. Dreamerz and The Beardogz play on July 28. Marian Hill and Call Security rock the city on August 4. SWMRS and Neutral Nation close out the series with a bang on August 11.
WBRU Summer Concert Series returns to Waterplace Park in Providence for four concerts starting with Unlikely Candidates and Cannibal Ramblers on July 21. All shows begin at 7:15pm and best of all, are free!
Newport Folk Fest
Newport Folk Fest returns with another stacked lineup the last weekend of July. Acts are still being announced, but so far the acts I’m looking for to seeing the most are Shovels & Rope, Angel Olsen, Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, Dr. Dog, John Prine and of course, the Deer Tick after-parties!
Newport Folk Fest will once again take over Fort Adams State Park in Newport from July 28 through July 30.
Foo Fest
Foo Fest may be over two months away, but so far it has been a complete disaster. Their initial choice of American Drag performer and recording artist Sharon Needles was panned for everything from being insensitive to the opioid crisis to racism because of past Needles comments to the simple argument that Needles is a reality television creation who has never been artistically relevant. The latter is supported by the low streams of Needles’ work on Spotify for someone with a sizeable social media presence. Whatever your opinion, once AS220 encountered any public pressure they caved and cancelled Needles’ performance with a bizarre statement that they support free speech, just not in this case. I don’t know why people can’t just admit they screwed up, but anyways, as of press time a replacement headliner has not been announced. Thankfully local music will bail Foo Fest out with acts like Hott Boyz, Minibeast, Neutrinos, and Jodi Jolt and The Volt all scheduled to perform.
Foo Fest will take place outside and inside AS220 on Empire Street on August 12.
Email music news to [email protected] Tammy Laforest: Mx. Bisexual RI 2017
Tammy Laforest
[See Tammy Laforest as our pin-up: http://motifri.com/pin-up-tammy-laforest-mx-bisexual-2017/]
“It’s a gender-neutral word: it could mean genderless, it could mean girl, it could mean boy,” explains Tammy Laforest who in April was awarded the title “Mx. Bisexual Rhode Island 2017” by RI Pride‘s increasingly misnamed “Triple Crown” pageant (because it now awards more than three).
Laforest pronounces “Mx.” by spelling out “M-X.” (The most common pronunciation is as a word either with a short “i” like “mix,” popular in the US, or with a schwa like “mucks,” popular in Britain.) Although first appearing in 1977, the need for the gender-neutral honorific in English has been recognized only recently, adopted in Britain by government agencies in the past decade and included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015. It received some traction in the 1980s, proposed as a universal replacement for all other gender-specific terms (including “Mr.”), much as “Ms.” supplanted “Miss” and “Mrs.” in the 1970s to eliminate the antiquated fixation on marital status. In current usage, “Mx.” is usually chosen by people who identify as non-binary gender. As recently as 2015, RI Pride awarded the title “Miss/Mr. Bisexual,” only later adopting “Mx.”
Laforest identifies as cisgender female. “I’ve only had one person ask, ‘Oh, are you a boy?’”
The honorific coincides with her concern about bi-erasure, the tendency to see bisexuals as either straight within opposite-sex relationships or gay within same-sex relationships. Speaking of her own experience, Laforest said, “When you are dating a woman you’re recognized as a lesbian. When you are dating a man you’re not recognized at all. When I was married to a man the church didn’t recognize my bisexuality and they just saw me as a straight person because that’s how I seemed… I didn’t have much of a struggle and it would seem that I looked straight and had all the privileges of a straight life. Whereas people who have always dated the same sex who are bisexual and decide to date the opposite sex, are almost shunned or erased… because some people around them in the LGBT community no longer see them as someone who struggles…”
Her background was unusual, she acknowledges. “I got married at 18 and I was heavily involved in a small, Christian commune for five years… It was a significant part of my experience in my life. It gives me a unique view of the world and a connection to people that other people aren’t going to connect to, because everybody’s different. There’s quite a number of people like me and I’m glad I’m not in it anymore.” She empathizes with “a lot of people who have been kind of tricked into being there and feel the pain of coming out of it, and the betrayal like they were lied to. So it’s good to be able to comfort those people as they are going through the same journey as I did.”
“I would say that it was part of my becoming an adult and it didn’t end well but it did start well, as with groups like this. They were really nice people who were just a little demanding, and it was pretty damaging.” That religious environment was, in its own way, accepting of the particular choices she made. “I’ve always been bisexual, even since I was 15. My closest friends always knew… I got married really young, and even he knew… even the church knew. When you’re in the church, you can marry a man and still be bi and you’re ‘doing the right thing.’”
The man she married was her first boyfriend and she had two children with him. “I’m glad that I did come out of it because it was pretty toxic, but they were very supportive of me through my early mothering years, becoming an adult. I went there when I was 17 and I left five years later when I was 23. Those are the more difficult years of adulthood.”
The break with the church was not easy, but she describes it today as literally life or death. “I had, I guess, a nervous breakdown. I realized I was kind of lying to myself. I didn’t actually realize it at first. I went to my doctor and I said, ‘I’m having all of these things happen. My hands are shaking. I’m having severe back pain. I’m having so many nightmares. What’s going on? Can you fix me?’ She was like, ‘What’s in your life that’s really stressful?’ And I’m like, ‘Nothing, I have a great life.’ [laughs] Then I thought, ‘Maybe I do have stress.’ It’s funny how that tremor immediately went away as soon as I left the church.” The separation and divorce was amicable. “I left the church and my marriage did not survive my leaving the church, because the church itself kind of kept me in this, this – it kept us contained to the same values and morals and ideas of my then-husband. When I left, I questioned a lot of things, but he never really questioned things: we were no longer compatible. We were very happy, actually, to separate. It was the right thing to do, a huge relief to both of us, and we parent our children quite well separately, after some figuring it out.”
“I feel like a chapter closed last year. My divorce was final: my court day was in June, but three months later I got the paper. I’m still changing my name on things. Actually, it’s a slow process to change your name on every single thing that you’re associated with. I’m really glad to have my name back. I’m glad to close that chapter of my story and start over. It’s like I went back to being Tammy Laforest… I’m back to being Tammy Laforest again legally, and it’s beautiful, it’s all I wanted. I wanted to be Tammy Laforest again, I want to be myself, I wanted my old self back and all the previous associations with that. I was no longer going to be someone’s wife. This has nothing to do with the church, it has nothing to do with sexuality, it’s a matter of being in a marriage you don’t want to be in, and getting out of it was wonderful. I highly recommend it.”
After separating from the husband she married very young, Laforest said she had the chance to date for the first time in her life. “It was a really new and exciting time for me with lots of free dinners because I was broke.” Asked to describe a particularly bad date, she said, “I went out with this one guy who showed up and he was wearing the worst outfit. Not that I’m ever wearing nice outfits, but this was just so, it was the worst sneakers. The whole conversation, we didn’t agree on anything. I didn’t feel like he was going to take care of me at all. I paid for his dinner, he let me pay. And this is not feminist at all, I know, but I want someone to take care of me, that’s the type of person I am. I will do and pay for you and everything, but not if it doesn’t happen in the beginning like that. It’s a male-female thing. I’ve always preferred it to be that way.”
This led to the question, since she is very publicly bisexual, whether it was different dating men and women. With men, she laughed, “I’m not saying he should, but I won’t go out with him again” if he doesn’t pay. What about women? “No, I just fall madly in love with them. I want to be the one who pays for dinner, and I want to be the one who buys the flowers, and I want to open the door, because I know how I would want to be treated by a date, and I assume that she would like to be treated the same also, so I go out of my way to be the person that I always wanted my date to be. So far it has worked out for me. It feels really good to treat people that way.”
She was never “in the closet,” but becoming “Mx. Bisexual” has made her very public. “I do hold the title. I’m very confident about my sexuality… I just feel like, before I was walking through the world and no one knew, and now it’s on my Facebook profile. I wear a sash that says it and I’m in a parade.” But, she said, the most important change is her girlfriend, Jeana DeLaire. “I became more confident as soon as I found my girlfriend because she’s lovely and I wanted everyone to know her.” It’s Laforest’s first long-term relationship with a woman and the only partner she has lived with other than her ex-husband. “I’m very in love, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
Living together as a family is elating, she said. “I get so much pleasure out of cooking. That was probably the thing I missed the most during the year that I was single. I loved having someone who could sit down at home and I could cook for them. I could do that with the kids, but it didn’t make sense to do that very often because there would be too much food, it would go bad. One of the happiest things is that now I have that home life again.”
Her girlfriend and her ex-husband agree on one thing that Laforest finds amusing in retrospect. “I don’t see colors like other people. I don’t see blues and greens and blacks and browns the way other people do… I can’t tell differences between them, they all look the same. I can see some of them, sometimes I can, but I don’t know which ones I’m actually seeing. It took this relationship I’m in to realize that some of my clothes aren’t the colors I thought they were… because Jeana will ask, ‘What are you wearing?’” Did her husband ever notice this during their years of marriage? “Never,” she answered at first, but then allowed, “Well, maybe he did because we used to argue about it, but I didn’t realize I was wrong all the time.”
Laforest is primarily known as a musician, having released an album, Copper, and performing regularly under a number of affiliations, including with her own band The Dust Ruffles, with her girlfriend’s band Great Gale, and as a duo with her girlfriend as Tammy & Jeana. The couple host a popular biweekly open mic at the News Café in Pawtucket. The Dust Ruffles and Tammy & Jeana are on the bill at the Countdown to Pride fundraising concert to be hosted by Laforest, June 7 at Dusk in PVD. Laforest will be hosting the acoustic stage at RI Pride, and the couple will also perform this summer at pride events in Boston and in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Both considered competing in the Triple Crown pageant. “My girlfriend and I both wanted to do it and we were trying to decide who was going to go first, and I said, ‘I’m older so you have to go second.’ [laughs] If I don’t do it this year, I’m not going to do it next year… I’m going to be an old woman, I’m turning 30 this year,” Laforest said. “I thought it would be a good time to make some friends, new friends. She already knows everybody, but I do not. So I figured, I might as well just jump right in.”
“I have stage fright, every single time I perform,” Laforest confessed. “I try to get there as far ahead of time as possible to set up and not have any nerves, and practice enough so I don’t have nerves. I turn on a persona as soon as I walk into a venue because, my usual self, I am shy and introverted and I don’t like to be around people, in general, and I like it to be quiet. I enjoy quiet spaces with no music.” She learned how to do that, she said, on the web. “I was part of an on-line community of bloggers at one point – the web site doesn’t even exist anymore – and I very much admired this one blogger who was very funny and always had a comment and put all these things in this blog, and in this chat community everyone wanted to be around her. I met her in person in New York City… and she was really quiet, calm and boring almost, and I was so bored. But I learned from her that one can turn on a personality, a persona, and put on an act when put into certain situations, so I decided if you can’t – there’s a saying ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ – so I decided to fake it ‘til I made it, and it’s really working for me.”
It doesn’t help that she suffers from congestive asthma, a difficult problem for a singer, where the chest tightens up and it becomes hard to breathe, but she keeps it under control by avoiding allergens, especially nuts and chocolate – a sensitivity she discovered when she was selling fondue chocolate for a living. “Now I don’t even have asthma anymore unless I’m eating junk food. I don’t even take Claritin anymore because I became allergic to it… I’m allergic to the tablet… I have no idea what it is, but I’m allergic to various white-coated pills, it’s really annoying but at least my body and kidneys now are medication-free.” Now that she knows what to avoid, she said, “I can go completely without any medications as long as I’m eating a very clean diet without grains, basically, and without any of the random things I’m allergic to… I made a list yesterday and it’s very long, and I’m much happier and so is everyone around me when I’m on a strict diet free of the allergens.”
“I started writing songs at the age of nine. I didn’t start playing an instrument for a while. I played the guitar at 15,” she said. “I had two children… and the church didn’t really encourage me to do my own music, so I had been an active performer and band leader. I had an album and everything before I met who would be my husband. Then it all kind of stopped when I decided to have children, and it bothered me but I wasn’t able to do those things. They weren’t really supportive of it in that [church] group of people. When I left that group of people, one of the first things I did was start going to open mics again and start playing.” Her children are now eight and ten. “I feel like I was just born a songwriter and I was always learning. It’s wild that I have one child who’s older than when I started and one who’s about to be that age…”
“I remember the first time I wrote a song. I had this melody in my head, and I wrote these words and they rhymed. I was tapping on my notebook with a pencil for a little beat. This is the song I wrote down, and I was like, ‘Mom! I wrote this!’ She said, ‘You didn’t write that.’ [laughs] I guess it seemed too advanced. I went to my 4th or 5th grade class at the time and said to the music teacher, ‘I wrote this song. Do you want to hear it?’ and I sang it. She said, ‘That’s really good. Sing it to the class.’ So I sang it to the class. I continued writing songs, but that was the first song. I sang in the 5th grade talent show, and it was one of the strangest moments of my life because I had been singing it in the rehearsals, so at the talent show all of the students knew the lyrics. I was like, ‘This is my song! That I wrote!’” The song itself made that happen, she said. “It was catchy enough for them to pick up the lyrics within two or three rehearsals. It was really a bizarre feeling to have an audience of my peers singing a song that I had written. It continues to be very strange when I hear my songs on the radio or I’m at a bar and it comes over the speakers in the room, and I think, ‘This is me!’” It still happens, she said. “My favorite is when my dad turned on the radio [station WHJY] at 11 at night and he heard me, and he was like, ‘Huh? HJY?’ He texted me.”
Laforest described her musical evolution: “My teenage years, which were me being a depressed, angsty teen. Then little bits of crushes and things like that. Then I stopped writing songs. During the church, I wasn’t writing songs. Then I fell into a depression as I decided to leave the church… My depression wrote the songs… they were heavily influenced by my state of mind. I left the church and I was very free and happy, and many of my songs after that were about leaving the church and being free, and after that many of my songs were about leaving my marriage.” Ironically, she said, “I haven’t written much recently because I think I’m actually too happy, and it’s making me stop writing for a bit.” She said she wrote only “very few” happy songs, but “I wrote at least a couple of hundred songs before I met my husband.”
In 7th grade, Laforest left school for Christmas vacation and never came back, she and her two sisters from then on being home-schooled by their mother. (She also has a much younger brother.) “I don’t have a diploma. I don’t have a college degree and I don’t have a GED. Yet I’ve been employable by so many different companies. People love having me as an employee. If I tried to apply to a corporate place, there would be no degree and they would just disregard me. I’ve been lucky enough to get into various agencies or situations because of my work experience… My resume is really nice, it says what I know. I don’t have a degree, but I’ve done a bunch of different courses relevant to jobs and things I felt like learning.” She should have earned a high school diploma, she said, but “I became a home-schooler right before the superintendent changed and they would no longer give diplomas to home-school students. They gave me a paper that allowed me to get into CCRI that just said, ‘she did something…’ I have got through life without these documents.” She is working on an Associate’s degree and hopes to test out of many of her remaining courses. “I get all As, I’ve never gotten anything less than an A in a college course, but it’s a huge struggle for me to sit still and get it done. I just can’t stand being in a classroom.”
She emphasized that she does not regret the way things turned out, especially her children, but said, “in hindsight, I would never have quit school because if I wasn’t socially awkward before, I currently am now. I never learned a lot of those things. I never went to prom. I probably would not have gotten married and had children so soon. I probably would have graduated college by now, if not many times. I probably would have been much further in my life. Perhaps even my music may have been further, because I didn’t have anybody like a strong friends group telling me, what was wrong and right or good and bad. I probably would have figured out my sexuality much sooner if I’d had the experience in high school.”
One thing Laforest has struggles with is labels. “In my explorations of my sexuality since leaving a marriage, I can’t say that I’m fully comfortable with the label ‘bisexual’ but it’s the closest thing I have. I’m not sure how I would identify if I had a whole bunch of words to choose from. I don’t feel the need to do that, it’s not my primary focus, but [laughs] at least for this year I need to be bisexual… Maybe I don’t care about the gender that I’m dating, maybe it’s more the person that I’m dating. Maybe I can be friends with some people, or sex partners, but maybe I don’t really care. Maybe I’m wondering about my own gender identity, which I’ve always identified as female, but maybe there’s some in-between there and I’ve never recognized it. Being in the community and exposed to all of the ranges and the politics and concepts that I’d never heard, it made me have to take a step back and wonder if this has a label, while at the same time thinking to myself it doesn’t really matter about the label. I just don’t restrict myself to any one gender, but ‘bisexual’ means that I restrict myself to two… But since I’m dating someone in a monogamous relationship, it doesn’t matter.”
“My childhood was my mother’s religious journey, through many different religions, in and out of different churches for various reasons, reading many books, coming to her own conclusions from her Catholic upbringing. Then I got into Christianity which would almost seem at that point in her life to be something that I shouldn’t have done, but she was supportive.” The attraction to the religious commune was simple, she said. “They gave me food. Dinners around the table… I was home-schooled in the woods, so it was just… my family, and they didn’t really talk to me that much, so I was pretty lonely. Then I went to this group of people who all lived together, and they had family dinners and they gave me food and were really nice and they talked to me. That’s how they pulled me in, and that’s how they get a lot of people into situations like that… I needed community, and it came in the form of religious community. And, though I questioned it regularly, I went along with it.” That was in the past, she said. “I no longer go to church because it makes me nervous, and I don’t actually need to be in a church because my slowly evolving spirituality doesn’t require groups. I don’t need to be in a group of people.”
Laforest’s children are her main motivation for going to college. “My partial Associate’s degree right now is the ‘Science Track D,’ that satisfies part of the chemistry or biology [Bachelor’s] degree at RIC… It’s basically pre-med, like a biology degree. I’m almost all the way through the degree, and I just have to finish it, which I’m going to do mostly so my kids can see that I did… A lot of me doing the pageant is so that my children can see that I did it, and see that they don’t need to be stuck in a marriage. I don’t want them to do that. I don’t want them to be kept small even though they’re very much in a religious community still with their dad. I want them to see that you can shine and you can be strong, and I can do it, because I don’t want them to be like me. I don’t want them to get stuck. I want them to see that there’s a whole world out there for them and that if their mom can do it, they can do it. That’s my real driving factor for getting it… So why would I need a degree? So my children can see that they don’t quit school and they keep going.”
Referencing the King Arthur legend and his supernaturally wise mentor, she said, “I sometimes wish I had a Merlin, my very own Merlin. I always wanted one and I never had one. Someone who would be like, ‘You have potential. Do these things to become this.’ I had be my own Merlin, but I don’t know what I don’t know. So I can’t say, ‘It would be really good for you at this point in your life to learn how to tune your guitar by ear because obviously you need ear training. If you had ear training, you would be this much further in your life.’ The only reason I learned music theory was because I had to do that requirement at CCRI.”
“I actually really enjoy math and science because you know the answer and that’s it, or you find the answer and that’s it. I’ve been told I’m the least-creative creative person. I might be a musician and a songwriter, and I can make lots and lots of music and be creative, but I like my walls plain… I like everything simple, black and white. I prefer science over art. I prefer math over writing. That seems to people really peculiar.”
She sees a strong connection between her non-musical education and her music. “My math brain is why I tend to write pop style. When I write a song it’s almost a math formula. The rhyming structure is a pattern: the beats and even the chords, they way they go from one to another, the structure of a song – A-B-A-B, whatever it is – is very mathematical. When I hear a song and it’s not correctly structured, which you rarely ever hear on the radio, it drives me insane. When I was in the church, for example, and there are a lot of songwriters in the church, I would be like, ‘No! You need to fix it! It’s not predictable by the audience!’ If you can’t have the audience predict what’s next, you don’t want your audiences singing along, but churches always sing along so write it to be predictable. That drives me crazy.” Challenged to give an example of such a well known musician or band, “On one side there’s annoying because it doesn’t fall into place correctly, but then there’s annoying because it’s too correct – like Nickelback – that’s so spot-on mathematical that it’s actually irritating.”
Laforest is quite conscious that her upbringing was unusual. “One time I was on a train coming from New York City, and while I was on this train and even in New York City, I had so many people saying, ‘You’re the most interesting person I’ve ever met.’ And I’m like, “You’re in New York City! What are you talking about?!’ I think it’s because of my religious experiences and where I am within my own life and music and how young I was when I had children, and yet I’m not struggling – which is luck, really. I got really lucky how things fell into place for me.”
She sees her unusual upbringing as having been an opportunity for growth. “I’m a ‘Why not?’ type of person. Everyone’s going through life and they don’t see that there are opportunities there because they think they’re only supposed to do certain things if they’re ‘qualified’ to do so. And I’m just like, ‘Well, why not?’ Why not learn web design? Why not throw a fundraiser without any experience? Why can’t I just go to the library, pick up a book and learn how to do an entire field of work? Why can’t I do that? Why not? Because everybody else is like, ‘Well, I need a degree.’ No, you don’t: if you can do the work, you don’t need a degree. Why not go run in a pageant even though I’ve never run in a pageant before and nobody in the community knows me? Why not run despite that? Go for it, do the best I can. I just happened to win.”
All of this experience prepared her for the role of Mx. Bisexual at RI Pride. “It kind of forced me into a quick learning thing, like throwing someone in the water to learn how to swim. My fundraising experience, and actually all of my work experience of being on stage as a musician, was the perfect training for it.” Still, she said, “It’s not like anything else I’ve ever experienced. Very different. There are a lot of people who have been turned away by their families, have struggled because of their sexuality, who have not always had the freedoms that they have now, and still struggle…” She is well aware that she was fortunate, she said. “I can’t just waltz in as the girl who looked straight for 10 years. I have my family, my children, and I didn’t have to pay 50 grand to get them. I didn’t need to fight for it. I do have that privilege.”
Maturity gives her valuable perspective, she believes. “I think that between 21 and 23 you think you’re an adult, and you find that even though you’re done with school and you’re done with this and that, it’s not suddenly easy. You’re not suddenly handed a job. You’re not suddenly happy. Everybody says that you’re starting adulthood and then 23 happens and you think, ‘I haven’t reached anything. Nothing’s different. What is my life?’ That’s really difficult for some people, many people.” At 29, she said, “Most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m just winging it, and I feel that most adults are. The secret is, we’re all winging it… You hit 24 and you think, ‘I’m an adult now.” Then you hit 25 and you think, ‘We’re all pretending to be adults.’ We can stop pretending. I’m a mentor to people? This is ridiculous.”
Laforest’s day job is as the office administrator at a Jewish synagogue. “When I started working at the synagogue, I was married with children and I had the appearance of being a super-Christian in a way, and now the people at the synagogue laugh because they’re like, ‘Now you’re a rock-star lesbian!’ The synagogue is super-accepting. While they’re Modern Orthodox, their goal, part of their goals, is to bring feminism into the synagogue to make women have more of the things that the men have, to make it more accessible to them and to really fight for the rights of women, and I would say that’s their primary focus right now. At various times the rabbi has spoken for gay marriage and trans rights, and he’s spoken against conversion therapy and he has been really active in those things. So it was coincidental that I also entered as the secretly bisexual girl. So I’ve had great luck with that. Those things actually intersect more than my music does with Pride, so I’ve actually tried to bring them together by having my countdown event at Dusk, a not-gay venue but with some gay artists and some who are not, some who are trans and some who are not, which is really difficult because they do not know each other, despite Rhode Island being really small.”
She attributes her professional success, among other things, to attitude and approach. “Ultimately it comes down to that, ‘Why Not?’ I know what made me unhappy and I know what makes me happy, so why not? I might be an adult, but I can still read young adult novels. It may be breakfast time, but I can still eat an ice cream cone. Why not?” It has worked for her. “I got a job one day because I went to a job interview and I ordered dessert instead of lunch, and they were like, ‘WHAT?! You’re hired!’”
Speaking of her children, she said, “I think they’re very proud of me, and it’s very funny to hear ‘My mom won Mx. Bisexual!’ They hang out with me like it’s no big deal, it’s really funny. I think it was one of the highlights of their life when at the Motif [Music] Awards they asked me to announce. ‘My mom is up there!’ We had just done the AIDS Walk for Life the day before with the crown and sash, and that whole weekend any time I walked outside there was a camera… getting followed around by photographers. They just accepted it. ‘My mom’s on the radio, whatever.’ Pretty normal for them.”
Laforest and DeLaire recently celebrated their one-year anniversary together.
Riverdance Comes to PPAC
“Come and meet those dancing feet. On the avenue we’re taking you to.” – old Weybosset St.
No, not THOSE feet. These feet are the thunderous, stage-vibrating, Irish step-dancing feet that belong to the large cast of Riverdance, The Show, the sensation taking over the stage at Providence Performing Arts Center June 2 through 4.
Years back, they said it was over, but apparently not. Here they are on their 20th Anniversary tour. A whole new generation of fans is just now beginning to enjoy, appreciate and emulate this phenomenon.
The Riverdance humble beginnings started in 1994 in Dublin, Ireland, as an interval filler in between judging during the Eurovision Song Contest. It was broadcast by, heard and seen on Irish public radio and TV. Produced originally by Moya Doherty, the segment was artistically based on the life of an Irish river, starting as a stream and finally submitting itself to the sea. The cast featured two American-born traditional Irish dancers, Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, a choir and a slew of step dancers. With haunting music specially composed by Bill Whelan, this number, aptly called, “Riverdance,” became wildly popular. So much so that it was expanded to become a full stage show that opened in Dublin in 1995 before heading to London.
That show was taped and broadcast here in North America by PBS stations and used during their donation pledge performances. Its popularity garnered generous donations for public television. Another broadcast version of the show was performed and filmed at New York at Radio City Music Hall in 1996. This one was headlined by Jean Butler with Colin Dunne, a more traditional Irish dancer taking the role created by the bombastic Michael Flatley. Flatley was an exciting performer, extremely fleet afoot, but rather egotistical leaning toward the more “Vegas-like” performance rather than true traditional Irish dance and music. Flatley was fired for artistic differences, but soon created his own successful productions, the dramatic Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames, both of which were performed in his flashier style.
These PBS showings created throngs of young, dance-class students (predominately little girls) pleading – and succeeding – with their parents to spend a great deal of money on beautifully embroidered dresses and hard black shoes. And then there are those banana-curly hairpieces, often painfully attached to their own tresses, which bob up and down in unison as they dance. At touring performances, you can almost be assured there will be a number of dance-class members in attendance.
The dance form itself is similar to clogging, with the exception of the stiffly erect stature and (mostly) lack of movement of the upper body and arms. The performers are often shoulder to shoulder in a straight line or circle.
It’s amusing that the Irish embraced the show so lovingly. Pre-PBS, in the “old country,” many children (boys and girls) were forced to dance and hated to dance. Then all of the sudden it became cool. The show’s dancing was lovingly ridiculed and comedians imitated the form, thus only adding to its appeal.
The true intention of Riverdance, the Show, is to showcase the Irish history and culture, and journey to other worlds by dance. Excellence in performance is key — bios in the program show that many of the dancers are champions. The music accompanying the large cast of beautiful people is contagious. The instruments, which include a fiery fiddle, the strange Uillean Pipe and the feet stomping, tapping percussive rhythms, are contagious. It’s hard to sit still watching these amazing dances. In addition to the Irish spectacles, there are dazzling flamenco, urban and Russian numbers depicting the mingling of cultures. The finale of the show is thunderous with most of the entire troupe participating.
Irish music and dance is alive, well and living comfortably in RI. Whether with live instrumental accompaniment or taped music, dancers are still jigging and the curls are still bouncing.
An Interview with Lucy Dacus When her debut album, No Burden, came out in February 2016, Lucy Dacus made her grand entrance into the music realm with authority. Her bluesy and soulful indie rock style immediately impressed folks and she caught a buzz overnight. She has become a sought-after live performer with her fan base growing every time she takes the stage. The Richmond, Virginia, resident has been one of the many shining lights for an emerging local music scene. Dacus is a breath of fresh air musically and her future is very bright.
She’ll be performing at the Boston Calling Music Festival, taking place on the athletic grounds of Harvard University from May 26 – 28. Ahead of the festival, I talked with Dacus about being pursued by various record labels, her unique take on music, what’s been going on musically in Richmond and staying on the road.
Rob Duguay: When your debut album came out last year, you had a bunch of labels reaching out to sign you and you eventually signed with Matador Records. What was that whole experience like for you? Was it nerve-wracking at all?
Lucy Dacus: Certainly nerve-wracking. I have a bit of a fear of acting out of naïvety, and it’s intimidating to be approached by people who exude some sort of power and influence. I wanted to be excited, but I was also a bit guarded. You hear too many stories about people signing deals that are bonkers unfair. I didn’t want to be that person. I will say, nobody wants to be the first bite. It takes a lot of luck, after a lot of work, for one label to be interested in you. After two or three, it makes sense for everyone else to follow. Labels are largely interested in trends. Not to say that taste isn’t involved.
RD: Your music has this interesting style where it’s a mix of indie rock, blues and roots music with your voice adding warmth and vibrato. What do you consider to be your main musical influences?
LD: I’ve found that if I try to emulate anyone, it comes out disingenuous and feels wrong. I don’t really know how to track my main influences. My mom listened to show tunes and my dad listened to Bruce Springsteen. So maybe there’s something to be said for all the storytelling I was exposed to. I tend to prioritize lyrics and that could be because I was raised to see music as a communicative tool rather than just an art form.
RD: Your hometown has had a lot of great music coming out of it in the past few years with yourself, psychedelic prog act Night Idea, hardcore punks Iron Reagan and metalheads Windhand, just to name a few. From what I’ve heard, Richmond is still lacking in venues for it to have a sustainable music scene. What’s your opinion on what’s going on in your hometown?
LD: There is so much good music in Richmond; keep an eye on McKinley Dixon, Spooky Cool, Wester Green, Blush Face, Angelica Garcia, Antiphons, The Trillions, and many more. There are a couple good venues, but I think Richmond’s major issue is a lack of music infrastructure but that might be on the mend. More people are starting to take on the role of management and booking. There are a couple of cool labels that are starting to understand the value of publicity and distribution outside of the local realm. I’m excited that people are looking outside the city and seeing potential, and even more excited for everyone outside of Richmond who will finally see some of my favorite bands in whatever club or basement they tour to.
RD: What can fans expect from you for the rest of the year and when can we expect you to put out a follow-up to No Burden?
LD: We’ll be touring a lot, come to the show if we’re in your city. We actually just finished mixing the second album a few days ago! Don’t know when it’ll come out, but I think it’s better than No Burden, personally. Horrified and ecstatic for the day everyone can hear it!
Lucy Dacus’ Website: lucydacus.com; Boston Calling’s Website: bostoncalling.com
Album Of The Week: Wavves’ You’re Welcome
Naming a band after something you fear is strange, but at least there’s some honesty that comes with it. Regardless of his thalassophobia, San Diego musician Nathan Williams and his surf pop punk outfit Wavves have their sixth album, You’re Welcome, that’s due out on May 19. Williams is joined by Stevie Pope on bass, Alex Gates on guitar and drummer Brian Hill, and together they exhibit a sound that’s distorted and catchy. There’s also a raw quality with each track that keeps everything honest. It’s a refreshing structure that sticks to a no-nonsense approach.
What has always made Wavves an interesting band is the fine line they walk between being polished and noisy. It’s a sonic conflict between DIY roots and West Coast mainstream that achieves a captivating tone. There are genuine lyrics and a catchiness that isn’t annoying, but will stick in your head. The harmonies conveyed also assist in the latter. Williams and the gang write music that aims to please.
Each genre of music is meant to be pushed beyond its boundaries. Exploring the possibilities is what makes the art form exciting and invigorating. Wavves have been doing that to punk rock since the start of the decade, and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be stopping anytime soon. Let’s see how they handle those boundaries with my top tracks off of the Album Of The Week:
An excellent example of harmonious catchiness is “Hollowed Out.” There are various dimensions that give it a psychedelic vibe while the chorus is intense. “Million Enemies” has deep vocal tones that are reminiscent of the Talking Heads. It adds a funky element to a track that’s groovy and electrifying. Going more toward the pop route is “Dreams Of Grandeur” with a dreamy aesthetic and an energetic essence.
New England music junkies can check out Wavves live at Brighton Music Hall in Allston, Mass, on May 17. If you’re desperate for a wild time, I highly suggest checking out the show. This act from Southern California is a hoot live. A few days after the show, grab a copy of You’re Welcome. It’s what Williams would probably say after you give the album a thorough listen.
Pre-Order Wavves’ You’re Welcome here: ghost- ramp.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/pre-order-wavves-youre-welcome- lp?variant=32991479053; Wavves’ Website: wavves.net
Mike D’s Top 5
1. Saturday, May 20: 2017 Hope Street Spring Block Party featuring Chachi and the International Players, The Curtis Mayflower, Eric & The Nothing, The Horse-Eyed Men, The Quahogs, Tall Teenagers; Noon to 6pm; Free; All Ages. Summer is almost here and this is one of the first great yearly outdoor parties. The Hope Street Spring Block party showcases great local bands and shuts down the streets so you can stroll around and check out local artists and vendors and drink while doing so. It’s a great event and last year I got to cross off a bucket list item, annoying people while wearing the Narragansett Can costume. Whatever time you show up, you will get to catch a great local band. Chachi and the International players are closing the day party.
2. Saturday, May 20: The Upper Crust; 7pm doors; $13; All ages; Pop, 219 W Park St, PVD. Pop recently relocated to Providence and now has a performance / art gallery to boot. Boston Elizabethan era bullies The Upper Crust are back in town and if you like riffs and snooty banter, you are in luck. The show is also a celebration of paintings and drawings of Dan Gosch. Make sure to take a stroll through the store, it’s packed with all sorts of amazing stuff. Hopefully you don’t purchase anything I am saving for.
3. Thursday, May 25: Future Islands, Zack Mexico; 8pm doors /9pm show; $18 advance / $20 day of; All ages; Lupo’s, 79 Washington St, PVD. Indie synthrockers Baltimore’s Future Islands are coming to PVD supporting their critically acclaimed 5th record The Far Field. I am new to the bandwagon on Future Islands, but I have been listening to the new record pretty much non-stop. I recommend starting with the second single off the record Cave and never looking back. North Carolina lounge indie minimalists Zack Mexico open up the bill.
4. Friday, May 26 to Sunday, May 28: Boston Calling; Gates open at 2:30 Friday / Noon Sat & Sun; $99 per day / $269 3-day pass; All ages; Harvard Athletic Complex, Allston, Mass. Boston Calling is back and has moved to a new and bigger location, and with the bigger capacity comes bigger bands. Breakout rapper Chance The Rapper (Grammys / Kit Kat commercials), Mumford & Sons (the band people who buy CDs in book stores like), and Tool (the band that kid wore the shirt of everyday in high school) are the headliners. There are some bands from the past like Weezer, Wolf Parade, Buffalo Tom and Piebald(!!!), but the strength of the line-up is the up-and-coming acts. Chicago indie rock but sorta ’70s revivalists Whitney, Canadian punks Pup, and garage / yacht rock enthusiast Mac DeMarco are my favorite of the crop, but there are plenty and this is the best line-up Boston Calling has had yet. And Run The Jewels!!!!
5. Saturday, May 27th: Scurvy Dog Parking Lot Mega Show; Free!; 21+ only (children are welcome if they aren’t the worst); 1718 Westminister St, PVD. Now that spring just started finally in the middle of May, the outdoor goings are coming up in PVD almost every weekend. The best part of the long weekend holidays in town is that it means you are getting a Scurvy Dog Parking Lot Show. This upcoming one is anchored by the Providence punk and/or rock and or rollers from town you would expect and hope to see such as OG noise terrors Onleyville Sound System, veteran rock punks The Worried, Pawtucket rockers Swan Point, Kitchen sink UHF spinoffs The Viennagrams, and Providence punks The Paraplegics (who have been at it from my estimations forever). There are a couple of out-of- towners such as NJ’s Nervous Triggers & NYC’s Nuclear Santa Claust. But the highlight of the night has to be late ’70s Boston Punks Unnatural Axe returning to town. Find the Facebook event page for updates of set times as it gets closer.
Also worth checking out: May 17: Jon Snodgrass & Lenny Lashley @ The Met; May 17: Wavves @ Brighton Music Hall; May 19: Zero Holds, Karis Owen @ News Cafe; May 19: The Morgana Phase, Forest Fires @ AS220; May 25: Future Islands @ Lupo’s; May 28: Coat Of Arms, That’ll Learn Ya @ The Met
Roots Report: Strictly Commercial
Okee dokee folks… I don’t go to the movies very often, though I do love to watch films. I just prefer to view them at home with Netflix or a DVD on my 13-inch TV. I can control the experience and be comfortable in my surroundings, and the best thing is NO COMMERCIALS! Occasionally, when I am out with my girlfriend, we decide to take in a flick, and this is where my rant kicks in. Now I remember when you would see quick photo slide-type adverts. Even though I didn’t like those, it was subtle and not offensive to my senses. Somewhere along the line they introduced full-blown, surround sound, action-packed commercials. Previews for new movies are fine, but when you pay $10 – 15 to see a movie, you don’t need to be bombarded by advertisements. Unfortunately this advertisement assault isn’t limited to the theater; it has spread to gas pumps, the internet, phones, billboards and pretty much any place that has a screen. Advertisement is out of control. My philosophy is that the more I see ads from businesses the LESS likely I am to patronize their company. I don’t mind print advertising, and I am not saying that just because it powers this paper. It is good to know about new things, and print advertising does that without annoyance. You can choose to look at the ad or completely avoid it. If you try to read articles on the internet (on sites other than Motif) ads pop up all over like that critter in a whack-a-mole game. How much crap do businesses need to sell us? When is enough enough? They are never happy with their slice of the pie. They want the whole pie and the rest of the bakery, too. Grrrrr… Ok, John, take a deep breath. BREATHE.
Anyway, in all honesty if I go out, I prefer to give my limited funds to a live person performing in a local venue, and I do it when I can. And, guess what? No commercials! Read on, if you choose to, for some suggestions to satiate your entertainment appetite. No pressure.
I am VERY excited about this show: Donovan at the Garde Arts Center in New London on June 3. For those of you who may not remember or may be too young to remember, Donovan (Leicht) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame who rose to fame in the ’60s and turned out hits such as “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” “Atlantis,” “Season of the Witch” and his signature song, “Mellow Yellow.” Donovan, who turned 71 last week (and who I share a birthday with), will be out in support of the 50th anniversary of his Sunshine Superman Tour. We are very fortunate to have a stop on this tour so close to Rhode Island as there are not many US dates of this show. It has been about 40 years since I have seen him live. You may have been lucky enough to catch his opening set for Yes at the Civic Center back in the ’70s or the show he did at Roger Williams Park Temple to Music a few years later. His music is a blend of folk, rock, pop and psychedelia that has endured for decades and inspired countless songwriters, including myself. Also at the Garde on May 26 is Robert Cray with John & Corina opening, and David Crosby on the 29th. For more, “electrical banana” to GardeArts.org
At the Courthouse Center for the Arts in Kingston on Saturday, May 27, the multi award-winning bluesman John Hammond will mesmerize you with his guitar and harmonica. Hammond is one of the world’s premier acoustic blues artists, a Grammy winner and Blues Hall Of Fame inductee with over 33 albums made during his 50-year career. He has performed or recorded with Jimi Hendrix (discovered while playing in John’s band), Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Duane Allman, Mike Bloomfield, JJ Cale, Tom Waits, The Band, John Lee Hooker, Dr. John and many more. He remains the only person who has ever had both Jimmy Hendrix and Eric Clapton in a band at the same time. A tireless performer, he tours the world annually. Hammond’s sound is complete and soulful with just his voice, guitar and harmonica. For more, “Hoochie Coochie’ to CourthouseArts.org
The Pump House in Peacedale is (almost) literally pumping out shows one after another. On Saturday, May 20, South East Connecticut-based performing artist Krista Baroni will bring her soulful singing, folk guitar and intelligent lyrics to Pump House Music Works for an intimate night of music. A folk- oriented singer-songwriter, Krista takes her inspiration from ’60s and ’70s favorites like Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, and Cat Stevens and contemporary folk artists like Josh Ritter and Patti Griffin. She has released two full-length albums, Oh My Magpie and her sophomore release, The Alabaster Girl, recorded in the style of the Laurel Canyon songwriters of the ’70s. Opening the evening will be Rhode Island native and fellow singer-songwriter, John Farraone. For more, make “Amends’ to PumpHouseMusicWorks.com David Tessier’s Band of All-Star Stars presents the debut of their first original piece: Dreams in Hyperspace — a cosmic tale of loss, love, madness and redemption at Dusk in Providence on Friday, May 19 at 10pm. An eight-song, impressionistic space opera, Dreams In Hyperspace tells the story of Lt. Col. Richard, a cosmo-pilot who has spent 4,000 years in hyper sleep searching for his love, Mary, lost in deep space. He’s awakened when his radar finally pings to her tracking signal. He makes the final jump of his voyage and his dreams are filled with fears and horrors, memories and joys. After 4,000 years, could she still be waiting? The band features Jon Patrick Brennan, Paul Sousa, Justin Grankewicz, Stephen Sylvia and Tessier. For more,warp over to DuskProvidence.com
Finally here are a bunch to further complicate your entertainment choices! Bluesman David Jacobs- Strain will be in concert on May 19 at 7:30pm at the Wamsutta Club in New Bedford. FrankieFest will happen on Sunday, May 21 at Firehouse 13 to help support the poor little puppy Frankie who has a broken leg. Scheduled are Lucky United, M.O.T.O., The Worried, Snow Day, and The Essays. Frankie belongs to Jennifer Yakes, the drummer of Lucky United. To help out, go to gofundme.com/- frankiefluffybutt. Athan Phynix, Allison Giuliano, Jay Nova, and others will be at the Mediator on Sunday, May 21 at 7pm. Rhode Island singer-songwriters Tracie Potochnik and Steve Allain will be at The Grange in Providence on Wednesday, May 24. Lift your spirits with songs of peace, love and resistance with Joyce Katzberg at Breathing Time Yoga at 541 Pawtucket Ave in Pawtucket on Saturday, May 27 at 5pm. Salvation Music Series No.10 features An Evening with Peter Holsapple on Monday, May 29 at 7pm at the Salvation Cafe in Newport.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading. JohnFuzek.com