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Herman’s
Hermits starring Peter Noone
Alive
at Five, Thursday
For those who passed on their chance to catch Peter Noone’s
Hermits at Proctors Theatre this spring, here’s your chance
to catch the nostalgia act in roughly the opposite atmosphere.
(On the upside, you can bring your own chair.) Metroland’s
very own Paul Rapp called Noone’s March performance “brilliant,”
adding that “much of the crowd, myself included, were in tears
for much of the show. And Noone sang all the hits great.”
Few ’60s acts have such an interesting bag of hits: Songs
like “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” and “I’m Henry
VIII, I Am” are two of the goofiest No.1 tunes of the singles
era. Here’s hoping those hits translate after a bucket of
Heineken. Albany’s own New York Players open this evening’s
show. (June 19, 5 PM, free, Albany Riverfront Park, Corning
Preserve, Albany, 434-2032)
Dave
Matthews Band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Saratoga
Performing Arts Center, Friday-Saturday
We would like to submit that Dave Matthews Band are the most
underrated band of the modern music era. No, wait, stop laughing.
Follow this: So many holier-than-thou music fans have coldly
dismissed the merits of the DMB based solely on what they
represent. Meaning, because their sax-and-violin-riddled jam-pop
appeals to the whitest, Gap-shopping-est people imaginable,
it’s automatically total crap. But really, you can think of
at least five or more worse bands, can’t you? Our suggestion
is that because they are so widely and thoroughly hated despite
being only middlingly bad (you can subdivide for us anytime,
Carter Beauford!), DMB score a lot lower overall than they
actually should on our hypothetical scale. Not that they need
the help of any hipsters: Their SPAC shows have been sold
out for months. Discuss! (June 20-21, 7 PM, sold out, Saratoga
Spa State Park, Saratoga Springs, 583-3045)
Marta
Topferova
MASS
MoCA, Saturday
Equally fluent in English, Spanish and Czech, Marta Topferova
discovered her passion for Latin American folk music at age
6, after being introduced to Chilean folk group Inti-Illimani.
“Latin music is all rhythm, like it’s springing out of all
these different styles and emotions. It was very exciting
to me,” says the singer. Growing up in Prague, Czech Republic
(or was it still Czechoslovakia then?), Topferova began developing
her songwriting skills at age 15, and moved to the United
States. to major in music and dance at Bard College in the
early ’90s. Since 1996, she has been writing and recording
out of New York City, gigging locally as well as around the
globe. What may sound like a flamenco guitar is actually a
“cuatro,” a four-stringed instrument of the lute family that
Topferova plays while singing her poetry (in Spanish). Accompanied
by a band with Latin percussion, horns and a harp, Topferova
will perform outdoors at MASS MoCA on the longest day of the
year. (June 21, 8 PM, $18, 87 Marshall St., North Adams,
Mass, 413-662-2111)
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| Bayside |
Bayside
Revolution
Hall, Sunday
Bayside’s modus oper andi is laid out by vocalist-guitarist
Anthony Raneri in the ninth song of the band’s latest album,
The Walking Wounded. Raneri serenades, “Back, back,
back to the crooner in question/I sure hope you all like my
songs/Maybe I put too much stock in my rhymes/And melodies
to stun the brainwashed minds.” Raneri can evoke heartbreak
for even the most complacent listeners; it’s all in how his
voice bounces to carry each little intense word. With guitar
solos that go on for miles (in range, not length), and the
backbeat of drummer Chris Guglielmo, Bayside have the dexterity
and instinct to be the soundtrack to at least one period in
your life. On Sunday, they’ll head up a bill that includes
the Urgency, Last Minute Letter and Burn Wall Street. (June
22, 6:30 PM, $12, 425 River St., Troy, 274-0553)
Summer
Slaughter Tour
Northern
Lights, Tuesday
It’s hard to tell who’s who in heavy metal these days. You’ve
got your death metal, black metal, hardcore, metalcore, grindcore,
mathcore, thrash, and everything in between—yet most bands
will tell you not to place these tags on their music,
for fear of confinement to the terms of snobby critics and
trendy scenesters. However, with a slogan like, “The Most
Extreme Tour of The Year,” you can expect this year’s lineup
on the Summer Slaughter Tour to be some of the heaviest shit
you’ve heard. The tour comes to Northern Lights on Tuesday
to provide blastbeats and gutteral screams for local metalheads.
Headliners the Black Dahlia Murder will showcase their tight
musicianship and keen sense of songwriting with a commanding
stage presence and alcohol-fueled antics. Supporting act Kataklysm
will also throw down; hailing from Montreal, the death metal
quartet have 16 years of recording and touring underneath
their belts. Guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais should inspire
young audience shredders with his brutal-yet-melodic riffs
and the epic solo in fan favorite “Road To Devastation.” (June
24, 4:30 PM, $25, Northern Lights, 1208 Route 146, Clifton
Park, 371-0012)
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Noted |
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| Gary
Higgins |
The
hip-hop three-fer of Oddy Gato, Blak
Lungz, and Cha-Chi will make three
area appearances this week: tomorrow (Friday)
at King’s Tavern in Saratoga (8 PM, 581-7090);
Sunday at Albany’s Red Square (9 PM, 465-0444);
and Monday at Hot Shots in Glens Falls (9 PM,
745-1566). . . . English folksingers John Roberts
and Tony Barrand celebrate the summer
solstice this Saturday afternoon with a concert
at Performance Spaces for the 21st Century—better
known as PS/21—in Chatham (3 PM, $20, $15 members,
392-6121). . . . Revolution Hall is simply packed
with emo-pop this weekend, which means it should
also be packed with fans; Saturday brings the
quadruple bill of Cute Is What We Aim For,
Ace Enders, Danger Radio, and Power
Space (6:30 PM, $12, 274-0553). . . . While
their considerably more famous brother plays a
pair of sold-out gigs at Tanglewood in a few weeks,
Livingston Taylor and Kate Taylor
share a bill at the considerably more cozy Colonial
Theatre in Pittsfield, Mass., this Saturday (8
PM, $25-$40, 413-997-4444). . . . Rejuvenated
psych-folkie Gary Higgins revisits the
Linda on Saturday, with songs from his classic
1973 album Red Hash plus other surprises
(8 PM, $15, 465-5233 ext. 4). . . . Time to warm
up the concrete: Solid Smoke will help
kick off the summer concert series at Empire State
Plaza with a lunchtime concert this Wednesday
(11 AM, free, 473-0559).
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