Back in the day, when they ran more detailed event listings in the front of the book, The New Yorker used to publish each week a brief disclaimer atop their Night Life column, where thumbnail descriptions of all the live music shows in town could be found. It read, “Musicians and night-club promoters lead complicated lives; it’s advisable to check in advance to confirm engagements.”
As a dorky, violin-playing kid who dreamed of someday actually maybe becoming a working musician in New York or Paris or pretty much anywhere as long as it was far away from where I was at that awkward stage of life, that tight turn of phrase wasn’t just a word to the wise, it was a gateway to adventure. Thumbing through the pages of that magazine each week, I tried to imagine what it might be like to live a life filled with so many moving parts that something as cool as playing a gig in NYC – one that was mentioned in pages of The New Yorker, no less! – could somehow fall by the wayside, a victim of circumstances far too complex and improbable to ever have been foreseen.
Alas, that advisory no longer appears in The New Yorker. Neither does the Night Life column, with its rich tapestry of live music listings dangling an alluring promise of adventure to come.
Yet life remains complicated. For all of us.
But take heart, gentle reader, take heart, because there is on the immediate horizon a couple of shows that are anything but complicated, a couple of shows that promise a rollicking good time for one and all, where the hassle of the modern world can take a back seat to raised pints and full-throated singalongs, if only for a couple of hours.
Troy R. Bennett’s kicking off the show, followed by an outfit called My Druthers. I’ll be bringing up the rear, going last. It’s an early show, with the doors at 6:30pm and music starting right around 7. You can get tickets here – and, best of all, it’s all ages, with plenty of seating.
The first is Friday night, March 6, at Novel, located at 643 Congress Street, right here in Portland, Maine, and it offers an evening of rousing Rebel Songs, Sea Chanteys, and Working-Class Acoustic Punk from some of the genre’s finest artists.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’m wicked stoked to be a part of this show.
If you haven’t seen him, Troy R. Bennett is a goddam local legend, and you absolutely owe it to yourself to catch him live. He fronts one of the best Irish Trad bands in the state, called Bailey’s Mistake, and he also makes these amazing tintype photographs. He’s written hundreds of tunes, knows hundreds more, and puts on a helluva show.
I’ve been fortunate enough to share a stage with him once or twice now, and he’s one of my favorite local players. His show – and that’s what he does, he puts on a show – is fantastic. So when the My Druthers crew reached out to me a few months back to see if I might be able to help them put together a Portland gig, Troy was at the top of my list.
And here we are.
Speaking of My Druthers, these guys are not to be missed, either. They traffick in sea chanteys, Irish rebel tunes, and the like – real rabble-rousing stuff – and they’ve got a new record out, called Comin Up 3’s, that they produced with Pete Steinkopf, from the infamous Bouncing Souls. It’s been getting some killer ink, as well it should, because these guys bring it, and this new material finds them at the height of their prodigious powers.
They’re also fresh off an Asian tour that saw them play a string of shows in Japan and Vietnam. They’re kicking off a string of East Coast dates this week and we’re damn lucky to have ‘em. Come out ready to stomp, shout, and feel the floorboards shake.
And me? Well, I’m just hoping I can hold up my end, after those two acts. I’ve got a few new tunes in the works, and lately I’ve found myself moving from more of a protest to a resistance footing, if you take my point.
One night only, people. One night only.
That’s because the My Druthers boys are moving on, playing in Boston the next night, on Saturday, March 7, at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain.
And I’ll be moving on to Bangor, to do a show at one of my favorite rooms up that way: the Nocturnem Draft Haus.
I enjoy playing there because it’s not just a quick 30 minutes and hustle off stage, thanks. There are no other acts, and I get to really stretch it out over a couple of sets. I’ll try some new tunes, dust off a few covers that haven’t seen the light of day in a while, and just generally have a good time playing music and spending some time with friends.
It’s a free show, and it’s open to all ages. If you’re up that way on Saturday, come on by and sit a spell. Don’t cost nuthin’.
ThatPortlandSound 