Lots going on tonight for live music, with some pretty good shows at venues all over town, but two stand out, and if I play my cards right I can make both of ‘em.
First up, we got Troy Hudson playing with Dan Capaldi over at the Orange Bike Brewery in the Bayside. It’s an early show, from 5pm – 7pm, and it’s FREE! which is great because you can stop in over there at the Bike, hoist a couple of their fine gluten-free pints, and catch what promises to be a fine performance before wandering off to the next thing.
Hudson, who also fronts a band called the High Road that specializes in melodic, almost power-pop material, said he’ll be debuting a slew of new tunes from his forthcoming new record at tonight’s show.
“It really is something of a new sound,” Hudson said about the as-yet, unnamed new record. “Most of the tunes are bangers, really upbeat, and you could almost consider this new record a concept album. It follows this character who’s basically a macho guy, who gets his ass handed to him by his girlfriend and a lot of other people throughout his daily life, and the album is basically him making excuses about why all this stuff keeps happening to him. He keeps putting the blame on everyone else, except where it belongs: on him.”
The new material will be available on Bandcamp next week.
Speaking of next things, after Hudson and Capaldi wrap it up at the Orange Bike, I’ll be wandering over at the Bayside Bowl to catch Vapors of Morphine.
Morphine, for those of you too young to remember that band, emerged as one of the most compellingly original bands of the ‘90s. Powered by Mark Sandman’s slinky two-string bass and Dana Colley’s baritone sax, they were a band that truly was far greater than the sum of its parts. With Colley‘s fluid yet percussive bari sax lines riding atop singer/bass player Sandman’s slinky, glistening bass work, and all of it driven by drummer’s Jerome Deupree’s in-the-pocket grooves, they forged a sound that was not just unforgettable, but somehow addictive.
Unfortunately, Sandman passed away on stage back in 1999, but Colley regrouped about 10 years ago with New Orleans guitarist and singer Jeremy Lyons, and they’ve been performing under the VoM moniker ever since.
Lyons somehow manages to evoke Sandman’s presence while at the same time bringing his own thing to the table. And while Dupree gave up pounding the skins back in 2019, but new drummer Boey Russell has got it more than covered, and together the three lay down a sound that is, as they say, often imitated but never, ever duplicated.
VoM perform much of the Morphine repertoire, plus new material and original versions of selective covers. They expand on the ethereal, hypnotic sounds popularized by the group in the nineties, and really dig into their influences, from African music to delta Blues.
If you haven’t seen them live yet, do yourself a favor and get on over to the Bayside Bowl tonight. There are a few tickets left, and Maine’s own Muddy Ruckus is gonna open the night with their own brand of, “darkly inventive Americana.”
ThatPortlandSound 