On the back of such seminal works as Goodfellas and Casino, Martin Scorsese is roundly regarded as an authority on all things mafioso. Less famously — at least, when considering his body of work in its entirety — Scorsese also filmed and released the final concert by The Band.
And how does this cinematic coincidence relate to bassist/drummer/fiddler Gary Solomon and his tribute act, the The Band band?
There’s a classic line in the organized crime world: “Every time I try and get out, they pull me back in.”
In listening to Solomon chronicle his band’s origins, it seems like every time he tried to simply jam The Band tunes with his friends just for fun, someone would up and offer them a gig.
“We really did start out in 2007 for the sole purpose of playing for ourselves,” he recalls. “From there, it was just a combination of people asking where they could see us, then places booking us … so here we are, seven-plus years later playing theaters, clubs and festivals from Maine to Maryland.”
This Saturday, Feb. 21, Solomon and his Band bandmates Jack Kraft, Mike Corbin, Josh Radin, and Vinny Nicosia will revive the iconic band’s roots rock at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton. Tix are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Although Scorsese’s film, The Last Waltz, documents The Band’s final live performance on Thanksgiving Day back in 1976, their music remains popular as far as Solomon can tell.
“You know, they may not have been as huge as the Beatles or Dylan, but they certainly inspired those artists as well as currently successful bands like Mumford and Sons and The Head and the Heart,” he concludes. “Their music stands the test of time, as a new generation of fans have proven.”
In other news … if we set the wayback machine to, well, two weeks ago, scene stalwart Keith Hopkinson had checked in to enlighten the Crawler on Blackout — a new Sevendust tribute band he fronts.
That project made its debut at the Children of the Korn 20th anniversary show at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee earlier this month. What folks may not know is that the band that helped Hopkinson make it on the regional circuit — Thirty Stones — has also started rockin’ again after years of silence.
“We have a new rhythm section — Robert Solomon of Intolerance on drums, and ex-NE Hostility bassist James Murphy on bass,” Hopkinson says, “and a couple of new singles, ‘My Mistake’ and ‘Empty Space,’ we hope to drop on iTunes any day now.”
After that, Hopkinson says Thirty Stones will spend the lion’s share of the year working on the follow-up to 2003’s critically-acclaimed Canvas.
“It will be challenging, because [guitarist] Andrew Freeman is also going on his second year playing with the Raiding The Rock Vault show at the Tropicana in Vegas,” he says. “But we plan to leverage all available modern technology to complete the writing process from both coasts.”
Expect a late 2015/early 2016 CD release party at Maximum Capacity on that one.
Moving from Sevendust to “Dust In The Wind,” Kansas has signed on for a May 29 MassMutual Center show with “Reaper” non-fearers Blue Oyster Cult. Tickets are $26 and on sale now at ticketmaster.com and the MassMutual Center Box Office.
Last but not least, Noho notables The Winterpills pop into Putney, Vermont’s Next Stage this Saturday, Feb. 21, with junk-folk trio Rusty Belle in tow. The Pills’ amalgam of ethereal soundscapes and haunting, guy-girl vocals has propelled their music into small screen series including “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Skins” and prompted Mojo Magazine to include their All The Lovely Goners CD on its Top 10 Americana list in 2012. Tix are $16 in advance, $18 at the door for this 7:30 p.m. show.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
