As the founding member of the nearly two-decade-old Trailer Park band and a sometimes saxophonist for one of the area’s biggest claims to fame—the Young@Heart Chorus—Tom Mahnken is firmly entrenched in the Valley music scene. What many, save his family and closest friends, don’t know is that the multi-instrumentalist not only displays thespian tendencies, but his roots in theater actually run longer and stronger.
“My dad was an actor, director and professor of theater at UMass for about 30 years, so some of my earliest memories involve theaters and being on stage or hanging out with theater people,” Mahnken reminisces. “I was also a theater major in college and enjoy acting for so many reasons…but perhaps the biggest difference between it and playing music is that I feel less responsible to please the audience.”
Mahnken will assuage his acting bug by performing in No Theater’s production of Caveman Dec. 7-11 at 126 Main St. in Northampton. The play was penned by noted NYC playwright Richard Maxwell, and Mahnken assumes the role of Anthony.
“Anthony works in a warehouse with a nameless ‘other guy,’ and between wanting to change things at work and getting in between said ‘other guy’ and his wife, tension ensues,” he explains. “I act and sing in the production, but that said, the songs aren’t necessarily sung to any other character. It’s really an odd but interesting play.”
For tickets or more information on Caveman, kindly point your browser to apearts.org.
Trailer Park proper brings its patented amalgam of horn-basted barbecue rock to the Rendezvous in Turners Falls Dec. 2.
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Meanwhile…in the mildly ironic department, Drunk Stuntmen frontman Steve Sanderson checked in to report that his effort to aid in a local business’ effort to rebuild after an unprecedented natural phenomenon has been rescheduled due to—well, another unprecedented natural phenomenon.
“What a mindfuck,” the outspoken singer says of having to move his Oct. 29 benefit for the Hurricane Irene-ravaged Lynde Motorsports shop in Brattleboro to Dec. 3, following the freak Halloween snowstorm. “And poor Uncle Stanley [Lynde, owner of the shop] is beginning to think Mother Nature has a vendetta against him. But we are just as committed to the cause now as we were then, and we sure as hell ain’t going away.”
Like the original would have, the new show occurs at Brattleboro’s Stone Church on Main Street and, in addition to the Stunt-sters, features the music of Terry Flood, Rob Skeleton and Pitchfork.
The suggested donation is $20 and advance tickets are available at SWIRL on Main Street in Putney, Enhanced Automotive in Hinsdale, N.H., Offerings in Putney, and Turn It Up! in Brattleboro. This is a family-friendly show and children under 16 are free.
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Last up, journeyman singer/songwriter Dan Hicks (& The Hot Licks) brings his annual “Holidaze In Hicksville” tour to the Iron Horse Music Hall (iheg.com) Dec. 4. This year’s trek is in support of the newly released/Billboard-charting Crazy For Christmas CD, an effort which features a mixed bag of new original tunes, classic favorites and reworkings of other assorted chestnuts from the Hicks catalog.
For the uninitiated, Hicks has collaborated with the likes of Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Bette Middler, Brian Setzer, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffet throughout his four-decade career. His mug has also twice graced the cover of Rolling Stone.
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, PO Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email Garycarra@aol.com.
