Arts
Review: The Blues in Bloom, Lexi Weege’s New Album
Lexi Weege is the type of performer who draws you in immediately. She’s a blues and jazz songstress with a voice that combines intimate and heartbreaking cabaret singing, in the vein of French chanteuse Edith Piaf, with 1960s boisterous rock n’ roll frontwoman...
Go See: Natural Fibers and Uncommon Weaves wtih Leonore Alaniz at Leverett Crafts and Arts
Natural Fibers and Uncommon Weaves Cloth may seem like something you can find in nature, something that just is; but people do have to make it. And creating cloth by hand is becoming a lost art. See why textiles are glorious at The Crafted Cloth, an exhibit of...
Cinemadope: That Time the MoMA Refused to Return Nazi-Stolen Art
My first exposure to Egon Schiele came via Deane G. Keller, an artist and professor whose figure drawing classes remain one of my most lasting memories of art school. We had been working on some hand studies when he suggested I might enjoy the Austrian artist’s work,...
Valley Show Girl: Soundtracking Life with Eddie Japan
Ahead of their show at the Iron Horse, I plug my purple Skull Candies into my ears, and click play on the intro track to Eddie Japan’s Golden Age. The sound of static pulls me in, reminding me of vinyl, so I pretend I’m listening on a record player, not my computer at...
Stagestruck: Opposites Attract in Silverthorne’s Gentle Comedy
Chapatti, now playing at Silverthorne Theater Company, is one of the sweetest comedies about grief, loneliness and suicide I’ve ever seen. The title is unfortunate, even confusing, since Christian O’Reilly’s play takes place in Dublin, not Delhi, and the name has...
Tease VIDEO Feel Good Drift on Sessions Friday
Stagestruck: Misfit Millennials – “Speech & Debate” at Barrington Stage
Reid Thompson’s setting for Speech & Debate, now receiving a near-perfect production at Barrington Stage Company, is a high school classroom. Maps and historical posters line the walls and headshots of famous Americans form a frieze above a pair of whiteboards –...
Staff Picks: Harry Potter Inspired Music with Draco and the Malfoys
Draco and the Malfoys • Saturday I held out on Harry Potter mania for years, but finally succumbed when the last book came out in 2007. I read them all in a matter of months, but I didn’t go as far as these folks, who wrote albums of Harry Potter-inspired...
Basemental: Young Musicians Deserve Pay, Too
I’ve played in about a half dozen bands over the past seven years here in the Valley. I’ve played on the steps of my beloved Goodwin Memorial Library in Hadley (for free) and I’ve played The Calvin (for $250); I’ve played countless basements (including “The...
Cinemadope: ‘Wanna-Bes Need Not Apply,’ Documentary on Madonna’s Back-up Voguers
“Wimps and Wanna-Be’s need not apply!” That was the tagline of a print ad announcing an open audition for “FIERCE Male Dancers” who wanted to earn a spot on Madonna’s controversial, ground-breaking Blond Ambition Tour in 1990. It would have been a dream job for any...
Stagestruck: Bare Bard at Shakespeare & Co., Cymbeline Reviewed
Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s “romances,” those late works in which comedy blends with tragedy and the endings are neither strewn with corpses nor aclang with wedding bells, but suffused with poignancy and forgiveness. The Tempest is the most popular...
Eddie Japan Bringing 60s Pop With 80s New Wave to Northampton Saturday
Cinematic Pop Music Boston/Western Mass’ Eddie Japan combines that feel good ‘60s pop with a splash of ‘80s alternative new wave that’s a blast. In 2013, Eddie Japan won Boston’s ultra cool Rock ‘n’ Roll Rumble, and picked up a Boston Music Award for “Live...
Stagestruck: Wizard of Arrrrrs — PaintBox Theatre
“Oh dear, the Wicked Witch is coming!” cried the Mayor of Munchkin City. “In that case,” responded Good Witch Glinda, “I’ve got to go.” “But why?” asked Dorothy, who was just starting to get used to not being in Kansas anymore. “Because she and I can’t be onstage at...
Stagestruck: Lives on the Line
In her “Detroit Trilogy” of plays, Dominique Morisseau looks at black lives in that once-vibrant city through the lens of three distinct eras and groups of people. Paradise Blue takes place in a 1949 jazz club in the city’s historic Black Bottom district, which is...
Stagestruck: Shakespearean Double Act
Think of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as fan fiction – Tom Stoppard’s contribution to the “greatest-play-ever-written” phenomenon. That is, Hamlet. In fact, though they were written centuries apart (around 1599 and 1966, respectively), the two make a...
Stagestruck: Art as Activism – Creative tactics at KO Festival
The KO Festival of Performance opened last weekend, kicking off a diverse five-week season clustered around the theme “Tactics for Trying Times.” First up was Jimmy & Lorraine, written by Talvin Wilks and developed with Hartford’s HartBeat Ensemble. The playwright...
Review: ‘In a Different Light’ at Easthampton City Arts Gallery
Thirteen of America’s presidents gather for a summit. They listen as Thomas Jefferson explains this new majesty before them — a giant, wonderfully fluffy chocolate-glazed doughnut with rainbow sprinkles. Teddy Roosevelt gathers his jacket at the hip judging the round...
At Play: All Things Scottish and Great
Get your Scot on at the 24th annual Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival Saturday at Look Park in Northampton. The day-long event is jammed with all things Celtic and “tidy” (that’s Scottish slang for excellent). The day will feature Scottish music, athletic feats of...
Tundrastomper Are Good Musical Neighbors in Western Mass
Tundrastomper, an explosive, chaotic, and notey rock band, formed about 10 years ago when Skyler Lloyd, Sam Brivic, Andrew Jones, and Max Goldstein were teenagers — about 13 years old each. They grew up in a town in Westchester, New York, called Ardsley. I looked it...
Get Pumped for Green River Fest With Pre-Show at The Root Friday
Before the sounds of mic checks and inflating balloons echo over the Greenfield Community College verdant field to signal the start of Green River Fest next weekend (July 14-16), this Friday (July 7) Sun Parade and Twisted Pine will give the Valley a taste of the the...
Lexi Weege Plays Homefield Brewing Sunday
Woman of Rock Lexi Weege has picked up on how solo female acts are received: they’re objectified, controlled, censored, and restrained — but you won’t see any of that at a Weege show or hear it in her music. She’s punk AF in that way. Weege’s...
Wizard of Oz Performed by Plucky PaintBox Theatre
Do You Represent the Lollipop Guild? After more than 70 years since the film’s release (and more than 100 since the book’s), is there any more magic to be wrung from The Wizard of Oz? PaintBox Theatre has answered this jaded question with a resounding,...
Sticks & Stones Won’t Break Your Bones at Hope and Feathers, Amherst
Sticks and Stones II, the new exhibit at Hope & Feathers Framing and Gallery, is a contemplation of the very small and natural. The four artists contributing to this show meditated on things like pebbles, pieces of cloth, terra cotta, and textiles. The end result...
Stagestruck: Stellar Casts Overcome Awkward Plot Points at Chester and Williamstown Theatres
Are we finally breaking through the color bar in American theater? Is the tokenism represented by theaters programming one “diverse” play during Black History Month giving way to broader representation and bolder casting choices? Judging from the area’s summer theater...
Stagestruck: Song & Dance
Two shows now running in the Berkshires are rooted in the past but right up to the minute. Both Tireless, playing this week at Jacob’s Pillow, and Ragtime, at Barrington Stage through July 15, take their inspiration from the music of a bygone era while inviting us,...
Staff Picks: Math Rock Rocks!
Giraffes? Giraffes! + More Math — Friday It’s a night of awesome math rock at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield this Friday. Expect unusual time signatures, angular guitar lines, and sheer epic experimental forays into the boundaries of rock...
Stagestruck: Brother/Sister Act — The New Theresa Rebeck Play Gets World Debut in VT
The publicity for Downstairs, which opened at the Dorset (VT) Theatre Festival last week, gives rather short shrift to the fact that it’s a world premiere by the prolific Theresa Rebeck, whose plays Bad Dates and Mauritius are also being produced in the region this...
Fourth of July Fireworks: Where and When
It’s Going to be a Blast Communities all over the region are lighting off fireworks this week to celebrate America’s independence — July 4, the day, back in 1776, the 13 colonies told King George to kick rocks. It’s a good time to party and reflect on what made the...
Hip-Hop Workshop for the Family
The Family That Rhymes Together … This hip-hop workshop is family-friendly and focused on training young people in fashion, rhythmic poetry, and visual arts. The weekly class integrates inner-city arts and graffiti using constructive “off the wall” methods....
Summit View Rocks With Trailer Trash
Take in Some Trash Trailer Trash is headlining this Friday’s edition of Summit View’s Pavilion Summer Concert Series. The immensely popular weekly shows at the banquet hall, on Route 5 in Holyoke, are free and open to the public. There’s a BBQ buffet for purchase and...
Long Live the Staycation! Why Leave Western Mass?
Hanging around the house is something we all do, but usually in an unfocused, squished-between-chores-and-obligations sort of way. But when you stay home for vacation, your dwelling can become a sanctuary, free from the day-to-day grind. If you can’t afford to get out...
Go See: Ghosts of Industry by Catherine Gibbs
Familiar Forgotten Places Catherine Gibbs picked a ubiquitous, but faded piece of local history for her exhibit at the Elusie Gallery in Easthampton: Mill buildings and train yards. Though not as much is manufactured here anymore, not that long ago people in places...
Berkshires Arts Festival This Weekend
Art in a (Butter)Nutshell Strolling through booths of fine art with a glass of wine in your hand underneath a sunny sky in the Berkshires isn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon, or two. That’s what you’ll get at the 16th Berkshires Arts Festival at the Ski Butternut...
Stagestruck: Fowl Play(s)
“Birds of a feather flock together,” as the saying goes, but that’s no excuse for these two avian-themed plays to be running at the same time in this area. They are entirely different species. The Birds, at Barrington Stage Company, is a claustrophobic thriller, while...
Review: ‘Mikhail and Margarita’
Though he is commonly considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, due to Soviet censorship, Mikhail Bulgakov never saw his most famous work published in his lifetime. Now, more than 40 years after its publication, and 70 years after Bulgakov’s death,...
Django This Weekend: You’ve Never Heard an Accordion Rock Like This (w/vid)
Hot Gypsy Jazz Northampton’s annual Django in June is a week-long bonanza of Gypsy jazz workshops, concerts, and jamming with artists from across the globe. The event celebrates the musical stylings of Django Reinhardt. The music has been described as hot jazz or...
Go: Revelations on Picasso’s Passion at The Clark
Pablo Picasso often painted himself as a bull. A fan of attending bullfights in his native Spain, the Cubist master saw himself as the hulking beast with big muscles, wild eyes, and swinging genitalia. In a piece now on view at The Clark in Williamstown, Large...
Rock, Paper, Scissors, NO Dynamite: Turners Falls to Unveil New Public Art
The Art of Rock, Paper, Scissors Take part in celebrating the newest sculpture in downtown Turners Falls — Rock, Paper, Scissors, a new work by artist Tim de Christopher. Christopher’s work was selected last spring as an addition to Avenue A from 30 proposals...
Stagestruck: Mayflies and “Mill Girls”
It has been described as “theatrical mayhem” and “controlled madness,” “extreme theater” and “a mayfly” — the latter because it’s here and gone in a day. The popular annual event is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying for the dozens of theater folk who take part...
Easthampton Couple Builds Garden — And Relationship — Based On What They Can Find
The way Faith Manning Enuol tells it, she went to work one afternoon, and when she returned, the garden she was building with her husband Rich Enuol tripled in size. In actuality, Rich spent the day foraging for materials, finding everything they needed — including...
Bloom! at Gallery A3 in Amherst
Current Bloomers Bloom is a loaded word. Stuffed with all the meaning we attach to it — hope for new beginnings, youth, mortality, inspiration — ‘bloom’ says more than its five letters. Gallery A3 is exploring this concept in their June exhibit: Bloom! Featuring two...
Stagestruck: “Million Dollar” Duo
As it happens, two different productions of the same show open on area stages on the same day this week. On Wednesday, Million Dollar Quartet premieres in the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, and the Majestic Theater in West Springield...
Together at Last: Rockwell and Warhol Side-by-Side Exhibit
An exhibit featuring Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol might seem like polar opposite artists sharing a space, but that’s selling both of these geniuses short. Rockwell is best known for a “wholesome” style that doesn’t have a hint of subversion. But a closer look at...
LISTEN UP: The Best Local 18-&-Under Bands to Play Green River Fest Revealed!
In a new addition to the 30-plus -year-old Green River Fest, Signature Sounds has found the best local bands with musicians ages 18 and under to be featured performers Friday night on the Next Wave Stage. But wait there’s more! Friday night admission will be...
Basemental: Dump Him’s New Record Is Really Freaking Good
Editor’s note: Jaclyn Walsh uses they/them pronouns. Valley musician, student, and DIY booker Jaclyn Walsh wants you to dump your boyfriend so much that they named their band Dump Him. On the surface such a statement might charm the misandrists and queercore punks...
Forgotten: Springfield’s Black History Is Nowhere In Sight
Springfield, Massachusetts, was a big abolitionist hub during the days of the Underground Railroad — not that many people know this. When talking about Massachusetts history, Western Mass isn’t well represented in historical texts — they’re more focused on Boston. And...
Classic TEASE: Peter Blanchette on the Archguitar! Watch a tease, full video Friday
Can’t wait for Friday to see more Sessions? Check out some local bands now.
Get Out: Pioneer Valley Summer Arts & Culture Preview 2017
The Valley is home to a wealth of arts and cultural events. So many, in fact, that the Advocate prints four seasonal arts preview editions every year — and really we could do one every month. This edition is all about what you can expect to see in the Valley, plus the...
Stagestruck: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Alive! and Playing in Amherst – Times Two
“We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.” That line, spoken by a traveling player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, could well be the elevator pitch...
Stagestruck: Radical Notions, ‘Kunstler’ and ‘Heartbreak House’
In my column in last week’s Advocate, a preview of the Valley’s summer-theater season, I reported that many of the area’s upcoming shows reflect, indirectly or explicitly, “the political landscape we are all traversing these days.” Sure enough, the first two summer...
Cinemadope: Mad Max ‘Black & Chrome’ Escapes Hollywood’s Color Crutch
There has been a trend in Hollywood filmmaking that, for the last decade or so, has steadily changed the look of our blockbusters. It’s a pervasive change, but one that has happened gradually enough that many people aren’t even aware that it has been happening, quite...
Staff Picks: Gloom, Death, And Heavy Metal At Stoned To Death II
Karaoke • Tuesday Singing karaoke with DJ Greg Reil sounds like a good way to belt out whatever is in my soul. I don’t take requests. Karaoke with Reil goes down on Tuesday nights, free, at the Platform Sports Grill and Bar, 125A Pleasant St., Northampton. — Dave...
Valley Show Girl: Queer Punk Rocks at Flywheel in Easthampton
One of my all-time favorite venues to see local bands will always be Flywheel’s first location. The alternative performing arts space first opened in 1999 on Holyoke Street in downtown Easthampton. During the early 2000’s, it was my sanctuary. I met so many people in...
A Love Letter to Radio: Johnny Memphis Band’s ‘Rarities’
Polka, doo-wop, jazz swing, and country western music — you wouldn’t think one band would cover these eclectic genres across six songs, but The Johnny Memphis Band, based out of Florence, does just that and more on its new record, Rarities. The sole songwriter for the...
VIDEO TEASE Shokazoba With the Afro-Beat Sessions
We took this one on the road to the Log Cabin in Holyoke. For the full set come back Friday! We’re posting it around noon.
Cuba in Transition: Memory and Reality Converge in Guglielmo’s Detailed Collages
Mark Guglielmo’s collages are the physical manifestation of memory. The murals seem fluid; Guglielmo play with size and scale to emphasize pieces of a scene over others. He adds details from nearby times and places into the work, much in the same way people blend...
‘Ask a Punk’ Documentary on Western Mass DIY gives glimpse into growing music scene (w/vid)
Amherst College junior Brian Zayatz’s new documentary, Ask a Punk, opens on a dark basement. You can’t see much other than some hazy Christmas lights in the frame. Some very involved yet calming music — tritones soaked in reverb — plays in the background. This...
Stream Queen: Move over, ‘The Breakfast Club’ Titles for all of life’s graduations (w/vid)
Graduation season is upon us, as high schoolers gear up for the next vein of adulthood and university students steel themselves for the real world, whatever that is. Fresh from a weekend of back-to-back college graduations myself, I can’t help but contemplate the...
Summer Stage Preview, Part II: Theaters on the Move
Editor’s Note: Here’s the Summer Stage Preview Part I, about the Berkshires. These days, Sam Rush often finds himself using the punning phrase “Home is where the art is.” That’s because his company, New Century Theatre, having lost its longtime home at...E-Edition
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