Mixtape: Feeling lucky: ‘Second Tongue’ is the new album from local indie rockers The Lucky Shots
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Local musician Noam Schatz has been playing drums in bands since he was 14 years old. I took a look at his website for his band The Lucky Shots, and I was in awe: The list of bands he’s been in since the ’90s is impressive....
Bridging a gap of understanding: Month-long visual arts and performance festival, “A Stone’s Throw,” examines the experiences of military veterans and their families
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Though she was too young to understand many details at the time, Mollye Maxner remembers the Vietnam War had a profound effect on her family. Her father, Steve Maxner, served as a combat medic in the war and endured emotional turmoil from...
The Alternative Pioneers: Founders spill the tea as the Valley Advocate turns 50
By BOB FLAHERTY For the Advocate If it was just that hippie rag, as detractors liked to rank it, well we hippie ragamuffins devoured it front to back. It spoke our language, the F-laden part included, and it was as underground as the music we toked to. But we soon...
New life for Iron Horse: Parlor Room buys longtime entertainment venue, plans to reopen early next year
By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL Staff Writer At long last, the Iron Horse Music Hall has a new owner, and music could be emanating from the venerable Center Street location as soon as February. The Parlor Room, a nearby music venue run by a nonprofit, announced last month...
Saying ‘I do’ at school: Couple who met at UMass Amherst win a wedding sponsored and hosted by their alma mater
By EMILY THURLOW For the Advocate As the largest public research institution in New England, the University of Massachusetts Amherst holds an international reputation for its more than 200 academic programs serving over 28,000 students. The university has received...
Mixtape: Music for the people, by the people: New arts cooperative, THCC, seeks home for member-run music venue
By JENNIFER LEVESQUE For the Advocate We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The music scene just hasn’t been the same post-COVID. Many venues remain vacant and are quite literally decaying. Some opened for a short period of time, then closed indefinitely....
Monte Belmonte Wines: A toast to 50 years of the Valley Advocate
By MONTE BELMONTE For the Advocate The 50 year anniversary edition of the Valley Advocate? Wow. I’m honored to be in it! My first recollection of picking up the Advocate was back in 2002, when this future wine columnist was only three years into his (legal) drinking...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: The best of the Berkshires: Two plays with two different styles give audiences Broadway-quality productions, plus what’s on stage for spooky season
By JARICE HANSON For the Advocate With the summer season winding down and “transition time” — both in terms of the seasons and the local theater offerings — ramping up, two plays stand out as “the best of the best.” Donald Margulies’ newest (and perhaps his best)...
From deviant to decriminalized: The surprising progressive roots of the War on Drugs
By ROBIN GOLDSTEIN For the Advocate Since the birth of the progressive era, western Massachusetts has been a hotbed of progressive activism. But some of that activist history might surprise you. Progressivism was a Protestant social reform movement that swept America...
On the big stage: UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center offers music, dance, theater and more in new season
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Like so many other arts venues, the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts had to resort to online productions during the worst of the pandemic. As FAC Director Jamilla Deria told the Gazette at the time, planning for the...
An exhibit that flows like water: “Boundless” at Amherst College showcases over three centuries of Native American art and writing
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer From the pages of a 17th century Algonquin-language Bible, to a 2021 painting that celebrates the majesty of whales, a new exhibit at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College devoted to Native American art is built around the theme of...
Sessions
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Black Pyramid on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Black Pyramid, a psychedelic war metal band with doom and stoner metal influences.
V-Spot: I’m Hesitant to Receive Touch
Content Warning: This column mentions childhood and adult sexual abuse and violence.
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Cinemadope: Child’s Work
As shown by Shraysi Tandon’s award-winning documentary Invisible Hands, which comes to the Berkshire Museum’s Little Cinema this weekend, some of the world’s biggest corporations are deeply involved in a system that is complicit in exploiting the world’s most vulnerable population — even, as the film shows at one point, literally selling children into forced labor.











