The Boston Fringe Festival returns to The Rockwell in May, and the application window is open until the middle of January if you have a rock opera or three-act play you want to get off your chest.
I was reminded of the festival last week during an interview with sound engineer Heather Timmons. I asked her about her favorite kinds of shows for working the soundboard. That portion of the interview got cut for word count, so let me give it mention here.
After offering the ultimate in diplomatic, vague and noncommittal responses (she likes working “a variety of genres and productions” and her favorites change “week to week”), Heather did get specific by mentioning the Fringe Festival. Which makes sense, since the theatrical productions that populate the festival offer new challenges and a welcome change of pace to a professional who’s probably run the soundboard for upward of 10,000 standard-issue rock, pop and metal outfits.
I have my own fond memories of the festival. I caught one of last year’s standout productions, a rock opera called “Wrath of the Selkie.” Besides winning two awards (People’s Choice, Best Full Length Ensemble), the production distinguished itself as a particular fringe-y contribution to the festival, telling the story of a mythical sea creature in a format that’s neither purely musical nor purely theatrical. “Wrath of Selkie” is a hybrid that surfs along the borderland of the two concepts, which can be a tough sell more than 200 miles “off Broadway.” But the Fringe Festival is all about finding a home for quality work that might not otherwise have one.
Attention, all you starry-eyed poets and dreamers, get your submissions in now.
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Saturday: Blue Heron: Christmas in 16th Century Spain (First Church in Cambridge, Cambridge)
The local Renaissance ensemble Blue Heron always has a trick up its sleeve, especially around the holidays. Its matinee show on Saturday celebrates Christmas on the Iberian Peninsula with compositions by Francisco Guerrero, Cristóbal de Morales and Mateo Flecha. Three composers who lived before the advent of telescopes, Champagne and pocket watches. All or most of them Spaniards, depending on your feelings about the Catalan independence movement. If the footage of a similar concert in 2022 is any clue, expect a little dramatic storytelling alongside the songs.
Sunday: The Boston Cowboy Balladeers (State Park, Cambridge)
‘Tis the season for matinee shows. Get in early (3 to 6 p.m.) to State Park, a shining lighthouse of culture and human warmth in the otherwise stony wasteland of biotech firms and AI startups at Kendall Square. The Boston Cowboy Balladeers have likely never led a cattle drive, but the local outfit, led by R.G. Gallagher, would happily serenade a herd if given the opportunity. Follow their lead into a world of cowboy songs fit for dreaming beneath the stars of the open prairie. Last I checked, R.G. is joined in the band by his son Jesse, musician and longtime programming director at the Lilypad, so it’s a family affair.
Dec. 26: A Sinatra Holiday with Rich DiMare (Lou’s, Cambridge)
For those that enjoy stiff drinks during the holidays, why not enjoy the proper soundtrack too? Rich DiMare revives Rat Pack revelry in the garden-level digs of Lou’s at Harvard Square. You’ll appreciate the swank decor, creative cocktail menu and engaging crowd work while DiMare marches through the hits. His vocals deliver all of the velvety bravado of the original without the omnipresent cloud of cigarette smoke. That’s at least one aspect of those old lounge acts to keep dead and buried: the chain smoking. Or can you imagine an updated “vape god” Sinatra?
Live: Chokecherry and The Sewing Club at Sonia
Apple, meet Orange. Two out-of-town bands with mismatched sounds shared a lively bill Friday at Sonia, proving what Paula Abdul has known for years: Opposites attract.
The nominal headliner, Chokecherry, hailed from San Francisco, while the nominal opener, The Sewing Club, called Nashville home. That’s a 33-hour road trip between the two, without stops, if you’re wondering. How did these bands find each other?
Chokecherry’s latest album “Ripe Fruit Rots and Falls” is a gazey mix of dream pop with the occasional hard-rocking trill. The Sewing Club’s attack is a lot more alt-rock than you might expect from a Nashville band (though the vocals of lead singer Hannah McElroy sound like they could pull off country music in a pinch).
On paper the pair feels like a match, and when you listen to their recorded material, the sense of sonic sympathies between the two bands deepens.
But a funny thing happens when you hear a band live. A significant portion of the intentionality that informed the songwriting and studio recording falls away in the spontaneity of live performance. Artists, especially underground ones close to their roots, ride on instinct and revert to more primeval musical versions of themselves.
That’s neither good nor bad. Often, it can be kind of cool. Case in point, Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) had night-and-day vocal styles for recording versus live performance. In the studio, she deployed a breathy, softer tone, spiced with ironic come-ons and mock solicitations directed toward the male gaze. In live performance, she erupted into an aggressive and bassy punk growl. The timbre shift, with all its concomitant emotional, ideological and attitudinal transformations, was part of what made her a rock ’n’ roll iconoclast.
Chokecherry and A Sewing Club aren’t quite at that level. But it’s still nice to hear bands rip it up live without feeling like they need to sound exactly like their recorded material. Even if Chokecherry start sounding like their punk roots and The Sewing Club start sounding like their Nashville roots and the entire bill becomes a bowl of mixed fruit.
Who cares? Shine that apple on your sleeve and take a bite, because you’re supposed to have at least two servings of fruit per day, plus a shot of fermented owl urine to fend off whatever disease RFK Jr.’s got.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
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