Traditionally, the coldest season on the calendar has meant lower turnout for a broad spectrum of entertainment and nightlife. That’s a big bummer for everyone whose paycheck depends on you getting off your couch, reserving a table, buying a drink, checking your coat, and paying to see a movie or live concert. None of that’s possible when you’re hiding at home next to your space heater.
Show promoters, not being idiots, naturally respond by booking less shows. Or that’s been the historical trend. This year, though, there’s a steady drumbeat of local festivals worth paying attention to from January through March. We just said goodbye to The Boston Celtic Music Festival, that cold weather staple. Next up from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 is Something In The Way, co-presented by Run For Cover Records. This will feature Sunny Day Real Estate, Explosions In The Sky and a grab bag of heavyweight rock to stress test your eardrums. The current incarnation of the festival picks up the thread of an event that’s been running off and on since 2016.
From Mar. 5 to Mar. 8, look forward to the second edition of Boston Bitdown, a chiptune festival for electro geeks. The innovative event mashes up music, visual art, and gaming into a four-day hootenanny scheduled across Somerville.
Has climate change come for music? Those are at least three big tentpole events that will help you come out of hibernation.
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Jan. 23: Coyote Island, Miranda Rae (Middle East, Cambridge)
Who and what and where is Coyote Island? It’s a roots- and reggae-soaked indie band, led by Maine-based Mike O’Hehir. Though the outfit hails from up north, the music promises to take you on a “sonic vacation” to “tropical psychedelia.” Caribbean cruises are cheap these days, but they’re not cheaper than a night out in Central Square. Three-time Boston Music Awards Vocalist of the Year Miranda Rae boards the ship in the opening slot. No passport required.
Jan. 25: Divorce Cake, Vivra Vera, Andey Samhain, Adlo (The Jungle, Somerville)
A smorgasbord of pop, punk, and emo in Union Square. Vivra Vera released a very respectable demo single called “Sleep Paralysis” in 2023. Since then the band has gigged regularly, but released no new recordings. Unless you count a four-song live set they recorded at Owl Sound Studios in Woburn. And why shouldn’t you count it? You don’t need to be a jam band enthusiast to appreciate the spontaneous thrills that a live recording offers. Catch them at The Jungle in case the songs never receive the full-fledged studio treatment.
Jan. 29: Mikayla Shirley and Peter Sun (The Mad Monkfish, Cambridge)
The jazz vocalist and Berklee student Mikayla Shirley, reviewed in last week’s column, returns to the Mad Monkfish on Thursday with a new pianist, Peter Sun. While her pianists change throughout the residency, there’s a secret similarity shared by most all of them. They’ve studied with another regular at the Central Square jazz spot, pianist and Berklee professor Yoko Miwa. If you can’t make Thursday, check back Friday when Miwa takes the stage and Shirley comes on at midnight. The pair, which recorded music as a duo last summer, might share a little of what they’ve been working on.
Live: Boston Celtic Music Festival (January 15-18)
It was that special time of year when the fiddle-to-human ratio skyrockets across Camberville. Musicians emerge from every nook and cranny in New England, and points far beyond, to pay homage to the Celtic music tradition over four days in Harvard and Davis Square.
The annual festival marked its 23rd edition with a collection of headliners like Scotland’s Old Blind Dogs and Ireland’s Altan, plus a wintry mix of local artists who return year after year to keep the fires of Celtic music burning.
I bumped into the local folk trio Accardi, Frankowicz & Straw on the T to Davis Square. Dan Accardi had an accordion resting at his feet. Cara Frankowicz brought a fiddle. And Lindsey Straw balanced against her leg what looked like an overgrown lute. It was a bouzouki, Straw confirmed, which is a kind of roomy Irish mandolin.
The outfit was scheduled to play “Dayfest,” a decentralized buffet of music scheduled across the Burren, the Rockwell, and Crystal Ballroom on Saturday morning and afternoon at the festival.
I asked the trio whether they had played the festival before. They all nodded in the affirmative, having performed as their trio and with a number of other ensembles as well. (Traditional folkies love to mix and mingle – they’ve got more permutations than nucleotides on a DNA strand.) Moreover, Frankowicz said she had performed at the very first BCMFest more than two decades ago. How’s that for staying power? The festival keeps them coming back.
The heart of the festival still feels like the Boston Urban Ceilidh, the participatory Cape Breton and Scottish dance night at Crystal Ballroom on Thursday. The event sold out for another year. If “Dayfest” is the big opportunity for local musicians to participate in the festival, the Boston Urban Ceilidh is where everyone else gets to jump into the fray. No music knowledge required. In fact, based on the scenes of chaotic joy I witnessed, no dancing knowledge required either.
Michael Gutierrez is an author, educator, activist and editor-in-chief at Hump Day News.
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