Freak Scene #6: Red Herrings Bring the Thunder
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, Red Herrings offer a glimpse into what's happening in Holyoke. We also wonder about the implications of the ongoing labor strike at Mass MoCA for upcoming events, including some prominent concerts. One housekeeping thing: if you're reading this on a mobile device and you see grayed-out boxes, those are embedded content. Clicking on them will take you to music, most often on Bandcamp or YouTube.
Holyoke doesn’t tend to get as much attention as some of the other music communities in the Valley, but Red Herrings make a compelling case that there’s more happening in the Paper City than the St. Patrick’s Day parade, or the chaos of the Holyoke Children’s Museum. Released in December, the quintet’s full-length debut, Zax Armoire, is a nine-song slab of no-frills rock ’n’ roll.
In fact, “no frills” might overstate the case: these guys play with an elemental primitivity that’s like jumping through a wormhole straight to the heavy-rock scene of the late ’60s. It’s punk rock from a time before anyone called it punk rock. No surprise, then, that Red Herrings cite proto-punk band the Stooges among their influences, along with the San Francisco psych-blues trio Blue Cheer, which you might have guessed anyway from the rugged guitars and pounding drums that carry these songs.
I saw Blue Cheer once out of curiosity at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, in 2008. By that point, 42 years into a career best known for one cover song ("Summertime Blues") played at maximum intensity, the group just seemed loud, as if they were leaning into the stereotype. Red Herrings, on the other hand, don’t carry the weight of four decades of expectations, which gives them more flexibility. They make the most of it. Guitarists Andrew McCarthy and Girshwin Chapdelaine complement each other, and they and drummer Anthony Manganaro all benefit from Dan Kozuch’s surprisingly fluid basslines, which give these songs a subtle sense of movement as they flow beneath the churn. On top of all that comes singer Zach Tisdell, whose gruff, leathery vocals elbow their way through the musical scrum.
Though the band has a blunt-force vibe about it, Red Herrings play with a deceptive sense of precision on Zax Armoire. McCarthy and Chapdelaine throw down craggy riffs on “Thievery,” while bristling lead guitar licks cut through a wall of chugging power chords on “Six Floors Up,” culminating in taut, overdriven eddies of wah-wah guitar. The band hits its peak on “68 Winter Street Blues,” which blends riffs, stinging leads and a pell-mell rhythm into a surging projectile while Tisdell hollers lyrics shot through with gritty disaffection.
For all the raw discontent in these songs, there’s never any doubt that playing them together is a joyful occasion for the band members. Red Herrings happen to come from Holyoke in a geographic sense, but the group is also rooted in a longstanding tradition of music as catharsis and an expression of community, and that would be true wherever they were based.
Will the Mass MoCA Strike Impact Upcoming Concerts?
About 120 workers at Mass MoCA went on strike March 6 in response to stalled negotiations with the museum's management over wages. Talks have been languishing since October, the Berkshire Eagle reports. The labor action by UAW Local 2110 has already intersected with one concert, featuring Afro-Cuban jazz singer Daymé Arocena, which took place March 9. Some ticketholders turned around rather than cross the picket line, UAW organizer Chelsea Farrell says. The Magnetic Fields are scheduled to open their 2024 tour with a pair of dates at Mass MoCA March 22-23. (UPDATE: The group has postponed those shows until May 3-4.) Chicano Batman is on the calendar for May 11. And of course Wilco's Solid Sound Festival is booked for the last weekend in June.
Obviously, the best-case scenario is that the union and management reach a deal quickly, but what happens if they don't?
"We are asking bands to postpone or cancel, and to call on management to offer a fair deal," Farrell says.
There has been support already from the music world: Dropkick Murphys, one of last year's headliners at Mass MoCA's Fresh Grass festival, posted an Instagram story Tuesday expressing solidarity with striking workers. So far bands on the museum's concert calendar haven't weighed in. Mass MoCA didn't respond to a request for comment, and representatives for the scheduled acts weren't eager to address the issue either: only Wilco's rep replied to an inquiry, with the utterly anodyne promise to "let you know if there’s any information to share."
Meanwhile, here's Pete Seeger singing the enduring IWW labor anthem "Solidarity Forever":
Richard Thompson Headlines Back Porch Festival
Signature Sounds' Back Porch Festival begins today, Friday, in 10 venues around Northampton. Along with a crop of first-rate musicians from local environs (Lisa Bastoni! Dennis Crommett! Hannah Mohan!), Richard Thompson performs Sunday at the Academy of Music. I interviewed Thompson to preview the festival for the Boston Globe. The Globe has a sturdy paywall, but Thompson and I talked about songwriting, guitar playing and the pandemic, which is when he wrote his upcoming album, Ship to Shore. One thing he said that didn't make the Globe story was about how some musicians decided not to resume touring when the pandemic eased. I asked if he had considered retiring from the road. No, he said.
"For me playing live is actually the best thing that I do," Thompson told me. "It's the most rewarding thing I do. That thing of communicating something to a live audience is so wonderful. ... I was just glad to get back to work."
Here's Thompson's new song "Singapore Sadie":
Upcoming gigs: DSP Shows has some new concerts on the horizon: Frankie Cosmos and Katie Von Schleicher at the Drake in Amherst May 10, King Buffalo at the Drake May 17, Kathleen Edwards at the Iron Horse in Northampton June 17-18, Amos Lee at Tree House Brewery in South Deerfield July 8, Aoife O'Donovan & Hawkwind at the Iron Horse July 16 and Jorma Kaukonen at the Iron Horse Aug. 18-19.
I saw Edwards at the Iron Horse on her first headline tour in 2003. She and her guitar player at the time were dating, and they spent much of the gig staring hungrily at each other. It was kind of uncomfortable. Jesse Malin opened with a solo-acoustic set that included a captivating version of "Death or Glory" by the Clash.
Next week: Greenfield musician Stephen Kerr's Odds Are project.
To submit your music for coverage consideration, send a note to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first. You can find previous issues of Freak Scene in the archive. (Freak Scene is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.)