Tisziji Munoz Quartet with Paul Shaffer and John Medeski | July 10
Billed as a tribute to beloved venue owner Tony Falco, who was felled by COVID in 2021, this date at the Falcon features a returning favorite: Tisziji Munoz, whose quartet is augmented for the night by two of the avant-garde jazz guitarist’s frequent collaborators, Paul Shaffer (“The Late Show with David Letterman”) and John Medeski (Medeski, Martin and Wood). After several years as a sideman with Pharoah Sanders, Munoz made his debut as a leader with the 1978 album Rendezvous with Now on the seminal India Navigation record label and has appeared on dozens of discs since then. (Becca Stevens and the Secret Trio sneak in July 3; Cuboricua! slings salsa July 9.) 7pm. Donation requested. Marlboro.
Negative Approach | July 14
“Ready to fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!” Detroit’s unchallenged kings of hardcore punk, the great Negative Approach, bash their way mid-month to Empire Live’s offshoot club Empire Underground. Formed in 1981 and fronted by the blow-torch throat of the tough-as-the-streets-he-walks vocalist John Brannon (Laughing Hyenas, Easy Action), the pioneering Midwestern band’s first album, 1983’s Tied Down, is regularly cited as one of the genre’s most influential classics. Live, the band’s brick wall of life-affirming, cathartic, majestically mean-ass rock ’n’ roll is truly something to behold. With Raw Brigade, the World, Buzzard, and Street Hassle. (Spoon dishes it up July 8; the Goddamn Gallows hang out August 3.) 7pm. $20, $25. Albany.
“Masters of the Telecaster” with G.E. Smith and Jim Weider | July 15
This evening at the Bearsville Theater brings together two of the leading exponents of the Fender Telecaster electric guitar: G.E. Smith, who led the Saturday Night Live Band for 10 years and has toured and recorded with Bob Dylan, Hall and Oates, Mick Jagger, Roger Waters, and others; and local luminary Jim Weider, who took over Robbie Robertson’s slot when The Band reunited in 1985 and was a steady member of the Levon Helm Band. The show’s blues rock-heavy set list will include songs by Roy Buchanan, Little Richard, Neil Young, Jimmy Reed, Steve Winwood, Sam Cooke, and more. (Sean Rowe sings July 3; Gratefully Yours honors Jerry Garcia July 30.) 8pm. $40-$60. Bearsville.
Graham Nash | July 23
Grammy Award- and OBE-winning singer-songwriter Graham Nash has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame not once, but twice: as a founding member of British Invasion greats the Hollies, and as a charter member of the folk rock super group Crosby, Stills, and Nash/ Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Among his most ubiquitous compositions are the hits “Marrakesh Express,” “Teach Your Children,” and “Our House,” the latter a song he wrote as a loving tribute to Joni Mitchell. Here, the Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee makes a visit to the stately Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. (The High Kings ascend July 21; Chris Isaak croons July 27.) 8pm. $41-$86. Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Gordon Lightfoot | July 26
You know the voice—as full and deep as Lake Superior, which borders his Canadian homeland—and the songs he’s written and sung—”The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Carefree Highway,” “Sundown,” “That’s What You Get for Lovin’ Me,” “Rainy Day People,” and so many more. In a rare and overdue return to the Hudson Valley, the legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot comes to UPAC for this late-July performance, bringing hits and deep cuts from across his over-50-year career. (The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie welcomes Girl Named Tom on July 15 and Graham Nash on July 22.) 8pm. $56-$131. Kingston.
“Voices from the Woodstock Fringe”| July 9, 10, 16, 17
As the Woodstock Fringe festival celebrates its 20th year, the event will present “Voices from the Woodstock Fringe,” a grouping of three new solo plays at the historic Byrdcliffe Theater. “Brother’s Keeper,” written and performed by Wallace Norman, follows the life of its LGBTQ+ central character, William. In Bette Carlson Siler’s comedy “Doris Does the Edinboiger Fridge,” the elderly titular character holds forth on risqué, taboo topics. Ric Siler’s “Like a Sack of Potatoes” is described as “a hillbilly gothic tale of an Appalachian tobacco farmer’s love for his family and the extremes he will go to to protect them.” $30. Woodstock.
“Romeo & Juliet” | July 15-September 18
The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and its director, Gaye Taylor Upchurch, will offer audiences a daring new interpretation of the play that’s perhaps Shakespeare’s most iconic romantic tragedy: the tale of two star-crossed lovers known as “Romeo & Juliet.” Starring longtime HVSF favorite actors Kurt Rhoads and Nance Williamson in the title roles, this new spin on the immortal work reinforces the notion that, as per the festival’s description of the production, “while youth may be only skin-deep, true beauty is a quality of the soul, and—in the end—love conquers all.” $10-$95. Garrison.
Rosendale Street Festival | July 16-17
Following a two-year pandemic hiatus, the glorious and beloved Rosendale Street Festival will once again take over the town’s Main Street for a full weekend of family fun, food, vendors, and live music by more than 80 local bands. Founded in 1978 by Rosendale icon and festival emcee “Uncle Willy” Guldy to celebrate his birthday, the free, volunteer-run fair draws delighted festivalgoers from far and wide to take in its colorful parade with performances on seven stages, kids crafts and activities, film presentations at the Rosendale Theatre, and more. Rosendale.
“Punk Rock Movie Night” | July 21 at Colony
Never mind Hulu’s recent Sex Pistols dramatized series “Pistol,” here’s the real deal. Colony will present a special screening of two new documentaries that focus on the culture-rattling punk rock explosion of the late 1970s. The main feature, Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in NYC, produced by Danny Garcia, centers on one of the crucial crucibles of the early New York punk scene: the legendary nightclub Max’s Kansas City. First up, however, is the short feature Sid: The Final Curtain, which contains rare footage of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious’s very last performances at Max’s in 1978. 7pm. $8-$10. Woodstock.
New York Stage and Film Presents “Sweet Chariot” | July 22-24 at Powerhouse Theater
“[A]n Afrofuturistic exploration of the sorted [sic] line between escape and resilience, posing the question: Is true liberation only possible for Black people beyond Earth?” That’s how New York Stage and Film describes playwright Eric Lockley’s new play “Sweet Chariot,” which is being developed with the Movement Theatre Company through NYSF at Vassar College’s Powerhouse Theater, where it will be staged this month. The sci-fi yarn spins its web around the lead character Marcus, “a down and out teacher [who] launches himself on a journey across planets and centuries.” $25. Poughkeepsie.
Beacon Open Studios | July 22-24
This free, city-wide, weekend-long event showcases artists who live or work in Beacon, encouraging them to open their private art studios to visitors, who can follow a map that shepherds them along a self-guided tour of over 50 artists. This year marks the 14th anniversary of the event, which has become one of the largest of its kind in the Hudson Valley. Participating artists for the 2022 Beacon Open Studios include Devin Mattera, Tom Kenny, Rob Lundberg, John Procario, Chris Sanders, Kat Spontak, Jan Dolan, Beth DeWit, Meghan Spiro, Alyssa Follansbee, Katrin Reifeiss, Evan Samuelson, and others. Beacon.
DakhaBrakha | July 29
“I think one of the most powerful things that DakhaBrakha can offer is that they show both that there is a very rich past in Ukraine, and they show this by bringing together a diversity of musical practices from different regions of Ukraine, from different ethnic groups within Ukraine,” says Bard College ethnomusicologist Maria Sonevytsky about the Kyiv group, who bring their defiant folk/cabaret/jazz/rock/hip-hop stew to Colony. “And they fuse them together in a beautiful way that also suggests a future for Ukraine. It gives the lie to Putin’s propaganda that Ukraine has no culture or history of its own.” (Mystic Bowie’s Talking Dreads do Talking Heads in a reggae style-ee July 2; Stephen Clair strums and sings July 24.) 7pm. $20, $25. Woodstock.
Taiko Masala | July 30 at Widow Jane Mine
After several legendary performances at the site, the traditional Japanese percussion troupe Taiko Masala will make another thunderous return to the Snyder Estate’s Widow Jane Mine at the end of this month. Led by master drummer Hiro Kurashima, the ensemble fuses Japanese martial arts with dance and music played on traditional instruments like shakuhachi, fue, and koto, along with powerful, precise, and complex drumming that utilizes an arsenal of handmade instruments that range from small hand-held drums to the mammoth, 250-pound o-daiko drum. 2pm. $25. Rosendale.
This article appears in July 2022.
