This time of year is all “Nutcracker” this and “A Christmas Story” that. If it’s all a bit much, these Hudson Valley events offer a refreshingly secular change of pace. From Soft Boy Robyn Hitchcock to the dry wit of Ariel Elias, here are eight cultural things to do this month that have nothing to do with the holidays.
Minibeast
December 6 at No Fun in Troy
Ex-Mission of Burma, Volcano Suns, and Kustomized member Peter Prescott brings his current outfit, Minibeast, back to the area for another postpunk blowout. The trio’s Bandcamp bio lays out their sonic trip in an appealing, bullseye-nailing way: “We gratefully accept influences from Fela Kuti, Can, and the Stooges.” Based in Rhode Island, they recently released their sixth album, The Maze of Now, an experimental and rocking excursion. Opening acts TBA. (Anthill Annihilator rages December 18; Pony in the Pancake plays December 20.) 7pm.
“Tantalus”
December 6 at St. Rita’s Music Room, Beacon
Don Romaniello brings mythic yearning into the improv realm with “Tantalus,” a philosophical, off-kilter riff on spontaneous theater. Romaniello and his Prometheus Studios ensemble—Jaime Fallon, Maya Gottfried, David Schwartz, Amalia Truglio, Halle Sarner, Jonathan Connolly, Alec Vanacore, and Isabel Allegrucci—pursue the unattainable with brainy mischief and tightly tuned instincts.
“Fools Mass”
December 6–7 at the Old Dutch Church, Kingston
Dzieci Theatre’s long-running “Fools Mass” once again transforms a 14th-century plague village into a place of cracked holiness. A band of “holy fools” conducts its own mass after losing its priest, blending chant, slapstick, and devotional chaos. The result is a peculiar, poignant alchemy: ritual unraveled and re-stitched.
Isle of Klezbos
December 7 at the Emelin Theater in Mamaroneck
New York’s soulful-and-swinging sextet Isle of Klezbos has been fusing klezmer, jazz, and world music since 1998. The band’s music has been featured on HBO, NPR, “CBS Sunday Morning,” PBS, and Showtime’s “The L Word” and has been praised by The New York Times for its “intoxicating mix of tradition and irreverence.” This special holiday concert celebrates Jewish musical heritage while joyfully pushing its boundaries. (Storm Large sings Christmas classics December 5; Martin Sexton does Abbey Road December 6.) 2pm.
An Evening with Ron Carter
December 11 at Upstate Films’ Orpheum Theater, Saugerties
Jazz titan Ron Carter joins tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson for a rare appearance in Saugerties. Film clips and conversation trace Carter’s path from the Miles Davis Quintet to thousands of studio sessions. The night unfolds as both history lesson and master class—played, naturally, in impeccable time.
Thalia Zedek Band/Chris Brokaw Rock Band
December 11 at Tubby’s in Kingston
In a too-perfect pairing, this bill at Kingston’s steady home of forward-thinking sounds brings together two founding members of 1990s Boston indie icons Come. Both are singer-songwriters and multi-project jugglers outside of that occasionally reuniting band, and here they share the evening with their current extra-curricular aggregations; Brokaw’s band includes Mission of Burma’s Clint Conley on bass. Will the two guitarists share the stage on some Come classics? Only one way to find out before the answer—perhaps—hits the interwebs: Get thee there. (The Bug Club buzzes by December 4; Steve Gunn takes aim December 13.) 7pm.
Ariel Elias
December 12 at the Mahaiwe, Great Barrington
Ariel Elias brings her dry, precise comedy to Great Barrington. Drawing on her Southern Jewish upbringing and everyday absurdities, Elias pairs sly observational wit with crisp timing. After a now-legendary onstage moment vaulted her into national view, she has continued refining a voice equal parts sharp and inviting.
Robyn Hitchcock
December 27 at the Bearsville Theater in Bearsville
The Soft Boy himself brings it all back home for this event, which has him interpreting all of Bob Dylan’s 1968 album John Wesley Harding. “The songs on this LP were all written by Dylan up in Woodstock, where he was living at the time, wearing a black hat and staying well away from the world,” Hitchcock says. “[T]his was a key record in ushering rock music down from the psychedelic peaks of 1967 into the more reflective approach sometimes known as Americana.” Emma Swift opens. (Marky Ramone’s “Holiday Blitzkrieg” hits December 6; the Whiskey Treaty Roadshow rolls in December 12.) 7pm.
This article appears in December 2025.
