Florist
March 2 at ColonyTapped as a “Band to Watch” and one of “50 Best New bands” in 2015 by Stereogum, Brooklyn indie folk group Florist swiftly rose to even greater heights, grabbing the number 34 slot on Noisey.com’s “100 Best Albums of 2016” list for their debut album, The Birds Outside Sang. But perhaps it was when Beyonce sampled that release’s “Thank You” that the band truly arrived in the pop world. Florist, which does this early March date at Colony and is fronted by singer and solo artist Emily Sprague, put out its acclaimed self-titled fourth album in 2022. (The Felice Brothers return March 18; Sophie B. Hawkins sings March 25.) 7pm. $19.25.
“Falcon Ridge”
March 3-4 at the Old Dutch Church, Kingston
A local history project, examining two multi-racial communities that existed in the hills west of Kingston between 1840 and 1950, has been fictionalized as a play by community theater artist David Gonzalez. (Theater aficionados may have caught Gonzales’s chronicle of the immigrant experience, “Hard Dinero,” at the Rosendale Theater in October.) Based on the work of historians Dr. Wendy Saul and Dr. Lorna Smedman, “Falcon Ridge” tells the story of Eagle’s Nest and Lapla, two enclaves determined to exist outside the blinkered mores of their time and ostracized for the courage to live by their own convictions. Renowned blues musician Guy Davis wrote original music for the play, which he’ll perform along with traditional music.
“Alice in Wonderland”
March 10-12 at UPAC, Kingston
A quick glimpse through the looking glass, at March 2020, reveals a dance company deep in rehearsals on the UPAC stage. En route to Wonderland, they tumbled down the proverbial rabbit hole after the pandemic shuttered theaters across the globe. Almost three years to the date, the Catskill Ballet Theatre springs to life in their first professional performance since the plague first hit. The New York City-based Camila Rodrigues stars in a trio of shows featuring students from the Ballet School of Kingston—and the whole lot is grinning like the Cheshire Cat in anticipation.
“God of Carnage”
Through March 12 at Philipstown Depot Theater, Cold Spring
A playground skirmish—involving a pair of 11-year-old boys, one stick and two busted front teeth—sets the stage for Yasmine Reza’s riveting play, “Le Dieu du Carnage,” originally penned in French and first published in 2008. When two sets of parents from wildly different backgrounds meet to discuss the mishap (which began with one boy refusing the other entry to his “gang”), their childish ways dissolve into chaos—instigated by irrational arguments surrounding loaded topics like sexism, racial prejudice, and homophobia.
Solo Fest
March 10-April 2 at Bridge Street Theater, Catskill
Four fabulous friends take to the Bridge Street stage in Catskill for a series of original, one-person performances. All. Month. Long. Lauren Letellier kicks things off with “The Village Cidiot,” a fish-out-of-water tale about relocating upstate, while Melinda Buckley dances around themes of dementia, middle age, and stepping into one’s light in “Mother (and Me).” Michael Garfield Levine’s “Spinning My Wheels” is a roller coaster ride rife with addiction, mental illness, and a return to sanity while Daniel Hall Kuhn delves into, “the horror, the horror!” of the original master of macabre in “Alone: The Stories from Edgar Allan Poe.”
“The Vagina Monologues”
March 11 at Howland Cultural Center, Beacon
This episodic play, written by Eve Ensler—who now goes by V—first splashed onto the scene in 1996 in the wake of hundreds of interviews with women about their views on sex and relationships. What began as a celebration of femininity (in which the playwright performed every monologue herself) quickly became a movement to stop violence against women. In the ensuing decades, the monologues have evolved to touch on myriad issues from masturbation and menstruation to genital mutilation and rape. Still, a recurring theme remains: Women’s empowerment is deeply connected to their sexuality. Period. Beacon-based actors, writers, and artists perform V’s monologues at the Howland Cultural Center in partnership with Beacon Litfest.
Soulside
March 11 at Tubby’s
Newly reunited Dischord Records band Soulside was a major presence on the late-1980s Washington, DC, punk scene, although outside the Beltway the unit is mainly remembered as the precursor to influential 1990s quartet Girls Against Boys. But the legacy of Soulside, which plays tiny Tubby’s this month, transcends the profile the group had back in the day: The group's measured, powerful pioneering style of post-hardcore heavily informed the sound of better-known, subsequent DC bands Fugazi and Jawbox. In 2022 the reassembled quartet released their fourth album, A Brief Moment in the Sun. (The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis jam out March 12; Godcaster, Open Head, and Zannie blow up March 30.) 7pm. $20.
“The Restaurant”
March 11-12 at the Rosendale Cafe
Entirely unscripted and totally improvised, this play—directed by Amy Poux—and performed in the now-defunct Rosendale Cafe—aims to satiate audience members’ appetite for contemporary, cutting-edge theater. Created by emerging performers in a dynamic ensemble process (many service industry vets like former Boitson’s owner Maria Phillipis), this play takes the crowd on a journey into the equally ridiculous and realistic world of a restaurant on the brink of something…either big failure or epic success. While food, love, heartbreak, and music are all on the menu, the show will never be the same twice. Ever. Snacks included.
“Our Red Book”
March 14 at Bard College’s Fisher Center
For over two decades, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff has scoured the globe in search of stories stemming from a single origin: women and their monthly bleeding. What began as an oral history project (inspired by a harrowing coming-of-age tale told by her own great aunt) ultimately gave rise to something tangible. “Our Red Book,” a people’s history of menstruation, is a collection of essays and artworks from a panoply of perspectives and identities, bound by a common thread: our society’s shifting relationships to family, cultural inheritance, gender, aging, and liberation. The Fisher Center event will feature a panel discussion with Somah Haaland (a queer Indigenous artist and community organizer from New Mexico); Victoria Lawis (a freelance journalist focusing on women’s incarceration); and Daaimah Mubashshir (Bard’s current playwright-in-residence).
Teddy Thompson and Jenni Muldaur
March 18 at Philipstown Depot Theatre
Contemporary folk music is marked by a handful of dynasties: the Guthries, the Taylors, the Wainwrights—and the Thompsons and Muldaurs. Singer and guitarist Teddy is the son of English icons Richard and Linda Thompson, while singer Jenni is the daughter of American greats Maria and Geoff Muldaur. The pair will dip into the cozy confines of the Philipstown Depot Theatre for this special program of songs made famous by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, and others from Nashville’s golden era. Accompanying the duo will be violinist David Mansfield, who has toured with Bob Dylan and other top names. 8pm. $30.
Vinnie Martucci Trio featuring Laurel Masse
March 18 at Lydia’s Cafe
“Performing gives me the perfect blend of interaction with people, a sense of spiritual direction and the intricacies of mathematics all wrapped into one thing,” Vinnie Martucci told All About Jazz in 2003. “When you’re improvising, and things are flying all around the room, the place gets energized, you’re communicating with the audience, and they literally resonate with it.” And so it will be on this night, when the pianist and SUNY New Paltz music professor is joined by former Manhattan Transfer vocalist Laurel Masse, bassist Rich Syracuse, and drummer Jeff Siegel at eatery and always-reliable Hudson Valley jazz spot Lydia’s Cafe. (The Matt Munisteri Group jams March 11; the Marty Elkins Quartet appears March 25.) 7pm. Call for cover information.
Bruce Hornsby
March 23 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
In the 1980s, singer-songwriter and pianist Bruce Hornsby and his band the Range zestfully softened the Top 40 with the inescapable adult contemporary hits “The Way It Is” and “Mandolin Rain.” After winning a 1987 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, Hornsby won further Grammys for Best Bluegrass Recording (1990’s “The Valley Road”) and Best Instrumental Performance (1994’s “Barcelona Mona”). The Virginia-born musician, who performs here at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, has also worked with bluegrass titan Ricky Skaggs and, perhaps most notably, as a touring member of the Grateful Dead, performing over 100 shows with the band. (Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox lights up March 15; Big Bad Voodoo Daddy swings March 21.) 7:30pm. $35.50-$79.50.
Elliott Sharp/Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II
March 25 at Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center
Presenter Elysium Furnace Works kicks off its 2023 season in style at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center with this duet of guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp and drummer/percussionist Donald Sturge Anthony McKenzie II. A key player in New York’s Downtown 1970s and 1980s avant-garde, Sharp has released nearly 100 recordings as a soloist and with bands like Carbon, Terraplane, and the High Sheriffs of Blue. Called a “master of deep-pocket hip-hop, funk, jazz, and rock” by Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, McKenzie is a long-time collaborator of both Sharp and Reid, as well as Marc Ribot, Pharoahe Monch, P.Diddy, Gravediggaz, and others. (Angelica Sanchez plays St. Andrew and St. Luke Episcopal Church in Beacon April 15.) 8pm. $20, $30.
Jim Breuer
March 30 at Paramount Hudson Valley in Peekskill
It’s been 25 years since funny guy Jim Breuer delivered his first official stand-up gig in Clearwater, Florida. He gained national attention as Goat Boy on “Saturday Night Live” and in Half-Baked alongside Snoop Dogg and Dave Chappelle before releasing a series of Comedy Central specials—including “Let’s Clear the Air” in 2009, one of the highest-rated comedy specials in the network’s history. These days, catch Breuer late night (his roster includes appearances with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon—no joke) at the Paramount Hudson Valley.
Woodstock Bookfest
March 30-April 2
Lovers of literature, rejoice: The region’s premiere celebration of books returns live and in-person after a three-year hiatus. The long (awaited) Woodstock Bookfest weekend is bound by a story slam at Bearsville Theatre to start and the always fabulous “Memoir a Go-Go” to close, plus myriad chapters in between—featuring authors Neil Gaiman, Abigail Thomas, Alexander Chee, Mark Whitaker, Gail Straub, Ann Hood, and Amy Ferris, just to name a few—plus two rounds of cocktails and lively conversation at Little Bites, Big Libations.
Avant-Garde-Arama Festival
March 31-April 1 at Lace Mill Gallery in Kingston
The seeds for this smorgasbord of short works were sown in the East Village, circa 1980, by performance artist Charles Dennis at the legendary P.S. 122. Fast forward four decades and Dennis is back at the helm of an informal, cabaret setting featuring two evenings of dance, performance art, theater, music, and more. Local names run the gamut from jazz painter Nancy Ostrovsky and monologist Claire Porter to improv pianist Peter Wexler. Dennis himself will take to the stage for a pair of duets—one with a stack of lumber, the other with plastic waste—accompanied by Sal Cataldi, aka Spaghetti Eastern Music, on electric guitar. Cash bar.
