The Dollyrots
August 3 at the Colony in Woodstock
Florida pop punks the Dollyrots formed in 2000, when singer and bassist Kelly Ogden and guitarist Luis Cabezas learned that George W. Bush had won that year’s election. “Luis and I were like, ‘The world’s probably gonna end anyway, and I don’t want to go to med school,’ so we thought, ‘Let’s just do the band,’” says Ogden. The group eventually won the patronage of Joan Jett, who released two of their albums on her Blackheart Records label; currently, they’re with Little Steven’s Wicked Cool imprint. The Black Widows open. (Joan Osbourne sings Dylan August 16; “Democracy Rocks!” benefits Indivisible August 17.) 7pm. $25, $30.
Otto Kentrol
August 7 at the Lace Mill in Kingston
Otto Kentrol aka Shady saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Bill Ylitalo started making experimental sounds in his native Wisconsin and headed to New York in the mid-1980s. Burrowing into the Lower East Side, he recorded under the name Faceless and worked with Artless, the Swollen Monkeys, Swans, and others. Since settling in our area, he’s played with Blue Food, Big Sky Ensemble, Karl Berger, and many others and taught gamelan at Bard College. No Mistakes, a two-LP career anthology (reviewed in the November 2022 issue of Chronogram), inspired Ylitalo to revive the long-dormant Kentrol name. With Ben Vida. 7pm. Donation requested.
Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets
August 8-9 at the Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock
“Basher” is back, and once again he’ll be backed by masked surf rock maniacs Los Straitjackets. Although Nick Lowe made his name with the late-’70s UK new wave/punk movement via his early solo hits (“Cruel to Be Kind”), tenure with the great Rockpile, and production work (the Damned, Wreckless Eric), he arrived with a resume that included membership in influential pub rockers Brinsley Schwartz. Since moving to the US in 1979, Lowe has released 13 albums, the most recent being 2024’s Indoor Safari, his first with Los Straitjackets. (Donna the Buffalo stampedes August 23; Duane Betts rambles August 29.) 8pm. $75, $95.
Hudson Film Festival
August 7-10 at locations in Hudson
Four days of fiercely independent cinema roll into Hudson with this smart, stylish showcase of global and local talent. Highlights include The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, Peter Ohs’s eerie, slow-burn descent into rural dread, and Between the Temples, a tragicomic spiral starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane. Screenings unfold at Hudson Hall, Basilica, and outdoor venues, with filmmaker Q&As, panels, and post-screening revelry. Festival passes and single tickets available online.
John Mulaney
Comedy’s favorite dapper sad boy returns to Bethel Woods with friends in tow. John Mulaney—“SNL” alum, sharp-witted raconteur, and self-professed “human muppet”—brings his “John Mulaney in Concert” tour to the pavilion, joined by special guests Fred Armisen, Nick Kroll, and Mike Birbiglia. That’s not a lineup—it’s a comedy Avengers. Expect precision punchlines, self-lacerating honesty, and maybe a horse in a hospital. $41–$131. 7:30pm.
Woodstock Festival of Awakening
August 8-10 at various venues in Woodstock
The Festival of Awakening returns for three days of sacred sound, movement, and community healing across Woodstock and Bearsville. Programming spans sunrise chants, elder storytelling, yoga by the stream, and a 50-venue music walk curated by Paul McMahon. Highlights include “Awakening Talks” with Robert Thurman and HeatherAsh Amara, nightly ceremonies, and a closing community drum circle. A grassroots celebration of spirit, culture, and shared presence, organized by the Woodstock Center for Awakening.
Meshell Ndegeocello: “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin”
August 9-10 at the Spiegeltent at Bard College
Visionary artist Meshell Ndegeocello premieres “No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin,” a genre-defying tribute that channels Baldwin’s prophetic fire through music, sermon, and spectacle. Drawing from Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and other texts, the performance fuses gospel, jazz, and ritual into an ecstatic meditation on race, resistance, and redemption. Co-commissioned by the Fisher Center, this is a world premiere in every sense. Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 6pm.
“Spinning My Wheels”
August 15-17 at Coach House Players, Kingston
In this autobiographical one-man show, Michael Garfield Levine rides through madness, addiction, and redemption in this gripping solo show that careens from ‘70s Manhattan to the hills of Vermont—with pit stops at Zen monasteries, psych wards, and Olympic velodromes. “Spinning My Wheels” is raw, riveting, and shot through with gallows humor and hard-won grace. Directed by Caitlin Langstaff. Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday matinee at 2pm.
Kingston Artist Soapbox Derby
August 17 on Broadway in Kingston
Now in its 28th year, Kingston’s quirkiest civic spectacle returns: an absurdist mashup of Pinewood Derby, Dadaist parade, and neighborhood block party. Expect elaborately tricked-out gravity-powered contraptions (think: a flamingo riding a toaster), live music, kids’ activities, and more community spirit than you can shake a papier-mache steering wheel at. Free to spectate, priceless to behold. Race begins at 12pm, with awards and afterparty to follow.
Dutchess County Fair
August 19–24 at the fairgrounds in Rhinebeck
The Dutchess County Fair returns for its 178th edition with all the agricultural pomp and midway spectacle a county can muster—prize pigs, towering dahlias, racing pigs, fried everything. Alongside 4-H showcases and sheepdog demos, this year’s grandstand lineup includes a trio of tribute acts: Get the Led Out, Forever Seger, and Miami Sound Revue. Six days of wholesome chaos, local pride, and just the right amount of glittering Americana.
Don Barry: A Quixotic Exploration
August 20 at Kleinert/James Center for the Arts
Experimental filmmaker Barry Gerson tilts at windmills in this docu-fictional tribute by director Paul Smart, which casts Gerson as a modern-day Don Quixote wandering through Guanajuato, Mexico—equal parts madman, mystic, and metatext. Don Barry wrestles with artistic obsession, fractured reality, and the blurry line between performance and life. One-night-only screening, 7-9pm, followed by Q&A with the director.
Cheap Trick
August 20 at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck
Who here has yet to see this Rockland, Illinois, quartet, one of America’s all-time greatest rock ’n’ roll bands? Assuming you have, you likely need little convincing to hit this concert at the 184th Dutchess County Fair—but if not, you best correct that situation, and here’s your chance. Powerful, exploding with amazingly addictive songs, and entertaining as hell courtesy of charismatic singer Robin Zander’s soaring voice, guitar god Rick Neilson’s hilarious mugging, and the virtuosic rhythm section of bassist Tom Petersson and (since 2010) drummer Daxx Nielson, Cheap Trick do not disappoint. 7:30pm. $45.
Neil Young
August 25 at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel
Clearly August is a month for musical legends in the Hudson Valley, and this night by the one and only Neil Young at a spot where he helped make musical and cultural history might just be the cherry on top. With Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the indelible singer-songwriter was among the leading headliners at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and here he revisits the site with his new band the Chrome Hearts. Rolling Stone describes the new Talkin’ with the Trees, Young’s 48th(!) album as a “deliberately spiky songbag from a man who remains miraculously undiminished as a live performer.” (The Steve Miller Band and the Rascals rock August 15; Bonnie Raitt riffs August 22.) 7:30pm. $80-$560.
Phoenicia Festival of the Arts
August 28-September 1 in Phoenicia
Part town-wide art party, part whimsical fever dream, the third annual Phoenicia Festival of the Arts spills across Labor Day Weekend with exhibits, film screenings, yarn-bombed trees, public sculpture, and the ribbon-cutting of Ulster County’s first free community mini golf course—crafted from upcycled dreams and local weirdness. With music, workshops, BBQs, trolls, and faerie cosplay, this five-day fest is less an event than a kaleidoscopic invitation to play.
Dromfest ’25
August 29-31 at the Avalon Lounge and Left Bank Ciders in Catskill
Organized by long-running local indie label Dromedary Records, this over-stuffed Labor Day Weekend festival boasts live sets by Yo La Tengo, the Dambuilders, Scrawl, Phantom Tollbooth, Das Damen, Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller, Madder Rose, the Thalia Zedek Band, Chris Brokaw, Unrest’s Mark Robinson, Salem 66’s Beth Kaplan, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Fly Ashtray, New Radiant Storm King, Cathedral Ceilings, and others, a screening of the documentary Flipside, poetry readings, and much more. See the Dromedary Records website for show times and ticket prices.
This article appears in August 2025.
