Where the Bands Are: This Week in Live Music and Concert News
Willie Nile, the Sadies, Stew Cutler, Moonchild tribute, first booking for Terminal B, and more
It’s snowing here in Buffalo as I write this, so I was pleased to find a hint of warmer times to come nestled in my in-box this a.m., letting me know that the first concert at the long-awaited $13 million permanent amphitheater project on the Buffalo Outer Harbor has been announced for the summer of 2024.
The Terminal B site will host the Brothers Osborne on a stop on their Might As Well Be Us tour on June 14, at what will then be the freshly opened new concert venue. Part of the Seneca Casinos Outer Harbor Concert Series, the show is being presented through a partnership between the Rich Entertainment Group, which oversees the new venue, and our friends Artie Kwitchoff and Donny Kutzbach of Fun Time Presents/the Town Ballroom.
“We are thrilled… to get started at Terminal B,” Kwitchoff said in a press release announcing the show. “We are excited at the opportunity to curate a calendar of diverse musical acts that appeals to the entire Western New York community, allowing people to enjoy the beautiful Buffalo summers while taking in live music on the waterfront.”
“This has been a long time coming,” Kutzbach added. “I’m excited…to build on the two decades of outdoor entertainment we’ve been hosting along the Buffalo waterfront.”
Tickets for the first of what will likely be a pretty well-stocked roster of shows at Terminal B next summer go on sale December 1 at 10 a.m. here.
It ain’t time to get the t-shirts and flip-flops out yet, though. This being Buffalo, we’re used to defying near-Arctic conditions to get out there and catch some badly needed live music. Here are a few shows that will likely be well worth bundling up for…
Willie Nile & His Band
Friday, December 1, 8 p.m. at the Town Ballroom, $28/$36
Nile’s homecomings are always spirited affairs, and this one will sure keep that tradition alive. Warm up for the show by checking out my recent interview with Nile, for my Why Music Matters with Jeff Miers podcast.
Stew Cutler presents The Blues from Another Angle
Thursday, November 30, 7 p.m. at Pausa Art House, $13/$20
With a career that spans more than four decades, guitarist/composer/bandleader Stew Cutler has dipped his toe into just about any musical pool imaginable, with credits in the genres of jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, soul, various permutations of roots music, and even elements of the avant garde. He’s been a session player, leader of a jazz-blues trio with a weekly residency in Greenwich Village, and more recently, soundtrack artist for film and television - Cutler’s take on the Les Paul & Mary Ford classic “How High the Moon” became an essential emotional component of Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman in 2019, and he’s worked on several seasons of Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, too.
What grabs me me most firmly in Cutler’s playing and artistry is his fearlessness and avoidance of the trite and cliche. He embraces outside lines with a fiery fierceness, twisting even the most conventional blues progressions with a masterful manipulation of tension and release. And he knows the value of noise within the dynamic tonal palate of music, in a way that, one imagines, would make Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore proud.
Even a quick listen to Cutler trading lines with jazz legend Mike Stern on his most recent effort, The Blues from Another Angle, will make you feel pretty damn lucky to have the opportunity to spend some time with a player of this magnitude in the cozy intimacy of Pausa Art House. This guy’s the real deal.
Jon Lehning Presents The Music of Moonchild, featuring Lindsey Holland
Friday, December 1, 7 p.m. at Pausa Art House, $12/$15
In November of 2017, my musical perceptions were altered in a permanent way by the genre-defying sounds of Moonchild, who’d taken over Buffalo Iron Works for an evening. Blending soul grooves, jazz tonalities, electronic and organic/acoustic instrumentation, ethereal, other-worldly vocalizations, and a general sense of musical spaciousness, the trio made a strong case for the robust health of true alternative music in the 21st century, and dug for me a deep well of inspiration that I’ve returned to often in the years since.
It’s incredibly cool to see a group of in-the-know Buffalo musicians celebrating the music and influence of Moonchild with this enticing offering at Pausa. Singer Lindsey Holland, saxophonist (and event organizer) Jon Lehning, trumpeter Griff Kazmierczak, pianist Harry Graser, bassist Honey Henry and drummer David Jonathan are some of the region’s most astute and adventurous musicians, and they’re sure to do this wonderful, ambitious music justice.
The Sadies
Saturday, December 2 at 8 p.m., Buffalo Iron Works, $15/$20
This is the first time the Sadies have played in Buffalo since the passing of co-founder Dallas Good, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in February of 2022. The band has a long history of unforgettable concerts in this city, dating back to Americanarama Festival performances on the street in front of Mohawk Place, at the Cobblestone Live Festival, and including stops at so many of our finest venues. And they’ve got an outstanding new album, Colder Streams, to share with us at this Buffalo Iron Works gig.
We all know that music helps us to simultaneously grieve and celebrate the enduring influence and inspiration of those we’ve lost. The Sadies have given us an awful lot over the years. Let’s give a little love back to them as they deal with the loss of their brother.
Also worth braving the elements for this week…
Andy Frasco & the UN with guest Dogs in a Pile, Thursday, November 30 at 8 p.m., the Town Ballroom, $29.50; Smells Like Nirvana (Nirvana Tribute), Friday, December 1 at 8 p.m., the Riviera Theatre, North Tonawanda, $20; Hail Fredonia Records Showcase ’23 with BP & the Oil Spills, Prairie Pavement, Oscars Cash, We Are 3, Saturday, December 2 at 8 p.m., the Cave, $10; Freightrain’s 12th Annual Christmas Toy Drive & Concert, Sunday, December 3 at 2 p.m., the Sportsmen’s Tavern, $20; McVans’ Historical Marker Fundraiser (celebrating the enduring influence of the legendary Buffalo nightclub on our city’s musical heritage) with songs and stories from members of the Enemies, Pauline & the Perils, the Jumpers, Davy & the Crocketts, the Vores, Third Floor Strangers and others, Wednesday, December 6 at 7 p.m., the Cave, $10; The Mountain Goats, Thursday, December 7 at 7 p.m., the Town Ballroom, $45; The Elliot Scozzaro Quartet featuring John Bacon, Joe Goehle and Nic Weiner, performing A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio, Friday, December 8 at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. (two shows), The Lounge at Revolution Gallery, $12.