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FRI. NOV 22nd @ 8:00PM
SAT. NOV 23rd @ 8:00PM
WED. NOV 27th @ 8:00PM
FRI. NOV 29th @ 8:00PM
SAT. NOV 30th @ 8:00PM
Playing a lean, hard-grooving fusion of blues, R&B, and garage rock they call "boogie soul," Handsome Jack are a rock band from Lockport, New York, a city not far from Buffalo. The band logged plenty of miles on their touring van and released a handful of self-released discs before they hooked up with the respected indie label Alive Naturalsound Records, which gave them their first nationwide release with 2014's Do What Comes Naturally, a swaggering exercise in '70s-style blues rock.
Handsome Jack were formed in 2004 by guitarist and singer Jamison Passuite, Joey Verdonselli on bass, Phil Allport on guitar and keyboards, and Steve Sandman on drums. While the founding members were still teenagers when they began playing out, they'd already developed a strong taste for classic rock, boogie, and blues, and by 2008, Handsome Jack had recorded their first self-released album, Heatseeker, and hit the road on their first cross-country tour. In 2009, Sandman left the group and Chad Salmeri took over behind the drums; he made his recorded debut with the band on the EP Prologue, and in 2011 the band released its second full-length album, Super Moon. More touring followed, including dates where the band shared stages with the likes of Blue Cheer, the Sheepdogs, Gov't Mule, J. Geils, and the Hold Steady.
Everything's Gonna Be Alright
In 2014, the band struck a deal with with Alive Naturalsound Records, and went into the studio with Zach Gabbard of Buffalo Killers and Mike Montgomery as producers. Handsome Jack's third full-length album, Do What Comes Naturally, was released in the fall of 2014. After lots more live work, Handsome Jack went through some personnel changes when Phil Allport and Chad Salmeri left the group. Jamison Passuite became Handsome Jack's sole guitarist, and Bennie Hayes signed on to play drums, and this power trio edition of the group cut their second album for Alive Naturalsound, 2018's Everything's Gonna Be Alright.
The Dirty Pennies have continued to evolve since their formation in 2012, where Ryan Klem and Lucas Howe began as a gritty psych influenced blues rock duo, which soon evolved into punk/garage rock territory with the help of then bassist Joe Mungo. Today the group takes a step deeper into the pool of psych rock with the addition of Sean Doohan on bass and Doug Kelley keys/synth. Supporting this paradigm shift are their latest singles, Bee Sting & Head Open which have allowed them to land support slots for Meatbodies & The Schizophonics!
WED. DEC 4th @ 8:00PM
Footballhead is a Chicago-based alternative rock band headed by Ryan Nolen. At its heart, the band is a vessel to toil forward through internal and external insecurity. It also serves the unrelenting spirit of new-millennium Midwestern youth, with MTV and skatepark dreams in the core of their memories. By blending pop structures with alt and emo
sounds, Footballhead channels the frantic, dramatic, and anthemic to map the pressure points of existence. It's outcast music, revitalized in search of a modern, blissful awakening.
Nolen was a skate kid from the western Chicago suburbs; the one who only kicked it with older neighborhood kids. The punkish attitude of Llate-90s and early-aughts alt-rock galvanized Nolen, from the infectiously fun music down to the fashion. A teenage relocation to Palm Springs, CA coincided with Nolen inundating himself with all the music he could: Warped Tour, 411 videos, Limewire and the like. The Footballhead ethos comes from this comfort zone of pop impulses and raucous energy, carried by a DIY spirit that grants Nolen the autonomy to facilitate honesty and reflection.
Joined by Adam Siska (The Academy Is), Liam Burns, and Robby Kuntz, Footballhead crafts supercharged rock songs like brief, open secrets. However weathered one is from their struggles and mistakes, this music
offers unbridled fun as a reprieve, and salves for the shaken. These are your old friends inviting you in to commiserate, elevate, and believe.
2024 has seen the band release their debut album 'Overthinking Everything' and follow up EP 'Before I Die' to critical acclaim, with playlisting and radio play around the world. Recent tracks have appeared everywhere from famed Spotify playlists 'Adrenaline,' 'Emo Right Now,' 'All New Rock' and 'The Scene' among many others, to tastemaker radios stations such as Australia's Triple J and Chicago's
Q101.
The story of NEW AGE THIEF begins with an ending. By 2021, Gino Savarino had begun winding down his solo project Safe Bet, an acoustic-turned-full-band emo endeavor that had garnered more 5 million Spotify streams as well as national esteem in the underground from fans and media alike. He longed for an outlet that would allow him more musical freedom, unburned by expectations and aided by a new drive for collaboration, and he found it alongside drummer Brady Corcoran, another fixture in the close-knit Chicagoland scene.
Together, the pair spent the next two years melding influences both shared (Jimmy Eat World, Basement) and distinct (Savarino’s love of nu metal and “disgusting” heavy music; for Corcoran, indie-rock cool like Death Cab for Cutie) into what would become their debut EP, MEMENTO. Produced by Brett Romnes (Hot Mulligan, Mom Jeans) and released via Wax Bodega, the EP introduces New Age Thief with an alternative rock and emo sound that’s all at once classic but updated for modern times, holding their genre forefathers in high regard without being beholden to the past. It marries the kinetic energy of sweaty VFW halls with the pose and lyrical maturity of bands twice their senior, from the fuzzed-out, groove-heavy “Circle The Room” and driving “Under Your Wing” to the dynamic, ascendant title track.