Metroland_April 2025

| byrdhouse records

soaring to new heights

| contents

natalie st. denis

staff

editor-in-chief & publisher

Erin Harkes

editor

TJ Foster

associate editors

Rory Graham, Dana Brady

director of art & photography

Kiki Vassilakis

music relations & content manager

Andy Scullin

graphic designer

Kevin Wisehart

contributors

Elissa Ebersold, James Mullen, Tom Miller, Patrick White, Natalie St. Denis, Becky Daniels, Jaye McBride, Dana Owens, Dan Savage, RM Engelhardt, Izzy Vassilakis, Ryan Shanahan, Debi Gustafson, Michael Slayton, Corey Dempsey, Corey Aldrich, Adem Jones, Liz Reiss, Joe Putrock and Tyler Young

Cover photo by Kiki Vassilakis

| from our editor

by Erin Harkes

Just so you’re aware…

Every month has some sort of ‘awareness’ attached to it. And it plays out almost like a popularity contest to see which is the sexiest disease or which marginalized group should get top billing. (I’m not mocking anything other than the process here, to be clear)

March is Women’s History Month. Or was, depending on when you’re reading this. It seems as though we had top billing. (lets out a meek “hooray”)

This month we also had Multiple Sclerosis, Brain Injury, Developmental Disabilities, Colorectal Cancer, Kidneys, Nutrition, Irish-American Heritage, Red Cross, Sleep, Self-Harm (those last two were put next to each other on the list I found online. I didn’t organize them that way, I promise…) Workplace Eye Safety, Cerebral Palsy, and Breast Implant Awareness Month.

Some things only get a week or a day. But I’m rooting for you, Severe Weather Awareness.

Endometriosis Awareness Month was one that stood out to me. The irony being that it’s kind of a commonly ignored thing. AND HERE’S WHY I’M SAYING THAT:

If you’ve watched my comedy special (shameless plug), you know I have an entire bit about being a woman of a certain age and what it’s like going to the doctor. As much as I would LOVE the superpower of invisibility, if there were a stronger inverse to being invisible when it came time to go to the doctor, that would be a REAL superpower.

I received an email from a woman who knew that this topic might not fit into what we do here at Metroland but hoped with the awareness month looming it might be considered. (I see everything. Sorry. I’m just ignoring you.)

This one particularly stood out to me because she

highlighted how women are often gaslit or ignored when seeking medical attention. A close friend of mine experienced this firsthand, expressing for years that something felt off. She was repeatedly told, “that’s just how it is for some women.” Only when she advocated fiercely for herself (what a “bitch”) was it discovered that she had so many cysts that her uterus had to be removed, leaving her unable to have children. Had her concerns been taken seriously earlier, treatment could have prevented this drastic conclusion.

I often joke about my own frustrations with this whole medical process, but thankfully, I haven’t faced such extreme consequences—yet.

And maybe it’s happening to men, too, now. Doctors seem to be exhausted post pandemic. Insurance is a fucking mess. Everything feels like it’s in turmoil. But this is the one month they’ve given us. And they put Women’s History and Endometriosis awareness together because our appointment is only so long before they move on to the next.

I had no idea where to go with this when I started. And I’m sure it’s gonna sound like a lot of whining. But, unlike my friends, I have a good outlet to prompt a discussion.

There are obvious gender inequities in all walks of life. I’ve noticed it as a band leader more than anywhere else. (See, I knew I’d get back to music!)

I was in an organization that assembled musicians for wedding bands each weekend. I noticed something curious: the same lineup showed up two weekends in a row, but the dynamic shifted dramatically depending on who was leading. The first weekend, a male “lead” told the band that the break was over and – without hesitation – boy, did these fellas hop right to it. Drinks down, cigarettes out, hustling back to their instruments. Fast forward to the following weekend when I was in charge. Same men, different barn. I was running to use the restroom before the break was over (which, when running a wedding, is sometimes the only time I get to sit down). I ran past the band and said, “Hey

guys, break’s over!” and with my back turned heard, “Yeah, in a sec.” I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around. They didn’t move an inch but to take another sip of one’s drink and another drag of one’s cigarette. In my exhaustion and frustration I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to say, ‘get back on the fucking stage’.” They all stared at me in shock but did what they were asked.

Just like they did when the male lead asked them the week before. But I had to be a “bitch” to get it done.

Some of you might even be uttering “bitch” right now. And that’s ok. And I am NOT addressing this to only men. My doctor is a woman. Women are guilty of perpetuating this dynamic, too.

I think a lot about my relationship with a former guitar player. I had referred him to many other gigs with bands where they reported back that he was just wonderful to work with. I always felt as though I had to work a lot harder to get him to respect me. I put up with it more than I should have because he was a phenomenal player, and ignored a lot of things as we women are trained to do. During one of our many long discussions on rides to and from shows, I told him that it was more difficult being in charge as a woman and gave him multiple examples of situations I’ve been in. I thought, for a naive moment, that I might have gotten through to him.

“You can’t play the woman card every time you don’t get your way.”

He’s no longer in my band. He’s still playing. The only time I hear about him, though, is when a younger female musician tells me he’s sending them unsolicited dick pics and I have to feign surprise.

I think it’s important to take a moment to think about how you respond to direction from a woman as opposed to a man.

Just so you’re aware.

Erin Harkes Editor-In-Chief & Publisher

| confessions from the underground

by TJ Foster

Admittedly, I’m one of those people who is inherently unsettled by the vast onslaught of AI. As an artist and writer, I understandably have concerns. Here at Metroland, I’m very passionate about not allowing ChatGPT and the like in our writing. It’s actually in our official Contributor Guide. I know firsthand the industry is leaning heavily on AI for articles and it’s getting to the point where embracing your humanity means setting yourself apart. Not to mention, we’ve built a team of some of the most talented, dedicated writers I’ve ever worked with. It would be a disservice to both our readers and writers to reduce what they’re so good at to a prompt and an algorithm. At least that’s how I feel, though I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would make a good case against that.

I know that fearing something new is partly due to a lack of understanding. As such, my goal here was to get/offer a crash course in AI. Local Eddies-nominated hip-hop producer Brendan Paulsen—Ab the Audicrat , in our music scene—graciously offered his expertise and talked me through the capabilities, the benefits and risks, and what the future might hold. I’ll be honest—I left our conversation with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’m a bit more encouraged to acquaint myself with some AI platforms in specific-use cases. On the other, I’m probably more unsettled about what’s in store than I was beforehand.

TJ Foster: Thanks for agreeing to do this on such short notice! This is a topic I’ve wanted to discuss for quite some time.

Brendan Paulsen: Of course. Hopefully I can provide some insight.

TF: Growing up, I like to think I was pretty tech savvy but in recent years, all these advancements with artificial intelligence have seemingly eclipsed me. So my first question is relatively simple: can you explain AI to me like I’m a first grader?

BP: AI has really been here for a long time. I mean, when you search something in Google, that’s AI. It’s more of a rebranding of things that have existed for a while now; it’s really just advanced so quickly in a short amount of time that it is taking on a new face. And it’s also adopting other [faces], don’t get me wrong, but in a nutshell that’s really what it is.

By no means am I an expert on this, but in music, for example, I have a lot of plugins that I use for mixing audio. It mixes stuff for you, to a degree, and bases it on inputs that the company might have put there as to what it thinks the best hip-hop vocal sounds like. And then it kind of does the work for you. It’s been more of a tool that gives me a very good baseline.

TF: I was actually about to ask how you’ve utilized AI in your own work. How does it

make things easier or more efficient for you?

BP: I’m really big on ChatGPT. I use it to write bios. And I know that’s unfortunate for writers. But for someone like me, as a content creator, it’s very handy to put in an old bio somebody wrote me and ask to update it.

Another big thing that I’ve just started using is the voice feature. You talk to it and legitimately have a conversation. It cuts off if you start talking, so it can reprocess if you have a question on what it’s telling you. And it’s unbelievably realistic. It

can get all this information from the internet in a matter of a second but it’s conversational. So that can help with asking things like, “I’m looking to make a video on how to make a boom bap beat in Reason. Give me searchable SEO-optimized titles with bullet points,” and it will spit you out everything you need in a matter of seconds. Of course, you still have to go ahead and execute. You still have to get on camera.

TF: What about on the audio production side? What sort of tools have you been using that really help your workflow? I find when I’m mixing or recording stuff, I can get bogged down in the little details and always look for tools that could remove some of those hurdles for me.

BP: There’s a company called iZotope that makes amazing AI software and they seem to be a little bit more out in front of it. They have all types of intelligent plugins. There’s one that’s called Ozone and it’s meant for mastering. It’s based on tens of thousands of songs that they inputted. If your song sounds like a hip-hop song, it gives it the polish that it thinks it should have for hip-hop. Seven or eight times out of ten, it’s amazing right off the rip.

They also have a separate software called RX. It’s like a repair assistant. It does things like taking away clicks out of tracks. Or excessive hissing if there’s some sort of noise from analog gear. It can drop out vocals from a track, like a stereo track,

Photo provided by artist

which to me is still alien that there’s software that does that.

TF: That’s wild.

BP: It’s not perfect. But I’ve found them to be the best with AI thus far. I use it almost all the time on my mixes. The way I look at it, I’m really a producer first. I’ve always mixed, and I’ve gotten far better in the past four or five years. I think some people almost see it as cheating, but I don’t even care. I just want my music to sound amazing. I don’t care how it gets that way. As long as I’m behind the wheel, if I can get there faster by using these things, that’s how I look at it. It’s a tool.

A good podcast I watched goes very deep into how AI is going to shape our lives. What they’re basically forecasting is for the people that are going to “win”—especially in the content world— it’s not so much about specializing in anything anymore. It’s about how you can utilize AI better than the next person. Even lawyers, paralegals… they say these things will not go away, but If you have a chatbot that you can go to any minute you need to scrub libraries of books and legal law, you don’t need that person anymore. Knowing how to utilize AI better than the next person and stay with the trends – that’s where my mind is focused moving forward because I do not want to get left behind.

It’s going to happen so quickly that, if you don’t keep up, it’s just going to get harder and harder, even though the tools are more and more powerful. So I’m trying my best to stay ahead of that.

TF: Obviously this is a huge buzz topic in many different industries. We just talked about the benefits, of which there are plenty, but there’s also many concerns and pitfalls. I was just reading earlier, actually, there was this letter penned to the government asking to disallow Open AI and Google and some of these other companies from using copyrighted material in training their artificial intelligence systems. Do you see any ramifications there? If these companies are in fact allowed to do this.

BP: I mean, it’s a good question. We’re in uncharted waters. It really is as simple as that; there’s a lot of unknowns. I think there’s a lot of people that don’t know what to do or when it’s going to happen. Like anything else, people are going to want to use these things and so they’re going to kind of brush some stuff aside. There’s going to

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

be endless disruption in so many different areas of life. I mean, they talk about how almost every car will be self-driving in like a decade. And think of that—there won’t be a need for Uber. I mean, I guess there would be… maybe in the reverse, there would only be companies like Uber. You know what I mean? But you wouldn’t need to pay anybody to drive the cars.

This is what Andrew Yang was big on when he was running for president. It’s why I loved him so much. He was really big on universal basic income. Not for charity, but he’s like, “Look, these people are going to lose jobs. Truckers are going to lose jobs with Amazon getting self-driving trucks.” And a lot of these people, statistically, don’t have higher education. They don’t have a way to bounce back. I think he was proposing we give people like $1,000 a month. (Editor’s fact check: this is correct!) That isn’t livable income, but it’s something to pad the inevitable displacement of jobs that is going to happen. And it’s going to happen so unbelievably fast. Not in a day, but in a year or five years, which is still very fast for all these people to be out of a job. And I keep going back to people like artists and writers. And yeah, how do you police it? I don’t know if there’s really been solid answers on that. I’m sure there’s very smart people out there trying to figure that out.

TF: I certainly hope so!

BP: I’m on my phone all the time so I’m not one to speak, but I think phones and technology have already destroyed us in many terrible ways. We’re not meant to be behind screens [and] apart from people the way we are. We should be with people in the tribe. That’s how we evolved. And we just don’t do that anymore. But you think it’s bad now?

One last point on this. I read more and more about how we’re going to get to the point where—some of this is speculation, but it’s already kind of there with Siri and all these chatbots—everybody will have their own personal AI assistant at some point. Not only are you going to have one, but you’re going to have multiple, for different purposes, and there’s going to be settings that you can set for each one. So if you need a friend that’s going to be hard on you because you need to make a decision and you’re being too timid, you’re going to have that one [chatbot] to go to. If you need somebody to cheer you up when you’re down, there’ll be another chatbot you can go to that will do that. Companionship – that’s already a thing. Like, there’s people who have

these digital relationships – we’re already there. We’re just not fully there yet. That’s where it’s going to get real interesting because not only are we going to displace jobs, we’re completely replacing relationships.

TF: That’s pretty scary, man. It’s wild hearing you put it like that. It sounds so dystopian.

BP: Oh, it is. I remember somebody was on Bill Maher about a year ago talking about kids in schools with phones. Now, I don’t have kids so I don’t want to talk too much on this, but it’s very clear that having phones is destroying kids. Humans aren’t meant to have those things ever, let alone at a young age when their minds are developing.

Apparently there’s been somewhat of a push to take phones out of schools. I think the guy was talking about how they’ve done experiments in certain schools and it’s comical how he talks about, “When we took the phones away, they became less anxious and talked to each other more.” Go figure! We’re so backwards that we think it’s surprising when we hear these devices— the most powerful things we’ve ever made, that control everything in our lives—are ruining us. Of course they are! And I think that goes past kids, too. We just think because we’re adults that it doesn’t affect us in the same way.

TF: Going back to the music side with this, I look at what Spotify is doing with creating AI-generated albums and obviously pushing them to their own platform. Then of course they own the biggest and most important playlists, so they’ll push those tracks to playlists and it’s taking royalties from artists. It’s frustrating. Is there a silver lining here? Because I feel like it’s completely disregarding that whole human element of making music.

BP: No, of course. I think ultimately what it comes down to is we are humans and we will always have that instinctual need to connect with other humans. So although it might take up a very big part of, in this case, the entertainment/music industry, I still think there’s always something to be said about human musicians, live music, things like that. It’s a matter of them coexisting; I don’t think it’s a matter of one taking over. We’re humans and we crave connection. So I don’t know. That’s a really good question.

But here’s another interesting thing that I’ve been seeing in the entertainment world. I mean, I don’t

know these things for sure, but it does make sense to me when I watch people talk about them.

TF: I’d be amazed if you did know all this for sure, haha.

BP: (laughs) So, with the things you can do with AI and video, we’re going to get to the point where anybody can make a movie themselves. And they can input their family into the movie. “Make me a Spiderman movie where my kid is Miles Morales, and I’m Uncle Ben.” You can just customize everything you want to watch. Everybody’s gonna be able to make a movie the same way that anybody can go onto an AI music site and say, “Make me an uptempo jazz record that sounds like it’s from the ‘50s.”

The whole entertainment industry is going to be completely turned upside down because at some point, video is going to be close to indistinguishable from real life. I mean, we’re already pretty much there with audio. You talk to ChatGPT, it sounds like you’re talking to a person—the way they breathe, the way they pause. It’s unbelievable.

Even content creators, it’s going to be people controlling avatars. You can make your own avatar, make it look the way you want, and you just input that in a video and add these bullet points to how it speaks. And that’s going to be the next phase of content creation. It’s not even going to be you on a camera.

TF: Wow.

BP: I don’t think it’s going to completely replace people. But if you’re somebody who has any lick of creativity at all, and you could prompt your own movie and watch it the way you want to watch something – how does Hollywood exist? To your point, how does music exist? It’s really strange to think about.

I think the people that do end up specializing in things though, especially in the art world, will be more and more revered. The people that have these skills, I think they’re gonna have an advantage because they can demonstrate them, whereas other people are going to heavily rely on AI; there’s going to be these two worlds.

TF: So one of the other questions I want to ask is that any sort of technological advancements tend to be a net gain for society, as long as they are in the right hands. History has proven this. And I’m sure it’s

a mix of both right now, where you’ve got people using it for the right reasons, and those using it for the wrong ones. So what are the risks here?

BP: I mean… I guess you can go so far as to say nuclear war. Honestly, we can 3D print guns now, you know? So if AI is going to get good enough… I don’t know so much about that, but I mean it could be that bad. You can have an advanced algorithm hack systems in a way that’s never been done before. I mean, you can argue that on the reverse side, there’s going to be advanced algorithms to defend those systems. Right? But if all cars are self-driving, and somehow somebody can get into their systems and hit a button and then all cars swerve off the road? That’s a valid concern.

I saw an interview with Sam Harris, big Sam Harris fan. He talks about AI a lot, and that was one of the points he made. He’s pretty concerned about AI—some other people aren’t as much, they don’t see it as, like, a Terminator situation—but to your point, there’s valid concerns, because all it takes is a handful of bad actors, and if everything is relying on technology and AI and cameras on cars… snap your fingers, and that goes wrong. I don’t know how you curb that. It’s almost an evil that comes with this godlike power.

TF: Have you ever driven a selfdriving car?

BP: No, but I sold cars for a short amount of time and some of the cars have lane assists where it’ll know if you’re cruising out of a lane, and guide you back. So I’ve been in a car that does that.

TF: I was visiting my brother last year and he rented me a car so we could get around. He had some connection to hook us up with this, like, 2025 Jaguar SUV. And I’m driving, and all of a sudden I realize the car is doing its own

thing. I let go for a bit and it was steering. Keeping momentum. It kept a car length between me and the next person. Scared the shit out of me at first, honestly.

BP: I would feel the same way. The thing is though, the best self-driving car is better than any human that’s ever lived. We can’t see or hear at a faster rate. It can, like you said, keep distances, keep speeds. And it’s not gonna get distracted by a phone call.

TF: Yeah. By the end of that trip, I came around to it and even started feeling pretty safe. It was very, very cool.

Okay so, one last question. This is solely for the purpose of some silly irony. I asked ChatGPT what the first question an AI robot would ask upon meeting a human being for the first time. And its response was: “What does it mean to be human?” So I pose this question to you.

BP: Oh man. I mean, I think the easy answer is emotion. That’s probably the big divide between machines and people. There’s people that argue that [machines] could learn emotion though; they could take on our cues. But that’s probably the biggest difference, really, other than flesh and blood. We do share logic to some degree. They’re a different level of logic than we are, but they’re essentially unemotional.

Editor’s Note: Two different AI transcription softwares spat out errors when trying to transcribe this conversation about AI. Perhaps our robot overlords are developing a sense of humor already.

Photo provided by artist

| newsfront

community arts grants help level up local music by James Mullen

“Money will not buy you happiness, but it will buy you recording time.”

Being an independent musician can often have a lot of similarities with professional sports, particularly baseball. That may sound like a stretch, but hear me out! As an independent artist and an avid sports fan myself, I’ve often made the joke that I’m not an amateur, but a “minor leaguer” playing in single, double, or triple A (depending on the size of the bar). At this level, you play in front of crowds that are too small for not enough money. You’re endlessly pouring your soul into your craft night after night, on the off chance that you impress the right people or catch the eye of a talent scout looking for the next big thing. At the end of the day, you do it for the love of the game but it would be a lie to say that there aren’t aspirations of moving up to that next level.

The difference between the two is that in independent music, having talent is often not enough if you don’t have access to competitive resources. Competitive resources can be a lot of things. Whether it’s studio access, the ability to recruit and pay talented session musicians, or being able to afford to travel and take your show on the road, all these things boil down to the almighty green truth: money. And in the arts, money can be hard to steadily

come by.

That’s what makes the presence of community arts grants such as the Saratoga Arts Grant Program such a tremendous opportunity for independent artists. The program is part of the New York State Council on the Arts’ statewide community regrant program that is available in all 62 counties in the Empire State, and grants coordinator Spencer Sherry tells me that Saratoga’s program alone has allocated nearly $250K

annually to support artists across Saratoga, Fulton, and Montgomery counties.

“This year, we had about $320,000 in requests and we can give away $245,000,” he tells me. “I’m actually right in the middle of doing these panels this week, and I’ve got one more to go. It’s been a really nice process. And analysts (who evaluate applications) enjoy being able to do this work. It’s really pretty fulfilling.”

Those analysts are part of a panel of community leaders assembled by the program to rank and vote on the applications, and those leaders typically have deep ties to the local arts community. The grants are project-based, and are focused on arts programming rather than general operating funds or sustaining artist’s livelihoods. That being said, there are actually three different cate-gories for the grants, each with their own guidelines and priorities. Sherry broke them down for me as follows:

“One is arts education, which has a specific set of guidelines where if the project is specifically education based and you’re teaching the same group of learners something over the course of at least three sessions, that can be in school with kids or community based.” He mentions that the local senior center gets arts education grants almost every

year for their arts programming.

“Then there’s just Community Arts, which can be anything as long as you’re a nonprofit or municipality,” he continues. “A lot of the focus there is having the community engage in the art itself—a concert series, fair, or festival. Then there’s individual artist grants, which are more geared towards benefiting the artists in our community and how we can help cultivate our arts culture by directly supporting individuals and their projects.”

These individual artist grants are perhaps the most noticeable for local musicians. In the past few years local acts such as Girl Blue, Little Saints, Angelina Valente, and E.R.I.E. have utilized this grant to make their new albums to great effect. Josh Morris, a local musician and music producer (now based in Nashville) who spent the COVID pandemic building up an impressive home studio, has experience on both sides of the equation. He is quick to highlight the importance of these grants when it comes to local artists leveling up their recordings.

“It’s everything, really. I mean, money will not buy you happiness, but it will buy you recording time,” he tells me. “If you’re going to have people play on the album, if you’re going to use the money to pay an artist for the album cover, if you’re going to use it to cover recording costs or mixing or mastering…it all costs money. At the end of the day, just being able to funnel some more money into something that I wouldn’t have

Photo credit: Joe Putrock

usually been able to pay for was a lifesaver.”

We agreed that obtaining this crucial funding goes a long way in empowering artists to be able to act as professionally as they feel.

“Most people want to be serious about it. If you’re doing it, it is a business. It is also a creative venture, but it really is a full-time commitment for those who are really serious about it,” he emphasizes. “There’s nothing worse than not being able to just pay for something that you want to get out there. It’s so frustrating.”

After learning of these grants from Little Saints and Girl Blue, friends and clients of his, Morris decided to take the leap and apply for a grant of his own. He said the process was far more pleasant than he ever could have hoped.

“When I went to fill out the application, the only knowledge I had about it was what Natalie and Andy from Little Saints had told me, or what Arielle (of Girl Blue) had told me. I had no idea what to expect; I didn’t know anything about grant writing or how it works. But from what I remember they were very transparent and very willing to tell you how this works, when the deadlines were, and what I needed to give them to ensure that I got accepted. They’re very good about walking you through

the process and telling you what everything means.”

They were even very accommodating of his eventual move to Nashville after being approved for the grant money, despite the fact that he would no longer be a full time resident of the county. “I asked what the process was and if I could still accept the grant, and they said as long as I’d still be impacting the community with my work, I could. I truly believe they want people to be accepted because they want to grow the arts community.”

Sherry agrees that is indeed the ultimate goal of the project. Flexibility and accessibility to local artists was one of the key points of our discussion of the process.

“I would always recommend talking to me [directly]. We do have the application deadline usually in late November or early December, but they open up in September. Usually about a month and a half in, we’ll have a deadline for guaranteed feedback and review. So if you send it in before a certain time, I can guarantee that I’ll look over everything with a fine-tooth comb and counsel you,” he explains. “People can just set up office hours with me, and come in and talk about it.”

Once the applications are open, the necessary forms and guidelines

are housed on the Saratoga Arts website. Before beginning an application, Sherry recommends reading through the guidelines to understand which type of project you should be applying for. He is also available for questions and consultation for interested applicants.

“I’ll try to help guide you and tell you how to structure things so that it’s readable,” he notes. “You would attach some artist materials for the songs that you’ve done in the past, or videos of performances to give the panelists an idea of how you perform, what your style of music is, and then if you get the award, usually by the end of March, you’ll get notified. Then you’ll have the money in April or May, and all you’ve got to do is just fill out a final report after the project’s over to say how it went. ‘Here’s how I spent the money,’ just to make sure everything is above board.”

He maintains that while they are willing to make the process as easy and accessible as possible, the funding does still have some limitations. Strictly speaking, the money must go towards the creation of the art, not the purchasing of art itself. Paying yourself, your artists’ fees, and obtaining materials and equipment however are typically all a safe bet as long as any single line item is under $1,000.

“You cannot have any one line item be over $1,000 if you’re going to use grant money on it,” he details. “So you can’t buy yourself a brand new camera with all the grant money. You can use up to $1,000 of the grant money on something like that, but you’ve got to show that you didn’t allocate more grant funds to that particular thing. Basically, the money is for the arts related components of your program. It’s okay if you want to get a charcuterie platter for your opening and give it to people for free. You just can’t spend grant money on it; that would have to come from other sources of revenue.”

Most local artists long to be able to access professional quality resources to match their professional-level dedication. Too often these assets are locked behind a paywall in a system that increasingly and unfairly penalizes all working class people, but especially creatives who have long had to combat the “starving artist” motif. However, thanks to dedicated public servants like Sherry and Saratoga Arts and their NYSCA counterparts across the state’s 62 counties, we are finally on our way to throwing a life raft to the talented and committed artists who deserve their chance at crafting their vision with the level of professionalism they deserve.

For more information, visit https://www.saratoga-arts.org/grants.

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

Photo

opinion

albany’s music scene is bigger than you think —it’s time we act like it by Elissa Ebersold

In “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” Huey Lewis rattles off a list of cities that carry lifeblood to the titular heart. And if you know the song, you too can name them without much thought. While it, in a most baffling of decisions, lacks the famous “Music City” of Nashville itself, there are plenty of good cities listed in his lyrics. But to me, there’s one big one missing: Albany, New York.

Before you roll your eyes (pun intended), let me make a case for you here.

I come from a design & marketing background, and I can say with utmost confidence that Albany has a marketing problem. Locals are constantly bombarding each other—and outsiders—with snarky criticisms about our area: “It’s an ugly city” (it’s not) and “There’s nothing to do” (that’s wrong) are worn out buttons on the Special Edition Albany-Hater Soundboard™. Albany’s faded and wrinkled name tag still reads “State Government” in a Sharpie that ran out of ink long ago. And while the city’s Business Improvement District is working to molt those tired associations, we’re still missing a golden opportunity—we’re not leaning into something that makes us truly special.

We here at Metroland are obviously pretty passionate about the local music scene—it’s our bread and butter. That’s why I think we know better than most just how vibrant and lively the music scene is around here.

So why aren’t we acting like a music city? We’re not DC, though even they got name-dropped by Huey Lewis. We can ditch the political personality.

Nashville obviously did it, and has unashamedly made it its entire personality. Austin did it with SXSW. Outside of state capitals, Kansas City has its jazz clubs, New Orleans its zydeco and cajun music. Any city from Huey Lewis’ roster of cities

has leaned into their music identities that have shaped their economies. Why not Albany and the Capital District?

We have everything a legitimate music city needs—honky tonks, arenas, listening rooms, underground venues, amphitheaters, dive bars, and everything else that slots comfortably in between. We have music festivals, summer concert series, open mics, off-broadway theater, community theater, repertory theater. We’ve hosted some of the biggest musical acts—often repeatedly—and every time I blink, I swear it feels like another skilled local musician is making waves in the industry or landing a national stage.

As a small sampling of successful local musicians, we have Sawyer Fredericks who took home

the crown on season 8 of The Voice. Colonie native Madison VanDenburg became second runner-up on season 17 of American Idol, and Moriah Formica, an alum of both competition shows, fronts a band called Plush which has not only charted on the Billboard mainstream rock charts, but they have toured with some of the biggest names of rock music, like Disturbed and Evanescence.

Our own Albany Symphony has won Grammy Awards. Plural. But who needs Grammys? (I’m kidding.) We have our very own music awards right here—The Eddies. If this wasn’t already a thriving music hub, you wouldn’t see that level of industry presence.

And of course, I can’t leave out that we’ve got

Photo credit: Elissa Ebersold

some really wonderful recording studios and record labels. Portugal. The Man. Ever heard of them? Did “Feel it Still” finally get out of your head? Yeah, they had a label right here in Albany. And that’s just one of many.

Heck, I am definitely biased, but we’ve even got some world class music photographers—both on our staff and outside of it. You wouldn’t have that without a thriving music culture.

No matter where you turn in Albany you will see two things: brutalist architecture, and neverending musical drive, passion, and talent. All genres, all instruments, and all-important to bringing life into our little nook of the world.

I will be fair—when I say Albany here, I’m more specifically referring to the Capital District as a whole. But making Albany, our capital, be the focal point of this new branding approach benefits all. Saratoga gets to keep its racing association, and outside of that, Albany is the name people know, and it’s the name people can pronounce (more or less) while offering the economic benefits to the respective cities and/or towns where the shows are being held.

But Albany is imperfect, and there are some valid criticisms of the area. As an example, the Cabaret laws create problems and whether it’s correlation or causation, Lark Street has suffered. We lack a proper dance club in Albany proper, and in my opinion, the area is missing a multi-story music venue—like Brooklyn Steel or Terminal 5—that can accommodate larger artists that are too big for Empire Live, but not big enough for SPAC or MVP Arena, and require a different energy than that which The Palace or Proctors can offer.

The Capital District’s history is great. Horse racing, depending on who you ask, is great. Our art museums and galleries are great. Our food culture is, depending on who you ask and whoever’s getting sued that day, is great. But music is a universal language, and there is a dialect for every taste. And it’s not something that you necessarily need to spend money on to enjoy since there are so many free shows—just take a look at our calendar!

Music happens in all four seasons, and it is something that the city of Albany already invests in to a degree. We’re so good at doing music in all of its forms, but we just need to invest more.

It’s right there in our already-existing hard-working tourism bureau: Discover Albany? More like get discovered in Albany. Bring the aspiring musicians here. Bring more record labels here. Brand it as a destination for the music lover and music professional alike. We even have RCA’s Mongrel mascot towering above Broadway, guarding the city from shit music—though I’d argue that there’s no such thing. I digress—that’s a different opinion piece.

Come on! Let’s add our names to Huey Lewis’ rock & roll-call: Tulsa, Austin, Oklahoma City, and maybe even Albany too.

Photo credit: Elissa Ebersold

Photo credit: Elissa Ebersold

Photo credit: Elissa Ebersold

| interview: byrdhouse records

byrdhouse records soars to new heights by Natalie St. Denis

A passion for music, love for the D.I.Y. scene, and desire for inclusivity and local artist recognition – that’s the foundation Byrdhouse Records was built on. That, and of course, an early-life addiction to concerts.

While attending the University at Albany and studying anthropology and archeology, founder Rachel Freeman immersed herself in the local music scene. She attended many basement shows and worked for the university’s radio station, 90.9 FM WCDB Albany.

In 2018, Freeman and her friends decided to form their own venue in Albany called The Byrdhouse. It would see three different basements in its time as a D.I.Y. venue, booking various independent artists for private, ‘DM for Address’ shows and maintaining an all-inclusive punk ethos, before Freeman decided she had done her part in that scene. From there, she looked to expand on her love for the behind-the-scenes side of the music industry.

Today, Byrdhouse Records no longer serves as a physical venue to the community, but rather a collective of creative collaborations moving from stage to stage and artist to artist. Byrdhouse books a wide range of bands at local venues such as Troy’s No Fun, ranging from metal to indie acoustic acts, and even helps to bring events like Salsa dancing lessons and heavy metal festivals to life.

“I think it’s really important to have variety within booking, especially because that can shine a light on more scenes that don’t necessarily get as much audience, or maybe not as much spotlight,” said Freeman. “People that might come to my shows, they’re maybe not listening to all those sorts of genres, but they’ll give it a chance at least, and they’ll show up to hopefully enjoy it.”

Byrdhouse Records also manages tours and

shows for up-and-coming local acts like Senior Living, Lemon of Choice, Alliteration and Candy Ambulance – something that Freeman says serves her in return.

“[Byrdhouse Records is] more of a community resource and I like to keep it like that. A lot of the time I’ll be booking tours for bands just to help them out or just to book shows for the fun of it and put the Capital Region, for example, on the map for bigger bands too, while giving the locals bands opportunities to play with those bigger bands,” Freeman said.

Byrdhouse’s efforts in the Capital Region are also shared with other areas across the state. In the Hudson Valley and New Paltz area, their D.I.Y. craft is utilized at their sister collective, Doors at 7, as well as in Binghamton through booking efforts with Ella Kasper, a good friend of Freeman’s.

The two met a few years ago when Kasper was looking to perform a show with her band in Albany and Freeman decided to book them. Soon becoming friends, Kasper would go to Freeman for advice when she started booking her own shows in Binghamton, where she was attending college.

Eventually, Freeman invited Kasper to book shows under the Byrdhouse name.

“It’s been really cool to learn about the more professional side of booking, and Rachel has taught me a lot about making offers to artists and guarantees,” Kasper said. “It’s given me a lot of insight into booking tours and marketing, and the things that you need to do in order to make a show really fun and a great event.”

In addition to booking shows in Binghamton, Kasper has also been using her graphic design skills to help create event flyers for Byrdhouse shows.

Another crucial part of the Byrdhouse Records team is Diego Herrera, who connected with Freeman during his freshman year at SUNY Albany in 2022. Originally from New York City, she introduced him to the local D.I.Y. scene and they developed a bond.

“I was kind of scared to go to these house shows. I live in the city, so going to Albany and going into this kind of subculture, I was like ‘I don’t really know anything about it,’” Herrera said.

In the fall of 2023, he asked Freeman if he could help out with Byrdhouse and from there, he became an important asset to the team. Last year, his main focus was on assisting Freeman with booking different lineups, helping to offload some of the work that comes with that process.

“Just seeing the show actually come to fruition and seeing everyone so happy and having a good time, it’s so fulfilling,” Herrera said.

Now, he offers Freeman advice as she needs it, returning that sense of guidance she provided him when he was just getting his footing in the Albany scene. Herrera is also the current general manager of WCDB Albany.

The fourth member of the Byrdhouse collective is Eddie Smith, the audio engineer powerhouse behind their shows. Smith also spent time at WCDB Albany as a DJ, production director and chief engineer. Freeman connected with him through the station in 2019 and gave him the opportunity to support the local scene with Byrdhouse by lending his audio expertise to their gigs.

Similarly to Herrera, Freeman helped give Smith the chance to immerse himself in the area’s rich music scene, something he hopes Byrdhouse will continue to do.

“Definitely [hope Byrdhouse] keeps helping the

“Byrdhouse Records is more of a community resource and I like to keep it like that.”

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

scene bring in young people – people that are students like I was that want to get involved in the area,” Smith said.

Freeman emphasizes that, despite the growth and expansion Byrdhouse has seen, her team remains true to where their grassroots story began as they look to the future.

“D.I.Y. is at the core of our values, ensuring local music gets a consistent platform for recognition,” she said. “Diversity and equality are also cornerstones of our moral values: ensuring that no one is turned away or made to feel uncomfortable for how they identify or appear is important for allowing creativity to flourish in any music scene.”

Focusing on collaboration with other local promoters has remained key for Byrdhouse Records; they feel as though they are all in this together and it isn’t always easy.

“Being a younger female in the music scene, it is easy for a large number of people to underestimate my abilities and know-how when it comes to booking and running shows,” Freeman said.

Despite this, Freeman doesn’t let anyone stand

in her way when it comes to booking, and she doesn’t let any friction in the promoter scene slow her momentum.

Her constant perseverance has opened new doors that have helped take Byrdhouse Records to the next level. In recent developments, Freeman has become one of the five co-owners of No Fun where she receives unwavering support from her business partners. Everyone involved is devoted to keeping the venue a bastion of alternative music for the local scene.

Working hard to regularly book killer acts—both on the local scale and even bigger name bands, such as Vs Self, Jigsaw Youth and Ratboys— Byrdhouse provides fans with unforgettable experiences. It also allows local bands the opportunity to share the stage with larger, more widely-known acts, providing each with a broader audience. Even further, it fuels a passion present in each of Byrdhouse’s team members.

“I feel like I’ve become friends with a lot of people in the scene because of [Byrdhouse Records], and it’s more of a sense of sharing that sort of friendship between music lovers, in a way,” Freeman said.

Friendship is what Herrera has found through Byrdhouse Records, too.

“I love music and I love being part of the Albany music scene, and it’s been such a great gateway for that. I’ve met so many great people and talked to so many of the bands in the area, that I know a good amount of them. It’s been pretty fulfilling in terms of my life in Albany since getting here.”

Byrdhouse Records also works hard to cater to expectations as their booking power increases. Their shows have gained more traction as of late, and the collective is turning heads with the big name artists they are booking before they get the chance to sweep through the Capital Region to bigger east coast cities. But after some 200 shows into this gig, they still show no signs of stopping.

“Byrdhouse is unique because we have something for everyone,” Freeman said. “[We] will only continue to expand as more awareness and interest is gained in joining our mission to spread a love of music and community as far as we can.”

To learn more about Byrdhouse Records, including upcoming events, follow them on Instagram: @byrdhouserecords.

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

Photos by: Kiki Vassilakis

| interview: joe masher

one year of reanimating spectrum 8 theatre by TJ Foster

It was the nicest day the Capital Region had seen in months when I spoke to Joe Masher, who was patiently waiting to walk his dogs and take advantage of the fake spring day. The owner of Bow Tie Management was in his home office in Niskayuna, having recently returned from trips to Manhattan and Colorado visiting a few of the independent movie theatres he owns and operates throughout the United States. One of those theatres—and the reason for our chat—is the beloved Spectrum 8 Theatre in the Delaware Avenue Neighborhood, Albany’s Main Street. It’s been one year since Masher was given the keys to the castle, so to speak, after previous owners Scott Meyer, Annette Nanes, and Keith and Sugi Pickard found themselves at a crossroads thanks to the pandemic doing what we all know a pandemic does.

“About ten years ago they wanted to retire, and the company I used to run, Bow Tie Cinemas, had a tentative deal to take it over,” Masher recalls. “That deal fell apart and I was devastated. I wanted the Spectrum so bad; I always did.”

Having begun his career here in Latham in the ‘80s—managing a theatre in the now-defunct Plaza 7— Spectrum 8 always held a soft spot in Masher’s heart. He even shared with me a treasure trove of old printed calendars he’s saved from over the

years. But his fondness for the theatre dates back well before it became the Spectrum, to a nearby theatre called Third Street, a spot Masher frequented often while growing up in the area.

“[Third Street] was owned by those same four partners that started the Spectrum. That was their first theatre. I remember going there to see this little movie called Polyester when it came out and I got this Odorama card—scratch and sniff. You smelled what they were smelling in the movie. I was like, ‘Wow, this theatre is unique.’”

The four-member team eventually acquired a historic, single-screen theatre on Delaware Avenue in the space where today’s Spectrum 8 lives. Over time, they added screens until they got to the eight that still exist today.

It was always a dream of Masher’s to own Spectrum 8, and when it first went up for sale about a decade ago, he was disappointed to lose the opportunity to a more corporate entity,

the Los Angeles-based Landmark The-atres. As he saw it, it was around that time the theatre lost a lot of its charm. Unique things that made the moviegoing experience special were gone. Up until recently, it felt like a shell of the fixture it once was.

“They painted the whole thing black,” Masher notes. “They got rid of the art gallery, got rid of the calendars, got rid of the secret recipe mint brownies and all the other baked goods. They did keep the popcorn, or else they probably would have been run out of town. Maintenance on the building became lax and everything that made it special was gone.”

the number of theatres was able to increase to 60 at its peak. Today, thanks primarily to the aforementioned pandemic, that company has evolved into Bow Tie Management/Scene One Entertainment, which Masher now runs. He owns three theatres in the Capital Region—Spectrum 8, Movieland in Schenectady and Wilton Mall Cinemas in Saratoga— not to mention Huck Finn’s Playland in Albany which has been delighting families for the last ten years.

His goal with Spectrum 8—and with all his theatres—is to deliver an experience that the major chains like Regal and AMC don’t provide, by offering not only more diverse and independent programming, but a personal touch as well. And it seems to be working.

In 2004, Masher joined Bow Tie Cinemas as the company’s COO. At the time, the chain was starting up, having just one location in the US. With Masher’s involvement,

“Spectrum’s had its best year this year in quite a while,” Masher admits. “What I tried to do on day one was bring it back to what I remember. We got the secret recipe brownies from the original owners. We tried to find a bakery but nobody would duplicate the recipe quite right, so my partner started making them. We got a cottage baking permit from Albany County Health Department, and he bakes them here at home. The Art Gallery is back thanks to Albany Standard Gallery, and Annette [Nanes] sponsors it. Showmanship is back. Everything that made it special is back.

“We’re also looking forward to a lot of renovation. We’ve painted the

and moviegoers alike not to abandon the big screen. “In a time in which our world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home,” he declared to a rousing applause.

“He’s our big champion right now, along with Christopher Nolan and a bunch of other filmmakers,” Masher tells me. “We, the National Association of Theatre Owners, of which I’m the President of the New York chapter, are constantly meeting with studios and filmmakers. We’re tasking filmmakers now, asking that their movies play in theatres for a defined window. Pre-COVID, the window that a movie played in theatres before hitting streaming was 74 to 88 days, on average. Now we’re lucky if we get 45.”

theatre back to its original, 1941 art deco colors inside; it looks great. We’re working on the floors now and we’ll work on the parking lot this spring.”

Restoring the theatre is just half the battle though. As is the case with most movie theatres in modern times, getting people to choose to watch films on the big screen

rather than their own televisions is a challenge. It’s quick to blame the streaming services for this decline in attendance, but Masher notes that’s not the entire story.

“Everybody was thinking streaming killed the movie theatre. That’s not necessarily true. The filmmakers realized they could sell [their movies] directly to streamers and recoup their investment like that, rather than taking a risk on a handful of independent theatres around the nation. They didn’t care. They were just glad they got to make their film.”

At this year’s Academy Awards, independent filmmaker Sean Baker tied Walt Disney for most Oscar wins in one night for his Best Picture winning film, Anora. But that wasn’t the biggest headline. Baker used his time on stage to make an impassioned plea for both filmmakers

“We have a discount ticket program that we’re doing. Organizations can buy bulk tickets and resell them to their members, or restaurants can buy a bunch of tickets for a dinner incentive. Those are really, really successful for us.”

It’s safe to say that, for so many of us, movies have touched our lives in a variety of ways. Seeing them in the theatre is an unparalleled experience. I have a terrible memory, and I still remember the first time my parents took me to the theatre almost 30 years ago. In turn, I remember how excited I was to pass that experience along to my daughter, who sat through (most of) Toy Story 3 when she was just two-and-a-half years old.

To bring it all home, Masher invokes Sean Baker one more time:

Some movies don’t even reach that threshold. Some studios will determine if a movie doesn’t hit a certain box office target on opening weekend, they will release it to a streaming service that they themselves own after just a couple weeks. But despite what feels like an uphill battle, Masher remains optimistic about the business he’s in.

“I think people clamor for out of home entertainment. Movie theatres are still the cheapest and the most accessible option.”

With decades of experience, Masher understands the need for theatres to pivot in what they’re offering their communities. He’s found a lot of success in hosting curated events to fill the seats. In March, Spectrum 8 ran a salute to the late, great David Lynch. A couple times a week, they show a selection of classics like Casablanca, and they have a Sound of Music singalong coming up in the Spring. They’re working with a local humane society on a dog and cat film festival. On top of that, partnering with local restaurants and businesses has proven to be a winning formula as well.

“Support your local independent theatres. It’s not just the Spectrum. It’s Movieland, it’s Wilton Mall, it’s the Scotia Cinema. We need all the support we can get to keep delighting audiences for years to come.”

For more information on Joe Masher’s local theatres, including showtimes, visit www.scene1ent.com or www.spectrum8.com

Photo

Photos provided by: Joe Masher

Masher under the marquee, pre-opening

The Spectrum marquee glows bright once again on Delaware Ave.

Masher’s favorite movie, John Waters’ POLYESTER, reopened the Spectrum on 4/24/24 and will play again this April for his 1 year anniversary operating the theater

| interview

connection in context: may design show at context collective art gallery by Dana

If you’ve ever found yourself lurking the comments of an online debate thread, you’ve likely come across this sick burn: “Go touch grass.” Meant as a dismissal towards another person’s argument, it’s essentially saying: get off the internet and go experience the real world. It’s a fair point, but is there a way to reframe that sentiment into something a bit more progressive?

Mariah Kitner and Graciela Monroy, co-curators of the upcoming May design show Connection in Context , are providing the perfect opportunity to get out and experience art that is tangible, special, and rooted in something deeply human.

24 local artists and craftspeople are working in collaboration with one another as part of the springtime show. While it may not be grass they’re

touching, the participants will have their hands in everything from clay, paint, wet felt… whatever their chosen medium. The main purpose of the show is to foster connection between the pieces themselves and the artists that create them.

Set to take place within Context Collective Art Gallery’s main showroom in Troy, Kitner describes the cozy scene: “Twelve of the artists are making stools and twelve of them are making bowls and we’re pairing them together so that it’s a conversation between the stoolmaker and the bowlmaker. We paired them based on their portfolios and how we thought they would harmonize with each other.”

She goes on to describe a long wooden table, which will serve as the central place setting for the bowls and stools. The table itself will be provided by Danny Killion, owner of local reclaimed

Brady

“It’ll be like you’re invited to a really lush dinner party where everyone brought the most random bowls and stools that aren’t necessarily functional. We invited artists to just kind of make it to make it,” Kitner says. This table setting will be displayed opening weekend only. Afterwards, the bowls will be moved to shelves along the perimeter wall of the gallery where their stool counterparts will sit just below them.

A plant swap will also be part of the event, adding a natural and transitory element to the still life quality of the installation. Combining this with the artists’ creations will offer a “reminder of nature’s role in our homes and our lives”. A final layer to the show’s central theme of connection is reflection. Mirrors will adorn the walls of the gallery and invoke a recognition of self within community and nature.

“Through materiality, collaboration and shared ritual, this exhibition is a meditation on how we gather, how we nurture, and how we see ourselves within the fabric of our community,” the co-creators note ahead of the show.

It’s an important message in what continues to feel like a time of growing isolation and loneliness. What Kitner hopes the community will take away from the show and the gallery itself is a third space feeling. A “third space” is any location where people can gather together informally that isn’t their home or work, and provides a feeling of welcomeness and familiarity with those around you.

“A lot of the foundation of why I created the gallery was to foster the arts, to create opportunities for artists, and to connect over art,” Kitner says. “Even just with our open clay play days, we invite the whole community to come in and just touch clay, and if they wanna keep [what they make] great, and if they don’t, that’s fine, too. [The public]

woodworking business Weathered Wood in Troy.

Photo credit: Debi Gustafson

had this opportunity to interact with the arts and engage in the community outside of, you know, a bar or a restaurant.”

In writing this piece, I did a quick mental inventory of all the ways the people around me seek to spend intentional time with one another. In an era where our attention is seen as a powerful form of currency, there’s an undeniable struggle to find the right place and time to connect with others that doesn’t involve spending money or giving into distraction. Crafting and making art is, at least anecdotally, one avenue people routinely feel good immersing themselves in, even though it often demands our full attention to get the most out of it.

“You know, it’s a very scary time right now,” Kitner reflects, “and the rebellious act would be to connect more and to be with each other and resist by having this joy; the art is resistance.”

Kitner runs the gallery with co-founder and artistin-residence, Ash King, and Monroy is an architect and interior designer. Kitner and King have been consistently busy since Context Coll-ective first opened its doors. In addi-tion to shows, King

teaches in-person workshops at the gallery. Context Collective continues to draw curious art lovers of all ages with a variety of shows and workshops that the pair works tirelessly to put together. Kitner and King plan to do monthly turnovers of shows for the first year of operation to create an opportunity for people to come back every Troy Night Out for a new opening.

“We had an opening here [called] Cups in Context, which was a national juried ceramic cup show. We had at least 100 people come through and sold a third of the show opening night.”

Aside from being an artist herself, Kitner has worked professionally within the arts for a number of years. Before opening the gallery in Troy, she worked as an art consultant for several years, connecting with other artists and curating shows in New York City.

“I really loved not only being an artist, but creating opportunities for other artists.”

When asked what she is most excited about regarding the Connection in Context show, she remarked, “Seeing

how each artist actually did collaborate with each other. I think there’s not so much opportunity for artists to collaborate these days without really going out of their way or working with a friend or someone they already know… I love fostering those connections and being a physical space for that to happen.”

In an isolating world where artists may stay holedup alone in their studios or toil over tablets and sketchbooks, it’s important for us to remember that there’s room for everyone at the table.

Participating artists: James Barker, Alta Buden, Ethan Carmody, Kyle Engstrom, Kayden Fitzgerald, Suzy Gerbe, Ron Greico, Julian Goldman, Amanda Michael Harris, Azure Kauikeolani Iversen-Keahi, Danny Killion, Ash King, Mariah Kitner, Grace Knight, Gracelee Lawrence, Jim Lewis, Kim Markel, Eric Meeker, Yiyi Mendoza, Graciela Monroy, Alice O’Neill, Chris Parkinson, Kat Reeder, Tori Rodriguez, Deirdre Shea, Gwen Walsh

For more information on Context Collective and their events visit www.contextclay.com and follow @context.collective.troy on Instagram.

Opening Night: April Troy Night Out, 4/25 6-9pm. Show will be on-view until 5/24. Located at 95 4th Street Downtown Troy, NY.

Photo credit: Debi Gustafson

Photo credit: Debi Gustafson

| interview

shortwave radioband

In the midst of March, when walls of snow still persisted in much of the Capital Region, I hopped in my trusty CRV and drove North – well, I think anywhere above Northumberland is North, but perhaps I’m being dramatic. Regardless, the trek was for a worthy cause: chatting with the members of five-piece rock group ShortWave RadioBand about their upcoming album, the band’s ever-evolving sound, and…aliens?

The band’s new record, frequencies, debuts this spring, but don’t ask them if it’s an EP or full album. As we started the interview, the band debated the issue: “It’s eight songs!” and “But under 30 minutes!” were shouted lightheartedly as each side made its case. This kind of jovial back-andforth felt routine for the crew as we spread out across the band’s practice space. The jokes flew quickly, each person’s unique sense of humor jiving together to create an atmosphere of instant familiarity.

frequencies is a slight departure from the straight rock that the group has been putting out with tracks like “Plastic” and “We’ve Lost Our Minds (But We’re Having Fun).” Guitarists/Vocalists Ryan Shaw and Lonny Eaton took the helm on writing the album, aiming to keep the process organic and fun.

“We didn’t define anything, really,” Lonny began.

“We would send each other a riff idea, a basic audio clip or something, and we’d go off of that,” Ryan explained, delving into all the experimental changes they would make or cool mistakes they decided to keep. “‘Crash Site’ is a perfect example; [Lonny] came up with a riff and we just kept going back and forth, changing little parts until [we said] ‘okay let’s stretch it so it’s at least three minutes…’” (It’s here his giggling bandmates were quick to point out the song barely made it over the twominute mark.)

This open-minded, experimental nature has been a part of the band’s DNA since their days as a trio playing covers. Now writing their own music and taking each idea to its furthest potential, they’ve created a record with tracks that span from reggae to hip-hop to a power ballad to rock.

“I guess we’re still trying to feel it out and that’s okay,” Ryan clarified. “We don’t have to have a definitive sound as long as it’s fun.”

Though only an official group for the last three years, the camaraderie that I witnessed in the practice space illustrated their lengthy years of friendship. And, thankfully it is unable to be confined to those four walls. This energy is on display for audiences in the music video for first single “Crash Site,” directed by bassist

by

Rory Graham

“I just came up with the idea that the narrator, Lonny, has got this serious message he’s trying to tell the people and the people – us [as he gestures to the rest of the band] – are too busy partying to pay attention,” Andy explained. In other words, while Lonny spent hours in front of the camera pretending to yell and throwing papers in the air, the rest of the group had one direction: go party!

This tension between the narrator’s urgency and the lackadaisical nature of the partiers comes through crystal clear in the footage, culminating in an unfortunate surprise for the unwary funlovers (no spoilers, though…you’ll just have to go watch). The lyricism and imagery finds itself

Andy Scullin and filmed by George Paul from Daydreaming Camera.

Photo credit: Elissa Ebersold

in conversation with an earlier non-album track, “Plastic,” through-lines developing as the band broadens their catalog. Lonny explains the connection, saying “with ‘Plastic,’ if you watch the video, there’s this crazy shit happening in the world and that song really doesn’t talk about any of it unless you read between the lines. With ‘Crash Site,’ we kind of wanted to do the opposite, just be very blunt. It’s not necessarily

cohesive when it’s done, but it’s nice to not have every song sound exactly the same.”

For a band that’s been together for a relatively short period of time, the group has a perspective on their own music and the scene that would suggest they’ve been around for much longer.

“I think at this age, we’ve sort of gone through all

beginning, the friendships that we made with these other bands, like Under the Den and E.R.I.E. and The Sugar Hold, we have such strong connections with these guys. In the beginning, it was almost more like, ‘I want to go hang out with my friends.’ Like, I wanted to go to Albany and Troy. It’s totally worth it.”

Building up the community that has accepted

only about aliens crashing or something [like that]. It’s conspiracies and shady governments. Any unexplainable phenomenon that might be awkward with people.”

While there might be a connection between some tracks, the theme of the record actually centers itself in disconnection. “We did talk a lot about themes before everything was finished,” admitted multi-instrumentalist Abby Stone. “But then it really became that everything was uniquely its own, even though it ties back together. The title, frequencies, was like that – all the different things that require frequencies. It will all sound

the adolescent drama that bands go through,” Andy remarked. “No one gets their feathers ruffled. We’re really comfortable doing it for ourselves and for the fun of it.”

While ShortWave enjoys their own company, the camaraderie they’ve found among other bands has been a driving force of their career thus far. Being from the Glens Falls area, they’ve formed strong bonds with lower Capital Region venues and bands, a handful of which are name dropped in an earlier single, “We’ve Lost Our Minds (But We’re Having Fun).”

“At least for me,” Abby chimes in, “I think in the

them, the group has made it their mission to play shows with bands they’ve never shared the stage with before. While they estimate to have a list of 60 or 70 bands as of now, they’re shooting for that tantalizing triple digit mark. That’s got to be some kind of record, right?

Whether it’s perfecting the new record, rocking out with good friends, or hanging out in band practice on a Monday night, the members of ShortWave are, ultimately, grateful and happy to be here. Andy summed things up for the group one last time: “I think the scene rocks, and we just want to thank everybody for paying attention to us, even if it’s just a little bit.”

Photo credit: Amy Klemme

| nonprofit spotlight

breaking the cycle: how mom starts here is empowering parents and transforming communities by Adem Jones

Diapers. Car seats. Cribs. Before a baby even takes their first steps, the cost of parenting can feel like an uphill battle. For families already facing financial hardship, it’s not just overwhelming; it can feel impossible to keep up.

That’s why Mom Starts Here exists. Founded in 2016 by Kyla Schmidt, the Troy-based nonprofit has served over 2,000 individual families spanning Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer, and Oneida counties. Mom Starts Here was born from a personal struggle: as a low-income single mother, Schmidt fought to find the resources she needed in a system that seemed determined to make it harder. Instead of accepting those barriers, she built something better.

“As a working mom, it was difficult for me to find resources that were accessible to me without having to participate in a ten-week class or jump through hoops,” Schmidt explains. “Sometimes you just need material items and not necessarily a class. Those are important too, but in my experience, not being able to find a pack ‘n play, or a crib, or a car seat program that was available to me drove me to start to explore what resources existed and start to design some programs to fill those gaps.”

Originally focused on supporting young mothers, Mom Starts Here quickly expanded to serve all low-income parents facing financial instability.

“The more that I worked with parents in the community, the more I saw that the need wasn’t limited to young moms in particular,” Schmidt says. “The stress of trying to break out of the

cycle of poverty affects so many families. ‘Do I still qualify? Did they cut this? Did they cut that? And if I don’t qualify, where am I going to get what my child needs?’”

That growing demand and those pressing questions shaped Mom Starts Here into what it is today: a lifeline for parents. The nonprofit operates with two key focus areas. One provides essential material items—diapers, pack ‘n plays, car seats, baby carriers, breastfeeding supplies, socks, bibs, and more—through a network of nine baby item sites across the aforementioned four counties, with more launching soon. Families can walk in and grab what they need, no questions asked.

The other side of their work supports parents beyond material needs. They focus on emotional health, coaching, peer support groups, lactation support, potty training, co-parenting guidance, and building strong parent-child relationships. Their Community Baby Showers, held four times a year in partnership with Trinity Alliance, are a major part of that outreach. Schmidt has seen firsthand how the right support can change lives.

“I’ve had moms tell me, ‘You saved my life.’ Sometimes just having someone show up for you when other organizations don’t have the

Photo credit: Tom Miller

capacity or the ability to, makes all the difference. I’ve heard, ‘If I didn’t get this from you, I wouldn’t have been able to find it anywhere.’ And we’re not just talking about diapers. We’ve helped families secure emergency housing, cover move-in expenses, and provide real stability.”

“Sometimes just having someone show up for you when other organizations don’t have the capacity or the ability to, makes all the difference.” – Kyla Schmidt

But the challenges low-income parents face aren’t just about access, they’re about the system itself. “Social services aren’t meeting the actual needs of families,” Schmidt says. “There are so many rules about what you can get help with. And even when there are good policies, they don’t go far enough for the most vulnerable families. Diapers aren’t covered by food stamps or WIC. Most food pantries receive them but don’t stock them because they don’t see it as part of their mission.

“Same with car seats. There’s a government grant for them, but the rules require parents to

get trained on installation, which sounds great in theory, but what if they don’t speak English? What if they don’t have a car? So what’s happening is that some of the people who need these things the most are falling through the cracks.”

Mom Starts Here works to fill those gaps, often through partnerships. They collaborate with Trinity Alliance, Catholic Charities, Connect Center, Schenectady City Mission, the Rotterdam Community Center, and now SUNY Schenectady, where they’re going to be setting up a baby item site in the campus food pantry. Their next initia-tive is a baby item library where families can borrow more age-specific things like high chairs, strollers, and play centers.

For those looking to support the mission, Schmidt emphasizes that there are countless ways to get involved, including through donations and volunteering.

Mom Starts Here is also seeking people who are ready to take an active role in shaping how programs are run. Fundraising, internships, and skills in communications and marketing are also crucial to their success.

Monthly donors are a lifeline for the organization, helping to ensure that chil-dren get the essentials they need. Thanks to the support of monthly donors, several kids in the program can be completely diapered.

Schmidt encourages community members to reach out by clicking the ‘Give’ tab on their website (https://www.momstartshere.org) or via email (volunteer@momstartshere.org) if they’re interested in volunteering. The organization offers a variety of opportunities from sorting donations to helping with fundraising and communications. For those wanting to donate, the nonprofit accepts a wide range of items with drop-off locations in Rotterdam and Albany. Every bit of support helps to strengthen the foundation of this essential work which, at its core, is about breaking the cycle.

“Most of the time, parents living in poverty were children that were living in poverty. They have not had equal access, and us intervening now is the most impactful way to give that generation a leg up,” Schmidt says.

“A parent is the most impactful person in the life of a child. As much as we can give time, effort, and money to education, access to food, and after-school programs, it’s all important… but if you’re not building the parent, the child is still at risk. Giving them what they need and walking with them is the most impactful way to address the crisis that we have in our communities around poverty and children suffering.”

Visit www.momstartshere.org to access resources, sign up to volunteer, donate, or learn more about the organization.

Photo credit: Tom Miller

Photo credit: Tom Miller

| venue spotlight

no fun

One thing that I have discovered about No Fun, having not only seen shows there, but played them as well: It’s the music first.

Last spring, talk began swirling that August Rosa, the owner of No Fun, was looking to sell in order to focus on family and other obligations. The Troy-based venue had very quickly built up a reputation as a popular spot to catch shows, of almost any genre, several nights a week.

The thought of its impending sale did not sit well with a couple of employees, and within weeks, Shane Sanchez and Sean “Tex” Secor started to put a plan into action.

“We wanted to take fate into our own hands instead of waiting for someone to buy it who might fire us because they don’t like how we run it,” says Secor, current co-owner. “We knew we wanted to do something, but we couldn’t do it alone. Then Brian [Garcia, co-owner] reached out to us, and Chris Carpenter from Wizard Burger.”

With the addition of Rachel Freeman, who is the founder of Byrdhouse Records, the team was complete.

In September of last year, they signed the management agreement and began running the venue themselves. While it wasn’t necessarily a secret, the gang did keep it relatively quiet. They started their own company and acquired their own liquor license before officially making any announcement.

“I don’t think we wanted to jinx it and make any kind of announcement before our liquor license came through,” says Secor.

While a lot of local venues that host music will have another focus, such as food, craft beers, and maybe even a TV or two, No Fun is designed

by Andy Scullin

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

very specifically for shows, with everything else just being an added bonus.

“The stage is the first thing you see when you walk in. It’s the focal point of the room, and we weren’t just a bar before. It’s always been just shows, events, and parties. Like, El Dorado would do just fine on a Friday night if they didn’t have a show because they’ve got great food and it’s a cool place to hang.

“This is just, like, a big room,” Tex adds with a laugh.

With the benefit of having already well-established

promoters as owners, No Fun is in the unique position to have not one, but three dedicated promotion outfits that are all centered around No Fun.

“I think we are all our own thing, right?” says Sanchez. “Like, Hey! Greasy presents, Byrdhouse presents, and SuperDark presents. So all of us together is Voltron.”

“That’s actually one of the reasons that I wanted to invest in this space as an outsider,” says Garcia. “I knew that these guys were doing the work and bringing the bands in, and they also have the experience and the network to continue building

the company and making it what it is going to be. We are something right now, but it’s going to be bigger and better.”

For instance, they plan on having more food options available in the future. They currently have hot dogs and other offerings available most nights of the week and will feature some pop- ups as the weather gets nicer. There are also rumblings of expanding the business.

“We have a lease that is eventually going to end, and it would be nice to have our own building to have bigger shows,” Garcia adds, “and keep it to the DIY level of the music scene. It’s something we have to figure out.”

I, for one, have no doubt that they will indeed figure it out and continue to be the hub for not only experimental music in the Capital Region, but for larger regional tours as well

When I asked the gang for a closing statement, there were two sayings uttered by almost everyone in attendance.

One was “Go to shows” and the other was “No Fun versus the world.”

My money is on No Fun.

To keep up with No Fun’s stacked event calendar, visit www.nofuntroy.com

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

Photo credit: Kiki Vassilakis

retro | metro checks in with metroland staffers of yore by Erin Harkes

For this month’s Retro Metro, Erin sat with former Metroland Staffer Joe Putrock. Erin beat her previous record of making the interview about herself when she mentioned HOW she and Joe know one another. Joe photographed Erin’s first Metroland cover in 2005 and has since been one of the more sought-after photographers in the area. He shoots many major events and can be seen regularly in the

Erin Harkes: This is the Mistress of None. My name is Erin Harkes, and my guest today is Joe Putrock. Joe, how are you doing?

Joe Putrock: Well, glad to be here.

EH: I’m glad to have you here.

JP: It’s really good to see you.

EH: Really wonderful to sit and chat with you. We’ve chatted a bit in the past few months, but I feel like we’ve always kind of kept in touch for the most part. But now we’re really talking even more, which has been lovely.

JP: Yeah.

EH: And that is because Joe has…Joe and I actually met - this is a new record for me. I usually tell people to start a timer. How quickly can I make it about me?

JP: You did it. Nailed it.

EH: Joe and I met taking the photo for my very first Metroland cover.

JP: Was that on Pearl Street?

EH: No, it was South Lake.

JP: Oh, South Lake. Okay. Oh, right. South Lake.

EH: South Lake.

JP: I don’t know why. I always pictured it as Pearl Street. And when was that?

EH: Almost exactly 20 years ago.

JP: Who would have thought?

EH: Isn’t that insane?

JP: It’s weird.

EH: When I was 4

JP: When you asked me to do this, I actually had to look up when I worked for Metroland, I had to try and

figure it out because I just. I couldn’t remember. And even just now, I asked, like, when did Metroland go out of business? Because I couldn’t even remember when.

EH: Time is irrelevant now. I can’t believe it was out for nine years. I can’t believe it was on for 40. It. It just. None of it makes any sense to me anymore.

JP: Yeah. Even. Because even when I was working there and I worked there for a while, I probably worked there for 15 years maybe, I think, wow, 10, 15 years.

EH: But you were more in a freelance capacity, weren’t you?

JP: All the photographers were freelance. They didn’t have any full timers. They were all freelance. And, you know, I just thought, like, wow, this is really cool. I’m working here. It was the heyday. It was like those people that you heard working at the Village voice in the 80s. That’s what I felt like. And then I remember talking to my friend Mike and he was like “I used to shoot for them in the 80s”. That must have been cool. With all the bands coming through and 288 Lark all the stuff that you kind of hear about now that’s kind of legend, but I never saw.

He had some just crazy stories about, you know, working for him and shooting for him.

EH: Peter Iselin talks about the first few years of Metroland and how shooting in the 80s was.

JP: I can’t imagine. Yeah, I can’t imagine.

EH: What’s funny is I had a concept for the cover and you had a concept, too. We went and found the cage fence behind the baseball field over on Washington Avenue. You had this whole idea of me standing behind. And we use those pictures on the inside, I think. I had the idea of sitting behind the guitar and having it look like I was topless. I wasn’t topless, but I wanted to create the illusion that I was topless because I’m not that hardcore.

JP: We were looking to move magazines.

EH: We really were.

JP: We wanted people picking it up at every coffee shop.

EH: I started making jokes about how we would have this whole backstory about how we were getting high in my apartment. I had just moved in. There wasn’t even furniture there yet, I don’t

Photo credit: Michael P Farrell

Times Union’s Social Scene.

think so. It’s just, like, funny hardwood floor. But we had. We had a great time that day.

JP: That was always the cool part about working for Metroland was meeting cool people that were on either scene. I was a musician playing drums, and so you were meeting other people that you wouldn’t meet, meeting bands

that you wouldn’t have met, you know, and. And it was always cool because I personally always looked at shooting for Metroland for. For a cover or feature story like that. Not concerts and things like that, obviously, but when you’re shooting a feature or something like that, it was. It was just a collaboration. I’m gonna bring what I bring, and we’re gonna see what they bring, and we’ll see how it works out.

EH: Yeah.

JP: You know, and. And, you know, sometimes it

worked, sometimes it didn’t.

asJoeposesforacoverforonce,dressed Elvis.ShotbyLeifZurmuhlen

EH: And that’s exactly how that happened. You’re like, do you have any ideas? And I was, believe it or not, a little shy, because what I was suggesting was….. I always thought that this would look cool. You were like, “well, let’s try it”.

JP: Yeah. And here we are. Later.

EH: If you’re watching, fully clothed.

JP: Oh, there it is.

EH: If you’re watching.

(LOOKS AT OLD COVER – PICTURED IN ARTICLE)

JP: Wow. Look how young we look. By we, I mean you.

EH: Maybe if you look really closely at the guitar, you can see his crazy reflection. So this is hanging up in my office now. And beneath it is the one from 2015, which is March of 2015, which I actually kind of petitioned for. I was

like, wouldn’t it be fun to. Blah, blah, blah, Like, I’m a comedian.

JP: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

EH: And so then, you know, I was like, well, 2025 is approaching, so I should just bring Metroland back and put myself on the COVER because I -

JP: Have nothing else to do.

EH: I’ve been playing the long game.

JP: You got nothing to do. What are you doing sitting around thinking about, like, what could I be doing to pass the days?

EH: I’ve been playing for nine years. I’ve been playing the long game. I was like, this is what I’m going to do.

To hear the entire interview, visit The Mistress of None at themetroland. com/podcasts!

Photo credit: Joe Putrock

Photo credit: Joe Putrock

| march snapshots

a visual journey across the capital district

by Tom Miller, Debi Gustafson, Kiki Vassilakis and Joe Putrock

| march snapshots

a visual journey across the capital district

by Tom Miller, Debi Gustafson, Kiki Vassilakis and Joe Putrock

| preview

armor for sleep, what to do when you are dead 20th anniversary

March 22, 2002 was the day I attended my first show at Saratoga Winners. My parents had taken me to see Michael Bolton when I was like three, but if I have no memory of it, it doesn’t really count. Plus, it’s not very punk rock to say that my first concert was Michael Bolton.

I was 14 years old and my mom was very apprehensive about allowing me to go. She eventually relented as long as I went with a few friends and my dad stayed the whole time. Again, not very punk rock, but what the hell was I gonna do?

So while my dad posted up at the bar in the back, my friends and I pushed our way up to the front so that we could take part in the pop punk pogo dance. We were all there to see Midtown, a Drive Thru Records

staple whose lead single, “Just Rock and Roll,” began with the lyric, “God I wish I could hate you for the rest of my…” Instead of finishing the line, the opening guitar riff kicked in right there. This was basically crack for angsty teenagers. They just couldn’t get enough.

Also on the bill that night was Boston’s Piebald, whose album We Are The Only Friends We Have remains criminally underrated, Albany’s own Rory Breaker (if you’re reading this, you were awesome every time I saw you), and, at that point, an unknown band from New Jersey. That last band was Armor For Sleep.

While Armor For Sleep was certainly not out of place on the bill, there was something distinct about their sound that made them stand out. The typical distorted guitar tone was frequently replaced with spacey reverb and chorus effects. The guitars were tuned down to

Drop D lending a darker tone to their songs. The usual power chords were replaced with more open sounding octaves. The lyrics weren’t about hating girls because they broke up with you; they were about wandering through your own dreams to escape the harsh realities of waking life. My friends and I were all sold.

Soon after, it was announced that Armor For Sleep had signed to the Albany-based record label, Equal Vision Records. I still like to tell myself that I was there when Armor For Sleep got discovered. I picked up the Equal Vision 2003 Spring Sampler, Doing It For The Kids , and there was “Dream to Make Believe,” one of those same songs I had heard at Saratoga Winners the previous year. Their debut record was released later that summer and it spent a solid year locked into the six-disc CD changer in my parents’ minivan.

By the time their sophomore record, What To Do When You Are Dead, came out in 2005, I had largely moved on to heavier music. The likes of Norma Jean, Underoath and Every Time I Die were now living in that 6-disc CD changer (things move mighty fast when you’re a teenager), but I still had a place in my heart for anything Armor For Sleep was doing. The screamed chorus and bridge of “Stay On The Ground” were right in line with my new music taste and the riffing in both “The Truth About Heaven” and “The More You Talk, The Less I Hear” demonstrated a big leap forward as songwriters.

What To Do When You Are Dead ended up selling more than 200,000 copies and climbed as high as 101 on the Billboard 200 chart. The success of the album led to the band signing with Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group on April 10, 2006. Four years after that show opening for Midtown in the dingy Saratoga Winners, Armor For Sleep had made it.

Fast forward to the present; it’s time for the 20th anniversary tour for What To Do When You Are Dead Armor For Sleep will be back in the Capital Region with support from Boys Night Out, the Canadian-scene stalwarts whose 2003 record, Make Yourself Sick , was a huge favorite, and HelloGoodbye, whose song “Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn” was a big deal during senior year. Step into the time capsule and join Armor For Sleep to celebrate their landmark album’s anniversary at Empire Live on April 6, 2025.

For tickets and more information, visit https://empirelivealbany.com/

Photo credit: Corey Dempsey

| preview

man must explore - leukemia & lymphoma society benefit show by Rory Graham

Clear your schedules for April 19th – Man Must Explore is hosting a benefit show for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and it’s an event you won’t want to miss.

Lead vocalist Ryan Treen is teaming up with longtime friend Era Lika, LLS’ Visionary of the Year for 2025. Lika, who beat Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia as a child, now works to support cancer research at Regeneron. As part of her work as the 2025 visionary, she has organized a variety of fundraisers for her Cancer Free Era campaign. When she reached out to Treen to see if Man Must Explore would be willing to play, a vision immediately began to take shape.

Empire Live was a strategic choice for a venue, says Treen, who wanted to ensure that the night would maintain an authentic feel. Accompanied by both E.R.I.E. and The Snorts, the sets are bound to amp up the energy and volume. “A rock show should feel like there’s a lot of people there; it should feel like you’re shoulder to shoulder and you can really move,” says Treen. Furthermore, tickets are only $20, making this dynamite lineup affordable for all fans – all proceeds will go towards the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

In addition to the music, there will be a silent auction filled with goods from local vendors like Wonder and Grace, Adirondack Packs, and Brick by Brick Whiskey, as well as larger vendors like ONEHOPE Winery.

the community as the show has come together. Pat Catalano, organizer of the Jay Street Farmer’s Market and owner of Adirondack Packs, was a tremendous help in connecting Treen to local

Treen was pleasantly surprised by the positive feedback and readiness to help that he’s found in

businesses and artisans. Empire Live’s own Mike Valente was not only willing to let Treen hold the auction, but immediately offered up his own donation with Brick by Brick.

Connecting the local businesses and musicians was a concept that excited Treen, who is hoping to form and bolster relationships that can support each other.

“It benefits people who are working on their own thing if you can put their thing on a pedestal, too. If we have a forum for people to be able to meet each other and… talk about their brand and their project, whatever that is… there’s so many people doing really cool things. They could really have a lot of fun; I think that people have been really excited about it for that reason.”

If you need any more convincing to grab your tickets, perhaps it’ll intrigue you to know that this is Man Must Explore’s only Albany show for the entire spring – and they’re putting out a new single the day before. At this point, what are you waiting for? Support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while having yourself a topnotch Saturday night.

Tickets can be purchased from all three bands for $15 or online through Ticketmaster for $20. To buy tickets online visit empirelivealbany.com or manmustexplore.com.

To learn more about Era Lika, the 2025 LLS Visionary of the Year, and the Cancer Free Era campaign, visit https://pages.lls.org/voy/uny/alb25/elikak

| preview

just a little music festival by

Andy Scullin

If you would have told me 30 years ago that in the near future one would be able to just walk into a store and have their choice of marijuana in any form or potency, and it was totally legal, I would not have believed you. If you would have added that one of these “marijuana-stores” would be putting on a huge 420 hip-hop show at the Knickerbocker Arena (remember, this is 30 years ago, MVP Arena didn’t exist yet) with Method Man, Redman, Ghostface, Raekwon, Remy Ma and more, I would have deemed you crazy. Maybe called an exorcist.

But, here we are in the spring of 2025, and Just A Little Higher Dispensaries is doing just that. Just A Little Music Festival: Smokers Edition is rolling up to MVP on the most appropriate date ever, April 20.

Featuring the hip-hop juggernauts above, this blazing 420 show is destined to give all of downtown Albany a contact high.

Forming in 1992 and releasing Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) —one of the most legendary rap albums of all time—just a year later, WuTang Clan has dominated the conversation of influential New York artists ever since. From solo careers, acting, movie scores, and a near-infinite list of other achievements, Wu-Tang Clan have nearly every corner of entertainment covered. But for me, Method

Man’s collaborations with Redman will always be at the top of the list.

Maybe it was just the moment in time that left an imprint, but the memory of waiting in below-zero temperatures for over an hour, wearing nothing but street clothes, to go see Method Man & Redman will always be burnt into my mind as one of my favorite nights of all-time. Even if my frostbitten toes disagreed.

Whether or not Method Man & Redman will play songs off the 1999 Blackout! album, or the 2009 ‘sequel’, Blackout! 2 remains to be seen, but with a lineup this deep, there is literally no way you can go wrong.

Take Remy Ma, for instance. Not only was she discovered by Big Pun, but she was also a member of Fat Joe’s Terror Squad. Terror Squad’s hit “Lean Back”, which featured Remy Ma and Fat Joe, spent three weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2004.

Again, this lineup is as packed as you can get.

Doors for this show, naturally, open at 4:20 pm. Tickets start at $75. For more information and tickets, visit https://www. mvparena.com/events/detail/ jalmf

Just A Little Higher dispensaries have four locations in NYC, and operate 420 Bliss on Hoosick Street in Troy. For more information on Just A Little Higher, visit www.justalittlehigher.com

| preview

mista pigz - am i tripping? release party at no fun by Adem Jones

Albany’s own Mista Pigz is set to release his latest project, Am I Tripping?, with a live show at No Fun in Troy on April 5. The nine-track album, produced entirely by Milkshake Godfather, is set to show off Pigz’s signature mix of sharp lyricism, raw honesty, and no-bullshit delivery, proving once again why he’s such a force to be reckoned with in the Capital District rap scene.

The first single, “Bad Decisions,” is already out, giving listeners a taste of the album’s sound. It’s gritty, unfiltered, and packed with storytelling that makes Pigz stand out. The track has an incredibly smooth delivery and paints a vivid picture over Milkshake Godfather’s production, which combines old-school hip-hop with a contemporary twist.

The rhythm drives the track forward effortlessly, the flows switch up naturally, and Pigz comes through with hard-hitting lyrics. Flexing his pen with masterful rhymes, clever wordplay, and raw storytelling, Pigz gives that old-school feel without sounding dated. Mixed and mastered by Shyste Chronkyte (who is also featured on the project), the album keeps it raw and unpolished in the best way–no gimmicks, no chasing trends, just doing what it does.

The album release show isn’t just about Am I Tripping? though; it’s a full-scale takeover of No Fun, bringing together some of the best in the area. Hanzo Bladez, ELLZZ, Capital City Crook$, Sime Gezus, Beat Behemoth, and Xkwisit will all take the stage before Pigz, making this one of the strongest lineups Troy has seen in a minute.

about the artists who actually put in the work, build from the ground up,and don’t wait for permission to take up space.

This isn’t just another showcase, this is Capital District hip-hop at its best. It’s a reminder that Upstate New York has something real happening, beyond the noise of mainstream trends. This is

Mista Pigz has built his name on persistence and consistency, on sharp writing, on not giving a fuck about what’s expected. Am I Tripping? is another statement in that legacy and this release show is about bringing that energy to a live audience, celebrating his talent and success, as well as those of his peers in the hip-hop scene.

If you’re into physical music and miss the feel of a CD in your hands, you’ll want to grab one

of the CD copies of Am I Tripping? that will be available at the show, along with limited edition merch that won’t be sold anywhere else. In an era where everything is disposable, this is something to actually hold onto.

No Fun is located at 275 River Street Troy, NY. Doors open at 6:00 PM and advance tickets are available now on Eventbrite for $11, including fees. For more info, follow Mista Pigz on Instagram (@mistapigz518)

Photo and graphics provided by Mista Pigz

| live

a night of simon and garfunkel at cohoes music hall

I never know if it sounds cool or if it ages me to start stories with, “When I was listening to my mother’s record collection…”.

Oh well.

One of my earlier musical memories was going through my mother’s record collection. I was always particularly drawn to anything with compelling and intricate harmonies. I’d play them and sing along at the top of my lungs. And any song moving forward without harmonies would get the treatment. Surely one of my more annoying habits and thanks to Fleetwood Mac, CCR, my mother and Simon and Garfunkel.

To be fair, these acts were before my time, so before you start doing the math, let me qualify: While my friends were listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna, I was deeply submerged in Central Park, Slip Sliding Away to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel. Considering the deep awe I have for The Concert in Central Park , I can promise I attended the tribute show at Cohoes Music Hall with a healthy dose of skepticism.

In truth, while it’s relatively easy to stage a tribute show, creating one that resonates deeply requires talent, thought, and genuine passion—and that’s precisely what was on display Saturday night. All skepticism was quickly rendered unwarranted.

“A Night of Simon and Garfunkel” marked local songstress Zan

Strumfeld’s third tribute event, following her previous successful shows dedicated to Joni Mitchell and Carole King – both admirable undertakings.

One might expect a Simon and Garfunkel tribute show to conclude or encore with “Sound of Silence”, arguably one of the group’s most iconic songs. When this sold-out show started with it instead, we all collectively knew we were going to experience something truly special.

Strumfeld was joined by her brother, Dave, for this initial song; remarkably, it was their first time singing together, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from their flawless performance.

Next up was Drank the Gold, starting with a lesser known Garfunkel track, “Dream Alone”, followed by a few other charming deep cuts for the true fans, and the more recognizable “Scarborough Fair” thrown in for good measure.

Following them were Chris Carey and Mike O’Donnell, who jokingly expressed concern about the difficulty of performing “America”— only to dominate the song with ease. The duo covered some of the more familiar hits like “Mrs. Robinson” and

“Homeward Bound” and, much like the voices they were paying tribute to, it was hard to tell where one voice started and the other stopped.

After the intermission, Strumfeld was joined by fellow female phenoms of the capital region: Raya Malcolm (of Hold on Honeys), Oona Grady (from Drank the Gold), and Caity Gallagher. Together, they delivered an emotional rendition of “Kathy’s Song.”

Soon after, the acts were accompanied by an all-star band comprised of Pat Parkinson on bass, Joe Woodul on drums, John Drabik on guitar and Dan DeKalb on keys.

Caity Gallager was the first to front the backing band, but DeKalb took much of the lead on the singing – a first-time delight for audiences (and hopefully not the last). His voice suited this tribute to the point you thought he may have just been doing a well-honed impersonation. They opened the set with a soothing rendition of “April Come She Will” before moving onto some more upbeat hits like “The Boxer” and “Graceland” before closing with Gallagher taking lead on “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.

by Erin Harkes

I would have never thought there was a way to improve on Simon and Garfunkel until Raya Malcolm and Michael Gregg took the stage and offered an element of whimsy which made you realize how humorless the original duo was. Something you didn’t even think you needed until you got it. Gregg made a point of steering the ship towards the Simonled tunes almost as if by design to bookend the earlier Garfunkel deep cuts. Whether it was planned or not, it just worked in a beautiful, full circle kind of way. They covered “Song for the Asking”, “The Only Living Boy in NY”, “At the Zoo”, ”American Tune”, and aptly closed with “Still Crazy After All These Years”.

Throughout the night, the performances were interspersed with fun facts about Simon and Garfunkel and the historic Cohoes Music Hall— perhaps most notably that the duo was originally known as “Tom and Jerry,” that they recorded their first album at the tender age of 15, and that the theater has a resident ghost named Eva that keeps everyone company.

One of my favorite parts of the night was watching Strumfeld take a step back, standing at the back of the theater, soaking in the magic of what she created like a proud mother. All of the performers took to the stage for the final song – “Cecelia” – before bidding us adieu, leaving us all entertained, delighted and curious as to what tribute we’re going to get next from the very talented soul of Zan Strumfeld.

Photo credit: Debi Gustafson

| hot singles

the mc taylor goldsmith show at the egg by James Mullen | live

At one point early in their set at the Hart Theatre inside The Egg, Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith took a moment to praise those who turned out on a Tuesday night in upstate New York for an evening with himself and MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger: “It’s a weeknight; the headlining duo doesn’t start until 9PM… this is a big commitment you’ve signed up for!”

This prompted some warm laughter from the

audience, something that was a common occurrence throughout the evening as the duo teamed up with opener Jonny Fritz for “The M.C. Taylor Goldsmith Show” – an intimate singersongwriter experience in a room that was engineered to be the perfect place for it.

Fritz kicked things off in a pair of golden-glitter shoes, quipping that he wasn’t even originally supposed to be on this tour. He was immediately funny and endearing, and demonstrated a keen ability to write a fun and relatable song on “Tea

Man” (an ode to his love of the beverage), a trait only bolstered with each successive offering on songs like “Stadium Inn” and “Trash Day”.

His wry sense of humor had us all along for the ride as he took us through some true life experiences such as witnessing dirty looks exchanged between coworkers at Walgreens, being exposed to racist and conspiracy-minded relatives, forgetting to put out the trash, and witnessing some strange things through hotel windows while in traffic. It also happened to

Photo credit: Debi Gustafson

be his birthday, and a showgoer revealed this by delivering him a small cake and a birthday card; this prompted a first for me, as the entire crowd broke out into an impromptu rendition of “Happy Birthday” in one of the more wholesome moments I’ve witnessed at a show.

After a brief intermission, the Taylors emerged on the stage. Instead of each playing their own solo set, this tour has seen them sharing the stage and trading the lead as they took turns performing songs from each of their extensive catalogs. While both are better known as the frontmen and lead guitarists of their respective bands, they’ve gotten an opportunity to delve into their deep catalogs in a new way with nothing but their voices and guitars. This led to some of the most unique performances of these songs that fans of the duo could ever experience, marking a truly memorable experience for fans of both bands.

Their vocals complemented each other well, and the way Goldsmith’s polished and clean vocals blended with Taylor’s grittier sound in a way where both stood out but also elevated each

other was immediately palpable on the opening Hiss Golden Messenger tune, “Gulfport You’ve Been On My Mind,” and continued through the harmonies on the second song, Dawes’ “Million Dollar Bill”.

The evening’s warm tone continued with anecdotes of connections to local institutions like Union College, author William Kennedy, and a past dinner at Ferrari’s in Schenectady that became an all out conversation with those in attendance; we were all cordially invited to join them later on for spaghetti and meatballs after the show.

Although this was a duo set, both artists got some time in the spotlight for a brief, intimate solo interlude. For Taylor, this included a sneak preview of some songs from the upcoming Hiss Golden Messenger Album, being recorded in Woodstock just under an hour from Albany. Goldsmith used this opportunity to showcase a new song of his as well, written for and dedicated to his children in a truly moving moment for all of the parents in the room.

The duo reunited to close things out, with spirited renditions of Hiss Golden Messenger’s “Heart Like a Levee” and Dawes’ nostalgia-filled anthem, “All Your Favorite Bands,” giving us perhaps the most beautiful well-wish we as music lovers could ever receive: “May all your favorite bands stay together…”. Rounding out the evening was a slowed down, stripped back version of Neil Young’s protest anthem “Rockin in the Free World” which delivered a cathartic and poignant singalong from many in the crowd.

Taylor Goldsmith and MC Taylor brought their very best VH1 Storytellers impression to Albany on a warm, early Spring Tuesday, and they were able to take the warmth of the warmest day of the season and inject it into a truly tremendous performance. It felt like hanging out in your friends’ living room and having them play you some of the songs they’ve been working on. They left their fans with an experience they won’t soon forget, with versions of their songs that no one will be able to experience anywhere else.

Photo credit: Debi Gustafson

| ask becky

by Becky Daniels

Becky Daniels is the Founder and Chief Romance Officer of Micropolitan Matchmakers, the first locally-based singles event and matchmaking company in the Capital Region. Each month, Becky tackles reader questions about dating and relationships. Submit your question to askbecky@themetroland.com

Q: I’ve gone on a couple of dates with someone I met on the apps, and while the dates have been fun and she’s really nice, I’m just not sure if there’s that ‘spark’ I’m looking for. On paper it feels like this should be great - we line up on a lot of things like wanting to get married and have kids and we have similar values. But… should my feelings be stronger by now? How long should I realistically date someone before I know if it could ‘go somewhere’? I don’t want to waste her time, or mine.

- No Spark in Saratoga

Dear No Spark:

In a culture full of movies, shows and stories that tell us we should be “head over heels” with someone and feel an instant “spark” when we meet - it’s natural to start to question yourself and the person you’re with if you don’t feel that right away. But, “the spark” is actually BS! For one thing, it can and often does grow over time and, more importantly, we can feel attraction and “spark” with plenty of people who would actually be terrible partners for us!

I’m not saying that attraction and chemistry aren’t important - but if you’re so focused on what’s missing (immediate spark) vs. what’s possible (a slow burn and growth in feelings) - you’re setting yourself up for dis-

appointment. It sounds like you align in a lot of areas which is great - now, on your next date try and take a step back and ask yourself how this person makes you feel when you’re with them, do you find yourself wanting to know more about them?

If the answers to those questions are positive - the best way to see if chemistry can grow is to give it a try! Hold hands, increase your playful touch, hug…kiss! We’re often afraid to take these steps with someone in fear of “leading them on” - but dating is basically one big experiment to see what (and who!) can ultimately work best for you. You don’t owe anyone a full-blown relationship simply because you hug or kiss. These are tools you can use to see if a deeper, physical connection is possible.

If after a couple of dates (3-5) and some level of physical connection you are still feeling unsure, trust your gut and let them go. It doesn’t feel good to end something that you feel like SHOULD be good, but if you gave things a try and it’s just not there - it is better for both of you to move on and create space for someone who you can grow that attraction with.

Q: With the current political climate, it feels really important to know where someone stands on certain issues before getting too invested or involved. However, I’m honestly

terrified of bringing up politics on a first or second date and creating an awkward or even hostile situation. How do I navigate these conversations without ruining a potential connection? Is there a polite way to ask about politics without sounding confrontational?

- Worried in Waterford

Dear Worried:

I encounter this question and issue so often and we are in a particularly fragile time when it comes to these conversations - a lot of people have a lot of very strong feelings about what is going on in our country and the world (very rightly so!).

For those on dating apps - this is a bit easier to navigate when people are up front about it on their profile. But, even on an app, it can still be hard to know someone’s value system when it’s boiled down to being defined by which box they check.

When you meet in real life it can be harder to gauge where someone stands. But, where I always like to start regardless of whether you’re meeting online or IRL - is with asking about values. Talking with someone about what their values are and how they live those values can give you a lot of information. I also find that sharing a bit about yourself and then asking

them a question based on that can be a great tool. For example, “I really like being involved in my community - I volunteer once a month at the Food Bank. Are you involved in any community organizations?” can give you a lot of information about what is important to someone without digging immediately in to “what are you registered as?”

While it feels very “us vs. them” in the world right now - in my experience talking with people every day who are looking for love - most people are far more nuanced in their beliefs and are seeking people who are willing to have dialogue even when they may disagree about some things. And that gives me hope!

All of that said - it’s important to know yourself and your boundaries in these conversations and remember that it’s OK to let someone go if your core values and beliefs don’t align. And, it should go without saying, that if someone gets heated or angry at a question or something you offeryou can and should exit the situation immediately. Anyone who would do that is definitely not your person (and probably needs to do some self-work before going on any more dates).

Singles events listed on the next page!

| savage love

come and go

I have a problem that I’m not sure can be solved. I’m a single gay man who hasn’t touched anybody for sixteen years. Yes, you read that right: I haven’t touched another person for sixteen years. Sit with that for a couple of moments. Most people don’t believe me. I did something stupid in 1998 and had sex in a hot tub. I ended up having surgery because of an infection and ever since when I ejaculate, what comes out is a combination of sperm and urine because an internal flap no longer closes to stop the urine. The urologist and my surgeon said there was nothing they could do to fix the problem. I did not realize that sex in a hot tub was an extremely risky sexual activity. (You should warn people.) Men find this absolutely disgusting. I can’t repeat some of the things I have been told when I’m trying to be honest with a partner. What advice or suggestions do you have to explain this to potential partners even though I’ve said I want to please them only. Please give me some help as to what to say. Any advice helps.

Canadian Urgently Missing Sex

Having sex in a hot tub — having penetrative sex in a hot tub — is riskier than having sex on dry land or damp mattress or hard countertop. Heavily chlorinated water dries out sensitive tissues, making abrasions and STI transmission more likely, and water containing potentially harmful bacteria can be forced into the urethra during intercourse, heightening the risk of urinary tract infections in both men and women. (Best practices: get horny in a hot tub, get out to fuck, get back in when you’re done.)

With that warning out of the way, CUMS, can I ask when you last spoke to a doctor about your condition?

The “little flap” that contracts during ejaculation

preventing semen from shooting into the bladder and/or urine from exiting the body with semen — is called the internal urethral sphincter. While artificial urinary sphincters have been available for more than fifty years, the doctors you saw back in 1998 might not have been aware of them. (According to the Mayo Clinic , many doctors today aren’t aware of them.) It’s also possible you weren’t a good candidate for the artificial urinary sphincters available in 1998, CUMS, but these devices have gotten smaller (and the surgery has gotten less invasive) over the last three decades, and you might be a good candidate for a new model. You should make an appointment to see a specialist and talk about your condition.

While you wait for that appointment, CUMS, you also might wanna seek out different kinds of gay and bi men, online and off. There are lots of queer men out there into “no recip ” oral. If you were to meet up with a guy who just wanted to get serviced — if you hooked up with a guy who wanted to get head without having to reciprocate — you wouldn’t have to mention your condition in advance of your first meeting; since you won’t be coming on, in, or near him, he doesn’t need to know that your ejaculate comes mixed with piss.

There are also plenty of guys out there who are into piss, and if I were to biohazard a guess, CUMS, I’d say a statistically significant percentage of those guys would view your condition not as a tragic defect, but as an exciting superpower. Leading with this fact about yourself on kink or kink-friendly hookup sites might attract so much positive attention, CUMS, that you don’t wanna get an artificial urinary sphincter after all.

I am a pansexual non-binary FTM. I am able to have two types of orgasms. One is a squirty juicy wet orgasm and the other is a full body orgasm that makes my clit throb. Squirty orgasms come easy and often but I’ve only experienced

by Dan Savage

the clit throbbers during solo play — with two exceptions: only my ex-wife could give me this kind of climax until I met a guy on Grindr. I update my Grindr profile depending on what I’m looking for on any particular night, and on the night I met this Grindr guy I was only looking to be eaten out. I arrived at his place and he got down to business immediately. He was patient, he was deliberate, he was rough, and it was… WOW! I had a rare, fullbody, clit-throbbing orgasm! It was amazing. Then, as I was leaving, I saw the Trump flag hanging in his room. It was hanging on the wall directly behind me and I did not see it — I could not see it — while I was being eaten out. It was a Trump 2016 flag — not that it matters. (A Trump flag is a Trump flag.) So, what do I do? I suppose I can do nothing and just never meet up with the guy again, but what do I do about my conscience?

Feeling Low About Grindr Situation

P.S. We exchanged phone numbers before I saw the flag.

You may have accidentally discovered a new way for people into ruined orgasms to get their kink on, FLAGS: strategically positioned Trump flags. I don’t think it matters whether they’re Trump 2016, 2020, 2024 or 2028 flags, the effect will be the same: a post-nut yuck powerful enough to ruin whatever yum came first.

For the sake of your conscience, FLAGS, send a text to the Trump supporter that says something like this: “None of that would have happened I would never have let you go down on me — if I’d seen that Trump flag on your wall before we got started.” Then take a screenshot of his Grindr profile, if you can still see it, and share it — privately — with other trans men you know personally, FLAGS, so they don’t wind up having the same jump scare you did. Then block his phone number and block him on Grindr.

P.S. Next time you show up in a strange man’s apartment for no-recip oral, FLAGS, do a quick 360-degree turn — a little pirouette — before he drops to his knees.

P.P.S. There’s no need to steal Trump flags to ruin orgasms. There are plenty in the trash already, deposited there by Americans — not our best — who already regret voting for Trump.

My husband’s best friend turned into one of my best friends. This best friend of ours recently started dating a woman. We were supportive of their relationship at first, even though he was joining as the third guy in a polyamory relationship. After a few months, their relationship went from polyamorous to monogamous. Our friend met his new girlfriend’s kid very early in the relationship, even spending the night after only knowing this woman for a couple of months. Within six months of dating, they shared the kid’s toothbrush on a vacation. They didn’t say they boiled the toothbrush or took any measures to clean the toothbrush until weeks later when they were pressed on it. This is when we started to distance ourselves because we felt this behavior showed a lack of respect for this child. We had a severe falling out due to this. Now they are engaged, and it raises even more concerns for us. How do we proceed? Should we stop even wanting to reconcile? Should we try to be the voice of reason about oral hygiene?

Unhygienic Gross Humans

While I got letters about grosser things this week, yours was the most surprising letter that came in the mail for two reasons: first, that your friend would tell you about using this child’s toothbrush on vacation and, second, that you would write to me — a sex-advice columnist — about your friend using this child’s toothbrush.

For the record, UGH, I agree that introducing a child to a new partner after two months is inadvisable — which is why I’ve always advised against it — and using someone else’s toothbrush on vacation because you forgot your own is equal parts gross and unnecessary. Most hotels make disposable toothbrushes available to guests who forgot their own, UGH, and even if your friend and his girlfriend weren’t at a hotel that offered toothbrushes, they could’ve gone without brushing their teeth for a single night and gotten

new toothbrushes for themselves at the nearest pharmacy or truck stop in the morning.

To be perfectly honest, UGH, I don’t really care whether you reconcile with your friend or not, just please spare me from any and all updates about your friend’s oral hygiene going forward.

I am a proud kinkster in a city with a vibrant kink community, but I am worried that my community doesn’t know how quickly it could find itself at risk. I see friends grandstanding online about crackdowns on poppers, while ignoring broader attacks by the Trump administration on fundamental rights. I understand the former makes for a better social media post, but with the government deporting legal residents who were not accused of crimes, performing armed takeovers of private entities, and scapegoating trans people, we have more to worry about than poppers. How long before Folsom attendees face legal jeopardy for public indecency? Democrats can barely stand up for Social Security. What makes us think they’ll go to bat for kinksters? Am I wrong in thinking queer and kink organizations need to be sounding the alarm?

Rights Under More Pressure

Both houses of Congress, private universities, powerful law firms, professional baseball — the list of groups that have caved to Trump grows longer every day. So, I don’t think the organizers of gay fetish events like Folsom or Darklands (or straight ones like DomCon or RopeCraft for that matter) have the power to stop Trump. If there’s a silver lining here, RUMP, it may be the huge numbers of kinky people who didn’t feel like they needed to hide over the last couple of decades. If you can’t hide, you have to fight… and with the receipts already out there — social media posts, personal ads, gear purchases) — there’s no hiding now.

Here’s the single most important thing organizers of kink events can do: keep organizing great events that bring even more people out. Events help create community — which is a good thing unto itself — but they also create opportunities for activists to inform, organize, and activate people they might not be able to reach otherwise, which is absolutely crucial at a moment like this. (A tip for activists: DO NOT treat people having fun at fetish events or parties like they’re doing something wrong. If you want people to show up

at your demonstration — or call their members of Congress or raise money for abortion funds or defend their undocumented neighbors — don’t tell them they have to pick between the party where you found them and demo where you want them. Scolds drive people away from movements, they don’t bring them in.)

Speaking of protests: The protests at Tesla dealerships have been fun, effective, and cathartic —as Tesla’s cratering stock price and Trump’s pathetic Tesla infomercial at the White House both demonstrate — and there are nationwide protests scheduled for April 5. For more information (and to find out about your local demo) go to HandsOff2025!

P.S. Please don’t vandalize Teslas. Trump’s DOJ is throwing the book at people who vandalize Teslas and it turns out Elon Musk’s shitty cars are selfvandalizing, as we learned last week when every single Tesla Cybertruck ever sold was recalled after pieces of them kept falling off. So, there’s no need to risk being sent to a prison in El Salvador when you see Incel Caminos parked on your block. Give Elon’s shitty cars a minute and they’ll fall apart on their own.

Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love!

Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan!

Of the Atlas The Spirits of Water Street by Natalie St. Denis | listen here

On March 15, Catskillsbased indie rock band Of the Atlas released their album The Spirits of Water Street. This record offers a taste of something for everyone as the band, founded by Jay Woodruff, explores various sounds and styles, both instrumentally and vocally.

They say not to judge a book by its cover, but the album artwork automatically drew me in with its cool, blue tones and glimpses of pink creeping in the corners. There appears to be a reflection of water overlaying an x-ray-type composition.

The song titles are equally as intriguing, offering a short and sweet, yet impactful tease into the themes within. “Tire Fire,” “Time and Space,” and “Hypothesis” stood out to me.

Upon hitting play, my first impression was that of a strong, polished composition of work – the first notes are hard-hitting and the first track begins to pick up pace. I also enjoyed the brief pause that led into the guitar solo, setting up the shredding to come.

The second track slowed things down, adding a contrasting tone to the fast tempo of the opening song. However, the change of pace didn’t feel awkward. The melancholy mood it set worked well and added depth to the storyline.

By the third song, the drums were heavy-hitting and heard in their full capacity, producing catchy beats. This song, titled “Demons,” talks of facing internal problems with lyrics like, “I guess I had to face my demons. Some will come and go. But this moment’s never leaving.” These words start to invoke more vulnerability in the theme through the lyrics and high-ranging vocals.

“Resolution,” is the fourth track on the record and also has the shortest runtime. Clocking in at just 1 minute and 28 seconds, this instrumental piece shows a different side to the record. There

are some underlying fun, synthy vibes. The song helps show the multitude of sounds and genres Of the Atlas can hit. I appreciated that this song provided a break between the longer tracks sandwiched around it. It portrayed the message that the band’s instrumental sound is so strong and clean that they can ditch the lyrics for a second and let it shine through.

Track five was one of my personal favorites. I feel as though it was crafted with a certain vulnerability that listeners can easily connect with. The lyrics, pace, and tone of vocals work in a sort of perfect trifecta to convey the deep, emotional message of having a person in your life that provides support and meaning so much so that you lose track of space and time when in their presence. The fun echo effect used sparingly in the vocals really drove the theme home without overdoing it in a cheesy way.

“Starting Point” was next in the queue and put a spotlight on the bass, which kicked things off with force and conviction. This offers another instrumental soundbite into the chemistry of all the different functioning parts of the band. A fakeout about 2 minutes into the track suggests the jam might be over, but it picks up again as if to say, ‘Hell no, we aren’t done yet!’

The longest and second to last song on the album is titled “I’m Ready.” All 6 minutes and 22 seconds are raw and emotional, but hopeful in nature.

Wrapping things up was the eighth piece, featuring a heavy-hitting instrumental showcase, with notes of techno sounds. The drums are so intentional in this song and were honestly pretty mesmerizing layered over ethereal guitar riffs.

Of the Atlas’ The Spirits of Water Street offers a diverse listening experience. The overarching theme of working through hardships is confidently supported by the strong vocals and catchy riffs in the tracks. The breakdowns and guitar solos featured part way through many of the songs are nothing short of impressive and make it easy to imagine a crowd getting down and rocking at a live show. Every song on this record is intentional and firmly holds its place in the band’s solid and moving composition of work.

Photo

artist

| arts & culture

rally for the arts advocates for increased statewide funding in support for arts and culture by Corey Aldrich

On Tuesday, March 25 at 11:30 AM, a statewide coalition of arts and cultural groups convened for a Rally for the Arts on the 4th Floor Lobby of the Senate Chambers to amplify the need for larger investment in the state’s creative economy. The rally, hosted by NYS Senator José M. Serrano and NYS Assembly Member Ron Kim, was organized by New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, ArtsNYS and gave voice to a number of organizations from across the state who converged at the event.

Arts and cultural organizations and institutions have a proven track record of driving economic growth across the state. Cultural centers anchor communities, make streets safer and more vibrant, and increase compassion, and conversation across differences. Arts and cultural activity drive street traffic to local businesses, strengthen communities, and provide programs for youth and elders. Additionally, a significant volume of tourism depends on the strength of arts and culture venues and programming. A NYS Comptroller’s report found that of the $74B tourists spent statewide in 2019, 12% went to “arts, culture, and entertainment”, and the other 88% went to: hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and local transport.

According to NYS Governor Kathy Hochul, “New York’s creative sector is a key driver of economic growth that employs hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. It supports core industries including tourism, retail, and hospitality.” In this time when so much is at stake, New York should continue to increase investment in this proven and resilient core of our economy, our communities, and of all that makes New York a great place to live.

As an arts and cultural center of the world, NYS is in a unique position to stand up for the First Amendment, for art, and for the joy that creative practice and industries provide. With federal funding for arts and education at risk, NYS must act forcefully to ensure a future where new ideas are encouraged, and compassion is fostered.

As such, the collective ask to the legislature was to increase funding to NYSCA to a level of $200M. This recommendation included:

$150M for programs in order to fully support the thousands of arts organizations doing critical work across the state. NYSCA’s budget has been far below funding levels in the 1990s in real dollars. It has begun to grow in recent years, and the investment has more than paid off. NYSCA’s system of Statewide Community Regranters (SCRs), a backbone of support for community based arts and entertainment programming, must continue to grow in funding so that every city and town in the state receives the local investment needed to thrive.

$50M for capital project funding is needed for restoration of the state’s cultural infrastructure. It is our famed cultural institutions that provide lifeblood to our towns and cities and draw visitors and residents to our state.

In addition there was a focus for Arts in Education and Cultural Equity support. NY is one of only 18 states that doesn’t include arts in the core curriculum. As federal funding for education is at risk, we must ensure arts and the improvements in educational outcome they bring, are not sacrificed. This could be accomplished in part throught he codification of music and arts in the educational curriculum.

Furthermore, a recommendation to support the Board of Regents request to a) Allocate $300,000 to study gaps in arts education, and analyze arts education access statewide; b) Restore $2M to Summer Schools of the Arts; and c) Appropriate $12M (as proposed by both the Senate and Assembly) to ensure the Museum, Library, and Archives’ ability to safeguard our state’s heritage.

And finally, it was a recommendation of the group that the leaders in the Assembly and Senate that New York consider allocating resources for an intergovernmental, Statewide Creative

Economy Plan to better understand how to distribute resources and create a map to better understand how to advance this work on a statewide level.

The creative workforce has a disproportionate influence on the overall quality of life in our communities, a kind of force multiplier. This can be seen in the revitalization of cities and towns across the state that are frequently built on the foundation of arts and culture and specifically the artists that form these collectives, companies, organizations and institutions. Where arts thrive, economic growth occurs. There is a reason why many real estate developers chase the hot spot locations of creative economy workers, where we are, is where everyone else moves towards.

The state’s arts and cultural institutions and the people, organizations and companies who are a part of the creative economy provide an outsized benefit to our communities and state that needs to be recognized and built upon with practical support to maximize the unrealized benefits that are proven to manifest when given the opportunity to do so.

Photo credit: Liz Reiss

| art murmur

troy waterfront farmers market murals at the atrium by Dana Brady

If you’ve visited the Atrium over the last few months, you’ve likely observed artists hard at work amongst the bustling Troy Waterfront Farmers Market; rolling up their sleeves, laying down tarps, and beautifying their corner of the indoor space. The Atrium, which has served as the winter location for the market over the past two decades, has been given new vibrancy thanks to the coordination of fellow local artist Kayla Jolin and market manager, Steve Ridler. Over 20 murals and sculptures were commissioned as part of the project and a special Mural Art Night is set to take place during Troy Night Out on Friday, March 28. The event will include atrium tours, artist meet-and-greets, and a reception with vendors and music.

The new murals have given the former shopping mall’s space a cohesive, communitycentered feel. Naturally, the murals feature a rainbow of fruits and vegetables as well as regional, Troy-centric landmarks and themes. Jolin worked with local artists as well as Troy High School students to transform the space. The market is a community staple that supports local farmers, makers, shopkeepers, and restaurant owners, as well as musicians and performance artists. The mural project is a welcome and refreshing change to a familiar and beloved scene.

scheduled for Friday, March 28, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Atrium during Troy Night Out. Organized with the Troy Business Improvement District (BID), the Arts Center of the Capital Region, and other local groups. Visitors to the Atrium can meet the mural artists, purchase their work, and hear music by DJ Jonesy, with tacos from La

Capital and drinks available from Bars Without Boundaries.

The market will remain in the Atrium Saturdays

from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. until May 3 when it resumes outside in Downtown Troy.

For more information about the opening event or the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market, visit www. troymarket.org.

For information about Troy Night Out Art March visit www.downtowntroyny.org

For information about The Arts Center of the Capital Region public art projects visit: https:// capartscenter.org/public-art-projects/

For TAP’s public art and placemaking, visit: www. tapinc.org/community-design

Mural Artists: Amanda Michael Harris, Aster Hemlock, Cara Hanley, Courtney Leeds, Delaney Morin, Ella Hallgren, Fredda Merzon, Frida Foberg, Jade Warrick, Jen Bernard, Jessica June, Kayla Jolin, Kevin Clark, Kit Collins, Lexi Hannah, Marisa Cavanaugh, Nick Valenti, Opal Hexen, Phoebe Rotter, Rachael Dushnycz, River Walker, Rory Alexa, Will Dayer, Cynthia DiDonna-Nethaway, Rachael Dushnycz, Meagan O’Brien, Cassandra Bond, Alexandra Mancuso

Troy High School Mural Student Painters: Elizabeth Begin, Beverly Clark, Jennifer Clark, Gabriella Cruz-Sexton, Emma Gardner, Yanixa Cardoza Leverenz, Gavin Lowe, Ruqaiya Umar Mukhar, Laila Rasheed, Anna Rusnak, Isabella Spairana, Mary Vasquez Celestino, Natalie Wootten

Designer: Jalissa Baker

Community painters: Rachael Duchnycz, Cynthia DiDonna-Nethaway, Heather Lane, Alex Delafontaine, Gabriel Martinez, Lauren Pfaffenbach

Paint and materials for the project donated by The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Sage Brothers Painting Co., Passonno Paints and Frank J. Ryan & Sons Inc.

An Opening Reception and Celebration is

All photos by: Tyler Young

| the metro poem

it's about the words an interview with adonis richards by R.M. Engelhardt

It's finally April. National

Month! And we're here with

area scene for quite awhile now and runs poetry open mics, poetry slams and is one of the many

poetry community who makes great things happen and encourages other poets to step up

for him about why poetry still matters in these times we are living in.

[RM Engelhardt]: Why do you celebrate? Why write poetry?

[Adonis Richards]: Poetry and creative writing are a piece of my lineage as my grandmother was an English teacher and thus instilled in me my prowess for creative expression. Poetry just happens to be an outlet that conducts my thoughts, feelings, and wishes into tangible form. It’s a celebration of my growth and emancipation from my traumas and a direct outlet of liberation and passion for me.

[RE]: When did you start going out to open mics? Reading your poetry?

[AR]: I started at the famous Troy Kitchen with Poetic Vibe hosted by D. Colin—a staple in this community and someone I admire regarding creativity and poetry.

[RE]: Who are some of the poets you admire? And what or who inspired you to become a poet?

[AR]: I admire Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde, Robert Frost, Rudy Francisco, Black Chakra, Mojavi, my mentor, friend, business partner, and contemporary Kareem Ture, among many others. My inspiration for poetry comes from my passion for creative storytelling, revolution, and restorative justice. These things compel me to use my voice as a

conductor for justice wherever I go.

[RE]: Can poetry make a difference in these uncertain times? In people’s lives?

[AR]: Yes, I believe poetry can always make a difference. It heals, it helps, it keeps tales alive. In every time, poets tell the tall tales and brave escapades of troubadours, heroes, and adventures that capture the times. Right now, more than ever, we need poetry.

[RE]: Are any projects in the works? Do you have any upcoming readings or poetry events?

[AR]: Our annual Youth Poetry Slam is happening on April 25th, following You, Me, and Poetry at the Fuze box on April 26th. Then, on May 17th, You, Me and Poetry will happen at the Fuze box again. We also have a poetry writing contest in April, with other things in the works.

Poetry

Capital Region poet, Adonis Richards. Adonis has been a part of the

event organizers here in the

to the mic. We have a few questions

Untitled Poem

by Adonis Richards

I’ve been secretly finding my rhythm in life

Silence seems to shiloh me keeping this imposter from siphoning my spirit

Normally my

Mind is violent beating like thunderstorms preparing me for a hurricane that never comes.

Anxiety is like the predictive weather report just a precaution that causes me to

Auction my sanity to realities I never meet

That’s what makes me a quiet storm inside my mind rages while staring in solitude in a room full of people outside I boom burst lyrics that mirror my madness I’m trying to capture,

that’s why every time I perform a poem if feels like I’m vomiting pain trying to mix it with passion and pleasure

This is my life, a constant tug of war

A hopeless creative curating confessions while I rebuild my reflection from shattered glass I broke in the wake of me healing from traumas I never asked for

I’ve been trying to

Put together the pieces of this battered boy hoping for a hug

All the while the teenage self looks in awe while angrily wishing it didn’t take this long to make it to this man I’m becoming while dealing with all the raw emotions

I never got the opportunity to float in.

So now as I try to fix this mirror my tears mix with the blood to create an adhesive to find a happy medium for my pieces of me

Unfortunately they keep slipping from my hands

All these shattered pieces of glass

Shadows of my reflection

Like blasts from the past

Covered in blood spilled from regret

and transgressions I feared

I’m… still here cuz somebody prolly prayed for me. It’s a struggle, but I know god will pave the way for me.

Even through all the trials and expectations, the exhaustion, the growth and agony

I close my hands and my eyes and look to god knowing he’s paving a way for me

Pain is so restrictive and exhausting

I’m Haunted by all of these memories

And lost in the confusion while my hands shake and my eyes quake tears over the years of self doubt disappointment and pain

As I attempt to reconstruct my reflection I fall apart watching the past return with every face staring back

Like they disdain what they see

Like the pain I feel in my hands doesn’t amount to the pain I feel when I finally see me

The hatred I harbor for my own image, A projection of who I think I am

When in reality I’m far from this monster I see

No one told me I’d feel so much agony No one told me how hard it was

To face vulnerability

Yet still I keep going I feel These emotions No matter the moment

For the man I become out the darkness I’ve tried to harness will look back at the younger me’s with open arms

Giving ourselves the love we were denied so long ago.

Reflecting on how hopeless creativity has been, I finally win and can create a new image of who I am

| comedy

an uninspired fiction

Rod Fist stood at attention at the picture window and glared. Raising the Liberal Tears Yeti mug to his lips, he drew a mouthful of hot, black coffee and as the burning burned he felt weakness leave his body. “I like my coffee like I like my women,” thought Rod, inconclusively. Pleased by the comedy joke he invented, he bared his teeth. In the driveway below, the first light of day glistened on the hood of his freshly leased Cyber Truck and from his window, Rod initiated inspection protocol for signs of intrusion, of which there were none. “Go ahead and try,” said Rod to nobody. It was 6:00AM and although Rod could gaze at the metal stallion for hours, it was time to begin. As he turned to leave, he bumped his holstered pistol against an end table, engaging the safety.

Maple hadn’t abused their privilege. They couldn’t have. They had just woken up. For most people ten hours of sleep would have amounted to sufficient and restorative rest, but for Maple, it meant that for ten hours their privilege had gone unchecked. Rising from their straw mat they lifted their hands to the sky and thanked the Great Mother for her warm afternoon sun and apologized for any misunderstanding their thanks might cause. Unscrewing the cap from their thermos they pressed the mouth of the vessel against theirs and gently sipped at the room temperature kombucha it contained. With breakfast out of the way, they

were ready to begin. Heading to their front door, they passed a poster stuck at the corners to the wall with clear tape. It was a map of the world. Apologizing, they opened the door and stepped outside.

A wind blew through the corridor of houses on Eagle Street and with it a crumpled fast food bag tumbled along down the yellow double lines. There were no birds chirping, no engines humming. Only crisp tap tap and crackle peppered the hush and whisper of the wind. On their respective sidewalks, Rod Fist and Maple stood motionless facing one another. Between them down the double yellow lines the bag rolled and kept rolling until it was out of sight. iPhones at the ready the warriors logged into social media and the battle commenced.

From Bluesky, Maple clacked a column of vitriol comparing their neighbor to history’s most reviled villains employing all manner of flowery technique their Creative Writing degree offered. Applying guerrilla tactics, Rod Fist’s volley came from X where he posted a photograph of a single chair tucked in the corner of a dimly lit motel room. The subject line below the image read simply “Maples Chare! ROFL!!!”. The shelling continued for hours. The social media services gulped the hate thanklessly and despite the volume they were receiving showed no

signs of stress. “I’m winning!” thought Rod Fist and Maple.

15 meters below the surface of Eagle Street a contraption manned by Bosh Rhome tunneled into the Earth. Bosh answered to no one, not even his father whose name had once blazed across the side of the contraption, and which Bosh had since crossed out and replaced with his own. It was unclear even to Bosh why he was boring a tunnel underneath Eagle Street, but if he was sure of anything it was that doing so would make him rich and likeable. Engaging the autopilot feature on the contraption, Bosh ingested a handful of veterinary anesthetic and closed his eyes. Behind the contraption the tunnel collapsed, swallowing it, Bosh, and all of Eagle Street.

by Ryan Shanahan

ARCHEOLOGY DROID MODEL

F45Q1-8’s sole function was to move dirt. Earlier that day, F45Q1-7 had detected organic solids at -11.6 meters which triggered an alert to Central Hub to deploy F45Q1-8 for further inspection. Equipped with augers, vacuums, shovels, and brush attachments, F45Q1-8 rolled to the programmed coordinates. It took six days to clear the area such that unearthing the anomaly would not disturb its integrity. Once complete, F45Q1-8 submitted status to Central Hub and returned to its charging bay. In the dirt lay two pristine fossilized human skeletons. Side by side and on their backs it looked as if they were holding hands.

Comic by: Danatoon

Comic by: Jaye McBride

Comic by: Michael Slayton

| theater an act of subversion

In one of the endless lines of small miracles that can grace a life lived with minimal expectations upstate, I was asked to participate as a narrator in a requiem called Considering Matthew Shepard by Craig Helia Johnson with Albany Pro Musica at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall last month.

I was honored and very excited to participate in this devastatingly beautiful piece of choral art. I don’t sing, so you can imagine the out-of-body experience it was for me to be on that magnificent stage at my one and only rehearsal with the commanding Jose Daniel Flores-Caraballo conducting, surrounded by a mass of glorious voices and a consummate band looking out at that historic house. I have never dared to dream of being in this position…and I’ve had some pretty audacious performance dreams.

These choirs were going to be in the gallery at the top of the Music hall and would surround the audience with the final choruses.

Sunday brought the concert and I bumped into members of the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus, Albany Voices of Pride, and APM’s High School Choral Festival Honor Choir whom I knew. These choirs were going to be in the gallery at the top of the Music hall and would surround the audience with the final choruses.

Standing backstage with the amazing soloists, I listened to the former Times Union editor Rex Smith’s welcoming comments before the show. As APM’s Board Chair, Rex described the selection, scheduling and presentation of this piece which memorialized the gay university student who was beaten and left to die tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyoming.

“What you are doing—what we are doing together—is in fact, an act of subversion: to

undermine the purveyors of hatred, and to strengthen the spirits of those who would act out of love.”

When Rex said the word “subversion” he paused and a mighty roar went up through the house, quite uncharacteristic for a classical concert in this venue, which gave me goosebumps backstage.

In the weekends since, I’ve noticed the everyday acts of subversion in the Capital Region theatre community. One of President Trump’s first executive orders on 1/20 declared that the Federal Government would only recognize two sexes— male and female—but in our theatres we will absolutely continue to cast however we want whether the script is explicit or not.

On Broadway, Peter and the Starcatcher was cast with all men and one young woman which emphasized the campy aspects of men playing women. At Schenectady Light Opera, they employed what I’ve heard described as ‘gender blank casting’. Men playing women, women playing men, the best actor for the part playing what the director chooses without concern for gender ideology.

My favorite example of this is Ben Amey as Mrs. Bumbrake, the nanny role. Ben is very dashing with dark wavy hair and a pencil thin mustache, tie and dress shirt. He looks like an Arrow shirt man from the ‘20s, yet he also has a big, flouncy floral apron, heels and voice in the upper register like Margaret Dumont in the Marx Brothers. He finds the perceived masculine traits of being boss of the household as nanny and

by

Patrick White

the femininity of being a swashbuckling movie star with his glamorous good looks.

Over at Schenectady Civic Players, they were even more subversive still with their production of Harvey Fierstein’s (banned from Kennedy Center) play, Casa Valentina, which tells the true story of a resort in the Catskills which catered to heterosexual men who wanted to become women by dressing and presenting themselves as alter egos at the resort. I wonder how the government (or audiences in The Stockade) would sort out these ladies’ biological truths.

Theatre is where we put on masks and “behave truthfully under imaginary circumstances” as the great acting teacher, Sanford Meisner once said. By necessity, theatre must be subversive to this administration which seeks to diminish, erase and eradicate. If we are to “hold the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own figure, and scorn her own image,” we will empower, hold space and protect. The little community theatre down the block from you is not so secretly an enemy of the state and proud of it.

Photo credit: Andrew Elder, Best Frame Forward

| horoscope

by Isavella Vassilakis

Isavella Vassilakis is an astrologer based in the Capital District, the founder of First House Rising Astrology, and co-creator of Planetarium, a monthly astrology themed dance party. You can find Izzy on Instagram at @firsthouserisingastrology.

TAURUS

Your friendships and communities have a big question mark hanging over them, and the first week of April is a cosmic attempt to clear that up! As first Venus, then Mercury, conjoin the karmic North Node, messages related to this life area, which has been undergoing big change, will be delivered. On the 7th , Saturn and Venus join forces to help diagnose any lingering issues and come up with a better-structured plan. (See also: relationship roadblocks.) Mercury stations direct the same day, facilitating clearer thoughts and communications. The hard work of transforming chaos into something beautifully helpful to your entire community won’t go unnoticed! Meanwhile, Venus stations direct on the 13th , signaling forward movement within this life area (and relationships in general). Enjoy the next few weeks and smother your friends with love. These themes light up again later in the month, especially around April 18th through the 22nd , so keep watch for any interesting messages or developments. Your thoughts may also darken around this time — remember, your fears aren’t necessarily real.

April 12th’s Libra Full Moon is a shaky one, landing in your health and work sector to illuminate any cracks in the foundation. Saturn’s influence on this lunation is strong, triggering any lingering selfdoubt, but the concurrent Chron cazimi serves to illuminate where and how you need to heal. As an asteroid that represents a long-held karmic wound, Chiron is certainly a pain point…but it also symbolizes the powerful healing abilities you’ve developed via your unique journey. As the Moon waxes and Chiron basks in Solar illumination, face that ugly wound head-on and congratulate yourself for the growth it has fostered. On the 18 th , Mars finally exits Cancer and re-enters Leo, revisiting themes from last November and

December. Specifically, power struggles and ego clashes involving home and family vs. your career. Any lingering tension carries over into April 27th’s Taurus New Moon, an opportunity to reset your concept of self in a new, more aligned direction. And once Taurus season begins on the 19th , you’ll be extra magnetic!

|teaser horoscopes

ARIES

Isolation is scary, but it can bring peace. Working on your health is important right now, plus relationship healing.

GEMINI

Messages about your career path abound this month. Old romantic scars will be activated so you can finally heal them.

CANCER

The focus is on the journeys you’ve been taking —physical and metaphysical. Balancing home and career is a pain point that can be healed this month.

LEO

This month brings relationship power struggles. Travel, higher education, and personal expansion are big themes. You’ve been going through it, but after April, things will ease up.

VIRGO

Cosmic energy continues to highlight your closest relationships. An issue regarding shared resources may pop up; dealing with it is important

LIBRA

This month’s Full Moon is in your sign, and it will scratch at old relationship wounds so you can move past them. The confusion surrounding work and health slowly begins to clear.

SCORPIO

Romantic boundaries and the distribution of responsibility, plus a repeat of last winter’s career tension, will make you want to schedule prime alone time.

SAGITTARIUS

The importance of home and family still takes center stage, but watch for new developments. This month’s Full Moon picks at old romantic wounds.

CAPRICORN

Money tension crests, but there is hope for resolution. Mars finally leaves your relationships alone. Healing ancestral wounds will set you free.

AQUARIUS

All the accumulated relationship tension reaches its peak this month. The question of finances lingers, but the pressure will soon ease.

PISCES

Working on a core abundance wound takes priority this month. Some of the chaos should subside soon. Your mental health begs for balance.

FOR MORE GO TO themetroland.com/horoscopes/

| crossword 518 FUN

“Finding this month's puzzle tricky? Here’s a hint - most answers can be found in the articles in this issue and/or our website – sorry! You gotta do the homework!"

ACROSS DOWN

1 This theater had music in the round (by default) back in

6 The 28 across event was _____________________?

7 John

8

11

2 This venue is a part of RPI and would cost a fortune to hang blinds in

3 Incredible music festival in downtown Albany each September

4 was once Holmes and Watson

5 Craving 1700s dutch-style architecture AND a good burger? Both can be found in here

9 Albany Lacrosse Team

10 This food coop goes through THOUSANDS of Metrolands a month; its a good thing our editor-in-chief gets her groceries there

13 Albany is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the United States, with a history dating back to 1614 when these folks established a trading post

14 Troy earned this nickname in the 19th century due to its prominent manufacturing industry in this very specific category. High quality cuffs too, but thats not as good a nickname

16 This fest will bloom in May

18 Its closing was short lived and back open in a few months thanks to Scene One Entertainment

20 This Troy pub used to be known as The Brass Lantern before settling back to its almost original name

22 Albany's Basketball Team

24 Number after 18 Down

25 on the Hudson is no place for planes

29 Its not a National Park, but its bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined (abbr.)

15 On one of Albany’s most famous streets with two venues inside. The downstairs space is smaller but it goes to 11

19

21

to Transfer from Manhattan

26 This mall might not have a ton going on but its social media is ridiculously entertaining

28 In 1985, 5060 students, faculty and staff of this university participated in an event that earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records

30 Named after a 1800s entrepreneur, this flourishing collaborative nonprofit workspace resides on Pearl Street in Albany and is the home to Metroland Offices

CROSSWORD ANSWER KEY can be found on page 62

the day

12 The Patroons Mascot because WTH does a Patroon look like?

23 This jazz singer with 10 Grammys was one of four

at the Bar in this famous Billy Joel song was a character he actually met in Troy

Late last year this beautiful venue celebrated 150 Years! 27 WAMCs Performing Arts Studio, located in Albany’s Central Avenues Business District

This 19th century bell foundry produced more than 65,000 bells

The most magical not-burger burger you’ll ever have on North Pearl St. in Albany

This Saratoga hotel was once the largest in the world but also shared its name with now defunct grocery store chain

This park not only provides scenic views but is also the site of ceremonial grounds for Native Americans.

| night & day

|art

Albany Institute of History & Art

2/1/25 - 7/20/25

Americans Who Tell the Truth

3/29/25 - 10/13/25

On the Road to Cragsmoor with Charles Courtney Curran

Ongoing -

Ancient Egypt: Ongoing

Ongoing -

The Hudson River School: Landscape Paintings from the Albany Institute

Albany Library Pine Hills Branch

12/6/24 - 5/10/25

Repeat Play: The Art of Pattern (Art at APL in partnership with Opalka Gallery)

Charles R. Wood Gallery

1/25/25 - 3/30/25

CUSP: Brian Dickerson, Melinda Stickney-Gibson, and Millicent Young

Feibes & Schmitt Gallery

1/25/25 - 5/11/25

Odili Donald Odita: A Survey of Context

Mt. Ida Preservation Hall

4/19/25Family Fun Festival

Opalka Gallery

3/18/25 - 4/19/25

Osi Audu: The Self in African Art

R Gallery at Arlene’s

4/4/25 - 4/27/25

R Gallery at Arlene’s Creative February Show

- Figure

5/2/25 - 5/31/25

R Gallery at Arlene’s Member Select Show

7/14/25 - 8/12/25

3X3 at Arlenes

The Arts Center of the Capital Region

3/3/25 - 4/6/25

Formative Expressions

3/3/25 - 4/6/25

REALMS UNREAL: Artistic Experiments with Artificial Intelligence

4/14/25 - 5/9/25

Teaching Artist Showcase

University Art Museum

1/27/25 - 4/4/25

Vito Acconci: Under-History Lessons

3/30/25 - , 2:00 PM

Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman

Cap Rep

3/7/25 - 4/6/25, varies The Lehman Trilogy

4/25/25 - 5/18/25, varies

Rosie is Red And Everybody is Blue

7/11/25 - 8/10/25, varies Once

Charles Wood Theater

4/11/25 - , 7:30

Dual Plans: A New Play by Dan Slavin

Cohoes Music Hall

3/12/25 - 4/4/25, varies School House Rock Live!

Excelsior Springs Events Center

3/27/25 - , 5:30 PM Pasta and Puccini

Iselin Family Studio @ Cap Rep

5/29/25 - 3/28/25, varies Eclipsed (bttuny)

Mansion of Saratoga

6/1/25 - , 12:00 PM Songs of Travel, The Great American Songbook

6/1/25 - , 5:00 PM Songs of Travel, The Great American Songbook MOPCO

3/28/25 - , 8:00 PM TV Night

3/29/25 - , 8:00 PM Theatresports

MVP Arena

4/18/25 - , 6:00 PM

Paw Patrol Live! - A Mighty Adventure

4/19/25 - , varies Paw Patrol Live! - A Mighty Adventure

Proctors

3/27/25 - , 7:30 PM

Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood: Asking for Trouble

3/29/25 - , varies Dog Man: the Musical

The Egg Performing Arts Center

4/26/25 - , 7:30 PM Pro Musica on Broadway

The Strand Theater

4/4/25 - , 8:00 PM

Hudson River Shakespeare Company Presents King Henry 6th Part 3

4/5/25 - , 8:00 PM

Hudson River Shakespeare Company Presents King Henry 6th Part 3

4/6/25 - , 2:00 PM

Hudson River Shakespeare Company Presents King Henry 6th Part 3

Van Dyck Music Club

4/11/25 - , 7:30 PM

The Bijou - Adult Variety Show

|film

Albany Public Library North Albany Branch

3/26/25, 5:00 PM

Family Movie Night

No Fun

4/1/25, 8:00 PM

VCR Vortex - VHS Night - April Fool’s Day (1986) / Popcorn (1991)

Avalon Lounge

4/9/25, 7:00 PM

Sleepover Trading Co. Presents: The Woods

Cohoes Music Hall

4/12/25, 7:00 PM

Hello My Name Is Blotto: The Movie

Palace Theater

4/15/25, 1:00 PM

Toy Story “Family Fun Day”

Proctors

4/17/25, 7:00 PM

William Shatner in INCUBUS!

|poetry

Caffé Lena

4/3/25, 7:00 PM Poetry Open Mic Featuring Daniel Nester

Cohoes Music Hall

4/10/25, 7:30 PM Garrison Keillor

Social Justice Center

4/17/25, 7:30 PM

Third Thursday Poetry Night Open Mic

Schuylerville Public Library

4/26/25, 7:30 PM Poetry Night

|comedy

Artisanal Brew Works

4/12/25, 8:00 PM

We Brew the Funny Comedy Series

Bard and Baker in Troy

3/29/25, 8:00 PM

The Quest Buds: DnD Comedy Show

4/4/25, 8:00 PM

The Quest Buds: DnD Comedy Show

Cohoes Music Hall

4/1/25, 7:30 PM

Tom Green: Home to the Country

4/5/25, 8:00 PM

Jimmy Dore

Bridge Street Theatre

3/28/25 - , 7:30 PM

Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman

3/29/25 - , 7:30 PM

Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman

4/10/25 - , 2:00 PM

Glens Falls Community Theatre Senior Seminar presents: Seasons of Life

4/4/25, 8:00 PM

Warren B. Hall & Guests

4/4/25, 10:00 PM

Open Mic

4/5/25, 7:00 PM

Warren B. Hall & Guests

4/5/25, 9:00 PM

Warren B. Hall & Guests

4/11/25, 8:00 PM

Kevin Downey Jr & Guests

4/11/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

4/12/25, 7:00 PM

Kevin Downey Jr & Guests

4/12/25, 9:00 PM

Kevin Downey Jr & Guests

4/18/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

4/25/25, 8:00 PM

Tony Dabas & Guests

4/25/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

4/26/25, 7:00 PM

Tony Dabas & Guests

4/26/25, 9:00 PM

Tony Dabas & Guests

5/2/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

5/9/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

5/16/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

5/23/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

5/30/25, 10:00 PM Open Mic

Funny Bone

3/26/25, 6:30 PM

Good For A Laugh Comedy Event

3/27/25, 7:00 PM

Aaron Belisle

3/28/25, 7:00 PM

David Koechner

3/28/25, 9:30 PM

“The Office Trivia” with Todd Packer

3/29/25, 6:30 PM

David Koechner

3/29/25, 9:00 PM

David Koechner

4/4/25, 7:00 PM Faizon Love

4/4/25, 9:45 PM Faizon Love

4/25/25, 8:00 PM

Nick Dipaolo

Comedy Works Saratoga 3/28/25, 10:00 PM

Open Mic

4/5/25, 6:30 PM Faizon Love

4/5/25, 9:15 PM Faizon Love

| night & day

|comedy (cont'd)

4/6/25, 3:30 PM

The Magic Of Eric Eaton

4/6/25, 6:30 PM

The Magic Of Eric Eaton

4/11/25, 7:00 PM Christopher Titus

4/11/25, 9:30 PM Christopher Titus

4/12/25, 6:30 PM

Tyler Fischer

4/12/25, 9:00 PM

Tyler Fischer

4/17/25, 7:00 PM

Lukas Arnold & John Franklin

4/18/25, 7:00 PM

Bill Bellamy

4/18/25, 9:30 PM

Bill Bellamy

4/19/25, 6:30 PM

Bill Bellamy

4/19/25, 9:00 PM

Bill Bellamy

4/25/25, 7:00 PM

Emma Willmann

4/26/25, 6:30 PM

Emma Willmann

4/26/25, 9:00 PM

Emma Willmann

4/30/25, 7:00 PM

B. Tidy - The Parlay King Of Comedy

Kitch-A-Vibe

4/5/25, 7:00 PM Comedy for Cody Fundraiser Show

Lark Street Tavern

3/27/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/3/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/10/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/17/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/24/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/1/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/8/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/15/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/22/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/29/25, 7:00 PM

Open Mic

LG Lanes & Games

4/22/25, 8:00 PM Comedy Showcase

Mcaddy’s Pub

3/24/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

3/31/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

4/7/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

4/14/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

4/21/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

4/28/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

5/5/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

5/12/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

5/19/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

5/26/25, 8:00 PM Open Mic

MVP Arena

3/30/25, 7:30 PM

Gabriel Iglesias: Don’t Worry Be Fluffy

Palace Theater

4/18/25, 7:00 PM

Nurse John - The Short Staffed Tour

Son of Egg

3/25/25, 7:00 PM

Open Mic

4/1/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/8/25, 7:00 PM

Open Mic

4/15/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/22/25, 7:00 PM

Open Mic

4/29/25, 7:00 PM

Open Mic

5/6/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/13/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/20/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

5/27/25, 7:00 PM

Open Mic

The Egg Performing Arts Center

3/29/25, 8:00 PM

Kathy Griffin

4/25/25, 7:30 PM

Chris Distefano

The Lark St Tavern

3/30/25, 7:00 PM Joseph’s House & Shelter Comedy Showcase

The Local 217

3/27/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

4/3/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

4/10/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

4/17/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

4/24/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

5/1/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

5/8/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

5/15/25, 9:00 PM Open Mic

5/22/25, 9:00 PM

Open Mic

5/29/25, 9:00 PM

Open Mic

The Local 217 Taproom &Kitchen 4/4/25, The Artis Comedy Showcase

The Park Theater 4/25/25, 8:00 PM Jim Tews

Van Dyck Music Club

3/26/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

3/29/25, 7:00 PM March Mayhem

4/9/25, 7:30 PM Pasta, Pilsners, and Punchlines

4/30/25, 7:00 PM Open Mic

|music

Arthur Zankel Music Center

3/28/2025, 7:30 PM

Timeless Tones, Modern Melodies: An Evening of Chinese Music Redefined

3/30/2025, 3:00 PM Voices of Ukraine

4/5/2025, 7:30 PM

Skidmore String Festival w/ Sphinx Virtuosi

4/6/2025, 2:00 PM

Skidmore String Festival w/ Sphinx Virtuosi and Skidmore Students

4/13/2025, 4:00 PM

Young Kim & Skidmore Pianists

5/3/2025, 3:00 PM

Empire State Youth Orchestra: Repertory Orchestra & String Orchestra

Avalon Lounge

3/27/2025, 8:00 PM

Molto Ohm / Michael Beharie feat Maeve Schallert / Widow

3/28/2025, 8:00 PM

Samuel Boat / Moontype / The Straps

3/29/2025, 9:00 PM

Trance Party Vol. 1

4/2/2025, 7:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ Ryder Cooley

4/2/2025, 8:30 PM

Karaoke with Cowboy Casey

4/4/2025, 8:00 PM

The Fascinating Chimera Project (album release) / Maeve Schallert / Ruby of Thanks / DJ Former Baby

4/5/2025, 9:00 PM

Primal Disco

4/6/2025, 7:30 PM

Upstate Composers Orchestra

4/10/2025, 8:00 PM

The Moral Panic Variety Hour w Noah B Harley+Windfellow /Lily Seabird /Will Stratton / Liz Lauffer /Wide Dark vid premier

4/11/2025, 8:00 PM

Daniel Kleederman / Verboten / Ciarra Fragale

4/13/2025, 8:00 PM

Water Is the Sun / PG Six

4/15/2025, 8:00 PM

Inmaterial Possession / Larry Locust / RAGER

4/16/2025, 8:30 PM

Karaoke with Cowboy Casey

4/17/2025, 8:00 PM

Lee Baines / Icebox Cake / Hashishen

4/18/2025, 9:00 PM

This Party Is Killing You! AKA: The Robyn Party

4/19/2025, 8:00 PM

Angel Lau / Zelzeleh (Faraway Ghost & Sunken Cages) / DJ Neva

4/23/2025, 7:30 PM

Rodney Alan Greenblat / Rich Panish

4/24/2025, 8:00 PM

Kyle Morgan / Sean Cronin / Glenn Echo

4/25/2025, 8:00 PM

LAKE / Blue Ranger

4/26/2025, 9:00 PM

Ariele Max (DJ) / Hop / DJ Guy

4/29/2025, 8:00 PM

Squanderers (Wendy Eisenberg + David Grubbs + Kramer)

4/30/2025, 8:30 PM

Karaoke with Cowboy Casey

Bethlehem High School

5/18/2025, 4:00 PM

Empire State Youth Orchestra: Percussion Ensembles and Concertino Percussion

|music (cont'd)

Bethlehem Middle School

5/4/2025, 3:00 PM

Empire State Youth Orchestra: Concertino Strings, Woodwinds, Brass & Flute Choir

Caffè Lena

3/25/2025, 7:00 PM

The Michael Mills Magic Show

3/26/2025, 7:30 PM

Lena Go Round - Songwriters Showcase hosted by Erin Harkes

3/27/2025, 7:00 PM

Peak Jazz Series: Giacomo Smith

3/28/2025, 9:30 AM

Music With Miss Deb

3/28/2025, 12:00 PM

Captain Fun Lunchtime Listening Hour

3/28/2025, 8:00 PM

Cliff Eberhardt

3/29/2025, 8:00 PM

Mark & Jill

3/30/2025, 5:00 PM

“A Joyful Noise!” Gospel Dinner with Soulist Garland Nelson & Friends

3/31/2025, 7:00 PM

Open Mic Night

Carl B Taylor Auditorium, SUNY Schenectady

5/4/2025, 7:00 PM

Empire State Youth Orchestra: Youth & Repertory Jazz

5/11/2025, 3:00 PM

Empire State Youth Orchestra: Wind Orchestra

5/11/2025, 5:30 PM

Empire State Youth Orchestra: Chamber Music & Fiddle Ensemble

Carson’s Woodside Tavern

3/27/2025, 6:00 PM

Jay Jager & Chris Dollard

3/28/2025, 6:00 PM

Tooty & The Motherplucker

3/30/2025, 6:00 PM Duo

4/3/2025, 6:00 PM

Eric Kufs

4/4/2025, 6:00 PM

Just Nate

4/5/2025, 6:00 PM

Mitch Frasier

4/6/2025, 6:00 PM Grand Central Trio

4/10/2025, 6:00 PM

Jason Irwin

4/11/2025, 6:00 PM

Eric Peters

4/12/2025, 6:00 PM

Chris O’Donnell

4/13/2025, 6:00 PM

Pepper Shakers

4/17/2025, 6:00 PM

Gianna Robustiano Duo

4/18/2025, 6:00 PM

Dave Porter

4/19/2025, 6:00 PM

Christine Spero Duo

4/20/2025, 6:00 PM

Jacksland

4/24/2025, 6:00 PM

Rob Fleming

4/25/2025, 6:00 PM

Micah Scoville

4/26/2025, 6:00 PM

Jenna Sue Duo

4/27/2025, 6:00 PM

Juniper & Chris Carey

Charles Wood Theater

4/12/2025, 7:30 PM

Crazy On You & The Tom Prettys

Cohoes Music Hall

4/2/2025, 7:30 PM

Melvin Seals and JGB

4/4/2025, 7:30 PM

Forever Seger: The Silver Bullet Band Experience

4/11/2025, 7:30 PM

Kisstory w/s/g Live Wire 518

4/13/2025, 8:00 PM

Nershi Hann Trio w/ Special Guests

Laura Leigh Acoustic Trio

4/18/2025, 7:30 AM

David Brighton’s Space Oddity The Quintessential David Bowie Tribute Experience

4/19/2025, 7:00 PM

The Low Dough Rock ‘N’ Roll Birthday Show

4/21/2025, 7:00 PM

Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre Unplugged: Tull Tales

4/26/2025, 8:00 PM

Start Making Sense & The Ocean Avenue Stompers

4/27/2025, 7:00 PM

Start Making Sense & The Ocean Avenue Stompers

Crandall Public Library

4/10/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Cecilia

4/17/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Windborne

4/24/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Bon Débarras

5/1/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Pat Byrne

5/8/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Johnny Campbell

5/15/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Kathleen Parks

Dancing Grain Brewing

5/17/2025, 5:30 PM The Insolent Willies

Dee Dee’s Tavern

3/29/2025, 7:00 PM Earth To Joe

Emack & Bolio’s

3/29/2025, 7:00 PM Dave Hart

4/4/2025, 7:00 PM Dan Bernstein

4/5/2025, 7:00 PM Scott Bravo

4/6/2025, 2:00 PM Kids Open Mic

4/12/2025, 7:00 PM Pearl

4/18/2025, 7:00 PM Dan and Dave

4/19/2025, 7:00 PM Alan Goldberg

4/25/2025, 7:00 PM Moe Green

4/26/2025, 7:00 PM Shades of Blue

EMPAC Studio 1 4/25/2025, 7:00 PM Victoria Shen & Mariam Rezaei

EMPAC Theater

5/2/2025, 7:00 PM Rama Gottfried & Yarn/Wire: Ontopoiesis

Empire Live

3/26/2025, 6:30 PM Paleface Swiss

3/28/2025, 9:00 PM Broadway Rave

3/29/2025, 8:00 PM

The Emo Night Tour - 10 Year Anniversary

4/3/2025, 7:00 PM Nothing More Tour 2025

4/4/2025, 7:00 PM The Fixx

4/5/2025, 8:00 PM Party101 with Matt Bennett

4/6/2025, 7:00 PM

Armor For Sleep - What To Do When You Are Dead - 20th Anniversary

4/17/2025, 8:00 PM Joywave - Here To Perform... Spring 2025

4/18/2025, 7:00 PM Silverstein: 25 Years Of Noise

4/23/2025, 8:00 PM Buckethead

4/26/2025, 5:30 PM Brick By Brick EP Release Party

4/30/2025, 7:00 PM

The Bouncing Souls - East Coast! F#ck You! Tour

Empire Underground

3/27/2025, 7:00 PM Barely Alive

3/30/2025, 7:00 PM

The Brokes - A Tribute to The Strokes

4/2/2025, 7:00 PM Kool Keith

4/5/2025, 7:00 PM Outta My Head

4/13/2025, 5:00 PM Full Blown Chaos

4/18/2025, 7:00 PM Noah XO

4/19/2025, 7:00 PM Man Must Explore

4/25/2025, 7:30 PM Hamro

Hangar on the Hudson 4/13/2025, 7:00 PM Bill Kirchen

5/3/2025, 4:00 PM The Spring Thing

Henry’s Tavern

3/28/2025, 5:00 PM

Live Music with Jeff Brisbin

3/29/2025, 5:00 PM

Rotating Live Music Saturdays

Historic Salem Courthouse

4/11/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Cecilia

4/18/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Windborne

4/25/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Bon Débarras

5/2/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Pat Byrne

5/9/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Johnny Campbell

5/16/2025, 7:00 PM

Live! Folklife Concert: Kathleen Parks

Irish American Heritage Museum’s Flanagan Theater

3/29/2025, 7:00 PM

GROSSE ISLE - IAHM’s Celtic Influences Concert Series

6/21/2025, 7:00 PM

Irish American Heritage Museum 2025 Trad/Folk Concert Series - New Leaf

9/8/2025, 7:00 PM

IAHM Trad/Folk Performance Series - Kevin Burke

Jazz Vespers at First Reformed Church

3/30/2025, 5:00 PM

Linda Brown Trio

4/13/2025, 5:00 PM

Terry Gordon Quintet

| night & day

|music (cont'd)

4/6/2025, 5:00 AM

Tim Olsen Quintet

4/20/2025, 5:00 PM

Peg Delaney Quintet

4/27/2025, 5:00 AM

Michael Benedict’s Jazz Vibes

Lake George Steamboat Company

7/12/2025, 4:00 PM

Rock The Dock Music Festival

Lark Hall

3/28/2025, 6:00 PM

Stella Rose @ The Eleven at Lark Hall (FREE Show)

3/29/2025, 8:00 PM

Live Dead & Brothers Perform The Music of Grateful Dead & Allman Bros

4/2/2025, 6:00 PM

Caity Gallagher Residency at The Eleven at Lark Hall

4/4/2025, 6:00 PM

Happy Hour with Oobleck at The Eleven at Lark Hall

4/4/2025, 8:00 PM

Bearly Dead

4/4/2025, 10:00 PM

Funky Fridays with Tad Cautious The Eleven at Lark Hall

4/5/2025, 8:00 PM Fireside Collective

4/11/2025, 6:00 PM Oobleck

4/11/2025, 7:00 PM

Belle-Skinner at The Eleven at Lark Hall

4/12/2025, 8:00 PM

The Slackers w/s/g Some Ska Band

4/18/2025, 6:00 PM

TV Doctors at The Eleven at Lark Hall (FREE show)

4/19/2025, 6:00 PM

Happy Hour with Monkey & the Crowbar at the Eleven (FREE show)

4/19/2025, 8:00 PM Neon Avenue

4/20/2025, 4:20 PM

420 Happy Hour at The Eleven with Nickopotamus (FREE Show)

4/23/2025, 8:00 PM SunSquabi w/s/g Motifv

4/25/2025, 6:00 PM

Happy Hour with the New Planets at The Eleven at Lark Hall (FREE SHOW)

4/25/2025, 8:00 PM Moon Hooch w/s/g Future Joy

4/26/2025, 6:00 PM

Happy Hour with Todd Nelson at The Eleven at Lark Hall

Mcgeary’s Irish Pub

3/26/2025, 8:30 PM

Karaoke Wednesdays!

3/30/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

4/6/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

4/13/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

4/20/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

4/27/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

5/4/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

5/11/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

5/18/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

5/25/2025, 7:00 PM

Mcgeary’s Presents: Blues Jam

MoJo’s Cafe & Gallery

4/1/2025, 7:00 PM

The Blues Episode

4/3/2025, 7:00 PM

Andy Araya & Nate Goyette

4/5/2025, 7:00 PM

Femme Songwriter Night

4/12/2025, 7:00 PM

Emily Rach Beisel

4/15/2025, 6:30 AM

Power Breakfast Club

4/17/2025, 7:00 PM

Kate McDonnell Songwriter Circle w/ Buggy Jive & Stephen Clair

5/4/2025, 7:00 PM

Paper Prince EP Release w/ Barbie Barker

5/8/2025, 7:00 PM

Lucio Barbarino - Chris Gockley - Matthew Klane

5/9/2025, 7:00 PM

Joel Harrison Band

5/10/2025, 7:00 PM

Ian Galipeau & Jagels-Ambrose Duo

5/16/2025, 7:00 PM

The Most Jazzy Fellas

5/17/2025, 7:00 PM

MoJo’s 1-Year Birthday Party

5/20/2025, 6:30 AM

Power Breakfast Club

5/24/2025, 7:00 PM

Dylan Patrick Ward + Jay Maloney + Banjo Gorman

5/31/2025, 7:00 PM

Collar City Pride Night

6/28/2025, 7:00 PM

Killdeer Trio - Album Release Party

Moon & River Cafe

3/24/2025, 6:00 PM

Pete’s Jam - Players Welcome

3/27/2025, 6:00 PM

Art Reception “Reckless Barb” w/ Dave Kitchen Jazz

3/28/2025, 7:00 PM

Tony, Rick, & Laurie

3/29/2025, 7:00 PM

Vicki’s SongWriter Showcase

Mount Ida Preservation Hall

4/14/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: TJ Foster

5/12/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Zan & the Winterfolk

6/9/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Julia Alsarraf

7/7/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Shannon Tehya

8/11/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Owen Greene

10/6/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Anniversary Show

11/3/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Natalie Kurgan

12/1/2025, 6:30 PM

LUNA Series Presents: Ben Hart

MVP Arena

4/20/2025, 6:00 PM

Just A Little Music Festival: Smokers Edition

4/24/2025, 7:00 PM Brantley Gilbert

Nanola

3/28/2025, 8:00 PM Deadbeats

No Fun

3/27/2025, 7:00 PM Queen of Swords / Abyssmals / Architrave

3/28/2025, 8:00 PM Hellseeker Goth Nite

4/4/2025, 7:00 PM Angel Du$t / Restraining Order / Halo Bite / Dogpisser

4/5/2025, 6:00 PM

Mista Pigz (Album Release Show) / Hanzo Bladez / ELLZZ / Capital City Crook$ / Sime Gezus / Beat Behemoth / Xkwisit

4/7/2025, 7:00 PM Hashtronaut / Carnwennan / Idle Era

4/17/2025, 7:00 PM

Ronnie Stone / Bare Mattress / A Very Special Episode

4/20/2025, 4:00 PM

Wizard Burger 420: Hobo Wizard / Goblet / Grief Group / Jupiter Queen / GUTS

4/27/2025, 7:00 PM Niis / Pollyanna / Local TBA

5/3/2025, 7:00 PM

The Mystery Lights / Sun Natives / Abyssmals

5/5/2025, 7:00 PM

Electric Six / Messer Chups / Safety Meeting

5/6/2025, 7:00 PM

L.A. Witch / Daiistar / Flavour

5/9/2025, 7:00 PM

Vs Self / Punxsutawney / Senior Living

5/15/2025, 7:00 PM Sunflower Bean

5/18/2025, 7:00 PM

Dikembe / Teenage Halloween / Glazed / ETLY / Scotchka

5/27/2025, 7:00 PM

Christopher Owens (Of Girls) / Blue Ranger

5/29/2025, 7:00 PM

First Rodeo / Dan Carr and the Cure for Asthma / Billy and the Great Western Postal Service

Northway Brewing Co

3/29/2025, 2:00 PM

Rob Fleming

Ophelia’s on Broadway

6/19/2025, 7:00 PM

Mango Cat Presents One Time Weekend with special guest Alec Lewis Group

4/4/2025, 7:00 PM

Mango Cat Presents Dysfunktone and TV Doctors at Ophelia’s

5/1/2025, 7:00 PM

Mango Cat Presents One Time Weekend with special guest Hippie Crippler

Palace Theater

4/5/2025, 7:30 PM

Albany Symphony: Reena Esmail + Boléro

4/29/2025, 7:30 PM

Melissa Etheridge & Joss Stone

Park Theater Hudson

4/19/2025, 8:00 PM

Dust Bowl Faeries + Frenchy and the Punk

Patrick’s Pub

3/24/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

3/31/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

4/7/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

4/14/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

4/21/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

4/28/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

5/5/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

5/12/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

5/19/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

| night & day

|music (cont'd)

5/26/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night w/ John McAurthur

Peddlers Bar & Bistro

3/26/2025, 6:30 PM

2 Broke Beths & Dave

3/27/2025, 6:30 PM Derrick Forget

3/28/2025, 6:30 PM Juniper & Chris Carey

Proctors

3/29/2025, 7:00 PM

Capital Region Sunday Best Contest

Rustic Barn Pub

3/27/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic

4/3/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night featuring The Country Converts

4/4/2025, 8:00 PM Off The Record Trio

4/5/2025, 8:00 PM Gratefully Yours

4/10/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night featuring Adam Gerstenberger

4/11/2025, 7:00 PM Soul Provider

4/12/2025, 8:00 PM

Dr.Jah and The Love Prophets

4/13/2025, 5:30 PM

Bluegrass Jam featuring Jacob & Tommy Ali

4/17/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night featuring Jeremy Walz

4/18/2025, 8:00 PM Brian Kane & The Beginning

4/19/2025, 7:00 PM Harmonic Duo

4/24/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic Night featuring Matt Mirabile

4/25/2025, 8:00 PM Ginger Geezus

4/26/2025, 7:00 PM Coconut Telegraph (Jimmy Buffet Tribute Band)

5/1/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic

5/8/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic

5/11/2025, 5:30 PM

Bluegrass Jam

5/15/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic

5/22/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic

5/29/2025, 6:00 PM

Open Mic

Saratoga Winery

3/28/2025, 6:00 PM

Up The River Duo

Schwalbacher Brewing

3/29/2025, 6:00 PM

Johnny Gonzoles

4/5/2025, 6:00 PM

Ben Blair III

4/12/2025, 6:00 PM

Liz & Tom Acoustic Duo

Shaker Heritage Society

4/13/2025, 2:00 PM

Kaitlyn Fay with Art D’echo Trio

SingleCut North Taproom

4/4/2025, 6:00 PM

Various Artists

Spa Little Theater

3/29/2025, 3:00 PM

Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet

4/5/2025, 7:00 PM

Alfredo Rodriguez Trio | Part of McCormack Jazz Series

4/26/2025, 3:00 PM

Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence

5/1/2025, 7:00 PM

Veronica Swift

Stella’s Pasta Bar

4/5/2025, 6:00 PM

Allen & Azzaam

4/12/2025, 6:00 PM

The Chad McLoughlin Trio with Darren Lyons

4/19/2025, 6:00 PM

Michael Benedict’s Jazz Vibes Trio

5/3/2025, 7:00 PM

Art D’echo Trio

The Cock N’ Bull

3/25/2025, 6:30 PM

Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble

3/28/2025, 6:00 PM

Keith Pray Trio

4/3/2025, 7:00 PM

Jim Gaudet & The Railroad Boys

4/4/2025, 6:00 PM

Tim Wechgelaer ‘n Chris Carey

4/10/2025, 7:00 PM

Jenna Nicholls

4/11/2025, 6:00 PM

Drank the Gold

4/13/2025, 5:00 PM

Masters of Nostalgia

4/18/2025, 6:00 PM

Mike O’Donnell

4/23/2025, 7:00 PM

Jeffrey Foucault

4/25/2025, 6:00 PM

Keith Pray Trio

4/29/2025, 6:30 PM

Keith Pray’s Big Soul Ensemble

The Egg Performing Arts Center

3/27/2025, 7:30 PM

The Egg Presents:Avishai Cohen

3/30/2025, 11:00 AM

The Egg Presents: Laurie Berkner (Early Show)

3/30/2025, 3:00 PM

The Egg Presents: Laurie Berkner

3/30/2025, 7:30 PM

The Egg Presents: Ally The Piper

4/5/2025, 8:00 PM

ADRENALIZE – The Ultimate Def Leppard Experience

4/9/2025, 7:30 PM

The Egg Presents: Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel

4/11/2025, 8:00 PM

The Egg Presents: Kaushiki Chakraborty with Rishith Desikan // Veena and Devesh Chandra

4/19/2025, 8:00 PM

ZOSO: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Experience

5/1/2025, 7:30 PM

Stayin’ Alive: One Night of the Bee Gees

The Lark Street Tavern

3/25/2025, 7:00 PM

Live Jazz: Mary Heffner

3/26/2025, 6:30 PM Open Mic Night

3/29/2025, 10:00 PM Weekend Karaoke

3/30/2025, 10:00 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/1/2025, 7:00 PM Bobbie Vandetta

4/2/2025, 6:30 PM Open Mic Night

4/4/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/5/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/8/2025, 7:00 PM

Brian Halliday Trio

4/9/2025, 6:30 PM Open Mic Night

4/11/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/12/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/15/2025, 7:00 PM

Ian Macdonald Trio

4/16/2025, 6:30 PM Open Mic Night

4/18/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/19/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/22/2025, 7:00 PM Leslie Barkman

4/23/2025, 6:30 PM Open Mic Night

4/25/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/26/2025, 9:30 PM Weekend Karaoke

4/29/2025, 7:00 PM Teresa Broadwell

4/30/2025, 6:30 PM Open Mic Night

The Park Theater 3/27/2025, 8:00 PM

Shamaar Allen: The Definition of New Orleans

4/10/2025, 7:00 PM Jacob Jolliff Band

4/16/2025, 8:00 PM Marty O’Reilly

4/17/2025, 7:30 PM Keith Pray (Jazz)

The Strand Theatre

3/24/2025, 7:00 PM

Lobby Concert: Mark Delgado

3/26/2025, 8:00 PM

TR3 featuring Tim Reynolds

3/28/2025, 7:30 PM

Gold Rush: The Ultimate Neil Young Celebration

3/29/2025, 8:00 PM Ten Most Wanted

4/7/2025, 7:00 PM

Lobby Concert: Faith Anne

4/11/2025, 8:00 PM The Metal Gods

4/12/2025, 8:00 PM

EXTC - the music of XTC featuring drummer Terry Chambers

4/14/2025, 7:00 PM

Lobby Concert: Acoustic Creed with Dave Mcwain

4/18/2025, 7:30 PM

13 - Celebration of Taylor Swift

4/19/2025, 8:00 PM

Across The Pond - Beatles Tribute

4/21/2025, 7:00 PM

Lobby Concert: The Lazy Suns

4/25/2025, 8:00 PM

1981 - The Concert - Simon and Garfunkel Tribute Show

4/26/2025, 8:00 PM

Physical Graffiti - The Ultimate Led Zepplin Tribute

| night & day

|music (cont'd)

4/28/2025, 7:00 PM Lobby Concert: Lucas Garrett

Tighe Bistro Americain

4/2/2025, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/3/2025, 6:00 PM T.L. Holloway Jazz Trio

4/9/2025, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/16/2025, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/23/2025, 7:00 PM Open Mic

4/30/2025, 7:00 PM Open Mic

Troy Savings Bank Music Hall

3/26/2025, 7:30 PM Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

3/27/2025, 11:00 AM Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Niña in El Mundo

3/28/2025, 7:30 PM Gaelic Storm

3/30/2025, 3:00 PM

ESYO Symphony Orchestra presents Fluid Realities: An Orchestral Exploration featuring Symphonie Fantastique

Unihog

3/29/2025, 7:00 PM HARDCORE

3/30/2025, 7:00 PM Aurthur Bezo

4/1/2025, 7:00 PM Ida Mae Specker

4/3/2025, 7:00 PM Open Mic With Shannon Tehya

4/4/2025, 7:00 PM Shakedown / Citi

4/5/2025, 7:00 PM Karaoke - Roast of Marcus America

4/8/2025, 7:00 PM Ali And Adam

4/11/2025, 7:00 PM Twilight Drive - 90s Party

4/15/2025, 7:00 PM Thom Powers

4/17/2025, 7:00 PM

Open Mic With Wide Margin

4/22/2025, 7:00 PM Rusticator

Uptown Campus of the University at Albany

4/5/2025, 12:00 PM

The UAlbany Jazz Appreciation Month Festival, Celebrating Bill McCann’s 40th Anniversary on WCDB

Van Dyck Music Club

4/4/2025, 7:30 PM

An Evening With: Sara Caswell

4/16/2025, 8:00 PM

THIRDSDAY NITE SHOW #006 - Chad McLoughlin Trio

4/18/2025, 7:00 PM

HEADLINERS: Stella’s Miss Gay Albany Benefit Show

Van Slycks at Rivers

3/26/2025, 2:00 PM The Protones

3/27/2025, 8:00 PM

DJ Biz

3/28/2025, 8:00 PM

Hark & DJ Nick Papa Giorgio

3/29/2025, 8:00 PM

Tommy V Live

4/2/2025, 2:00 PM Whisper Band

4/3/2025, 7:00 PM

DJ Young Wise

4/4/2025, 8:00 PM

Aquanett & DJ Tek

4/5/2025, 8:00 PM

Chasing Neon & DJ Mister Mo

4/9/2025, 2:00 PM

The Rogues

4/10/2025, 7:00 PM

Country Line Dancing with DJ Kevin Richards

4/11/2025, 8:00 PM

Country Weekends with Whiskey Creek & DJ Kevin Richards

4/12/2025, 8:00 PM

Country Weekends with Nick Stark & These Dudes and DJ Kevin Richards

4/13/2025, 7:00 PM

Latin Nights with Rafy Cabrera Band

4/16/2025, 2:00 PM

Carla Page

4/17/2025, 7:00 PM

DJ Mix It Up

4/18/2025, 8:00 PM

Ten Most Wanted & DJ Reel

4/19/2025, 8:00 PM

The Hey Nows & DJ Tomb

4/23/2025, 2:00 PM

Joe’s Boys

4/24/2025, 7:00 PM

DJ Biz

4/25/2025, 8:00 PM

Grand Central Station & DJ Nick Papa Giorgio

4/26/2025, 8:00 PM

Soul City Groove & DJ Show

4/30/2025, 2:00 PM

Roxy and The Rollers

Vapor Nightclub at Saratoga Casino

3/28/2025, 7:30 PM The Refrigerators

3/29/2025, 7:30 PM American Honey

4/4/2025, 8:00 PM

80s & 90s Party with DJ NPG

4/11/2025, 7:30 PM Aquanett

4/12/2025, 7:30 PM

Skeeter Creek

4/18/2025, 8:00 PM

Totally 2000s with DJ NPG

4/25/2025, 7:30 PM The Accents

4/26/2025, 7:30 PM

Big Sky Country

Wishing Well

3/28/2025, 6:00 PM

Rob Aronstein

3/29/2025, 6:00 PM Christine Spero

5-7PM YOUTH STAGE W/ HOST ELLIE FRIDAY-HOHMAN , FEATURING LULU GREY, BELLA SANO, DJ AMELIA