Celestial Garden 9/20/25 The Dome at Schwarzman

 Celestial Garden is a sound-light installation by Mexican American light artist Leo Villareal. For those keeping score at home, Blackstone billionaire Steve Schwarzman funneled money to Yale that spearheaded a rehabilitation of the storied Woolsey Hall. While Woolsey has been able to retain its name on the main theater, the surrounding buildings have been dubbed The Schwarzman Center. Fun fact, early in the war on Gaza, some enterprising street artist chiseled off some letters so that the center was temporarily named The War Center.  The renovation fleshed out some dining spaces and the Dome. Like any elite university colliding with the spoils of capitalism, the center is pretty posh. The five flights up Dome is exactly as billed, a fancy sitting space with a dome and skylight. Perfect location for the trippy installation of  The Celestial Garden. This never before exhibited artwork features an original ambient soundscape and employs a suite of ten projectors that map the entire Dome’s intrados. The perpetually evolving intricate patterns were inspired by the beauty in nature. The sounds were Eno-esque, music for Domes maybe. The exhibit had plush carpets and seating allowing viewers a relaxed atmosphere to gaze up at the kaleidoscopic projections. Looking forward to more happenings at this space.

Bread and Puppet Circus 9/18/25 Edgerton Park

  While going to my community garden plot on a late summer Thursday, I’m greeted with an inability to park. Shakespeare in the park is over, the beleaguered CT Folkfest was waterlogged yet again, too many cars for a wedding. I ask an exiting party, what’s happening?  A puppet show by the venerable Bread and Puppet Circus theater troupe. I catch the last twenty minutes of the politically charged skits. This outfit started in the Village in the mid 60s as a counter cultural  crew speaking truth to power. They move to northern Vermont in the 70s, must be easier to park the ancient school/tour bus. First skit I see has three young contestants playing a game show regarding their future. First topic is housing, the contestants go to sit in chairs done up like houses only to have them pulled out from under them. Next up is debt, foam barbells with the word “debt” bombard the players. While the game show is happening, a “band” off stage left plays A Night in Tunisia. The trio consists of sousaphone, trumpet, and drums. As the game show ends, two puppet tigers enter and prowl the stage. The narrator yells “get them!” and the tigers moved toward the screeching kids in the front rows. “Not the audience, The System”, at this point we notice a young woman with a pig mask, a flag top hat, with a shirt emblazoned with “the system”, the tigers attack.The show ends with a great song and dance bit set to the tune of WhenThe Saints Go Marching In. A great crowd of young and old were mesmerized by the troupe. The backdrop of the stage has a sign “Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution In Progress”. After each show, Bread and Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye with aioli and sell books, posters, and postcards to help get them to their next gig. It was heart warming to see a multigenerational crowd wowed by puppets and political commentary.

LCD Soundsystem w/ Gustaf 9/11/25 College Street Music Hall

 “New York I Love You, but you’re freaking me out. There’s a ton of the twist, but we’re fresh out of shout”.  A fitting lyric from a Brooklyn band on the anniversary of 9/11.  Smartass club unit LCD makes its first appearance in the Elm City for a two night residency at College St.  Brooklyn art punk group Gustaf opens the show. Sinuous, freaky frontwoman shimmied through the set. Joined by a young lady on guitar, kazoo, and bracelet bells, bass, and drums, the quartet delivered good punk energy. The leader was wearing a microscopic picnic blanket, from my vantage point it was unclear how said blanket remained on her body. LCD Soundsystem have been wowing crowds for years with their blend of tongue in cheek dance music. The band is fronted by freak-provacateur James Murphy, joined by Nancy Whang on keys and shouting, bass, drums, guitars and a revolving cast of multi-instrumentalists and synth purveyors coming and going. Murphy starts most tunes from a bandleader perch at the front of the stage, quickly bouncing off to prod the proceedings. I have crossed paths twice with Murphy over the years (sort of). One late night DJ set at the Vibes had Murphy manning the turntables for a clubby affair, albeit in the 3-4am time slot. Another brush was a dining experience at the Brooklyn eatery The Four Horseman. Murphy took a hiatus from music and became a restaurateur, opening the unusual small plate venue. The setlist pulled from their whole catalog: They took the stage to the Velvet Underground’s We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together, Tribulations, Movement, Tonite, I Can Change (Kraftwerk’s The Model intro), Time ToGet Away, You Wanted a Hit, Yr City’s A Sucker, new body rhumba, 45.33 (pt 1 and 2), Someone Great, Home, set two:  North American Scum ( with Gustaf), X-ray Eyes, Dance Yrself Clean,  New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down, and ended with the club anthem All My Friends. The crowd was an intoxicated blend of glammy gender fluidity. Molly-informed dancing was evident from  many in the packed house. The young female bassist and drummer put down infectious backbeats to most tunes. Whang is tiny and sassy, her keyboard work brings the listener straight to the klerb. The stage was equipped with walls of synths and drums,with up eight band  members getting involved. LCD has headlined many festivals, their brand of feel good pop a panacea for our times.

moe. 9/4/25 Hartford Live

 Got to hand it to the Infinity Hall folks for bringing in  jam titans moe. Billed as “30 years of moe.”, you’ll have to forgive the whiff of nostalgia that comes with this post. It was some 27 or 28 years ago that I happened upon a music festival in Memphis, called Memphis in May. My eyes widened, a blues tent, gospel offerings, as a musical omnivore I was hooked. The main stage showcased the birth of the jam scene, the highlight was the infant moe. Stellar musicianship, smartass lyrics, and a wealth of fellow purveyors was the bugle to the charge. The model is simple, periodic releases give fodder to a mammoth tour schedule. While not as popular as Phish or The Dave Matthews Band, moe. stuck to the script. Anchoring festivals, jam cruises, collaborating with anyone, moe. has  had a successful 3 decades. They even host their own hometown upstate New York festival, the moe.down. Hartford Live was cagey about this show. Tempering a deluge of hippies, the formal announcement for this free show came only a week prior to the event. Didn’t matter, word travels fast in this community and a nice crowd materialized. The LedZepalicious setlist pulled from their whole career. Happy Hour Hero, All Roads Lead to Home, Time Again, Bat Country, ATL, Tubing the River Styx, The Pit, Tailspin; Set two: Brent Black, Band In The Sky, Deep This Time, No Quarter ( Zep cover), Skrunk, Blue Jeans Pizza, encored with Tambourine and another Zep nugget Immigrant Song. Clocking in at 3.5 hours, one rarely gets cheated at a jam show. Bassist Rob Derhak, guitarists Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey, and drummer Vinnie Amico have been the core unit and are joined by keys wizard Nate Wilson and percussionist Jim Loughlin. As with any jam show, part of the fun is locating the “teases” that are periodically embedded in their tunes. Pink Floyd, Santana, and more Zeppelin were just a few that I caught. An enjoyable evening, I am happy to grow old with moe. (X2).

Dungeon Synth Festival 8/31/25 Neverending Books

 Back in my day, the Dungeons and Dragons band of high school misfits occupied a territorial outpost in the cafeteria. Ramones tshirts, eyeliner on males, trolls safety pinned to their backpacks, the cabal exhibited an admirable idontgiveashit attitude toward the world. Largely offspring of wealthy AWOL and/or hippie parents, the kids found solace in fantasy or sci-fi realms. Fast forward to 8/31/25 at Neverending Books ( a logical extension of the cafeteria outpost) and the kids are all growed up. Armed with some keys, synths and noise boxes the group still exists. By day, they might be art teachers or work at Walgreens, but on this night, they got to gather with their fellow nerds and bask in their true selves. Dungeon synth is a genre that I’m hoping you’ll look up. A mash of “ medieval New Age music” with “Friar Tuck cosplay” ensued. Grab your flagon, pull up a bear skin rug and take a journey through the Epping forest soundtracked by this crew. How did I get here? Local renaissance (baroque?) man Adam Matlock has been hyped on this blog many times. He is the accordion vocalist focal point of avant weirdo outfit Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps, he sang on several challenging Anthony Braxton free jazz big band scores, and recently viewed with his skewed show tune bombast of An Historic. Fitting then, that he inhabits a dungeon synth persona named Herbalist. An unabashed wrangler, Adam forged a triple bill of the genre. I arrived late so I missed the Herbalist set, and it seems that Ozregoth from RI had transportation problems, so I was left to view middle offering Unsheathed Glory. From the bucolic pastures of the Berkshires, UG took to the stage. A solitary figure with two keyboards and some effects boxes, UG rambled through his set. Dressed in a Robin Hood shirt, headband, and calf high boots, UG did his thing. The instrumental music was mournful or suspenseful dotted with canned percussion and some wordless vocals. The music had some unsettling distortion, it was unclear if it was intentional. I’m assuming if unwanted, Adam would spring to assist. Towards the end of the set, UG pulled a sword from its scabbard, a touchstone of Glory Unsheathed. Absent was the parental admonition, “careful with that thing”. For those that think the D&D kids just gave up and conformed to the world around them, I am happy to report they are alive, well, and as weird as ever.