UPCOMING SHOWS

Folk, Rock, and Americana from the great state of Massachusetts.

21+

The collective is made up of songwriters Tory Hanna, Billy Keane, Chris Merenda, Greg Daniel Smith and David Tanklefsky. For almost a decade, the band has thrilled regional and national audiences with its electric, dynamic and high-energy live shows, earning them slots at acclaimed festivals including Green River Festival, Fresh Grass, The Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival, The Rock Boat, Strange Creek and more.

The Whiskey Treaty Roadshow puts on a performance that can’t be recreated anywhere else, with five singer/songwriters all trading off on lead vocals, an eclectic array of instruments from strings to horns to keys; consider the band a one-act music festival – replete with boot stomping jams, sing-along anthems and a completely larger than life command of the stage.

The band has built a cult following across the northeast, releasing their debut studio album, “Band Together” in 2020, which featured Steve Gorman (The Black Crowes) on drums and Pat Sansone (Wilco) on bass. The album received acclaim in Rolling Stone, No Depression, and American Songwriter.

2023 marks a huge year for the Whiskey Treaty Roadshow as they are set to release their much anticipated live record, Late Night, Laid Back and Live which consists of all new music from the band arranged over the course of one inspired week of writing, arranging and performing in the band’s geographic home in the Berkshires at the legendary live music venue The Egremont Barn. The album accompanies a documentary that explores the creative process of the five singer songwriters as they wrote and performed the record. The band will be supporting the live record with a tour throughout summer/fall 2023 along the east coast.

Jamie McLean Band creates a musical gumbo that incorporates New Orleans soul, middle Americana roots, Delta blues and New York City swagger. Jamie McLean Band is a triple threat. The group’s energetic and captivating live show is undeniable. McLean’s fiery guitar has joined the ranks of Derek Trucks, Gregg Allman, Aaron Neville, Dr. John and more on stages from from Madison Square Garden to Japan’s Fuji Rock. His blue eyed southern soul vocals ooze real emotion. And his top line songwriting chops have crafted profound, honest and heartfelt songs that will keep you singing along, dancing along and feeling like the song was written about you. Jamie McLean Band is touring behind a fantastic new album “Paradise Found” on Harmonized Records. The album was produced by Ken Coomer of Wilco at Nashville’s Cartoon Moon studio and features the band’s strongest and most mainstream songwriting to date. Songs like “Give My Life To Rock and Roll” and “Waiting On You” are dripping with summer festival sweat while “Turn Around” and “Hotels and Cabarets” are ready made for film and television. The live show is where Jamie McLean Band excels and the band has shared the stage with the likes of Gregg Allman, Aaron Neville, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Trombone Shorty, Los Lobos, Blues Traveler, Marc Broussard and many more. Jamie Mclean Band has appeared at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Mountain Jam, Targhee Fest, Okeechobee Fest, Ottawa Blues Fest, Quebec City Summer Fest, and Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam to name a few. McLean has also enjoyed the sponsorship of Gibson Guitars, Fuchs Amplifiers, D’Addario Strings, Blue Microphones, John Varvatos and Esquire Magazine. Don’t miss their amazing live set when they roll into a town near you! Select Press: Jamie McLean has soaked up quite a bit of America’s musical DNA. McLean provides a fascinating cross-section of sounds that merge the yearning and romanticism of Tom Petty, the air-tight instrumental proficiency of Nashville and the rugged independent streak of alt-country.

– Guitar World Magazine

McLean and company ooze drops of southern roots rock, blues, R&B, funk and soul out of every note… the rock & roll swagger of the Rolling Stones combined with the songwriting prowess of Ryan Adams.

– Jambase

Jamie McLean Band is completely original and completely fabulous… The live version of this band is a three- dimensional experience not to be missed” – Hittin The Note

A honkin’ collection of Southern-style blues rock, Americana, and soul…. as bawdy as anything the Black Crowes tried to snag from The Faces or The Stones circa ‘Sticky Fingers’ and ‘Exile on Main Street’ and as groovy and gutsy as Bowie’s ‘Young Americans.'” – Charleston City Paper

A NU KIND OF ’90S/’00S DJ NIGHT

21+

ALL AGES

📟 WAKE UP (WAKE UP)! 📟

IT’S TIME FOR A NU KIND OF 90’S / 00’S DJ NIGHT! 🤘

SOMETIMES WE JUST GOTTA BREAK STUFF, EVEN WHEN LIFE IS PEACHY! 🔪

THIS ONE’S FOR ALL THE PIMPS, THE FREAKS AND THE MAGGOTS

THAT ARE DREAMIN’ TO CELEBRATE THE GOLDEN AGE OF NU METAL!

LET’S SHOVE IT (SHOVE IT, SHOVE IT) TO THE MUSIC OF KORN, SLIPKNOT, LINKIN PARK, DEFTONES, DISTURBED, LIMP BIZKIT, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, SYSTEM OF A DOWN, ROB ZOMBIE, COAL CHAMBER, DROWNING POOL, GODSMACK, P.O.D., STATIC-X AND MORE!

JOIN US IN THE PIT AS WE PARTY IN THE NAME OF THE ORIGINAL FAMILY VALUES TOUR ERA AND THOSE CARRYING ITS TORCH! 🔥

GRAB YOUR LEASH…

PACK YOUR CHAINSAW (MF’N CHAINSAW)…

AND COME AND GET IT!

Celebrate the launch of New Martian Records with a day full of great bands and local vendors.

All Ages

FREE

Performing:

Jusqu

Dog Lips

Plant Fight

Matriarch

Robber Robber

A modern queer joy dance party.

18+

If you want to go out dancing

And celebrate the sounds of eternal longing,

We know a place…

❤️🧡🤍💖💜

sapphic factory 🌈

A modern queer joy dance party 🦋

Come dance and be free to the music of muna, fletcher, phoebe bridgers, boygenius, kim petras, marina, elio, ashnikko, girl in red, tegan and sara, and more. ✨

Collaborating with plus1 to donate a portion of proceeds from each ticket sold to local lgbtqia+ charities. 💕

“I think that, a) you have an act, and that, b) not having an act is your act.”

All Ages

The Social Animals are a big band.

All Ages

Social Animals (ˈsəʊʃəl ánəməlz) are a band of primates originating in the northeastern United States. They thrive in a diverse ecosystem and travel in groups of 17-19 individuals. Each animal comes from a different habitat; but all are adapted to a variety of contemporary musical environments.The animals have been known to use tools –including wind, string, and percussion instruments– to entertain themselves as well as their audiences. The group has developed an individualized rhythmic and harmonic vocabulary which they use to communicate. They have been observed teaching their musical language in ritualistic pre-concert clinics and have also been known to collaborate with other animals with whom they share musical DNA.
Social Animals are known to perform their music in both natural environments and in captivity. From the dive bar to the concert hall, their performances are characterized by labyrinthian incantations of their sonic dialect, interspersed by unpredictable and jocular musical episodes.

Stu and the gang take on The White Stripes.

21+

With “Elephant” The White Stripes showed how much they evolved artistically and commercially. Sure, you know Seven Nation Army (though not the way we’re gonna do it) but there is an incredible amount of depth to this album that can sometimes get overlooked. Come hear us get weird with Elephant!

Celebrate young musicians rocking out!

All Ages

ROCK OUT with Teen Rock Band students from Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) at their end-of-semester show!

The Teen Rock Band program, led by Nick Phaneuf and Jim Dozet, is for students ages 12 – 18. Teen Rock students learn how to play in a band setting, explore new music and collaborate as a team. Alumni of the Teen Rock Band have gone on tot lead their own bands, write and record albums, and perform throughout the country!

The Teen Rock Band program is sponsored by The Drum Center of Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) is a 501c3 nonprofit community music and arts school serving the seacoast. PMAC’s mission is to build community through the arts by providing all people with the opportunity to achieve their full creative potential, regardless of their age, ability, or economic status. We accomplish this through high quality music and visual arts education programs and by creating ensemble, performance, and exhibition opportunities for students, professionals, and audiences. For more information about PMAC’s teen ensemble opportunities and more, please visit us at pmaconline.org.

The local legends are back to spread the holiday cheer.

All Ages!

Five guys who love to play music together. Over thirty-five years of playing for the best fans in the universe. We’ll get together in any combination that suits the room, the vibe, the crowd, or our fancy. Solo, duo, and trio acoustic shows; hybrid or fully electric trios; electric four and five piece madness.

David Bailey plays bass, has contributed some original songs,and occasionally vocalizes (we hesitate to call it “singing”). At live shows he tries to keep the technical side of things from falling apart.

Ned Chase is a multi-instrumentalist, principal songwriter, and singer. He plays electric and acoustic guitars using frets and slides. Mandolin and lap steel.

Mike Gendron plays the drum kit. Laying it down solid, or mixing it up with more impressionistic split stick stuff, using his whole body, his stylistic versatility makes it happen.

Dave Gerard plays acoustic and electric guitars. Sometimes with a slide, sometimes an acoustico-electric resonator thing. A principal songwriter, and undoubtedly the voice of Truffle. He works hard to represent the band to the public and keep the calendar filled so we can play for you good people.

Pete Kowalski plays hand percussion and sometimes a very cool hybrid drum set/percussion contraption. At a given show you may see any of his seemingly infinite, funky, vintage, interesting sets of congas and bongos.

Get your glow on.

21+

Join us for an evening of jazz favorites and new classics from the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) jazz ensembles!

All Ages

Join us for an evening of jazz favorites and new classics from the Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) jazz ensembles! This show will feature sets by the following groups:

Brewery Lane Big Band: an adult student ensemble led by Rob Gerry

The Jazz Pioneers: an adult student jazz combo led by Allie Edge

Saturday Teen Jazz Ensemble: a teen ensemble led by Eric Klaxton

Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) is a 501c3 nonprofit community music and arts school serving the seacoast. PMAC’s mission is to build community through the arts by providing all people with the opportunity to achieve their full creative potential, regardless of their age, ability, or economic status. We accomplish this through high quality music and visual arts education programs and by creating ensemble, performance, and exhibition opportunities for students, professionals, and audiences. For more information about PMAC’s adult ensemble opportunities and more, please visit us at pmaconline.org.

Very good. Very Dub.

A few young bands on the rise.

All Ages

Steve Rondo’s sound has been described as “stadium ready Americana.” Steve notably opened for Dermot Kennedy in Portland, ME last summer, and this year, he’s fresh off his first major festival appearance at Levitate Music & Arts Festival in Marshfield, MA! He’ll be stepping onto the Portsmouth scene at Cisco Brewers in Portsmouth this August, then rounding out the summer by opening for hometown favorites Air Traffic Controller, Ryan Montbleau, and RIPE at 92.5 the River’s annual Riverfest.

The Far Out is a high energy pop-funk outfit that frequents established Boston venues without abandoning their north shore ties. They used to play monthly in Portsmouth, but since that venue stopped hosting live music they’ve been itching to come back! The band recently made their debut at the Crane Estate in their hometown of Ipswich, MA. Anyone who watches this gang can tell they grew up together, the undeniable chemistry always has audiences coming back for more. They are set to open the River Ruckus festival in Haverhill this September, opening for Joe P, KT Tunstall, and Phillip Phillips (unannounced, lineup announcement coming later this month).

Boston-based all-stars led by Johnny Trama.

21+

Rock and f’n Roll.

21+

Standing

The Silks are a true grit rock and roll band out of Providence, Rhode Island. You could say The Silks are the rock and roll band from Providence. With two consecutive Boston Music Awards for “Blues Artist of the Year” 2016 and 2017 The Silks are well on their way to achieving a rightful place in rock n roll history, or at least folklore. Wait ’til you read the book, you can’t make this sh*t up!

The Silks deliver honest sounds of the blues-based rock n roll variety. You’ve got guitar pyrotechnics galore from frontman Tyler-James Kelly. Chicken-pickin’ or taking a soaring lead break, it’s quickly apparent Kelly is on a whole’nother level. It makes you wonder just when did he get his first real six-string? Then there’s the voice. Bluesy, however you want to describe it, it just sounds like ripping a telephone book in half and feels like scratching a really good itch.

“I never wanted to be a solo artist, with a backing band,” says Kelly. “You can always get pros who can play behind you. But it doesn’t have the organic feel of a band. I don’t know what it is about playing with these cats. But we all totally lock in when we play. At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of animals who want to rock. It’s not a careerist thing. We got together so we could f*ckin’ play music together.” – Tyler-James Kelly

The Silks nail down the groove with its rhythm section of Uncle Sam Jodrey on drums, Jonas Parmelee on bass and Johnny Trama on rhythm and lead guitar. Fast songs, slow songs, it doesn’t matter. For this humble group of seasoned players, it’s all about the dance floor, and with the right chemistry, the dance floor reciprocates.

The Silks have successfully supported a wide variety of national touring artists such as The Replacements in 2015, Rocky Erickson, Wanda Jackson, Dirty Heads, The Drive-By Truckers, Black Joe Lewis, Deer Tick, The Sadies, The Sheepdogs, Marcus King Band 2016, Patrick Sweany, Kenny Wayne Shepherd 2017, G Love & Special Sauce and Marshall Tucker Band in 2018.

A few local(ish) bands on the verge.

All Ages

The Wolff Sisters:

“The Wolff Sisters is fronted by three sisters — Rebecca on acoustic guitar, Kat on the keys, Rachael on electric guitar, and all three on lead vocals and harmonies. Raised on Bob Dylan, The Band, and Little Feat, the sisters crafted their sound around a honky tonk piano in the living room of their childhood home. With a talented cast of rotating drummers and bass players, The Wolff Sisters are a rag tag group of hardworking individuals that bring a big sound and timeless songs. Their music is honest and genre defying, but still rooted in traditional rock and Americana storytelling. New England Music Award winner for Americana Artist of the Year 2021 and Boston Music Award winner for Americana Artist of the Year 2020, the band’s electrifying live performance and unique sound continues to gain momentum and recognition from their hometown of Boston and beyond. The band is on tour promoting their fourth studio album ‘Dark River.'”

Hush Club:

Alasdair MacKenzie, Chris Haley, and Liz Kantor formed Hush Club after finding each other in college. Now, they are based in Somerville, MA, making lush, melodic, and propulsive indie rock that examines the nuances of our shared human experience. Under the Radar describes Hush Club as “explor[ing] spaces ranging from intimate to celestial, evoking honest confessions and wide expanses.” Their latest single, “Caroline,” is a bouncy yet wistful breakup anthem with an expressive guitar climax that makes it a fan favorite on stage.

In 2022, Hush Club was nominated for two Boston Music Awards––their album Fingerprints & Stains (November 2021) for Album/EP of the Year and the band itself for Folk Artist of the Year. Other recent highlights for Hush Club include headlining a sold-out show at Cambridge, MA’s historic Club Passim and opening for national acts including Michael Seyer and Wabie. Fingerprints & Stains was praised by Glide Magazine, Vanyaland, and Boston Hassle, in addition to the Under the Radar writeup quoted above. Fingerprints & Stains also received extensive airplay on college radio, charting as the #5 debut on the NACC 200 in its first week and staying on the chart for three weeks.

A Country Western & Disco Pop Dance Party!

Funny stuff.

All Ages

Wolves of Glendale is a comedy band made up of Ethan Edenburg, Eric Jackowitz, and Tom McGovern.

Zooming in on the absurdity of daily life through their original music and pointed parodies, the Wolves have gained a significant social media following and dedicated fanbase in the mere year and a half they’ve been a band. They’ve performed at the Netflix is a Joke Festival, opened for David Cross, Tenacious D and Jukebox the Ghost, and released three music videos. In the words of Jack Black, “the thing about Wolves of Glendale is… they sound f*cking fantastic.”

WoG’s debut full-length studio album is set to release on 1/26/2024, produced by Grammy award winning producers John Spiker (Tenacious D) and Rian Lewis (Dojacat).

Indie soul that’ll leave you feeling good good good.

Reflective indie rock from your favorite bands’s favorite songwriter.

All Ages

Michael Nau is your favorite band’s favorite songwriter. Since the mid 2000’s, he’s crafted a catalog of thoughtful, reflective songs as the frontman of indie-rock mainstays Cotton Jones, Page France, and Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread. Now, he’s set to release the fifth full-length record under his own name. Accompany is due out 12/08/2023 on Karma Chief Records.

All 11 tracks come together to paint a beautiful picture. The lyrics invoke the listener’s imagination throughout. They’re introspective, but vague and open-ended. The indie rock backdrop shows signs of psych-soul influence with dry and punchy drums, lush synth lines, and tastefully verb-soaked vocal production. Sweeping string arrangements and French horn runs add cinematic motion to the waltz-y “Shiftshaping” (track 4). Slide guitar and a shuffling snare drum add some get-up-and-go to “Painting a Wall” (track 2). Nau’s vocal delivery falls somewhere between crooning to a crowd, telling stories to a loved one, and musing to himself.

The singer-songwriter’s relaxed attitude toward making records is discernible in the sound. A while back, veteran producer and engineer Adrien Olsen (The Killers, Lucy Dacus, Fruit Bats), approached him about recording in his Richmond, Virginia-based studio. For the first time in a while, Michael had some sessions on the calendar. He called a few old friends and put together a band. “I didn’t have much of a plan before Adrien reached out, so I wrote some songs specifically for the session,” Michael explained. “I was thinking about what would be fun to play with this specific group of guys.”

The band consisted of several long-time collaborators and musicians who had participated in Nau’s various recording and touring efforts over the years. “It had been a while since I’d made music in a room with other people,” Michael shared. “We just sort of started playing and didn’t really talk about what was happening.” The combo’s newfound chemistry was a primary source of inspiration and, with the help of Olsen, ultimately led to an album’s-worth of music.

Nau and the band spent five days at Montrose Recording and left with a plan to return and finish up a few months later. “After the first session, I took a copy of the recordings with me to overdub a few things at my spot,” Michael shared. While he was working through it, he found a bunch of beautiful moments of jamming in between the takes. “I grabbed a bunch of the pieces and tried to work them in. Then, I dumped the whole thing onto a cassette as one long stream of songs.” With the record mostly complete, the final session at Montrose would consist of some simple overdubs and finishing touches.

But somehow, in the months between, he lost the overdubs. “Going into the second session, all I had was the cassette,” Michael explained. The band got back together and performed another batch of songs. At the end of their second session, they had enough music to pick and choose from for the new full-length. “The songs, as they appear on the album, are basically how they were recorded as a live band.” Grab a copy of Accompany on 12/08/2023 and keep an eye out for tour dates in the coming months.

Sparkling indie rock.

A magnetic performer.

All Ages

After a dizzying five-year span that saw the release of two stunning, eclectic albums (Hard Won and Vanity, which drew praise from the likes of Billboard and Rolling Stone) — followed by appearances at AmericanaFest, the Newport Folk Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and SXSW, and tours with Iron and Wine, Son Little, and Adia Victoria — Lizzie No found herself at the forefront of a new vanguard of genre-defying artists. Her new album, Halfsies (Thirty Tigers / Miss Freedomland), finds No situated among her peers while still searching for freedom — freedom from the constraints of categorization, sure, but more importantly, freedom from the depths of her own personal despair and from an increasingly violent and nightmarish American cultural and political landscape.

“Some albums are stories, some are films. This album is a video game,” No says of Halfsies, which traces the journey of Miss Freedomland (a character that represents No herself and her audience), from a place of both internal and external exile to liberation. The album, No says, is meant to be immersive — these songs are to be inhabited, not just by the singer but by those who receive them.

“If you’re in these songs with me, what seems at first like a journey of self-analysis becomes a journey to get free, and get your people free, as well.” No returns to the video game analogy. “I think of the character as being chased by what I can only describe as Pac-Man ghosts of white supremacy, moving through the levels of this game.”

On Halfsies, No’s writing is beautifully intricate, the personal and the political folding into each other as naturally as the patchwork of influences that inform the album’s eleven tracks. The album begins with the chaos and disorder of what No calls “the Street Level,” where the title track and “Lagunita” reflect the frantic energy of a character, and a country, gone off the rails. From the desolation and loneliness in the chorus of voices that come whispering through the walls in “Sleeping in the Next Room,” to the roadworn rock of “Annie Oakley,” (the ancestors beckoning from “the Spirit Level”) to the sprawling mid-apocalyptic yearning and, ultimately, deliverance of “Babylon,” No’s writing throughout the record serves as a living conversation with her influences — not just musical but literary — reflecting her reverence for a host of the great voices who came before her, from Lucinda Williams to Toni Morrison, and her search for a connection between them.

“The album begins with a kind of personal and political isolation that seems impossible to break free from,” No says, “but as Miss Freedomland moves through the levels, I wanted to surround her with community, whether spiritual or corporeal.”

That sense of community reverberates throughout Halfsies as No is joined by collaborators who reflect her own musical elasticity, surrounding her guitar and harp playing with an atmosphere that underscores the album’s musical and lyrical landscapes. Members of the Grammy-winning Attaca Quartet give the title track a frenetic, inescapable tension, quelled only by No’s plaintive vocals (she’s joined on the track by Grammy-winner Allison Russell, who also lends her voice to “Mourning Dove Waltz”). Brian Dunne sings alongside No on “Lagunita,” their voices weaving together above the jagged guitar lines and four-on-the-floor beat, building towards a chorus that threatens to swallow you whole.

The exploration of the relationship between individuality and belonging that informs Halfsies likewise informs No’s work as co-host of the Basic Folk podcast, where she has interviewed artists from Ben Harper to Valerie June about their places within the lineage of those who came before them, as musicians, activists and community members. That synthesis of personal and political courses through No’s songs, her identity as a writer owing as much to her musical influences as it does to her activism (an outspoken activist and civil rights advocate, No was recently named President of the Abortion Care of Tennessee Board of Directors).

“Toni Cade Bambara said, ‘the role of the artist is to make revolution irresistible,’” No says, recalling the writer, filmmaker and activist, whose work loomed large over the writing of Halfsies. “I think about those words all the time. Make revolution irresistible.” With Halfsies, Lizzie No aims to do just that.

The Delta Spirit frontman comes to Portsmouth for an intimate show.