RSS Feed

Black Tiger Sex Machine

[ELECTRONIC/DANCE] It’s not necessarily a Halloween-themed tour, but it is called the Midnight Terror Tour and it happens to be in town on Halloween, so it’s probably a safe bet that it’s a pretty good way to spend this haunted holiday. The Montreal, Quebec based electronic music trio Black Tiger Sex Machine deliver a set that they describe as “party DJ-set, part live” and which integrates samples, live drumming, and live synthesizers in a way that feels like a flowing DJ set.

Shilpa Ray

[INDIE] The new album from Shilpa Ray, a series of tales about working and living in New York City as an artist, feels like a theatrical experience from the album artwork to the production of the songs. Raw punk energy combines with an almost Broadway-like show tunes production throughout, especially on songs like “Morning Terrors Nights of Dread” and “Rockaway Blues.” That’s complimented by new wave and more experimental pop sounds which are woven throughout. The album is her second on the Brooklyn based avant-garde record label Northern Spy Records.

Ride the Scajaquada

[BIKE RIDE] The postwar hangover caught by the buzzword of “urban renewal” had the direct result of cutting through miles of central parkland with asphalt and concrete, and while New York State has the power to take a small step in righting a giant wrong, their power to do so seems hemmed in by bureaucratic forces. On Sunday, an Ride the Scajaquada aims to call the state’s attention to this 3.1 mile scar through Delaware Park and over its namesake creek.

Quinn Sullivan

[ROCK] Guitar lessons at age 3, an appearance on Ellen at age 6, playing with Buddy Guy by age 8—you might call Quinn Sullivan a prodigy. Now 18, the New Bedford, Massachusetts native has gone on to jam with the late B.B. King, toured in the opening slot for Guy and has been invited to play on television for Oprah and Jimmy Kimmel, among others.

Peter Case

[ROCK] Peter Case may be thought of as a California-based musician, but he’s originally from right here in Western New York. Having dropped out of high school at 15, he traveled for several years and eventually landed in San Francisco in the early 1970s. By 1976, he emerged as a founding member of the power-pop trio The Nerves, who wrote and recorded the original version of the song “Hanging on the Telephone,” later made famous by Blondie.

Strawberry Runners

[INDIE] Back in 2015, you might have caught wind of the sparkly indie-pop that characterizes “Hatcher Creek,” the debut single from Emi Night, whose Brooklyn-by-way-of-Colorado-based musical project is called Strawberry Runners. The tune caused Wired to proclaim Night and company were one of 10 bands at SXSW that “are about to blow up,” and got listed on NPR’s The Austin 100. That track and its companion piece, “When We Were Good,” echoed the breathy vocal styling of Beth Orton set against a sun-drenched, guitar-driven melodic buffet.

Flogging Molly

[PUNK] Whaddaya get when you mix the punk aesthetic with Celtic influences? Well, drunk for one thing. But you also get Flogging Molly, the L.A. based seven piece led by Dublin-born Dave King. Touring behind their sixth studio album in twenty years, Life is Good, out this past summer on Vanguard, the men of Molly come to the Rapids Theatre in Niagara Falls on Halloween, which lands on a Tuesday this year.

Lake of Betrayal: The Story of the Kinzua Dam

[SCREENING] The creation of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River, along the border of New York State and Pennsylvania, is another discouraging chapter in the history of the US and its state governments abandoning promises and legal treaties with Native peoples, displacing them with little or no recompense, and then literally erasing whatever opportunity for reclamation might have obtained.

GreenWatch Sunday Televison

Ever wonder why you cannot swim for much of the summer along the Lake Erie Beaches?

You are probably aware that relatively unmitigated sewer releases have happened this summer at Niagara Falls.  However, virtually every creek, river, and tributary contributes polluted runoff to the Lake Erie shoreline.  This happens throughout the Great Lakes.

GreenWatch Sunday: Our Public Health Crisis

Pages