Nighthawks block party raises funds for safer streets, Candy Ambulance dances with Lita Ford – The Daily Gazette

Editor’s Note: The Upstate Beat debuts today.

Last spring, the block party Nighthawks Restaurant & Bar at the corner of 5th Avenue and Broadway in downtown Troy was a revelation.

Due to the pandemic, it was still risky to spend time in enclosed spaces with large groups of people, but restaurateurs Howard Glassman, a Schenectady native and former owner of Albany, The Low Beat and Valentines concert halls , and star chef Josh Coletto rolled a moving stage. in the middle of 5th Avenue, served food at an outdoor stand and hosted a street party that had music fans giddy with excitement after being cooped up inside for so long.

Last Friday, June 17, the now annual event was back in downtown Troy, with the same mobile stage in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute street looming behind it on the hill and pulled pork served on the street. Like last year, the party raised funds for Unity House, a community group a block from the popular farm-to-table restaurant that works to break the cycle of domestic abuse and violence. army raging in the streets of the capital region.

Unity House lined Broadway with raffles to benefit its gun violence awareness and prevention programs and displayed handwritten signs with sobering statistics like black women are twice as likely to be shot by a partner intimate than white women.

Gun violence prevention is underfunded, said Unity House director of specialist services Sarah McGaughnea, who helped organize the event in recognition of Gun Violence Awareness and Prevention Month. She told me that word of mouth has grown the fundraiser since it started in 2020. It was so amazing. Got better every year.

In the context of such an important cause, music was pure entertainment. The New York Wand-ers were a Wanda Jackson tribute band dressed in cowboy boots, jeans and picnic blanket plaid skirts who played songs by the queen of rockabilly (Rock Your Baby, Lets Have a Party) sped up like the Ramones with a garage-rock twist.

DJ Mercy!!! played tunes between sets by Coal Palace Kings and Brule County Bad Boys. Glassmans CPK started with the Replacements I Will Dare, took over Town Car from 1990s Albany band Beef, and tore up their own Bend in the River with new member Dave Rico McDonald of Schenectady on drums.

Like the event, Brule County Bad Boys with Nighthawks co-owner and leader Colleto gets better every year. The seven-piece spaghetti western band threw boogie numbers like Badlands and a swampy cover of Willie Nelsons Midnight Rider probably best known for the Allman Brothers version.

Candy Ambulance opens for Lita Ford

On Thursday, June 23, Candy Ambulance opens for hard-rocker Lita Ford during Alive at Five: Classic Rock Night, a free concert at Albanys Corning Preserve Jennings Landing. (4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.).

A rock and roll trio from Troy known for their searing, searing performances, Candy Ambulance won a Capital Region Thomas Edison Music Award for Alternative/Indie Artist of the Year in 2021 and followed in 2022 with another Eddie for the punk/hardcore artist of the year.

The feisty trio have managed to stay busy over the past two years despite the pandemic bringing many live shows to a halt. Although forced to abandon a tour when COVID first arrived, the trio (along with guitarist/vocalist Caitlin Barker, drummer Jon Cantiello and bassist Jesse Bolduc) played a livestream without an audience at the Hollow Bar and Kitchen in Albany which was filmed by Mirth Films.

Candy Ambulance also recorded an EP with Ellen Kempner of indie rock band Palehound and drummer Nick Kinsey for indie rockers Waxahatchee and Kevin Morby at Kinseys Recording Studio in a Hudson Valley barn. And they landed a placement for their song Road Valium on the Hulu series Pam & Tommy, a docuseries about Pamela Anderson and heavy metal drummer Tommy Lee.

After much introspection and reflection forced by COVID, the members of Candy Ambulance are back on stage and ready to explode on stage. I think it was going to feel tighter, Barker told me last year just before the band resumed gigs. Im ready to just pack a punch. I’m so excited to play.

It’s hard to imagine a better opening for Lita Ford, who was the lead guitarist for the female rock pioneers the Runaways in the late 1970s before breaking into glam metal in the 1980s with a solo career best known for the fist-raising anthem Kiss Me Deadly and Close My Eyes Forever, the 1989 duet with Ozzy Osbourne.

To learn more about Candy Ambulance, visit candyambulance.bandcamp.com or www.candyambulance.com.

The week ahead

This weekend, the Freihofers Saratoga Jazz Festival takes over the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with two days of unmissable jazz, funk and Latin music. Some other highlights from the week ahead:

– The Figgs are taking their Chemical Shake Tour to Hangar on the Hudson (675 River St., Troy) on Friday to celebrate the release of the longtime Saratoga Springs-born band’s brand new album. 8 p.m.

—Always Friday, Black Opry Revue celebrates black artists who perform country, blues, folk and Americana music at Caffe Lena (47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs). The show will also air virtually for up to a week on Caffe Lena TV, the sites’ live streaming platform. 8 p.m.

—On Saturday, Super Dark Collective presents acclaimed underground rock band Mountain Movers, from New Haven, Conn., at Rare Form Brewing Company (90 Congress St., Troy) along with stellar local psych-rock band Sky Furrows and Animal Piss , It’s everywhere. 6 p.m.

– The Mavericks’ long-awaited show with British songwriter Nick Lowe, which was postponed to 2021, finally arrives at Tanglewood (297 West Street, Lenox, MA) on Sunday, although Los Lobos are no longer playing . 2:30 p.m.

—Nude Party is a low-key but amazing six-piece rock band from Appalachia in North Carolina who moved to the Catskills a few years ago. Find them at Empire Underground (93 North Pearl St., Albany) on Wednesday. Not to be missed for fans of pure and unapologetic rock and roll. 8 p.m.

Categories: Entertainment, Life and Arts