By Laurie Lawless Originally published in The Mercurial. Moving away from making music to providing an outlet for it was a crucial turning point in Steve Rodgers’s life. It was 2003 when he decided to open The Space, an all ages concert venue, in an old, beat down 1960s industrial park in Hamden, Connecticut.… Continue reading The Spaceland Ballroom Completes Rodgers’ Hamden Music Trifecta
Tag: CT
Review: Heavy Breath’s Muddy Life
If you’re trying to get a girl to sleep with you for the first time, Heavy Breath’s Muddy Life is not the album to put on. But if you’ve got an Al Qaeda operative tied up in your basement and you need to find out where the bomb is RIGHT NOW – or if the… Continue reading Review: Heavy Breath’s Muddy Life
Kayotik’s Born Through Brutality
Brutality is a concept oft-discussed in death metal circles. A band releases a new slab of tunes and writers and fans alike immediately hold it up to some hypothetical scale to see if it measures up. Local death/grind merchants Kayotik not only embrace this challenge but laid down the gauntlet in the very name of… Continue reading Kayotik’s Born Through Brutality
Mouths Agape at the Cartoon Museum
By Christopher Baldwin and Carrie Johnson On a Saturday afternoon, Carrie, Jim Clegg of Pink Missile fame and myself decided to take a little day trip up to Cheshire, CT to visit the Barker Character, Comic and Cartoon Museum. We didn’t really know what to expect, riding on a recommendation from a couple of friends… Continue reading Mouths Agape at the Cartoon Museum
Cry Havoc’s Jonny Disaster on The Band, The Songs, and The Connecticut Punk Scene
The people have spoken, and they want to hear about New Britain punks Cry Havoc! These guys have been tearing it up since mid-2006, opening for old-schoolers like DRI and Leftover Crack, as well as contributing to Connecticut’s thriving punk scene. (Maybe Stamford’s metal crowd could take some cues…) Alternative Control talked with lead singer… Continue reading Cry Havoc’s Jonny Disaster on The Band, The Songs, and The Connecticut Punk Scene
The Mighty, Terrific, Luxurious and Jeweled! An Interview With Lightsbane
Long ago, within a metal scene far, far away, a quartet of mighty superhero musicians were birthed in the secretive and sacred valley of the fifth colony of a massive world power. They immediately sprung to monstrous size, thrashing about their enormous instruments of death upon the ears of the entire valley and beyond. For… Continue reading The Mighty, Terrific, Luxurious and Jeweled! An Interview With Lightsbane
Review of Graven Image’s The Future Started Yesterday
For this writer, concept albums are a hit-or-miss proposition. The idea needs to both inspire the band musically and power a lyrical thread strong enough to engage the listener intellectually. Nobody wants to hear Dream Theater grind out eight epic songs about waffles. (Or do we?) CT-based metal mavens Graven Image found their muse and… Continue reading Review of Graven Image’s The Future Started Yesterday