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In the time since the demise of local chaos-fueled folk rockers Dead End Armory, Wesley Hartley and the Traveling Trees saw Wesley’s Texas roots coming to the forefront in a more subdued setting. Now that project has dropped a member and turned up the volume as Splendora Cölt, a trio that rides the line between country, folk, and a bit of garage rock, fitting in nicely with the current indie landscape in Maine alongside bands like Great Western Plain and if and it. This week the band played their debut show at Biddeford’s The Oak + The Ax. They have a slew of Maine shows coming up, including a show that I’m very excited to announce – Sunday, September 18 at SPACE Gallery, HillyTown Presents o’death with Butcher Boy and Splendora Cölt! This will be the last HillyTown show for a while, and o’death (frontman Greg Jamie also happens to run The Oak + The Ax and has played HillyTown shows previously with his other band, Blood Warrior as well as a solo set at CMJ ’10) at SPACE is something I’ve been wanting to see happen since I first set foot in the venue a few years back. Tickets available now. Read on for photos from Splendora Cölt’s first show, which also included a lovely set by Billy Libby and Adam Faucett (who I neglected to get photos of, due to distraction by veggie sausage sliders, but he was excellent – hailing from Little Rock, where “bad things happen to good people”). Read on…
With a busy schedule of HillyTown Presents shows over the past couple of months, we’ve had the opportunity to work with some great local and national acts, including longtime favorites and bands we were seeing for the first time. This past Saturday in Biddeford, we brought you Lovers – a trio from Portland, OR – for a show a The Oak + The Ax. We’ve been enjoying every track of their album Dark Light for some time now, and were ecstatic to see those song realized in a live setting. It was also great to see such a large crowd come out for this one – it seemed like a lot of people in the room had the same overwhelmingly positive reaction to the band as we did. A Severe Joy got things started strong with what was described by one person as “a cabaret LCD Soundsystem” and won over the whole room with an inspiring dance-based performance, before Tree Streets moved things along with their garage country jams. Read on for a full gallery from the show! Read on…
Portland, Oregon-based electro-pop trio Lovers have set out on an ambitious two month long national tour that brings them to Biddeford tomorrow for this exciting HillyTown Presents triple bill tomorrow night (6/4) at The Oak + The Ax in Biddeford. We’re excited about our new friends from the other Portland, but don’t skip out on the local openers. José Ayerve (aka A Severe Joy) is best known as the frontman/principal member of long-running-but-newly-defunct indie band Spouse, but now he’s on a new trip. Merging dance, performance art, and even costume, he’s exploring a very different side of his considerable musical talent. Bangor 5-piece Tree Streets round out the bill with their charmingly ragged jangly indie rock (though they call it garage twang), featuring one our favorite performers on vocals – Kat from Feel It Robot. We’ll see you there!
Saturday night was a busy one for music, with lots of great events happening around Portland, but we headed out of town for some fun at the Oak + the Ax in Biddeford. Miniboone (who played one of our OFFStage shows last year) were up from NYC and joined by the excellent Bangor rock duo, When Particles Collide, plus Theodore Treehouse, who closed out the night. Read on for photos from the whole show, and don’t forget to check out the next HillyTown Presents show this Thursday at Empire as we welcome Project Jenny, Project Jan and Murder Mystery from NYC, along with local favorites Sunset Hearts. Get ready to dance! Read on…
Chicago’s In Tall Buildings is the work of NOMO drummer, Erik Hall. On Monday, the trio played at The Oak + The Ax in Biddeford, with local openers Drab Pony (Jeremy Robinson of South China, accompanied by Ron Harrity) and if and it. Read on for photos and In Tall Buildings’ upcoming tour dates. Our friends at The Oak + The Ax in Biddeford sent along their new flyer, listing their schedule through April. Take a look, and as always keep an eye on their site for updates (which we try to stay on top of at our showlist as well). They have some great shows coming up that everybody should check out!
Though they’ve been hosting shows since their soft opening last month, Biddeford’s The Oak And The Ax (the space formerly known as the Hogfarm Studios Annex), this weekend marks the official grand opening of the venue. Last night, D. Gross, Joe Fletcher And The Wrong Reasons, and Brown Bird kicked things off with a full house. Tonight, Olas keeps it going with a cd release performance for La Perla. Reminder: this is a small room, so get there early to guarantee a seat! Read on for more photos from last night. Read on…
When Blood Warrior came to Maine last summer on their first ever string of shows, members of the band talked about how much they loved it here, and what a great experience they had playing at the Hogfarm Studios Annex the day before the HillyTown OFFStage @SPACE show they had come up for. Apparently they loved it so much that when Gil and Coco Corral decided to move on from running the venue, Greg and Kristin from Blood Warrior decided to move to Biddeford and take it over! Their new venue, now called The Oak + The Ax (140 Main Street, Biddeford), opens for the first time tonight. The show is headlined by Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, the indie pop project of Owen Ashworth which is currently nearing the end of its last ever tour. Otouto and Hello Shark open. Check out the show (and other great ones already planned for the fall and winter) and help welcome Greg, Kristin, and The Oak + The Ax to Maine! Read on for more photos of the venue! Read on… The March First Friday is here, and though I’ll probably miss most of the fun due to other obligations, there’s enough good stuff happening in Portland that I just have to share. For the first time, Eternal Otter Records will be opening their Headquarters at the Building Of Song location (142 High St, Suite 513) and will be open every friday from 11am-4pm. This week they will be followed by a Building Of Song concert featuring Dominic Lavoie (of The Lucid – they’ve shortened their name from Dominic & The Lucid), Meghan Yates & the Reverie Machine, and Matt Lajoie (of Cursillistas). At SPACE Gallery, Greg Davis‘ Ocean Mind exhibit/sound installation kicks off, followed by a performance/concert at 9pm. The Dooryard debuts an exciting group show, Monsters And Robots “No Humans, No Masters” that – from the looks of what I saw the other day while the artists were putting it up – is not to be missed. Geno’s turns art gallery again, this time with Michael Batchelder’s music photos (15% of sales go to the musicians in the photos). The exhibit is followed by a concert with Aok Suicide Forest, Bora, and Roadshow (from Boston). As if I need to mention it, the 48 Hour Music Fest is Saturday. It’ll probably be huge again, rightfully so (though somehow there are 3 other simultaneous attractive shows that night). Check out the PHX article if you haven’t seen it yet and get tickets/show up early if you want to witness the randomness.
Last Friday (February 26) at the Hogfarm Annex in Biddeford, Dilly Dilly and Sontiago played their last show as a duo in Maine before Dilly Dilly left on her great trip west. She’s moving to LA via an epic drive with pal Becca Redman, and you can follow their adventures (and those of their not-always-trusty-steed, No Sexy) right here. At the moment they’re apparently camping in Abilene State Park, TX. We hope their journey goes well and that Erin (Dilly) finds great success out on the west coast. Read on for photos from the show, which also included Lady Lamb The Beekeeper (and thus a surprise return of Hairy Brass Knuckles, a year later!) and the excellent Pearl And The Beard from Brooklyn, NY. Fun fact: Jocelyn from Pearl And The Beard actually used a pair of the Ferdinand-created (for DraculaZombieUSA‘s Maine debut) hairy brass knuckles, as you’ll see below. Photos by Bryan Bruchman. |
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