A few weeks ago, Dérive celebrated their third year of cohesive musicianship with an anniversary show at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst. Except it wasn’t just a celebration of the band’s longevity. Greg Nahabedian proclaimed the evening in homage to the Western Mass music scene, alive with the breath of passionate bands, organizers, and audience members determined to support each other’s creative endeavors.
A lot of that support comes in the form of buying t-shirts, tapes, and zines. The merch table was bustling for the duration of the whole show.
Jamboree (Westfield, MA) kicked things off with churning guitar dissonance, drowned out vocals, and the disorderly dreams of a drum machine.
Salt People (New York, NY) followed with urgency, layering ghostly vocals over the honks and squawks of frenetic jazz and dancing along the threshold between order and chaos.
SPACE CAMP (South Windsor, CT) delivered an aggressive performance, snarling and convulsing with a playfully demonic energy that could’ve soundtracked Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse trilogy.
Jake McKelvie and the Countertops (Keene, NH) turned down the dissonance and upped the room’s overall shimmying levels with shimmering pop grooves and lyrical odes to a lover’s soft lips that would replay in listeners’ heads for days to come.
Finally, Dérive (Amherst, MA) served up the set the audience had journeyed over ice-choked roads to see. Not only did Nahabedian switch from guitar to synth to accordion without a break in tempo, but they sang with the fervor of a prophet on the eve of an apocalypse: “Listen my heart to the whispers of the world / Listen to the tangled net of sins unfurl / Listen to the silence smile like an empty cave / Sing me a song dig me a grave.” Paul Schmelz kept pace on the opposite side of the stage, switching deftly from guitar to sax to vox and back. Much of the set list was pulled from Dérive’s new EP, Sing Me a Song, released February 6th.
If you missed the big night, most of the bands that performed have shows coming up all over New England. Check below for tour dates near you.
Dérive
2/28. The Vault. Pittsfield, MA
3/01. Ha Ha Hacienda. Vernon, CT
3/14. AS220. Providence, RI
3/15. Flywheel. Easthampton, MA
Jake McKelvie & The Countertops
2/13. Fritz the Place to Eat. Keene, NH
2/21. Firehouse. Worcester, MA
2/23. Charlie’s Kitchen. Cambridge, MA
2/28. space afrika. Narragansett, RI
3/05. Gardner Ale House. Gardner, MA
3/07. Iron Horse Music Hall. Northampton, MA
3/13. Main Street Museum. Hartford, VT
3/19. The Red Door. Portsmouth, NH
3/20. Jimmy’s Saloon. Newport, RI
3/26. Ralph’s Rock Diner. Worcester, MA
3/29. O’Brien’s Pub. Allston, MA
4/25. Beatnik’s. Worcester, MA
5/08. Rye and Thyme. Leominster, MA
SPACE CAMP
3/01. Ha Ha Hacienda. Vernon, CT
Salt People
2/20. Wesleyan Art House. Middletown, CT
2/21. Hampshire. Amherst, MA
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