The story of how the Tighten / étranger line up came together is interesting. First off, I got a PM via the LD FB page from this mysterious individual going by the name of Elder Orange asking about booking his psych rock instrumental band, then called Putnam Light Orchestra, now called Tighten.
I listened and was immediately interested. We ping ponged messages back and forth. Turns out Elder Orange is the moniker of Matt Scott. Turns out Matt knows a bunch of the same rad musicians I know (and more) from the NEK. Specifically, he has appeared in a bunch of albums by the Nektones and if you aren't already familiar you should be! As Matt and I messaged it turns out we have much in common, he works at Bennington College, I was living down there around the same time he was attending classes. Turns out, we were at a bunch of the same shows in the Bennington College student center, a searing show by Man Man and the unforgettable Fiery Furnaces! There were too many musical affinities not to book him at The Loading Dock. Now who to pair them up with...
When I first created the event page I accidentally posted Matt's newest release, Elder Orange, well... Jake Rivers saw that immediately and contacted me and wanted to share the bill with his solo electronic project, étranger.
I first met Jake when he was in high school, he played drums in a band called The Fatigues. At the time I was working at Bad Art in Littleton and every week I would practice with my band Hot Mess. The Fatigues came in once and immediately asked if they could play a few tunes. When Jake came back to the drums I apologized about being a lefty drummer, turns out he was a lefty drummer too. I thought that was pretty amazing and Jake cooly shrugged it off. He and his band ran through a bunch of tunes and totally put us to shame. They were great, tons of energy! We ended up sharing a bill or two in Bethlehem. That band didn't last but Jake stayed connected with his North Country roots during the summers, forming various bands with Ben Rathman and Andrew Hauprich and others. It has been really cool to witness first hand Jake's process of musical discovery. Im super psyched to hear his music over our speakers, especially now that we have a subwoofer courtesy of Chris Hansen aka DJ CHN.