No, not The Police. I loved them as much as the next new waver, but this seems like a $200 nostalgia trip.
No, not even The White Stripes, my favorite group. They make their Connecticut debut in July at the Chevy Theater. It’s going to be a fantastic show that could only be topped by....
Dan Zanes! If you’ve got young kids and you haven’t seen Dan Zanes and Friends live and bought his records, you’re really missing out. My two daughters have been raised on his music (they’re also sick of hearing stories about Boston circa 1982-83 and how The Del Fuegos were so great).
Zanes and Friends are playing the Shubert Theater in downtown New Haven June 17 (Father’s Day!) as part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. The festival people put it nicely: “When the rocker DAN ZANES became a father, he traded his thrashed Stratocaster for a banjo (and a mandolin and a ukelele...) to entertain his daughter and her friends. Such was the hunger for Zanes’ brand of meaningful, handhewn music, that what began as a homemade cassette has become a family music phenomenon, Grammy awards and all. With his shock of graying hair atop a beanpole frame, Zanes is now recognized by toddlers and grateful parents worldwide. An inveterate song-hunter (and a plenty good songwriter himself), Zanes zeroes in on slyly instructive songs in the tradition of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie (“I Don’t Want Your Millions Mister”), re-jiggers songs intended for grownups (like “Fly Me to the Moon”), loves nonsense songs in any language, story songs and lullabies from Africa and South America, and any song from anywhere that gets you up and moving. His live shows are post-millennial hootenannies, all-ages dance parties: Zanes has tapped into the universal appetite for parlor music and sing-alongs. As he sees it, if he’s done his job right, you’ll go home and tune up the old guitar.”
Visit tickets.com to purchase tickets. Tickets are available at the door of all festival events, beginning one hour before the performance. Stand-by tickets for sold-out shows are also available at the door. $24/$18/$10/$7 Children 12 and under – 50% off.
See you there.