Colony Woodstock to Host Reunion of Acclaimed GODS AND MONSTERS

Eric Clapton’s Cream and Jimi Hendrix’s Experience. ZZ Top, James Gang, Rush, Motorhead, The Police and Nirvana. For many music fans, trios like these are the apex of the art form – tiny ensembles that pack the biggest bang and mightiest improvisational punch in rock.

In 1989, the music world was enriched when one of its most talented and versatile guitarists, the iconoclastic Captain Beefheart’s ace axe man Gary Lucas, threw down the gauntlet to create a power trio of his own, GODS AND MONSTERS. Over the years, this three-piece has featured a revolving cast of stellar players who orbited Lucas’s incendiary guitar playing on both electric and acoustic.

After many years in hibernation, Lucas has decided to inaugurate another edition of his critically adored power trio. Their debut performance will be at a favorite venue of the artist, The Colony Woodstock, on Sunday, December 22.

PHOENIX RISING!
Guitar God Gary Lucas Unveils His Reunited Power Trio
GODS AND MONSTERS
Local Favorite Spaghetti Eastern Music Opens
COLONY WOODSTOCK
Sunday, December 22 at 7 PM

“I’m happy we are doing this gig at The Colony,” says Lucas. “It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite places to play anywhere, and I have played all over the world, in over 40 countries to date.”

Lucas has released over 50 acclaimed albums as a leader or co-leader since cutting his teeth as a featured soloist and member of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band in the early 1980s. While he may be best known for co-writing and playing on Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” album, Lucas has added his special guitar magic to an unparalleled array of A-listers. Some of the names Lucas has collaborated with over the years include Lou Reed, John Cale, Nick Cave, David Johansen, Bryan Ferry, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Van Dyke Parks, John Zorn, Chris Cornell, Dr. John and many more.

Gary’s varied works have generated critical acclaim that is second to none in guitaring. Rolling Stone called him “one of the best and most original guitarists in America” and his trio “a 21st-century Cream.” UK music bible Melody Maker labeled him “a true axe god,” while MOJO Magazine proclaimed him “the psychedelic guitarist for the post-modern set.” The New York Times said Lucas “plays guitar like Salvador Dali paints…guitarist with a global beat.”

Gary’s latest edition of GODS AND MONSTERS is a “super psychedelic power trio/jam band” featuring the powerful Calvin Weston on drums (James Blood Ulmer, The Lounge Lizards) and rock-solid bassist Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers, Arthur Russell).

“Calvin Weston is like an exploding nebula of percussion,” says Lucas. “He’s a firebrand who marries the jazzy sensibility and propulsive force of John Coltrane’s great drummers Elvin Jones and Rashid Ali with the driving rock thunder of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Mitch Mitchell. He brings sheer volcanic energy to every tune and improvisation.”

“Bassist Ernie Brooks is one of my frequent collaborators,” continues Lucas. “He is the most driving and rhythmically precise bassist around, someone who keeps the whole band glued together no matter how far out we get. Calvin and I orbit around his white-hot center, shooting off dazzling sparks from his rock-solid foundation.”

Lucas’ December 22 show will feature an opening set by Spaghetti Eastern Music, the genre-leaping solo project of Saugerties-based guitarist/keyboardist and INSIDE+OUT Upstate New York contributor Sal Cataldi. Cataldi’s Spaghetti Eastern Music marries funky, acid jazz-fueled guitar instrumentals and ambient soundscapes with bare-bones acoustic ballads straight out of the Nick Drake school.

Sal debuted the project with the acclaimed 2016 album Sketches of Spam, followed by numerous singles and EPs. Cataldi will be supported at the December 22 performance by acoustic bassist Jeff Keithline and percussionist Mark Peritz, the ensemble that performed on his most recent release, the EP Drone Girl, a soundtrack created for a short by filmmaker Charles Dennis.

“Gary Lucas has long been one of my favorite guitarists, so I am humbled and delighted to be on this bill for the return of his GODS AND MONSTERS trio,” says Cataldi.

“While I love his work with Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, and the like, it’s his music with this trio and as a soloist that I love the most,” continues Cataldi. “Want to have your mind blown musically? Then listen to his take on Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” from the first GODS AND MONSTERS album. Then go hear his layered solo guitar scores for silent films like The Golem or Spanish Dracula. While he is an absolute master of the electric guitar, his work on acoustic is equally awe-inspiring. I’ve enjoyed seeing him perform many times and even got to interview him for several music magazines beginning in the 1990s.”

Cataldi has been a fixture on the local music scene since he relocated from a houseboat in New York to the Hudson Valley in 2017. He frequently performs at leading area venues, including City Winery, Live at Falcon, Opus 40, Pearl Moon, Quinn’s, Lace Mill, Keegan Ales, and The Colony Woodstock, as a solo or trio with Spaghetti Eastern, and with his other bands, the duos Guitars A Go Go and Vapor Vespers, and the quartet Spaceheater. He has also contributed more than three dozen features to INSIDE+OUT Upstate New York with a focus on profiles of local music-makers, including Rhett Miller, Simi Stone, Mikaela Davis, Marco Benevento, Amanda Palmer, Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, and Ginger Winn.

Though his music was a sideline to his former three-decade career in publicity and his current one as a journalist, Cataldi’s musical efforts have registered solid critical buzz. He’s a uniquely adept instrumentalist and evocative singer-songwriter dedicated to stretching musical boundaries and genres to their limits.

The New York Times said Cataldi “has a beat unmistakably his own,” while Time Out New York praised his “delicate guitar work and the hauntingly moody atmosphere he conjures.” His music has been called “beautiful and unique” by WFUV’s Mixed Bag and “charmingly melodic and off-center” by WFMU. Hudson Valley One has called Spaghetti Eastern “part Sergio Leone fever dream, part Ravi Shankar raga, a whirling dervish of musical creation… a must-see,” while Chronogram Magazine calls his music “cool, melodic, inspired and transcendent, a wave of sonic warmth and light.”

Photo courtesy of Gary Lucas + Sal Cataldi + Colony Woodstock

PHOENIX RISING!
Guitar God Gary Lucas Unveils His Reunited Power Trio
GODS AND MONSTERS
Local Favorite Spaghetti Eastern Music Opens
COLONY WOODSTOCK
Sunday, December 22 at 7 PM

+ + +

Follow/Connect with Gary Lucas via Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify | Vimeo