'More of a party': Deer Tick band takes concerts to 2 small venues + 8 more Cape Cod concerts worth a listen
If you’re looking for a concert to see, there’s no shortage of music options around Cape Cod & the Islands this week. Offering a preview of its new album coming out early next year, Deer Tick has two local small concerts (though tickets may be a challenge to come by). See story below. For other choices, check out these musicians in various genres:
► Country music star Chris Young will headline a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 16 at the Cape Cod Melody Tent (21-41 W. Main St., Hyannis), just a few weeks after releasing his new “Famous Friends (Deluxe Edition)” album. Young’s multi-week No. 1 hit, “Famous Friends,” is described as the most-played song on country radio in 2021, and he’s been nominated for multiple music awards for the the upbeat song. The expanded-edition album includes 20 songs, includes collaborations with Old Dominion and Jimmie Allen; https://melodytent.org/events/chris-young/
►The Twenty Summers series of outdoor concerts at Truro Vineyards (11 Shore Road, North Truro) begins with “Roots Meltdown with New Sheriff” for an 8 p.m. event (doors open at 7 p.m.) that offers a full bar and Blackfish’s Crash Pad food truck for refreshments. New Sheriff is Andrew Sloan, who will bring an expertise in Jamaican music to the show, which will feature percussionist Jon Joly and other guests. https://www.20summers.org/
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► Roomful of Blues, the five-time Grammy Award-nominated horn-powered blues band, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, July 15 at The Music Room, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth. The Rhode Island-based group, now led by Chris Vachon, has been playing for more than 50 years in multiple countries and released 19 albums. Tickets and information: 508-694-6125, www.musicroomcapecod.com.
► It’s a full week at Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro, with four concerts in six days, all at 7 p.m.: roots band Dustbowl Revival on Saturday, July 16; bluegrass with Nefesh Mountain on Sunday, July 17 and “Bela Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart” on Monday, July 18; and a mix of Americana, bluegrass, Celtic and pop traditions with We Banjo 3 on Thursday, July 21. Tickets and information: https://payomet.org/events/music.
► The Buoys of Summer pay tribute to the smooth-sailing, silk-stocking SoCal sounds of the 70s and early 80s (think Kenny Loggins, the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Ace, Rupert Holmes and Ambrosia) in a show at 7:30 p.m. July 20 (and again Aug. 17) outdoors at Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Falmouth Road (Route 28); https://artsonthecape.org/.
Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll
Deer Tick musicians 'enjoy the coast' with small shows
Rhode Island-based indie rock band Deer Tick will play two local venues in two days this week: a show Tuesday, July 19 at Cape Cinema in Dennis and then one the next day at The Loft in Oak Bluffs. The concerts are part of the group’s Baby Steps tour and will preview their newly recorded album due to be released early next year.
“We try to enjoy the coast during the summertime, so we end up playing smaller locations and more fun places than just your average major market cities and stuff like that,” says guitarist Ian O’Neil. “We like playing unique environments.”
Blending musical style on new album
O’Neil is checking in just a couple of days after returning home from recording what will be the band’s eighth full-length studio album, the first being the 2007 debut “War Elephant.” Since then, the band has amassed a faithful following through touring and frequent appearances on television shows like “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
Deer Tick’s sound can be hard to pinpoint, and the group’s two latest releases — “Deer Tick Vol. 1” and “Deer Tick Vol. 2,” both released in 2017 — are a good example. One leans more towards the group’s indie folk qualities and the other has a harder alternative rock approach. O’Neil says that the upcoming record, to be released on a new contract with ATO Records, will be a “marriage” of the two styles.
“It’s as though we’ve put those two things together (folk and alternative rock),” O’Neil says. “It is still very much our classic type of stuff we’ve been doing for a long time, but less on the punk side, if that makes sense.”
The new collection of songs was produced by Dave Fridmann and recorded at his Tarbox Road Studios in upstate New York. Given Fridmann’s long list of credits that includes work with The Flaming Lips and Spoon, it is likely that Deer Tick could come out with a popular single on this new album. The group has continuously straddled that line between being indie darlings and a mainstream band, but O’Neil says he and his bandmates don’t get too caught up in that.
“We do want to make music that will have universal appeal, but it’s always going to go through the filter of the four of us and that’s just the way it is,” he says. “If we wanted to put that commercial sheen over our entire personality and our looks, there are people that will help you do that. But I think what has kept our fanbase so dedicated and still paying attention to us after all these years is staying true to ourselves.”
Taking baby steps
Deer Tick decided to name its tour Baby Steps because, as O’Neil puts it, “it just seemed appropriate as we are kind of just peeking our heads back out before we fully go out there with a new record and stuff — tip-toeing our way back out into the world as hopefully the pandemic ends or we just learn how to live with it and tour with it.”
The group went on a larger tour last fall with Delta Spirit, but this 20-show northeast run will be its first solo tour of that size since the start of the pandemic.
Deer Tick members are familiar with Cape Cod after playing at the Beachcomber in Wellfleet, but the shows at Cape Cinema and The Loft will be the band’s first at those venues. What can people there expect?
“These summer runs in the smaller venues are so much fun for us that they tend to be more of a party so I can only imagine that it will be no different this year,” he says. “Plus, we’re armed with so many new songs that we’re so psyched on that we’re definitely going to be pulling some of those out. We’re chomping at the bit.”
Tickets for the Cape Cinema show has been listed as sold out, but there is a wait list for each in case more become available. Tickets were still available in Oak Bluffs at the Times deadline.
How to see Deer Tick
When and where: 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 19 at Cape Cinema, 35 Hope Lane, Dennis; 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 20 at The Loft, 9 Oak Bluffs Ave., Oak Bluffs
Waitlist for Cape Cinema: https://go.seated.com/waitlist/ffe707da-0be4-4491-b5ea-bd5e89a46046/info
Tickets and information for The Loft: https://www.mvconcertseries.com/
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod music: Deer Tick band in Dennis, Vineyard + 8 more concerts
