Canadian pop rock band Daniel Romano’s Outfit returns to Space Ballroom in August
Daniel Romano’s Outfit w/ Uni Boys, Carston McHone
Sunday, August 18th at 8:00 PM – Doors at 7:00 PM
Space Ballroom • 295 Treadwell Street, Hamden, CT 06514
All Ages
Tickets on sale Friday, May 17th at 10 AM at www.spaceballroom.com
Daniel Romano’s Outfit
Daniel Romano’s Outfit is a Canadian indie rock band shrouded in mystery, and known for their high intensity live performances. The band, which has garnered a reputation as a powerhouse supergroup, is lead by Daniel Romano and consists of Carson McHone, Julianna Riolino, Roddy Rosetti and Ian Ski Romano.
“The Outfit’s live shows are nothing short of explosive, leaving audiences in a state of awe and wonderment.” (Paste Magazine)
“Daniel Romano’s Outfit are a band like no other, weaving a mysterious and mesmerizing soundscape that is as haunting as it is electrifying.” (Consequence of Sound)
Carson and Julianna’s flourishing solo careers outside of the Outfit only add to the allure, while Roddy and Ian have been Daniel’s trusted musical collaborators for years.
The Outfit have made appearances at many major music festivals, including Bonnaroo, Azkena Rock Fest, End of the Road, Roskilde Festival, among others.
In 2020 the Outfit dropped several notable records, including a collaboration with Tool drummer Danny Carey on the long form album, Forever Love’s Fool.
Daniel Romano’s Outfit Do (What Could Have Been) Infidels By Bob Dylan & the Plugz was released in the same year, inspired by a 1984 appearance on Letterman where Dylan performed a song with LA punk band The Plugz. With their own twist, the Outfit reimagined the entire album and answer the question, what if Dylan went punk?
In 2021, the Outfit released the rock and roll masterclass, Cobra Poems, which infused their signature sound with new swagger and grit. The fiery single “Nocturne Child” is a prime example of the band’s electrifying energy.
In 2022, the Outfit took things to a whole new level with the ambitious release of La Luna, “…a true masterpiece, showcasing the band’s unparalleled musicianship and knack for crafting deeply atmospheric and emotive music.” (Stereogum)
“With each release, Daniel Romano’s Outfit continues to defy genre classification, carving out a unique space for themselves in the world of music.” (Exclaim!)
Uni Boys
Uni Boys graduated with the highest of power pop honors with their 2022 album ”Do It All Next Week” and now they are back with their the follow-up ”Buy This Now!” The album was produced and engineered by Brian and Michael D’Addario of The Lemon Twigs at their studio in the East Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The album is full of songs of love and loneliness in the modern world using jangly new wave glory guitars and west coast classic pop melodies. Beach Boys harmonies & a myriad of keyboards were added to the Uni Boys Power-Pop and Rock’n’Roll path giving Buy This Now! a fresh new slant.
With ”Buy This Now!” Uni Boys are ready to take on the rest of the world with their unique yet distinctive brand of rock’n’roll and power pop. It’s the greatness that they’ve been destined for all along with all the glory of amazing songwriting, undeniable hooks, irresistible pop charm and honest rock’n’roll.
“Power pop wonder kids the Uni Boys were spawned in the middle-class suburban wasteland of Aliso Viejo, California where the band’s two songwriters and guitarists, Noah Nash and Reza Martin bonded as teenagers over their shared love of vintage ’60s and ’70s rock ‘n’ roll. Joined by bass player Michael Cipolletti and drummer Arthur Fitch, they soon made a name for themselves as the most exciting power pop group to kiss the scene since the heyday of Milk ‘N’ Cookies and the Quick.” – Mike Stax, Ugly Things
“Uni Boys treat listeners to some of the most note-perfect ‘70s/’80s-influenced power pop in recent memory” – The Big Takeover
“Over the course of a dozen songs, the band display a deep working knowledge of how to wring all the teenage feels, sunbaked hooks, and goosebump choruses out of a few chords, some ringing arpeggios, a little attitude, and alternately sneering and crooning vocals”
Carson McHone
Inside a still life, but still alive…
There is something almost excruciating about the places in between. The feeling of falling, a reassertion of gravity as one step leads to another, but just before the foot lands. The purgatory between borders, before clarity becomes whole.
Still Life, Carson McHone’s third album and first release with Merge Records, quivers like a tightrope, with songs about existing within such tension and surviving beyond the breaking point. These are stories of sabotage, confusion, and surrender. The album is a testament to the effort of reaching, sometimes flailing, for understanding and for balance. Still Life invites us to gasp at our own reflection, while acknowledging the unsettling beauty in this breath.
McHone’s 2018 internationally released Carousel (LOOSE MUSIC / NINE MILE RECORDS), produced by Mike McCarthy in Nashville, was a reimagining of songs from her formative years coming of age playing in Texas bars. It established her as a shrewd artist who raises unconventional questions with language equally at home in a short story or a poem. Still Lifeaddresses a broader picture. It is thematically more refined and yet more daring. McHone’s voice remains front and center, but it’s richer, darker. Wielded more than woven. A gorgeously wrought instrument for pushing meaning forward.
McHone wrote the songs of Still Life in quiet moments between tours in her hometown of Austin, then recorded in Ontario with Canadian musician and producer, Daniel Romano. “Daniel is a perceptive player and his response was intuitive and organic,” McHone says of the session, “Shadows sharpened and came to life as full vignettes that felt familiar in a magical way, a product of keeping things emotionally open. I think we picked up on things that were unwritten.” Together in a home studio they cut almost the entire record themselves, calling on two friends, the versatile Mark Lalama on accordion, piano, and organ, and David Nardi with some savvy saxophone to round it out. The phrasing and tones recall the late 60’s and early 70’s, another era of transition and innovation (think John Cale, The Kinks, Richard and Linda Thompson).
This first time collaboration brings a compelling dynamic. The musical punctuation is intricate, erratic, and at times even playful. The arrangements provide texture to the landscape of the songs while sustaining the underlying thematic tension. The album opens with “Hawks Don’t Share” a literary allusion to the creative sabotage that often confronts artistic alliance. A pair of sparring electric guitars sets the scene, mirrored in the line, We’re both boxers babe/ we don’t make love. Bright horns pop between phrases overtop a tight rhythm section. A jangly twelve string leads us into a driving chorus with big vocal harmonies and layered synth. The title track plays out an anguished spiraling. Right at the point where language fails, the vocals break away into fuzz guitar and violent, incessant piano, as if the turmoil can only be expressed by music. In “Sweet Magnolia” the strings, horns, and piano create a perfect orbit for the mannered intensity of a song that soars but is essentially spoken. “End of the World” builds with dark and dissonant violins over a repetitive major guitar progression leaving us hanging on its final line, tell me what do you know of restraint? The punchy sax and tumbling toms of “Only Lovers” play into the ruse of pretending you haven’t already fallen when you have. The background vocals are like a playground taunt. “Someone Else” cuts right to the punch. I’m caught between the two/ sweet despair and hope renewed/ say it ain’t profound babe. The lyrics are wry and the vocals perfectly nail the attitude. The rolicking organ and the hammering piano conspire to bust down the door and pull us along. Again, McHone takes us to the in between, and this is a ride we want to take.
There are raucous and light hearted moments but ultimately this album is concerned with serious themes. More than timeless, this record is timely, inherently modern, immediate. The final song, “Tried”, acts as a kind of eulogy for the spaces these songs embody. The bardo one must emerge from. The album challenges us to take responsibility for what we experience and how we negotiate gravity moving forward. Still Life summons us to the present in all its complexity, daring us to join in the deliberation. Here is an exposé of conscience, and a confirmation of the inherently hopeful act of creation.
Let’s find a new language to use so we’re not confused
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