BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//The CT Beacon - ECPv6.18.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:The CT Beacon
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://thectbeacon.com
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for The CT Beacon
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260905T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260905T220000
DTSTAMP:20260831T210433Z
CREATED:20260831T210433Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260831T210433Z
UID:10007291-1788638400-1788645600@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Beatles vs. Stones – A Musical Showdown at Foxwoods
DESCRIPTION:Beatles vs. Stones – A Musical Showdown at Foxwoods puts rock’s most enduring argument onstage Saturday\, September 5\, when two nationally touring tribute bands face off at the Great Cedar Showroom. \nOn one side is Abbey Road\, recreating the music and changing looks of The Beatles. On the other is Satisfaction – The International Rolling Stones Show\, taking on Mick Jagger\, Keith Richards and the Stones. \nThis isn’t a conventional double bill. The bands alternate sets throughout the night\, answering one Beatles run with a Stones run before eventually putting the rivalry aside and joining together for the finale. \nThe question hanging over all of it has survived for more than 60 years. \nBeatles or Stones? \nLiverpool vs. London\nThe rivalry was almost irresistible from the beginning. \nThe Beatles arrived as four young men from Liverpool in matching suits\, with carefully arranged harmonies\, enormous pop hooks and the kind of screaming audience reaction that quickly became known as Beatlemania. \nThe Rolling Stones offered something different. \nThey were bluesier. Rougher around the edges. Mick Jagger prowled across the stage. Keith Richards looked considerably less interested in behaving himself. \nIf The Beatles could be presented as the boys parents might reluctantly allow their daughters to meet\, the Stones were marketed as the alternative. \nThat contrast helped create one of popular music’s great dividing lines. \nWere you a Beatles person or a Stones person? \nBeatles vs. Stones builds an entire show around making you choose again. \nAbbey Road Takes the Beatles Side\nRepresenting the Fab Four is Abbey Road\, a Beatles tribute band that doesn’t limit itself to one period of the group’s career. \nThat matters because The Beatles changed dramatically in a remarkably short amount of time. \nThe band that appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964\, dressed in matching suits and singing “All My Loving” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand\,” looked and sounded very different from the group that created Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band just three years later. \nAbbey Road uses costumes\, instruments and staging to follow that evolution. \nThe early Beatles give way to the increasingly experimental music and imagery of the later 1960s\, allowing the show to move through different chapters of a career that lasted only about a decade but changed popular music. \nSatisfaction Answers for the Stones\nThen it’s the Rolling Stones’ turn. \nSatisfaction – The International Rolling Stones Show has been touring its tribute to the band for years\, with Chris LeGrand taking on the role of Mick Jagger. \nThat’s a formidable assignment. \nJagger isn’t simply a singer whose songs need to be performed accurately. His movement\, mannerisms and stage presence became part of the identity of the Rolling Stones. \nAnd the Stones catalog provides plenty of ammunition for a musical showdown. \n“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” \n“Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” \n“Paint It Black.” \n“Sympathy for the Devil.” \n“Gimme Shelter.” \n“Start Me Up.” \nThe songs span decades because the Rolling Stones did something their supposed rivals never had the opportunity to do. \nThey kept going. \nThe Beatles Had Seven Years. The Stones Had Decades.\nThis is where comparing the two bands becomes almost unfair. \nThe Beatles released their first UK single\, “Love Me Do\,” in 1962. By 1970\, the band was over. \nTheir period as international superstars was even shorter. \nYet during that compressed stretch\, John Lennon\, Paul McCartney\, George Harrison and Ringo Starr moved from Beatlemania through increasingly sophisticated studio albums including Rubber Soul\, Revolver\, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band\, The Beatles and Abbey Road. \nThe Rolling Stones took another route. \nFormed in London in 1962\, they built their early identity around American blues and R&B before Mick Jagger and Keith Richards developed into one of rock’s defining songwriting partnerships. \nThen they survived. \nPersonnel changed. Musical fashions changed. Punk arrived. Disco arrived. MTV arrived. Grunge arrived. \nThe Stones remained. \nThat longevity became part of their argument in the great Beatles-versus-Stones debate. \nThe Beatles changed music extraordinarily quickly. \nThe Stones became one of rock’s ultimate survivors. \nThe Rivalry Wasn’t Quite What We Remember\nThere’s one problem with the great Beatles-Stones feud. \nThe actual musicians didn’t behave much like mortal enemies. \nThe bands certainly competed\, and comparisons between them were unavoidable\, but their relationship was considerably friendlier than the mythology suggests. \nJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney even gave the Stones a song. \n“I Wanna Be Your Man\,” written by Lennon and McCartney\, became an early Rolling Stones single in 1963. The Beatles subsequently released their own version with Ringo Starr singing lead. \nMembers of the two groups socialized and followed each other’s work as both bands helped transform British popular music. \nThe public rivalry was simply too good to resist. \nThe clean-cut Beatles versus the dangerous Stones. \nPop versus blues. \nLiverpool versus London. \nLennon and McCartney versus Jagger and Richards. \nMore than six decades later\, that argument is still selling tickets. \nThey Never Gave Us the Concert This Show Imagines\nHere’s what makes the premise particularly fun. \nThe Beatles and Rolling Stones never gave audiences the great head-to-head concert that rock history seems to demand. \nThe Beatles stopped touring in 1966\, years before the stadium-rock era fully developed. \nBeatles vs. Stones – A Musical Showdown was created decades later to imagine what might have happened if the two catalogs had actually shared a stage. \nThe touring production launched in 2011 and has since played across the United States and internationally\, including extended casino showroom residencies. \nInstead of placing one tribute band before the other\, the production turns the competition into the structure of the show. \nAbbey Road plays. \nSatisfaction responds. \nThen it’s back to The Beatles. \nThen back to the Stones. \nThe two sides trade sets\, songs and a little trash talk along the way. \nSo Who Wins?\nThat’s up to the audience. \nMaybe it’s The Beatles\, with the extraordinary progression from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “A Day in the Life” in the space of just a few years. \nMaybe it’s the Stones\, with the opening riff of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction\,” the menace of “Gimme Shelter” and a catalog built across decades. \nOr maybe the premise eventually collapses for the same reason the original rivalry did. \nYou don’t actually have to choose. \nFoxwoods says Abbey Road and Satisfaction will come together onstage for the show’s encore\, turning the musical shootout into something the real Beatles and Rolling Stones never gave audiences. \nBoth bands. \nOne stage. \nAnd after more than 60 years of arguing about it\, probably no definitive winner. \nEvent Details\nEvent: Beatles vs. Stones – A Musical Showdown\nDate: Saturday\, September 5\, 2026\nTime: 8 p.m.\nLocation: Great Cedar Showroom at Foxwoods Resort Casino\nAddress: 350 Trolley Line Boulevard\, Mashantucket\, CT 06338\nBeatles Tribute: Abbey Road\nRolling Stones Tribute: Satisfaction – The International Rolling Stones Show\nFormat: Alternating sets followed by a joint encore\nGenre: Classic Rock\nBest Parking: Grand Pequot Tower\nBag Policy: No shopping bags or backpacks permitted; all bags are subject to search \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n\nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/beatles-vs-stones-a-musical-showdown-at-foxwoods/
LOCATION:Great Cedar Showroom\, 7 CT-2\, Preston\, 06365\, United States
CATEGORIES:Foxwoods
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Beatles-vs-Stones-–-A-Musical-Showdown-at-Foxwoods.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260906T153000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260906T190000
DTSTAMP:20260831T220828Z
CREATED:20260831T220748Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260831T220828Z
UID:10007294-1788708600-1788721200@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:60's Explosion at the Charlestown Rathskeller
DESCRIPTION:60’s Explosion at the Charlestown Rathskeller turns Sunday afternoon into a trip through one of popular music’s most transformative decades on September 6\, with three hours of British Invasion\, Motown\, psychedelic rock\, and 1960s pop performed outdoors at the Rathskeller Down Back. \nThe music runs from 4 to 7 p.m.\, and admission is free\, with an RSVP encouraged. \nThe premise is simple: take a decade that began with Elvis Presley still making hits\, watched The Beatles change everything\, saw Motown become a hit-making machine\, and ended with Woodstock\, and try to squeeze some of it into three hours. \n60’s Explosion has plenty to choose from. \nBefore the British Invasion\nWhen 1960 began\, nobody knew what was coming. \nRock and roll had already transformed American popular music during the previous decade\, but some of its biggest early stars had disappeared from the scene. Elvis Presley had spent two years in the Army. Buddy Holly had died in 1959. Chuck Berry faced legal problems. Little Richard had stepped away from secular music. \nPopular music didn’t stop\, of course. \nBut the next revolution was already developing thousands of miles away. \nYoung British musicians had grown up listening to American rock and roll\, blues and R&B records. They took those influences\, formed their own bands and eventually began sending the music back across the Atlantic. \nThen four musicians from Liverpool landed in America. \nThe Beatles Opened the Door\nThe Beatles’ arrival in the United States in February 1964 is one of those moments when popular culture seems to divide neatly into before and after. \nJohn Lennon\, Paul McCartney\, George Harrison and Ringo Starr appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show before an enormous American television audience. \nBeatlemania followed. \nSo did the rest of Britain. \nThe Rolling Stones\, The Animals\, The Kinks\, The Who\, Herman’s Hermits\, The Dave Clark Five and other British acts poured onto American radio and record charts. \nThe phenomenon became known as the British Invasion. \nFor American teenagers\, it seemed like an entirely new sound. \nThere was an irony underneath it. \nMuch of the music that inspired these British bands had come from America in the first place. \nThe Rolling Stones Sent American Blues Back Home\nThe Rolling Stones made that connection particularly obvious. \nMick Jagger\, Keith Richards and the early Stones were deeply influenced by American blues and R&B musicians\, including Muddy Waters\, Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry. \nThe band even took its name from a Muddy Waters song. \nAmerican audiences were suddenly hearing young British musicians perform music rooted in American traditions\, sometimes leading listeners back to artists who hadn’t received comparable mainstream attention in their own country. \nThen the Stones developed their own songwriting voice. \n“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” arrived in 1965. \nThe opening guitar riff became one of rock’s most recognizable sounds\, and the Stones were no longer simply part of the British Invasion. \nThey were becoming one of the bands that would define rock itself. \nMeanwhile\, Motown Was Building Its Own Hit Machine\nNot every revolution of the 1960s came from guitars plugged into amplifiers. \nIn Detroit\, Berry Gordy’s Motown Records was creating one of the greatest collections of popular music in American history. \nThe Supremes. \nThe Temptations. \nThe Four Tops. \nMarvin Gaye. \nSmokey Robinson and the Miracles. \nMartha and the Vandellas. \nStevie Wonder. \nMotown developed a recognizable sound built around extraordinary songwriting\, rhythm\, melody and musicianship. \nBehind many of those records was the largely uncredited group of Detroit studio musicians later celebrated as the Funk Brothers. \nThe result was a remarkable run of records designed to cross boundaries. \nThey did. \nMotown became part of the soundtrack of America. \nAnd for a band like 60’s Explosion\, those songs provide another side of a decade far too musically diverse to be represented by rock alone. \nThen the Monkees Arrived on Television\nThe Monkees were assembled for television in 1966. \nThat origin led to years of arguments over whether they were a “real” band. \nThe songs made the argument increasingly irrelevant. \n“Last Train to Clarksville.” \n“I’m a Believer.” \n“Pleasant Valley Sunday.” \n“Daydream Believer.” \nThe television series made Davy Jones\, Micky Dolenz\, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork stars\, but the musicians eventually fought for greater control over their own records and performances. \n60’s Explosion includes The Monkees among the artists it celebrates\, alongside The Beatles\, Rolling Stones and The Grass Roots. \nAnd by the time those records were arriving\, the decade was changing again. \nPop Music Gets Psychedelic\nCompare a hit record from 1963 with one from 1967. \nIt can sound as though considerably more than four years have passed. \nRecording technology improved. Musicians became increasingly interested in using the studio itself as an instrument. Songs became stranger. Albums became more ambitious. \nThe Beatles went from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in just a few years. \nPsychedelic rock emerged from scenes in San Francisco\, London and elsewhere. \nJefferson Airplane released “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love.” \nThe Doors arrived with “Light My Fire.” \nJimi Hendrix pushed the electric guitar into places listeners had never heard it go. \nThe music reflected a culture changing just as quickly around it. \nThe polished pop of the early ’60s hadn’t disappeared. \nIt simply had to share the decade with something much louder and stranger. \nOne Decade\, Several Musical Revolutions\nThat’s what makes a 1960s show different from simply playing a collection of oldies. \nThe decade didn’t have one sound. \nEarly-’60s pop gave way to the British Invasion while Motown was producing hit after hit in Detroit. Folk music entered the mainstream. Soul exploded. Garage bands appeared everywhere. Psychedelic rock expanded what a rock record could sound like. \nBy August 1969\, hundreds of thousands of people were gathering on a farm in upstate New York for Woodstock. \nLess than six years had passed since The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan. \nThe distance between those two moments is extraordinary. \nAnd it’s all “the ’60s.” \n60’s Explosion Brings the Decade Back to the Stage\n60’s Explosion is built around that range. \nThe tribute and party band performs music from the British Invasion\, Motown\, psychedelic rock and the broader pop and rock catalog of the era. \nThe group’s repertoire includes music associated with The Beatles\, The Rolling Stones\, The Monkees and The Grass Roots\, among others. \nThe goal isn’t to impersonate one particular group. \nIt’s to recreate the sound and energy of the decade itself. \nThat also means the afternoon can move quickly between styles. \nA British Invasion song can give way to Motown. \nA piece of straightforward pop can be followed by psychedelic rock. \nAnd a song written more than 60 years ago can still fill a dance floor. \nBack to the Rathskeller for a Second 2026 Show\nThis isn’t 60’s Explosion’s first visit to Charlestown this year. \nThe band played the Rathskeller in June and returns September 6 for another Sunday afternoon performance. \nThe September show runs from 4 to 7 p.m.\, making it part of the Rathskeller’s Sunday afternoon live-music schedule rather than one of its later Friday or Saturday night concerts. \nAdmission is free. \nThe Rathskeller encourages guests to arrive early for lunch or drinks before staying for the performance. \nThree Hours Down Back\nThe setting is far removed from a traditional theater. \nThe Charlestown Rathskeller has been part of the local landscape since 1933\, tucked into the woods along Old Coach Road. \nBehind the historic tavern is Rathskeller Down Back\, its seasonal outdoor entertainment area. \nThe grounds include outdoor seating\, lawn games and a large fire pit\, with live music becoming a regular part of weekends during the warmer months. \nOn September 6\, the soundtrack goes back more than half a century. \nThe Beatles and the Stones. \nMotown and The Monkees. \nPop songs and psychedelic rock. \nThree hours covering a decade in which popular music seemed to reinvent itself every couple of years. \nAnd this time\, you don’t need a time machine. \nYou just need to find the Rathskeller in the woods. \nEvent Details\nEvent: 60’s Explosion at the Charlestown Rathskeller 2026\nDate: Sunday\, September 6\, 2026\nTime: 4–7 p.m.\nLocation: Charlestown Rathskeller\nAddress: 489A Old Coach Road\, Charlestown\, RI 02813\nBand: 60’s Explosion\nMusic: British Invasion\, Motown\, psychedelic rock and 1960s pop and rock\nAdmission: Free\nRSVP: Encouraged\nVenue: Outdoor live music at Rathskeller Down Back \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo reserve your spot\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n\n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown. \n 
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/60s-explosion-at-the-charlestown-rathskeller-2/
LOCATION:Rathskeller\, 489A Old Coach Rd\, Charlestown\, RI\, 02813\, United States
CATEGORIES:Rathskeller
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/60s-Explosion-at-the-Charlestown-Rathskeller.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260911T213000
DTSTAMP:20260910T034128Z
CREATED:20260910T034127Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T034128Z
UID:10007536-1789155000-1789162200@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Simply the Best – Tina Turner Tribute
DESCRIPTION:Simply the Best – Tina Turner Tribute brings the music\, energy\, and sheer force of Tina Turner’s stage presence to downtown Westerly on Friday\, September 11\, with Jenn Cristy and a live band taking over the UNITED’s Black Box Auditorium. \nThe 7:30 p.m. concert isn’t designed as a Tina Turner impersonation. Cristy isn’t trying to convince the audience that Turner has somehow walked onto the stage. The production describes itself as a celebration\, built around the songs and the explosive live-performance style that made Turner one of rock music’s defining performers. \nThat means Proud Mary\, River Deep – Mountain High\, What’s Love Got to Do with It and The Best\, along with music spanning Turner’s career in rock\, soul\, R&B and pop. \nAnd Cristy brings a considerably deeper musical résumé to the job than simply being able to sing the songs. \nJenn Cristy Toured and Recorded With John Mellencamp\nBefore creating a nationally touring Tina Turner tribute\, Jenn Cristy spent part of her career onstage and in the studio with another Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. \nCristy toured and recorded with John Mellencamp as a backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. \nHer credits on Mellencamp’s 2001 album Cuttin’ Heads are unusually extensive. She played flute\, percussion\, piano\, organ and violin in addition to singing background vocals. The album also included musicians Steve Jordan and Willie Weeks and guest vocal appearances by Chuck D\, India.Arie and Trisha Yearwood. \nCristy’s work with Mellencamp took her onto national television as well\, with appearances that included Today\, Late Show with David Letterman\, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. \nShe eventually established her own career as a singer-songwriter and touring performer\, working across rock\, pop and soul and developing projects through Bloomington\, Indiana-based One Pulse Entertainment. \nThat versatility turns out to be particularly useful when the artist you’re celebrating is Tina Turner. \nThis Isn’t a Look-Alike Show\nThe distinction Cristy makes about Simply the Best is worth noting. \nIt’s not an impersonation. \nTribute shows can take several forms. Some attempt to reproduce a performer visually as closely as possible\, right down to costumes\, mannerisms and physical resemblance. Others concentrate almost entirely on recreating the original recordings. \nCristy’s show takes a third approach. \nShe’s interested in recreating what it felt like to watch Tina Turner perform. \nThat means the voice matters\, but so do movement\, personality\, interaction with the audience and the sense that the person at the center of the stage is having as much fun as everyone watching. \nCristy has said she has long felt a kinship with Turner’s music and performing style. \nIt’s easy to understand the attraction. \nBoth are singers who don’t stand still behind a microphone. \nTina Turner Was Built for the Stage\nThere are artists whose definitive work lives on records. \nTina Turner was different. \nThe records mattered\, but the stage completed them. \nHer voice could be gritty\, soulful\, vulnerable or ferocious. Then there was the physical performance: the dancing\, the hair\, the miniskirts\, the heels and the seemingly inexhaustible ability to command an arena. \nTurner didn’t simply sing rock music. \nShe performed it with an intensity that helped redefine what a female rock frontperson could look and sound like. \nThe Rock & Roll Hall of Fame describes her as an artist who shattered barriers for Black women in rock while raising the standard for generations of lead singers who followed. \nThat influence reaches from Janis Joplin and the rock performers of Turner’s early career through Prince\, Beyoncé\, Janet Jackson\, Rihanna and generations of artists who came afterward. \nCristy’s challenge Friday night isn’t simply hitting Turner’s notes. \nIt’s finding some of that electricity. \nBefore Tina Turner\, There Was Anna Mae Bullock\nThe story began far from an arena stage. \nTina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville\, Tennessee\, in 1939 and grew up in the rural South. \nHer musical career began after she encountered Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm in St. Louis. Eventually she joined the act\, adopted the name Tina Turner and became the focal point of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. \nBy the 1960s\, the revue had developed a reputation as a formidable live act. \nThen came one of the great recordings of the era. \nRiver Deep – Mountain High Was Too Big to Fail\, Until It Did\nProducer Phil Spector saw something in Tina Turner that went beyond the revue. \nIn 1966\, he put her voice at the center of River Deep – Mountain High\, constructing one of the grandest examples of his famous Wall of Sound production technique around her. \nToday\, the recording is regarded as a landmark. \nAt the time\, America largely ignored it. \nThe single performed much better in Britain than in the United States\, where it failed to become the enormous hit Spector expected. \nTurner’s performance\, however\, was undeniable. \nShe had a voice capable of standing in front of an almost absurdly dense production and not disappearing inside it. \nDecades later\, River Deep – Mountain High remains part of the repertoire Cristy brings to the stage. \nAnd it represents an important part of Turner’s story. \nShe could sing over almost anything. \nThen Came Proud Mary\nIke & Tina Turner released their version of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary in 1971. \nThey didn’t simply cover it. \nThey rebuilt it. \nThe arrangement famously begins slowly before exploding into the fast second half that became inseparable from Tina Turner. \nIt was a major hit and earned the duo a Grammy. \nMore than half a century later\, it’s almost impossible to imagine a Tina Turner tribute that doesn’t include it. \nThe song also captures why a live tribute to Turner works differently from a conventional greatest-hits show. \nEveryone knows what’s coming. \nThe audience knows the tempo is going to change. \nThey know the performance is about to take off. \nAnd they wait for it anyway. \nLeaving Ike Turner Meant Starting Over\nBehind the success was an abusive marriage that Turner later described publicly in painful detail. \nShe left Ike Turner in 1976. \nThe separation brought personal freedom but didn’t immediately bring career security. Turner had to rebuild. \nFor several years she performed wherever she could\, including television appearances and smaller venues\, while the music business increasingly treated her as a performer whose biggest years were behind her. \nShe was a Black woman entering her 40s in an industry particularly unforgiving of women as they aged. \nThen Tina Turner pulled off one of the most extraordinary second acts in popular music. \nPrivate Dancer Changed Everything at 44\nTurner released Private Dancer in 1984. \nShe was 44 years old. \nThe album transformed her from a veteran performer fighting to maintain a career into an international superstar. \nBetter Be Good to Me became a hit. \nThe Mark Knopfler-written Private Dancer became one of her signature recordings. \nBut the song that changed everything was What’s Love Got to Do with It. \nIt reached No. 1 in the United States and became Turner’s biggest hit. \nAt an age when the music industry routinely considered female pop stars past their commercial peak\, Turner was suddenly bigger than she had ever been. \nThe song earned three Grammy Awards\, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. \nThe comeback wasn’t nostalgia. \nIt was a new peak. \nMTV Met Its Match\nTurner’s timing was perfect in another way. \nMTV had arrived in 1981 and was transforming popular music into an increasingly visual medium. \nTurner was made for it. \nShe didn’t have to invent a camera-friendly stage personality. She’d been developing one for decades. \nVideos for songs from the Private Dancer era introduced her to an audience that may have had little memory of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. \nHer look became instantly identifiable. \nHer movement became part of the songs. \nAnd her voice worked just as well against the polished synthesizers and arena-rock production of the 1980s as it had against soul and R&B arrangements two decades earlier. \nShe had reinvented herself without ceasing to sound like Tina Turner. \nWe Don’t Need Another Hero and The Best Kept It Going\nThe comeback didn’t stop with one album. \nTurner starred as Aunty Entity opposite Mel Gibson in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and recorded We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) for the soundtrack. \nThen\, in 1989\, she released Foreign Affair. \nThat album included The Best. \nThe song wasn’t originally hers. Bonnie Tyler had recorded it first. \nBut Tina Turner took possession of it so thoroughly that most people now associate the song with her. \nIts enormous chorus\, Turner’s vocal delivery and its natural fit with an arena crowd transformed it into another signature song. \nIt also gave Cristy’s tribute its obvious name. \nAn Eight-Piece Band Recreates the Music Live\nSimply the Best isn’t built around backing tracks and a singer. \nThe touring production uses a full eight-piece live band\, allowing the arrangements to retain the punch that Turner’s music needs. \nThat’s particularly important because the catalog covers several musical eras. \nRiver Deep – Mountain High comes from the densely orchestrated soul production of the 1960s. \nProud Mary moves from slow-burning soul into full-speed rock and R&B. \nWhat’s Love Got to Do with It belongs unmistakably to the polished pop production of 1984. \nPrivate Dancer is moodier. \nWe Don’t Need Another Hero is cinematic. \nThe Best is built for an arena. \nCristy’s touring materials also reveal a broader repertoire including Nutbush City Limits\, Let’s Stay Together\, I Can’t Stand the Rain\, Better Be Good to Me and Private Dancer. \nThe show even reaches beyond Turner’s own recordings for an eclectic selection of additional favorites. \nThe common denominator isn’t one musical genre. \nIt’s energy. \nTurner’s Career Ultimately Lasted More Than 50 Years\nTina Turner eventually became one of those rare artists whose life story became almost as culturally familiar as the songs. \nShe sold out stadiums around the world. \nShe wrote autobiographies. \nAngela Bassett portrayed her in the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do with It. \nHer story became the stage production Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. \nThe documentary Tina revisited both her career and the complicated reality of repeatedly being asked to relive the most painful period of her life. \nAnd the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted her twice. \nIke & Tina Turner entered together in 1991. \nThirty years later\, Tina Turner was inducted again as a solo performer in 2021. \nShe died in Switzerland in 2023 at age 83. \nBy then\, the comeback that once seemed so improbable had become only one chapter in a career spanning more than half a century. \nThe UNITED Makes This One Intimate\nFriday’s Westerly performance isn’t happening in a giant arena. \nIt’s in the UNITED’s Black Box Auditorium. \nThe show is fully seated\, which makes this a more intimate version of a production that tours nationally. \nThat could work particularly well for Cristy’s approach. \nTurner’s concerts were famous for scale\, but her stage presence depended on connecting with an audience. In a smaller room\, there’s nowhere for the performer to hide and considerably less distance between the front row and the band. \nCristy has spent years touring as a performer in her own right. \nShe isn’t trying to become Tina Turner for two hours. \nShe’s taking what Turner left behind and putting it back where much of it made the most sense in the first place. \nOn a stage. \nWith a band. \nAnd with Proud Mary waiting to speed up. \nDetails\nEvent: Simply the Best – Tina Turner Tribute\nDate: Friday\, September 11\, 2026\nTime: 7:30 p.m.\nRunning Time: Approximately 120 minutes\nPerformer: Jenn Cristy\nProduction: Simply the Best: A Tribute to the Music of Tina Turner\nMusic: Rock / soul / R&B / pop\nBand: Full live band\nVenue: UNITED Black Box Auditorium\nAddress: 5 Canal Street\, Westerly\, RI 02891\nSeating: Fully seated performance\nTicket Policy: Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable\nAccessibility: The UNITED is wheelchair accessible; the theater recommends contacting the box office before purchasing tickets if accessible seating is needed\nBox Office: 401-388-8208\nParking: Street and public-lot parking is available in downtown Westerly \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/simply-the-best-tina-turner-tribute/
LOCATION:United Theatre\, 5 Canal Street\, Westerly\, RI\, 02891\, United States
CATEGORIES:United Theater
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Simply-the-Best-–-Tina-Turner-Tribute-Brings-the-Queen-of-Rock-n-Roll-to-the-UNITED.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T210000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260912T230000
DTSTAMP:20260915T022456Z
CREATED:20260909T001736Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T022456Z
UID:10007527-1789246800-1789254000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:The Lady Gaga Experience Featuring Haus of Monsters at the Ocean Mist
DESCRIPTION:The Lady Gaga Experience Featuring Haus of Monsters at the Ocean Mist turns one of Rhode Island’s most enduring beach bars into a full-scale Gaga production Saturday\, September 12\, with a live band\, backup dancers\, costumes\, choreography\, and a catalog built around nearly two decades of pop hits. \nDoors open at 8 p.m. and the show begins at 9. This is a 21-and-over night at the Ocean Mist\, and Haus of Monsters isn’t approaching the material as four musicians standing onstage playing Lady Gaga covers. The New York-based group describes itself as a complete tribute experience\, combining the music with the visual spectacle and theatricality that have been part of Gaga’s identity since Just Dance and Poker Face first made her a global star. \nAnd there’s something appropriately excessive about putting all of that inside the Ocean Mist\, a weathered Matunuck institution sitting practically on top of the Atlantic Ocean. \nMore Than a Lady Gaga Cover Band\nHaus of Monsters has a fairly ambitious goal. \nIt isn’t trying simply to sound like Lady Gaga. It’s attempting to reproduce the feeling of a Gaga show on a scale that can travel into theaters\, clubs and music venues around the country. \nThe production combines a live band made up of New York session musicians with a lead performance\, backup dancers\, elaborate costumes and choreography. \nThe group is based in New York City\, Gaga’s hometown\, and describes its members as both professional musicians and longtime “Little Monsters\,” the name Gaga has used for her fans throughout her career. \nThat distinction matters with an artist whose music has never really existed separately from presentation. \nA faithful Lady Gaga tribute needs Bad Romance\, but it also needs some drama. \nIt needs Poker Face\, but preferably with considerably more happening onstage than someone singing into a microphone. \nAnd a song like Born This Way carries an identity and message that go well beyond its chorus. \nHaus of Monsters has built the show around that complete package\, moving between dance-floor records and ballads while changing the visual presentation along with the music. \nNearly 20 Years of Gaga to Work With\nAt this point\, there’s a surprisingly deep catalog from which to build the night. \nLady Gaga’s first album\, The Fame\, arrived in 2008 and produced Just Dance and Poker Face. The expanded The Fame Monster era followed with Bad Romance\, Telephone and Alejandro. \nThen came Born This Way\, with its title track\, The Edge of Glory and You and I. \nBut Gaga didn’t stay in one musical lane. \nARTPOP pushed further into electronic pop. Her collaboration with Tony Bennett on Cheek to Cheek moved into jazz standards. Joanne pulled back some of the electronic production. Then A Star Is Born introduced an entirely different audience to songs including Shallow and Always Remember Us This Way. \nShe returned to dance-pop with Chromatica and Rain on Me\, followed by another Tony Bennett album and eventually a darker return to maximalist pop with Mayhem. \nFor a tribute act\, that creates a lot of territory to cover. \nHaus of Monsters says its performances travel through Gaga’s biggest hits\, from dance anthems to the large-scale ballads. That gives the band room to change gears rather than simply reproducing two hours of late-2000s club music. \nThe Costumes Are Part of the Assignment\nThere are artists where a tribute band can get away with jeans\, guitars and a convincing setlist. \nLady Gaga is not one of them. \nFrom the beginning of her career\, fashion and theatrical presentation have been part of the work itself. Gaga has appeared in everything from sculptural couture and towering footwear to the infamous meat dress she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. \nHer concert tours have followed the same philosophy. \nThe Monster Ball became a theatrical journey to the fictional Monster Ball itself. The Born This Way Ball used an enormous Gothic castle as part of its staging. Later tours incorporated elaborate video\, choreography\, costume changes\, props and narrative elements. \nHaus of Monsters borrows from that tradition without pretending this is an official Gaga production. \nThe group explicitly identifies itself as an independent\, fan-created tribute with no connection to or endorsement from Lady Gaga or her management. \nWhat it does attempt to reproduce is the combination of music and spectacle. \nThat means dancers aren’t decoration around the band. Costumes aren’t an occasional novelty. Both are fundamental parts of the show. \nFor anyone deciding between this and a conventional tribute-band night\, that’s probably the biggest difference. \nHaus of Monsters Has Been Taking the Production on the Road\nThe Ocean Mist date is part of a much broader 2026 run for Haus of Monsters. \nThe production has been appearing at clubs and theaters throughout the Northeast and beyond\, including City Winery Boston\, the Claremont Opera House in New Hampshire\, The Rex Theatre in Manchester\, Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury\, Massachusetts\, and Brooklyn Bowl in New York. \nThe group played Brooklyn Bowl in June and The Cut in Gloucester in August. Following Matunuck\, additional dates include the Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport and Musikfest Café at ArtsQuest in Bethlehem\, Pennsylvania. \nThose rooms vary considerably in size and format. \nThat’s useful context for the Ocean Mist show because Haus of Monsters is essentially bringing a theatrical tribute production into a Rhode Island beach bar. \nAnd not just any beach bar. \nThe Ocean Mist Has Been Doing This Since 1988\nThe building at 895 Matunuck Beach Road was part of the neighborhood long before anyone called it the Ocean Mist. \nIts history reaches back to Carpenter’s Bar and Grill\, which served surfers\, beachgoers and residents of the nearby summer campgrounds. The property went through different names and owners and survived the punishment that comes with placing a building directly beside the Atlantic. \nThen Kevin Finnegan bought the Ocean Mist in 1988. \nFinnegan had spent summers in Matunuck and saw an opportunity to bring something to South County that often required a drive to Providence at the time: nightlife and serious live music. \nThe Ocean Mist began booking local bands\, emerging acts and national performers while developing the combination that still defines it: restaurant during the day\, music venue at night and ocean immediately outside. \nJohn Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band\, BOP (harvey)\, The M.80s and a long list of regional and touring performers became part of that history. \nThe Ocean Mist now describes itself with a wonderfully understated phrase: “Just a Beach Bar.” \nTechnically\, that’s true. \nIt’s just a beach bar that has spent nearly four decades turning a small piece of Matunuck shoreline into one of Rhode Island’s most recognizable live-music rooms. \nGaga With the Atlantic Outside the Door\nThat location changes the experience. \nThe Ocean Mist isn’t a purpose-built theater with a formal lobby and rows of seats. It’s an oceanfront bar where breakfast starts in the morning\, the kitchen runs through the day and live music takes over at night. \nThe building sits directly along Matunuck Beach\, with the Atlantic visible from the property. \nBy the time Haus of Monsters starts at 9 p.m.\, the atmosphere will be very different from the daytime crowd stopping for breakfast or lunch. \nThis is a 21-plus show\, doors open an hour before the performance\, and Ocean Mist shows can get crowded. Anyone who wants time to get inside\, grab a drink and find a comfortable place before the production begins would be better served arriving closer to doors than showtime. \nParking for this event is listed as free. \nAnd because this is the Ocean Mist\, there’s a particularly good argument for arriving well before 8. \nCome down to Matunuck early. Eat. Watch the ocean for a while. \nThen go inside and watch somebody put on an outrageous costume and launch into Bad Romance. \nSouth County doesn’t offer many Saturday nights quite like that. \nDetails\nEvent: The Lady Gaga Experience Featuring Haus of Monsters at the Ocean Mist\nDate: Saturday\, September 12\, 2026\nDoors: 8 p.m.\nShow: 9 p.m.\nPerformer: Haus of Monsters\nMusic: Lady Gaga tribute / pop / dance\nShow Format: Live band with backup dancers\, costumes and theatrical production\nAge: 21+\nVenue: Ocean Mist\nAddress: 895 Matunuck Beach Road\, South Kingstown\, RI 02879\nParking: Free parking\nRefund Policy: No refunds\nPhone: 401-782-3740 \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/the-lady-gaga-experience-featuring-haus-of-monsters-at-the-ocean-mist/
LOCATION:Ocean Mist\, 895 Matunuck Beach Road\, South Kingston\, RI\, 02879\, United States
CATEGORIES:Ocean Mist
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-Lady-Gaga-Experience-Featuring-Haus-of-Monsters-at-the-Ocean-Mist.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260918T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260918T220000
DTSTAMP:20260916T020755Z
CREATED:20260916T020755Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260916T020755Z
UID:10007919-1789761600-1789768800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:The Great Escape at Wolf Den Recreates Journey’s Arena-Rock Sound in an Intimate Room
DESCRIPTION:The Great Escape at Wolf Den brings Journey’s soaring vocals\, melodic guitar lines\, and enormous choruses to Mohegan Sun on Friday\, September 18\, with one of New England’s longest-running Journey tribute bands taking the stage for a free 21+ show. \nThe Great Escape formed in 2008 around a fairly straightforward objective: play Journey’s music with enough precision and energy that the songs retain the impact of the originals. \nNearly two decades later\, the band is still doing it. \nThe current group centers on vocalist Jason Paulino\, whose upper-register voice made Journey an obvious fit\, along with guitarist Rich Vigdor\, keyboardist John Dischert\, bassist and band founder Bob Wheeler\, and drummer Dennis King. \nAt the Wolf Den\, they’ll have one of rock’s deepest catalogs of recognizable songs to work with. \nJourney Made the Opening Notes Enough\nSome bands have hits. \nJourney has songs where a few seconds can identify the entire record. \nThe piano introduction to Don’t Stop Believin’. The keyboard opening of Separate Ways (Worlds Apart). The guitar melody of Lights. The first vocal lines of Faithfully and Open Arms. \nMuch of that music came from Journey’s extraordinary commercial run from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s\, particularly during the years when Steve Perry\, Neal Schon\, Jonathan Cain\, Ross Valory and Steve Smith formed the band’s best-known lineup. \nJourney’s 1981 album Escape became its first No. 1 album in the United States and produced Don’t Stop Believin’\, Who’s Crying Now and Open Arms. \nThe Great Escape’s name leaves little mystery about which period of Journey provides the band’s foundation. \nIt Started With a Bass Player Who Couldn’t Shake the Idea\nThe Great Escape’s origins trace largely to bassist Bob Wheeler. \nWheeler began playing bass at about 16 after some high-school friends wanted to form a band and bass happened to be the instrument nobody else had claimed. \nHe taught himself\, played Boston-area venues including The Channel and The Paradise and eventually stepped away from performing. \nYears later\, Wheeler began playing again. \nDuring that period\, he encountered an advertisement seeking a bassist for a Journey tribute band. The audition never happened\, but the idea stuck with him. \nThen he heard Jason Paulino sing. \nPaulino auditioned for a cover band Wheeler was playing with\, and when the group performed a couple of Journey songs\, Wheeler realized he’d found the voice that could make his old idea work. \nThe two began discussing a Journey project. \nIn 2008\, The Great Escape was born. \nJason Paulino Had the Voice for the Job\nThe hardest part of creating a convincing Journey tribute is also the most obvious. \nYou need somebody who can sing those songs. \nSteve Perry’s voice wasn’t simply high. His combination of range\, control\, phrasing and power became one of the defining sounds of American rock radio. \nPaulino has spent much of his career working in that territory. \nThe Great Escape’s official biography describes his voice as exceptionally close to Perry’s when singing Journey material. Earlier in his career\, Paulino also appeared multiple times as a “Star of the Day” and became a finalist on the New England television talent program Community Auditions. \nMore recently\, he has begun establishing a musical identity outside the tribute-band world. \nPaulino relocated to the Nashville area and has been developing original material as a singer-songwriter while continuing to return for selected Great Escape performances. \nHis original single Don’t Give Up On Me earned a 2026 Josie Music Awards nomination for Song of the Year – Rock Artist\, with the awards scheduled just two days after Friday’s Wolf Den appearance. \nThat makes this particular Great Escape show land at an interesting point in the singer’s career. \nThe Guitar Parts Matter Just as Much\nJourney’s music would be considerably easier to imitate if the challenge stopped with the vocals. \nIt doesn’t. \nNeal Schon’s guitar work is embedded throughout the songs\, often creating recognizable melodies within seconds. \nThat’s where Rich Vigdor comes in. \nThe Great Escape describes its guitarist’s approach as recreating Journey’s riffs and solos note for note. \nFor a tribute band\, that attention to detail matters. \nA song such as Stone in Love doesn’t merely need distortion and a fast solo. Lights needs its particular melodic phrasing. Who’s Crying Now builds toward one of Schon’s most recognizable closing guitar passages. \nThe audience already knows how those moments are supposed to sound. \nKeyboards Are Essential to the Journey Formula\nThen there are the keyboards. \nJourney’s early records grew from the band’s progressive-rock roots\, but Jonathan Cain’s arrival before Escape helped reshape the group into the arena-rock powerhouse most listeners remember. \nPiano and synthesizer became essential parts of the sound. \nThe opening of Don’t Stop Believin’ wouldn’t exist without that piano figure. \nSeparate Ways wouldn’t be Separate Ways without its aggressive synthesizer opening. \nOpen Arms depends on piano to create the space around Perry’s vocal. \nIn The Great Escape\, John Dischert handles keyboard and piano while also contributing vocal harmonies. \nThe rhythm section is anchored by Wheeler on bass and Dennis King on drums. \nTogether\, the five musicians have the pieces required to recreate a catalog that is much more musically layered than its radio-friendly hooks sometimes suggest. \nThe Great Escape Has Been Doing This for Nearly Two Decades\nLongevity separates The Great Escape from the endless cycle of tribute acts that form\, play for a few years and disappear. \nThe band has been performing since 2008. \nIts résumé includes appearances at casinos\, theaters\, clubs and festivals around New England and beyond\, including previous performances at Mohegan Sun. \nThe group was also recognized as New England’s Best Tribute Band at the Limelight Magazine Awards in 2009 and again in 2013\, according to the band’s official biography. \nThat history has allowed the musicians to spend years refining the small details of Journey’s material. \nAnd with a catalog this familiar\, small details are exactly what audiences notice. \nExpect the Big Journey Songs\nMohegan Sun hasn’t published a song-by-song setlist for Friday night\, so there is no reason to pretend we know precisely what the band will play. \nBut The Great Escape’s own material makes its mission clear. \nThis is a Journey tribute. \nThe band’s repertoire has included the songs audiences would expect from that description\, with Escape\, Lights and even Steve Perry’s solo hit Oh Sherrie featured among recordings on its website. \nJourney’s catalog gives the band plenty more to draw from\, including Any Way You Want It\, Wheel in the Sky\, Lovin’\, Touchin’\, Squeezin’\, Stone in Love\, Who’s Crying Now\, Open Arms\, Separate Ways\, Faithfully and\, inevitably\, Don’t Stop Believin’. \nWhich of those make Friday’s final set is up to the band. \nThe singalong potential isn’t. \nThe Wolf Den Makes a Very Big Catalog Feel Small\nJourney built much of its reputation playing arenas. \nThe Wolf Den is essentially the opposite. \nLocated inside Mohegan Sun’s Casino of the Earth\, the venue puts audiences remarkably close to performers and offers its concerts without an admission charge. \nThat intimacy is particularly suited to a tribute act. \nInstead of watching musicians recreate an arena-rock band from the far end of an arena\, audiences can see the playing that goes into recreating the music. \nThere is a tradeoff. \nSpace is limited. \nThe Wolf Den uses first-come\, first-served seating\, and Mohegan Sun specifically recommends arriving early. \nDon’t Line Up Before 5 p.m.\nThere is an important Wolf Den rule for anyone determined to get a seat. \nGuests may begin lining up no earlier than three hours before showtime. \nFor Friday’s 8 p.m. performance\, that means 5 p.m. \nOne person is permitted to hold up to four places in line\, but everyone must be present when seating occurs. A place in line does not allow someone to claim an empty seat for a friend arriving later. \nBecause seating is limited and The Great Escape is playing a catalog filled with familiar radio hits\, arriving well before 8 p.m. is the safer approach for anyone who considers sitting important. \nThe venue is also 21 and older and non-smoking. \nOne Night Before a Very Different Journey for Its Singer\nThere is a fun bit of timing surrounding Friday’s show. \nPaulino has spent nearly two decades singing songs associated with one of rock’s most famous voices. \nNow he’s increasingly putting his own name on the music. \nTwo days after The Great Escape performs at the Wolf Den\, the 2026 Josie Music Awards are scheduled at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry House\, where Paulino’s Don’t Give Up On Me is among the nominated independent recordings. \nBut first comes Friday night in Uncasville. \nFive musicians. \nA small room. \nNo admission charge. \nAnd a catalog created for rooms many times its size. \nDetails\nEvent: The Great Escape at Wolf Den\nDate: Friday\, September 18\, 2026\nTime: 8 p.m.\nVenue: Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun\nLocation: Casino of the Earth\nAddress: 1 Mohegan Sun Boulevard\, Uncasville\, CT 06382\nBand: The Great Escape\nMusic: Tribute to Journey\nAdmission: Free\nAge: 21+\nSeating: Limited and first come\, first served\nLine: Guests may line up no earlier than 5 p.m.\, three hours before showtime\nHolding Places: One person may hold up to four places in line; guests must be present when seats are assigned\nSmoking: The Wolf Den is a non-smoking entertainment venue\nPhone: 1-888-226-7711\nSchedule: Times and performers are subject to change \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/the-great-escape-at-wolf-den-recreates-journeys-arena-rock-sound-in-an-intimate-room/
LOCATION:Wolf Den\, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvs\, Uncasville\, CT\, 06382\, United States
CATEGORIES:Mohegan Sun
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-Great-Escape-at-Wolf-Den-Recreates-Journeys-Arena-Rock-Sound-in-an-Intimate-Room.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260919T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260919T230000
DTSTAMP:20260915T020845Z
CREATED:20260915T020845Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260915T020845Z
UID:10007608-1789848000-1789858800@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:Blizzard of Ozz Brings the Randy Rhoads Era of Ozzy Osbourne to the Charlestown Rathskeller
DESCRIPTION:Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy Osbourne Tribute) at the Charlestown Rathskeller brings the music of Ozzy Osbourne to Charlestown on Saturday\, September 19\, with a tribute band that goes considerably deeper than a greatest-hits impersonation. \nThe concert runs from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Charlestown Rathskeller\, with tickets priced at $15 in advance plus Eventbrite fees or $20 at the door. \nBlizzard of Ozz builds its show around the early years of Osbourne’s solo career and\, in particular\, the extraordinary music he created with guitarist Randy Rhoads. \nThat means Crazy Train and Mr. Crowley\, certainly. But the band’s repertoire extends through both of the Osbourne/Rhoads albums\, later Ozzy favorites and selected Black Sabbath material. \nFor anyone who thinks an Ozzy tribute begins and ends with shouting “All aboard!” before the opening riff of Crazy Train\, this band has considerably more planned. \nBlizzard of Ozz Starts With Randy Rhoads\nThe band’s name tells you exactly where its priorities lie. \nOzzy Osbourne released his debut solo album\, Blizzard of Ozz\, in 1980 after his departure from Black Sabbath. \nThe album introduced a new musical partnership between Osbourne and Randy Rhoads\, a young California guitarist whose combination of heavy-metal aggression and classically influenced technique helped establish a dramatically different sound for Ozzy’s solo career. \nThe record produced some of Osbourne’s defining songs\, including Crazy Train\, Mr. Crowley\, I Don’t Know and Suicide Solution. \nIt was followed by Diary of a Madman in 1981\, with songs including Flying High Again\, Over the Mountain and the title track. \nThen everything stopped. \nRhoads was killed in a plane crash in Florida on March 19\, 1982. He was 25. \nMore than four decades later\, those two albums remain the musical foundation of Blizzard of Ozz. \nThe tribute band’s stated mission is not simply recreating Ozzy’s appearance and famous songs. It places particular emphasis on preserving the music Osbourne and Rhoads created together. \nThis Band Can Play Both Rhoads Albums in Their Entirety\nThat’s an important distinction. \nBlizzard of Ozz has developed a repertoire that includes every song from Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. \nFor a general audience\, the familiar songs provide the immediate payoff. \nCrazy Train has one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in heavy metal. Mr. Crowley remains one of the great showcases of Rhoads’ playing. Flying High Again became another cornerstone of Osbourne’s early solo catalog. \nBut fans who know the albums rather than simply the radio hits get the deeper cuts too. \nThe band’s full repertoire allows it to explore the period when Osbourne was reinventing himself after Black Sabbath and Rhoads was helping create a new vocabulary for heavy-metal guitar. \nThat’s why the guitar chair matters so much in this particular tribute. \nDamiano Christian Has the Randy Rhoads Assignment\nGuitarist Damiano Christian handles the role. \nBlizzard of Ozz describes Christian’s playing as deliberately faithful to Rhoads’ style\, and his job goes beyond reproducing the famous opening riff to Crazy Train. \nRhoads’ playing combined rapid alternate picking\, legato passages\, harmonics\, tapping\, intricate chord voicings and techniques drawn from classical guitar. His solos could be melodic and carefully constructed while still sounding explosive. \nGetting the notes approximately right isn’t enough if you’re building a band specifically around this era. \nThe phrasing and tone are part of the music. \nChristian’s role is therefore closer to reconstruction than imitation: recreating guitar parts that generations of metal players have spent decades studying. \nMark Lavoie Takes on Ozzy\nAt the microphone is Mark Lavoie\, who performs the Osbourne role. \nThat’s another difficult assignment because Ozzy’s voice has always been unusually recognizable. \nHe wasn’t a conventional technically polished hard-rock singer. His slightly nasal tone\, phrasing and ability to carry melodies over enormous guitar riffs made his voice immediately identifiable\, first with Black Sabbath and then on his solo records. \nA successful tribute has to capture enough of that character to make the songs feel right without turning the entire performance into parody. \nBlizzard of Ozz’s current lineup pairs Lavoie with Christian on guitar\, Paul Sylvia on bass and Kenny Evans on drums. \nTogether\, the four-piece recreates the basic architecture of the classic Ozzy solo band: voice\, guitar\, bass and drums\, with the guitar occupying a particularly prominent place in the arrangements. \nThe Set Doesn’t Stop in 1982\nRhoads is the band’s musical center of gravity\, but Blizzard of Ozz doesn’t end the story with his death. \nOzzy Osbourne continued recording and touring for decades with a remarkable succession of guitarists. \nBlizzard of Ozz reaches into those later periods as well. \nThe band’s advertised repertoire includes Bark at the Moon\, No More Tears and Mama\, I’m Coming Home\, taking the show into the Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde chapters of Osbourne’s career. \nAnd then there’s Black Sabbath. \nBlizzard of Ozz also works selected Sabbath material into its performances for fans who want to hear the music that established Osbourne before his solo career began. \nThe band specifically lists Paranoid among the songs it performs. \nThe result is effectively a tour through Ozzy’s career\, but one viewed through the lens of the Randy Rhoads years rather than a generic collection of heavy-metal hits. \nSaturday’s Concert Is Actually the Second Attempt\nThere’s another wrinkle to the Charlestown show. \nBlizzard of Ozz was originally scheduled to play the Rathskeller on July 18. \nThat performance was canceled because of weather. \nThe band now lists the September 19 Charlestown date as the rescheduled July 18 show. \nThat’s particularly relevant at the Rathskeller because its larger seasonal concerts take place outdoors. \nSeptember 19 gives the band and the venue another shot at bringing the Ozzy show into the woods of Charlestown before the outdoor concert season winds down. \nDown Back Is Built for Nights Like This\nThe Charlestown Rathskeller at 489A Old Coach Road is both a restaurant and a seasonal live-music destination. \nThe property traces its tavern history back to the early 20th century and sits away from the main commercial strips\, surrounded by woods. \nIts outdoor Down Back area transforms the property into something closer to a small festival ground during concert nights. \nThere’s a stage\, outdoor space\, lawn games and the Rathskeller’s enormous fire pit. \nIt’s a different environment from seeing a metal tribute inside a conventional nightclub. \nAnd the setting should work particularly well once darkness settles in. \nA band playing Mr. Crowley\, Bark at the Moon and Paranoid on an outdoor stage in the woods doesn’t exactly need much additional atmosphere. \nCome Early and Make Dinner Part of the Night\nThe Rathskeller is encouraging concertgoers to arrive early for dinner and drinks. \nThat’s practical advice. \nThe restaurant is open until 1 a.m. on Saturdays\, while the kitchen is scheduled to serve until 10 p.m. \nIts menu runs through burgers and pub food into steaks and seafood\, with items such as New England clam chowder\, calamari\, mussels\, fish and chips\, steak frites and the Rathskeller’s well-known fries. \nArriving before the 8 p.m. show gives you time to eat without trying to coordinate dinner with a three-hour concert. \nIt also gives you a better chance to settle into the outdoor concert area before the band starts. \nOzzy’s Music Has Outlived Almost Everything Around It\nThere’s a reason tribute bands can build entire shows around this particular catalog. \nThe music survived its era. \nCrazy Train was released more than 45 years ago. Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman came from a period when heavy metal was still defining what it would become during the 1980s. \nRhoads didn’t live long enough to see how influential his playing would become. \nOsbourne did. \nHe continued performing for decades\, became a cultural figure far beyond heavy metal and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice: first as a member of Black Sabbath and later as a solo artist. \nOzzy Osbourne died in July 2025 at age 76\, just weeks after performing at the massive Back to the Beginning farewell concert in Birmingham\, England. \nThat inevitably changed the character of Ozzy tribute shows. \nThe music is no longer celebrating the career of an artist who might conceivably appear on another stage someday. \nIt’s preserving it. \nFor Blizzard of Ozz\, though\, that mission was already familiar. \nThe band had spent years preserving the work of Randy Rhoads. \nNow the same songs carry the legacy of both men. \nThree Hours of Ozzy in the Woods\nThere isn’t much ambiguity about what Saturday night is supposed to be. \nThis isn’t a broad classic-rock tribute with a couple of Ozzy songs tucked into the set. \nBlizzard of Ozz has built the entire night around him. \nThe early solo albums. \nThe Randy Rhoads guitar parts. \nThe later hits. \nAnd enough Black Sabbath to reach back to where the story started. \nFor three hours Saturday night\, the Charlestown woods are going to sound considerably heavier than usual. \nDetails\nEvent: Blizzard of Ozz (Ozzy Osbourne Tribute) at the Charlestown Rathskeller\nDate: Saturday\, September 19\, 2026\nTime: 8–11 p.m.\nLocation: The Charlestown Rathskeller\nAddress: 489A Old Coach Road\, Charlestown\, RI 02813\nBand: Blizzard of Ozz\nTribute: Ozzy Osbourne\, with a particular focus on the Randy Rhoads era\nBand Members: Mark Lavoie\, vocals; Damiano Christian\, guitar; Paul Sylvia\, bass; Kenny Evans\, drums\nAdvance Tickets: $15 plus Eventbrite fees\nDoor Price: $20\nOriginal Date: July 18\, 2026; canceled because of weather and rescheduled to September 19\nVenue Hours Saturday: Noon–1 a.m.\nKitchen Hours: Noon–10 p.m.\nVenue Phone: 401-792-1000\nVenue Email: info@rathskellertavern.com\nMusic Contact: music@rathskellertavern.com\nWeather: This is an outdoor concert. Check the venue’s current event information if weather is questionable. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nTo purchase tickets\, click the Event Ticketing link below. \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/blizzard-of-ozz-brings-the-randy-rhoads-era-of-ozzy-osbourne-to-the-charlestown-rathskeller/
LOCATION:Rathskeller\, 489A Old Coach Rd\, Charlestown\, RI\, 02813\, United States
CATEGORIES:Rathskeller
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Blizzard-of-Ozz-Brings-the-Randy-Rhoads-Era-of-Ozzy-Osbourne-to-the-Charlestown-Rathskeller.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260926T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260926T220000
DTSTAMP:20260926T164323Z
CREATED:20260924T200916Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260926T164323Z
UID:10008610-1790452800-1790460000@thectbeacon.com
SUMMARY:I Petty the Fool Brings Tom Petty’s American Rock Songbook to Sneekers (cancelled)
DESCRIPTION:NOTE: This event was cancelled due to the nor’easter.\nI Petty the Fool Brings Tom Petty’s American Rock Songbook to Sneekers. Saturday night\, the Connecticut tribute band takes over the longtime Groton music room for an 8 p.m. show built around one of rock’s most enduring catalogs. \nThe Sept. 26 performance brings I Petty the Fool back to southeastern Connecticut after a busy year that has included appearances around Connecticut and Rhode Island. Current regional music listings confirm the Saturday show at Sneekers Cafe. \nFor anyone who knows Tom Petty only from a handful of radio staples\, there’s considerably more material for a tribute band to explore. \nPetty’s career with the Heartbreakers stretched across four decades\, while his work with the Traveling Wilburys and his solo albums added another layer to a catalog that moved comfortably between rock\, folk\, country and the jangling guitar sound associated with his Florida roots. \nI Petty the Fool has built an entire show around it. \nMore Than Free Fallin’\nThe Connecticut-based group bills itself as a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tribute and has become a regular presence on the New England circuit. Other venues hosting the band describe its approach as faithful to the records rather than a loose reinterpretation of Petty’s music. \nThat leaves them with an unusually deep songbook. \nThere’s the early Heartbreakers period that produced Breakdown and American Girl. The band’s commercial peak brought Refugee\, Don’t Do Me Like That and The Waiting. Petty’s enormously successful solo period added Free Fallin’\, I Won’t Back Down and Runnin’ Down a Dream\, while the later years produced songs including Learning to Fly\, Mary Jane’s Last Dance and You Don’t Know How It Feels. \nWhat ties much of it together is Petty’s economy as a songwriter. \nThe songs rarely depend on elaborate arrangements. Instead\, Petty and the Heartbreakers built them from memorable guitar parts\, choruses that arrive quickly and lyrics that could communicate defiance\, disappointment or freedom without overexplaining any of them. \nThat simplicity is deceptive. \nA convincing Tom Petty tribute has to reproduce not only recognizable melodies but the interplay that made the Heartbreakers sound like the Heartbreakers in the first place. \nI Petty the Fool has been taking that approach around the region throughout 2026. The band played the North Stonington Agricultural Fair in July\, while other recent bookings have included New Park Brewing in West Hartford and the Charlestown Rathskeller in Rhode Island. \nA Neighborhood Music Room Since 1984\nSaturday’s setting is considerably more intimate. \nSneekers Cafe has occupied 568 Poquonnock Road in Groton since 1984\, combining a neighborhood restaurant and bar with a long-running schedule of live music. The venue describes itself simply as offering “great food & live music since 1984.” \nThat longevity matters. \nRather than a theater-style tribute show where the audience sits at a distance from the stage\, Sneekers puts the band into the kind of neighborhood bar setting where much of this music has lived for decades. \nAnd Tom Petty’s songs are particularly well suited to it. \nThey’ve survived changing formats\, changing generations and changing definitions of rock music largely because so many of them work in exactly this environment: a band\, a room full of people and choruses almost everyone already knows. \nOn Saturday night\, I Petty the Fool gets an entire evening to work through them. \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \nDetails\nEvent: I Petty the Fool: Tom Petty Tribute\nDate: Saturday\, Sept. 26\, 2026\nTime: 8 p.m.\nVenue: Sneekers Cafe\nAddress: 568 Poquonnock Road\, Groton\, CT 06340\nMusic: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tribute\nPhone: 860-445-1967 \n  \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/i-petty-the-fool-brings-tom-pettys-american-rock-songbook-to-sneekers/
LOCATION:Sneekers Cafe\, 568 Poquonnock Road\, Groton\, 06340\, United States
CATEGORIES:Sneekers Cafe
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://thectbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/I-Petty-the-Fool-Brings-Tom-Pettys-American-Rock-Songbook-to-Sneekers.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR