Fiddlehead: Coming to an Arena Near You...

This is hopefully being published in The Noise magazine next month but for the people who actually know about the blog, you get a sneak peek. I will try to update this more often now that winter is upon us!

Fiddlehead: Coming to an Arena Near You…
By: Patrick Fitzpatrick

Fiddlehead is a rock band out of Lynn, Massachusetts that has been achieving a lot of success lately. After coming off of several sold out shows including the famous Wobble Wednesday at The Wonder Bar in Allston, MA on October 30th 2011; the band is rumored to be in the studio. If these rumors are in fact correct, Fiddlehead will most likely be poised to release an album around the first of the year. Due to their recent success, I decided it would be prudent to inform the faithful Noise readers as to what they are all about.

The band is made up of Michael Strakus on guitar and bass, Kevin Maestranzi on guitar, bass and vocals, Patrick Nelson on vocals and guitar and Tim Johnson on drums. The four have been playing together for a couple years now in different configurations. Patrick and Michael have pretty much been through thick and thin, playing together since they picked up guitars as youngsters. The natural energy this band seems to cultivate is based on their deep connections to each other. It definitely comes through in their music, which along with their light show, can cause anything from spiritual transcendence to sensory overload.

Did I mention they have a light show? Yea, a real trippy-hippy, psychadelic, laser light show. Controlled by none other than Felipe Araya. How many bands do you know that have a light show and a lighting crew traveling around with them in this economy? That’s how you know its good. Seriously though, these guys have purchased some very expensive equipment to do something different than the norm and I think that shows serious dedication to the whole experience. How many bands just travel around and play the same boring old set over and over with the same guitars, same amps and dim bar lighting?

Not only does Fiddlehead bring the light show, but they also often have things like artwork and jewelry for sale at their shows. They were definitely the first band I saw selling this kind of merchandise at bars. It definitely fits in well with the hippy vibe and brings some sophistication to the table. At pretty much every show there is a painting auctioned off by the talented Desirae Hudson, who also does all the artwork for the band’s posters, logos and probably their album cover. The surrealistic art along with the lights and crazy music all blend together to create a great atmosphere.

Fiddlehead is a funky rock band, with blues, soul and jazz influences. They tend to avoid cover songs and stick to originals, though their version of “Deep Elm Blues” is excellent. Some of their original song titles include, “Nicotine”, “The Blorg”, “Space Cream” and “House of Groove”. Their song catalog is fairly extensive but they often like to jam out on individual songs for quite a long time. Long periods of instrumentals and lots of dramatic solos almost brings me back to the 1970’s. Don’t take my word for it though, you can check them out yourself online on fiddleheadband.com and several other websites. You can even become one of their over 900 fans on Facebook.

(Photo by Cherie Mann)