Okee dokee folks…Well, spring is officially here. This doesn’t mean that winter is finished with us. A friend already pulled up his snow stakes which all but guarantees another storm! We live in New England where we can experience a full year of seasons in one day! I will never forget the year when we […]
Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate the 2024 Motif Music Awards! Held at Fête Music Hall the evening included food and (plenty of) drink, live performances from Jake Hunsinger and the Rock Bottom Band, School of Rock, Meridian, and more, and as always a whole lot of awards! Below are this year’s winners. Read a recap of the event and […]
It’s 1973. A 22-year-old Steve Smith hops out of the ocean in the haze of a Matunuck Beach summer. He shags his hair, throws his longboard up over his head, and takes off at a gallop towards the special community that is Roy Carpenter’s Beach: a collection of “shacks” which features porch sittin’, beer drinkin’, […]
Temperatures may be falling, but things are heating up in the theater community with the start of a new season. Between musicals, straight plays and new works, there is something for any theater lover to enjoy among this fall’s varied selections. A new school year means the collegiate theater scene will soon be up and […]
It was early in the evening, right around suppertime, when I arrived at the Harmony Café in Manville to see Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) tribute band Kelly and the Poor Boys. When I walked in, they were raring to go – Dana Blake on drums, Jason Carpentier on bass, Sal Chinappi on the keys, Robbie […]
Each year as July edges closer to August, I feel my ears prickle at the prospect of enjoying yet another edition of the historic Newport Jazz Festival. Now that I have been fortunate to have attended the festival for over half of my life, it has become a tradition unlike any other I know: one […]
Footloose is loosely based on events that took place in the small, rural and fanatically religious farming town of Elmore City, OK in 1978. Dances had been banned by an ordinance from the late 1800s until a group of teens challenged it. In the 1984 movie, as well as in this musical stage adaptation by […]
With a mix of unusual beats, improvisational sounds and engaging lyrics such as, “I was beaming about you, I’ve been healing without you” and “devoted to makin’ mental health my first responsibility,” Bochek’s songs take listeners on a journey. They invite us to join them on their path towards vulnerability and revelry, all while inevitably […]
With local music beginning to blossom once more following two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Motif is pleased to present our annual Music Awards! These awards compile nominees put forward by local venues, record labels, music writers and radio stations. For being the smallest state, RI certainly has a never ending supply of fantastic music […]
As I entered The Parlour one Monday night, on the stage against the far wall, I saw a man in a chair seated across from four other men in chairs, each with microphones in front of them. I gleaned that this was some sort of interview; later, I learned that this was an episode of […]