Music in the Valley: Three Bands with UMass Roots to Perform at The Drake in February 2023
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Three bands with UMass connections performed at The Drake, a live performance and music venue in the heart of downtown Amherst, Mass., in February.
On Friday, Feb. 3, at 8 p.m. ET, Les Dérailleurs celebrated its 6th Anniversary Dance Punk Party with Landowner and Perennial, featuring special guest Steve Waksman. Les Dérailleurs band members include singer and guitarist Joe Pater, professor and chair in the Department of Linguistics, and drummer Jeremy Smith, an archivist at the UMass library.
Formed in Western Mass when things seemed off the rails, Les Dérailleurs uses quick changing, fast, loud, propulsive songs to charge ahead. This Drake concert celebrates the sixth anniversary of their first show, which was at the 2017 Anti-Inauguration Party at Flywheel in Easthampton. It features a guest appearance by Steve Waksman, who was part of the first gathering of Dérailleurs members, at a Bowie tribute in January 2016 at the Ashfield Lakehouse. Their latest release is an EP called "2003," which contains recordings from that year by lead Dérailleur Pater, including two songs in their current repertoire.
Later that month, on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 8 p.m. ET, two high energy rock bands Roll Over White and Senior Year collided for a double bill throwdown.
Roll Over White is a high powered alternative rock band out of Eastern Massachusetts, including two UMass Amherst students and two Berklee College of Music students: Stephen Sifflard on drums and lead vocals, James Carney on lead guitar, Emmett Wilmot on bass and Kevin Cafferty on keys.
Senior Year is a rock and pop band formed at UMass Amherst via Shrewsbury, Mass. Their recently released album, "Out of Here," is available across all platforms.