Rocking in Milford

Thursday, January 28, 2010

By RICK DUMONT

Correspondent

MILFORD – A big time rock show in Milford?

That’s right, a producer of national touring acts is bringing one of those bands to the stage at the Amato Center on Feb. 20.

Seth McNally, of McNally Entertainment in Brookline, is bringing the James Montgomery Band, along with special guest Charlie Farren from the Joe Perry Project, to Milford.

Is there really a call for such a band to come to Milford of all places?

While Milford has never really been known for its ability to host a major talent so that hundreds of people could get in on the moment, the Souhegan Valley is “a big blues rock area,” McNally said, and “this is a knock-out show definitely the biggest to come to the area in recent memory.”

McNally has been producing shows for local bands setting up shows in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts for the past few years and has recently expanded his horizons to the national stage.

“I realized that I had to do bigger shows to make a living,” McNally said. So, in taking on bigger bands in bigger venues, his eyes began to scan his old stomping grounds for a local venue.

“I grew up in Brookline,” McNally said. “There is very little exciting live music to go see. People have to go to Manchester, Concord, Londonderry, Keene or Boston.”

That is, until the Amato Center rose like a sparkling gem up from the riverside and into the mind of the gregarious promoter.

“I thought it was a great theater with great potential for live music. And in Milford!,” McNally said. “With 468 seats, it definitely is an attractive venue for big bands.”

Bringing a big-name act to Milford was no small task. “There is a mountain of work going into promoting a show,” McNally said.

But he was able to get Montgomery and his cohorts signed to do the show, much to his glee and for those who get out to see the band perform. “People are going to love being able to see such a great show in their backyard,” McNally said.

James Montgomery has been a musician ever since getting the blues from the likes of John Lee Hooker and Jr. Wells during his childhood in Detroit. Over the last three decades, he has built a band that has recorded some serious blues and hit the stage with the likes of B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Charlie Daniels, to name a few. His band has also toured with The Allman Brothers, Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith.

Which leads to the here and now. Along with Montgomery and his cast of characters is Farren, the inimitable guitarist and lead singer for Aerosmith’s Joe Perry’s other band. Farren went on to form Farenheit with another exile from the Project’s first incarnation in the 1980s, Dave Hull.

Having Farren with Montgomery for just the one night “makes it a special show, one that people won’t see again,” McNally said.

Montgomery typically brings out special guests to jam with him on stage at his shows. McNally said a recent Worcester show featured Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford as the special guitarist. The night before the Milford show, Joey Kramer, also of Aerosmith, will be rocking out in Rochester at the Opera House with Montgomery and the rest of the band.

Opening the night will be the local classic rock cover band, Eastwood Peak, McNally said. According to its Web site, Eastwood Peak has been around since the 1960s and was the first rock band to play at The Big Bear Lodge in Brookline in the 1970s. Up until the boys from Massachusetts rocked the house, The Big Bear was only home to country music performances.

“They are putting together a special 45-minute classic blues-rock set to compliment the show,” McNally said.

Tickets for the show are $30 and are available at the Milford Toadstool Bookstore, as well as online at www.svbgc.org. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and Eastwood Peak kicks off their set at 8 p.m.

McNally said he hopes to bring more bands to the venue, “if the people at the Center are happy with the show and are game for more.” Perhaps, at some point in the near future there will be a summer series of concerts in Milford? Only time will tell, but until that happens, there is the James Montgomery Band to look forward to, and they are only a very short drive away.