New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Bringing Englishtown, 1977, to Toad’s Place
Band members from The Dead, NRPS, Marshall Tucker to relive iconic outdoor music festival
NEW HAVEN — Beyond Woodstock, The Beatles’ first shows in America, and maybe Altamount and Watkins Glen, there aren’t a lot of single concerts that people are talking about more than four decades later — let alone naming bands after. Englishtown is one of them. The historic show on Sept. 3, 1977, at a motor speedway in Englishtown, N.J. — considered by many to be among the best Grateful Dead shows ever — paired the Dead in its mid-career Terrapin Station prime with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Marshall Tucker Band.
So you missed it — or maybe you didn’t.
But either way, you can relive it to a certain extent on Friday night when The Englishtown Project, a band that includes a collective of folks who have played with various Dead members, the New Riders, Hot Tuna, Zen Tricksters, Max Creek and others, plays at Toad’s Place.
Showtime is 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, available in advance at toadsplace.com or 203-624-TOAD. The band promises to play heaping helpings of music by all three of the original Englishtown bands. Toad’s is located at 300 York St.
In addition to the New Riders, Hot Tuna, Zen Tricksters and Max Creek, the rotating crew of Englishtown Project players includes current and former members of Phil Lesh and Friends, the Donna Jean Godchaux Band, Rainbow Full of Sound, Assembly of Dust, The Joe Cocker Band, Reverend Jefferson, Stir Fried, Dead Sage, Illuminati, David
Nelson Band, Dead On Live and Jam Stampede.
Some other roots shows of note coming up this week:
New York blues-rocker
1 Popa Chubby at The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $32-$35, available in advance at thekate.org or 860-510-0453. The Kate is at 300 Main St. in Old Saybrook.
1 The Bluegrass Characters (the late Stacy Phillips’ old band) with opener Chris Berardo Trio at Fernando Pinto’s East Rock Concert Series on Saturday at 7 p.m. at mActivity Fitness Center (285 Nicoll St., New Haven). Tickets are $15 in advance, at mactivity.com or fernandopintopresents.com, or $20 at the door.