Happy Ending CD (Reissue) Release Show at Best Video Sat., Feb. 11
Schedule
Sat Feb 11 2023 at 07:00 pm
Location
Best Video Film & Cultural Center | Hamden, CT
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Longtime New Haven rock and psychedelic band Happy Ending plays Best Video Film & Cultural Center Sat., Feb. 11. The show starts at 7 PM and the cover is $10.This is a CD Release Show for the band’s 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition of the group’s first LP “Have A Nice Day!” (As well as in keeping with a tradition of playing a Best Video show during singer Hank Hoffman’s birthday week.) The band will play two sets, the first of which will consist all of songs from “Have A Nice Day!,” including several tunes the group hasn’t played live in many years.
Happy Ending has released three albums. The most recent, “Electricity for the Youth of Today,” was recorded live at Best Video Performance Space in December of 2013. The vinyl LP and 45 “Have A Nice Day” came out in 1984 and the compact disc “Smile for the Camera” in 1996. John Foster, editor of Op Magazine, described “Have A Nice Day” in 1984 as a “future cult item for the collectors.”
In the most recent issue of the music magazine The Big Takeover, editor Jack Rabid wrote of the remastered (by audio engineer Greg DiCrosta) reissue:
“40 years ago underground Connecticut rock thrived, with punk ’n’ roll (Reducers), hardcore (C.I.A.), indie rock, neo-psych, etc., while this New Haven outfit led by guitarist/singers Hank Hoffman and Jay Mundy sidestepped tags on their 1983 long, strange trip of a protest album. Reissued, HaND!—like that acronym?—provides stylistic abundance, beginning with the still-regrettably-relevant ‘Armageddon Dread’’s combination of Chuck Berry/pub rock with the similar moves and sociopolitical consciousness of Back in the USA MC5 (lyrics such as ‘Government and capital are locked in death embrace’). ‘So Blind’ is a hippy-indie refresh of The Band, ‘Sleepwaltzing’ is first album Buffalo Springfield-esque (only Clancy can sing), ‘World of Hate’ joins garage rock with banged folk acoustics plus Richard Brown’s avant garde sax, ‘Planned Community’ is Beau Brummels meet The Leaves (they cover ‘Hey Joe’), and ‘Since Then’ guitar lead references The Byrds’ 1966 #14 ‘Eight Miles High!’ ‘Uncle!’ It’s all fierce engagement, still!”
Commenting on Happy Ending’s 2014 live CD release, “Electricity For the youth of Today,” Rabid wrote, “It’s clear that this era’s HE still possesses the ability to blend their many terrific influences into one smart stew.”
Hank Hoffman sings and plays guitar; Richard Brown plays guitar and alto saxophone. Tom Smith is on drums and Randy Stone plays bass. Happy Ending’s music is influenced by 1960s pop, garage rock and psychedelia as well as punk and free jazz.
Writing about a Happy Ending show at Lyric Hall in June, 2017, New Haven Independent arts editor Brian Slattery observed, “With kaleidoscopic projections of faces, hands, drawings, and landscapes swirling behind the band, Happy Ending was at its best during its guitar freakouts, when [guest keyboardist Scott] Amore, Stone, and Smith created tossing waves of rhythm and Hoffman and Brown traded off solos and rhythm work seamlessly, giving the music a chance to fly.”
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Where is it happening?
Best Video Film & Cultural Center, 1842 Whitney Ave.,Hamden,CT,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
