Happy Hour at The Eleven with Spaceheater

spaceheater is a quartet comprising four veteran Hudson Valley musicians: guitarists Rick Warren and Sal Cataldi, bassist

Dave Strahl, and drummer April. Together, they put their effects-driven guitars, thumping bass and polyrhythmic drum

assault to work on everything from the heaviest rock to jazz and blues to ambient and industrial sounds, in both originals and

obscure covers. The latter spans from early Pink Floyd to electric-era Miles Davis and Terje Rypdal to psych/garage classics

like Eight Miles High and Rumble. The band regularly performs at popular Hudson Valley venues, including Colony

Woodstock, Pearl Moon, and The Station Bar in Woodstock, The Tinker Street Tavern at the Bearsville Theater, West K*ll

Supply, and Green K*ll Sessions in Kingston, Snug Harbor in New Paltz, and many more.

spaceheater is an appropriate name for the group as it was birthed during rehearsals in the winter months of 2021/22 at

Kingston’s Green K*ll art gallery. While jamming there, the group was warmed by space heaters whose fumes may have

imbued their work with its unique, hallucinatory bend. Their sound combines the loose, meandering jams of “St. Stephen”-

flavored Grateful Dead with the edgy prog/industrial/space-rock improvs of latter-day King Crimson and Krautrock. Hudson

Valley One called the band: “A powerhouse of genre-defying sounds, blending heavy rock, jazz, blues ambient and

industrial influences.” Kingston Wire recently described spaceheater’s work as “multi-chapter jams that unfold with

headbang-able riffs in between spacey, free-form sections with ethereal textures.”

Warren and Cataldi have been working together for four years in the experimental duo, Guitars A Go Go, during which time

they produced the acclaimed debut CD, Travel Advisory. Originally from Kingston, Hudson-based Rick Warren has been

deeply involved in the improvisational and experimental music scene fostered by renowned vibraphonist Karl Berger at his

Creative Music Studio in Woodstock. It was Berger’s chance visit to a Rick’s high school music theory class that led him to

become a regular participant in twice-yearly workshops held at CMS, an international hotbed of improvisational music

performance and education founded in 1971 by Berger, Ingrid Sertso, and Ornette Coleman. Rick is best known for his

soundscapes, which utilize his guitar and a variety of electronic sound sources, each one a unique and spontaneous creation.

Today, Warren is also involved with the Woodstock-based soundpainting ensemble Audiocanvas, led by bassist Steve Rust,

and featured on the 2019 disc Some Bad Western. Rick is also active with the Hudson-based Slink Moss and the Magic Stones

and the popular acoustic folk duo, Rick and Marilyn, with songwriter Marilyn Miller.

West Saugerties-based Sal Cataldi is best known for his acid jazz-meets-folktronica solo project Spaghetti Eastern Music,

which has been acclaimed in outlets such as The New York Times. He is one half of the duos, The Vapor Vespers, a

music/spoken word project with Alaskan poet Mark Muro, and the Hari Karaoke Trio of Doom with Kansas City drummer D.

Hitchcock, a group featuring contributions by noted players like Eno/Brand X bassist Percy Jones. Cataldi also composes and

performs live solo electric guitar scores for movement works by Charles Dennis, the noted NYC/Hudson Valley-based

performance artist and co-founder of NYC’s P.S. 122, and filmmaker/for ABT ballerina Hanna Bass. He is also a music

journalist who contributes to The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NYSMusic, PopMatters, and more. He is the host of

“Reading Is Funktamental,” a monthly one-hour show on Wave Farm/WGXC 90.7 in the Hudson Valley, where he interviews

the authors and musicians about great books on music.

Emerging from the dirt of CBGB and the ‘70s NYC underground, bassist Dave Strahl has a style rooted in the downtown punk

and no wave scenes. His playing first attracted attention in the band New Noise Continuum. Strahl mixes old with new, up

with down, and in without. Before relocating to Kingston, he was the owner and operator of NYC’s Candy Ear Studios, where

he engineered and or produced recordings by a variety of artists, including Jackson Smith of the Patti Smith Group, actor/DJ

Idris Elba, and Latin flutist Roberto Pitre, to name a few. His rehearsal studio, Grey Area, was home to several bands,

including Helmet, Foetus, The Cro Mags, Prong, and the Swans.

The band’s most recent addition is April on drums, a genre-spanning musician equally at home in rock, funk, psychedelia, and

jazz.  April’s musical journey dates back to Poughkeepsie in the 1980s, with highlights including opening for the Steve Morse

Band at the Chance and recording at Black Creek Studios. Later in the 1980s, April would record and perform with the Claude

Thomas Band in the Boston metropolitan area. In the 1990s, April performed in the Washington DC metro area with Arill

Francis’ Dharma Garden, the tribal world-beat funk band Big Village, and the blues and boogie-woogie of the Daryl Davis

band. Highlights include opening act (Big Village) to Sid Straw and Los Lobos at the Kennedy Center’s Plaza (outside),

performing at the Bear Valley Music Festival (Dharma Garden). In the aughts in New York City, April would perform and

record with Dante and perform with The Blisstones. Since returning to the scene, April has recently worked with Laura Evans

(Piano) and subbed as the Kingston Jazz Jam house drummer (August 2025). April’s website: aprildrums.com

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