On Stage: Doobie Decibel System Trio is back in Philly

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times

Roger McNamee, a talented musician and tech entrepreneur from the San Francisco area, lived for a while in Delaware County and is a die-hard fan of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Unfortunately for him – and for fans of his Bay Area band Doobie Decibel System – McNamee rarely gets to visit the area and enjoy a hoagie and the fans of DDS rarely get to hear the band perform live. You may know him best for his frequent appearances on MSNBC and other outlets to discuss social media issues, including Facebook, where he served as an early investor.

The Doobie Decibel System (DDS) has three configurations. The DDS Duo features Jason Crosby and Roger McNamee. The DDS Trio includes McNamee, Crosby and Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz. The DDS Band features Crosby, McNamee, Lebowitz, Pete Sears, and Jay Lane.

On December 14, McNamee will get reunited with area fans when the Doobie Decibel System Trio performs at MilkBoy Philadelphia (1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215- 925-6455,www.milkboyphilly.com) on a bill that also features Midnight North and Billy Mungus.

The Doobie Decibel System was the brainchild of Crosby and McNamee. As the Dewey Decimal System organizes library materials by discipline or field of study, the Doobie Decibel System throws its diverse musical talents together to create riffs and songs that cross genre and generation.

“We started as a duo with Jason and me in 2014 and evolved into a trio,” said McNamee, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon from his Bay Area home. “We also tried the band thing. When there was a calling for acoustic, we went to a trio. It gives us more flexibility.”

All the DDS musicians have impressive credentials.

Crosby has been a member of Robert Randolph and the Family Band and the Susan Tedeschi Band, among others. In recent years, Crosby has played with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Carlos Santana, Pete Seeger, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews in various configurations.

McNamee is lead vocalist and plays bass and guitar with Moonalice – a joint project with DDS that performs 90-100 shows a year.

Moonalice has leveraged technology to help build a national audience. Moonalice.com enables fans to watch any show on a smartphone, PC or tablet without an app. Moonalice works with 24 poster artists to produce a unique poster that is given to guests at every concert.

Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, who handles guitar, steel guitar, and vocals, has toured and/or recorded with Bob Weir, ALO, Lebo & Friends, Jack Johnson, Phil Lesh, Steve Kimock Band, and Brokedown.

“Three years ago, Doobie Decibel System, was touring a lot,” said McNamee. “Then in 2017, Jason spent a year with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He also plays with Jenny Lewis in a lot of her live shows. Jay goes out a lot on tour with Bob Weir.”

The other Doobie Decibel System band members also have eye-catching musical resumes (especially attractive to jam band fans).

Pete Sears (bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals) has been involved with Moonalice, Sam Gopal Dream, Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, original Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, Peter Rowan, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh & Friends, Steve Kimock, David Nelson, John Lee Hooker and more. Jay Lane (drums, vocals) has a CV that features work with Primus, Further, Golden Gate Wingmen, RatDog, Scaring the Children, Alphabet Soup, Jay’s Happy Sunshine Burger Joint, Ice Age, The Uptones, The Freaky Executives and more.

“Jason and I have done some individual shows,” said McNamee. “And, we’ve done some full band shows. We’re getting it all freshened up. It’s the right time because we do a bunch of cool protest songs from the 60s.

“It’s the right time to bring them back. Some of the songs we do are Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’ and Neil Young’s ‘Ohio.’ And, there is never a bad time for three-part harmonies.”

The Doobie Decibel System also supports the creative community by offering a commemorative poster by a well-known artist to fans at each show. Live streaming video in HD of every performance is available and archived for free listening via their website http://www.doobiedecibelsystem.com/ and social media channels.

“It’s unbelievable,” said McNamee, who lived in Delaware County for 20 years when his wife was the chair of the music department at Swarthmore College. “Even when we were a new band, we could be 2,000 miles from home and sell out every night. It’s really encouraging.”

It’s fortunate for DDS that its fans are very supportive because they could listen to DDS music and never have to pay for it.

“We broadcast all our shows and then archive them on the site,” said McNamee. “And, we do a different poster for every show. We’re big believers in the integration of music and art. Right now, we have more than 30 artists that we work with.

“We started Doobie Decibel System a few years ago. In the Bay Area, members of the Grateful Dead have opened clubs — Bob Weir’s Sweetwater (Music Hall & Café) and Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads.

“They changed the scene dramatically. They provided a place where musicians could do ‘friend’ concerts with the main artist and his invited friends. Because of Lesh and Weir, the city has a new level of interest for local acts.

“With Doobie Decibel System, we play psychedelic music, but it’s played in folk music style. We do covers of artists such as the Beatles, Beck and Pink Floyd — songs that emphasize harmonies.”

DDS fans who have been patiently waiting for quite some time for a new album by the band might be rewarded soon.

“We just went in the studio and did a bunch of stuff – mostly originals,” said McNamee, who has a book titled “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe,” scheduled to be released on February 5 by Penguin Press.

“And, we just recorded a live show. We plan on releasing a new album in 2019 with live and studio stuff. Our engineer Dave Way is working on it now.”

Moonalice is also revving its engines.

“Moonalice is still touring like mad,” said McNamee. “We’re a spring/summer/early fall touring band. Moonalice had an amazing 2018. A lot of things came together for us this year. And, we’ll be coming back to Pennsylvania next summer.”

Video link for Doobie Decibel System – www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0ODOAkPBTg.

The show on December 14 at MilkBoy Philadelphia, which also features Midnight North and Billy Mungus, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12.

Other upcoming shows at MilkBoy are Curls on December 15 and Victory on December 21.

Earlier this year, Boston-based Darlingside released its third album “Extralife” and immediately headed out on the road touring in support of the new disc. That was February and the band came to the area for a show at Union Transfer. In July, they played the XPoNential Music Festival in Camden.

It’s now December and Darlingside — Don Mitchell (guitar, banjo, vocals), Auyon Mukharji (mandolin, violin, vocals), Harris Paseltiner (guitar, cello, vocals), David Senft (bass, kick drum, vocals) – is still touring the album. The tour that brings them to Philly on December 14 for a return show at Union Transfer (1026 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, 215-232-2100,www.utphilly.com).

“We’ve had a really busy year,” said Mukharji, during a phone interview last week. “We went on a tour of the U.K. It was our first time to play Ireland, which was a lot of fun. We also opened a few shows in the states for Brandi Carlile.”

“Extralife” was not a project that came together quickly for the Boston-based quartet.

“We started recording the album back in 2016,” said Paseltiner. “The songs came together that winter. In April 2017, we went in and tracked it at Dimension Sound Studio in Jamaica Plain.

“Then, we took the tracks back to Dave’s house where he has a studio. We did experimental overdubs and vocals. We like to do a lot of experimentation on our own instead of using time in the studio. It gives us the ability to play with the sound.

“We went back to Dimension Sound in mid-summer to do the final tracking and experimenting with effects. Picking and choosing and editing is a big part of our process. It we send enough pellets toward the target, hopefully one will hit the bulls-eye.”

The four veteran musicians had plenty of time to get acquainted with the songs.

“Some of these songs have been floating around for a long time – as long as a decade,” said Paseltimer. “We usually have around 100 melodies to work with and the lyrics start to coalesce later.

“We were in the studio around the same time as the election. We usually write at home but at the time, we were on tour with our last album. We had to find the time to write.

“We also had to look at what was going on in the country — and the mayhem in the world in general. All the big questions were slamming us at the time. Those themes infused themselves on our lyric sets — what do we feel right now? We tracked 26 songs and then whittled it down to those we used for the album. The theme started to develop as we whittled down. It was very late in the process.

“A lot of themes people say we’re tackling are things that are dealing with the world outside ourselves rather than the personal themes we had on ‘Birds Say,’ which was our album before this one. Still, to me, the new album feels very personal. It also feels like it’s really dark and really light at the same time.”

Darlingside have built a reputation as road warriors.

“We just got back from a tour of the U.K. and Europe,” said Mukharji. “We played shows in England and Germany. We played the Paradiso in Amsterdam. We got back home and went out on tour almost right away.”

In a few months, Darlingside will issue a new disc.

“We’re working on a new EP that we will release in the spring,” said Mukharji. “We’ve been recording it at a studio in Camden, Maine. We’re also doing a lot in our home studio in Waltham, Massachusetts.

“We’ll have six songs on the EP. We road-tested one of them in Germany. Bits and pieces are all recorded. We’re about 70 per cent of the way through the process.”

Video link for Darlingside – https://youtu.be/HZy5H6v05to.

The show at Union Transfer, which has Henry Jamison as the opener, will start at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $18.

Other upcoming shows at Union Transfer are Cat Power on December 15 and Hiss Golden Messenger on December 19.

Every year when the Christmas season arrives, The Candlelight Theatre (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, 302- 475-2313, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) presents either a holiday production or a staging of a non-holiday family classic.

This year, it’s the latter.

The Candlelight Theatre (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, 302- 475-2313, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) is presenting its production of “She Loves Me” now through December 23.

“She Loves Me” is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock.

The musical is the third adaptation of the 1937 play “Parfumerie” by Hungarian playwright Miklós László, following the 1940 James Stewart-Margaret Sullivan film “The Shop Around the Corner” and the 1949 Judy Garland-Van Johnson musical version “In the Good Old Summertime.” It surfaced again in 1998 as the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan feature film “You’ve Got Mail.”

The plot revolves around two clerks in a Budapest parfumerie who aren’t quite the best of friends — Georg Nowack and Amalia Balash. Constantly bumping heads while on the job, the sparring co-workers can’t seem to find common ground. But, unbeknownst to each, the anonymous romantic pen pals they have both been falling for happen to be each other.

The musical premiered on Broadway in 1963, with Jack Cassidy in the role of Steven Kodaly and Barbara Cook as Amalia Balash. It also had productions in London’s West End in 1964 and award-winning revivals on each side of the Atlantic in the 1990s.

After its initial Broadway run, “She Loves Me” was lost to generations of theatregoers until Roundabout’s 1993 Broadway revival. The critically-acclaimed production was nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, and won the 1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revival.

“She Loves Me” was revived again on Broadway in 2016, and the production became the first Broadway show ever to be live-streamed. Now, area theater fans can enjoy the Candlelight’s production of the popular musical which stars Nicole Renna as Amalia Balash and Jared Calhoun as Georg Nowack.

“I’ve always wanted to do the role of Amalia Balash,” said Renna, during a recent phone interview from her home in Philadelphia. “A voice teacher in high school assigned me ‘Vanilla Ice Cream’ (a key song in the second act of ‘She Loves Me’). So, I’ve been singing that song for a long time. I checked out the show back then and I loved it. The score is beautiful, and the lyrics are so smart and clear.”

The role of Amalia Balash is pivotal. The success of any production of “She Loves Me” rides on the back of the actress playing Balash. Renna has the acting ability and vocal strength to carry the Candlelight’s production.

“I like the role of Amalia because she’s a soprano,” said Renna, a native of Shamong, New Jersey and graduate of Seneca High.

“In the era the show was first produced, most soprano roles were ingenues. The music I get to sing is great. It’s written for a true soprano voice. It fits really well with my voice.

“Amalia is an independent woman – in the 1930s. She is spunky, determined, independent — and really unique. What she has to say is revealed in her songs. She’s looking for a job. She doesn’t really need a man – but she finds one.”

Renna is an actor and classically-trained soprano who is passionate about performing in both opera and musical theater productions. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Rutgers University and completed her Master of Music degree in Voice Performance at Temple University. Renna has been a dedicated private voice teacher for more than five years and strives to cultivate performers who are master singers as well as exciting storytellers.

“Playing the role of Amalia is great because you get to do a lot of character acting — not just hitting high notes,” said Renna “‘She Loves Me’ is a Golden Age musical but, because the lyrics are so clear and relatable, it keeps it fresh.”

A musical that dates back 80 years could come across as dated but “She Loves Me” never does.

“I think it’s more relevant now – especially with online dating,” said Renna, whose CV includes musical theater roles such as Christine in “The Return of the Phantom” and operatic roles including Sylvaine in “The Merry Widow.”

“The relationship between the characters holds the interest of the audience. And, there is a timeless quality to the music.”

Video link for “She Loves Me” — https://youtu.be/jDNG63glY4g.

Video link for Nicole Renna — https://youtu.be/xuWjTXd5tv0.

The Candlelight Theatre (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, 302- 475-2313, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) is presenting “She Loves Me” now through December 23. Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings (doors 6 p.m./show, 8 p.m.) and Sunday afternoons (doors, 1 p.m./show, 3 p.m.). Tickets, which include dinner and show, are $63 for adults and $33 for children (ages 4-12).

Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) will have “Runnin’ Late Rock & Roll Christmas Jam” on December 14, “Better Than Bacon – 8th Annual Non-Denominational Holiday Extravaganza” on December 15, and Open Mic with guest host Scott Birney on December 16.

The Steel City Coffee House (203 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, 610-933-4043, www.steelcitycoffeehouse.com) will host Conor & the Wild Hunt on December 15.

Chaplin’s (66 North Main Street, Spring City, 610-792-4110, http://chaplinslive.com) presents “Elastic Karma – A Tribute To The Beatles” on December 14, and LaBella & Poole, Florida Wayne Band, and Alyssa Dodge on December 15.

The Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, 610-649-8389, www.ardmoremusic.com) will host Boat House Row Band on December 13, Willie Nile and John Eddie with special guest Morgan Pinkstone on December 14, Neville Jacobs with special guest Jeff Washington Band on December 15, and “Beatles for Kids” on December 16.

The Keswick Theatre (291 N. Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com) presents Ingrid Michaelson on December 14, Vienna Boys Choir on December 15 and “Sister’s Christmas Catechism” on December 16.

The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) will have the Gibson Brothers on December 13, Brand X on December 14, Roxanne on December 15, Edwin McCain on December 16, and Kiss The Sky & Heavy Cream (J. Hendrix & Cream/Blind Faith Tribute) on December 19.

The Grand Opera House (818 North Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 302-652-5577, www.thegrandwilmington.org) will present the Beacxh Boys’ “Reason for the Season Christmas Tour” on December 13, Classic Albums Live: Creedence Clearwater on December 15 and “The Rainbow Fish” on December 16 and 17.

The Locks at Sona (4417 Main Street, Manayunk, 484- 273-0481, sonapub.com) will host Blind Subscribers with special guest Honeywatts and The Doublewides on December 14, and Don McCloskey on December 15.

Rrazz Room (6426 Lower York Road, New Hope, 888-596-1027, www.TheRrazzRoom.com) will present The Golden Gays NYC’s production “Thank Yule For Being A Friend” on December 15.

The Queen (500 North Market Street, Wilmington, 202-730-3331, www.thequeenwilmington.com) hosts “Future Stars Show” with The Brandywine Fiddlers, Richards Guitar Studio, Above The Sun and Think Machine on December 14 and The Bouncing Souls on December 16.