SAGE KING / HERO AND THE HORROR / PHATT JAMES – THE CELLAR
By Kat Gullage
Artist and songwriter Sage King brings his “The Art Of Goodbye Tour” to The Cellar on Treadwell with Hero and The Horror and Phatt James for support.
The Cellar on Treadwell is a great place to catch live music. It’s an intimate venue, holds about 100. They have drinks, food, a patio, and are conveniently located in Hamden CT.
Phatt James is a Connecticut based trio consisting of Phatt James on lead vocals and guitar, drummer Chris Wilson and guitarist Matt Christoforo. They have two EPs and did cuts from both of them in their six song set. They kicked it off with “Step Taken”. Phatt immediately stopped to tune his guitar. “Let me tune it up, gotta tune it up.” “We’re Phatt James with a “PH” and two T’s.” Next up was “Meantime” from Circle Bent.
“Cheers to whoever’s drinking and if you’re not that’s cool too.” A cut from Just Begun was up with “Seven Days” followed by the title track “Circle Bent”. They wrapped their set with “Wide Eyes” and “Need To Breathe”. Phatt James gave me a Collective Soul vibe laced with a southern infusion. I spoke with Phatt and he is not from the south. I asked why he spelled his name like that and he remarked “It’s just fuckin cooler.”
Hailing from Massachusetts, Hero and The Horror have been making a name for themselves on the heavy rock/metalcore circuit. They are singer Dean Dewey, lead guitarist Michael Drost, bassist John “Slo” Maggard, guitarist Phil Bonk and drummer Sam Gaulin. The band served up a hearty ten song set including six tracks off of their 2024 LP Old Ghosts.
They launched with “Rabbit Hole” and I immediately got a heavy Deftones vibe when the singer wasn’t growling. “Strength Of A God” was long but I liked that it incorporated a bunch of different grooves. We got two more from Old Ghosts with “Breathe” and “Head In The Sand”.
The singer uses one of those handheld encased in metal mics so you could only see his face when he talked. He chugged from a gallon of water on stage and his speaking voice was surprisingly flat compared to his singing voice. “The Wild” was on deck followed by a new tune, “Los Muertos”. It took em a bit to gear up for the next song, but it was worth the wait and they wrapped with “Another World”, “Bridges”, “Venom” and “Forgive And Forget”. Dean and Michael were the stand outs for me. There is a lot of buzz around Hero and The Horror, so give em a taste.
Sage King is an artist and songwriter, born and bred in Connecticut but now resides in Tennessee. Sage King has played all over his small home state, I caught him previously in a grunge cover band and was impressed by his voice. This stop was in support of his new solo LP, The Art Of Goodbye and six of the nine song set were tracks from it. Sage King was backed by guitarist Kevin Prefontaine, bassist Pete Gelles and drummer Jim Fogarty.
He opened with “This Is Goodbye” and “Shed My Skin”. Sage thanked everyone and introduced his new album stating “This run of shows is to test it out, for me to shoot my shot.” We got four more tracks from the new album with “The Devil”, “Save This Soul”, “Fool” and “Kill You To Smile?”.
Sage’s sound is grungy southern rock with great melodies. His passion and emotion shines through in his live performances. He did an acoustic solo, and joked “I like to kick the band off stage.” He explained that “stripping stuff down is what he loves to do”. Sage went from the soulful but calm acoustic sound into a cover of Creed’s “What If” which definitely got the attention of the audience. He wrapped the set with “Out Of Season” and “Bones”. Sage King has definitely paid his dues and has potential. So catch his solo stuff, and/or check out his heavier stuff as he is the current frontman for the band Living Wreckage.
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