Live Music and Musical Events in Jersey City

So our inaugural poet laureate wants to rock, huh?

Rashad Wright certainly has the presence to front a band. His verses crackle with cadences familiar from American popular music: hip-hop and contemporary folk, but also cornerstone traditions like gospel, blues, and early R&B. Since stepping down as laureate (there’ve been three since), Wright has been restless and creatively omnivorous, collaborating with Nimbus on a politically-themed dance show, crawling across a Kearny factory floor for an IN7 film, and turning the boiler room at MANA Contemporary into a boot camp. But rhythm and verse is where his heart is, and lower case capital, his new combo, feels like a sort of homecoming.

Wright premiered the five-piece group at the Jersey City Poetry Festival — about as friendly a crowd as it was possible for a performing writer to summon. His twenty-five minute set wasn’t spoken word, and it wasn’t really alternative rap music, either. Instead, lower case capital was reminiscent of those mid-’70s Gil Scott-Heron sets on which talented sidepeople with a working knowledge of jazz attuned themselves to the frontman’s lyrics. A lower case capital song develops like a poem does: Wright established the rhythm and the tone through his verses, and his accompanists hung back, colored in between the lines, and drew attention to the storytelling through subtle musical choices. Yet Wright did get worked up from time to time, and he did present a few choruses. “I am my favorite favorite,” went one of them. I believed him.

Current poet laureate Melida Rodas selected Wright and lower case capital as one of her Poetry Fest headliners. The Jersey City Art and Studio Tour is too big and too sprawling to have main attractions, but if there were to be a name in lights, it might be Wright’s. He’s brought lower case capital to the Brightside Tavern (141 Bright St.) a popular Downtown bar and performance space, on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. That’s a prime time gig in an outstanding location. That JCAST would select a new band for the honor gives a pretty good indication about how respected Rashad Wright is, and how curious we are about the things he gets himself up to doing. The band, already reasonably polished in the backyard of the History Museum for the Poetry Festival, will only get tighter and more expressive from here.

As for Wright himself, his entertainment abilities and knack for connecting with an audience have never been in question. It’s early yet, and bands fall apart all the time. But his is one of the most intriguing new projects to hit the Jersey City pop-rock scene in many moons.

Champian Fulton @ The Statuary (Oct. 3)

Since her dad was jazz trumpeter Stephen Fulton and she grew up surrounded by music, you’d expect Champian Fulton to be a hardcore traditionalist. And you’d be right: many of her recordings sound as if they could have been cut in the 1940s. Her piano playing is indebted to the greats of the early 20th Century, and she never steps to the microphone unaccompanied by the memory of Sarah Vaughn. But Champian Fulton is such an ebullient player —so marvelously percussive, so joyous in her approach, so loose, playful and confident — that she’s made her own lane for herself anyway. The pianist is a delight to watch and listen to, and that’s especially true in a live setting where her personality shines, her warmth is palpable, and her grooves go surprisingly deep. We get’ll to see her on a small stage when she comes to the Heights with her trio: alto saxophonist and clarinetist Klas Lindquist and bassist Neil Miner. From the very first downbeat, they’ll be swinging. (Appearing at the Statuary, 53 Congress St., 7 p.m.; $25 suggested donation; visit https://www.thestatuaryofjerseycity.com/). 

Evnne @ White Eagle Hall (Oct. 19)

Don’t try to pronounce it; it’s an even stranger cluster of consonants and vowel sounds in the original Korean. All you really need to know about Evnne is that they’re a state-of-the-art boy band, freshly minted from a competition show in 2023, and already regular visitors to the pinnacle of Seoul’s all-powerful Circle Chart. This fresh-faced seven man singing, dancing, and rapping K-pop consortium is led by a Japanese import — the Osaka-born, lollipop-toting Keita Terazono — and promoted through Jellyfish Entertainment, a pop confectionary renowned for spun sonic sugar. Evnne has now released five mini-albums in a little more than two years, and their latest, Love Anecdote(s) [2025], returned them to their customary perch on the top of the Korean pops (it cracked the top 10 in Japan, too). By now, the recipe is a familiar one: a little Backstreet Boys, a little solo Timberlake, a little ‘90s pop-rap, and a whole lot of the ruthless, expedient foregrounding of hooks that has made K-pop an irresistible commercial proposition all over the world. If you’re looking to give in to the colorful madness, here’s the ticket. (Appearing at White Eagle Hall, 337 Newark Ave, 7 p.m.; $43-$189; visit www.whiteeaglehalljc.com or www.kpoptickets.com). 

 The Ghost of Uncle Joe’s @ Historic Harsimus Cemetery (Oct. 24 & 25)

Like the Blob, it just gets bigger and bigger. The Ghost of Uncle Joe’s and its satellite events now ooze all over the back half of October and drip into early November. There’ll be afterparties at Porta (135 Newark Ave.), Sip Studios (140 Sip Ave.), the Statuary (53 Congress St.) and elsewhere, a Ghost open dress rehearsal at Pet Shop (193 Newark Ave.) on Oct. 16, a drop in at the 14C Necropolis (157B 1st. St.) on Oct. 29, a Day of the Dead show at Art House Productions (345 Marin Blvd.) on Nov. 1, and other ghostly happening all over town. That’s just how phantoms are — they’re amorphous and protean and impossible to contain, see Poltergeist [1982], the Amityville Horror, et. al. The main event, however, is right where it always is: the old cemetery that marks the border between the Downtown and Journal Square. For two days and nights, a parade of favorite local bands will take the boneyard stage in full costume and deliver tribute sets dedicated to their favorite classic rockers, rappers, and pop stars. And once again, it all goes to a good cause: keeping the gates of the HHC open. (Appearing at the Historic Harsimus Cemetery, 435 Newark Ave; 5:30 open on Friday, 1 p.m. open on Saturday; visit https://www.instagram.com/theghostofunclejoes).

Zombie Opera @ Hamilton Park (Oct. 25)

While the Ghosts rock the Cemetery, a different kind of undead monster will rise — for the sixth time — by the gazebo at Jersey Avenue and Pavonia. As they do every year, the zombies will awake and serenade the neighborhood with classical voice. Only this time around, they’ve brought along… the Greek gods? Yes, it’s true. It turns out that indestructible beings with unlimited power and ambition and infinite time on their hands are pretty monstrous things to behold. Zombie Opera: The Curse of Olympus brings the inspired lunacy of Undead Arts to the pantheon, and lets some world-famous deities get in on the seasonal fun. It’s worth remembering, though, that while the team of Catriona Rubensis-Stevens, Molly Dunn and Katy Gardiner adore their silly business, they remain dead serious about great singing. Zombie Opera continues to attract world-class vocal talent to the Downtown with the promise of a great time. A big audience, too; I mean, who wouldn’t want to hear a countertenor in the role of Hades? That’s so delicious blasphemous that I expect a lightning bolt from Zeus at any moment. (Appearing in Hamilton Park, Jersey Ave. at 8th St., 6 p.m.; free; visit www.undeadarts.org).

Bre Holly & Faithful @ St. John’s Baptist Church (Oct. 25)

Never forget that Whitney Houston — still the most influential pop singer of the century — learned to perform in the churches of Northern New Jersey. Her style was contemporary and commercial, but it was rooted in gospel. Like many of the greatest vocalists in Garden State history, she developed her sound in the well-known musical proving ground between the pulpit and the pews. The same thing could be said about Jersey City’s own Bre Holly, a pure gospel singer who leads with her huge, powerful voice and her excitability before the Lord. The difference is that, so far, Holly and her accompanists are better known in the faith community than they are by the public at large. That’s changing, though: few artists in any genre have a better social media game than Holly does. Later this month (and just before Election Day), she’ll put her pipes and her connections to the service of City Council candidate Reverend Tami Henry. Holly and her band Faithful will be part of a multi-act gospel show that they’ve dubbed “Giving JC Back to God.” I know what they’re saying, but I’d like to think that He has had us all along. (Appearing at St. John Baptist Church, 525 Bramhall Ave., 4:30 p.m.; $25 advance, $35 at the door; visit https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsBC525/).

Lightheaded @ Sip Studios (Oct. 30) 

“I want to start a band with Amelia Fletcher,” sings Cynthia Rittenbach on Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! [2025], the latest album by Lightheaded. She then proceeds to play, and write, and sing in a manner befitting an artist with that exact aspiration. You could call her group the Garden State’s answer to the Jeanines: a fetching guitar-pop outfit with tight, brief, bright, and briskly-played songs, all reminiscent of college rock as it was back when Fletcher broke in to the business. Tastemakers and promoters Look at My Records and “Hoboken Jack” Silbert bring the band to Journal Square for a headlining show with several compelling names on the undercard. Opening the show will be fuzzed-out power pop band Joy Cleaner and Wild Carnation, the folk-rock band led by Feelies bassist Brenda Sauter. Then, as main support, there’ll be a set by Giant Day, who’ll be celebrating the release of Alarm, a new set, on the legendary Elephant 6 label. Rittenbach and Lightheaded might argue that Slumberland, their imprint, is even more storied. I call it a left-of-the-dial draw. (Appearing at Sip Studios, 140 Sip Ave., 7 p.m.; $15 advance, $17 at the door; visit www.lookatmyrecordscom).