By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Stop Making Sense
Bands form in many different ways.
The most frequent are with the members growing up together in school or with musicians in the same circle deciding to pool their talents.
Stop Making Sense, which is headlining a show on May 16 at the Lansdowne Theater (31 North Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, thelansdownetheater.com), belongs to the latter category.
The band, which is a Talking Heads tribute band, features Jesse Braun (drums), Jon Braun (lead singer, guitar), Jenny Founds (bass, vocals), Kate Desisto (vocals), Alex Ayala (keyboards, vocals), Brian Davis (guitar, vocals) and Colin Miller (percussion, vocals).
“The band started back in 2009,” said Jesse Brsaun, during a phone interview Tuesday night from his home in Bethlehem.
“The Fun House is this great dive bar in Bethlehem. My brother and I were in a band and most of the guys did a show of music from Led Zeppelin and the Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ album.
“The bar’s owner Tina Kowlaski suggested a Talking Heads tribute so we thought we’d do a couple nights. We played the Fun House and a few other gigs.
“It just kind of grew from there. It just built real organically. Jon and I are the only two original members and Jenny joined in 2014.”
In addition to Bethlehem, Start Making Sense, which took its name from the Talking Heads’ movie “Stop Making Sense,” has its roots at the Downingtown School of Rock.
Davis, who lives in Conshohocken, has been a teacher at the Downingtown School of Rock for 25 years and still is on the staff. Jon Braun was also a teacher at the school.
Founds, who was initially involved with the Downingtown School of Rock is now a teacher at the Easton School of Rock.
“Jenny was a student of Jon’s at the Downingtown School of Rock,” said Braun. “She started performing with our band as a vocalist 10 years ago.
“Then, our previous bass player left the band because he got a job at Martin Guitar. At that point, Jenny took over as our bass player. She’s great. She’s a multi-instrumentalist.”
Start Making Sense has continued to delve into the world of the Talking Heads.
Talking Heads formed in New York City in 1975 with lead vocalist and guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz, bassist Tina Weymouth, and guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison.
Described as one of the most acclaimed groups of the 1980s, Talking Heads helped to pioneer “New Wave” music by combining elements of punk, funk, art rock and world music.
“We all were casual Talking Heads fans,” said Braun. “Once we started Start Making Sense, we dug into the music.
“Everybody was already pretty well-versed in Talking Heads music. Digging into it just increased our appreciation.”
The band accurately recreates the music of Talking Heads and Jon Braun’s live performances even incorporate some of David Byrne’s stage presence, outfits and eccentricities.
Bernie Worrell, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member and keyboardist for Talking Heads and Parliament/Funkadelic, said this about Start Making Sense, “To all you listeners…
This is an appropriate title — Start Making Sense. This band makes plenty of sense to me and is a great representation of Talking Heads’ music. So, listen up and go check them out!”
Over the years, Start Making Sense has developed a strong fanbase in the Lehigh Valley and Philly area and have expanded through the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
This year’s tour itineraries include trips to Southern California and New England in August and Colorado in October.
“We usually go out for three or four days at a time,” said Braun. “We’re ‘Weekend Warriors.’ We play pretty consistently throughout the year – from March through December.
“All of us are full-time musicians or teachers on the side but everybody is pretty committed to this band.
“We’ve had a rotating cast over the years, but this line-up has stayed the same since 2019 – except for Kate who joined in 2021 right before COVID.”
There are also side projects.
“Jenny, Jon and I have an indie band called Ruby Dear,” said Braun. “We play a lot around the Lehigh Valley.”
Ruby Dear has released two albums – “Ruby Dear” (which was mastered by Brian Davis) in 2018 and “This Will” in 2021.
The Start Making Sense show this Saturday in Lansdowne will also feature the inclusion of The Ocean Avenue Stompers — Lee Salazar, Trumpet; Will Schade, Tenor Saxophone; Ian Gray, Trombone; and Rob Rutigliano, Baritone Saxophone.
“The Ocean Avenue Stompers are a horn section from Asbury Park,” said Braun. “They have their own gigs, and they perform with us sometime as part of our band.
“With Start Making Sense shows, we play songs from all eight Talking Heads albums and, when we have the horns, we mix solo David Byrne songs. Now, we’re doing the song ‘What Is The Reason For this’ from his most recent album.”
Some of the Talking Heads’ classics featuring in the Start Making Sense set list are “Psycho Killer,” “Take Me to the River,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Burning Down the House” and “Wild Wild Life.”
So, if you’re a Talking Heads fan – even a casual one – or just someone who enjoys live performances of music from the MTV heydays, this is a show for you.
Video link for Start Making Sense – https://youtu.be/OaKIVNlVRmk?si=pEU1El1G3-4R6dbg.
The show in Lansdowne on May 16 will start at
Ticket prices start at $37.90.
Snacktime, which will play on May 14 at the opening presentation of the 2026 Concerts at The Commons (10 Doyle Street, Doylestown, www.stageunited.org), also started with musicians in the same circle deciding to pool their talents.
Snacktime
Snacktime is an American soul, funk, alternative band from Philadelphia.
Band members are Nico Bryant – vocals; Sam Gellerstein – bass, guitar, sousaphone; Austin Marlow – drums; Larry Monroe Jr. – guitar; Eric Sherman – trumpet, guitar; Michael Spearman – trombone, keyboard; and Ben Stocker – tenor saxophone.
The band was founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Snacktime began by performing free shows in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square in the summer of 2020.
“The lockdown is how the band started,” said Gellerstein, during a phone interview Wednesday from his home in Philadelphia. “It was our response to a need.”
After attracting huge crowds in the park, the band played their first headlining club show and sold over 900 tickets.
Things quickly progressed – the group started selling out headlining shows, supporting national touring artists, including Portugal. The Man, performing at major music festivals, and even serving as the house band on ESPN’s “They Call It Late Night” with Jason Kelce.
“When we started as a band on the streets, we were playing a lot of different stuff like hip-hop and old school funk,” said Gellerstein.
“In the past couple years, we’ve sharpened a lot…trying to tie it together more lyrically – more vocally oriented. As such, we’re leaning more n Nico, who is a tremendous singer.”
After the pandemic, the group started moving into more traditional venues, such as Philadelphia’s Brooklyn Bowl and Theatre of Living Arts. Snacktime has also performed during Philadelphia 76ers halftime shows and also for Phillies and Philadelphia Union events.
Snacktime has been featured at major music festivals such as the Roots Picnic, Life Is Beautiful, Sea.Hear.Now, Sound on Sound Fest, Firefly, and Peach Fest.
Over the years, the band has evolved musically.
“We’re really writing fresh music and introducing alt-soul and rock with pop elements,” said Bryant, during a phone interview Wednesday from his home in Philadelphia.
“It’s more song-based with not as much emphasis on horns. The music we were playing before was just a different thing.
“People should change. Growth and evolution are needed in life. The band’s goals have changed.”
The free show in Doylestown, which has Colacore as the opening act, will start at 6 p.m.
The pet-friendly event will also feature local food trucks, beer/beverages and kids’ activities.
People’s Light (39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, peopleslight.org) is presenting “The Woman Question” now through May 24.
A new play with local roots, “The Woman Question” unearths the stories of medical pioneers who led the charge for women’s health and reproductive freedom 150 years ago.
This world premiere docu-fantasy follows the 1894 class of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, an intrepid cohort of students whose struggles and joys reverberate across centuries.
The play is written and performed by acclaimed theatre-maker Suli Holum (“Hurricane Diane”) in collaboration with Company Artist Melanye Finister (“A Raisin in the Sun”) and a remarkable cast and creative team.
Holum is an award-winning director, performer, choreographer and playwright based in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Holum’s “The Woman Question” is a multi-year research and performance project which has been created in partnership with the Drexel University Legacy Archive and People’s Light Theater Company, with support from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.
Finister is a 30-year member of the Philadelphia theater community. In 1991, she joined the resident acting company at People’s Light where she appeared in more than 30 productions.
The creative team also features director Melissa Crespo, choreographer Fatima Sowe, scenic designer Ann Beyersdorfer, Costume Designer Lux Haac, lighting designer Lily Fossner, sound designers Daniela Hart, Bailey Trierweiler, and Noel Nichols, projection designer Lisa Renkel, and composer and music director Daniela Hart.
“The Woman Question” blends archival research, flights of collective imagination, and a delightful, Victorian-infused theatricality.
The play centers on the 1894 graduating class of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) — the first degree-granting medical school in the world exclusively for women, founded in 1850.
“The Woman Question” is running now through May 24 at People’s Light.
Ticket prices start at $30.
The Candlelight Theater (2208 Millers Road, Arden, Delaware, www.candlelighttheatredelaware.org) is presenting “Arsenic & Old Lace” now through June 20.
“Arsenic and Old Lace” is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the 1944 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra.
The play opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre on January 10, 1941.
The play, a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre, centers on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighborhood for their numerous acts of charity.
Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells “charge” as he bounds up the stairs.
Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theater critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having just escaped from a mental institution.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” revolves around drama critic Mortimer Brewster, whose engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a corpse in his elderly aunts’ window seat.
Mortimer rushes to tell Abby and Martha before they stumble upon the body themselves, only to learn that the two old women aren’t just aware of the dead man in their parlor, they killed him.
The “murderous old lady” plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where a woman, Amy Archer-Gilligan, took in boarders, promising “lifetime care,” and poisoned them for their pensions.
“Arsenic & Old Lace” runs through June 20 and features a themed meal and free parking.
Tickets are $83 for adults and $38.50 for children (ages 4-12). Tickets for show only are $43.50 (adults and children).
Cirque du Soleil’s new production “LUZIA” just opened this week and will run through June 7 under a big top at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center (100 Station Avenue, Oaks, www.phillyexpocenter.com).
Billed as “A Waking Dream of Mexico,” the show looks at our neighbors from the south.
Poetically guided by light (‘luz’ in Spanish) and rain (‘lluvia’), “LUZIA” chronicles the encounters of a parachuted traveler with the culture, nature and mythology of a dreamlike land inhabited by a mystifying menagerie of characters.
Refreshing and unexpected, “LUZIA” enchants by artistically incorporating water into the acrobatic presentation — a first for a Cirque du Soleil touring production.
As the sun rises, the running woman awakes an imaginary Mexico, honoring the monarch butterfly’s migration.
In a series of grand visual surprises and breathtaking acrobatic performances, “LUZIA” takes audiences on a surreal escape to an imaginary Mexico – a sumptuously vibrant world suspended between dreams and reality.
Smoothly passing from an old movie set to the ocean to a smoky dance hall or an arid desert, “LUZIA” journeys through a colorful tapestry of multiple places, faces and sounds of Mexico taken from both tradition and modernity.
Video link for “LUZIA” — www.cirquedusoleil.com/luzia.
“
LUZIA” will run through June 7 in Oaks.
Ticket prices start at $25.
On May 16, SRUTI (www.sruti.org) will present a Carnatic Concert by Charumathi Raghuraman and Anantha R Krishnan at The Rotunda, which is located at 4014 Walnut Street in Philadelphia.
SRUTI, The India Music and Dance Society is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. Every year, around 10 or more world class music and dance recitals are presented during the Spring and Fall seasons by SRUTI in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Charumathi Raghuraman is a young and vibrant violin virtuoso gifted with a refreshing candor of combining the elements of traditional music from India’s exalted Carnatic tradition, with modern performance.
A precocious talent, she started learning from her mother Smt. Rama Raghuraman, then continued formal training with the respected Guru Smt. T.R. Balamani in Mumbai
Soon thereafter, at the suggestion of the iconic violinist of South India, Padma Bhushan Prof. T. N. Krishnan, Charumathi became his ardent disciple in 1995. She has also studied Carnatic vocal music with the
The salient features of her musicianship include the rare combination of pure sound and erudite content. She not only excels in the instrumental technique of the violin but is equally adept in reproducing vocal nuances mellifluously.
Anantha R Krishnan plays the mridangam, the principle drum of the Carnatic tradition. The grandson and disciple of the great mridangam maestro, Shri. Palghat R. Raghu, he first learned the fundamentals of the mridangam under his uncle, Shri. R. Ramkumar and then began an official tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five.
He performed his first concert at the age of seven and before the age of 20 performed alongside a rare generation of Indian classical musicians such as Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Prof. T.N. Krishnan.
During this period, he received numerous awards from traditional organizations of classical music in India. Most notably, five times he has won the categorical Best Mridangist Prize from the flagship institution for promoting classical Indian music, the Music Academy, Madras.
The show at The Rotunda will start at 3 p.m.
Now through May 17, Opera Philadelphia (www.operaphila.org) will present the Philadelphia premiere of “The Black Clown” at the
Miller Theater, which is located at 250 South Broad Street in Philadelphia.
Creator and opera revolutionary Davóne Tines has brought Langston Hughes’ poem “The Black Clown” to musical life in a vaudevillian rendering of this masterpiece.
Fusing gospel, opera, jazz, and spirituals into a searing night of theatrical brilliance, “The Black Clown” embodies the evolving, divided soul of Black America and animates a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression.
Show times are 8 p.m. on May 15 and 16 and 2 p.m. on May 17. Ticket prices start at $11.
Kennett Flash (102 Sycamore Alley, Kennett Square, 484-732-8295, http://www.kennettflash.org) is hosting the 2026 Kennett Flash JAZZ JAM on May 14, Corey Glover on May 15, The Third Arrangement with special guests The Gavani Trio on May 22 and Just Jammin’ on May 23.
Steel City Coffeehouse (203 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, www.steelcityphx.com) will present River Drivers onMay 15 and the Treebirds on May 16.
The Colonial Theater (227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, thecolonialtheatre.com/events) will host Dann Pell on May 16, The Ledbetters & Superunknown on May 16, Our Footage Spring Showcase on May 17 and Buckethead on May 20.
Jamey’s House of Music (32 South Lansdowne Avenue, Lansdowne, 215-477-9985, www.jameyshouseofmusic.com) is presenting Regina Bonelli on May 15, the Quentin Jones Rock & Roll Review on May 16 and the Blues Muthas with Steve Shanahan on May 17.
Elkton Music Hall (107 North Street, Elkton, Maryland, www.elktonmusichall.com) presents Eddie 9V on May 14, Brown Sugar on May 15, Indigenous on May 19 and Selwyn Birchwood on May 20.
Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com) will have Marc Broussard on May 14, Southern Culture on the Skids on May 15 and Kenn Kweder & John Train Present 26th Annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash
40 Different Performers; 40 Different Dylan Songs on May 20.
On May 17 at 3 p.m., the American Music Theatre (2425 Lincoln Highway East, Lancaster, www.AMTshows.com) will present a show dear to the hearts on many of Philly’s older music fans — Dick Fox’s Golden Boys starring Frankie Avalon and Fabian with special guest Tommy Cono Tributing Bobby Rydell. Ticket prices start at $69.
The Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com) will host The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band on May 14, Michael Martin Murphey on May 15, Mullett on May 16, Davina and The Vagabonds on May 17 and Indigenous on May 20.
