Eye on the Scene: Piper Hall, Fisher Wagg and Dogface

Fisher Wagg at Gihon Valley Hall Credit: Luke Awtry

Piper Hall, Fisher Wagg and Dogface at Gihon Valley Hall in Hyde Park, Saturday, May 17

As we navigate venue changes and closures in Vermont’s more populous areas, let’s not forget the community spaces in small towns that have long been rural social hubs. Many of these overlooked gems are making a resurgence, such as Gihon Valley Hall in North Hyde Park Village. On Saturday, the community hall, built in 1910, hosted local singer-songwriters Piper Hall, Fisher Wagg and Matthew Jadin‘s seven-piece indie folk-rock group, Dogface. (Disclosure: I’m a guitarist for Dogface.) The show was put on by two of the hall’s volunteer revivalists, Liz and Zeph Courtney — both experienced musicians themselves. Back in the ’90s in Boston, Zeph drummed for the sludge/psych outfit Milligram. In the 2010s, the couple played in Brooklyn indie-rock quartet Diehard. The duo handled all the production duties at the concert and expressed plans not just for more live shows but also a recording studio, in progress just a few towns over. Rock and roll lives on in small-town Vermont. To quote Wagg, “Fuck it, let’s just be Nirvana.”