Photo by Greg Cristman
Gregory R. Cristman

Gibby Haynes playing Butthole Surfers with the Paul Green Rock Academy in NY this weekend

Gibby Haynes
Gibby Haynes w/ the Meat Puppets in NYC in 2015 (more by Greg Cristman)

The Paul Green Rock Academy is a performance based, interactive music school, based on a method honed over the past 17 years. We believe that the best way to teach most anything, and especially music, is with a hands on approach. Therefore, our entire school is dedicated to getting kids playing music in an as authentic way as possible.

Our teachers are all real working rock musicians, and as such are able to relate to the students in a very direct way, offering valuable advice and guidance in the field. The shows we stage are not just recitals for family and friends but rather aspire to be real rock shows at real rock venues, with professional sound and, when appropriate, smoke machines.

The Rock Academy is a year round tuition based program. Students take a weekly 45 minute lesson in their primary instrument and attend weekly rehearsals when in season (roughly 30 weeks per year) in preparation for our seasonal shows.

As the bio quoted above points out, the Paul Green Rock Academy is a music school (a “school of rock,” if you will) located in Woodstock, NY that gives kids a chance to play real rock shows. Some of these shows are with real rock icons, like Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers, who has played with them before and will again this weekend.

They’ve got two shows in New York with Gibby: one in Kingston at BSP tonight (7/1) and another in NYC at Highline Ballroom on Saturday (7/2). Gibby and the kids will be playing Butthole Surfers songs, “compete with strobe lights and movies and smoke machines.” (But probably no flaming cymbals.) Tickets for BSP and Highline are available. Watch a video of Gibby performing with PGRA students a few years ago in NYC, below.

The Highline show will be opened by The U.S. Americans, who have other shows, including Mercury Lounge on the Fourth of July. You can check out a new single by them below.

The Paul Green Rock Academy recently played Mountain Jam, and they have another upstate NY festival on the horizon: Metalsia in the Catskills with Pentagram, Kool Keith, Shannon & the Clams, Sheer Mag, Murphy’s Law, Natural Child, and more.

Paul Green Rock Academy with Gibby Haynes — 2016 Tour Dates
7/1 BSP Kingston Kingston, NY
7/2 Highline Ballroom New York, NY