Buffalo Music: Show will be CD release for ‘Sky is Blue’ album

By Benjamin Joe
(Image above: Gatto Black frontman Sal Mastrocola at Depot Bar. Photo via Moleman Media)

The Mohawk Place has announced that it will go on pause, but the music will go on Saturday night. The last show for now is the Buffalo CD release party of “Sky is Blue” by Gatto Black, a local hardcore band fronted by Sal Mastrocola, with support from Del Paxon, Sostre! and Thought Trials.

Mastrocola said the show had been set up before his band’s tour of Brooklyn, New Jersey and Philidelphia earlier last year, by his record label Triple Hammer Records, who were in contact with ownership at the Mohawk Place.

 In a short phone interview, Mastrocola said he was is excited to be playing the venue.

“I was just there earlier this week when Juggernaut played with Hold Out, Bruiserweight, War Bond and a couple of other bands. It was a great show. It was really cool to be back in there and I think you can read on their Facebook, if you want to get more details on how they’ve decided to pause on the shows and stuff, but Tim was nice enough to basically say, ‘hey I think this is a really important show and I’ve convinced the team to keep this one on the books, basically,’” Mastrocola said.

“It’s pretty sick. He didn’t have to do that, but I know he’s a guy who just gives a damn about the community here and he’s in an amazing band, Overgrowth, one of my favorite Buffalo bands of the moment. I’m very excited and honored.  This might be the last gig they have there for a while so it should be a good one.”

A Mohawk source confirmed that the show will be the last before the pause and that staff had volunteered to work it because of their relationship with the band.

Two of the supporting bands come from the Gatto Black universe. Thought Trials is the post-rock project of Josh Martin, the guitarist of Gatto Black.

Gatto Black. Photo via Moleman Media

“He’s just an incredibly talented player. He records and mixes all of his records himself. He’s a drummer, he’s a guitarist, he does everything. They’re killer live. They did some really cool dates last year. They played ‘Post Fest’ down in Indianapolis. They’ll be great,” Mastrocola said.

Del Paxon is also a long standing act Gatto Black has been connected with.

“They’re really the first Buffalo band that gave us a shot. We played their release show for ‘Auto Locator’ at Mohawk a couple of years ago. We opened up that show,” Mastrocola said. “So this is a very kind of cool full circle moment to be able to do another gig with them and have them on our release show. I think they’re one of the best bands up here. They’ve just put out a lot of really quality records and they just write great songs, so I’m pretty stoked on that.”

Mastrocola also said he was looking forward to playing with Sostre!, a local screamo band that he hasn’t seen as of yet.

“I just love everything they’ve been doing,” he said.

Show time is 7 p.m. as doors open at Mohawk Place and music begins at 8 p.m. Gatto Black has also announced that any interested attendee can receive a free CD of “Sky is Blue” by typing in their email address at GattoBlack.com/rsvp.