Rochester jam band The Niche returned with Rob Compa to the stage for a three-day run to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of musical mayhem. “At their height, the Niche were filling clubs throughout the Northeast, packing sets with intense, compositionally ambitious jams and entertaining audiences with sarcasm and goofball antics.”
Night 1 at Three Heads Brewing in Rochester, Thu. 4/24/25
Night 1 of the Niche 25th anniversary weekend run featuring Rob Compa began in Rochester at Three Heads Brewing with a case of nerves from a band who had not performed in front of a large crowd in nearly two decades. It took a couple of songs to shake off the rust, though soon it was clear the Niche songs live forever rent free in your head.
Compa recently concluded a successful 17-year run with Dopapod and now pays the bills on guitar with his current band, Neighbor, and several musical side hustles throughout Vermont. Songwriter and keyboardist Willy O’Riley stayed nimble touring with ’60s pop-rock group, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and several Rochester-area groups. Bassist Todd Nestor was born ready and kept ready, plucking away in the moment with any tune piquing his interest. Drummer Jay Schreiber remained active with Niche Devices by creating custom-made, handcrafted guitar preamp and compressor pedals used by Compa and several other notable jam scene shredders like Ryan Stasik (Umphrey’s McGee) and Peter Anspach (Goose).
Set 1 of the Niche at 3HB
Anticipation of the moment was not lost on the Niche after nearly two decades of relative inactivity – save for an unfortunate comeback attempt and CD release party in the infancy of 2020 Covid-era lockdowns and Cuomo Chips. While the dedicated fanbase arrived ready to let loose, it took the Niche a few songs to get themselves warmed and in sync. They started with the funky instrumental F^ck! and Offer – featuring a simmering buildup, then a boiling crescendo with Compa and O’Riley trading solos just like they had been playing together for years.
Next up was Tuba Ruba from the band’s sophomore release Breaking Down, which had the crowd singing to the chorus – “I ain’t taking no shit, I ain’t wasting no spit!” A rare performance of drummer Jay Schreiber’s song, New Yankee Trucker followed. Reminiscent of Wilco, Trucker featured Schreiber singing lead and Compa with a well-integrated southern twang guitar solo.
Now warmed up, the Niche felt back at home, together again on stage – apparent as the Niche launched into oldie-but-goodie Luther. When the band finished the lyrical section, the interplay between Compa and O’Riley became a game of musical one-upsmanship. Each talented musician took turns trying to break the other with impossible-to-mimic chords and riffs, leaving all four members on stage laughing and smiling.
The Saga of the Stapler
When Luther slowly began to break down into the next song, the crowd was in the dark. This show featured a rare performance of the entire Saga of the Stapler consecutively – done last for Halloween 2004 in Sackets Harbor, NY. It started innocently enough, moving smoothly from Luther to the danceable Bride of the Stapler. In true Niche fashion, a brief bass amp fire interrupted the flow, prompting a word from their sponsors. The saga resumed with O’Riley wielding his mighty weapon from the song that started it all. The classic Stapler seamlessly segued into The Curse of the Stapler, descending upon Three Heads from the sewers to serve notice of its reign of terror.
When O’Riley declared that the crowd had just heard the first three parts of the saga and then would hear Part 4, those hardcore fans in the know had a sense of the revealed rarity.
Seldom performed, The Passion of the Stapler began with a mellow, plodding instrumental introduction, borrowed from The Stapler-themed melody. In a likely nod to the band’s affinity for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Passion lifted off and exploded with the soaring guitar riff by Compa and gospel-like organ backing by O’Riley before gently landing again in seeming innocence. The saga (and the first set) was complete when the Niche launched into the upbeat, proggy crowd-favorite Venemous Vapors.
Set 2 of the Niche at 3HB
Set 2 picked back up with a different type of crowd. Many in attendance battled the nostalgia from twenty-five years gone by with the reality of life in the here and now. My wife left after Set 1 to pick up our daughter and relieve the babysitter, and as the crowd thinned out, you could tell many others encountered the same real-world dilemmas.
Paying the Goods kicked things off with its driving, danceable prog rock groove. Things got kinda sloppy by now in only the best way possible, with the remaining patrons singing along to the bass-driven song’s lyrics of Too Much Mayonnaise in the Tuna. The diehards were then rewarded for their patience when the Niche launched into their classic Kangaroo.
It’s been written that, “The Niche can transport you to that special jam space where the music swirls in apparent chaos and then gently bring you down into an ambient jam”. No song embodies this description quite like a classic Roo jam does. Each performance of the song is an entity of its own, swirling with classic tension and release builds by the band that grabs and captivates the listener. A swift Hungree Mungree beat the closing bell to end the night.
The Niche – Three Heads Brewery, Rochester NY – Thursday, April 24, 2025
Set 1. F^ck!, Offer, Tuba Ruba, New Yankee Trucker, Luther > Bride of the Stapler, Bob Johnson’s Chevrolet, The Stapler > Curse of the Stapler, Passion of the Stapler, Venomous Vapors,
Set 2. Paying the Goods, Too Much Mayonnaise in the Tuna, Kangaroo
Encore: Hungree Mungree
Night 2 at Colony Woodstock in Woodstock, Fri. 4/25/25
Night 2 of the Niche 25th Anniversary weekend run resumed at Colony Woodstock. After the ambitious young band from Albany, Hilltop, opened the night, the Niche brought forward Mungree after its sprint-like encore finish in Rochester. Stat nerds know that Mungree is the preferred show opener for the Niche to pack a succinct punch – and it’s the first track on their debut studio release, Building Up from 2002.
Keyboardist Willy O’Riley invited the unsuspecting attendees to get weird with him and the rest of the band during introductions. O’Riley spoke of the empathy he once felt upon discovering a large herd of mollusks. Wouldn’t It Suck If You Were a Slug? displays the influence of Frank Zappa (“Ewww, that’s so gross”) mixed with Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On with Todd Nestor crooning “I’ve been really trying, baby”.
The band plowed through as the slugs were committed to a salting death sentence by O’Riley as the “official all-knowing adjudicating president of the federation of the consortium of the leadership committee of the association of the alliance.” Nestor’s romping bassline helped kick the band into gear for the rest of the night by driving the song into familiar territory with the circus-like harmony of keys and guitar interplay.
As promised, the offbeat humor continued with the introduction of Paying the Goods, a song about setting the proper mood for a night of self-love. Inspired by 70s prog rock musicality from YES and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Goods provides instant gratification with symphonically composed sections and frenetic improvised solos by Compa on guitar and O’Riley on keys.
Next, the Niche stayed unconventional with the song that borne the lead character of the band’s standout saga, The Stapler. It chronicles the real-life path of destruction caused when a group of Willy’s high school friends flushed a Swingline stapler down a toilet. The Stapler captivates onlookers when they watch O’Riley layer in notes from his synthesizer with a chrome-plated replica. Who plays the keyboard with a stapler except the humble O’Riley?
After a raucous tier-2 improv section, Stapler quietly transitioned to the underground adventures that ensued in Curse of the Stapler. In only his 2nd live performance of the tune, Compa executed the compositionally complex sections with the founding members of the Niche as if the song had coursed through his veins for decades. The entire saga is a musical masterpiece of comedic terror.
O’Riley writes beautifully complex compositions in spades, as was evident to Friday night’s flock of curious ears in Woodstock. From their debut, Building Up, Friends of Mine > Music Box demonstrates Willy’s imagination on several levels. About a youngster who saw closet monsters at night, Friends tells how one of the spooky companions offered comfort with a musical peace offering. As it segues to Music Box, the audience can visualize a tiny hidden ballerina popping up to soothe the child’s mind. As the song progresses, it moves through various emotions, from calming segments to controlled chaos where modern expressive dance would take over.
The Niche Live and Raw
It wouldn’t be a live and raw Niche show without some outside influence, and that’s precisely what Colony Woodstock would deliver tonight with a burlesque show set to follow the band. A neat version of the slop-inspired song about tuna, as replicated from the previous night’s Rochester show moved briskly into the 3rd stapler saga effort. The upbeat progressive Vapors closed with a dark, esoteric, next-level jam creating pandemonium that very few bands are willing to risk – and the Niche pulled it off seamlessly in Compa’s 2nd appearance.
This version of the Niche traveled the classy route by closing their set with Compa singing lead on their first tour cover, Pink Floyd’s Have a Cigar, which finished with brief, but satisfying solos by Compa and Jay Schreiber on drums.
Some might consider a setup like this a missed opportunity. Others might view it as a sign of maturation. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in the middle. In their early-mid 2000s heyday, the Niche likely would have turned this lead-in into an all-out raunchfest, with one of the members lubing up to attempt tricks from the stripper pole. In hindsight, a rousing sing-a-long of I Love Vaginas probably would have been the happy medium to setup the provocative pastie-filled show to come, showing a hint of rust from the band’s dormancy.
While the Niche didn’t hit on all cylinders tonight, the engine gained its bearings and found its timing.
The Niche – Colony Woodstock, Woodstock, NY w/Hilltop – Friday, April 25, 2025
Setlist: Hungree Mungree, Wouldn’t It Suck If You Were a Slug?, Paying the Goods, Shelley, The Stapler > Curse of the Stapler, Friends of Mine > Musicbox, Too Much Mayonnaise in the Tuna, Venomous Vapors
Encore: Have a Cigar (Pink Floyd)
Night 3 at Nectar’s in Burlington, VT, Sat. 4/26/25
Night 3 of the Niche 25th anniversary weekend run ended in Burlington, VT at the legendary Nectar’s as a welcome home return for Compa. Young up-and-comers Clive from Burlington showed they have a future in front of them as they opened the night.
The Niche followed with their nostalgic return to Nectar’s after two decades between appearances at the historic venue. The promise of rejuvenated energy has resurrected the Niche from the jam band graveyard. On the first two nights, the Niche worked out the kinks. At Nectar’s, the Niche shifted gears and kicked into overdrive.
The venue graciously streamed both sets by Clive and the Niche, and they are now archived for your listening pleasure. A video recording allows the set to speak for itself. Click the link to see and hear the Niche at Nectar’s for yourself.
Noteworthy Mentions and Stats
- The Niche debuted Rise of the Borgs, a driving jazz fusion original composition first performed by The Borg Party in 2017 during an exclusive run of Northeast shows. With Compa and O’Riley, the Borg Party added musically talented friends Mike Gantzler on guitar (Aqueous), Michelangelo Carubba on drums (Turkuaz), and James Searl on bass (Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad).
- Nectar’s included tour debuts of longtime pop-adjacent favorites Modesty and Dealin’ and Squealin’ – DAS is the first song from studio release, Breaking Down. While both are radio-friendly, Compa added his solo flair to make each tune memorable tonight.
- Standout repeats at Nectar’s included Stapler > Goods and another classic Roo jam, along with the DAS as mentioned above deftly seguing to Friends > Musicbox.
- Tour Stats: Vapors, Tuba Ruba, Goods, The Stapler, and Curse were featured all three nights. Roo, Passion, Tuna, Mungree, Friends > Musicbox and Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd made the cut on two nights. F^ck!, Shelley, DAS, Offer, Trucker, and Borgs made solo appearances.
The Niche – Nectar’s, Burlington VT w/Clive – Saturday, April 26, 2025
Setlist: Have a Cigar (Pink Floyd), Venomous Vapors, Rise of the Borgs, Modesty > The Stapler > Paying the Goods, Passion of the Stapler, Kangaroo, Dealin’ and Squealin’ > Friends of Mine > Musicbox
Encore: Tuba Ruba
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