Stereo Mandrax (FREE w/ RSVP): Tough Darling • Ty Varesi • Tom Carter & Loren Connors

Tough Darling, Ty Varesi, and the pairing of Tom Carter with Loren Connors share a New York club context where rock songcraft meets downtown improvisation. Their appearances at Pianos place them alongside scene-based bills like Stereo Mandrax, moving between direct band interplay and spare, exploratory sound.

Stereo Mandrax is a rock/pop group heard in New York City rooms such as Pianos, often on bills that blur the line between club rock and downtown experimental music. Their recent appearances have placed them alongside Council Of Foreign Relations, Excepter, Marcia Bassett and Taralie Peterson, as well as Pink Must Animal, Surrender, Jeff Tobias, and Chris Forsyth’s What is Now.

Tough Darling is a rock/pop group heard on New York City bills where club-rock overlaps with downtown experimental currents. At venues such as Pianos, they’ve shared lineups with artists including Ty Varesi and the pairing of Tom Carter and Loren Connors, placing their set inside a collaborative, scene-based context.

Ty Varesi is a New York–based rock/pop performer whose sets move between direct songcraft and the looser edges of downtown experimentation. At Pianos, Varesi has appeared on bills alongside Tough Darling and the pairing of Tom Carter and Loren Connors, placing their work in dialogue with scene-driven collaboration and drone-leaning guitar tradition.

Tom Carter is a guitarist whose work moves between rock/pop structures and the looser logic of improvised music. In New York City he appears in club settings like Pianos, often on bills that place downtown experimentation beside straightforward band formats.

Loren Connors is a guitarist and songwriter whose work moves between rock forms and the electroacoustic edge of drone and avant-garde music. His playing often favors restraint and tonal focus over spectacle, letting sustained notes and fractured melodies carry the narrative.