The free Deane Center Outdoor Concert Series will feature the Infrared Radiation Orchestra based in Seneca Falls, New York performing their original songs as well as cover tunes next Friday, August 7 at 6 p.m. on the outdoor stage at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro.

Bring a lawn chair or a blanket and sit in the grassy area in front of the outdoor stage or on Central Avenue, which will be closed to motor vehicle traffic between the side of the Warehouse Theatre building and Main Street. In the event of inclement weather, this concert will be moved indoors to the Coolidge Theatre.

Founded at least 20 years ago, the four-member indie rock and psychedelic band known for garage rock jams, quirky rock-noir, and guitar-heavy cosmic sounds includes three vocalists, Kim Draheim, H. Elizabeth Alcott, and Jon Arliss and drummer Joe Sarofeen.  

Draheim is the band leader and the lead guitarist on his Mosrite electric guitar, often described in reviews as a battered, well-traveled instrument, and also plays pots and pans. Until recently, he was Infrared Radiation’s only songwriter, not only creating all of their original tunes but also arrangements of cover songs by other artists for the band to play. 

Alcott performs on two electronic instruments, the theremin invented in 1919-1920 that produces a continuous, eerie warbling tone and the digital QChord released in 1999 that is akin to having a portable mini-orchestra; the melodica, a hand-held wind instrument with a miniature musical keyboard; the harmonica and percussion.

Arliss plays the electric bass guitar.

“We will be performing originals and covers,” said Draheim, the group’s founder. “The covers run the gamut from the well-known to the extremely obscure. We do not play any covers ‘straight’. They are all bent just enough to fit our vibe. We have a repertoire of 130 plus songs. About 60 to 75 percent of the songs we will play at Wellsboro will be our originals.

“We are working on our first vinyl LP, which will be our 10th full-length album,” Draheim said. “It is a ‘Best of’. Currently, a panel of experts, including members of the Blue Oyster Cult, Country Joe & The Fish, Fanny, The Fugs, and other musicians plus journalists and club owners, are selecting which of our songs represent our best. It will be a Limited Edition that will include the LP, a CD of the entire album plus two bonus tracks, and a T-shirt. We are expecting to release it this year before Christmas.” 

The band’s 11th full-length CD will be released in 2027 and feature a new song written this year by band members Sarofeen and Arliss along with other Draheim originals.

“Our first five albums sold out,” Draheim said. “Once a title sells out each album is only available on a high-quality, home-burned recordable compact disc with front cover graphics and liner notes. New, still sealed full-length CDs with graphics are available for our remaining four full-length albums.”

The Infrared Radiation Orchestra’s nine CDs in chronological order are: 
“Nine Great Rock & Roll Dance Hits by the Infrared Radiation Orchestra,” with 9 originals;
“Preparing the Feast of Skeldon,” with 12 originals and covers of songs by Bevis Frond, The Rolling Stones and The Byrds; 
“Soothing Sounds for the Sophisticated Savage,” with 15 covers of songs by The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Pink Floyd, The Eastern Dark, Neil Young, Lotus STP, Frank Sinatra, The Beat Farmers, The Grateful Dead, Michael Hurley, Junior Parker, Johnny Cash, Scott Morgan, and a mashup of the “Theme from The Munsters” and “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks;
“HD76151,” with 9 originals and covers by Jimi Hendrix & Bo Diddley;
“Sumus Quod Sumus” with 10 originals and covers by Nancy Sinatra and Buffalo Springfield;
“The Infrared Radiation Orchestra’s Message to the Youth of America” with 10 originals;
”Hot Rod Full of Eyeballs” with 12 originals;
“Stairs,” with 10 originals and 3 Elvis covers; and
“Hey, Hugh,” Get Off of McCloud,” with eight Rolling Stones cover songs with different guests on each track (home-burned CD-R). 

The orchestra’s two extended play albums are:
“Message to the Youth of America Bonus Disc,” a home-burned CD-R with 3 songs, 1 original, 1 David Bowie cover and 1 Neil Young cover recorded live in the studio by Baby Chas & The Bedwetters, including Theresa Walsh, Terry Quill, Mark Clayton and Paul Nolan along with three of the four Infrared Radiation Orchestra members; and  “Mad Dog Sullivan,” a 5-song all “crime themed” EP with 2 originals, covers by Bob Dylan and The Bobby Fuller Four and a Static Cling original.

The public is invited to attend any or all of the free concerts in the series made possible by sponsor UPMC Health Plan.

For more information, call the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 570-724-6220, email office@deanecenter.com or visit deanecenter.com.