Photos by Rob Chapman, Words by Alex Borsody
The Stanton Moore Trio joined by Anders Osborn brought a packed house to Brooklyn Bowl last Thursday night. The band started promptly around 9:30 and kicked things off with just The Stanton Moore Trio. Sitting in for Robert Walter on Hammond B3 was San Francisco’s first call session musician Wil Blades. The night was divided into two sets, the first with just the trio, playing funky, New Orleans inspired organ jazz, and the second a swampy blues set led by Anders Osborn. READ MORE
The first time I saw her, she opened for Gov’t Mule at Alabama Theater in 2007. Since then, I have been hooked. The show started promptly at 8:00. Grace is opening for Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. I wasn’t sure what to expect as this was the first time I had been to this venue, but judging by the lineup on their concert calendar, it seemed like the place to be. I was right. The crowd was a little thin at the start of the show, but it was early on a Saturday night. In the South, college football is a big distraction. It was one of the more diverse crowds I have seen in a long time, fans of all ages.
The show focused heavily on the band’s newest release. Catherine Popper was noticeably absent and missed, with John Rogone from Blues and Lasers filling in and doing his part well. Grace was wearing a shimmering dress, and the band receded back into the stage wearing mostly black. She works the stage from the second the lights go down. The crowd gets quiet and the show takes off. For all of her stage presence, she does an incredible job showcasing each of the band members over the course of the set. While not an original, there is something incredibly sexy and intoxicating watching Grace sing “White Rabbit.” And then she gets down on the stage and starts pounding on the bass drum. It all ended too quickly, but it was a good set. When it ended we were left wanting more.
You can get a copy of the show taped by Tim Discenza here. Here’s the setlist:
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Minglewood Hall
Memphis, TN
9-18-10
01: Joey
02: Oasis
03: Only Love
04: One Short
05: Ah Mary
06: Tiny Light
07: Apologies
08: White Rabbit
09: Nothing But The Water (part 1)
10: Medicine
Until next time, enjoy the photos. Read on for the photos…
The schedule for this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was just posted in anticipation of this weekend’s three-day free music festival in Golden Gate Park. It still blows me away that something this big can be free. I’m probably most excited about the lineup on Sunday with Umphrey’s McGee, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Keller & the Keels. You can download the schedule PDF here. Who’s going?!
After a few weeks off from Phish Friday, I’m back at you with the second and final installment of historic Phish bust-outs. Which perhaps begs the question, why do we even care about bust outs? Well, for a rabid community that follows their band’s every move and mulls over every statistic with encyclopedic knowledge, the bustout carries larger than normal amounts of significance — something communal that both the band and their fans can acknowledge is a BIG EFFING DEAL. As Adam Scheinberg so eloquently put it in his Phish.net blog post earlier this month:
Most people won’t agree ..[on]…the “best” jams, but certainly, no one will argue that a bustout is a bustout when a song returns from dormancy. So it’s a common ground, easy for fans and the band to agree on, that makes an event unique and therefore, special. Harpua will always be the sign of a show we’ll remember, but that doesn’t mean we’ll all be listening to it on repeat.
So true. To use Adam’s example, the 7/29/03 Harpua wasn’t all that well executed, but you better believe I was on cloud nine and high fiving everyone around me while they were playing it. Yes, bustouts aren’t always musically appealing, and they sure as hell won’t contain the hose or IT, but they almost always automatically up the ante in the heat of the moment at a show. Sometimes they’re the gravy on an already killer set, and sometimes they can redeem a show without too much else going for it, but whatever the case, it’s always a huge jolt.
And so with that sentiment at heart, I tried to pick the 15 Phish originals that were some of the most special moments and reintroductions to old favorites (and not-so-favorites) in the band’s history. Again, I picked and ranked these 15 selections by my own subjective sense of overall quality, which I’ve defined with a patented scientific algorithm consisting of the length of the gap since the song was last played, and the importance/significance of the bustout to the band and its audience. So without further adieu… READ MORE
Happy Friday, gang! I thought I’d drop a little west coast love today in anticipation of our Phish Friday post coming in a few; thanks to the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, we’ve got a pair of tickets to giveaway to the LCD Soundsystem and Sleigh Bells show at The Pearl club at Palms on October. Read on for the info!
There’s a great article in the Wall Street Journal today (thanks @andygadiel) about camera phones, Flip cameras, and a dissection of the question of whether or not video cameras are killing the concert experience for the fans, the artists and your general psyche. It’s a good read. I skimmed it and caught this nugget, and I’m going to re-read and digest a little bit before I comment further.
Fans can now beam a live video feed from the sixth row, using just an app, a robust cellular connection and a free account on a site such as Justin.tv, Livestream or Ustream. These companies say such activity is still nascent, but catching on as technology improves. After Justin.tv released new apps for iPhones and Androids this month, the number of users broadcasting from their phones (as opposed to desktop webcams) surged to more than 30%. In music, fans of the jam-band Phish were early adopters. Since the group reunited last year, many of its shows have been watchable online, thanks to a network of fans who capture the action live for outlets including Hoodstream and Phishtube. Phish says it’s aware of the practice, but didn’t want to comment on it.
Suggested reading!
Phish just announced their heavily rumored New Year’s Eve run, a five-night run with two nights in Worcester and three nights at Madison Square Garden (including the band’s first-ever January 1st show). Time to change my shorts…
At the end of December, Phish returns to the road for a five-show Holiday/NYE Run, beginning with 2 nights in Worcester and ending with three nights at Madison Square Garden in New York. Not only will the New York City run include a three-set New Year’s Eve show, but for the first time in Phish History, the band will perform on January 1st.
PHISH NEW YEAR’S RUN 2010-2011
12/27 DCU Center, Worcester, MA
12/28 DCU Center, Worcester, MA
12/30 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
12/31 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
01/01 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
A limited number of tickets for all five shows are available directly through Phish Tickets’ online ticketing system at http://phish.portals.musictoday.com/. The ticket request period is currently underway and will end Saturday, October 2nd at Noon EST. Tickets will go on sale to the public on Saturday, October 9th at Noon EST (for MSG) and Sunday, October 10th at 10:00am EST (for Worcester).
As with Phish’s Fall Tour, included in the ticket price for each specific date, is a free MP3 download of the entire show (a fully mixed soundboard recording), redeemable at LivePhish.com, often within an hour of the band stepping off stage.
For complete ticketing information, please click here.
Hell. Yes.
Last night I finally got a chance to get through all three parts of the mini-documentary that Girl Talk put together from his New Year’s Eve 2009 concert in Chicago, and having been a bit more inspired by music like this lately I was totally floored at the behind the scenes footage. READ MORE
