On December first, Duke’s Bohemian Grove Bar (DBGB’s) in Buffalo was proud to welcome back the next generation of the World Famous Allman Brothers Dynasty, Devon Allman. Having just recently finished recording sessions for his first solo album Turquoise, Duke’s was proud to be included in this breakthrough album’s release tour. His album features Myles Weeks on bass and Yonrico Scott on drums, with contributions from North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson, Ron Holloway and many others. It’s well worth a listen to hear the next generation of Allmans in true form.
The crowd erupted into cheers and applause when Allman and his band arrived on stage and proceeded to tune their equipment and launched into “When I Left Home”. After the song Devon thanked the crowd for coming out to see him and the band. Allman, who just returned from a European tour with Royal Southern Brotherhood, commented that the band literally just came together the Monday prior to the show, with some of these members having just met that day for the first time.
Surprisingly, for having known each other for such a brief period and with limited time to practice, this band sounded incredible. Allman showed his ability from the start on the guitar with incredible pinpoint fretwork and powerful soulful vocals that took his songs elsewhere altogether. Finding inspiration in a wealth of influences from Memphis soul and the guitar-driven blues-rock of the 1970s to jazz and R&B, Allman infuses his songs with a high-octane performance. After a brief set break, the band returned to the stage to deliver several more songs to the excited audience at DBGB’s. The band, sitting on bar stools for this portion of the show, appeared very relaxed and moved into “Melissa” which brought a thunderous roar from the crowd. The band finished off the night with an encore of “One Way Out”. With a love of music that is obvious, Devon Allman and his band delivered an evening of virtuoso instrumentation and a show that was packed with one great song after another.
Setlist: When I left Home, Set Me Free, Homesick, Strategy, Memphis, Into the Darkness, Torch, Dangerous (bass Solo), Draggin My Hart Around (brief setbreak) Melissa, Turn Off the World, Time Machine, Mahalo
After a busy summer concert schedule, the dog days of summer upon us and winding things down, David Gans snuck in a nice little Sunday date on short notice at DBGB’s in Buffalo only six weeks after playing his first ever gig in town; quite a feat for this musician who hails from Oakland, CA and generally plays the east coast festival circuit. Not only are Sundays in Buffalo generally mellow (even Downtown), an intimate solo acoustic gig in Buffalo’s historic Allentown District provided the perfect setting for this singer/songwriter and Grateful Dead historian to sing and strum his tales.
What was most surprising about this gig for me was it being scheduled on the heels of David’s mid-summer July 8th show at Papa Bear’s Campground just outside of Buffalo, a gig I couldn’t make due to conflicts with Phish’s 3-night stand at SPAC that weekend, which left me most disappointed. You see, growing up a young Deadhead in Buffalo, David was a big inspiration. Every Sunday night I would head off to bed during my high school years in the early 90’s to David’s nationally syndicated Grateful Dead hour. Once a week I fell asleep to Gans soothing voice as he treated us to his choice selections of not only vintage, but hot off the tour new Grateful Dead recordings, and closed with his unforgettable “I’ll meet you back here next week” after each program.
Amongst the changes and adjustments many of us went through when Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995, David Gans went through a life changing phase as well, and that was a new found focus on making music again, something he did long before being a music journalist. My respect for his passionate and tireless work as a radio host, journalist and author rolled over seamlessly for me to his music. Like an old friend you’d trusted and respected for so long., you just knew it’d be right. Having been waiting a decade or more to see Gans perform live, I was stoked to say the least.
After only collecting CD releases and live shows I could find on etree and the Live Music Archive, I arrived early for the matinee performance, to find David at the venue remote broadcasting live on his weekly satellite radio program on Sirius/XM Grateful Dead Channel’s ‘Tales From the Golden Road’, which he co-hosts with Dead historian Gary Lambert. The program centers around all things in the extended Grateful Dead community and did offer a small opportunity for David to plug the show and his newly discovered enjoyment for the Buffalo area.
DBGB’s was the perfect venue for this this gig. Owned by a longtime Buffalo restaurateur family with a passion for live music and delivering a classy experience, this newly opened bar, restaurant and live music venue with a nice sounding room offered a nice intimate setting. Within 30 minutes of signing off the air waves, David was tuned up and ready to get going. Being an under promoted gig on short notice, the room was not over crowded, but those there were very energetic and anxiously anticipating the performance. This setting also allowed for me to setup shop just 10 feet from the stage dead front center, to record the audio of the show.
“Reuben and Cerise” kicked things off perfectly by request with Gans singing the beautiful Garcia/Hunter extended verse number to an excited audience. This segued nicely into a soulful rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee”. In addition to having excellent command over his guitar and precise vocals I walked away from the gig most impressed by Gans guitar looping, which was first showcased this night on the instrumental “Afterbird” and led to a perfectly executed segue into “Loser”, one of the more powerful tracks of the night. In a more traditional early format of the tune, it was delivered with great soul and energy, much to the audiences delight. A number that sounded so good, the urge to sing a long was curbed by the desire to listen, with everyone seemingly focused. “Down to Eugene” showcased Gans skilled fingerpicking, and has always been one of his signature songs to me, one I associate his playing and singing to. This has been a regular in Gans rotation from early on, and his arrangement of the Jim Page lyrics to this song is quite skillful.
The next transition of the night with some perfectly structured looping included the Gans/Hunter original “Like A Dog”, which found it’s way to “Terrapin Station”, one of the longer tracks of the night. Gans delivered with passion and precision, crafting his way through the epic tune and concluding with a nice one-man jam. “Terrapin” segued into a well executed run through of “Cassidy’s Cat”, with it’s signature unmistakable groove. The rest of the set is comprised of originals and some Grateful Dead covers, and included a well placed rendition of the 60’s anthem “Eve of Destruction”. The show wound down with a punchy rearranged version of “New Speedway Boogie”, into “Brokedown Palace” and finished with David’s “Life is a Jam”, written for his passion of Grateful Dead music and included a nice spacey jam teasing its way into a fine “Norwegian Wood” to close the show.
One thing I come to expect with live music after so many years, performers and shows, is a benchmark of a performer executing their time on stage with passion. Without passion for the music and performance, whether the musician has it for their music or not, the show will always come off half hearted to me. One thing for certain when seeing David Gans perform is his passion for the music emanates through to the audience. Not only has Gans mastered his original love of making music over the past 15 years, but he has done so while maintaining a fresh energy and level of passion that any audience member would want from a musician live in concert.
Gans performed later in the evening at DBGB’s with Buffalo’s own Garcia Grass Band.
Setlist: Reuben and Cerise > Me and Bobby McGee, Afterbird > Loser, Down to Eugene, Stagger Lee , Like A Dog> Terrapin Station > Cassidy’s Cat, Therapy Blues, Eve of Destruction > It’s Gonna Get Better, Lazy River Road, New Speedway Boogie > Brokedown Palace, Life Is A Jam > Norwegian Wood
The third live release from Buffalo’s Aqueous, Live Nugs Volume III, was recently released at moe.down 13, coinciding with their two sets on Saturday afternoon. The six tracks of the album were recorded in New Philly, Ohio on June 2nd and in Baltimore on July 25th of this year. Aqueous has a prog-rock base with improvisation that incorporates funk and rock riffs into ten minute-plus compositions when played live. Offered up as a ‘name your own price’ album,fans across Upstate New York should download this live album and familiarize themselves with Aqueous, as upcoming tours take them across the state and into New England. Aqueous looks to be one of the next bands to break out and this album shows why.
“Warren in the Window” leads off the album with 12 minutes of solid prog-rock without a dull moment. Fans of Twiddle will here a little familiarity, as will Umphrey’s McGee fans, but they do not sound just like either of these acts, but the influence is apparent and a positive welcome to the album. “Gordon’s Mule” continues the prog-rock journey while “Below the Funk” heats up the album and likely many rooms the band has played. With the casual line “So pass the joint” repeated a few times, “Below the Funk” references the band’s native Buffalo, the type of song that a band like Aqueous will precede them and contribute to an already positive reputation for solid live performance. “Eon Don” contained a tight jam while “Timmy’s Blades” was a short, succinct, progressive instrumental that slowly grows into a fast paced, electric ode to Rush. “Triangle” is the highlight of the album, growing its pace into an anthemic guitar led track, with good vocals taboot.
Dave Schools, bassist for Widespread Panic for the past 26 years, has found a new role in the time that Panic has taken off, bassist for Mickey Hart Band. Playing with Hart, one of two original drummers for the Grateful Dead, has been a new venture for the bassist who has spent the vast majority of his career playing with Widespread Panic. We sat down for an interview with Dave Schools prior to the Mickey Hart Band performance at The Tralf in Buffalo.
Lauren Lagowski: You recently moved to San Francisco and soon linked up with Mickey Hart, what was the first meeting with Mickey like and how did he invite you to join the band?
Dave Schools: Turns out that we are neighbors in the beautiful western part of Sonoma County. Seemed like a good idea to the both of us that we got together to see how far we could push mutual love of outer space and rhythm. Obviously, it went pretty far because we now have this killer band and a great album, Mysterium Tremendum.
LL: Bassists play in tandem with drummers, how has playing with Mickey and Ian Herman differed from playing with Todd and Sonny from Panic?
DS: I look forward to playing with different drummers because I always learn something new that I can add to my arsenal. The Mickey Hart Band experience has been especially fruitful in that I have three unique drummers to learn from. Mickey combines shamanism and science with a natural born love of all things membranophonic. Ian (Inx) Herman is simply a beautiful person and truly communicative drummer. And then there is Sikiru Adepoju, the master of the talking drum. I can’t even begin to tell you what I have learned from him. If I did I’d have to kill you and then he would have to kill me.
LL: What role did The Grateful Dead have on the early development of Widespread Panic?
DS: We all grew up in the 70’s loving classic and psychedelic rock so it was only natural that we played some classics as we learned how to be a band. Grateful Dead tunes were part of that canon because they were the only band from that era that were still touring and creating viable new sounds when we were coming of age. Their music was a great starting point for us because there was an inherent looseness to the tunes. From this we learned how to listen to each other and from there we began to craft our own songs and sounds.
LL: Recently at Gathering of the Vibes, the band played a handful of Grateful Dead classics intertwined with some songs off the new album Mysterium Tremendum. How did the band determine the Dead songs they would cover over the course of the tour, and how much input do you and other band members have in the setlist each night?
DS: We really love the Tremendum material and obviously enjoy playing. After all, we are the ones who assembled it in real time. Playing the Dead material is more like a celebration of Mickey’s musical legacy. It gives a second dimension to the set as well as a chance to showcase the talents of the newer faces of the band in a familiar setting for long time Dead Heads. We chose the Grateful Dead tunes that seemed to fit this group’s natural abilities. We don’t want to be a cover band….we want to continue to evolution of the legacy of Mickey Hart. Everybody has input in the setlist, but Mickey gets final approval. And as always things can change at anytime during the show!
LL: In Burlington last weekend, Mike Gordon sat in with Mickey Hart Band. What was it like playing with him and have you kept in touch with Mike since filming 2002’s Rising Low?
DS: I’ve known Mike since Panic and Phish played their first show together down south in the late 80’s or sometime in those days. We would switch off opening and heading slots depending on where we were. So we’ve always kept in touch but it had been awhile since we had a chance to hang out. But that’s the wonderful thing about playing on the road: seeing your friends and catching up.
LL: What are some of your musical influences that are reflected in this tour?
DS: Each other….all day and all night…. Seriously though, we have surprised ourselves this tour with some interesting jams and cover tune choices. But I can’t tell you about those.
LL: What kinds of things do you do differently in an intimate and carefully tuned acoustic environment like the Tralf? Is it difficult transitioning from sheds and amphitheaters?
DS: What we strive for is consistency in being able to hear one another onstage. If that can happen there is no difference. Of course it’s always great to be able to really see the audience up close. I’ve heard great things about the Tralf.
The Wood Brothers made a greatly appreciated stop in Buffalo on the 24th of June in support of their first ever live release, Sky High, a title that seemed to describe the mood of the crowd on this perfect summer night at the Tralf Music Hall.
Few were prepared for the beautiful Sunday mass-style healing we were about to experience. The Wood brothers, Chris on upright bass and Oliver on guitar, joined the stage with their unique drummer Jano Rix, and opened with the stylish and soulful cover of ‘Up Above My Head’, immediately showcasing their perfect 3-part harmonies and the amazing acoustics that the Tralf has to offer. Their one long set of songs old and new, ranged from folk-type ballad ‘Lovin Arms’ (which was dedicated to their mother) to songs more gritty and blues driven like ‘Where My Baby Might Be’. It really made you wonder how they are pulling off so many genres of music with such style and accuracy.
The Wood brothers really took us back in time to a simpler place as they gathered around a mic in the front of the stage with Rix on ‘shuitar’, a beat up acoustic guitar with lots of gadgets that he played like a cajun. They played a few songs of this style like an old bluegrass group and the crowd that was mostly seated was now dancing like crazy. Chris Wood transitioned from the fingered jazz bass style to a classically bowed interlude during a beautiful solo that then opened the doors for a vivacious version of a Wood Brothers classic, ‘Liza Jane’. This portion of the show was some of the most soulful music this reviewer has ever seen performed. Things got a little more funky and free with songs like ‘One More Day’ and ‘Honey Jar’. It was here that Jano Rix proved himself to be the best possible addition to this amazing duo. His style of drumming is raw, but relaxed and it really compliments the more classic style of playing of the brothers.
The Wood Brothers took the stage once again for an encore, ‘Luckiest Man’, a song that really shows the world that the Woods are all about great songwriting. The guys really got the crowd going once more with ‘Shoofly Pie’ from their latest album, Smoke Ring Halo, again showing off their incredible harmonies and Oliver’s southern roots.
The band lingered happily after the show signing merchandise and chatting with fans until the venue was empty. In fact, at the very end there was about 6 fans sitting with Oliver chatting around a round table who looked like they weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. These are really great guys, truly amazing musicians with so much soul and talent that put on a show you can’t get anywhere else. Do not miss an opportunity to see them. Bands like this don’t come around too often. They will be performing at this year’s moe.down in Turin, NY at the end of August as well as other festivals around the country.
Visit www.thewoodbros.com to pick up a copy of their new live release, see complete tour dates, and more.
