NYS Music 20​15

Author: Jess Collier

  • Free Outdoor Series in Lake Placid Headlined by Rusted Root

    Rusted Root will headline the season for Lake Placid’s free outdoor music series Songs at Mirror Lake.

    The lineup this year celebrates the series’ 10th season by bringing back some of the best acts that have played over the last 10 years.

    songs at mirror lake lake placidWhen Rusted Root last played the series in 2013, more than 1,000 people crowded into the tiny park on Lake Placid’s Main Street to dance to the ’90s alternative band with jam elements and world beats.

    Other successful acts including Amy Helm, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Lukas Nelson & POTR will also be back.

    The free shows run every Tuesday night from the end of June through the middle of August. The shows are played in Mid’s Park, a small park in the middle of the Adirondack village that edges on Mirror Lake. Attendees can dance in the park or paddle over in a boat (or on a dock) and catch the show from the water.

    The full lineup:

    • Tuesday, June 30: Americana Night with Amy Helm (2013)
    • Tuesday, July 7: World Rock Night with Rusted Root (2013)
    • Tuesday, July 14: Celtic Night with Jubilee Riots (formerly Enter The Haggis) (2008)
    • Tuesday, July 21: New Orleans Night with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band (2007)
    • Tuesday, July 28: American Rock Night with Lukas Nelson & P.O.T.R. (2013)
    • Tuesday, Aug. 4: Rockin’ Roots Night with Back Porch Society
      (formerly Roadside Mystic)(2011)
    • Tuesday, Aug. 11: Blues Night with Quinn Sullivan (2014)

  • Get Ready for MMJ, Beck and More at Boston Calling 2015

    Forget trudging out to a field in the middle of nowhere to see a string of your favorite musicians at a festival. Boston Calling 2015 has all the music you want, and in an easy-to-reach urban setting that also lets you explore one of the best cities in the Northeast while you’re at it.

    And oh, by the way, it’s got a sweet lineup including My Morning Jacket, Beck, the Pixies, Tenacious D and TV on the Radio.

    Boston Calling 2015 will be held for the third time at City Hall Plaza – in the center of Boston – this Memorial Day weekend. The festival allows for re-entry, so festival-goers can hang out in downtown Boston while taking breaks from some great music.

    On Friday, May 22, Sharon Van Etten takes the stage at 6:30. Tame Impala will play at 7:45, and Beck starts at 9:25. All acts will appear on the same stage.

    Saturday will be headlined by My Morning Jacket and also includes Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, St. Vincent, Marina and the Diamonds, Gerard Way, Tove Lo, Run the Jewels, Mo, DMA’s and Krill.

    Sunday’s lineup is headlined by the Pixies, and they will be joined by Tenacious D, TV on the Radio, Vance Joy, Jason Isbell, Chet Faker, The Lone Below, Ilovemakonnen, Halsey, and the Ballroom Thieves.

    On Saturday and Sunday, the sets shift between two stages, and sets don’t overlap, so attendees can catch every minute of music.

    Gates open at 6 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday and Sunday. Music ends each day promptly at 11 p.m. Organizers recommend taking the T to Haymarket or State Street stations, then entering at the main entrance on Congress Street. For those who choose to drive, organizers offer a discount to the Government Center parking garage at 50 New Sudbury St.

    Don’t forget to wear comfortable shoes for lots of dancing and walking. Dress in layers, and be prepared for any weather — the event is rain or shine.

    A variety of Sam Adams beers,  Angry Orchard hard cider and Wicked Wines will be for sale. Food and non-alcoholic drink vendors will consist of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Tasty Burger, The Chicken and Rice Guys, Arancini Bros, Dean’s Concessions, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and Burgers, Alltown and Polar Beverages. Concession booths are spread throughout the festival.

    Tickets, including a few VIP options, are still available online. All ages are welcome, with children aged 10 and younger getting in free.

    Organizers recommend those who don’t have accommodations arranged yet should check out Ames Boston Hotel. It’s steps away from the festival and is an award-winning, chic boutique hotel that attracts artists and celebrities.

    There will be another fall Boston Calling Sept. 25-27, and organizers will announce the lineup at the May festival. Those who attend the spring edition will get a discount on a pre-sale for the fall fest starting May 26. Last year’s fall festival included The National, The Hold Steady, Lorde, Nas and the Roots, among others.

    Boston Calling is also hosting block parties every Thursday until Sept. 17 from 5 to 8 p.m. in Dewey Square, on Summer Street at Downtown Crossing.

  • Dylan Birthday Celebration to be Held in Woodstock

    For the seventh year in a row, Bob Dylan’s birthday will be celebrated with a benefit concert in Woodstock Memorial Day weekend.

    A group of Hudson Valley-based artists will perform Dylan’s hits at the Bearsville Theater at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 24.

    The current lineup features Happy Traum, Cindy Cashdollar, Jules Shear & Pal Shazar, The Stacks, Sara Fimm, Marc Black, Lindsey Webster, Eric Redd, Jerry Marotta, Zach Djanikian, Tim Moore, Kyle Esposito, Sin City, and The Saturday Night Bluegrass Band. More artists are to be announced.

    DylanSquareThe concert will benefit the Family of Woodstock’s Crisis Hotline and the John Herald Fund for musicians in need.

    Those looking to attend have the option of buying $45 non-premium seats, $65 premium seats, or $100 premium seats that also include raffle tickets to win a photo and signed poster of Bob Dylan.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbc3PSiHu6I]

  • Grooveshark Shuts Down, Resurfaces Elsewhere

    Popular music streaming service Grooveshark has shut down, leaving only a heartfelt message of apology on a dark gray screen on their homepage – but a new Grooveshark has surfaced elsewhere on the Internet boasting nearly all the content the original site offered.

    “Despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes,” the message reads on Grooveshark.com. “We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service. That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.”

    The message, dated April 30 and addressed to “music fans,” states that as part of a settlement with major music companies, the company is closing down the site and handing over ownership of it and its related apps and intellectual property.

    It also suggests that music lovers use a licensed service that pays artists and other people have rights to the music.

    Then Tuesday, a new website popped up with the domain name .io, rather than .com, which is the top-level domain for the British Indian Ocean Territory.

    The anonymous person who started the new site claimed to have backed up 90 percent of the Grooveshark library, but the new version of the site is missing many of the social and playlist functions that made the original popular. The site appears to be a rebranded version of an existing website called MP3Juices.se, or at least very similar to it.

    The new site includes information for people who believe one of the site’s sources has infringed upon their intellectual rights, plus the following disclaimer:

    grooveshark3

    It also includes on its “Terms of use” page the term that you will only download a song to preview it, then you’ll delete it, and if you liked it, you’ll buy the song or album.

  • Illumination Festival to Highlight RHCP-themed set by Aqueous

    Coming off a strong Cake-themed performance in Buffalo, Aqueous announced it will play a Red Hot Chili Peppers-themed show in Toronto at Illumination Festival.

    Aqueous plays both Friday and Saturday night of the Illumination Music and Arts Festival. The first night will be a normal Aqueous show, then Saturday night will feature the band doing their best to channel Flea, Anthony Kiedis and the rest of the legendary alternative rock band.

    No word yet whether the members of Aqueous will don strategically placed tube socks for the occasion.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Bw2AQzVrA]

    The festival also features Particle and DrFameus as headliners, and runs June 12-14 at the Cage 292 in Toronto. It’s normally an outdoors camping event, but organizers had to move it inside for a year after getting last-minute news that their normal site couldn’t host anymore due to zoning issues.

    illumination

  • Gregg Allman launches new Laid Back Festival at Jones Beach

    Greg Allman will host the new Laid Back Festival, a single-day fest he will headline at Jones Beach amphitheater.

    The lineup includes Allman with his solo band, the Doobie Brothers, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band and City of the Sun, and organizers promise more acts will soon be announced.

    AllmanLaidBack

    The fest will be held Saturday, Aug. 29, starting at 4 p.m. at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh. It’s named after Allman’s debut solo album, released in 1973.

    Regional restaurants, wineries and breweries will be available.

    A presale already happened, and tickets went on sale to the general public at 9 this morning. VIP packages include a VIP clam bake on the beach and signed posters.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6KdpSaL10]

  • Camp Bisco Revival Might Not Happen

    Organizers trying for a revival of the Disco Biscuits’ Camp Bisco are running into issues that may make it difficult to host the festival this year.

    Schenectady County officials denied the new organizers a mass gathering permit, saying they want the festival to have a zero-tolerance drug policy, according to the Daily Gazette. They also want 50 police officers stationed throughout the concert grounds 24 a day throughout the festival, plus 20 officers to control traffic.

    Officials also cited concerns about traffic congestion and emergency response logistics.

    Camp Bisco Revival

    After seven years of Camp Bisco being run by MCP Presents, the festival was put on hiatus in 2014 as organizers dealt with drug issues and a lawsuit due to alleged inadequate emergency response to a woman having a seizure. This year, the owner of the country club where Camp Bisco has always been held in Mariaville and Gathering of the Vibes founder Ken Hays hope to hold a new kind of Camp Bisco with acts that attract an older crowd July 16-18.

    They have gotten permission from state police and the state departments of Health and Transportation, but need county approval as well. Stay tuned for updates on this potential Camp Bisco revival.

  • The Music Never Stopped GD50 Pre/Post shows announced

    An impressive group of musicians will play a group of pre- and post-party shows in Chicago billed as The Music Never Stopped to complement the Grateful Dead Fare the Well GD50 reunion run.

    The Music Never Stopped run kicks off Thursday, July 2, with shows at different venues by Thievery Corporation with special guests yet to be announced, Gene Ween with special guests Mariachi El Bronx, and a Rex Foundation benefit called High Steppin’ Into Town featuring Greensky Bluegrass, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass and the Infamous Stringdusters.

    On Friday, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe will start at 10 p.m., and Edwarde Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will perform at another venue from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.

    Saturday, the Fourth of July, Railroad Earth will start a show at 11 p.m., and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will again play another venue with an 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. show.

    Sunday is the big culmination with the Fiyawrapper All Star Jam starting at 11 p.m. This group features Jennifer Hartswick of the Trey Anastasio Band as musical director and will include two other TAB musicians plus members of the Allman Brothers Band, Soulive/Lettuce, the Revivalists, Big Gigantic, Snarky Puppy and Break Science/Pretty Lights.

    fiyawrapperposter

    Silver Wrapper, a group of Chicago-based independent promoters, assembled the shows. Tickets are available via their website.

    tmnssquare

  • moe. Comes Home Again to NYC

    moe. continued to thrill crowds of .rons on their 25th anniversary winter tour as they packed houses and came home again to New York City.

    moe home again

    moe. continued to thrill crowds of .rons on their 25th anniversary winter tour as they packed houses in New York City last weekend.

    The weekend began Thursday night with the band — guitarists Al Schnier and Chuck Garvey, bassist Rob Derhak, drummer Vinnie Amico and percussionist Jim Loughlin — playing an intimate show at Le Poisson Rouge, a 700-capacity club in Greenwich Village.

    Then the boys moved their Friday and Saturday shows to the Best Buy Theater, an arena in the middle of Times Square with a capacity of 2,100. The corridors around the venue formed a bit of a maze, but the theater area made for a great show with a floor section below the stage, a short platform behind that and maybe 20 rows of raised seating behind it

    The Friday night show started with a first set that took its time with each song, extending all but “Annihilation Blues” over 11 minutes. Fans got a not-oft-played “Darkness” that segued into “Bring You Down,” a combo that thrilled the crowd. Annihilation jammed right into a “Meat” that brought the energy up, then down, then built it back up again to end the set on a raging note.

    The second set started with “New York City” — obligatory but so much more meaningful when it’s actually played in the city it was written about — then on “Do or Die” Jim broke out his drum set attached to a chest harness and ventured over to hang out with Vinnie and Al for a bit.

     

    moe home again
    Members of the crowd throw their hands in the air as they sing along.

    “Kyle’s Song” segued into “Same Old Story,” which has only twice before been segued into. It’s been used more often to segue out of at the end, but the song is high-energy fun any way they play it.

    The final four songs of the set turned up the heat with “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult, then “Spaz Medicine” shifting into “Akimbo” into the ever-epic “Rebubula.” Boobs can occasionally fall into the rut of being a quick-hitter that draws a lot of audience emotion but doesn’t explore much, but this one took plenty of time to chill out before building to a frenzied sing-along at the end.

    After the moe. show, most of the crowd filed out and ventured two blocks down to B.B. King’s, where Ha Ha the Moose was on the loose.moe. home again

    The hilarious moe. side project features Rob, Chuck and Jim wearing luchador masks and capes and taking on the persona of their alter egos, Dr. Guano, Jeff VonKickass and Sludge.

    They played some old classics to a crowd so boisterous at points that it distracted band members. They also included some popular covers including “Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd and “Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds, forever etched into our memories by its poignant placement at the end of “The Breakfast Club.”

    They also reprised “Courtesy Flush,” which they debuted in January at moe.’s Tropical Throe.down in Jamaica. They ended the set with “Redneck Trilogy” and “In the Name of Freedom” and during the latter, Guano got an apt response when he questioned the audience what they would do in the name of freedom: “I would throw a music festival, even if no one came and I didn’t make any money,” the moe.ron said, referencing the lack of a moe.down this year.

    moe. home againAfter having a few hours off to romp around the city, moe. was back at it Saturday night. Saturday night’s show at the Best Buy sold out during that day. Highlights of the show included an intense “Runaway Overlude,” “She,” “Billy Goat” segueing into “Head,” plus Shannon and Terry Lynch of the Conehead Buddha horns joining the band on “Not Coming Down,” “Threw It All Away” and “Dr. Graffenburg.”

    The full Conehead Buddha band played a great official after-show in the Lucille’s room of B.B. King’s Saturday night for anyone who somehow had energy left after raging the city that never sleeps.

    moe. heads to Chicago this weekend and south to the Carolinas in April to finish out their winter tour. The band has yet to announce summer tour dates besides a few festivals (SweetWater 420 Fest, Summer Camp, Mountain Jam and All Good, plus the Dear Jerry show celebrating Jerry Garcia in May) but fingers are crossed that they’ll at least spend a weekend at the Saranac Brewery in Utica this June. Keep an eye on NYSMusic.com for moe. news as dates trickle in.

  • ON TOUR: Widespread Panic Summer Tour Starts in Lewiston

    Widespread Panic will open its summer tour in Lewiston before a short Northeast run heads south and west. The Georgia-based bluesy jammers are set to play at Artpark Amphitheater in Lewiston — near Niagara Falls — on Tuesday, June 16.

    That’s the band’s only New York stop, but they’ll be nearby when they play Blue Hills Bank Pavilion in Boston on June 17, Jay Peak in Vermont June 19, and Pittsburgh June 21. As an added rage rested treat – special guest Umphrey’s McGee will open the Jay Peak and Philly shows. After that, they head south and west to a variety of locations, with longer runs in Texas and Colorado.

    Widespread Panic lewiston

    Panic is also on the Lockn’ Music Festival bill in September. The band is about to embark on a spring tour that winds throughout the U.S. and includes a two–day Brooklyn run in April.

    Tickets for Widespread Panic in Lewiston will go on sale March 28 online or by phone at 888-223-6000. The other Northeast summer tour dates go on sale March 13 and 14.