What could be better than partying on the beach in downtown West Palm Beach? Five days of live music while you’re doing it. SunFest’s 2015 lineup includes plenty of heavy hitters: Fall Out Boy, Pixies, Lenny Kravitz, Paramore, Hozier, Kaskade, Boston, Sammy Hagar and the Circle, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Wilco, 311, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, SOJA, Awolnation, Matisyahu, ScHoolboy Q, and Eddie Money, among many others.
Sammy Hagar’s band The Circle consists of Michael Anthony of Van Halen, Vic Johnson – who has played with Hagar since 1997, and Jason Bonham – son of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham.
The lineup also includes Stone Temple Pilots minus Scott Weiland. They have added Chester Bennington, who is also the lead singer of Linkin Park.
Florida’s largest waterfront music and arts festival – which has been held annually since 1982 – runs April 29 to May 3 this year.
Attendees can choose to buy one, two or five-day tickets, which are on sale now. Advance pricing lasts until April 25.
Over the past year, Wild Adriatic has played numerous stages around the country and been featured on great festival lineups including Gathering of the Vibes, American Music Festival in Lake George, moe.down and soon SXSW. NYS Music is excited to share their video premiere of “Strange Persuasions,” which was recently released on Huffington Post and is the first single off their upcoming EP Never Enough, due on March 17.
The band is currently in Austin, TX performing a residency at Empire Control Room & Garage, followed by a few showcases during SXSW before heading back home to Upstate where Wild Adriatic will be playing a string of New York and Vermont album release shows for the new EP.
3/28 – Stratton, VT – Grizzly’s w/ Mister F & The North and South Dakotas
4/10 – Manchester, VT – The Perfect Wife 4/16 – Buffalo, NY – The Waiting Room
4/17 – Burlington, VT – Nectar’s 4/18 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Vapor
In an unexpected – and completely appropriate move – Faith No More have released new track “Superhero” from their upcoming album (May 19) Sol Invictus via Marvel.com.
18 years have passed since the last FNM release Album of the Year and fans have been foaming at the mouth for more ever since. The latest track features the typical grunge meets metal meets groove style of earlier FNM and the apropos repeated lyric: “Leader of men, will you be one of them?.” Check it out below! (h/t marvel.com)
Thursday March 5, St. Vincent takes the stage at a sold out show at Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, NY. This is one out of only two stops in upstate New York during this tour. St. Vincent just won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album. Congratulations to her for the award on the self titled album.
St. Vincent is multi talented singer songwriter with an established reputation. Her distinctive electric sound intrigued David Byrne, of the Talking Heads, leading to a great collaborative album back in 2012. It is nice to see and hard to believe that tickets were originally on sale for 25 dollars. Even though Water Street is sold out try to pick up some tickets. Do not miss out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY-WAu_SqWs
Doors at 7pm show starts at 8pm.
St. Vincent’s next stop in New York state is Clifton Park on March 7.
The newest and funkiest beep on the musical radar of the NY scene is Beau Sasser’s Escape Plan. The high-powered collaboration is led by the one and only Beau Sasser on the Hammond organ, vocalist Mary Corso, dueling guitarists Justin Henricks from Way Down/The Chronicles and Danny Mayer from Alan Evan’s Playonbrother with drummer Bill Carbone from Max Creek, fusing together rock ‘n’ roll attitude with a strong funk foundation. The funky five piece has been traveling across the country and back to bring a fresh, explosive sound that drops jaws and blows mind with serious guitar shredding, fierce rhythm and soulful key pounding.
Check out Beau Sasser’s Escape Plan TONIGHT Feb. 27 at The Putnam Den in Saratoga Springs with The Nth Power. Doors are at 8:30 pm with music starting at 9:30pm and a cover charge of $15 at the door for the 18+ event. Click here to buy tickets in advance and to guarantee that you won’t miss out on a great show. The last stop for the Escape Plan of their winter tour will be Saturday Feb. 28 at the historic Nectar’s in Burlington, VT.
I was lucky to catch up with Beau Sasser to talk about his escape plan, covering rock classics and highlights of their winter tour.
Susan Rice: What are you escaping from and what’s the plan?
Beau Sasser: The show is an escape for the audience for a little while, our goal is to create art through music and connect with the crowd and share in that journey, and its an escape for us too! The plan is make the world a better place through feel good music. The band has such a great vibe, we just want to share that with the audience.
SR: How did you come to assemble the Escape Plan band members?
BS: I’ve played with our drummer Bill Carbone in various bands over many years. We played together in the Melvin Sparks Band and now currently in The Z3. I met our guitarist Danny Mayer 3 years ago when Alan Evans(Soulive) put together his own group Alan Evans Trio which became Playonbrother, we traveled and played together alot over that time. I’ve connected with guitarist Justin Henricks and vocalist Mary Corso more recently in the last year or so and invited them to come play Funk Night at Bishop’s Lounge in Northampton, Ma, a weekly gig we do each Wednesday. This band really came together on those gigs and we realized quickly that it was something special.
SR: You’ve been touring heavily all over the area to promote your new sound. How have fans been responding to your new collaboration?
BS: The response has been really incredible! A ton of buzz around this group and we’ve had alot of support and great shows, I think its fun for the fans to watch the evolution of a new band and be involved in the process.
SR: What are three key factors for having a fantastic funk set/show?
BS: I would say we try to keep energy, crowd connection and high voltage onstage vibe at the forefront of our live show.
SR: When I saw your show at The Hollow in Albany on February 13th, you covered Frank Zappa, The Allman Brothers and Earth Wind and Fire. How do you pick which songs/artists to cover? Are the songs difficult to funkify?
BS: We’ve been careful to pick some choice covers that fit in the funk vein. We love Frank Zappa and have a pretty good arsenal of FZ covers that are more from his seventies era band that really leaned on funk music a little harder than some of the other eras. Also we really try to take advantage of our double guitar situation, incorporating a few Allman Bros. tunes which lean more towards a southern rock vibe, we try to do our own arrangements to make them fit the show. “Taxman” by the Beatles is another cover we have been working on and we’ve taken more of a James Brown approach to it, utilizing two guitars in a rhythm/comping situation, making it easy to put some funk sauce on it.
SR: Your Winter Tour is coming to an end. What was your favorite part? Would you change anything in particular? What’s next for the Escape Plan?
BS: As the winter tour comes to an end I would have to say the highlight was our week run in California, we played House of Blues and had members of Fishbone, Pfunk, Umphrey’s McGee and Snarky Puppy join us onstage. Unbelievable vibe during the show and it was certainly a great party! The other highlight would be our show last weekend in our hometown of Northampton, MA at Iron Horse Music Hall. So many friends and family and great to play for the hometown crew here where it all started. That show was recorded and is being spread around the internet, the band played great and there is wonderful sound quality on that recording. The only changes we are making are to keep working on perfecting our set and our overall live concert experience, we’ve been using lights and lasers in the show on some choice performances and I’d like to make that a more regular part of the show. Up next is recording our new album which will come out in April, our spring tour that will bring us to jazz fest in New Orleans, and then festival season when all this snow melts!!!!
Check out their live performance of “Love is Free” from Church of Boston on January 10 below.
The soul of the south warmed up Albany at The Egg on February 19 with JJ Grey and Mofro performing a riveting and inspired set of classic songs and new tracks from their new album Ol’ Glory, due out this month.
Opening was The London Souls, now a duo, but still with a heavy sound that resembles a trio, even though the band didn’t seem to be as loud as they could have been. With a London rock sound and smooth blues base, they were augmented with the influence of The Beatles, The Guess Who, and especially Cream and The James Gang, particularly on the open-ended “Under Control” that closed their set.
JJ “50 shades of” Grey, with a slight twang in his voice from his Northern Florida home, where the accent fades a little, brought southern soul along with Mofro, a band that has been on the march for nearly 15 years and a perfect combination of forces. The stage was setup as an intimate room, inside another intimate room, The Hart Theater in The Egg Performing Arts Center. The lighting resembled a chandelier, a tapestry was the backdrop and floor and table lamps made it feel like JJ Grey and Mofro were performing in your own backyard. The band opened with “Hide & Seek” which had a hint of “Hush” by Deep Purple, followed a few songs later by the debut of “The Island,” a mellow and personal song off the upcoming release Ol’ Glory.
“Brighter Days” displayed a building energy throughout which carried over in the back-to-back high power combo of “Orange Blossoms” and “Everything Good is Bad” to which the crowd roared with approval. The understated organ player Anthony Farrell shone on “Ho Cake” and “A Night to Remember,” the latter of which had hints of Bachmann Turner Overdrive.
The encore was an expected “Lochloosa” starting with a dark stage and soul-filled organ and the band slowly assembling, and as Grey sang the opening line, the audience sang the second verse, knowing this heart and soul tune from 1100 miles away from its origin.
JJ Grey and Mofro, The Egg – February 19, 2015
Setlist: Hide & Seek, Every Minute, 99 Shades, The Island, Your Lady, Light a Candle, Brighter Days, Everything is a Song, Orange Blossoms > Everything Good is Bad, Slow Hot Sweaty, Ho Cake, Night to Remember
The Jauntee will play a New York City show – plus one in Boston -before heading out for a West Coast run.
The hard-touring jam band from Boston will hit Church in Boston before a show at Pianos on March 15 in New York City.
Then they’re set to play play a number of concerts throughout Colorado, plus stops in Ohio and Kentucky before returning to the Northeast with a New Hampshire show on April 11.
The band, which bills itself as “Psychedelic-JazzBluesFunk with a touch of Latin based Reggae” consists of Caton Sollenberger on guitar, Tony Cerullo playing keys, John Loland on bass, and drummer Scott Ferber.
Full tour schedule:
3/14 – Church – Boston, MA
3/15 – Pianos – New York, NY
3/17 – Stanley’s Pub – Cincinnati, OH
3/18 – Hideaway Saloon – Louisville, KY
3/20 – Old Town Pub – Steamboat Springs, CO
3/21 – Currents Restaurant – Salida, CO
3/22 – Mountain Sun Brewery – Boulder, CO
3/23 – Sanchos Broken Arrow – Denver, CO
3/25 – Cervantes Other Side – Denver, CO
3/26 – The Little Bear – Evergreen, CO
3/27 – Hodi’s Half Note – Fort Collins CO
3/28 – Black Nugget Saloon – Carbondale, CO
4/01 – Fly Me to the Moon Saloon – Telluride, CO
4/02 – Fly Me to the Moon Saloon – Telluride, CO
4/03 – The Barkley Ballroom – Frisco, CO
4/04 – Quixote’s True Blue – Denver, CO
4/08 – Woodlands Tavern – Columbus, OH
4/11 – Stone Church – Newmarket, NH
Funk N Waffles Downtown is a special place to visit, not only for the delectable combinations of waffles and appetizers, but for the variation of live music they choose to have entertain their guests. This past Sunday evening, they hosted Tumbleweed Highway, a southern rock band with an old school twang, hailing from Norwich, NY.
Tumbleweed Highway brings home-grown country to the stage and pumps it full of energy, yet stays consistent with maintaining the authentic mood of what country is all about. With a humble five piece band and four-part harmony, a wide array of classic songs can and will be covered on any given night. This particular show was no exception. The group performed a vast amount of originals including “Break My Heart,” “Another Day,” “Western Winds,” and even treated their audience to “Diesel in the morning” from their soon to be released album this May.
The lavish rhythmic backbone of the this group consists of Steve O’Connell on drums, Dennis Walrath on stand up & electric bass, and Uncle Nobby on acoustic guitar. Each song is bound together so beautifully, that it allows Patrick Strain on pedal steel to create a melodic resonance underneath Nate Gross and his seductive electric guitar solos. There is no doubt these five gentlemen know how to set whatever mood they feel is right, when they feel it’s necessary.
With a busy schedule of touring and making a new album ahead, they have set aside time to boogie woogie in our beloved city of Syracuse, yet again. You can find them performing at festivals, theaters, and bars all over the Northeast coast, opening for bands such as Donna the Buffalo, Driftwood, and Dickey Betts to name a few. Look for them in a town near you and when you see that 34” drum on stage, you’ve found Tumbleweed Highway.
Joey Eppard – Woodstock, NY singer/songwriter, front man and guitarist of progressive band 3 – made his 2013 live album Joey Eppard: Live in Concert available in full on Bandcamp nearly two years after release. Previously only four songs had been available for play.
Eppard said that the goal of recording the set was to give far away fans the ability to hear him live. The set was performed in front of an intimate audience, mixed by Eppard himself, and includes guest spots – notably by drummer Chris Gartmann. The performance also includes some songs off of Eppard’s 2002 solo album Been to the Future, as well as a number of acoustic 3 arrangements.
Joey Eppard: Live in Concert can be purchased through Eppard’s BandCamp page and on his web-site.
Three months from now, Umphrey’s McGee is going to be playing at a festival, outdoors, for a couple thousand fans wearing t-shirts and hula hooping. When the Midwestern six-piece came through Syracuse on Friday night, they packed the lavish Landmark Theatre in a manner that paid no attention to the swankiness of their position. Rather, they embraced the venue’s beautiful architecture and seated floor with a level of welcomed informality.
While Umphrey’s is a regular on the summer festival circuit, it’s not uncommon to see the band play a venue like The Landmark. All six members are incredibly talented musicians, which is an obvious fact to anyone who has the chance to witness their several-hour set.
Upon taking the stage on Friday, Umphrey’s played for over seventy minutes straight, continuously jamming without pause. The set came in waves, ebbing and flowing in a pattern dictated by the band’s instinctive energy. At times the music would gradually build, then crash in an upheaval of guitar solos and layered percussion. Other times the music would transition without warning, timed by seemingly telepathic communication amongst the musicians on stage.
Umphrey’s played like a band that had been jamming together for almost twenty years, and they have. Since their formation at the University of Notre Dame in 1997, Umphrey’s have perfected their live performance. Guitarists Brendan Bayliss and Jake Cinninger each took turns playing lead, oftentimes matching each other in brisk, intricate riffs. The two would go between simultaneous playing and a call & response pattern, constantly producing melodies for the band’s remaining members to sustain.
While bassist Ryan Stasik and keyboardist Joel Cummins laid the groundwork for Bayliss and Cinninger to harmonize on guitar, Andy Farag and Kris Myers made up a percussion section with full, driving instrumentation. Farag’s use of auxiliary pieces – ranging from bongos to rototoms and everything in between – created an almost worldly style of rhythm.
Umphrey’s ability to diversify their sound is a main component in what differentiates the band from its counterparts. With progressive rock influences fused into traditional world music stylings, Umphrey’s is able to take their performances in a uniquely exciting direction.
The band has begun to take advantage of this particularly impressive sound, offering fans a product called Headphones & Snowcones. For $40, audience members at the Landmark wore Audio-Technica headphones with a live feed from the soundboard piped directly into their ears. In an attempt to give people the clearest, most pristine sound, Umphrey’s has added this component to almost all of their current tour dates. While only a small handful of fans took advantage of the opportunity in Syracuse, the idea of it certainly says something about the importance Umphrey’s places on their sound.
Headphones or no headphones, everyone at the concert found a way to tune into the performance. The chance to see Umphrey’s play at the historic Landmark was well worth braving Friday’s winter conditions, and for a couple of hours, it felt just as good as it will in the sun three months from now.
Set 1: Gurgle > Out Of Order > Mail Package, Miami Virtue > Mad Love, 2X2 > 1348
Set 2: In The Kitchen > Similar Skin, Puppet String > Believe The Lie, Immigrant Song, Tribute To The Spinal Shaft -> In The Kitchen, Wizard Burial Ground
St. Vincent is multi talented singer songwriter with an established reputation. Her distinctive electric sound intrigued David Byrne, of the 
JJ 
While Umphrey’s is a regular on the summer festival circuit, it’s not uncommon to see the band play a venue like The Landmark. All six members are incredibly talented musicians, which is an obvious fact to anyone who has the chance to witness their several-hour set.