Category: The West

Best of NYS Music 2015: Staff Picks for Out-of-State Festivals

While most might dream of tropical getaways when it comes to vacation time, music fans accrue their days to travel across the country—or world—for weekends jam-packed with live performances, indulgent food and experimental fun. From the east to the west coasts to the Midwest, NYSMusic staffers traveled near and far throughout the year to see their favorite groups in action. Here we give you our top picks for out-of-state festivals of 2015.

Best Small Festival: Arise Music Festival, East Coast Tsunami Festival, Grand Point North Festival and The Werk Out Music and Arts Festival

With the growing number of small-scale festivals that seem to pop up each year, it’s no wonder that our team could not pick just one or two as their favorite—so we decided to include the ones we felt deserved an honorable mention. First up is Arise Music Festival, an event in Loveland, CO, that according to Andrew Wyatt “offers a spicy jambalaya of multi-cultural live music, electronic performances, art presentations, along with numerous workshops centered around eco-activism, social justice, and spirituality practice.” With nearly 100 musical acts, the three-day festival now in its third year featured the likes of the Polish Ambassador, Rising Appalachia, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, Lukas Nelson, Turkuaz, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Trevor Hall, Emancipator Ensemble, Ozomatli and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, among others.

Headlined by Wu-Tang Clan and Life Of Agony, the East Coast Tsunami Festival held in Reading, PA, treated hip hop, hardcore and metal fans to two full days of shows, including favorited groups Body Count, Mobb Deep, Murphy’s Law, Madball and more. And despite sound issues during day one, Jay Saint G. still dubbed the festival as “a wave of brutality that every music lover should experience.”

Up next is the Grand Point North Festival held in Burlington’s Waterfront Park with views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Headlined by Vermont’s sweetheart Grace Potter, the fifth annual installment boasted two nights of music featuring Phish’s Mike Gordon, the Flaming Lips, Shakey Graves, Greensky Bluegrass, Amy Helm and the Handsome Strangers, among others, and special guests like Kenny Chesney who joined Potter to perform their single, “Wild Child.” Alexandra Provost and Laura Carbone noted that “as Potter walked onto the stage, her skin glistening from raindrops, the audience went wild” and that she “put on an astounding performance, showing off her piano, guitar and bluesy vocal skills.”

And finally the Werk Out Music and Arts Festival at Legend Valley, a venue favorited by the Grateful Dead in the ’80s. With a stacked lineup featuring the Werks, Papadosio, Dopapod, Lettuce, Umphrey’s McGee, the Floozies, Consider The Source, Break Science and Tauk, the sixth year for the Thornville, OH, festival “was as always a ridiculously good time for all who made the journey,” according to Ben Landsman. With three stages, a silent disco and one fan wedding,Landsman noted that “between the beauty of Legend Valley, the bright spirit of the fans, the innovative music, this festival is one of the treasures of the Midwest.”

Best Midsize Festival: Green River Festival
Honorable Mention: Aura Music and Arts Festival, Boston Calling, Camp Bisco, DelFest, McDowell Mountain Music Festival

Held at Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, MA, the sold-out 29th annual Green River Festival was “fresh, exciting and invigorating,” according to Eli Stein. Featuring four hot air balloon launches, the family-friendly July event pulled out all the stops with a craft tent, Frisbee dog show, acrobats, karate demonstrations, swimming, a Mardi Gras-style parade and exotic local fare like elk, boar and venison burgers, a Korean food truck and kabob vendors. Throughout the three-day weekend, more than 40 performers ranging from Americana to dance, blues and jam graced the event’s three stages nestled in the foothills of the Berkshires, including Eilen Jewell, the Wood Brothers, Rubblebucket, Marco Benevento, MAKU Sound System, Langhorne Slim and the Law, the Punch Brothers and tUnE-yArDs, which Stein noted was the perfect mixture:

Musically, the festival served up a heaping slab of New England comfort food. The rest aforementioned activity, as they say, was just the gravy. Not only were the band selections great, they were clearly hand-picked and not just pulled off the nearest passing festival train. The music flowed wonderfully from set to set, and built to a nice peak at the perfect times. There was an evenness to the passion and approach of the musicians that made for a smooth transition no matter where you went.”

Best Large Festival: Gathering of the Vibes and Summer Camp
Honorable Mention: Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Hangout Music Fest, Lockn’ Music Festival, Peach Festival, Rock Allegiance, Rock On the Range

Celebrating its 20th year, Gathering of the Vibes offered up an impressive lineup with headliners Wilco, Weezer, Tedeschi/Trucks Band, Dark Star Orchestra, Ben Harper, Greg Allman and the String Cheese Incident. The late summer festival returned to Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT, and treated fans to a super jam called Vibes 20th Anniversary Spectacular featuring Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, Meters founding bassist George Porter Jr., Marco Benevento on keys and Joe Russo behind the drum kit, plus Jackie Greene on guitar. Although the four-day festival will take a break in 2016, VibeTribers Julia Wolfe and Steve Olker recounted the last day of the 2015 event and dubbed this run as one that would set the pace going forward:

As the sun set over Vibes for the last time, [Ben] Harper closed out with his song “Better Way,” and it was finally time to head home. Seeing so many bands perform was both enticing and overwhelming at the same time, making leaving Vibes even more bittersweet. The range of genre, popularity, age and background is what makes Gathering of the Vibes separate from other festivals. After 20 years, Gathering of the Vibes has remained one of Connecticut’s most well-known festivals, and it’s attention to bringing about change while discovering your own inner peace is what will bring success for future gatherings to come. Until next time, thank you vibes for a real good time.”

With more than 100 bands over four days on seven stages, this year’s installment of Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL, saw a stacked lineup of bands like moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Steve Miller Band, Widespread Panic, STS9, Big Gigantic, John Butler Trio, Krewella, Trampled by Turtles, Keller Williams and Grateful Grass, Yonder Mountain String Band, Violent Femmes and many, many more. Festivalgoers also had access to on-site camping, the infamous late night Red Barn Shows, musician workshops, a nonprofit village, arts and crafts and unique food vendors, plus some impressive improvements. In Pete Mason’s review of the festival’s final day, he detailed what made the perfect ending to the much celebrated event:

The final set of the night to check out was North American Scum, an LCD Soundsystem cover band who might be the best band to close out Summer Camp. Members of the group are formerly of This Must be the Band, a Talking Heads band from Chicago, who have traditionally played one of the final sets at Summer Camp. This incredible two hour set featured the entire Sound of Silver album and, because everyone else was playing Grateful Dead songs, a spirited version of “Scarlet Begonias” to cap the night.”

Read more from Summer Camp Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

December 28, 2015
Leftover Salmon and Jeff Austin at the Boulder Theater, November 27-28

While much of the country was figuring out how to dish up Thanksgiving leftover turkey, Leftover Salmon served up two steamy nights of tasty bluegrass licks at the Boulder Theater. The six-man band, celebrating 25 years of music, joined forces with the Jeff Austin Band for a two-night run that allowed Colorado music fans to quickly forget the remaining helpings of turkey sandwiches and soup. Both nights Leftover Salmon jammed two sets of their polytechnic Cajun bluegrass for three hours. The second set of night one included a full helping of their album the Aquatic Hitchhiker followed by energetic covers of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.

Jeff Austin’s group of melody makers started each night with lively improvisational sets that turned Black Friday shopping stampedes into golden foot-stomping jamborees. Early in night two, Jeff Austin joined Leftover for a breathless series of tunes rivaling any jams on the live music scene. The weekend celebration was a hootin’, hollerin’, holiday hoedown.

December 9, 2015
Photo Gallery: Beats Antique at Boulder Theater, October 16-17, 2015

“There are three things to remember about Beats Antique shows,” said a young woman wearing hand drawn cat whiskers and ears to her friend wearing a red raccoon mask as the musicians began their recent Boulder performance.

“What?” the raccoon-masked woman asked breathlessly.
“Wild, Weird, wacky!” she exclaimed. “Oh, and also wonderful!”
“That’s four things!” her friend yelled back.

Four things by which to remember the Bay-area-based band performance indeed. Towards the end of a two-year “Creature Carnival” tour, there was plenty of the aforementioned wild and weird qualities. But before it got weird, Beats Antique got Old World in what would become a two-day vaudeville/carnie/sci-fi/ adventure. David Satori and Capel began leading a musical caravan of live musicians across the wagon-rutted dirt trails of the ancient Silk Road complete with percussive Middle Eastern rhythms, electronic mixes, and a group of belly dancers wearing animal masks.

Main dancer, Zoe Jakes, decked in an embellished belly dancer costume and jeweled head-piece, channeled famed dancer, Badia Masabni, born in Lebanon around 1892, to begin a series of differently-themed routines that included a burlesque number with over-sized green feathers.

Things, as it were, got weird later during a dance number in which several dancers dressed in Tron-like LED costumes with cheerleader pom poms and black kabuki masks. It was as if high cheerleaders had been sent 2,000 years in the future to perform the halftime show of some science fiction tribal fertility rite under the eerie, blue glow of a black-lit, post-apocalyptic universe. Near the shows end both night, members of Beats Antique called an audience member on stage to help battle a towering one-eyed inflatable monster.

Weird? Yes. Wacky? You bet. But all of it was wild and wonderful.

November 10, 2015
Arise Music Festival-Loveland, Colorado

“I’ve never heard so many notes playing at once!” exclaimed a lanky festivarian draped in a tie-dye T-shirt, following the terrific main stage show of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead at the recent Arise Festival in Loveland, Colorado. Certainly, the hippie’s exclamation served as an apt description of the world’s best Dead cover band. However, the statement served as even more appropriate description of the hybrid event set the picturesque mountain setting. Arise is constructed as a “co-creator” event that offers a spicy jumbalaya of multi-cultural live music, electronic performances, art presentations, along with numerous workshops centered around eco-activism, social justice, and spirituality practice.

For those busy facilitating the weekend workshops, the 100 musical acts may have been mere distant echoes, but the results, at times, gave heartrending results. One such workshop led with a descendent of a man who once led a massacre against a Lakota tribe. The harrowing account was immediately followed by another presenter who is a current Lakota tribe member who offered words of healing regarding the violent past, and finished with a blessing of earth healing. That’s powerful stuff to be sharing at a music festival for sure.

As for the music scene, Arise boasts an advantage of what many are calling “next generation” festivals. Unlike similar events like Costa Rica’s Envision festival, the folks of Arise largely rely on the presence of live music acts. Not that Arise didn’t give electronic bassheads enough whomp. The Polish Ambassador headlined the main stage on Friday and a revamped Area 51 stage featured a full schedule of spin meisters through the weekend.
For me, the joy of the music scene was the live music. And there was plenty of joy in the concert bowl. Friday highlights included an emotional set of bluegrass folk from Rising Appalachia and the rousing rockabilly of Sister Sparrow and Dirty Birds. Arleigh Kincheloe, the band’s lead singer belted out tunes with pipes powerful enough to put plumbers out of business. And these acts were just warming up the crowd. Lukas Nelson, who spent the summer touring with Neil Young, shimmied, jumped, and rocked his way in the free world with a series of serrated guitar solos that Young would admire. And even though funk bands seem to grow these days thicker than mountain thistle, Turkuaz finished with a reasonably fresh and energetic take on the newly popular genre. Interspersed between the live sets were a dizzying array of acrobatic and fire performances from the likes of Lunar Fire and Fractal Tribe.

The 90 degree daytime temps didn’t slow down the Saturday line-up either. Western New York’s favorites Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad have become Colorado’s adopted sons for roots reggae, and their upbeat, jaunty rhythms dropped happily between two festival favorites, Ozomatli and the afore-mentioned Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. The crowd danced so hard, even Dirty Santa and sequined red suit was “almost dead” before midnight.

Still, the peak acoustic show the weekend didn’t arrive till Sunday’s offering of Larry Keel’s Bluegrass Tribute to the Grateful Dead. Edward Sharpe of the Magnetic Zeroes, at times, seemed restless and distracted, but the top-notch band behind him remained strong. Rounding out the main stage show, Trevor Hall’s easy going folk sound glided the crowd safely down to the festival weekend landing strip. Like many of the performers featured during the weekend, the Arise festival, only in its third year, is already hitting all the right notes.

August 16, 2015
Spiritual Rez Goes Coast to Coast on Fall Tour

Boston’s Spiritual Rez never sit still for long, and the band just announced a coast-to-coast fall tour that will include a good smattering of New York dates.

They will start their Northeast leg of the tour in Buffalo on Oct. 8 at Buffalo Iron Works. From there, they hit Rochester, Erie and the new Funk ‘n Waffles in downtown Syracuse.

For Halloween, Rez will be teaming up with Vermont’s premier funk rock band Gang of Thieves at Smoke Signals in Lake Placid. With more and more Halloween shows being announced the past few weeks, this is definitely one to consider making the trip for.

The band is about to embark on a month-long West Coast tour in September. They will hit Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and finish it up in Colorado. California will get the biggest dose of Rez, with stops including Sacramento, San Francisco, Chico, Mammoth Lakes, Los Angeles and San Diego.

For close to 10 years, the Spritual Rez team has been gaining momentum, and even more so since their 2014 release of Apocalypse Whenever. They have become a consistent festival favorite over the years, including eight years in a row at Backwoods Pondfest in Peru, N.Y. Their explosive live performance and unique style of volcanic reggae has been winning over the hearts and minds of music lovers across the country for years. So if you’re looking for a dance party that will leave you sweaty and rejuvenated, be sure to get to one of their shows on this lengthy fall tour.

For more information and tour dates, visit their website or Facebook page.

10.8 – Buffalo, NY | Buffalo Iron Works
10.9 – Rochester, NY | Flour City Station…
10.10 – Erie, PA | King’s Rook Club
10.11 – Syracuse, NY | Funk N Waffles
10.16 – Hartford, CT | Black Eyed Sallys
10.17 – Princeton, NJ | Terrace F Club @ Princeton Univ.
10.23 – Northampton, MA | Hinge
10.24 – Providence, RI | The Spot
10.30 – Burlington, VT | Club Metronome
10.31 – Lake Placid, NY | Smoke Signals
11.7 – Cambridge, MA | The Sinclair
11.18 – Jupiter, FL | Guanabanas
11.19 – West Palm Beach, FL | Lafayettes
11.21 – Jacksonville, FL | Jack Rabbit’s
11.25 – Orlando, FL | The Social
11.27, 28, 29 – Key West, FL | The Green Parrot
12.4 – Raleigh, NC | The Pour House
12.5 – Richmond, VA | The Camel

August 15, 2015
The Motet Announces Fall Tour Dates and a Midwest Halloween Run

With August just days away, touring bands are beginning to release their fall tour dates, including some exceptionally special Halloween shows. The Motet has done just that, letting fans know that this Halloween will be an ode to one of the funkiest decades in history. Designating it “Mixtape 1977,” the Colorado funk band is taking their annual Halloween tradition on the road with stops in Des Moines, IA, Minneapolis, MN, Milwaukee, WI and Chicago.

The Motet has kept with tradition in the past holding Halloween shows held in their home state. With a new twist on things, they are spreading the love this fall, giving fans in the Midwest an opportunity to get in on the experience. Colorado fans can look forward to a new tradition with The Motet’s “Hometown Hustle” at The Ogden Theatre on November 13 and 14. Friday’s show will feature Chicago electro-funk band The Main Squeeze. For Saturday, The Motet will be rolling out the “Spirit of ’77.” This will feature a special second set of music from their Halloween shows “Mixtape 1977.”

In addition to the “Mixtape 1977” mini tour and “Hometown Hustle,” The Motet is hitting a number of festivals including Catskill Chill, Summer Meltdown, Phases of the Moon and Magnolia Festival. With stops in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, Arizona, Massachusetts and New York, The Motet will be covering a handful of states other than the above mentioned theme nights.

Be sure to check their website and Facebook page for complete tour dates and information.

July 23, 2015
Tipper and Quixotic at Red Rocks Ampitheatre
Who would’ve thought. It would take the arrival a Brit with a blood sacrifice to dispel a month-long blanket of gunmetal grey skies, daily rainfall, and dispiriting gloom that settled into Colorado’s front range. The thought may seem a bit paradoxical considering England is a country so often associated with bad weather. But he is no ordinary bloke and May 16, 2015, was no ordinary night.

Dave Tipper, the bloke to which I refer, is the pioneer/ wizard of electronic music from London that led the way on for a one night extravaganza at Red Rocks Amphitheatre that included transcendental artists, aerial and fire performers, and a brand new stage sound system.

For the record, the islands that comprise Great Britain only averages 46th in yearly rainfall- well behind the U.S. ranking of 25th in the world. And Tipper reported on Twitter that he felt compelled to leave a drop of his blood on the Red Rocks stage the night before in order “to appease the rain gods.” So, it turns out that the unlikely Englishman and his blood sacrifice was just what was needed to part the roiling cloud billows like actor Charlton Heston parted Red Sea.

From the outset, Tipper determined to make the evening different from other electronic shows. Departing from more typical stage set-ups, Tipper and fellow Brit producer, Ott did not place themselves center stage. He explained before the show that he felt the night’s attention shouldn’t be focused on the DJs or their egos. He felt that crowd’s focus should solely be directed towards the music and the surrealistic map projection art. Both Tipper and Ott placed themselves on the far ends of the stage and remained unlit throughout the night. There were no lasers or visual projections on the crowd or the stone amphitheater.

It set the tone for a “no-frills” approach to the evening, but the performances weren’t short on spectacle. Tipper’s first down tempo set was accompanied by a giant center stage screen of fractal map projections created by Jonathan Singer. Acclaimed artists Alex Grey and his wife Allison painted on stage through the first set. For the first time ever, Tipper employed the use of a massive new face-melting sound system called Funktion One. Following his first set, Quixotic, a music/artist collective that combines aerial performance, fire dancing, and live music chewed up the scenery with jaw-dropping athleticism and ethereal melodies. The sold-out crowd lept to life with a DJ set from Ott and Tipper’s up tempo set. The big screen visuals pulsed with a flurry of morphing images by Colorado artist, Android Jones.

With a single drop of blood, a collection transcendental art, cutting-edge electronic sound and a sold-out show became a beautiful mix of music, motion, and mountains. Some might even say it was magic.
June 2, 2015
Upstate Funk Heads West: Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad with Euforquestra
At one time I had a friend who exclaimed before each concert she attended, that each band she heard must pass what she called “the sweat test.” That is to say, in order for her to feel satisfied with a band’s performance she should walk away with her clothes drenched in enough sweat from dancing that her attire would freeze stiff shortly after exiting a venue. This was during the early 1990s when I lived through a few rough winters in Rochester, NY. I didn’t go to shows at the time because I was attending a local seminary to get a theology degree and become a Baptist preacher.

Still, her standard for live music stuck with me through the ensuing decades as I grew into the live music scene. I was recently reminded of her on a chilly evening in Boulder, CO as the Rochester-native band, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad headlined with the Colorado-based funk band, Euforquestra. As I watched the venue full of twirling, jumping,wriggling, and flopping enthusiasts it became clear to me that both bands would easily pass the sweat test.

Euforquestra led the way with a scorching blend of brass-infused funk/Afrobeat music. Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad has gained a devoted following to their improvisational roots reggae sound in the Rocky Mountain region, and their lively finishing set was part of a winter tour devoted only to stops in Colorado.
March 25, 2015
Aqueous Spring Tour Includes Upstate Dates and Colorado Debut

Upstate favorites Aqueous have announced an extensive spring tour taking them all through the north east and mid west including a debut string of dates in Colorado.

The tour will kick off at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn Feb. 25. Other New York dates include Mar. 26 at Ithaca’s The Haunt, Syracuses’s Funk n Waffles Apr. 16, Saratoga Springs Apr 17, and a hometown show Apr. 18 in Buffalo at the Iron Works.

March will feature a five date string in Colorado including two trips to Denver. May and June launch festival season with stops at two Ohio festivals – May Daze in Franklin and Color Dance in Athens – concluding with a Memorial Day weekend for the third straight year at Summer Camp Music Festival.

Check out the whole tour below and don’t miss seeing this excellent band.

Art by Dave Vertino

Aqueous Spring Tour 2015

2/25/15 – Knitting Factory | Brooklyn, NY
2/26/15 – Spot Underground | Providence, RI *
2/27/15 – Stone Church | Newmarket, NH *
2/28/15 – Main Pub | Manchester, CT #
3/6/15 – Tonic Room | Chicago, IL
3/7/15 – Mousetrap | Indianapolis, IN
3/10/15 – Quixotes | Denver, CO
3/11/15 – TBD | Colorado
3/12/15 – Fly Me to The Moon Saloon | Telluride, CO *
3/13/15 – Quixotes | Denver, CO
3/14/15 – Samana | Vail, CO **
3/26/15 – The Haunt | Ithaca, NY
3/27/15 – Penuches | Manchester, NH
3/28/15 – Nectar’s | Burlington, VT
4/1/15 – TBD
4/2/15 – TBD
4/3/15 – Ardmore Music Hall | Philadelphia, PA ^
4/4/15 – Pacific Standard | New Haven, CT
4/10/15 – Corktown Pub | Hamilton, ON
4/11/15 – Kings Rook | Erie, PA
4/16/15 – Funk n Waffles | Syracuse, NY +
4/17/15 – Putnam Den | Saratoga Springs, NY
4/18/15 – Buffalo Iron Works | Buffalo, NY
4/23/15 – Hinge | Northampton, MA
4/24/15 – Church of Boston | Boston, MA
4/25/15 – Arch Street Tavern | Hartford, CT
5/2/15 – May Daze Music Festival | Franklin, OH
5/16/15 – Color Dance Music Festival | Athens, OH
5/21/15-5/24/15 – Summer Camp Music Festival | Chillicothe, IL
5/30/15 – Domefest | Terra Alta, VA
6/12/15 – Illumination Music Festival | Durham, ON
6/19 – 6/20 – Mad Tea Party Jam | Hedgeville, WV
7/23 – 7/25 – Paradise Music Festival | Hustonville, KY

*w/ Pigeons Playing Ping Pong #w/Mister F **w/Yamn +w/Superhuman Happiness ^w/Box of Rain

February 17, 2015
Jeff Austin Band at the Fox Theatre
Like the in-lawsâ hungry cat gnawing on the end of an electric cord of the family Christmas tree lights, Jeff Austin ravenously rips into the shiny surfaces of his bluegrass melodies till he and his audience are zapped with a thousand volts of raw music. Nearly one year has passed since Austin parted ways with Yonder Mountain String Band, and when he took the stage at the Fox Theatre in Boulder last week, he seemed anxious to throw some sparks.

Fronting his new band, Austin assembled a small collection of talented, seasoned musicians, including Eric Thorin on the stand-up bass, Ross Martin on guitar, and Danny Barnes on banjo. Barnes traded licks with Austin with the pan-seared sizzle of a fire department fish fry. Lead-in performer, Sarah Siskind opened with a bluesy, easygoing set before the Jeff Austin band joined to close her set.
February 12, 2015