For more than a quarter century, The Machine has been recreating Pink Floyd experiences across the world with spectacularly produced light and video shows and tight musical performances. On Friday, March 6, they bring their Floydian touch to Poughkeepsie’s Chance Theater.
The New York based quartet has built its reputation as one of the finest cover bands touring. Critics laud The Machine’s precision and fans praise the experiential nature of each show. They play a diverse mixture from Floyd’s extensive catalogue and each show provides something new. On any given night, they might take requests from fans, play entire albums, or share the stage with entire symphonies. The Machine has played festivals such as Bonnaroo, sold out large arenas, and they bring their renowned gig to Poughkeepsie’s historic Chance Theater on March 6.
The show is at 7:30. Tickets for The Machine at The Chance can be purchased here.
Two years ago today – brothers Matt and Ben Pickering and axe man Andrew Chamberlaine came together with multi-instrumentalist/sit-in wizard Scott Hannay to form Albany’s Mister F. Despite their short tenure – the F have grown exponentially – building crowds up and down the coast and deep into the mid-west. They are also attracting some top name attention with Umphrey’s Joel Cummins sitting in at a recent F show.
BDL Photo
Mister F is celebrating the occasion by releasing three brand new videos to say thanks to their fan-base – known as F-Squad. The first is “Don’t Lose Your Watch”. NYS Music caught up with keys man Hannay who shared the thought process behind the song’s creation:
When we were writing and had the song pretty much put together, we decided it would be cool to lay down vocoder vocals for this one. I ended up getting hooked on the game Portal 2 that same week, and there is an omnipresent computer talking to you the whole game, taunting you and playing mind games with you. I thought to write it from the perspective of a similar computer, as the human is trying to get it to understand music based in 5 beats per measure (most of the song itself). The computer is basically saying “yeah, not gonna happen. doesn’t really matter, I’ll still be around when you’re gone” but encounters some frustration when it really tries to figure it out. In the end, the computer doesn’t really need to understand it, because it’s a computer, and tells the human to stop wasting its time with such a futile endeavor – “Don’t lose your watch, your time is wealth” – Scott Hannay
Check out the new tune below and watch for two new videos the next two Sundays. After all three videos are released the songs will become available on the F bandcamp page as a new EP titled: The Snow Day Sessions.
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.
As they closes out their Winter Tour, Umphrey’s McGee wrapped things up at The Palace Theatre on February 21 alongside TAUK, a great pairing of bands both rising and established. For the first time, Umphrey’s was brought to the Palace and out of the doldrums of Upstate Concert Hall, and finally, Jefferson Waful’s lights could properly shine and the band could show they could fill a theatre in Albany-proper.
cOpening up was the instrumental funk of TAUK, who only a year ago were playing Parish Public House to 100 or so fans. The growth of this band over the past year was remarkable and now a tour with Umphrey’s has only solidified their ascendance among the jam world. To cap the set, TAUKwas joined by Joel Cummins, Ryan Stasik and Andy Farag during “Mindshift”. TAUKis incredibly talented and worth seeing in any capacity.
Umphrey’s dove in deep for their tour closer and resurfaced only briefly for air in what was an entire rocker of a show. After an introductory “Dump City” the relatively light “Piranhas” and heavier “Educated Guess” off Similar Skin mixed the set up early, as well a shredding “Atmosfarag”. A 14 minute “Plunger” was a clear highlight of the first set, dropping into an exploratory jam that segued into “Andy’s Last Beer”. The fluidity exhibited by Umphrey’s is one of their musical trademarks amid what some may perceive as musical chaos and overly complicated compositions; what they are missing is the core of this prog-rock jam band and soaring peaks and valleys of songs and jams that few bands can come close to replicating.
“Wappy Sprayberry” with TAUK’s Alric Carter (keys) and Isaac Teel (drums) sitting in was a chance for these incredibly talented musicians to shine under a brighter spotlight. A clean segue into “Pay the Snucka” with a shredding ending capped a superior first set.
An abbreviated “All in Time” opened up the second set, seguing into the lyrically and musically powerful “Hajimashite” which launched into a great expanse of a jam, one not seen too often in “Haji”. The jam that ensued worked off of Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” and dipped into the funk of “Day Nurse” accented by Joel Cummins’ airy synth framework.
“Phil’s Farm” took some huge swings and had a great pay off, with a bonus of the drummer from local band moe., Vinny Amico, sitting in on drums. Working back into August and into the closing of “All in Time” made for a filling second set sandwich and capped off a monster set from start to finish. A big “Bad Friday” encore was the icing on Umphrey’s first ever performance at the historic Palace Theatre, a perfect venue for them for the foreseeable future.
Set 1: Dump City, Piranhas, Educated Guess, Atmosfarag > Plunger > Andy’s Last Beer, The Weight Around, Wappy Sprayberry* > Pay the Snucka
Set 2: All in Time > Hajimashite > Day Nurse, Ringo, Phil’s Farm^, August > All in Time
After the show was over, fans flooded Pearl Street looking for their late night fix and a sold out crowd found just that at The Hollow. With Mister F performing, friends stopped by for a few songs, including Joel Cummins’ sitting in next to Scott Hannay on “Answer the Dog”, and an extended “Vocoder” jam featuring Alric Carter and Isaac Teel of TAUK as well as Justin Henricks of Beau Sasser’s Escape Plan.
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
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.
Hudson’s Club Helsinki will be treated to a blues fusion Sunday, March 1 as members of North Mississippi Allstars unite with Anders Osborne. The performance is the fifth in five days for the collaboration known as North Mississippi Osborne and the ninth of a twenty-five show U.S. tour.
As their name suggests, the North Mississippi Allstars, composed of brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew, hail from the Magnolia State. Their debut album, Shake Hands With Shorty, was nominated for the Best Contemporary Blues Album Grammy and the band has been nominated for the same award twice more. Osborne, a native of Sweden, hitchhiked across the globe making music as a teenager before finding a home in New Orleans. Osborne’s resume includes performances with Phil Lesh and Friends, Karl Denson, and Galactic.
In support of their recently released album Freedom and Dreams, Osborne and the Allstars have joined forces to tour the nation. Their Southern blues will shake up Club Helsinki Sunday night.
Doors are at 6 p.m. and the show is at 8 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here.
This year’s Clearwater Festival will include a diverse group of acts including Ani DiFranco, Guster, The Mavericks, and Bela Fleck with his wife Abigail Washburn. The festival runs June 20-21, 2015 and will once again take place on the banks of the Hudson River, at Croton Point Park in Croton-On-Hudson.
Other acts include Niko Case, The Mavericks, Blind Boys of Alabama, Angélique Kidjo, Shelby Lynne, Bettye LaVette, The Pine Hill Project feat. Richard Shindell & Lucy Kaplansky, The Felice Brothers, The Lone Bellow, Todd Snider, Toshi Reagon & Big Lovely, Joseph Arthur, The Klezmatics and Tom Paxton, among others. More acts are expected to be announced.
Founded by folk legend Pete Seeger, the family-friendly Clearwater Festival, also known as Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, is both a music and an environmental festival. Seeger started it as a fundraiser for an environmental organization he founded.
“Pete and (his wife, festival co-founder) Toshi both passed away a little over a year ago, but Pete’s legacy of harnessing the spirit of change through the power of song lives on at The Clearwater Festival,” reads a press release announcing the lineup.
Early bird tickets are on sale now through March 23 on the festival’s website. Kids 12 and under are free.
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 
cOpening up was the instrumental funk of TAUK, who only a year ago were playing Parish Public House to 100 or so fans. The growth of this band over the past year was remarkable and now a tour with Umphrey’s has only solidified their ascendance among the jam world. To cap the set, TAUKwas joined by Joel Cummins, Ryan Stasik and Andy Farag during “Mindshift”. TAUKis incredibly talented and worth seeing in any capacity.
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.