NYS Music 20​17

Category: Photo Gallery

  • Photo Gallery: Foreigner and Cheap Trick Bring Rock Back to SPAC

    It might have been a Tuesday night in Upstate New York on July 18, but the music was loud and people were dancing. Saratoga Performing Arts Center was fresh off a two-week stint with the NYC Ballet when Foreigner, Cheap Trick, and Bonham rolled into town to blare good old rock ‘n roll throughout the famed amphitheater and perhaps equally infamous ‘lawn.’

    The night was full of hits from the 70’s and 80’s, Jason Bonham brought his Led Zeppelin Experience to the stage to perform his father’s classic hits “Ramble On” and “Whole Lotta Love” along with a slew of Zeppelin songs that even the ushers were singing every word.  Followed up by the self-proclaimed, Greatest F’ing Rock and Roll Band, Cheap Trick put on their usual stellar and high energy performance.  The headliner was Foreigner and 40 years has taken a bit of a toll on the band with only Mick Jones remaining from the original members.  That didn’t stop them or the crowd to rock their socks off with an endless stream of favorites.

    The night ended with a special encore involving the area’s own Mayfield School Chorus on stage with Foreigner.  Something those kids will remember for the next 40 years.

  • Levitate Festival Brings The Rythym To South Shore

    Levitate Music Festival said this year there would be two days and it was groovy. July 8 and 9 in Marshfield, MA, this little grassroots festival brought thousands of fans to the fairgrounds for some of the best and brightest names touring today.

    Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad had people going ape in the pits to start off on Saturday. The good tunes kept rolling as New Orleans’ own Rebirth Brass Band brought that southern jazz you never knew you needed. These Grammy winners didn’t become a NOLA institution by accident. You can’t help but get down to this kind of funk. I was a little disappointed to find that Mihali & Friends was dueling with Rubblebucket, but the festival was so well organized that I was able to move between stages with ease to make sure I captured as much of the magic as possible. Deer Tick and The Revivalists were followed by the first set of Umphrey’s McGee. A heavy dose of Umph goodness echoed over a packed crowd. The guys took a quick break to let local-legends Stick Figure tear up the main stage, and then returned with a jam-heavy second set that took over that little fairground. The headliner for the night was the legendary Dispatch, and the rails were surging as they rocked the crowd til the sun had finally set on a magnificent first day.

    Guitar prodigy and singer/songwriter Quinn Sullivan really impressed to start off Sunday. The teenage phenomenon has made a true name for himself in his short career. It was a treat to see him and his star-packed band play a hometown show. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong opened the main stage with their insanely contagious energy and funky jams that cannot be matched. Once “Melting Lights” was done melting everyone’s brain, Ripe followed on the Style Stage. This funk/pop group has completely taken this scene by storm with Robbie Wulfsohn’s sassy and soulful presence. Their cover of Ellie Goulding’s “On My Mind” is one of those songs that you can play on repeat for an hour… at least. Trevor Hall and JJ Grey & Mofro had the pits screaming so loud I thought my ears were gonna burst. Vermont favorites, (and yours), Twiddle blew the fans away and blanketed them with dreams and relaxation. You couldn’t help but sing along when they played their new song “Orlando’s.” The Style Stage was closed out with the hottest folk-rock band out there right now, in Lake Street Dive. The reggae legend, Ziggy Marley closed out the festival in pure style. The festival could not have ended on a higher note. Check out the pics from Zatchmo Lives Media and remember to Dream Big, Live Bigger.

  • Sub Rosa Recording Sessions Offer Unique Experience

    Every third Sunday of each month since 2013, SubCat Music Studios in Syracuse hosts their Sub Rosa Sessions. Session #41 on July 16, 2017 was hosted by Amanda Rogers, who invited Mike Powell to perform as the featured artist. These evenings consist of thirty or so people joining the performers in Studio A at SubCat. The entire session is recorded, attendees have a meet and greet afterward and enjoy drinks and snacks before they head home with an exclusive CD copy of the performance. The intimate setting in a first class recording/production studio provides a unique experience for the listeners and the musicians as well. Much of the stage banter was cut to allow for as many songs as possible to make it to the final disc, but it was that banter that helped connect the audience to Rogers and Powell.

    Amanda Rogers performed original songs on a singularly decorated Yamaha keyboard. Her vocals ranged from whispered words to powerful jabs at her lyrics. The setting was perfect for Rogers, as her songwriting deserves to be carefully heard, not ignored as background music, as other solo artists sometimes experience in local clubs and taverns. Rogers began with “Bag of Bones” and “Blue,” the latter from her upcoming release Heavy Blue, currently being mastered at SubCat. She joked that her on the spot setlist might end up in alphabetical order. Rogers made that idea more difficult when she followed up with “Walking,” from her most recent recording, the 2014 double album Wild. A highlight of her set was “Stranger Days,” in which Rogers croons, “I’ve got scary visions, I’ve got deep, dark decisions, I’ve got stranger days up ahead. And I ain’t no gypsy rambler, ain’t no homecoming queen, I’ve still got aching for my twenties, I could’ve been stuck there in between. I want to face these stranger days I got coming, but…my mind’s still running.”

    Mike Powell took the stage in front of about three dozen fans, friends, family members, and studio employees who were treated to the first ever Sub Rosa Sessions pre-show parking lot tailgate party, hosted by the ubiquitous Sue and Larry Powell. Powell appeared with his familiar right-hand man, guitarist John Hanus, also a member of Powell’s recently formed full band project The Black River, whose debut album is expected to be released later this year from Rising Feather. Hanus supplemented Powell’s songs with melodic riffs, accent notes, and slide guitar stylings on his well-worn Fender Telecaster. Powell began the evening playing an enormous orange Gretsch guitar with Bigsby vibrato, later switching to a resonator guitar, before finishing his set with a red, white, and blue Harmony Buck Owens American model acoustic guitar that seemed fitting for Powell’s masterpiece tribute to a fallen serviceman, “21 Rounds.” It is easily Powell’s best known song, and those in attendance are now the only ones who have that song recorded on CD.

    Powell spoke of the tendency as a songwriter to like your latest songs the best, offering one of his newest tunes, “Poison Diamond,” written during a recent sound check after a conversation with a man who said his relationship troubles were because a woman “loves me too much.” It depicts Powell’s willingness and capability to find inspiration in a single phrase or moment, and nurture those small embers until they grow into the full flame of a song. He also expressed some unfounded trepidation that a live recording could go wrong if the audience en masse booed at the conclusion of a tune. However, as mentioned, Mike Powell is not an individual who chooses to pass up many opportunities. Thus, he implored the audience to agree to boo lustily at the conclusion of “I Wanna Go Back,” creating a hilarious moment that later caused raucous laughter when Powell and Hanus, (as well as this reviewer,) listened to the live CD on the drive home. Powell’s remarkable songwriting, engaging stage banter and audience rapport came through during the session, and are reflected in the crystal clear quality of the instantly produced CD from SubCat Music Studios.

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    Further information on SubCat Music Studios and the Sub Rosa Sessions may be found here.

    Amanda Rogers Setlist: Bag of Bones, Blue, Walking, Ha Ha, They’ll Call It Love, Don’t Deny, Stranger Days, Get Your Heart

    Mike Powell Setlist: Moonlight Sunshine and Rain, Empire Line, I Wanna Go Back, Bibles and Bourbon, Old Picture Frames, Poison Diamond, The Silver Lining of James Marshall, 21 Rounds Encore: No Horizon

  • Poetry in Folk Rock: Moody Blues Reminds Saratoga that Rock Never Ages

    On Sunday, July 16, a crowd at Saratoga Performing Arts Center was treated to folksy, trippy, and bluesy pop music on a cool summer night. The sky was filled with golden and blue light as The Moody Blues took to the stage washed in purples and indigos, with Justin Hayward, John Lodge, and Graeme Edge singing along to “Just a Singer.” The British band paused to greet the crowd after three songs, and smiled as they reminded us to “Say it with Love,” washing their poetry over the swaying and mellow audience.

    Even if you couldn’t immediately name a song by The Moody Blues other than “Nights in White Satin,” the band reminded you as each song came out that they are familiar from years of singing along to the radio. A montage of photos celebrating their 50 years of playing together scrolled on the screen behind them, bringing old band members with them on the journey.

    From “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere” to “Isn’t Life Strange,” Hodge smiled and crooned like a proper flirt. Lodge, squeezed into leather pants, shook his money maker and had the crowd clapping along. Even in their 70s, the men exuded a sexy confidence that had their fans swooning.

    The band brought its mellow and soothing folksy blues to Saratoga on a cool summer night, and while not every note hit its pitch, the words to the songs reminded the joyful crowd to simply be present with one another and celebrate connection.  The audience members were smiling to one another and sharing the mellow energy, dancing together in reverie.

    The message from The Moody Blues and their music, unlike the rest of us, never gets old.

  • Vans Warped Tour Caters to Hardcore in Connecticut

    Dust, blood, sweat and smiles don’t begin to describe a typical day at summer’s largest traveling music festival. Currently in its twenty-third year, the Vans Warped Tour returned for fans of all genres to enjoy their best day of the year on July 9 in Hartford, CT.

    Originally created by founder Kevin Lyman as a festival for alternative rock music, the tour has adapted in it’s over 20 years of activity to cater towards a variety of music genres. This year, the tour made an effort to reign in metal and hardcore fans by featuring bands such as GWAR, CKY, Hatebreed, The Acacia Strain, Municipal Waste, Anti-Flag and Carnifex.

    Alongside these musicians, bands such as Bowling For Soup, Goldfinger, Jule Vera, Streetlight Manifesto, Watsky, Neck Deep, Alestorm and Plain White T’s worked to showcase the festival’s diversity in musicians.

    Besides showcasing bands and musicians such as the popular Andy Black, Never Shout Never, Beartooth and Dance Gavin Dance, the festival also had a knack for highlighting up-and-coming bands and bringing them into the spotlight. With this year’s Full Sail Stage, Knocked Loose, Trophy Eyes, Movements and Boston Manor are a few of the bands on the rise that were able to give everything they had to their performances.

    Although the main stage bands tend to bring in the largest crowds at the festival, this year fans should focus their attention on the Mutant Party Zone, the set of two stages side-by-side labeled Mutant North and Mutant South. The two stages which focus more on heavy music, held hidden treasure performances by some bands that shouldn’t be missed.

    Blessthefall, the five-piece metal band from Arizona, put on a genuine performance that kept fans entertained from start to finish. Whether it’s frontman Beau Boken jumping into the crowd to sing with his fans, or guitarist Elliot Gruenberg jumping and getting in fans’ faces with his guitar, Blessthefall were a highlight of the Vans Warped Tour lineup this year for many reasons.

    Even for Warped Tour attendees who don’t enjoy heavier music, Blessthefall  are a must-see band on this year’s tour.  The consistent energy from every member of the band make watching Blessthefall a genuine pleasure. Besides the fact that they don’t miss a beat, there is not a moment of silence during their set. They will go out of their way to make sure everyone in the audience is noticed, and thoroughly entertained. Where some musicians may get on stage and play their instruments, Blessthefall showcase what a performance really means.

    Another band that knows how to perform for their fans is Gwar. Fans will find themselves in a sea of fake blood while watching the legendary rock band takeover Warped Tour. Opening sets with a decapitation and then blood spewing onto the audience leaves nothing but smiles on fans faces as their white clothes turn into light shades of red.

    The crowd became filled with smiles as fans chanted, “God what an awful racket,” and went out of their way to have their white t-shirts they bought for the show covered with blood. For the sake of the experience, make sure to watch Gwar on the Vans Warped Tour. Depending on where you stand, you will leave with minimal blood on your clothes, and an understanding of why Gwar are a once in a lifetime rock group to see.

    Whether you’re a fan of pop, rock, heavy metal or rap, the Vans Warped Tour has you covered for a good time. For fans that attend to see multiple bands they adore, they will get their money’s worth for an entire day of meeting and watching their favorite bands they may not get the chance to see elsewhere. Although it’s difficult to get the entire Warped Tour experience in one day, you’ll understand why it continues to be the longest running music festival in the country, and continues to dominate the music scene as the must-see music festival of the summer.

  • Photo Gallery: SPAC was Packed for Nickelback

    The rains held off for Nickelback’s return to SPAC on Monday, July 10. Over 14,000 showed up to sing along to the Canadian rock band’s numerous hits as well as some new songs off the new album, Feed the Machine, that came out earlier this year. While it’s been 16 years since Nickelback’s only US #1, “How You Remind Me,” that didn’t stop dedicated fans from traveling hours to see Chad Kroeger and company on the famous Saratoga stage.   Five hours of music, with openers Shaman’s Harvest starting at as early as 6, and another crowd favorite Daughtry providing direct support before Nickelback’s two-hour set with three encores.

    Setlist: Feed the Machine, Woke Up This Morning, Photograph, Far Away, Too Bad, Someday, If Everyone Cared, Where Do I Hide, If Today Was Your Last Day, Because of You, Song on Fire, Something in Your Mouth, Rockstar, When We Stand Together, Animals, Figured You Out, How You Remind Me

    Encore: Gotta Be Somebody, This Afternoon, Burn It to the Ground

  • Tedeschi Trucks Band Smokes the Highland Bowl

    The third edition of Tedeschi Trucks Band‘s summer bonanza known as the Wheels of Soul rolled through Rochester, a city that has been lucky enough to have hosted the tour all three years. This year, as last, Highland Bowl, the criminally underused natural amphitheater right in the city, served as the venue.

    tedeschi trucks highland bowl

    Classic blues rock trio, and Jefferson Airplane offshoot, Hot Tuna brought their “electric” version to kick things off. Running through a set of oldies but goodies, the band found plenty of room for rocking out. The crowd, near capacity at showtime, was raring to go from the start and these boys certainly satisfied. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen played right to the local crowd’s hearts, “People say to me, Rochester? Isn’t it bleak up there? Not today it ain’t!” It was sunny and 72, quite literally, so he wasn’t lying. Kaukonen ground out some gritty guitar action on most every tune, but in the closing “Funky #7,” bassist Jack Casady took the reins blasting fuzzy bass bombs in a massive set sendoff. Legends in their own right, if they’re opening on a three-band bill it must be quite a bill. And, of course, it was!

    The Wood Brothers were up next. It started eerily with bassist Chris Wood bowing his upright while bending the strings with a stick, creating a cool Theremin-like sound. “You give me chills when you sing so sweet,” sang guitarist Oliver Wood on the opening “Stumbled In.” Their sweet tooth would continue to show throughout the set. “I just heard National Chocolate Day was yesterday. We have a song for that.” he exclaimed before kicking into “Chocolate On My Tongue.” Then later they were baking some “Shoofly Pie.” Then the band invited Susan Tedeschi to sing on “Never and Always.” Talk about sweet! It would  be the first of many sit-ins on the night. Chris Wood didn’t pick up his electric bass during their short set, but he did do some wild dancing, both with his acoustic bass, on “Snake Eyes,” and solo, all over the stage on the set closing “One More Day.” When Oliver introduced the band members, dancing was on his brother Chris’ list of instruments. Is dancing an instrument? One issue with such a fantastic lineup, the sets all felt too short. The Wood Brothers seemed to be leaving the stage just as they were getting going.

    tedeschi trucks highland bowl

    Tedeschi Trucks Band took the stage and immediately asked, “Are You Ready?” The crowd, fully up and dancing for the first time of the evening, answered with a resounding “Yes!” before the band quickly jumped into “Made Up Mind.” After two straight trios, the twelve-man rightly seemed enormous. They have amassed a monster of a band with enough talent to power multiple smaller bands. They are the Wall of Sound of bands. They are incredibly tight, stopping on a dime, morphing from song to song, jam to jam, following guitarist Derek Trucks through every masterful and adventurous solo, expanding and contracting through the setlist like a well-oiled machine.

    Somehow, in about 90 minutes time, they also managed to ensure every member got it’s day in the sun without it feeling like a round robin of solos. A free form fusion-y breakdown in “Don’t Know What It Means” featured incredible sax work by Kebbi Williams and low end wizardry by bassist Tim Lefebvre. Trumpeter Ephraim Owens got his turn in a funky jam during “I Wish I Knew,” which also featured Alecia Chakour and Mark Rivers trading vocal solos. Of course longtime Trucks vocalist Mike Mattison took the lead vocals from Susan Tedeschi on a few numbers, including a ripping take on the Derek and the Dominoes classic, “Anyday.”

    Toward the end of the show the band received even more players. All three Wood Brothers sat in for the band’s debut of the Rolling Stone’s “Sweet Virginia.” Oliver Wood and Tedeschi shared vocal duties while Chris Wood replaced Lefebvre on bass. Immediately following, Hot Tuna came on stage for their turn, this time to help on a cover of the blues classic “The Sky Is Crying.” Lefebvre and Casady shared bass duties, eyeing each other from across the stage, while Kaukonen and Trucks jawed with a tangle of blues licks.

    The set once again seemed to end way too early. But the final band had the advantage of coming out for an encore. And the Tedeschi Trucks Band saved the best for last. If you were there to see Derek Trucks play guitar, you got what you paid for in the encore alone, so hopefully you stayed until the end. Trucks fired off some impossibly quick notes and blazed onward and upward from there. Eventually he came back down to earth, only to arrive at heavy teases of the Allman Brothers “Les Brers,” which the rest of the band picked up for a short jam. A one-song near fifteen minute encore sated the excited crowd. As the show came to a close, a full moon emerged over the tree line to guide everyone home after a smoking night in the Highland Bowl.

    Set Lists

    Hot Tuna
    Living Just For You, Sea Child, I Can’t Be Satisfied, Come Back Baby, Water Song, Funky #7

    The Wood Brothers
    Stumbled In, Tried and Tempted, Chocolate On My Tongue, Snake Eyes, Keep Me Around, Shoofly Pie, Never and Always*, One More Day
    * with Susan Tedeschi on vocals

    Tedeschi Trucks Band
    Are You Ready > Made Up Mind, Don’t Know What It Means, Anyday, Midnight in Harlem, Get Outta My Life Woman, Let Me Get By, Sweet Virginia*, The Sky Is Crying**, I Wish I Knew E: I Want More
    *with Chris Wood on bass, Oliver Wood on guitar and vocals, Jano Rix on keys
    **with Jorma Kaukonen on guitar, Jack Casady on bass

  • Photo Gallery: The Tea Party at Canalside

    This past Thursday, July 6,  The Tea Party made an appearance in Buffalo as part of their Summer 2017 Tour. The Canadian hard-rockers brought out an older crowd for this week’s Canalside Live concert. Based on their performance, it was apparent that this wasn’t their first rodeo. The Tea Party came together in the early nineties, and the same three members stuck together ever since (with the exception of their 2005-2011 hiatus).

    the tea partyThe Tea Party’s sound features a blend of hard rock with all sorts of other genres, including Middle Eastern, Celtic, and Mediterranean music. Their songs feature a wide range of unique instruments, including the mandolin, sitar, hurdy-gurdy, and the list goes on. At one point during the show, front man Jeff Martin swiped his hand around what looked like an old theremin.

  • Photo Gallery: Third Eye Blind at SPAC

    Third Eye Blind’s twentieth anniversary of their debut self-titled album tour came through Saratoga on a rainy Saturday evening on July 1.

    Setlist: Weightless, Company of Strangers, Horror Show, Wounded, Queen of Daydreams, Shipboard Cook, Losing a Whole Year, Narcolepsy, Semi-Charmed Life, Jumper, Graduate, How’s It Going to Be, Thanks a Lot, Burning Man, Good for You, London, I Want You, The Background, Motorcycle Drive By

    Third Eye Blind

    Silversun Pickups

  • Dead and Company Play Perfect Sets During Return to Citi Field in New York City

    Dead and Company’s third tour made its way to Citi Field on June 24 while the Mets were away in San Fransisco, defeating the Giants by a score of 5 – 2. The summer evening weather made for a spectacular night of music with a packed stadium.

    The long-standing game of guessing the show opener was on the tongues of many before the 7:30 downbeat and, regardless of incorrect guesses, “Dancing In The Streets” (which debuted earlier this tour) got the Queens crowd moving to the pace of the night. The relaxed but fun set continued on with the likes of “Jack Straw,” Tennesse Jed” and “Cold Rain and Snow” among others. Dead and Company jumped the gun by capping off the set with the party-rousing “One More Saturday Night,” more often seen in the second set of a Dead show.

    As the second set rolled onward from the beautiful “Scarlet Begonias” opener, they let Oteil sing, as some t-shirts have said. Burbridge has been making more of a vocal appearance on this tour and took the lead on singing “Comes a Time,” making for a spectacular performance of the song coupled with Mayer’s atmospheric noodling on Dead and Company’s debut of that song. Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzman put on a unique rhythmic soundscape for the drums/space break which was integrative of acoustic and electronic sounds and instruments including Hart’s multi-string, one-note Beam.

    The encore was truly something special for the New York crowd. The familiar opening riff of “Touch of Grey” rang through the crowd noise as the projection faded to the b-roll live footage of the synchronized light show atop the Empire State Building across the East River in Manhattan. Without much of a skip the happy feels were capped off in a rock-and-roll fashion with “Johnny B. Goode.”

    Dead and Company’s two night run at Citi Field last June was a good showcase of the chops of a Grateful Dead family lineup who had only been on tour for about one and a half years at that point. In this year’s single show at Citi Field, Dead and Company showed an ever-flourishing presence of musicianship on stage miles ahead of the band’s debut shows in Albany and NYC in the fall of 2015, which even then were noteworthy.

    Setlist:

    Set 1: Dancing In The Streets > Jack Straw, Here Comes Sunshine, Tennessee Jed, Cold Rain and Snow, Bird Song > One More Saturday Night

    Set 2: Scarlet Begonias > Viola Lee Blues, Estimated Prophet > Comes A Time > Eyes Of The World > Drums/Space > The Other One > Morning Dew

    Encore: Touch Of Grey > Johnny B. Goode