Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue brought the N’awlins flavor to The Egg in Albany on Wednesday, June 14 to the delight of a sold out audience. Troy Andrews AKA Trombone Shorty and friends made jaws drop by their range in abilities and genres in which they proved to be fluent.
The once brass prodigy now household name, arrived on stage to a surprisingly hard rock sound with blinding lights and funky riffs from band mate Pete Murano. It was certainly not the typical “N’Awlins” intro one might expect, but added a certain level of intrigue that would continue throughout the nearly 90-minute set.
From funk to blues to R&B and soul, each song brought a new variation but with the consistent Louisiana street party the crowd came to see. Andrew’s ability to seamlessly move between trumpet, tambourine, vocals, drums and of course, trombone, highlighted the musical Renaissance Man’s many talents.
The largely middle-aged crowd was shy at first, sitting politely while bopping along to the rhythm, but it took almost no time to move them to their feet. Andrews engaged the fans with call and response vocals, and naturally handed out beads to the excited ladies in the front row.
Each of the six members of the band had many opportunities to showcase their talents. BK Jackson on tenor sax along with his brass partner Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax worked their magic as both musicians and dancers, gliding across the stage with ease while muscling through some impressive solos. Michael Baily practically did an army crawl across the stage while thudding the bass, his CamelBack strapped on only adding to his masculine charisma.
Song selections sprawled across the board including old favorites like “Where Y’At” and new songs like “Where it At” from their latest album “Parking Lot Symphony.” Andrews “took it to the bridge” with James Brown samples as he moonwalked across the stage, sending the crowd into a loud roar.
Their rainbow lights that splashed across the interior walls of The Egg served as street lamps as they paraded into the crowd to Louis Armstrong’s “When the Saints go Marching In,” a true staple of The Big Easy.
“We’re going to have to come back to Albany more often,” said Andrews to end the incredible evening.
The night started off with an energetic group called 
Metallica’s Hardwired World Tour is entirely at large stadiums, except for the Nassau Coliseum show. While the stadiums certainly have their appeal for a monster show, nothing compares to catching one of the world’s biggest metal bands at a comparatively small indoor area (although their private fan club show at the 1,500-seat Webster Hall this past September might have this beat).
With 
While I’ve been to a couple of Coheed and Cambria shows I have not been to one that was quite as crazy as this show. I made the mistake of purchasing a beer and finding a good spot closer to the front of the venue. I will explain my “mistake” in a moment. The show began with the intro from Good Apollo: I’m Burning Star IV Vol 1 which is a violin lead overture. Claudio Sanchez then stepped on the stage and the crowd immediately went wild for him – he started with the acoustic performance of “Always and Never” (track 2 on the album) as the rest of the band got on the stage. Here’s where my mistake occurred – Coheed and Cambria really kicked off the show with the in-your-face fan favorite “Welcome Home” while I had a full beer in my hand. The crowd immediately went nuts to the intro riff and there was a sudden rush from the back of the crowd pushing everyone to the front. Most of my beer wound up all over myself and probably everyone within a four-foot radius of me. “Welcome Home” shows off Coheed and Cambria’s metal side with it’s prog rock elements so it makes sense the crowd went crazy.
Consequently, after Coheed played their next song “Ten Speed,” I found myself near the stage looking up at Claudio Sanchez going nuts on his guitar. As he delivered his signature high pitched, charismatic and unique vocals over a punk rock-ish chorus, his famous long puffy hair was flying in all sorts of directions. As Coheed and Cambria played through the album, there wasn’t a song fans couldn’t recite. About halfway through the set, while guitarist Travis Stever was swapping guitars, Claudio took a back seat to his band’s ever impressive rhythm section of Josh Eppard on drums and Zach Cooper on bass. The jam broke down first into one of the dopest bass solos I’ve heard in a while – in fact, how often do you hear a bass solo? Then, Josh Eppard got into a super tight, high energy drum solo for which the crowd made a ton of noise. Playing the style of music that they do, each band member holds their own as an extraordinary musician.
Overall, while I left the show soaked in probably everyone else’s sweat and I’m pretty sure someone’s shoe flew across the room and hit me, it was the most fun I’ve had at a rock concert in a long time. Coheed and Cambria has the blessing of having some of the most loyal fans in the world, especially in New York City. I left the show with more energy than I walked in the door with and Coheed played probably one of the tightest sets they could ever have played. They later returned to 
Phil, a moe. fan who attended the first four moe.downs, said he loved every single second.
In an 
“We grew up out there. Most of us skied at Snow Ridge when we were kids,” Garvey told the Post Standard. “We wanted to bring a cool festival to the area, and no one else was doing it at the time.”
moe.down setlists courtesy of the Internet Archive
The 
Other musical highlights included DJ Taz Rashid, DJ Drez, Breakneck Boys, Hayley Jane & the Primates, and the Garcia Project, all who had crossover sets / sit-ins with yoga classes (except for HJ&tP). Overall, I’m going to say the line-up was well balanced. I arrived fearing it would not be able to compete with last year’s combination of Pink Talking Fish, the Sensory Collective, and Turkuaz, but the variety mixed well, and my opinion changed by Monday morning. What also had changed by Monday morning was the name of the festival, which will be known as Ascend moving forward.