The Dean Ween Group came to the Brooklyn Bowl last Thursday, January 19, with The Mike Dillion Band providing support. Mickey “Dean Ween” Melchiondo made a comment to the crowd that tonight seemed like a hometown show, as they had a bunch of friends they were going to bring out.
Those friends included opener Mike Dillon, vocalist Carol Brooks and bassist’s Dave Dreiwitz’s bandmate, guitarist Scott Metzger. The night included a bunch of cover’s and sit-in’s, which the gave the night a feel that you were watching a bunch of friend’s just jamming along and having fun. The Dean Ween Group finishes their tour with an early February run down south.
Setlist: Sunset Over Asbury Park, Exercise Man, Dickie Betts, Freedom of ’76, It’s Gonna Be a Long Night, Garry, Do That Stuff, You Were There, The Ritz Carlton, Mercedes Benz, Pink Eye (On My Leg), A Tear For Eddie, Tender Situation, Fingerbanging, The Rift
Notes:
Freedom of ’76, You Were There and Mercedes Benz with Carol Brooks on vocals.
Long Night with Mike Dillon on percussion and backing vocals.
Ritz Carlton with Mike Dillon on vibes.
Tender Situation through The Rift with Scott Metzger on guitar.
Platinum recording artist, Luke Bryan announces his new tour with his plans to pack up his hunting gear and hit the road this summer with a unique video of him playing the classic Nintendo Entertainment Systemand the game Duck Hunt, in his living room while wearing hunting gear. Bryan shot at ducks, with country artist faces on them. The “That’s My Kind Of Night” singer missed, and hit several artist. The artist that happened to get shot down, will hit the road, and round out one mega country lineup for Bryan’s “Huntin’, Fishin’, & Lovin’ Every Day Tour.”
Six opening artist were shot by Bryan with his NES Zapper. Those artist include Brett Eldredge, Lauren Alaina, Granger Smith, Seth Ennis, Craig Campbell and Adam Craig.
Spurs will start to spin on May 5, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN, and come to a close on Oct. 28, at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernadino, CA, rounding out thirty-nine different cities, and 40 shows with a two night stay at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Atlanta, GA.
New York state will be well covered with five different stops throughout the state including, July 13, at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, Aug. 12, at the Lakeview Amphitheater in Syracuse, Aug. 25, at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Corfu, Aug. 26, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, and Aug. 27, at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh.
The singer has won various awards in country music including an Academy of Country Music Award for Top New Solo Vocalist and Top New Artist in 2010. Bryan won nine American Country Awards in 2012 ranging from Artist of the Year, to Album of the Year. He has also won Billboard Music Awards for Top Country Artist (2014 & 2016) and Top Country Song(2014) for “Crash My Party.”
Four of his five studio albums have reached platinum certification by the RIAA. His third and forth studio albums Tailgates & Tanlines (2011), and Crash My Party (2013), have achieved a certification of twice platinum by the RIAA. Bryan has sold over seven million albums and over 27 million copies of his 22 singles, many have reached number one on the country music charts.
Bryan the philanthropist, has supported numerous charities throughout his career. Causes he supports include children’s disaster relief, cancer, AIDS and HIV, health and human rights through the Red Cross and City Of Hope.
Bryan’s tour will be part of Live Nation’s Country Mega Ticket. Ticket info will soon be available.
Luke Bryan’s HFETour Dates:
May 5 – Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN
May 12 – Jiffy Lube Live – Bristow, VA
May 13 – Xfinity Theatre – Hartford, CT
May 18 – iWireless Center – Moline, IL
June 1 – Riverbend Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
June 3 – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre – St. Louis, MO
June 9 – Verizon Arena – Little Rock, AK
June 10 – BOK Center – Tulsa, OK
June 16-17 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre – Atlanta, GA
June 23 – Hershey Park Stadium Hershey, PA
June 24 – Xfinity Center – Mansfield, MA
June 25 – Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, MD July 13 – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – Bethel, NY
July 15 – Progressive Field – Cleveland, OH
July 16 – PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, NJ
July 21 – Sprint Center – Kansas City, MO Aug. 12 – Lakeview Amphitheater – Syracuse, NY
Aug. 17 – Veteran’s United Home Loans Arena Amphitheater – Virginia Beach, VA
Aug. 18 – PNC Music Pavilion – Charlotte, NC
Aug. 19 – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek – Raleigh, NC Aug. 25 – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center – Darien Lake, NY Aug. 26 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, NY Aug. 27 – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater – Wantagh, NY
Sept. 6 – Pavilion at Montage Mountain – Scranton, PA
Sept. 8 – Citizen’s Bank Park – Philadelphia, PA
Sept. 9 – KeyBank Pavilion – Pittsburgh, PA
Sept. 15 – Klipsch Music Center – Indianapolis, IN
Sept. 16 – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater – Chicago, IL
Sept. 21 – Austin360 Amphitheater – Austin, TX
Sept. 22 – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion – Houston, TX
Sept. 23 – Gexa Energy Pavilion – Dallas, TX
Oct. 12 – Concord Pavilion – Concord, CA
Oct. 13 – Toyota Amphitheatre – Wheatland, CA
Oct. 14 – Shoreline Amphitheatre – Mountain View, CA
Oct. 19 – Isleta Amphitheater – Albuquerque, NM
Oct. 21 – USANA Amphitheater – Salt Lake City, UT
Oct. 26 – AK-Chin Pavilion – Phoenix, AZ
Oct. 27 – Sleep Train Amphitheatre – San Diego, CA
Oct. 28 – San Manuel Amphitheater – San Bernadino, CA
Butch Trucks, founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, died on the evening of Tuesday, January 24 in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 69 years old.
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Born Claude Hudson Trucks on May 11, 1947 in Jacksonville, Florida, Butch refined his craft playing in several ensembles at Florida State University and in the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra before cutting his rock ‘n roll teeth in local bands such as the Vikings, the Echoes, and the Bitter Ind.
It was the suggestion of Jai “Jaimoe” Johnny Johanson that led Duane Allman to recruit Trucks into the fold back in 1964 as he was forming the original Allman Brothers Band. Jaimoe and Trucks would go on to play drums alongside one another on and off for 46 years as members of the Brothers. Trucks is the third member of the original ABB lineup to pass away, joining Duane Allman, who died in 1971, and Berry Oakley, who died the next year. Trucks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Allman Brothers Band in 1994.
The cause of death is unknown and comes as a surprise, as Trucks had remained active on the music scene of late. Upon the Allman Brothers Band breakup in 2014, Trucks founded Les Brers with fellow former Allmans Jaimoe, Marc Quiñones, Oteil Burbridge, and Jack Pearson in an effort to keep the ABB catalog alive. His latest act, Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band, had recently been touring in the southeast.
Trucks is survived by his wife Melinda, four children, and four grandchildren, plus a number of family members who are active musicians in their own right, nephews Derek and Duane Trucks, the guitarist of Tedeschi-Trucks Band and drummer of Widespread Panic/Hard Working Americans respectively, and his son Vaylor Trucks, who plays with the Yeti Trio.
At this time the Trucks and Allman Brothers Band families request “friends and fans to please respect our privacy at this time of sadness for our loss. Butch will play on in our hearts forever.”
Check out footage of Butch discussing the early days of the Allman Brothers Band below.
Almost 40 years ago, the world was inspired by the lyric “Break on through to the other side” and the future of music was about to explode. A generation was about to change, they were ready to fight the establishment and now they had the soundtrack to do so. It was a time when music reflected more art, improvisation, and poetry. Forty years later that same musical work ethic is being applied in upstate New York.
Experimental three-piece project Further Unsound has made its way at warp speed, gaining recognition locally and performing live all over the East Coast.
“I mean, this is how my brain is wired man,” said guitarist and vocalist Matt Malone. “We all have our own way to interpret our feelings to the world and playing live happens to be how I like to do it.”
Which is exactly how this group took it to another level when writing and recording its latest release. Along For The Ride was a culmination of songs written by Malone, Cole Riddering and the band’s founding member, Sean Cranston.
“I’m a firm believer that playing live is where it counts most,” said Cranston.
Riddering, the band’s bassist, was the last piece in the puzzle. Prior to bringing Riddering into the project, Malone and Cranston sold everything they had, packed the car and headed to the West Coast.
With no time restraints, the three booked shows and jammed at random open mics and house gigs along the way, with just the desire to just play where ever they could in their travels.
“The live recording of Along For The Ride was a good experience, it showed me how much of a conduit I was between my bandmates and pushed me to become exactly that,” said Riddering. “The great thing about writing new music is that we have become a band in the last year and a half, we understand what we’re trying to do with our individual styles and are understanding how to put our talents together. The last album was awesome but I’m excited to be a part of the entire process this time around.”
Non-stop hard work has brought The Further Unsound into territory none of the bandmembers expected. Since the album’s release, The Further Unsound has played live with Creed Bratton (of The Office), the Launch Music Conference in Lancaster, Penn., the Willimantic Connecticut Street Festival and the recent Drink Albany Fest.
“Touring the world would be ideal for the future,” said Cranston. “We have started writing our next batch of tunes and, from what we’ve started, I’ve got a feeling that our next effort will be more unique than its two predecessors.”
This article was originally published by The Spot 518. is property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYS Music. TheSpot518 and NYS Music work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.
Town Ballroom was bursting at the seams with a whole new culture Thursday January 19 with Datsik in town and with a sold out venue. EDM music is becoming more and more popular and I can see why. In line you could find someone in a Pikachu onesie, or another in a unicorn and some girls who seemed to just have on their bra and panties.
Virtual Riot was playing by the time everyone walked in. EDM music is not door at 8 and music starts at 8:30-9pm, it is doors are at 8 and the music is already bumping. The beats were lively and it created an atmosphere that was all its own. Virtual was a perfect opener, he got the continuously lingering crowd hyped up for the night and put them in a party mindset.
Christopher Lee Marshall better known as Crizzly hailing from Austin, Texas was an entertainment all his own. He brought a hype man with him who did just that, hype the crowd. He jumped all around the stage and even at one point jumped in the crowd and moshed with the audience.
Datsik, what is there to say about him? His visual effects were captivating; he had screens set up that took up the entire stage, his new stage setup was by Shogun stage production. He ditched the vortex this tour. The beats he created released the crowd into an animalistic behavior. The crowd was a bit out of control. Sitting on the platform you could see everything going on.
Not long into his set there was a girl who passed out and as soon as that happened the bodyguard guarding the pit entrance attention turned to that; then two girls who looked to be on something ran into the pit and began to “erotic dance.” As soon as another guard saw what the girls were doing, they were swooped up like rag dolls and thrown out. People were taking off their clothes and it became a free for all. Datsik did his job and entranced the Town Ballroom crowd and left everyone feeling new and free.
Trey Anastasio has announced three solo acoustic evenings in the Northeast, his first solo acoustic performances since 2015.
An Acoustic Evening with Trey Anastasio will bring the Phish front man to Academy of Music Theater in Northampton, MA on March 8, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, NY on March 10 and The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH on March 11. A real-time presale begins Wednesday, January 25 at 10am ET, and ends Thursday, January 26 at 5pm ET.
Trey last performed at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in 2001 with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Solo performances are rarities for Trey. He last performed acoustic in New York City in 2015, Atlantic City in 2012, Newport Folk Fest in 2008 and opened solo shows in 2011 and 1999 with acoustic songs. This marks the first time Trey has performed a string of solo acoustic shows.
On Friday night in Brooklyn, the sixth annual “Wintercourse” took place at the Knitting Factory. All four bands on the bill had shared practice space and admiration for one another over the years which created a love filled environment on the gloomy Inauguration Day. Fans young and old packed the small venue before the first band entered the stage, proving that time placement had nothing to do with crowd preference or popularity.
Teddy Midnight performed first and instead of simply warming the crowd up, they hot boxed the room! Glow sticks began lighting their way into the crowd during the first song of the evening, “Veni Veni Veni,” off their 2016 release, Velvet Blue. In fact, the set list was heavily layered with songs off the same album, which happens to be their meatiest and most recent release. The four members sonically tasered their fans during the nucleus of the set list when the “Primordial> Velvet Show Jam>Velvet Mist> Tree-O-Tree” combination was played for the first time. Adam Magnan on drums teamed up with Sean McAuley on keys to recreate my childhood in what I can only describe as the theme music from Crusin’ USA for Nintendo 64. Sean Silva added some fuzzy textures by means of the bass and synth throughout the notable jam that lasted for the better half of the set. Guitarist Wiley Griffin announced their final song to the dismay of the audience as “Air BND” followed them off the stage.
The “Ukulele progressive rock band,” Cousin Earth, was the group that I was most excited to see on the bill solely based on the genre description posted on the website. The five-piece consists of Joey Calfa on ukulele, Nate Searing on drums, Corey J. Feldman on Ubass, Tara Lawton on melodica and keys and Terry Brennan on percussion. All of the members handled vocals during the gender blending set that consisted of originals and well-known covers. “Point of No Return” off the 2015 self-titled EP started the set and acted as the padding for the first cover of the night, “Yellow Submarine” by an English band called The Beatles. The spacey “Alive” was up next followed by the reggae-influenced “Train Luck> Inspector Gadget Theme.” Only a handful of songs had been executed and I could already tell that their eclectic sound mixed with the funny, yet thought-provoking lyrics had abducted the room for the duration of their time on stage. My favorite part of the set was the appropriately placed “Another Brick In The Immigration Wall” which mashed up iconic Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin songs into a sing-a-long for the entire venue. Earlier in the day, an unmasked Darth Vader was sworn into the Oval Office, leaving me with a pit in my stomach that only comedy and good music could remedy. Thanks to Cousin Earth, I was able to leave our solar system for a while. As a first time Earthling follower, the group reminded me of a new creation from Taco Bell… it may not have been what I was expecting, but I ate it up and would absolutely order it again.
Voted the “Top 10 Best” AND “Top 10 Worst Names for a Band” in 2016 by CMJ, the jamtronica quartet, Space Bacon, hit the ground running with an almost 20-minute “Wolves” and even with minor technical difficulties, I was shocked to learn that this was their first time performing this beast live. In fact, three of the four songs in their Wintercourse performance were Space Bacon virgins, which made the performance an instant classic set for the up-and-coming funky-electronica group. They transitioned into the commonly played “Jupiter” as Sam Crespo on drums sped up the tempo and created a rave inside the tiny Factory. “Ice Planet” contained elements of trance and hard rock as the band seamlessly segued from one genre to the other. Kevin LeGall’s bass joined paths with Chris Gironda’s keys to knit together a labyrinth of danceable delight. Guitarist Jack Willard asked, “Do you guys want to hear new shit or old shit?” The crowd began calling out for different fan favorites before Willard pronounced, “F*ck you guys, we are doing new shit,” as they launched into “Prologue.” By far the wordiest tune they played on Friday, this new track was welcomed by the cult-like Baconators and at times had a complex Phishy vibe to it. Don’t let the short and sweet set list fool you on paper; this thing had fangs, horns and some kick-ass moves.
Chromatropic finished off the festivities with a unique jazz-fusion jam session spanning their career and highlighting their newest release, Abundance. The frequently played “Bloom” was tackled early on after transitioning out of a crowd-pleasing intro jam. One day when they release a Greatest Hits album, this track will make the cut due to its smooth sailing peaks and valleys. “Habanero” was the first song from the new album and one of my favorites considering I’m all about that bass that Moses Margel is slapping. Each member gets his time to shine during this spicy instrumental capped off by a Danny Caridi keyboard solo that will leave you in search of water. Just as it seemed the band couldn’t get any hotter, they segued into the second half of “The Abundance of Elements” where Andrew Carton showed off his impressive and intricate guitar skills. Mark Potter on midi and drums peppered in samples during the third one off Abundance entitled “Glove.” The soulful and funky jazz piece is part-Vulpeck, part-Thievery Corporation and part The Chainsmokers? You read that correctly. While a high school cheerleader may call “Closer” by The Chainsmokers, “so 2016,” Chromatropic was able to incorporate the cover right into their music and it fit like a glove.
The Brooklyn jam band scene is currently growing at an alarmingly satisfying rate and Friday night in the funkiest of boroughs, I was reminded that America continues to get greater every day. While these four bands may be fighting for the same cause, to make people dance, they are in no way clones of each other. Through their diversity and gender bending identities, they were able to come together and turn a surreal day into a sublime night.
Teddy Midnight Setlist: Veni Veni Veni, Turkish Silva, Trap Haus, Primordial > Velvet Slow Jam > Velvet Mist > Tree-O-Tree*, Air DNB
*Primordial through Tree-0-Tree first time played segue
Cousin Earth Setlist: Point of No Return>Yellow Submarine@>Point of No Return, Alive, Train Luck>Inspector Gadget, When the Dinosaurs Come Back from Outer-space!, Super Fun Laser Beams, I Got This, Another Brick in the Immigrant Wall$, Capricorn on the Cob
@ Beatles cover, ! BELT original, $ Led Zeppelin & Pink Floyd mash-up
Space Bacon Setlist: Wolves*^> Jupiter (end), Ice Planet*, Prologue*
*First time played, ^ bass malfunction, audible’d trio jam
Chromatropic Setlist: Intro> Bloom, Habanero > The Abundance of Elements@>Gaia, Glove> Closer*> Glove
Sean Rowe is no stranger to walking a different path, but he needed help with his latest venture — walking away from his record label and seeking a crowdfunding campaign to produce his next record.
You can call Sean Rowe a “madman” for his recent, unorthodox approach to his music career, but he is a man with a plan.
The popular blues singer opted not to resign with his record label, chose to crowdfund his latest project, and got the guts to do it by doing something a little off the wall.
“This all started when there was a giant fork in the road for me in terms of where I was going to go career-wise,” said Rowe. “I had fulfilled my contract with Anti Records… And, I had to figure out where I was going to go next.”
For the better part of the last decade, Rowe has made a living off his music. It’s the path he’s chosen to walk since he discovered Otis Redding when he was 17. Not your typical Troy teenager coming of age in the early ‘90s. Instead of Bell Biv Devoe, Guns ‘n’ Roses or Pearl Jam, he spent his money on John Lee Hooker and music out of the Mississippi Delta. Obscure stuff you wouldn’t find playing on FLY 92. He speaks of his love for Laura Lee, a gospel R&B artist out of the ‘60s whose sound he describes by comparing her to the icons of Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin. “That’s all I wanted to listen to,” said Rowe. “I was pretty strict. I emulated all these people that I love. It taught me how to play guitar. It taught me how to sing.” And, for the 10 years that followed high school, Rowe spent his nights cutting his teeth at the local bars and venues that allowed him to strum his guitar and bellow out that signature baritone singing voice.
Rowe has five albums to his name, the last three under Anti Records, the same label under which Merle Haggard and Tom Waits are signed under. The terms of Rowe’s contract were met after the 2014 release of Madman. Though he describes the experience with the Los Angeles-based label as “great,” Rowe said he needed to push out into the unknown. So, he decided not to resign, and opted instead to go “rogue.”
“A part of this was realizing that if I wanted to do the best record I could do — I’ve already been comfortable with the last record. I already did that stuff — I want to do something that’s going to throw me out into the abyss,” said Rowe. “Something that is going to challenge me. So, that’s why I did all this.”
Last July, Rowe launched a crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter to collect enough money that would allow him to produce his next album. The concept is not necessarily new. In fact, the trend of artists seeking financial help from fans prompted a 2013 Louie Herr article at digitaltrends.com, suggesting bands target modest amounts instead of the $1.2 million raised by musician Amanda Palmer in 2012. Rowe’s $43,000 target would fall under Herr’s modest range. Nonetheless, Rowe said he felt like that was a lot to ask. “We launched this thing, fully realizing that it was a lot to ask.” said Rowe. “We needed to raise $43,000 in one month. And, we were asking our fans to do that.”
Rowe’s plan kicked into motion around the 2014 release of Madman, the third and final record under the terms of his contract with Anti Records. Rowe started a side project; a nationwide tour that involved the musician playing to many of his fans from inside their own living rooms.
“Just to try something different, you know?” said Rowe. “And, quite honestly, I also had to make money between tours. It was a combination of needing to work and wanting to do something different that led me to this house show idea, where I started playing in people’s living rooms — fans of mine, who wanted me to come to their house and play.”
The tour built momentum and became a success in more ways than one. Rowe was able to support himself financially, but the intimacy of playing to his fans from within their homes created a dynamic that felt “very natural” to him. He described the typical show as being no larger than a handful of people, sitting on sofas. But, something about the shared experience drew an epiphany. He could walk away from the conventional path of producing albums through record labels.
“From that audience, so many other things came, including this idea, said Rowe. “That was a big factor in starting this whole Kickstarter thing. I don’t think it is something we could have done before we did the house show thing.”
In two weeks, contributors from as far out as Dublin, Ireland contributed enough to match the $43,000 goal. And, by month’s end, the funding effort reached $53,000.
“That was very, very telling to me, that I’m on the right path,” said Rowe.
Plotted on that path was the plan to record tracks at Sam Phillips Studio, the same studio built by famed Sun Records producer Sam Phillips, in Memphis, Tenn. Phillips is credited with discovering Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley, many consider Phillips to be the Father of Rock and Roll. While building up Sun Records, it’s said Phillips was building his dream studios around the corner. For the kid fascinated by the sound of recording artists before his time, the environment could not be more perfect.
“It’s like walking into 1960,” said Rowe. “Nothing has changed in terms of the aesthetic of that room. I had all these dreams around this recording that I really wanted to accomplish.” Another part of that dream included working with Grammy Award-winning engineer, Matt Ross-Spang, too. And, the end product provides a thousand vinyl records and another thousand CDs. The record is planned for release by the end of March.
For Rowe, 2016 has been a humbling experience; from seeing fans help support his upcoming album, to hearing an older track of his play along with the closing scenes of Ben Affleck’s feature film The Accountant. There’s a sense of affirmation that the “madman” isn’t so crazy, after all.
“It’s a lot to ask of people, and it is validation,” said Rowe. “When you see the people willing to pay quite a large sum of money into something they really believe in, it’s not like telling somebody after a show, ‘hey, that was a great show.’ … When someone is willing to pay $1,000 just for the idea of this album, that’s not even made yet, [who] believes in you that much… . For that to happen, that’s a tattoo. That’s a lifelong commitment that someone makes for you.”
Sean Rowe on “To Leave Something Behind,” featured in Ben Affleck’s The Accountant.
“I wrote that about six years ago, and where I wrote it was in London, actually. I was walking through a park out there while in the middle of a tour. And, when you’re overseas and you’re touring out there, and you have family back home in the states, the proximity effect is very palpable. Your communication is off. You can’t just connect, like you can. Over there, it’s always been a challenge to maintain that connection with family.
It came to me at that time. I was already having feelings of disconnectedness — the not-knowing of how it was going to be with my son being born, because he was still in the womb at the time. I was having all these feelings and emotions popping up. You know, how I wanted to be as a father and what it was going to be like to bring a child up in these times. And, that was six years ago. It’s even more relevant to me now then it was back then.
Speaking from a father’s perspective, but also from a holistic perspective, how to fit into this world view that seems to be opposed to a lot of the things I hold to be sacred. And, trying to find a place in there, where you can have balance. That was just an ongoing theme for a lot of my songs, really.”
This article was originally published by The Spot 518, is property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYS Music. TheSpot518 and NYS Music work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.
Greensky Bluegrass is making their way north this week, heading for The Westcott Theater in Syracuse on Wednesday the 25. They then make stops at Playstation Theater in NYC on January 28 and The Egg in Albany on January 31. This marks the first time playing each of these venues for Greensky, whose progressive bluegrass style has created an impressive following across the country. Joining Greensky are the Portland, Oregon bluegrass sensation Fruition, a rootsy and eclectic troupe that will easily win over fans on the east coast.
Since forming 17 years ago, Greensky Bluegrass has created their own version of bluegrass music, mixing the acoustic stomp of a string band with the rule-breaking spirit of rock & roll. The band, comprised of Anders Beck (dobro), Michael Arlen Bont (banjo), Dave Bruzza (guitar), Mike Devol (upright bass) and Paul Hoffman (mandolin) released Shouted, Written Down & Quotedthis past fall, garnering praise in our review:
Greensky Bluegrass has taken the core idea of the typical bluegrass style and spiced it up with a twist of tones that bridge the gap between Americana and a rock flavor to create a perfectly balanced jam grass album.
It’s one thing if a band from your immediate area becomes a sensation in any regard. But if any band from a major regional city, like Toronto, start off their latest American tour in a city right across the border, you better imagine fans will come in droves to see them. That’s why on January 19, Toronto indie darlings Tokyo Police Club played in front of a nearly-full crowd at Buffalo’s Waiting Room. And the crowd came from near and far to see the Canadian lads.
Tokyo Police Club, made up of David Monks (bass/lead vocals), Josh Hook (guitar), Graham Wright (keyboards/guitar), and Greg Alsop (drums) have been big names in the U.S./Canadian border indie scene for a while now. In the past 10 years, they’ve performed at festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds, and Bonnaroo. They’ve toured with the likes of Weezer, and Foster the People and released four LP’s and three (or four if you’re picky) EP’s. Buffalo was the first stop on their tour promoting their new EP, with stops in Washington DC, Cambridge, MA, Montreal, and Peterborough, Ontario coming up.
Monks had immediate control over getting the crowd, wearing a black button-down shirt that gave off a look oddly reminding me of Billy Corgan. Maybe it was intentional, since their lastest, two-part EP is called Mellon Collie and the Infinite Radness. Either way, the crowd at the front reached their hands inches from Monks’ face as he reached the edge of the stage with his bass. Wright, doing double duty on backing guitar and keyboards, was by far the most enthusiastic performer of the act, bobbing around as he churned out various synth riffs and was by far the more energetic guitar player, even if his riffs mostly came in when Hook had a solo.
The audience was more than willing to clap along when Monks urged them too, or on their own. There were also instances of a pineapple being passed around and held up by audience members, along with one attempt at crowd surfing that didn’t get too far. Musically, people recognized each song that started playing, like the distinct opening synth riffs of “Bambi” and “PCH.” They chanted along with the chorus lines of “Favorite Color” and “My House.” They waved their arms side-to-side during the slow intro of “Breakneck Speed.” And they managed to keep up with the multi-part “Argentina.”
The band closed out their initial set by playing their first EP, A Lesson in Crime, in it’s entirely to celebrate its 10th anniversary. With each song hardly breaking the two and a half minute mark, they were notably more unrefined, more raw. The opening track, “Cheer It On,” harkens back to the time bands like The Strokes and Interpol were the toast of the indie community. “Shoulders & Arms” has a streak of noise-like guitar they would hardly come back to, while “Citizens of Tomorrow,” even with it’s hints of dance-punk, would harken to what the band would eventually turn into.
By the time the band finished playing “La Ferrassie,” the final song from A Lesson in Crime, and bid their audience goodnight before coming out for an encore, the place had been completely enamored by whatever plans the band had up their sleeve. If the crowds at their upcoming shows are anything as responsive as the one in Buffalo, then Tokyo Police Club should expect a good time up ahead.
Six opening artist were shot by Bryan with his NES Zapper. Those artist include Brett Eldredge, Lauren Alaina, Granger Smith, Seth Ennis, Craig Campbell and Adam Craig.
Experimental three-piece project Further Unsound has made its way at warp speed, gaining recognition locally and performing live all over the East Coast.
