For the final installment of Albany’s Alive at Five summer concert series, the rain location at the Corning boat launch played host to local opener The Late Shift and Los Angeles based Indie band Sir Sly. Formed in 2012 by lead singer Landon Jacobs, Haydon Coplen and Jason Suwito, the group played a mix of alt-pop songs off their albums Don’t you worry, Honey and You Haunt me. For their encore, they played “Oh Mama,” a song Landon wrote about his mother who recently died of cancer. Sir Sly will be back in New York, performing at Warsaw in Brooklyn on October 20 with Joywave, and are also on the Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup.
Category: Features
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Chicago Celebrates 51 Years
Chicago celebrated 51 years as a band on July 31, 2018 with REO Speedwagon and Michael Tolcher at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Photos by Shawn LaChapelle
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Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo Fire Up Del Lago in Waterloo
This summer’s concerts have been heating up for sure. Friday July 27 was no different when four time Grammy winner, Pat Benatar and her long time husband/guitarist Neil Giraldo co-headlined the Vine at Del Lago along with another 80’s icon, Rick Springfield.
Pat and Neil have been performing together since 1979 and have been an unstoppable husband and wife team since 1983. Together they have written and produced many gold and platinum and multi-platinum hits including “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, “Love is a Battlefield”, “We Belong”, and “Invincible”.
At just about 9 p.m., the seasoned musical veteran performers hit the stage with their band and kicked right off into “All Fired Up”, “We Live For Love”, and “Invincible”. The dynamic duo of Pat and Neil had the sold out audience at Del Lago fired up for sure, as no one was quite sure who would be performing first on the bill, Rick or Pat and Neil.
Their sound was like pure vinyl. If you closed your eyes, it was as good as a recording. Flawless. Pat’s vocals were simply powerfully amazing as she hit all the high notes effortlessly, especially on “We Live For Love. Neil’s guitar work is just plain brilliant. His technique and playing style that has defined the Benatar sound for nearly 40 years remains perfect never missing a lick, bend or nuance.
Their set included a stripped down, acoustic side as well when they performed powerful “Shine” intimately for the audience. “Shine”, released in 2017, was written in support of the women’s rights movement, and the record reflects the Shine Together Movement, which is her voice to hopefully affect positive change in the world and government. This was a beautifully performed acoustic number.
Finishing out the twelve song set, was a very cool rendition of “Heartbreaker” with a few twists thrown in including a medley of Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”, The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”, and a cool little “Godfather Theme” instrumental.
After nearly forty years of making hit after hit, Pat and Neil have pretty much proved that they are in fact invincible.
Setlist: All Fired Up, We Live for Love, Invincible, Promises in the Dark, We Belong, Disconnected, Hell is for Children, You Better Run, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Love is a Battlefield (Encore: Shine, Heartbreaker
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Marc Ribot reveals ‘The Militant Ecologist’ off new Anti-Trump album
Acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot has released “The Militant Ecologist” featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, the latest track off his upcoming Sept. 14 release, Songs of Resistance 1942-2018 on ANTI-Records. Ribot set out to assemble a set of songs that spoke to this political moment with appropriate ambition, passion, and fury, starting at the end of 2016, not just in response to the American elections but to the political trends he was seeing around the world.
“I am alarmed by Trump and the movement he’s part of,” he says. “I’ve spent a good chunk of my life running around the world on tour—I’m kind of an accidental internationalist—and I see that he’s not an isolated phenomenon. And if we don’t deal with what is going on, it is going to deal with us.” In releasing “The Militant Ecologist featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, Ribot repurposes the popular Italian resistance song “Fischia il Vento” (Whistling in the Wind). Renowned punk rock filmmaker Jem Cohen has also directed a video for the song featuring a green-tinged New York City skyline with a flag whipping in the wind.
For their new take, Ribot and Ndegeocello change the male partisan fighter in the original song to a woman fighting to stop global warming. “We changed the gender in our version and the flag at the end is green,” Ribot explained of his and Ndegeocello’s take on the song and visuals. “But Meshell projects the persona of a resistance fighter going on a mission perfectly: ‘strong her heart, and swift her arm to strike.”
The eleven songs on the record include a few original compositions as well as traditional songs that are drawn from World War II anti-Fascist Italian partisans, the U.S. civil rights movement and Mexican protest ballads. It also features a wide range of guest vocalists, including Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Vivian Bond, Fay Victor, Ohene Cornelius and Sam Amidon.
Over a forty-year career, Ribot has released twenty-five albums under his own name and been a beacon of New York’s downtown/experimental music scene, leading a series of bands including Los Cubanos Postizos and Ceramic Dog. Since his work with Tom Waits on 1985’s Rain Dogs album, though, he is best known to the world as a sideman, playing on countless albums by the likes of Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Norah Jones, the Black Keys, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Grammy-winning collaboration Raising Sand.
Along with his musical efforts, Ribot has also been an outspoken activist/community organizer in a number of causes, from affordable housing to musicians’ rights in the digital age. Portions of the album’s proceeds will be donated to The Indivisible Project, an organization that helps individuals resist the Trump agenda via grassroots movements in their local communities.
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Photo Gallery: Rubblebucket at Troy’s Rockin’ on the River
What started out as a rainy day in Troy led to a beautiful night of music with Rubblebucket, And the Kids, and Onlyness. Rubblebucket band leader Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth lead the group with a mix of dance rhythms with colorful costumes and props. Check out their new album Sun Machine, due out on August 24.
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Cobblestone Live Host Successful Second-Year Festival
This past weekend in Buffalo, NY the second annual Cobblestone Live was put on by the famous venue Buffalo Iron Works. The weather remained sunny for a majority of the weekend, besides a little drizzling for 15 minutes during Saturday afternoon. There were four stages spread across the Cobblestone District, one set up on both Illinois and Columbia St.’s, one inside Iron Works, and one inside Lockhouse Distillery. Some of the food highlights of the weekend were the Lloyd taco truck, Barely Edible crepe truck, and the free tacos from Breezy Burrito Company, although those were VIP-only.
The festival featured both local bands and national bands alike, such as Cold Lazarus, Space Junk, and the ever-growing groove rockers Aqueous for the former, and Andy Frasco & The U.N., Turkuaz, and Los Angeles natives Chicano Batman. The lineup also showcased some international bands, bringing Broken Social Scene and The Sheepdogs down from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. One of the first impressive sets of the weekend came from Madaila, the Burlington-based psych pop group that all were all dressed in the same turquoise t-shirts with an “M” insignia on the front. The band brought their “A” game playing song after song of their upbeat, synth-driven pop. The much talked about Chicano Batman took to the Illinois St. stage next, impressing many festivalgoers with their genre-bending soul music and frequent instrument swaps between band members. It was very clear that frontman Bando Martinez was putting his heart and soul into this performance, leaving a lasting impression on the members of the audience.
Next up were local favorites Aqueous with their first set of the weekend on the Columbia St. stage. The groove rockers busted out covers of both parts of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” by famous psychedelic rockers The Flaming Lips, as well as the debut of an original tune, “Say It Again,” which was a highlight in the near-perfect set. Lead guitarist Mike Gantzer also debuted his new Paul Reed Smith guitar at this set, seemingly enjoying the new but familiar sounds he was drawing out of the instrument. Following Aqueous, Brooklyn-based funk group Turkuaz took to Illinois St. with their always-astounding tunes. The band opened with their classic “Chatte Lunatique,” immediately raising the moods of the audience up while telling their bodies to get down. The group also played some of their bigger hits such as “Percy Thrills, The Moon Dog” and “Nightswimming,” which were featured on their recent live release 040717. To close out the first night of the fest, Nashville-based jazz funk band Dynamo took to the stage inside Iron Works and laid down some fiery versions of their original tunes. They had the whole venue packed and grooving, energizing the late night attendees with their funky yet soulful grooves and positive stage presences, especially the captivating Emoni Wilkins on vocals.
Local intellifunk jam group Cold Lazarus kicked off Saturday with a remarkable set on Illinois St., waking up the Cobblestone District with their groovy, reggae infused music. The band started rather recently, just at the beginning of 2017, when guitarist Adam Gould, bassist Gavin Patierni, and drummer Marc Scapelitte came together for a new project, only to find they had instant musical chemistry, later adding keyboardist/saxophonist Drew Minton to the mix. Another local group known as Space Junk took to the Iron Works stage a little later in the afternoon, bringing their jamtronica-esque jams and progressive sound to the venue. Guitarist Matt Fantini and keyboardist Cary Meehan were melodically locked in, while the rhythm section of bassist Will Thompson and drummer Kevin Rogers kept the grooves tight and funky throughout the set. Their set was definitely one of the highlights of the weekend. Down on Columbia St., madman Andy Frasco and his band The U.N. brought their soulful blues rock and bottle of Jameson to Cobblestone, putting on one hell of a show. Frasco made sure to incorporate the audience into the show as much as possible, getting down into the crowd several times throughout the set to have the crowd play a game similar to “follow the leader” a few times, help him crowd surf to his bottle of Jameson, and lift him up in a chair Bar Mitzvah style, dancing around him in a circle. The group brought out Mike Gantzer of Aqueous for an original tune and a brief version of AC/DC’s classic “Thunderstruck,” as well as performing a few instrument swaps that led to a spectacular guitar solo from drummer Andrew Avila.
Aqueous performed their second set of the weekend on the Illinois St. stage on Saturday afternoon, jam-packing the hour and a half with jammed out versions of some heavy hitters, especially their classic “Skyway.” The set also featured a spot on cover of Paul McCartney’s James Bond theme song “Live and Let Die,” which had the crowd rocking out in the warm weather. Following Aqueous were the Canadian The Sheepdogs and Broken Social Scene, on the Columbia and Illinois St. stages respectively. The Sheepdogs featured a classic rock and roll sound, while bringing a bit of Canadian flavor to the music. Their set was comprised of mostly originals, but was closed by a song by “the greatest American rock and roll band,” (their words), “Ramblin’ Man” by the Allman Brothers Band. Broken Social Scene had an indie rock sound and surprised a lot of festivalgoers, rocking out as a collective group of musicians on the Illinois St. stage. Closing out the fest was Michelangelo Carubba’s Birthday Super Jam, which was comprised of Carubba, Mike Gantzer and Dave Loss of Aqueous, Craig Brodhead of Turkuaz, and Freekbass, the internet sensation that has mastered the art of playing bass. The supergroup also featured Shira Elias of Turkuaz and Ernie Chang of Andy Frasco & The U.N. for several songs. The set featured mainly covers, most importantly stellar versions of “Life in the Fast Lane” by The Eagles, “Vultures” by John Mayer, which Carubba surprisingly sang on, prompting Mike Gantzer to complement his voice, and a Freekbass-led version of “Fame” by David Bowie, which was the highlight of the set.
Cobblestone Live was a huge success that featured lots of fantastic local, national, and international bands, as well as an alpaca farm that had attendees raving. Hopefully the festival will return in 2019, bringing more music and great food to the residents of Buffalo. Check out the photo gallery below for a taste of what happened over the weekend.
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Flashback: Phish’s Superball IX, July 1-3, 2011
Prior to being Magnified and well before it Curved, it was Super. Phish’s third major festival in New York State, formally known as Superball IX, took place in July of 2011 at the esteemed Watkins Glen International located in Schuyler County. The move to “The Glen” served as a departure from the band’s previous festival locations at abandoned Air Force Bases which hosted the likes of The Clifford Ball and The Great Went and exchanged it for a world class motor speedway that may be most remembered for an event held almost 40 years beforehand.
The Grateful Dead, The Band and The Allman Brothers Band all combined forces in 1973 for an event that drew over 600,000 people to the racetrack for a concert known as Summer Jam, creating traffic and a scene that dwarfed Woodstock in size. That would be the last major concert at Watkins Glen until Phish was able to secure permission to hold Superball IX there and reopen the racetrack grounds for music. Let’s take a look back at some of the things that made Phish’s ninth festival so special. And make sure to also check out our retrospectives on the prior two that also called New York home, The Clifford Ball and Camp Oswego,
To say there was a (beautiful) buzz about Phish in the summer of 2011 is an understatement. Any and all rust in terms of the band’s cohesiveness and ability to communicate instrumentally had been wiped away since their return to the stage in 2009 after a near five-year “break up.” And while 2010’s Festival 8 at Coachella’s home in Indio, CA would technically be their first festival since the reunion, this was their first East Coast festival since coming back, where all the others had been. The buzz only grew louder after the summer tour was kickstarted with 4 notable shows at another legendary New York venue for music in New York – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, which happens to reside on the grounds of that aforementioned Woodstock festival.
By the beginning of July, with another 15 shows under their belt since Bethel, Phish was ready to end the first leg of their summer tour in style. The village of Watkins Glen rolled out the red carpet for phans and then some with signs welcoming them and deals catered to the Phish crowd as the locals seemed to embrace what was sure to be a brief but powerful economic boon.
Cars and RVs slowly began to line up and soon fill up the festival grounds early Thursday morning in preparation for a full weekend of music. And it was clear Phish management had done their homework and learned from festivals of the past as the entry process was devoid of any of the nightmare-ish traffic jam tales associated with IT (2003) and Coventry (2004). With more vehicle entrances that allowed for a better traffic setup, getting in was a breeze for many. Having great weather all week and a venue that’s capable holding 100,000 NASCAR fans certainly helped as well.Those that were set up early enough got to hear a pre-festival soundcheck, either within earshot from the stage or via broadcast on The Bunny, Phish’s traditional festival radio station that usually takes over a local FM radio transmission for the weekend. A light, whimsical sound check featuring songs like “Sleep Again” and “Ginseng Sullivan” displayed the band’s looseness and featured of plenty of improvisation to help whet the collective appetite for the weekend.
DAY 1
By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, everyone had gotten a good chance to stroll about the festival grounds and see all the art exhibits and other general weirdness displayed everywhere. Various sculptures and small buildings greeted patrons as they made their way closer to the stage and the plethora of food and beer vendors lined up aside it.
The first set of the weekend was fairly straightforward albeit with a powerful “Possum” that began the festivities, followed by a unique “Peaches en Regalia” > “Moma Dance” combination. Towards the end of the set, “Wolfman’s Brother” delivered a slow but funky groove that steadily grew in intensity and served as the first signs of heavy jamming. But the highlight of the set, for many, was the unexpected bustout of “Life on Mars?,” a David Bowie cover that hadn’t been played since 2003, or 175 shows to be exact. Lots of fans were finally able to take this one off of their respective “unseen” lists as the band played it before a gorgeous New York summer sunset.
7/1/11 Set 1: Possum, Peaches en Regalia > Moma Dance, Torn and Frayed > NICU > Bathtub Gin, Life on Mars?, My Friend,My Friend, Wolfman’s Brother, Roses are Free > Funky Bitch, Quinn the Eskimo
Friday’s second set opener was a harbinger of things to come as the band opened up with a dark, foreboding ambient second jam for several minutes before bursting into the Talking Heads’ “Crosseyed and Painless” which later gave way to the anthemic “Chalkdust Torture.” Later on, another precursor of future events unfolded in the form of an extended spacey jam emanating from “Simple” that oozed eerie and ominous tones.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s pro shot footage of Superball’s “Simple” and the ensuing “Bug” that features a powerful jam on the back end.
https://vimeo.com/25908783
7/1/11 Set 2: Jam > Crosseyed and Painless > Chalkdust Torture, Sand > The Wedge, Mike’s Song > Simple > Bug > The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Weekapaug Groove, Joy > Character Zero
Encore: Show of Life
DAY 2
Saturday brought with it three sets of music and and a sweltering heat to deal with for the opening one in the afternoon. Water and shade were at a premium as the sun beat down on a crowd estimated to be close to 30,000 – a far cry from the population of Summer Jam. This also meant Superball IX would be one of the lighter attended Phish festivals when compared to ones from the past that drew 60,000 or more. But all this did was make for a pleasant experience all weekend as lines for vendors were more than manageable and everyone was able to move around (and dance) freely.
Those that did get up to get down that Saturday afternoon did so under a scorching sun and to another first set with some unique song selections. The show officially started with a rip roaring “Tube” that immediately prompted an all out beach ball frenzy in the crowd. Seemingly thousands of beach balls of various colors and sizes bounced around happily while Phish while began the day’s festivities and gazed at a sea of super balls.Here’s some great fan shot footage of the opener and the ensuing “Kill Devil Falls” that puts you right in the middle of the maddness.
The rest of the first set was business as usual with staples like “Lawn Boy ” and “Divided Sky” being delivered in addition to “Cities,” another commonly played Talking Heads cover. But this set strayed off the beaten path a little in the form of two songs the band had never played before. The first of which was “Susskind Hotel” which came on the heels of the reverb ending of “46 Days.” Devoted fans recognized this as a song concocted and played by bassist Mike Gordon with his side project, but this was a debut for Phish. Then, after what appeared to be the fairly standard “Suzy Greenberg” set closer replete with a finishing flurry on piano from Page McConnell, the band stayed on stage for one last song, a completely unexpected cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Monkey Man,” as seen on the album Sticky Fingers and immortalized by the move Goodfellas.
7/2/11 Set 1: Tube, Kill Devil Falls > Ocelot, Lawn Boy, Divided Sky, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Camel Walk, Cities > Poor Heart > 46 Days > Susskind Hotel , When the Circus Comes, Timber Ho! > Back on the Train > Suzy Greenberg, Monkey Man
Those looking for an added challenge in the hazy, humid Saturday heat had their chance to do so courtesy of the second ever Runaway Jim 5K Road Race that took place right on the race track. It was quite a scene to behold as small groups of quasi-serious runners bobbed and weaved around others decked out in costumes and clearly there just for the experience. Fittingly, the second set of the day opened with “Runaway Jim” and the band took the opportunity to bring the winners of the race up on stage for a brief trophy presentation. Immediately after that, it was back to business and the band finished up the song and plowed through another set of fan favorites that included numbers like “Axilla,” “Stash” and “The Mango Song.” One of the more poignant moments of the set was the performance of “Scents and Subtle Sounds,” still a fairly new song at that time and only played once before since the band’s reunification in 2009. An emotionally charged jam lifted the crowd up before another appropriately titled song “Run Like an Antelope” closed out the set.7//2/11 Set 2: Runaway Jim > McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Axilla > Birds of a Feather, Stash, Sample in a Jar, Heavy Things > Horn > It’s Ice > The Mango Song > Rift > Scents and Subtle Sounds, Run Like an Antelope
art by John Warner Phish had one more (announced) set scheduled for the evening and rolled out a doozy. With another cover to open, this time TV on the Radio’s “Golden Age,” it soon began a chain of progression that delivered both classic originals and other covers that the band has made their own over time. And it didn’t stop until the set was completed. From traditional behemoths like “Piper” and “Tweezer” that showcased Trey Anastasio’s inspiring guitar work to a rousing cover of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” to close it, this set offered up a little bit of everything as each song flowed effortlessly into the next.
7/2/11 Set 3: Golden Age > Prince Caspian > Piper > Tweezer > Julius > Backwards Down the Number Line > Twist > Also Sprach Zarathurstra > Harry Hood > Cavern > Golgi Apparatus > A Day in the Life
Encore: Loving Cup > Tweezer Reprise
Afterwards, most folks headed back to their respective campsites both with the glow of having experiences three great sets of music and wonderment as to whether there would be another “secret” set like in previous East Coast festivals. Harkening back to the unannounced performance on a flatbed truck rolling through The Clifford Ball grounds, Phish has typically pulled out some sort of surprise during the course of a festival. One of the defining moments of IT in 2003 was an unannounced “Tower Jam” that saw the band play at the top of an abandoned control tower in the control room while lights and acrobatic dancers graced the outside of the tower.
That performance was solely advertised by word of mouth and rumors that began to slowly spread and there was a large portion of the festival that never heard about it until the next day, sadly.. This was also 2003, well before the power of social media could be harnessed in a mobile setting like it is today. 2011 offered more help in this aspect as Twitter and other social media platforms spread hearsay much more efficiently. And by the end of night most people were sure Phish was going to do something, just not what it was.The Vermont foursome did not disappoint as randomly, around 1 in the morning, strange sounds started to emanate from one of the buildings that had been erected in the “square” area to resemble a self-storage facility, near all the other art installations. As weird tones and noises grew in frequency, it quickly became evident that everyone’s suspiciions were being confirmed and this was the “secret set.” What followed for the next hour or so was a giant, spacey jam that most people jenjoyed either sitting or laying on the ground. Opaque windows and heavy backlighting meant you could only see the sillhouettes of each band member, adding to the mystique. Heavy theremin playing from McConnell and strange ambient collective jamming soon gave way to the oddest “Sleeping Monkey” ever performed by the group and just like that another Phish legend had been created – The Storage Jam.
DAY 3
By Sunday, even though it was only the third performance day of the festival, Superballers had been treated to essentially three shows already with 6 sets of music in the last two days. But with everyone off for the 4th of July the following day, the party vibe was still strong as everyone geared up for the last two sets of the weekend. This general;mood was affirmed with a show opening “Soul Shakedown Party,” a classic Bob Marley song. There was also another longtime fan favorite brought back from the abyss with “The Curtain” and its first performance since September of 2000.
A “Col. Forbin’s Ascent” > “Fly Famous Mockingbird” satisfied the Gamehendge crowd and referenced yesterday’s late night audio exploration. Shockingly, one of the true highlights of the set and that day’s music overall was a song that usually doesn’t generate such shockwaves. But a truly unique performance of the song “Mound” blew the doors off of all its previous versions thanks to a ferocious Anastasio guitar solo towards the end of song that had never appeared in that spot before, and hasn’t been seen again since.
Arguably, the greatest “Mound” ever:
7/3/12 Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party > AC/DC Bag > The Curtain > Colonel Forbin’s Ascent > Fly Famous Mockingbird > Destiny Unbound > Big Black Furry Creature from Mars, Wilson > Mound, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, Time Loves a Hero, Reba > David Bowie
With one last set to play with, Phish let it all hang out with yet another set featuring some memorable cover selections. In a nod to the name of the festival, the last set of the weekend started with a rendition of AC/DC’s “Big Balls,” another first timer in the now expansive Phish catalog of songs. The quirky cover quickly gave way to much more customary second set jam vehicles, the first of which was “Down with Disease” which produced a soaring, rhythmic jam spearheaded by tenacious work on the drums by Jon Fishman and corresponding bass from Gordon. As the jam began to slow in intensity and increase in ambience, familiar notes played on the electric piano signaled another fantastic cover choice – the second ever performance of Led Zepellin’s “No Quarter.”
More traditional second set jam vehicles followed in the likes of “Ghost” and an impressively extended “Light.” And perhaps no sequence summed up the weekend better than a driving and powerful “Waves” jam that soared high before dissolving into spaciness and turning into the instrumental “What’s the Use?” At the end of the final set of the weekend, Phish paid tribute to America with an a capella rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner. The band collectively expressed their sincere thanks to all those who helped produce and set up Superball IX before a “First Tube” encore laden with fireworks put a bow on everything.
7/3/12 Set 2: Big Balls > Down with Disease > No Quarter > Party Time, Ghost > Gotta Jibboo > Light, Waves > What’s the Use? > Meatstick > Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, The Star Spangled Banner
Encore: First Tube
We hope you enjoyed this look back at some of the pictures, videos and moments that made Superball so special. Stay tuned to NYSMusic.com for more NY Phish festival retrospectives as we tackle Magnaball next, the sequel to Superball that was held at the same venue four years later. This is all in preparation for Curveball, the upcoming third Phish festival, also being held at Watkins Glen International, taking place August 17-19,
And here’s one last video, taken and posted by contributing photographer Jacob Silco, that shows a little bit of everything from the fun that was Superball IX.
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Michelangelo Carubba sits down with Empire State Music Podcast
Turkuaz drummer and Buffalo native, Michelangelo Carubba joins host Andy Hogan at Cobblestone Live to discuss growing up in Buffalo, time spent at Berklee School of Music, life on the road with Turkuaz, and the experiences that shaped his career in music. Tune in on Simplecast.
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CIA and Let’s Danza! bring similar lineups but different sounds to Kind Mind Campout
Going to a festival means making decisions on what music to see, and what you might miss out on as a result. If you are headed to Kind Mind Campout in Minot, ME this weekend, you’ll have plenty of EDM and electronic-infused jambands to choose from, but two of these artists, CIA and Let’s Danza!, offer a unique pairing, back to back on the Maine Stage this Saturday, August 4, and should not be missed.
Let’s Danza!, the Philly-based reincarnation of Brothers Past, includes Clay Parnell and Tom McKee (both of BP), Ian McGuire (MJ Project, Sonic Spank) and a rotating drummer, while CIA is Clay Parnell, Ian McGuire and Allen Aucoin (Disco Biscuits, Dr. Fameus). Aucoin will fill in on drums for Let’s Danza! at Kind Mind, something he has done on occasion in the past. The Danza! drummer changes from show-to-show, with other regulars behind the kit including Mike Greenfield (Lotus), Scotty Zwang (Ghost Light) and Kito Bovenschulte who plays with Parnell in Particle. CIA and Let’s Danza have overlapping lineups, but their sounds are starkly different.
CIA is 100% pure, live improvisation, a trait rarely found among bands in the jam or EDM scenes. As bassist and founding member of Brother’s Past, Let’s Danza! and CIA, Clay Parnell stresses that they don’t have any songs to work from, and it’s all improv in the moment. “We’ve had guests over the years and fucked around with ‘material,’ but we just get on stage and we jam – the whole thing we are improvising. There‘s a couple of styles we like and we can read each other as we play, but we don’t have a computer with us on stage, so it’s open and free and we have zero clue how the set will flow or be composed.”
Parnell isn’t kidding when he says that this is unique to freely jam for an entire set. “There’s not a whole lot of bands out there that just get out there and jam. We try not to stop over the course of a set. Ian teases and leads the melody and he takes us many places, but we just don’t stop jamming.” The lack of material helps CIA to push forth into the unknown with each set. “When you don’t have any material to go into, you don’t have any choice but to get in there and improvise with your fellow musicians and make it better. It’s a whole thing and that’s what I love about us and it keeps me coming back. That’s what CIA is about.”
Then there’s Let’s Danza!, which features the same lineup as CIA, but includes Tom McKee (keys) from Brothers Past. Parnell describes how the latest incarnation of Brothers Past came about: “The group is a project that was designed to have myself, Tom McKee from Brothers Past and Ian McGuire both on keys, where Tom would do the keyboard parts and Ian would play guitar on his synth rig, and that would allow us to delve back into the Brothers Past catalog. We approach our sound together and the two keyboard styles are complimented.” Whereas CIA will take an entirely improv set, Let’s Danza has songs, vocals, sequences and compositions and although three-fourths of the players are the same, there will be decidedly different things to expect from each set. Parnell continued, “I’m looking forward to differentiating something between the two sets, and doing them with an overlap of personnel and back to back. We haven’t played Maine since Great North in 2016 and I remember the crowd energy from that set, so we are looking forward to following that up this weekend.”
When asked who the boss was of Let’s Danza!, Parnell replied “It’s myself and Tom McKee, it’s one way that we are expressing ourselves, but it’s really the three of us. McKee and I are collaborating together, we live three blocks away from each other and he has a studio he owns and operates, so we hang out a lot having done Brothers Past stuff together. Let’s Danza! is one way that we can keep playing electronic music together.”
And that Philly scene where Brother’s Past, CIA and Let’s Danza! arose from? Well it’s as vibrant as any other big city scene. “The jazz scene has been thriving and has always been huge, especially the pop and rock scene. It’s as bedroom community for New York musicians. Most people that comprise the bands of the big NYC based acts are Philly based musicians. A ton of people are working out of NYC but they are Philly based. The Disco Biscuits are the pillar of the Philly jamband scene, and Lotus, Brothers Past and all collaborations stem from that.”
Kind Mind Campout kicks off on Friday, August 3 in Minot, ME. Catch Let’s Danza! From 6pm-7pm on the Maine Stage, with CIA following from 8:30pm – 9:30pm also on the Maine Stage.
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Phish wrap up West Coast shows, head East with eyes on Watkins Glen
Phish is back and headed east for the second half of their summer tour, which found them kicking things off in Stateline, NV on July 17 and 18. Over the course of nine West Coast shows and a show in Austin, TX on Tuesday night, Phish has dusted off some rust, debuted a few tunes and delved deeper on jams as the tour has progressed, more or less how the past few tours have gotten started.
There have been some high water marks: “I Always Wanted it This Way” from Stateline, “Simple,” “Wombat,” “Crosseyed and Painless” and “Chalkdust Torture” from The Gorge, “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” > “Mercury” > “Carini” and “Set Your Soul Free” from Bill Graham in San Francisco, “Kill Devil Falls,” “Gotta Jibboo,” “Fuego,” and “Soul Planet” from The Forum in Los Angeles, and “Everything’s Right” > “Down with Disease” from Austin360 Amphitheater. Debuts of “Set Your Soul Free,” “Infinite” and “Keepin’ it Real” have been welcomed by the fans, and teases from the band have been subtle but wide ranging, more so than previous tours. “Little Drummer Boy” and “Theme from S.W.A.T.” have shown up on multiple occasions, as well as “There is a Mountain” (Donovan), “Celluloid Heroes” (The Kinks), “Heartbreaker” (Led Zeppelin), and “Time Loves a Hero” (Little Feat) all making appearances ever so subtly throughout the shows.
There have been some head-scratchers too. The entire first set of Austin sounds like it looks on paper – a directionless smattering of usual first set options, but then second set they charge out with 36 combined minutes of “Everything’s Right” and “Down with Disease.” After a fiery “Tweezer” > “Golden Age” at The Gorge, and with the band dialed in, Trey dropped in a “Farmhouse;” the ripcord could be heard down the Columbia River valley for miles. Maybe they are throwing fans curveballs throughout the shows to keep fans on their feet, keeping things uneven, a stark contrast to 2017 when the band felt dialed in after just a few shows and went on to a historic Baker’s Dozen run of shows at Madison Square Garden. Perhaps they’re just getting warmed up and starting to catch fire the closer they get back to the usual stomping grounds of the East Coast. Or maybe they just play whatever they want, and at times hit a sweet spot of jamming that reaffirms their place on the Mt. Rushmore of Jam.
So what can we expect from Phish for the next 8 shows before they return to Watkins Glen for their 11th festival, Curveball? For one thing, a variety in the setlists – few songs have been repeated more than twice, and those are jam vehicles such as “Down with Disease,” an effect of the no-repeat Baker’s Dozen where the band played 237 different songs over 13 shows. They went five and a half shows without a repeat to start the tour, and the selection has been the most variation seen this far into tour, ever.
10 shows into 2018, #phish has played unique 141 songs – the most in the band’s history this many shows into a year. This tops the previous high of 139 (set back in 2012). The most frequent songs: DWD, Everything’s Right, Moma Dance, and The Wedge (all played 3 times) #tourstats
— Scott Marks (@bizarchive) August 1, 2018
And what about at Curveball? With the music and art installations at Phish festivals always well-guarded secrets, fans have begun to speculate that Phish play 9 sets, or 9 innings of music, with a possible ‘Casey at the Bat’ tie-in. Phish always packs a little something extra for their festivals, and Easter Eggs among the art on the grounds and hints in the song selection could give fans an idea of what to expect. Still, a Phish festival is a Christmas present wrapped in a ball of mystery, and that surprise is always worth the wait.
Phish next hits Alpharetta, GA, at a fan favorite venue located in the northern Atlanta suburbs and also one of the smallest venues of the tour with capacity of only 12,000. Then it’s off to Camden, NJ for two nights at BB&T Pavilion on August 7-8, then they head down to Raleigh on Friday, August 10 before heading north to wrap up the pre-fest end of tour at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD August 11-12. Curveball gates open on Thursday, August 16 and the music kicks off on Friday.
Stay tuned for more coverage from NYS Music of past Phish festivals and upcoming shows, as well as daily reviews and photos from Watkins Glen. Setlists and teases courtesy of Phish.net. Donate to the Mockingbird Foundation and support music education throughout the country.