Author: Brian Ferguson

Dopapod Brings Best Friends Tour to Rochester

Dopapod brought it’s Best Friends Tour to Essex in Rochester on Tuesday, December 3.

About a month away from their last shows before an indefinite hiatus, guitarist Rob Compa brought the band to his hometown for a throwdown at the newish venue, Essex. Before the show, Rob asked the crowd if they wanted one long set or two, and of course the crowd voted for the usual jamband two set format. The band warmed the crowd from the frigid cold with a heater of a first set before bringing out their ex-employee, Goose’s Peter Anspach. Anspach first shredded guitar on “Nuggy Jawson” before jumping on keys for the set closer, “Indian Grits.”

Dopapod leaned heavy on the classics for set two, including versions of “8 Years Ended,” “Bubble Brain” and a Zappa cover in the middle of a song, “FABA” > “I Am The Slime” > “FABA.” They brought up Anspach again for the encore, and he helped them with “Best Friends” and “Runny” for the encore.

Dopapod next head west to Colorado, before wrapping up the year in the Midwest. They are playing their final shows on New Year’s Eve in Columbus, Ohio, so catch them if you can.

Dopapod – Essex, Rochester, NY – Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Set 1: Welcome to Paradise, Draculas Monk> Nerds> Two Somebodies> Nerds, Wizzy, Turn By Turn*, Metal Nuggy Jawson^, Indian Grits$
Set 2: Cloud World, 8 Years Ended, Brand New Home, Test of Time, Bubblebrain, FABA> I Am The Slime> FABA
Encore: Best Friends#, Runny^

* MGMT Kids tease
^ Peter Anspach on Guitar
$ Peter Anspach on Keys
# Peter Anspach on Vocals and Guitar

December 11, 2024
Papadosio Brings Summer Sequence to Wonderland Forest

Papadosio brought their Summer Sequence Festival to Wonderland Forest on June 21 and 22 in Lafayette, New York. Summer Sequence has been around in different variations since 2017. This summer they decided to give the new venue in the Finger Lakes a try, moving the festival from their home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

Wonderland Forest, still in it’s nascent phase, was a great low-key location for a music festival, as it was intimate and hassle free. Everything was centrally located with two campgrounds on either side of the venue, and besides a trek up the hill for the late-night stage, you were never a far walk from anything. The main stage, nestled in the forest was intimate, and the trees offered a great spot for people to set up their hammocks and set up their own home bases away from their camp site. I did not venture into the other campground area, so I’m not sure if they had any other food options out that way, but the main stage did have a small menu for food. They cooked it made-to-order and they had a pretty damn good wood-fired pizza as an option. If you are camping there for a festival in the future it would probably be smart to not depend on those options for the whole weekend though. The Finger Lakes offers a ton of opportunities to take in some nature in the afternoon, both onsite and offsite, exiting and entering the venue was a breeze.

Papadosio are a mix of Prog Rock, Livetronica, Jazz and Jamband, and their eclectic style reflected on the wide-ranging line-up. Along with Psy-Dub producer Ott, both acts were scheduled to play longer sets each night. After some afternoon Yoga, the music started both days around noon. The afternoons started off laid back, with sparse crowds but as the days went on, the crowd thickened out and were really ready to go by 7 or so.

As it was a new venue, there were still a few kinks to the weekend. As reported, a neighbor in the area is not exactly excited about the venue, and the late-night stage on Friday was shut down early at 2 AM (it was supposed to go until 5). Because of the legal issues with the sound, the late-night for Saturday was entirely canceled. The late-night stage itself was a hike up the mountain, but the venue had shuttles to remedy this and escorted people back down into the late of the night. To no fault of anyone, Ott’s Saturday’s set was cut short after only 45 minutes, as a lighting storm appeared in the area. Everyone went back to take shelter at their camp sites, some left but most stayed in the hopes that Papadosio would still be able to properly close out their festival. During the break the storm turned into a torrential downpour, but as quickly as it started, it stopped. Right before their scheduled set at 10, you could hear some sounds from the stage, and the lights turned back on. Someone from venue drove around in an ATV and let people know that Papadosio would be coming on soon.

Papadosio was able to play their final set, you could tell that everyone was enjoying getting a win at the end. Wonderland Forest was a great spot for their Summer Sequence Festival, the weekend was a success with only a few hiccups. Hopefully the venue is able to work out some of the issues and they will be able to come back next summer. Papadosio still has several dates planned throughout the summer, including the Secret Dreams Music & Arts Festival in Ohio and AVL Fest in North Carolina. Wonderland Forest will be bringing back the Disco Biscuits over the 4th of July weekend for their second Biscoland music festival.

June 29, 2024
In Focus: of Montreal in Rochester

of Montreal played The Water Street Music Hall in Rochester on June 7. Touring in support of their newest album, Lady on the Cusp, Kevin Barnes brought his psychedelic fever dream of a show to an enthusiastic and sometimes costumed crowd.

Part of legendary Atlanta psych collective Elephant 6, the band has been around since the 90’s so they have a vast catalogue of experimental pop to pull from.

of Montreal shows include a circus like cast of costumed, eccentric, gender bending characters, who take over the stage and mess and tease both the crowd and Kevin Barnes. It feels like the drama club found some good acid and decided to crash the stage.

You have no idea what’s coming next and their playful presence adds some intrigue and often times hilarity to the show. They played several new tracks from their new album, while cherry-picking some crowd favorites and an old rarity or two.

June 19, 2024
Khruangbin Plays in the Rain in Buffalo

Khruangbin came to Buffalo to play outside the AKG Art Museum on May 25. Rain was in the forecast and it started to drizzle as fantastic opener John Carroll Kirby took the stage. The set was cut short a few songs later as a threat of lighting shut everything down.

As the sky darkened, it started to rain and people scurried to various spots for cover, the smarter people going inside (I was not one of them). The rain came down harder and I was starting to think that Khruangbin were going to get rained out. There was more and more movement onstage and credit to the crew, they were actually able to get the stage ready even though it was still pouring out.

Khruangbin breaks their show up into two sets, on this tour the first one was a play through of their fantastic new album, A La Sala. The album is a little more laid back than previous efforts, but it is full of luscious textures and melodies, which were often a slow burn that really simmered in the night with the rain coming down.

You could tell the Texas trio (Mark Speer on guitar, Laura Lee Ochoa on bass and DJ Johnson on Drums, with everyone sharing vocal duties) was enjoying playing the new tunes. The highlights from the album were my highlights from the set, (“May Ninth, “Hold Me Up (Thank you)”, and “Three From Two”) and the set peaked with the blissful ending of “A Love International”. The album closer then ended the set, the dreamlike “Les Petits Gris” and they took a quick break.

A “Bin Bin” started off set two and got the crowd moving. After playing the new album, the second set was more of their older crowd favorites. The rain was a little too much for some, so the crowd thinned out and we seemed to lose some talkers and some of the more fairweather fans, so the crowd during this part of the show was really locked in.

Khruangbin’s vibe is generally a deep groove but right during the last section of “Lady and Man”, they seemed to flip the switch and the rest of the set felt like music you’d hear in a club vs. on a beach. The drenched crowd ate it up and tried to unsuccessfully to dance themselves dry, though the rain did finally let up towards the end of the second set.

Khruangbin next heads to the Midwest before wrapping up their US summer tour in Bonnaroo.

Khruangbin – Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY – May 25, 2024

Set 1: Fifteen Fifty-Three, May Ninth, Ada Jean, Farolim de Felgueiras, Pon Pon, Todavia Viva, Juegos y Nube, Hold Me Up (Thank You), Caja de la Sala, Three from Two, A Love International, Les Petits Gris

Set 2: Bin Bin, August 10, Master of Life, Father Bird, Mother Bird, Lady and Man, So We Won’t Forget, Even Finds the Third Room, Time (You and I), People Everywhere (Still Alive)

Encore: Maria Tambien

June 1, 2024
In Focus: Ty Segall at Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland

On Sunday, May 5, Ty Segall played the Beachland Ballroom in support of his latest album, Three Bells. Sharpie Smile opened and played a great set. Just as Ty and his band took the stage you could hear a crackling noise. It sounded like it could have come out of the speakers, like some weird wet sounding feedback.

After the puzzled crowd looked around for a bit, everyone noticed that a sizable chunk of plaster from the venues old ceiling had fallen off on one side, and a piece was still left hanging in the balance. A hero from the venue used a precariously large ladder to grab the piece while an amused Ty and his band watched from the stage. After our hero pulled the plaster down, the crowd roared in approval and the show was once again on it’s way. I will also say that this is the only concert I have ever been to where someone from the venue came out and warned us to wear ear plugs. With no pit and myself situated right in front of the stage and about six inches from a guitarist amp, my tinnitus was happy I didn’t forget mine.

A Ty Segall show is probably not ideal when the state of the ceiling is questionable, his new album was heavily featured and it is certainly hard and blistering. Though as far as I am aware, the rest of the night went by without incident, even if it seemed like Ty and his other guitarist Emmett Kelly were egging each other on to bring down more ceiling.

Ty played a great set, with all of the hard rock proggy guitar solos you could want. The band really plays off Ty’s energy and the packed Cleveland crowd at it up. Some people don’t like it when a band plays so many new songs versus more of the hits, but I think prefer it. It shows that the band is still pushing forward and if they are excited about what they are doing it almost always translates to a better show. Next Ty heads out west before heading to Europe.

Setlist: The Bell, Void, I Hear, Hi Dee Dee, Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess, The Crawler, My Head Explodes, Imaginary Person, Waxman, Love Fuzz, My Best Friend, My Room, Wait, Looking At You

Encore: My Lady’s on Fire

May 10, 2024
In Focus: Disco Biscuits at Town Ballroom in Buffalo

The Disco Biscuits came to the Town Ballroom in Buffalo over March 30-31 for two nights on their Why We Dance Tour. Just the night before they debuted their new album, Revolution in Motion at Webster Hall in New York City.

The Disco Biscuits have a rich history at the Town Ballroom, New York’s most underrated club venue. The room is perfect for the Biscuits as the many levels and circular setup makes a Disco Biscuits show there feel like an mini Bisco coliseum. They’ve played many great shows there and they added another on Saturday, while Sunday’s show was a more laid back affair.

On Saturday, the first night of two, you could tell the band was feeling great after a successful and probably pressure filled album release party the night before; as they looked to be in high spirits all night. Even though the previous show was all new songs, they still had enough new material to still have a good mix of old and new. The whole first set was a highlight, and was certainly up there with one of the better sets they’ve played in Buffalo. The room absolutely lost it when Orch Them appeared out of a stellar Buy The Time Jam. As far as second set highlights, Mindless Dribble > Fire Exchange > Confrontation was the meat of the set. It’s pretty hard to top ending a set with Confrontation, the crowd chanted along the words and all was right in Biscoland.

The Disco Biscuits have been trying their whole careers to blend live instruments and club music together, and it seems like they have finally perfected it in 2024. Besides setbreak, the music on Saturday did not stop once. The whole show was moving and pulsing forward, they didn’t get lost or falter once. Sometimes when bands focus too much on improv it can feel like the band is jamming just to jam, but that was night the case at all. The band played with purpose and direction, something that is hard to do when the majority of the night’s music was improv.

Sunday night’s show was a little bit of a step back from the previous night’s energy. Maybe the wave of energy crashed the night before, maybe they were in party mode celebrating Jon Gutwillig’s birthday, but they weren’t able to top Saturday. That being said, that’s what you get with improv. They are playing with such consistency nowadays that a show that let off the gas a little bit is still a great night of music. The improv on Sunday oscillated between dark and dirty Biscuits, some throwback trance and some happy Biscuits mixed in. I’m a sucker for happy Biscuits, and after a lot of dark, plodding improv throughout the night, the M1 > Cyclone section really scratched that itch for me.

The Disco Biscuits are playing lights out right now, so get your ass to a show if you can. They are due back in New York State for 4th of July weekend at their own festival Biscoland, just outside Syracuse.

Setlists via Biscuits Internet Project

March 30, 2024 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY

Soundcheck: Wet, Mr. Don
Set 1: Buy The Time 1 > Orch Theme 2 > Helicopters > Dino Baby > Rock Candy 3
Set 2: Bombs > Mindless Dribble > Fire Will Exchange > Confrontation 4 > The Deal 5 > Confrontation
Encore: Rockafella > Helicopters

1 with ‘Boom’ (Tiesto with Gucci Mane and Sevenn) samples
2 with âPerfect (Exceeder)â (Mason & Princess Superstar) samples
3 ending only
4 Techno version
5 1st time inverted

March 31, 2024 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY

Set 1: We Like To Party > Spacebirdmatingcall > No Recollection 1 > Pilin’ It High 2 3 > We Like To Party
Set 2: Jam > Voices Insane 4 > Ring the Doorbell Twice > And the Ladies Were the Rest of the Night 5 > M1 6 > Cyclone > Spacebirdmatingcall
Encore: Mulberry’s Dream 7

1 with âSidewindahâ (Gorgon City feat. Flirta D – Interplanetary Criminal Remix) samples
2 LTP 7/19/23 (50 shows)
3 Perfume version
4 unfinished
5 inverted
6 with âWatermelon Sugarâ (Harry Styles) samples
7 LTP 7/12/23 (55 shows)

3/30/24

3/31/24

April 7, 2024