Posts by Bryan Rodgers

If you attended college in the 90’s, there’s a good chance that the bands comprising the Last Summer On Earth Tour could be heard emanating from a dorm room or apartment near you, if not from your own. There’s an album’s worth of hits to be culled from the catalogs of Cracker, Big Head Todd And The Monsters, Blues Traveler, and Barenaked Ladies, and nearly every tune was trotted out at the Raleigh tour stop. With three H.O.R.D.E. Tour alumni present, that heady time was reminisced over by more than a few attendees. But though the crowd was of a certain age and the music was nostalgic, half of the bands actually performed recent material.

Summing up an event like Bonnaroo takes time for reflection and consideration, but by the time Phish’s closing set was over on Sunday night, it was clear and simple – Bonnaroo 2012 is going to be remembered as one of the great ones. Looking back over the music and surprises of the weekend, Sunday’s shows don’t necessarily stand out among the shock rock and superjams and sunrise sets (okay, Lionel Richie showed up and sang “All Night Long” with Kenny Rogers, but that wasn’t totally unexpected). But it was as solid as any of the festival’s four days thanks to solid if relatively unsurprising performances by veteran acts.

As an unintentional exclamation point on the day, I happened to walk by shock schlocker Alice Cooper’s show just as the guillotine dropped and the band broke into “School’s Out.” From the truly odd (Puscifer) to the frightening (Danzig, Alice Cooper) and fascinating (Superjam), Bonnaroo 2012’s stupendous Saturday carnival had it all.

Radiohead are the booking that put Bonnaroo over the top back in 2006. Festival higher-ups have regularly pointed to that year as the year Bonnaroo broke, and the prospect of an equally epic show from Thom Yorke and company had tens of thousands salivating as Friday night kicked into full gear. Much like 2006, though, the audience found itself divided. After the band interjected a panicky "15 Steps" among a group of mellower material (Opener "Bloom," In Rainbows favorite "Wierd Fishes/Arpeggi"), many who jammed the field at 10 PM didn't stick around for the one-two punch of "I Might Be Wrong" and "The Gloaming" that occurred about half an hour in.

After a smashing 10th anniversary, Bonnaroo has officially become part of the fabric of Tennessee. Press members are being offered tours of Nashville, as the powers that be endeavor to tie the state’s old musical history in with the new; most locals have embraced the event, or at least the residual dollars; and the proprietors are planting trees, building structures, and basically settling in for the duration of whatever time we have left. And they’re gonna throw a party every year, just in case that time isn’t long.

Produced by Galactic’s Ben Ellman, who assembled the group, the album features Anders Osborne (guitar), George Porter Jr. (bass), Ivan Neville (keys), and Simon Lott (drums) – an elite group by any standard. One look at the lineup and there’s no doubt that there will be funk found throughout this record. The album’s real charm, though, is in its restrained playing and in Montbleau’s astoundingly expressive voice.

Cake’s appearance at the Raleigh Amphitheater didn’t include their disaffected traffic serenade “Long Line of Cars,” but it did contain a long line of songs from the band’s 20-year career. In fact, “Long Line of Cars” was about the only song they didn’t play that would be expected by the 3,000 or so people in attendance. Armed with a disdain for cameras of any kind and a relatively modest production featuring a disco ball and desert backdrop, the veteran band unfurled two separate sets full of aging college radio gems, indelible alternative hits, and new songs.

Beauty pervades even the saddest situations, and Happy Book gives the impression that the perpetually ornery Jerry Joseph is coming to grips with that and maybe loosening up a bit.

Armed with an album’s worth of new material for the first time in nearly a decade, Acoustic Syndicate returned to Carrboro, NC’s Cat’s Cradle for a Saturday night show that turned out to be a showcase for new songs instead of the usual barrage of crowd favorites. The McMurry clan (Steve, Bryon, and Fitz), along with bassist Jay Sanders and Billy Cardine on dobro, are newly committed to making music again, and it’s invigorating for the band and their fans to hear freshly minted songs emanating from the stage.

By keeping their songs concise and riffs big, moe. manage to maintain their status as solid studio band on their 10th album, What Happened to the La Las

Though Warren Haynes’ annual Christmas Jam has become synonymous with legendary performances and monumental collaborations, it should have surprised no one that the 23rd edition would exceed even those lofty expectations.

But for Bass to be anything other than what it is would be discounting what he’s built over the last two decades.  It’s not going to replace Williams’ Stage or Breathe in the jamband canon, but Bass is as quintessentially Keller as the rest of his catalog.

Lotus’ self-titled fourth studio album features the band painting with bigger, broader brushes to create their musical vision.  There’s a signature sound in place, the result of a decade’s worth of evolution in both band and equipment, but many of the intricacies that defined the band’s sound have been shaped into grander melodic ideas.

Handguns, the 4th studio album from Greensky Bluegrass, is one of the most stirring acoustic releases of the year.  The five-man Michigan band has taken strands of bluegrass, country, folk, and engineered a lyrically blunt, musically sophisticated strain of acoustic art.  The songs have an honesty that harkens back to the glory days of confessional country music as perfected by Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and the like. 

Bryan Rodgers sampled Banana Split Chocolate Stout and other craft beers as he tells us all about Durham’s World Beer Festival.

WSP haven’t been able to sustain the rejuvenation that took place when Jimmy Herring joined the band, and they’ve transitioned to the 6000 capacity Raleigh Amphitheatre after routinely drawing 15,000-plus people in the area just ten years ago.  While smaller venues aren’t necessarily a bad thing for the fans, the decline in attendance certainly seems to coincide with many longtime fans’ feelings that the quality of shows has declined as well.

The title of The New Mastersounds’ latest, Breaks from the Border, refers to the fact that the album was recorded in the border town of Tornillo, Texas, but it may as well refer to the musical position in which the band finds itself in the wake of the album’s release.

The Hopscotch Music Festival is only in its second year, but the event already feels like a tradition.  That’s partly due to the undeniable uniqueness of the festival, and partly to the huge cache of local bands that take part, thus drawing out local music fans by the busload.  During Hopscotch, the lucky locals are happy to show the weekenders just how brightly Raleigh’s music scene, and the city itself, can shine.  With so many amazing venues taking part, and the ever-increasing variety of other diversions downtown, the weekend becomes one big make-out session with the capital city.

After more than a decade making ends meet as a solo act, Mike Doughty has emerged from beneath the shadow of his former self with Yes and Also Yes.  Perhaps age, antidepressants, the healing passage of time, or a combination of each have contributed to his lighter outlook. 

If you aren’t already aware of Dave Matthews Band fans and their fanatical devotion, So Much to Say: 20 Years on the Road will reveal the myriad ways in which they’ve made being crazy about DMB look easy.  If you’re not already familiar with (or a fan of) DMB, the book certainly won’t make understanding that psychosis any easier.