This photo of Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson is ripe for your caption… [via BuzzFeed] Give it your best shot by leaving a caption as a comment below. We’ll pick
If you’ve ever read the SupDudeSupGuy blog, you’ve probably figured out that those guys sure know how to put a slamming mix together. In honor of our nation’s birthday, they’ve
By: Allison Taich
The 9th Annual Northwest String Summit (NWSS) returns to North Plains, Oregon for three days of music and camping July 16 – 18. Set at the scenic Horning’s Hideout, just 35 minutes west of Portland, the festival features some of the best and brightest acts in acoustic-jam music. Kick off your shoes, tune up your strings and get ready for the ultimate hootenanny, featuring three nights of Yonder Mountain String Band, plus sets by Rhythm Devils, moe., Danny Barnes, Darol Anger and more. Here is a glimpse of what to expect at the NWSS in order of appearance.
Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings :: Friday, July 16 :: 6:00-7:15pm
Darol Anger’s name is synonymous with contemporary fiddling. His music draws influence from the traditional improvisational forms of bluegrass and jazz, while incorporating themes of classical, folk, pop and world flavors. Anger’s current development, The Republic of Strings, acts as an inter-generational exploration of string music. Their genre melding approach is bound to sweep one away with the celestial sounds of the traditional string quartet.
READ ON for more on the upcoming Northwest String Summit…
Words: Eli Badra
Images: Robert Chapman (From 6/19/2010)
June 2010 has been good to Phish: riding the momentum from a widely-praised New Years run, as well as solo tours from Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon, the band has, over the course of about a dozen shows, effectively answered all of the questions raised during 2009’s comeback tour, returning to the spontaneity and fiendish musicality that drove so many to catch as much live Phish as possible.
Another transformation has occurred, too. The fanbase, and the underlying tour community, has also hit its stride, bringing excitement and passion for Phish’s music that far surpasses that of last year. A number of factors are responsible for this change, but one of the most significant has been newer fans settling in and finding their own niche. Being a relative newcomer to the band, this has certainly been the case for me, as I’m sure it has been with many others out there.
There are a number of writers who are far more qualified to discuss the music itself than I could ever hope to be, and so I’d like to focus more on the influx of new fans brought in during 2009, and my own experiences as one of those fans. READ ON for more of Eli’s take on Phish in 2010…
Words: Dave Schultz
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals @ Webster Hall, June 12
Since emerging from the snow-filled, granola-flecked mountains of Vermont, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals have let themselves be a tabula rasa upon which their growing legion of fans could ascribe a whole host of rock & roll imagery. For the jamband crowd, they were earnest roots rockers with Potter playing the role of their flannel-draped earth goddess; for the classic rock lovers, GPN kept alive the dream that Neil & Janis could hold sway over a new generation & for the tweens who discovered them from Grey’s Anatomy or One Tree Hill, Potter could be their musically adept BFF.
After years of being whatever people needed them to be, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals are making a concerted effort to define themselves on their own terms. The resulting declaration of independence, the self-titled Grace Potter & Nocturnals, described by guitarist Scott Tournet as sounding more like them than anything before, may surprise many that thought they had Potter and her gang all figured out.
By creating an album with definite mainstream appeal, albeit one that still unabashedly dares to rock, rather than find a new set of Cheap Thrills, Potter & The Nocturnals have thrown down the gauntlet, challenging many of the preconceived notions that people may have formed. The weekend after the album’s release, GPN packed an ardent throng of fans spanning all ages and sexes (both of them) into New York City’s Webster Hall. Any worries over whether the Vermont-based collective had toned down their act or softened their rock and roll edge were quickly allayed within moments of Potter bounding onto the stage to the opening bluesy riffs of Medicine. By the time Potter, Tournet, bassist Catherine Popper and guitarist Benny Yurco picked themselves off the floor near the close of their unplanned second encore of Stop The Bus, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals had made clear that not only are they one of the most exciting, young rock and roll bands to come around in quite some time, there may be no limits as to how high they can will rise.
READ ON for more of Dave’s thoughts on GP&tN @ Webster Hall…
Words: John Coleman
Images: Rob Chapman
Phish @ SPAC, June 19
After leaving Tweezer ‘reprise-less’ in Hershey last Sunday, Phish reconciled by serving up a double dose of Tweezer Reprise in Hartford on Friday night; appeasing those who feel it only necessary that Tweezer come full circle with a Tweezer Reprise later in the set.
That brings us to Saturday night’s show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. A muggy affair at the amphitheater set in the tall pines and old oaks of the Spa State Park in scenic Saratoga Springs, NY.
[All Photos by Rob Chapman]
It was said to be a sell out, but tickets were an easy find in the lot. In any case, the powers that be at SPAC really packed ’em in. The Times Union (Albany) reported 25,000, which is a sell-out, but it felt like more. The lawn was busting at the seams and it looked as though there were two heads per seat in the pavilion. Being on the lawn (standing at 5′ 8″) it was tough to turn around without getting a face full of back sweat. But despite the stickiness, the crowd wasn’t pushy and everyone was amicable.
Set I
Feel free to throw on your ’79 Bill Walton Clippers jersey, because it was a throwback first set. The Tweeprise opener was followed by Chalkdust Torture, Funky Bitch and a Runaway Jim, which saw Trey lay the groundwork for for what would be some nice exploratory jams throughout the night.
READ ON for more of John’s thoughts and Rob’s photos…
Friend of HT Andrew Bruss compares two versions of a Stones’ classic..
The Rolling Stones’ magnum opus, Exile On Main Street, has recently been remastered, and re-released with an additional disc of B-sides, highlighted by an early outtake of fan-favorite, Loving Cup. Ben Ratliff of The New York Times called this outtake amongst the best tracks the Stones ever recorded, and said it was superior to the studio-cut Stones fans have spent nearly four decades appreciating. While this B-side is an amazing track, featuring the unmastered grit and grime you’d expect from an early live show, there are arguments for and against Ratliff’s bold assertion.
The most obvious difference is in the piano intro performed by Nicky Hopkins. On the studio cut, this intro is brief, and to the point, segueing right into Jagger’s affirmation that he’s “the man on the mountain,” asking you to “come on up.” On the B-side, the piano intro is sullied by its added length, and slower tempo. The piano intro on the studio cut and B-side both clock in at around 15 seconds, but the slower tempo on the latter gives the listener an impression that the B-side is considerably longer and the perception of this delay in getting to the vocals makes it less of an intro and more of a segment of its own. This effectively weakens the effectiveness of the “less is more” philosophy the Stones mastered on tracks like Sweet Virginia and Rip This Joint.
Mick Jagger’s vocals on any Stones track are always amongst the most definable characteristics, and on both takes of Loving Cup, this proves to be no exception. Although the vocal track on the B-side is generally more emotive, incorporating more vibrato, it proves inferior to the original. One of the highest-energy moments on Exile is Jagger’s lyrical burst, “gimmie little drink,” and on the B-side, he takes his time to get to that sense of urgency, deflating the effectiveness of the lyrics.
READ ON for more of Andrew’s Loving Cup analysis…
In June 2000, Phish played their only headlining tour through Japan. A few dozen American travelers joined several hundred newly initiated Japanese phans on a phenomenal seven-night run of intimate venues, resulting in a series of fiery shows, unique cultural exchanges and the birth of the Japanese Meatstick. Longtime fan Stanch had been living and teaching English in Japan for a year when Phish arrived. In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the tour, and with help from a detailed journal and inputs from his traveling companions, he recounts his memories of the tour’s first four shows.
06/13/00 Club Quattro, Naka-ku, Nagoya
While On Air East was surely my favorite shows of the Japan run, the show at Club Quattro was not far behind. Let’s start with the set up: Club Quattro is a tiny (maybe 350-400 people?) club in downtown Nagoya. How tiny? It was located on the seventh floor of a Parco shopping mall, and your event ticket came with a complimentary drink. As we entered a room the fraction of the size of your average Phish stage, it had more the feel of a townie bar than a music venue fit for arena touring behemoth, but at the front of the room sat Phish’s iconic stage set up (though things were a bit crunched to fit their gear on a stage no more than 15 feet wide). And much like the rest of the shows thusfar, like some strange dream, we waited only feet from Phish’s stage crew for the show to start, as they prepared to run the sound and lights from tiny setups toward the back of the room.
The Meat opener was slow, patient and extremely funky, and it was followed by an electric and frenetic Maze. Almost as if to jolt the crowd, Phish then reprised a Meat coda for a few moments, making Maze remind you of the role it played on Rift: an interlude between other more balanced offerings. This was a new city, and the Japanese crowd had turned over some from the Tokyo group, and that served as the moment many first-time viewers began to look at each other with that look: who the hell are these guys? The band continued with an extended Ya Mar that had a rare jam punctuated with tasteful interplay between Trey and Page. Fast Enough for You, Old Home Place and a dark Wilson would follow.
The band topped off the first set with a highlight of the run: a great Mike’s > Simple > Weekapaug. The explosive Mike’s peaked with round after round of dirty, screeching notes from Trey, and the band turned on a dime seamlessly into Simple. The melodic end of a subtle Simple jam kind of petered out into silence, as if it was moving away from you into the distance. And just as you realized it was over, the faintest traces of the funky Weekapaug guitar rift entered in its place. It was as if Simple had gone backstage and Weekapug had passed it in the hall, rushing into the room. Responding, the small crowd welcomed Weekapaug by clapping in unison on beat throughout the opening chords, and after Mike slapped a few hints of the line, the band came in hard and released a roaring first set closer.
READ ON for more from Stanch on Phish in Japan…
In June 2000, Phish played their only headlining tour through Japan. A few dozen American travelers joined several hundred newly initiated Japanese phans on a phenomenal seven-night run of intimate venues, resulting in a series of fiery shows, unique cultural exchanges and the birth of the Japanese Meatstick. Longtime fan Stanch had been living and teaching English in Japan for a year when Phish arrived. In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the tour, and with help from a detailed journal and inputs from his traveling companions, he recounts his memories of the tour’s first four shows.
06/10/00 Zepp, Koto-ku, Tokyo
The second show of the 2000 Japan run was actually an add-on – there had originally only been six scheduled shows, but unanticipated interest and hot ticket sales had seen the promoters schedule an additional gig in Odaiba – a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay that was an odd combination of Coney Island and Disney’s Tomorrowland.
[Photo via JohnGreene.org]
Odaiba itself seems more memorable to me than the actual gig. Accessible by a futuristic Sky-Tram, the glow of lights from its many billboards and giant blue Daikanransha Ferris Wheel was visible for the last several minutes of the approach to the island. Once we departed the Tram, we made our way to Zepp, at the time Tokyo’s newest and hottest club. In comparison to some of the other sub-500 capacity venues from the tour, Zepp was a virtual colossus that held 2,700 people. It sure didn’t seem like they squeezed only 2,700 people in there – I still remember the general admission show as uncomfortably packed and topping out at what felt like 110 degrees.
- 10 Years Later: Phish in Japan Pt. 1, Pt. 2
The show itself was solid, though I remember it as the least compelling of the first four nights I saw. The setlist was very standard for 2000, including several oft-played tunes from the newly released Farmhouse. The first set was punctuated by a Disease and Piper that totaled about 50 minutes, 42 of which were quiet and spacey (possibly induced by the dreaded day four jetlag). I am all for folks choosing their own Phish adventure, but that version of Phish is not the one that has had me coming back for the last 17 years, and thus maybe colors my memory of the show. That said, my jaded ho-hum attitude aside, some folks were having an amazing time; the best part of the Zepp show was watching our new Japanese friends enjoy certain parts of the gig so much. READ ON for more from Stanch on Phish’s tour of Japan…
In June 2000, Phish played their only headlining tour through Japan. A few dozen American travelers joined several hundred newly initiated Japanese phans on a phenomenal seven-night run of intimate venues, resulting in a series of fiery shows, unique cultural exchanges and the birth of the Japanese Meatstick. Longtime fan Stanch had been living and teaching English in Japan for a year when Phish arrived. In honor of the 10-year anniversary of the tour, and with help from a detailed journal and inputs from his traveling companions, he recounts his memories of the tour’s first four shows.
06/09/00 On Air East, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (Pt. 2)
As the crowd began to pack (and I mean pack) the room, the atmosphere seemed to combine the anticipation of a typical Phish show with the feeling that we were all at some private party. There may have only been 500 people there, but they were 500 of the most jazzed people I’ve ever been around. Even the other shows in Japan paled when it came to the buzz that rippled through the crowd in the moments before the band came out that first night.
[Photo via FrankZappa.org]
Phish took the stage and unleashed a strong first set. Extremely well played, high energy, and exemplary of their many styles and moods, they introduced themselves to the crowd with an iron-clad grip. In response, a friend acknowledged their Axilla opener with a hello of his own: A few rows in front of Trey, he danced with a toy he had purchased on a whim in Shibuya earlier that day swaying high above his head – Captain Pecker the Party Wrecker – a four foot, inflatable penis with the word MEATSTICK written in large marker on its side. I have had a few people ask me along the way if I thought Trey had seen the Captain. Let me be clear: everybody saw Captain Pecker the Party Wrecker, including Brad Sands, who rushed over to tell my friend that yes, they were videotaping the show for Japanese TV, and – while hilarious – there was no room in the video for the Captain, because the cameras “couldn’t see the band.” Brad retired the rubber Captain to the side of the stage, but the Meatstick request had been delivered.
- 10 Years Later: Phish in Japan Pt. 1
The first set continued on with solid versions of Taste, Billy Breathes, Poor Heart and a Golgi that almost blew the roof off the place. As I looked at the Japanese on all sides of me between songs, I kept seeing people with this look in their eyes. And it wasn’t the normal, “Phish rocks” look. It bordered on more of an “I just escaped Shawshank” look. These fans weren’t just having a good time. Some of them were having a transcendent time.
READ ON for more from Stanch about the first show…
