Show Reviews

Driving home from college Friday night my mind was fixed on one thing: making it to Matisyahu’s Festival of Light concert that was taking place in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday night.  Bad weather was surging throughout the east coast and emergency snow reports were forcing people to run for cover.  After waiting several months and enduring a long final exams week, the weekend finally came to go see Matisyahu at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York City.  Once I departed 30th Street Station, the only thing standing in the path was Mother Nature.    

Medeski Martin and Wood have never enjoyed themselves so much in Vermont as on their Higher Ground appearance December 3rd. Perhaps it's a comfort level arising from nearly annual visits to the Green Mountains for a decade or more, but just as likely, the trio's obvious delight derives from  a sense of renewed pleasure in playing together in the wake of the recently-completed 'Radiolarians Series.'

The band’s combustible mixture of Malian tradition, highlife style, chunky grooves and amped-up rock kept the dance floor hot, and the frequent interjections on kora and soku grounded the proceedings in the earthy, raw sounds of West Africa.

Bob Dylan shifts and changes his live performances so much it has become an adventure to dissect his tunes from tour to tour.  A constant tinkerer, his arraignments are fluid and give him space as an artist to express himself with those he chooses to place onstage.  The current outing finds him playing with four familiar players that he has toured with over the last few years and one from his not-too-distant past.  Charlie Sexton returned to the lineup on lead guitar and added a chicken fried layer of playing that has jolted Dylan into some powerful sonic structures this time around the world.

It’s been a little over a week since Bruce Springsteen returned to the NY Metropolitan area.  After closing down Giants Stadium with two performances each of Born To Run and Born In The U.S.A apiece (but sadly only one of Darkness Of The Edge Of Town), the two Garden shows looked to be even more special.  Earlier that week, it was announced that on the first night, he would play The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle and on the second, the entire 20-song double album, The River.  Neither of these had ever been performed in their entirety and the second show looked to be an especially ambitious project, even for The Boss.  Then again, Bruce wouldn’t have tried if he knew he wasn’t up to it.