Son Volt played a brilliantly paced set at Higher Ground on 9/21, that unlike the group's last appearance at the Vermont venue in spring of 2007 where Jay Farrar and company struggled to gain traction, the quintet leapt into action with "The Picture" and were blazing away by the time they finished roughly two and half-hours later.
ZZ Top pulled into the Beacon last Friday for a hastily-scheduled one night stand at the Beacon. When Steven Tyler fell off the stage, their gig opening for Aerosmith on the “summer shed circuit” was scrapped. Instead, their tour finds them playing some venues, like the 9:30 club in Washington, which would ordinarily be too intimate for a band with their drawing power. However, “that little ol’ band from Texas” had played the Beacon in ’05 and ’07 and their raunchy brand of border blues has always been a great fit for the venue.
If, in their return to this South Burlington venue, The Black Crowes didn't throw the knockout punches as in the fall of 2008, their performance nevertheless concluded with purposeful finality as they intoned " Oh Sweet Nuthin" with stirring gospel fervor. It was yet another gesture of kinship with the music-lovers populating the ballroom floor, further evidence of a very rare bond arising from an audience being as enthusiastic as the band playing for them.
But, for Son Volt fans, last night was a positive glimpse into a focused and hungry band, one that was in danger of getting bogged down by a distant and studio-sounding live show. Jay Farrar’s songs have never suffered for lyrical grace and insight; it’s the presentation that sometimes lacked vigor. James Walbourne added a much needed dose of rock and roll swagger to Farrar’s meditations of the American Dream.
There is a sonic rumbling that is emanating from the historic musical underground of Brooklyn, New York, and it has caused booties to shake and quake all over the nation this summer. The Pimps of Joytime, in only their third year of existence, have spent the last few months on the road spreading their sound to the masses offering up their musical menu of funk, soul, Latin, and afrobeat grooves.
(BRMC) are set to release a live DVD this Autumn, as well as a new album in Spring. Called simply ‘Live’, the DVD was filmed and recorded at gigs in
Rock concerts are supposed to be unpredictable. The day you see a band and know exactly what is going to happen before you attend the show should be the day you stop seeing live music. When the torrential monsoon of rain halted the Flaming Lips show on August 29th at Philly’s Festival Pier, some complained while others just accepted that this kind of mayhem is the way of the rock world. What this creative force from Oklahoma was able to squeeze in offered us a glimpse of the past and future from a group going strong since 1983.
Gov’t Mule ended their summer tour, the last before their By A Thread album is released in the fall, with a monster show at Atlantic City’s Showboat Casino.
Cheap Trick. Poison. Def Leppard. It's an odd billing to be sure. Poison and Def Leppard seem reasonable enough, with careers that rode the hair metal explosion of the 80s to multi-platinum success, but Cheap Trick, an 80s power ballad aside, were churning out power pop gems (that continue to influence bands today) five to ten years earlier than their tour mates. Oddly enough, the tour's oldest band chronologically is its youngest spiritually and that is part of the magic that still makes Cheap Trick matter.
Gov’t Mule tends to pull out all the stops when they play in Boston and their latest appearance, at Bank of America Pavilion July 31st, contained a clutch of memorable moments on a number of fronts, including some truly spectacular.
