The end of summer doesn’t mean the end of festival season as we’ve got two upcoming festies to tell you about. First, a reminder that the Let It Roll Festival
Peter Rowan – Midnight Moonlight (Live)
Music fan Jimmy Coulas loves to attend concerts from a wide variety of bands and write about them for his Chicago-based blog, Scents & Subtle Sounds. On Sunday night he saw U2 at Soldier Field and tells us all about it…
[All Photos Via U2.com]
Music has always served as my escape from the every day hustle and bustle of life. The economic crisis that has gripped this country has affected the way that people live and has inevitably changed the way that people spend their money. To most people, concert tickets would be on top of the list of items to cut out of their budget. It seems as if U2 serves as the exception to the rule.
When the house lights cut out on Sunday night at Chicago’s Soldier Field the crowd erupted. You could tell the audience was ready for any and everything the band had in store for them. U2 could have easily rolled out their greatest hits and pleased the crowd, but they held back and played a career-spanning set. READ ON for the rest of Jimmy’s take on U2 in Chicago…
When a band has survived for 25 years, they have free reign to call their own creative shots. In that case, give Yo La Tengo all the artillery they need. Aside from their guitar freak-outs they’ve always won a heart with the twee crowd , courtesy of “autumn sweater,” and their “Sonic Youth Lite hush hush” songs.
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.
Breaking: Brooklyn Vegan Says Pavement Will Reunite
John Coleman spent Labor Day Weekend at moe. down & filed this report…
Warm days and cool nights illuminated by a harvest moon meant plenty of good vibes floating around moe. down 10 at Snow Ridge Ski Resort, in Turin, N.Y. The rustic locale is located just outside the southwestern boundary of the Adirondack Park, rising up among sleepy towns and farms.
Similar to the Mountain Jam stage setup at Hunter Mountain in the Catskills, the main stage faces up a ski slope that provides a great perch for those who chose to challenge its increasingly steep pitch while second stage is located on a flat area near the main lodge, among vendor booths and picnic tables.
Although much was made of the lack of star power when sized up to previous moe. downs, with a mix of veteran acts like Sam Bush, Ani Difranco, Ominous Seapods, Lynch and Cake, and emerging bands like The New Mastersounds, The Heavy Pets and The Nate Wilson group, who could complain? The late addition of Umphrey’s McGee was enough to get those sitting on the fence to spring for the affordable weekend pass.
There were many moe. down highlights, too many to list. But here’s a taste…
1. Bushwhacked!: To cap off moe.’s first set of Day 2, the “Godfather of new-grass,” Sam Bush, joined moe. on fiddle during the instrumental, Meat. The crowd loved it and evidently the band did too, as the sit-in clocked in at just under 24 minutes. Bush also sat in on Mexico earlier in the day.
READ ON for more of John’s moe. down 10 highlights…
As we’ve been telling you endlessly over the past few weeks, we’ve got two Joy Boxes to giveaway and we’re giving our readers eight chances to win. The Joy Box
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was released as a single and also appeared on The Four Tops 1966 album On Top. Though he’s never recorded a version of the song, Stevie Wonder gets the songwriting credit for this legendary Motown gem. The composition was a joint effort between Wonder and Ivy Jo Hunter, whose songwriting credits also include another smash hit – Dancing In The Street.
The Contestants:
The Band: It’s gotta be confidence-building for a lead singer tackling this song, in this case Rick Danko, knowing you’ve got a voice like that of Levon Helm to back you up. While poking around looking for information on these covers, I found a great interview that Peter Stone Brown did with Rick Danko in 1977. When asked why Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was never on an official release from The Band, Danko answers that he thought it was on Rock Of Ages. It’s interesting just how little artists can sometimes know about their own releases. The track would make it to the Deluxe Edition release in 2001. Source: Rock Of Ages (Deluxe Edition)
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bandsweeter.mp3]READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…
Come this November, two of the jam scene’s rising stars – Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and Brett Dennen – will join forces for a cross-country co-headlining tour. The two
