2010

Review: PetZoo 2010 @ Predaine

For a first time festival site, Predaine in Freehold, NJ was a welcome oasis for the fans at PetZoo Festival 2010. From easy entry allowing cars to drop off their camping gear – though they couldn’t car camp – to a cheap air-conditioned bar on site and a grassy amphitheater, it seemed that festival goers comfort was given the utmost attention. And with many having taken the long drive up from Florida to join the Heavy Pets at their annual party, it’s easy to understand why!

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]


PetZoo rewarded fans, from near and far with a few special treats. Starting with Zac Lasher of U-Melt sitting in with Newton Crosby for a full set on Hammond B3 organ (if you missed this set you can check them out at The Gig in the Sky) . Later in the evening The Brew kept things going with covers of Zepplin’s No Quarter with Dave Drouin on vocals and the Allman Brothers’ Blue Sky. U-Melt showed renewed energy and excitement in one of their final New Jersey appearances with blistering guitar solos on Clear Light and a wink to the neighborhood with Bruce Springsteen’s, Atlantic City. Friday evening was closed by none other than The Heavy Pets who showed everyone exactly whose festival it was, coming out hard and strong.

Saturday was just as exciting with the day starting out with an adorable performance by a local children’s dance squad. Local favorites, Bearin’ Peace’s set was perfect for waking up the crowd with an Island feel to it and Spontaneous Underground still managed to sneak in a great cover of The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows into their short set. As the afternoon continued, The Heavy Pets surprised the 21+ crowd with an impromptu set in the bar between Long Miles and Cabinet. Toubab Krewe’s two hour set was welcomed by the fans and the amazing Funtown hoopers and fire dancers who used the African beats to entrance the crowd. As The Heavy Pets took the stage for the final set however, a bit of trouble ensued as the main stage was temporarily shut down due to noise complaints but luckily with organizers to the rescue, things were settled quickly and the show went on into the early morning hours without a hitch.

READ ON for more on the PetZoo Festival…

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Briefly: Furthur Announces Fall Dates

After releasing a few sets of dates for fall tour in the past few weeks, Furthur has finally announced details on the entire run. The tour starts on November 8

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Friday Mix Tape: Kind Of Blue

We talk a lot about jam, indie, folk, funk, etc. around these parts, but rarely do we get to pay homage to the genre that essentially birthed all these style

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Review: Wednesday in the Park w/ Mule

Gov’t Mule @ Summerstage, August 11

Take a good look at the extended Allman Brothers family and you see the winds of change blowing insistently: the mothership band has begun its slow fade to black, and Derek Trucks has put his former focus (temporarily?) on ice in favor of an encouraging, if not yet fully baked supergroup with the missus.


Gov’t Mule, however, is bucking that trend: go to a Mule show in 2010 and you’ll see a band that hasn’t been this comfortable with itself in years, and possibly since the Allen Woody days. Yes, Mule shows have always had a certain intensity – they remain, to me, the closest thing the jam scene has to a fail-safe concert – but you get the sense that Warren Haynes and his (new and old) brothers of the road have finally cohered. They’re a quartet with lots of meat on its bones and a well-stocked idea cellar, one that can execute all the major moves in the Mule playbook, as well as add some new ones, and, finally, with By a Thread, promote new material worthy of its concert bravado.

I reference that comfort level because Mule’s return to Central Park had, despite its unorthodox, one-set/double-encore structure and parade of guests, all the hallmarks of a terrific Mule show circa 2010, and a few of the most common problems. And that’s “problems” relatively speaking; the Mule is wonderfully consistent, it would just be a shame to see them get a little too comfortable.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts on Mule…

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Televised Tune: On The Tube This Weekend

Fuse brings us a one-hour program featuring highlights from last weekend’s Lollapalooza festival at 8PM this evening with repeats throughout the weekend. Performers include Green Day, Soundgarden and Lady Gaga.

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Video: of Montreal – Sex Karma

While their new album False Priest doesn’t hit stores until September 14,  psychedelic-pop act of Montreal decided to build some advance buzz with a recent appearance on Late Night With

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Big Head Todd and The Monsters: Rocksteady

The challenge for a band with the longevity of Big Head Todd and The Monsters is how to subtly reinvent themselves without undermining the style they’ve cultivated during the course of their career. The Colorado group has struggled in that regard (see 2004’s Crimes of Passion), but Rocksteady is fresh in ways even the band might not expect.

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The Black Crowes: Croweology

With their long hair, beards and edgy blues sound, The Black Crowes have epitomized what a rock-n-roll band sounds and looks like.   With a pending indefinite hiatus looming, the band recently decided to record a double album’s worth of acoustic rearrangements from their catalog.  Croweology is an exquisite slice of Americana complete with acoustic bottleneck slide, mandolin, and fiddles all done Crowe-style that never loses its swagger.

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Robert Plant: Saenger Theatre, Mobile, AL 7/28/10

With only 12 American concert dates scheduled this year, Robert Plant walked out onto the stage of the historic Saenger Theatre in downtown Mobile, Alabama, with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his lips. Resuscitating one of his first bands, The Band Of Joy, Plant is moving forward by actually stepping backwards.

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