As we gear up for the annual day of gluttony otherwise known as Super Bowl Sunday, we couldn’t help but notice the uncanny similarities between a number of players on the rosters of the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers and those of the faces you’ll find at any number of summer music festivals. Sure plenty of players let their facial hair grow out, or let their manes go uncut for the playoffs, but a quick glance at the sidelines of both teams will find as many weird beards and long-haired players as you’d expect to see at a My Morning Jacket show.
So we here at Team HT decided to pick some of our favorite players that are letting their freak flag fly, and imagined where and to whom you might find these gridiron warriors rocking out to when their season is over…
Brett Keisel
Who Is Brett: Defensive End who has become a cult hero in Pittsburgh, inspiring the Fear The Beard movement and is quite possibly one step away from being found on Passed Out Wookies if the Steelers win the Super Bowl.
Where You Might Find Him: Ever since that transcendent night at Big Cypress, Keisel has become a full on grizzled tour vet, catching as many Phish shows as he can each year before training camp. When the Phab Phour rolls through the ‘burgh for a stop at the First Niagara Pavilion (which Keis will always call Star Lake), you’ll find his dirt-caked feet in patchwork overalls raging Page side with his Lushington sign, and post-show slinging some of the tastiest veggie burritos and headiest craft beers around.
READ ON for more of our picks…
After ending an amazing tour of the East Coast, I ended up in Brooklyn to find the world had frozen over. New York was starting to resemble Hoth. Dallas looked
Tonight, Brooklyn Bowl hosts the eleventh annual Freaks Ball, aka Freaks Ball XI, featuring a double dose of HT fave Scott Metzger. Metzger performs with his instrumental trio Wolf! as well as with Hendrix tribute act Some Cat From Japan. Instrumental post-rock duo El Ten Eleven headlines. Joining Metzger in this evening’s version of Some Cat will be Will Bernard on guitar, Corey Glover on vocals, Tony Mason on drums, Jason Crosby on keys and Ron Johnson on bass. Tickets are still available through the Ticketfly.
When you look at the lineups for the 11 Freaks Ball, you can’t help but be impressed at the collection of bands the leaders of the NYC-Freaks e-mail list have put together over the years. Take a look…
I (1/20/2001): Tribeca Blues
The Squad (Charles Haynes on Drums, Adam Schmeeans Smirnoff on Guitar, Mark Kelley on bass, Jeff Baskher on Keys, Sammy K; note: The Squad’s Jeff Baskher is now Kayne West’s keyboardist/musical director/occasional producer and is probably playing the biggest venues of all the past Freaks performers)
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
II (2/9/2002): Galapagos (now Public Assembly)
Butter >>>
Northsix (now MHOW)
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
READ ON for the lineups for Freaks Ball III through XI…
Recently, I had a friend in town for the month of January. He came to NYC on a job hunt and he got the job they wanted. My friend was born & raised in Italy, worked with me in Paris and now resides in Texas. When he came here, he said “Take me to some places in NYC that I probably would not think about or go to”. I happily obliged. The one theme that kept recurring on our food trips was hitting Beer-centric places all around the city (five in all). Here is a recap of our tour of NYC beer halls.
[Youngna Park courtesy of NY Mag]
I have to preface this story by stating that almost every beer hall we hit was completely unplanned and the decision only came when I realized we were near one of these places.
Here are the fives places we hit in the order we hit them (over a 3 1/2 week period)
1) Zum Schneider – 107 Avenue C 212. 598.1098
Zum Schneider’s history (from their website):
Zum Schneider was opened on August 19, 2000 by Sylvester Schneider, a native of Weßling am Weßlinger See, Bavaria, and long-time resident of Alphabet City. “I missed summers in the beergarden with friends, family and people of all kinds, coming together to relax and celebrate life. Embracing those yearnings, I created Zum Schneider”.
Our path to arriving at Zum Schneider started out on 9th Ave in Hell’s Kitchen on a lazy Saturday, then made its way through: Little Italy, Chinatown, East Broadway (the hidden Chinatown), the Lower East Side and eventually we found ourselves on Avenue C. My friend’s request for food that evening was “A place that serves good beer with hearty food”.
READ ON for more on New York City Beer Halls…
Higher Ground in South Burlington, VT hosted a Hug Your Farmer benefit for Pete’s Greens last night that featured a wide range of Vermont-based – or one-time Vermont-based – musicians
There are probably no other musicians that can lay claim to being not only an amateur boxing champion, but also a world freestyle break-dance champ, other than Noah Francis. Part
Robert Plant and Band of Joy join domestic goddess Martha Stewart as Dave Letterman’s guests tonight. Plant is in the middle of a tour to support the Band of Joy
Our quick, random stabbing of ten new albums
