Picture Show: Icons of Funk @ Highline Ballroom
Check out a gallery of amazing shots by Michael Jurick of the Icons of Funk
Check out a gallery of amazing shots by Michael Jurick of the Icons of Funk
Bound For Glory: Tedeschi Trucks Band @ Highline Ballroom, April 13
After watching the NYC debut of the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Highline Ballroom I came to the following conclusion: There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about the band. As far as the setlist, we all wished the set was a little longer (110 minutes) and it would have been nice to hear one or two more songs from the new album and perhaps a few from the past albums of the couple whose names make up the band’s moniker.
[All photos by Marc Millman]
The Tedeschi Trucks Band contains nine musicians, most of whom have played together in some form or another over the years and several of whom are amongst the best around at their instruments including two skilled guitar players (Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi) who happen to be married and show a level of affection for each other while playing that is truly touching. It doesn’t hurt that one sings with passion (Tedeschi) and the other plays the guitar like he made his own deal with the devil at the crossroads (Trucks).
The drummers (Tyler Greenwell & J.J. Johnson) play in a loose manner that reminds you of those live Motown revues from the ’60s. And to watch them having fun with each other while laying down the backbeat was pure entertainment in itself. The brothers Burbridge round out the core of the band and really help tie the whole project together. Oteil (bass) plays with Derek in The Allman Brothers Band, while Kofi (keyboards) performs with Derek in The Derek Trucks Band. With the inclusion of Mike Mattison and another male vocalist as well as a three-piece horn section (featuring Maurice Brown on trumpet) this is a band more than capable of going from a spacey intro jam to hard-core funk or from classic Motown or Stax styled soul to dirty blues.
READ ON for more of Marc’s take on Derek & Susan’s new band…
For the uninitiated, simply seeing one’s favorite bands or musicians in the live setting might be enough, but around these parts – where our average reader sees upwards of 50 shows per year – we’re pretty picky about our venues. Our staff and our readers like to see our favorite acts, but we like to see them in an ideal setting, with the perfect acoustics, unobstructed views and ample room – all while washing down some frosty craft brews. Over the next year we aim to detail the best venues in San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and New York City. We’ve started at home here in NYC.
In order to tackle this highly subjective topic, we asked our NYC-area staff members and a few local residents who see upwards of 100 shows a year to rank every venue we could think up – over 60 in total – from 1 to 20. Once we got the scores in from everybody, we utilized a highly complex algorithm called “averaging,” whereby we churned out our aggregated list of Hidden Track’s Best New York City Music Venues, fifteen to be exact.
1) Brooklyn Bowl – 61 Wythe Avenue, Williamsburg, NY 11211
History – Make no mistake, while it seems pretty New Yorky of us to pick the new kid on the block as the top venue, it’s not the novelty of newness that makes Brooklyn Bowl our favorite. True, the venue did just open July 7th, 2009, but the “for us, by us” nature of the venue – which comes from the same bloodlines as former NYC jam mecca, the Wetlands Preserve – assures that this place will hold court for many of the great NYC concerts for years to come. READ ON for more on our top NYC venues…
With The Roots making New York City their new homebase as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the Philly hip-hop collective have announced a series of special