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Review: DMB Caravan – Chicago

Allison Taich July 20, 2011 4 Comments

Dave Matthews Band Caravan @ Lakeside Chicago – July 8-10

The Dave Matthews Band’s roving music festival Caravan made its second stop at Chicago’s Lakeside on July 8 – 10. The festival featured 38 bands spread over three days and three stages, and the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) closed out each night with three-hour performances. For DMB fans I am sure the experience was heavenly; as for the rest of us Caravan was exhausting, yet it had its perks. I was drawn to Caravan for primarily two reasons: The Flaming Lips were performing The Dark Side of the Moon and the festival was at a new, never-before used site on the south side of the Windy City.

Chicago geography is strange in that one side of the city may as well be a different state from the other. Those who live anywhere north of the Loop, aka downtown, rarely venture south of the Loop and vice versa. Caravan was stationed at an old U.S. Steel Plant near 83rd street off Lake Michigan, roughly nine miles south of downtown. The festival’s location was a great tactic to draw life and money into the under served community.

Initially I was pumped about Caravan; Flaming Lips and a south side adventure! Being a Chicagoan I tend to travel by bus or train. The press release for the festival read “easily access Lakeside” by public transportation. Alright, sounded easy enough. The first red flag was when I Googled directions, the site did not register on the map. Weird, but no problem, I thought. I would just hop on the train and hope for the best. The second red flag raised when it took me two to three hours each way to get to and fro the grounds. I participated in a pilgrimage revolved around a band I did not necessarily care for.

READ ON for more of Allison’s take on DMB Caravan Chicago…

All Good Diary: Saturday FestivalLog + New Artist Fletcher’s Grove Spotlight

Andrew Bender July 19, 2011 No Comments

I made a point of getting up early on Saturday morning of the 15th Annual All Good Music Festival to catch some of the local talent at the Grassroots Stage. Having been told by numerous local media sources that they were a hot ticket, I made a point of seeing a bit of Fletcher’s Grove from nearby Morgantown. As usual, I was not as quick making the trek as I’d hoped and arrived about halfway through the fledgling jamband’s first set, just as they were finishing a very strong cover of Buddy Holly’s classic Not Fade Away.

The next few songs in the quintet’s inaugural All Good set proved once again that festivals are a great place to check out fresh talent. See more about Fletcher’s Grove in the All Good New Artist Spotlight below. As local favorites, Fletcher’s Grove brought a sizable audience to the campground stage that quckly cleared after their set. I waited around to see a bit of Chicago’s Lubriphonic whose funk and horns also proved danceable and fun, although it was a shame there wasn’t a larger audience.

Opening the main stage on Saturday was self-contained band Zach Deputy whose soulful vocals and looping guitar and beat lines made for a more relaxed set under the West Virginia hills’ intense mid-day sun. After Deputy, I caught only the first couple of songs by The Werks (which the audience seemed to enjoy) and headed back to the Grassroots Stage to see Michigan’s Greensky Bluegrass, where they performed only bluegrass covers of rock songs including Traffic’s Light Up or Leave Me Alone, Talking Heads’ Road to Nowhere, Arcade Fire’s City With No Children and Prince’s When Doves Cry.

Previously From All Good 2011: Preview, Thursday, Friday

READ ON for more thoughts and photos from Saturday at All Good…

Review: Summer Camp Festival 2011

Hidden Track Staff June 1, 2011 8 Comments

Words: Ryan Maher
Photos: Tammy Wetzel

Ah, Summer Camp. Last year you turned 10, this year you had quite the growth spurt at 11. Attendees quickly realized as they lined in that they’d be camping in tighter quarters with many new neighbors, as record numbers made their way to Chillicothe.

[All photos by Tammy Wetzel]

Thankfully mother nature gave us a break by ending the early rain in time for a dry load-in. The bands and crew weren’t so lucky at 5AM when they got their orders to evacuate due to severe weather. The rains had left some mud and chilly temps in their wake, but the upside would be no dust storms coating the bodies and lungs of the masses this year.

Jake Cinninger rolled out with his old South Bend band, Ali Baba’s Tahini for a fun set that featured the raunchy humor of Karl Engelmann paired with Jake’s guitar chops. Their cover of Tom Petty’s Running Down a Dream had a dark chant of “Smoke pot, Smoke pot, Everybody smoke pot” for kicks. Wavy Dave from Cornmeal also lent his jaw harp skills to a ditty.

READ ON for more from Tammy and Ryan about Summer Camp…

Review: Snoe.down 2011

Kahlil Katool April 5, 2011 2 Comments

Snoe.down 2011 @ Killington Resort and Spartan Arena

Words: Kahlil Katool
Photos: Wesley Rizzo

Moe., hosted their fourth snoe.down Winter Music & Sports Festival from March 24 – 27, a festival that captures the “.down home” feel the band’s events are known for. For the second consecutive year snoe.down was held in Rutland, VT as well as within the gorgeous landscape of mountains in Killington, VT. This year’s snoe.down brought out a lot of up and coming acts as well as several established ones to compliment moe., the upstate New York-based “ragers of improvisational rock.”

[All photos by Wesley Rizzo]

Showing musical excellence is exactly what moe. did with their two-night stand at Rutland’s Spartan Arena, where Keller Williams and Lotus opened. Snoe.down also featured an outdoor set on the side of Bear Mountain which took place in below-freezing temperatures with The Ryan Montbleau Band opening. Moe. closed the weekend with an acoustic set that was open to VIP ticketholders, who were also treated to brunch. Not only did Keller open for moe., but he also had their dual lead-guitarist Al Schnier sit-in on his set. This was later complimented by Keller sitting in with moe. as well. Snoe.down is a unique festival with an emphasis on skiing as lift tickets are sold as an optional part of the festival ticket package.

Thursday, March 24

Those early to arrive on Thursday were able to see either Twiddle at the Pickle Barrel or The Brew with special guest opener Lucid at the Wobbly Barn. The Wobbly Barn is an intimate bar-type venue that has an older, rustic decor as the floors and the walls are all wooden with a wrap-around upstairs balcony giving it a quaint, barn feeling. Lucid has an interesting sound and played a stimulating set. The dynamics of the sax player along with their percussionist, who also played a harmonica, added several interesting layers to the six-piece band from Plattsburgh’s sound. The highlight of Lucid’s performance was an unexpected but enthusiastically received cover of Beck’s Debra. READ ON for more from snoe.down 2011…

Announcing: Gathering of the Vibes 2011 – Furthur, Jane’s Addiction, moe. and More

Scott Bernstein March 14, 2011 No Comments

The initial lineup announcement for Gathering of the Vibes 2011 has been released and features a number of Dead-related acts as well as a few surprises. Both Furthur and the

The B List: Ten Tall Tales – The Stories Behind Jeremy Gordon’s Best Photos, Pt. 1

Jeremy Gordon March 2, 2011 6 Comments

For this week’s B List, we present a two-part series penned by HT photo editor Jeremy Gordon in which he shares his ten best photos and more importantly the stories behind those photos.

Someone once said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and perhaps it is. But often a photo without context conceals the greater story behind it. A couple of months ago, my editor at Hidden Track, Scott Bernstein, asked me if I would like to share the stories behind 10 of my favorite photos. I jumped at the chance, hoping to impart my tale and perhaps a little wisdom to our readers and my friends. What you’ll find below is mostly true and mostly accurate, so take it all with a grain of salt.

1. 15 Minutes of Fury

[The Flaming Lips at Central Park SummerStage]

Generally, three songs or 15 minutes is all you’re going to get in front of the band. In that time you’ve got to get close-ups of each member of the band and hopefully shots of them together, interacting with energy and excitement. Sometimes the lighting just plain sucks – there’s actually a joke that the bands purposely under light the first three songs because they hate photographers – or the bands are uninteresting to watch and it becomes a frustrating mess. But then you get to shoot The Flaming Lips.

The show begins with the band being born out of a giant light – or a replica of a vagina – on stage before the lead singer jumps into a hamster ball to crowd surf the venue. Dancing girls are dressed in alien costumes (if dressed at all), giant bears and fishes join in on the fun, and confetti streams down from the rafters as 20 to 30 photographers push, shove, and run around trying to get a photo of anything they can think of. It truly is 15 minutes of fury and, except for almost going berserk on a fellow photographer, I loved every minute of it.

READ ON for four more exquisite photos and interesting stories…

MP3 Boot Camp: Patagonia Music Benefit

Scott Bernstein March 2, 2011 No Comments

The clothing company Patagonia has teamed up with some of our favorite bands to launch the Patagonia Music Collective with proceeds to benefit non-profit environmental groups. Acts such as moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson and Medeski, Martin and Wood are participating by making an exclusive track available for purchase ($.99 each) through the Patagonia Music Website.

For this week’s Boot Camp column, we wanted to point you in the direction of five Patagonia Music Collective tracks that are well worth the buck…

Umphrey’s McGee – Hajimemashite [Climate Cycle]

Umphrey’s finally offers a studio version of a track that predates the band.

Pearl Jam – Oceans [Conservation For Int’l Marine Programs]

Pearl Jam kicks down a live version of this classic track from its debut LP.

moe. – One Life [Water.org]

moe. share a Chuck Garvey-written original called One Life that the band debuted at Summer Camp last year. Back on January 31st, moe. performed One Life and seven other originals at the Patagonia World Headquarters in Ventura, CA. Head over to Jambands.com to read Garvey’s take on the genesis of One Life. [HT – Kahlil Katool]

Toad The Wet Sprocket – Walk On The Ocean [South Coast Habitat Rest.]

California rockers Toad The Wet Sprocket have made an exclusive acoustic take from 1991’s Fear LP available for purchase.

John Scofield – How Deep [Pesticide Action Network NA]

Jazz guitarist John Scofield shares a previously unreleased studio track.

READ ON for a complete list of bands, tracks and charities that benefit…

State of the Union: moe. 2011

Hidden Track Staff February 23, 2011 11 Comments

We’ve asked moe.ron extraordinaire Kahlil Katool to cover the moe. beat for Hidden Track and he has kindly accepted. Kahlil will be covering snoe.down for us, but starts by sharing his opinion of where the band is at after the group’s first two tours of 2011…

something new, something cool , something borrowed, something blue…

This line from moe.’s new song Haze rings true as an accurate description of what the band has offered the music world in 2011. Coming off the heels of their 20th anniversary tour in 2010, the members of moe. may have shed the suits they wore all year long to celebrate the benchmark, but have remained all business while barreling head first into 2011.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

moe. has played 22 shows thus far this year, starting out with the Tropical Throe.down in the Dominican Republic, touring through the Pacific Northwest and hitting the left coast along with the Rockies, and most recently returning to Japan. Dual-lead guitarist Al Schnier, had this to say when asked how the band felt about the past two months: “New Year’s Eve in Boston was a great way to end the 20th Anniversary tour and the Dominican Republic was a great way to kick off this year. I can’t say enough good things about that trip, and we are already discussing plans for a follow up (island excursion). This run has been great one, and (we) are heading even further into 2011 with a lot of momentum.”

The New York-based “ragers of improvisational rock” continue to push the envelope nightly breaking outside of the familiar with over a dozen new songs debuted since last year’s Summer Camp Festival. The band is integrating these new songs in their set arrangements with great fervor. moe. has been taking big chances outside its comfort zone as the band mixes up its setlist writing formula of traditional staple “big guns” (ie. Moth, Recreational Chemistry, Timmy Tucker, meat., Yodelittle, Brent Black, McBain) as being the centerpieces of the energy and flow of moe. sets.

READ ON for more from Kahlil on moe.’s 2011…

New Year’s Eve 2010-2011 Concerts Roundup – 25 Setlists & Show Notes

DaveO January 6, 2011 1 Comment

December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.

Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.

Better Than Ezra:

The Black Keys:

READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists

Cover Wars: New Year’s Day Edition

DaveO January 4, 2011 No Comments

Welcome to a new year of Cover Wars. I could think of no better cover tune for the occasion than this 1983 U2 classic. New Year’s Day has quite the resume appearing in both Rolling Stone’s and Pitchfork’s Top 500 songs of all-time. We’ve got a good collection of covers this week, one of which was played just a couple of days ago, so enjoy and don’t forget to vote at the bottom.

Cover Wars

The Contestants:

Though this was not the first time The Dresden Dolls covered this song, it certainly is the most recent. The band put together quite the New Year’s Eve setlist this year for their show at The Warfield in San Francisco. There is of course, the celebratory sounds of balloons being popped on the recording. Source: 12-31-2010

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dresdenday.mp3]

Video of the performance:

READ ON for more covers of New Year’s Day.

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