The Infamous Stringdusters & Yonder Mountain String Band 11.5.11

-

The Orbit Room
Grand Rapids, MI

Words By Greg Molitor (ReMIND Photography)
Photos By Greg Molitor & Shea Haddad (Eye's Mind)

There’s something consistently welcoming about bluegrass. Bringing the best out of folks with striking dependability, its stories, quite unlike any other in the biz, ease themselves into our hearts without fail. Through thickly delivered nostalgia and timeless American themes, we remember through bluegrass. Connected it makes us, and on November 5th, these old time feelings were returned to The Orbit Room by The Infamous Stringdusters and Yonder Mountain String Band, two of the best touring ‘grass bands in the land that filled the venue with some of the best damn vibes a roots music fan could ask for...

A joyous family atmosphere was abound as The Infamous Stringdusters took the stage to begin the evening. Led by inspiringly energetic banjoist Chris Pandolfi, the Nashville quartet moved through its set with contagious enthusiasm that’s seen very rarely during live performances these days. Even for the positivity focused, forward thinking world of improvised roots music, The Stringdusters were unabashedly delighted to just be there, playing for us with a happiness and appreciation rivaled by nothing I’d seen for some time. And as for music...? The band tore down the house multiple times with jams containing peaks that seemingly had no ceiling during their beautifully intense rises. With each member legitimately virtuosic at his craft, the band gave one of the most impressive bluegrass performances I’ve ever witnessed. Not only were the songs delivered crisply, but there was also a sense of improvisational aggressiveness throughout, signaling to us that the band was not satisfied with going through the motions and would rather push itself to the brink of its own limitations. Even Yonder Mountain String Band banjoist Dave Johnston joined the pickin’ party for a song, clearly having one helluva time with an opener whose talents far exceeded that title.


Headliner Yonder Mountain String Band, not to be outdone, then played powerful two sets of their own. Fusing rock and reggae with its bluegrass, Yonder’s music was less traditional than The Infamous Stringduster’s. Evident through the covers of Phish (“Sand”), John Hartford (“Two Hits and the Joint Turned Brown”), and a combined band, nine man audial assault of The Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post”, they have no problem venturing from the familiar in order to give the crowd a diversely rich experience. With “Whipping Post” included, the final four songs found both Yonder and The Stringdusters onstage.

Mandolinist Jeff Austin, who, as always, appeared borderline insane for most of the evening, led the other eight through final segment like a mad scientist. Walking up to each soloist then subsequently demanding him to leave it all onstage with his own wild flurries, Austin was in complete control of the moment, captivating the entire audience with his entertaining antics. For Michigan fans of modern bluegrass, this was a show not to be missed; those who came were treated to three outstanding sets of top notch bluegrass on a Saturday that will be remembered by many for years to come.

www.thestringdusters.com

www.yondermountain.com

Greg’s Photo Gallery

Shea’s Photo Gallery

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Livetronica Sampler 3.22.11

-
Image
Words by Greg Molitor ( ReMIND Photography ) Ozric Tentacles This British group has proven innovative throughout the years offering a space-rock meets psytrance sound that remains alive to this day. Though never having a major record label, Ozric Tentacles has produced 28 albums of diverse psychedelia throughout its career. The band met at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1983 and truly fathered livetronica music with its use of sequencers and synthesizers. Simply put, there would be no livetronica without Ozric Tentacles. www.ozrics.com Octopus Nebula Colorado’s Octopus Nebula has certainly hit its stride as of late with its constant touring and increased festival interest. The group expands on the deep sounds of highly regarded acts such as STS9 and Shpongle but also carves a path of its own with its fresh takes on synthesizer tones and sampling in the live setting. Octopus Nebula Live at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom on March 26, 2010. <--- Direct Archive Link www.octopus
Read more

Buckethead: Gimmick or Guitar God?

-
Image
Words & Photos By Nicholas Stock ( phatphlogblog.blogspot.com ) At what point does the gimmick overshadow the performance? The obvious answer is Buckethead. The man is an amazing guitarist but something is not right in this world. The idea a performer who dons a KFC chicken bucket on his head for a concert has always intrigued me, and some of his side projects such as Colonel Claypool’s Bernie Bucket of Brains have been huge successes. However his performance last weekend in Fort Collins simply left me perplexed. From his robotic dancing, to his nunchuck display, to the fact the he performed with an iPod rather than a band all added to my confusion. Going into the show I was ready to be blown away, despite rumblings of disgruntled fans from the previous night’s show at The Gothic. Buckethead had had some sound issues and some missed cues in Denver but I was still trying to be positive for the show in Fort Collins. It did go off without a hitch technically but that was the least
Read more

Billy Strings 4.18.19

-
Image
Salvage Station Asheville, NC Words by Jason Mebane Photos by J. Scott Shrader Photography When asked to write a review of last week's Billy Strings show at Asheville, North Carolina's Salvage Station I almost passed on it. I just wrote a review of his last Asheville show a few months ago and I thought it may be hard to come up with another set of words to describe to the readers exactly what a Billy Strings show is all about. I am sure there are a plethora of other reviews that other people have written focusing on how well he has mastered his instrument. I suppose I could recycle those thoughts and just sit here typing out a few adjectives describing each note Billy and his superb backing band played this past Thursday night, but that wouldn't be fun for me. Additionally I'd imagine a review like that wouldn't keep your attention either. Instead I have decided to focus on a few random parts of the Billy Strings show that seemed interesting to me. One: B
Read more