Whether in interviews, on drums or in a constantly renewing push to integrate technology and music, Butch Trucks isn’t one to hold back.
Having anchored the Allman Brothers Band’s drum assault for 40 years now, Butch is like the rest of his Brothers gearing up for what’s promising to be a batshit exciting Beacon Theater residency. You know the details and have heard the rumors: it kicks off March 9, with 15 shows total through March 28, and a rumored dazzling array of special guests.
In a recent interview with Hidden Track, Butch touched on a number of topics, including such hot potatoes over whether this is the start of an Allman Brothers Band scale-back (yes and no), some hints on what’s to come at the Beacon, and of course, Moogis – a brand new piece of the Beacon experience that will bring streaming, near-high-definition video to Web subscribers to capture each night of the run live.
READ ON for Chad’s interview with Butch Trucks to find out about the Allmans’ future, the upcoming Beacon run, Moogis and much more…
With only a week to go some fans are frantically looking for their magic tickets to Phish’s return at the Hampton Coliseum. Longtime Phish fans Dusty and Brando are helping connect those who need tickets with those who have extra tickets through a new site called cashforyourextra.com.
Their free website helps faciliate trades or sales for tickets to all Phish shows moving forward using a Craig’s List-like posting system. Cashforyourextra is an anti-scalper site, so posts put up looking for more than face will be rejected in efforts to keep tickets affordable for the common phan. Check it out.
The Allman Brothers Band’s Wanee Festival usually takes place in April, so we thought perhaps they were taking the year off to focus on the Beacon run. Turns out they’ve just delayed it a few months. This year’s Wanee Festival will take place at Spirit of the Suwannee Park in Live Oak, Florida on June 5 and 6 and features nearly every Allmans-related band along with HT favorites Little Feat, Umphrey’s McGee, The Doobies and more.
Tickets go onsale for the reasonable price of $138 on March 7. We’ll have more on the Allmans at 5PM today, so keep your eyes peeled on HT.
Let’s take one last look at what we missed this week…
We’d like to welcome a new contributor from an area close to our hearts: North Carolina’s Research Triangle. Sonny Byrd is an avid music fan, critic, concert goer, listener, and player who is based out of Durham, NC. Each month he’ll tell us about a new up-and-coming band from the Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham area. Welcome to the Hidden Track team, Sonny.
Pop music can and always has been so much more than just pop punk. Pico vs. Island Trees is all of the proof that you need. Rather than turning to the idols of high school ‘tweens’ (ie, Pete Wentz) for influence, Pico has a new approach to pop; they have managed to incorporate a disco-1970s-groovy jazz vibe into their sound, while staying firmly planted in mainstream pop rock. And what’s more, they convincingly pull it off with momentum and musicality.
A self-described pop band, Pico formed over a decade ago in middle school, and the core three members, now in their mid-twenties, have been together since day one. This may account for their palpable onstage chemistry and seasoned approach to pop/rock songwriting. And while the five piece band has no manager, no PR rep, and of course, no record label, they have taken “DIY” (do it yourself) to a new level of musical success.
READ ON for more from Sonny on Pico vs. Island Trees…
In this digital age of live shows you can buy after the show and spoiler-free downloads posted minutes after the show lets out, I decided my first try at a Friday Mix Tape will feature tracks from shows that happened in the past seven days. All these tracks come from either bt.etree.org or the Live Music Archive, and none of these tracks are more than a week old.
Leading off we have the Bill Kreutzmann Trio with an extended take on The Dead’s China Cat Sunflower. Next, we turn to Chicago’s Cornmeal, who welcomed both horns and a percussionist to the stage for a Fat Tuesday show with Aiko Aiko. Moving on, the Derek Trucks Band contribute a 17+ minute cover-of-a-cover as they deftly explore John Coltrane’s take on Rodgers/Hammerstein’s My Favorite Things.
READ ON to stream and/or download this week’s Friday Mix Tape…
With the big reunion just a week away, conversations are tending towards guessing the opener. Saxilla nailed this a couple weeks ago with a great post, opening the gates for a wide variety of Hampton opener calls.
[Photo by Tim Mosenfelder for Getty Images]
In thinking about what the band will open with – no doubt about it, an elusive task – I thought it might be fun to take a quick look back through the annals at some other monumental “theme-based” openers. In other words, in prepping for what will surely be remembered as one of the big moments in the band’s history in Hampton, let’s look back at the times where the band fit their opener to the moment at hand and directly linked their opening song to the surrounding circumstances. Here we go…
Red Rocks, 8/20/93, Divided Sky
For Phish’s inaugural seal cracking of Red Rocks, they kicked off with the geographically fitting Divided Sky. With the gorgeous outdoor venue nestled amidst the Rocky Mountains and surrounded by the Colorado stars, I imagine the Divided Sky opener really fit the scene. They also further hat tipped their surroundings with a Wedge later in the show, where the “Take the Highway, to the Great Divide” also works perfectly as the actual “red rocks” mysteriously sort of pop out of nowhere, are located right along Highway 80, and the audience and stage literally divide the giant rock slabs on both sides.
READ ON for more thematic openers including 1999 and Rhinoceros…
HT reader Opsil32 hipped us to yet another magnificent leak from The Beatles’ vaults. A few days ago we told you about Revolution Take 20 and today we’ve got an alternate mix of Revolution #9…
Ovation presents a series of jazz programs on Sunday afternoon starting with a showing of Clint Eastwood’s Bird at Noon. Other programs of interest include a tribute to John Coltrane at 3:30PM, the Wes Montgomery Festival at 4 and a 1987 Dizzy Gillespie concert from Jersey’s Monmouth County.
This week’s B List looks at ten bands that went on without their fearless leaders. We’re talking about the main creative force not just the lead singer. Team HLA has helped with this post and there have been some healthy debates about what exactly constitutes a band’s leader.
Opinions vary, but here’s what I settled on with their help…
1. The Doors – When anyone thinks of The Doors they think of both Jim Morrison’s songs and voice. Morrison died in 1971 and his three surviving bandmates went on as a trio for two unsuccessful albums before disbanding.
2. The Dead – After Jerry Garcia died in 1995 the surviving members of the Grateful Dead thought better of moving on without Captain Trips for a few years. In 1998 all of them except for drummer Bill Kreutzmann reformed as The Other Ones for that summer’s Furthur Festival. When Billy joined his old bandmates in 2002 they kept The Other Ones moniker for a while until they decided to go back to be calling The Dead for Summer Tour 2003.
READ ON for rundowns of seven other leaderless bands and more…
Did you ever see the Seinfeld episode where a car rental company doesn’t honor Jerry’s reservation for a car? “But the reservation holds the car, that’s why you have reservations.” A number of Phish fans have recently found out that their hotel reservations for next weekend aren’t being honored.
Many fans staying at both the Extended Stay America and Red Roof Inn properties on “The Strip” were told that their hotels were overbooked and that their reservations have been moved to another location tens of miles away from the Coliseum. I can’t even imagine how pissed I’d be.
If you’re heading down to the shows make sure to call your hotel and confirm. If you’ve got a Hampton hotel you’re not using, please head to one of the Phish message boards and make sure another needy fan gets the room. I hate to be trite, but we’re all in this together.
Do you have a hotel or scalper horror story to share?
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Umphrey’s McGee Variety Show(s)! Buckle up, take a seat and enjoy the show!
It would have been nice to have a ring master introduce the guys at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta last Thursday and Friday, but alas it was not to be. Even without a ring master, Umphrey’s McGee didn’t hesitate to give their all at each night’s performance.
It’s taken me a while to finally realize that I should never go to a show with any sort of preconceived notions or expectations, because when you do that you’re ultimately setting up both yourself and your favorite band for failure. One of the major factors as to why I enjoy myself at an Umphrey’s McGee concert is because the band enjoys themselves on stage. And when they are there to have a good time – you’re almost guaranteed the same privilege. Their interplay and enjoyment on stage is what keeps me going back as often as humanly possible.
READ ON for more from Jen on Umphrey’s Variety Playhouse shows…
When Coachella released the lineup for this year’s festie, many music fans had their hopes set on a seeing the name Pavement grace the artist roster after hearing Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg comments earlier this year. While the return of the seminal ’90s indie-rock band may not be on the immediate horizon, four of the five members did take the stage together this past weekend at the 5 Spot in Nashville, TN for an impromptu reunion of sorts at the wedding reception party for former percussionist Bob Nastanovich.
Stephen Malkmus took the stage first, where he performed Redbone’s Come And Get Your Love and the O’Jays’ Love Train with the wedding band that featured members of the Silver Jews. The former Pavement front man was then joined by old bandmates Steve West, Mark Ibold and Nastanovich for a version of FCC Party – a song from West’s band Marble Valley.
Finally, we’re pleased to announced that HT faves The McLovins will be making their New York City rock club debut this April as the opening act for the Phish tribute band Strange Design. The two bands will team up for a show at Sullivan Hall on Friday, April 10, tickets are currently on-sale for the low price of $12 – we suggest grabbing one sooner rather than later.
Earlier today, a couple of Phish-relatedblogs picked up on a message from a Twitter account labeled Page_McConnell saying “is absolutely amazed, exhausted and exhilarated, but it’ll all be worth it! We promise.” Considering how quiet the band members have been since they announced their return it struck me as odd that “the quiet one” would be promising anything. Turns out my suspicions were correct, Phish’s publicist has confirmed to HT that “The Chairman of the Boards” doesn’t have a Twitter account.
[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]
Fake Page’s previous tweets including “is thinking Chalkdust” and “Staying happy and healthy. Sleeping in my own bed. Trying not to focus too much on secondhand sources and random gossip” were also giveaways that Mr. McConnell wasn’t behind the messages. Mike Gordon – on the other hand – does have a Twitter account that is authentic, which he hasn’t updated since late December. The band itself also has a Twitter account, but they only use it to post headlines of Phish.com news stories.
Phish fans are an amazing bunch, but they also love to start fake rumors. Can you imagine starting a fake Twitter account just to screw with other fans? As Page said back in June, “Try not to focus too much on secondhand sources and random gossip. If there is anything real to announce, it will come from the four of us as a group.” Shoulda warned about Fake Leo’s!
This has been a big week for video debuts from a few of our favorite up-and-coming artists. On Tuesday we showed you Bonerama’s first video and today we’ve got the new clip from Chicago’s Van Ghost. Van Ghost’s debut album, Melodies For Lovers, features the tender yet intense songs of longtime Chicago music scene fixture Michael Harrison Berg. Rocco Labriola’s uplifting pedal steel licks mix perfectly with the gorgeous harmonies Berg lays down with vocalist Jennifer Hartswick on each Van Ghost original.
Our first taste of Melodies For Lovers is a single called Summer Promise that sounds equal parts Oasis, CCR, Wilco, Moonboot Lover and The Byrds. Van Ghost worked with the talented Wiggle Puppy Productions team to create the perfect visual for this catchy tune. Let’s take a look…
