Famous words from Levon Helm about the first time The Band played NYC:
“New York, it was an adult portion. It was an adult dose. So it took a couple of trips to get into it. You just go in the first time and you get your ass kicked and you take off. As soon as it heals up, you come back and you try it again. Eventually, you fall right in love with it.”
My count has this as UM’s 30th gig inside the borough of Manhattan, their first appearance being nearly nine years ago at the Wetlands Preserve in October of 1999. These trips have brought UM through: Lion’s Den, Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory, Bowery Ballroom, B.B. King’s, The Rocks Off Boat Cruise, Nokia Theatre, Central Park and CBGB.
The beginning of the set leaned heavy on improvisation and at the 30-minute mark of the set, the sold-out crowd was whipped into a frenzy by the screaming vocals of Ocean Billy. UM finished off the night with a cover of a mash-up that’s titled Come Closer (that’s a mash-up of Come Together by The Beatles and Closer by Nine Inch Nails).
READ ON after the jump for more pictures and reviews of the next three shows, as well as the link to download full-resolution pictures of the stage…
With the Information Age in full swing, keeping up to date on the jambands just keeps getting easier: no more B&Ps, trader tape lists, or lot newsletters. Now, to keep up to date, there are a million tricks of the trade thanks to the internet.
One of my personal favorite of these tricks that I picked up to help stay current involves what I like to call the Jamband Charts. Essentially, I just poke through Live Downloads to determine the most popular downloads at both the aggregate level and for the more active individual bands. In doing so, you get a pretty good sense of the best bust outs at recent shows, which are almost always either monster jams, rarities, or kick ass covers. So, today I thought I’d put on my DJ hat and dedicate a Bust Outs column to what’s hot and climbing the Jamband Charts this summer.
As Bob Cormier from Stand By Me would say, “From the racks and stacks, it’s the best on wax! How ’bout another double-golden-oldie-twin-spin-sound-sandwich from K-L-A-M in Portland? Iiiiiiit’s… BOSS.”
Widespread Panic – Stir It Up
Do you want to get in a good mood? Just imagine being at Red Rock while JoJo leads this kinky reggae funkfest. I could listen to Panic play this song for hours. One thing to note for a laugh is when the guitar chords come in towards the beginning, you can tell that after all these years, Jimmy Herring is still having fun playing with a wah pedal. READ ON for more of this week’s Bust Outs…
With Sound Tribe Sector 9 and Umphrey’s McGee set to kickoff the Northeast leg of their co-bill tour tomorrow we figured we’d preview the shows with a review of last week’s Midwest run by Reuben of Partyin’ Peeps. You can catch the STUM9 tour at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC tomorrow night, Philadelphia’s Festival Pier on Friday and in Boston at the Bank of America Pavilion on Sunday.
It is 4:06 a.m. on Sunday here in the windy city and we just got back from STS9’s late night show at the House of Blues. I just want to start out by saying what a fantastic time these last five days have been. I don’t know about you guys, but I spend most of the year stuck inside boring law school classrooms counting down the days until Summer and daydreaming about weeks like the one I’ve just had…
…It is now Wednesday and I think that I’ve recovered enough to share some thoughts about the last week. Our run consisted of five days, five shows, nine sets, 1085 miles, and only one encore. We saw Umphrey’s McGee and STS9 in an amusement park in Cincinnati, a state park in Indianapolis, an old airport in Chicago, and a White Castle in Columbus. Over the course of the week I was not only impressed every single night at the level that Umphrey’s McGee is playing at, but I also was made a believer by STS9, a band that I had always secretly thought was only slightly above average. READ ON for more about STS9/UM tour…
Following up on last week, the Dave Matthews Band walks away with the trophy after receiving the most votes from the Sledgehammer edition of Cover Wars.
It has now been 21 years since Nirvana formed and 14 years since Kurt Cobain has left us. Nirvana holds a special place in my heart as I was in my early teenage years as grunge music peaked during the early ’90s. We’ve got an interesting collection of various Nirvana covers from a pop artist, a few jazz guys and some jambands.
As always, you gotta register/login to Imeem to hear the playlist below in it’s entirety. If you are not logged in, you’ll be hearing 30-second clips.
READ ON after the jump to cast your vote for the best Nirvana cover…
Last week’s She Said She Said voting reassures something I’ve always known to be true - Gov’t Mule destroys covers. So Mule takes home their first CW trophy and one note about last week: Audio has since surfaced of Mike Gordon’s band performing the song (previously we only had a YouTube) and has been added to the playlist.
Moving on to the new stuff…known for its sexual innuendos and bangin’ horn lines, Sledgehammer is Peter Gabriel’s only #1 hit to date here in the USA. This song comes to us off the 1986 release So.
As always, you gotta register/login with Imeem to hear these clips in their entirety.
READ ON after the jump to see some video of our seven contenders this week and to place your vote for the most deserving band of this Cover Wars title…
One of the weirder collaborations at last weekend’s Rothbury Festival was between Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass and General Motors. GM sent Gass to promote their brand new GMnext initiative and he wound up creating a few hilarious viral videos with some of our favorite jambands including Perpetual Groove. Here’s a clip of the Disco Biscuits helping KG recover from a nasty case of Manic Groove Loss Syndrome:
Earlier this week we told you about RANA’s first gig since 2006 which goes down tonight in Troy. Well, ask and you shall receive because the Jersey boys are slated to play NYC’s Mercury Lounge on August 16. Something tells us tickets won’t last long for this one. In other news, Peter Shapiro of Wetlands, Green Apple Festival and Jammys fame told Gowanus Lounge that the new 16-lane bowling alley / rockin’ venue he’s opening in Williamsburg should be ready for action before the end of the year.
Umphrey’s McGee and Sound Tribe Sector 9 kicked off their tour last night in Madison, WI after a lengthy rain delay. I’m surprised that no one from either band sat-in with the other band, but I guess it’s still early in the run. On a separate note, be sure to check out HT Contributor / UM Crew Member Wade Wilby’s first post on Umphrey’s official blog — The Floor.
In celebration of our Independence Day I have selected the Star Spangled Banner as our cover of choice this week. Those not familiar with the history of our nation’s National Anthem should click the link above and learn how a poem from 1814 was set to the tune of a popular drinking song and became our Nation’s #1 theme song.
I’m not going to have a vote this week (wouldn’t everyone vote for Hendrix?), so I guess this is more of a B List than a Cover Wars. There have been a lot of amazing performances of the Star Spangled Banner and I have compiled a variety of videos selecting some of my favorites (while giving preferential treatment to the artists most frequently covered here on Hidden Track) but also including a few mainstream artists as well.
Marvin Gaye (1983 NBA All Star Game):
READ ON after the jump for many more performances of the Anthem….
It hardly seems like six months have passed since the beginning of the year, but here we are on June 26. While I’ve failed miserably at fulfilling all of my resolutions I did see a ton of incredible shows. Now I get to rate them, as this week’s B List looks at my ten favorite concerts of the first half of ‘08.
What’s the criteria for this list? Well, obviously I had to be there to catch the show, so I can’t give MMJ @ Bonnaroo “show of the year” honors even though the tapes seem to indicate they deserve it. All I can go by is my gut and how wide of a smile each of these performances induced. Here’s what I’ve got…
I’ve had the pleasure of catching J-Ha at the Blue Note on three separate occasions, but the performance she gave at the legendary jazz club in May was the cat’s pajamas. I brought my cousin to the show, and it was incredible to see how in awe she was of Jen’s voice, trumpet playing and the way Jen took control of the audience. Let’s hope there are more Jennifer Hartswick gigs in store for us New Yorkers. READ ON for Scotty’s top nine shows of the first half of ‘08…
On Wednesday we told you about all of the places you can listen to and/or watch all of the action from Bonnaroo, but today let’s take a look at who’s reporting live from the scene. HT Contributor Randy Ray has already started filing quick-and-to-the-point dispatches at Jambands, while the Knoxville News’ Bonnaroo Blog offers an offbeat look at the festival every couple of hours.
And don’t forget to check out Umphrey’s McGee’s brand new blog, The Floor, for the artist’s perspective on life at the ‘Roo. They’ve already put up a shitload of posts about their misadventures in Manchester in the first 24 hours.
Let’s end the week the way we started it with a buncha links:
Beck reveals the tracklist of his new album, Modern Guilt
List Time: Rock Revival lists their Top 20 Bassists of All-Time
I’ll be hitting two Steely Dan shows this weekend with The Coach, and Jeff will join me for a little Vampire Weekend action tomorrow afternoon. What’s your story? Let us know what you’re up to by leaving a message below…
As YouTube continues to add millions of videos a day to their already vast archives, it has become harder to find the best clips the site has to offer. One way to keep your eyes on the prize is to create an account on the site and use the subscribe feature on your favorite channels, so that you can see all the videos that may interest you on the YouTube home page every time you visit.
Now, you’re probably thinking: “what channels should I subscribe to?” We’ve got you covered with this week’s B List, which features 20 YouTube channels that even the most jaded of jamfans will dig. If you think the channel we’re suggesting would be worth subscribing to, just click on the name of the user and click “subscribe.” It’s that easy! Let’s get started…
1. tDBvideos - The Disco Biscuits official YouTube channel offers videos from throughout their career.
Disco Biscuits - Shem Ra Boo 04/23/2008
READ ON for 19 more channels you need to see to believe, as well as 19 clips from jam dandys such as the Jerry Garcia Band, Phish, Umphrey’s McGee, Widespread Panic, RAQ and so many others…
