Words: Carla Danca
Images: Jeremy Gordon

As many friends were finalizing their plans for the Phish run this week, I headed over to Terminal 5 in NYC on Friday night to see the lovely Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. While Phish has become the polarizing force in the jamband scene this year, either as re-energizing the crazed fanbase or overwhelming a few bands at the bottom – and everyone’s wallet in between – GPN has moved in a different direction altogether.

While you see GPN at many of the summer festivals (including playing at Bonnaroo with Phish headlining) it would be hard to say that they are still part of the “jam” music scene any longer. Grace Potter has made the successful crossover from the festival/ hippie scene into main stream music and TV (with songs used on One Tree Hill and Grey’s Anatomy) and more importantly she did it without losing any of the talent that originally propelled her.

After an opening acts from Sean Bones and Brett Dennen, the stage went dark for a dramatic entrance by first the Nocturnals and then spotlight appearing, Grace came out last beating on her tambourine in a sexy green sequined dress. Staples like Mastermind and Apologies from This is Somewhere started the night off setting the tune for a high energy set by GPN. READ ON for more from Jeremy and Carla…

With some debate going on over the release of her next album – or rather what happened to the new album with producer T-Bone Burnett that was in the works over the summer – Grace gave fans a taste of some of the new material including the title track, Medicine, while Goodbye Kiss and Oasis topped the new songs that were inserted into the beginning of the set. While hearing the older material from Grace is always a treat, it is clear that fans are anxiously awaiting a dominating new album and some fresh material.

However, yet again the venue itself, Terminal 5, was disappointing with the lack of good sightlines which prevented half of the audience from seeing Grace as she moved over to play the organ. It still stuns me when I think that the people of The Bowery Presents who created such a wonderful venue at the Williamsburg Music Hall (from the ashes of NorthSix) were the same people who designed this monstrosity.

Grace’s 90 min set (they went 3 min over their 12 pm curfew) was a little short, filled with all the highlights, but definitely sweet. The setlist seemed vaguely familiar with the White Rabbit encore, however seeing the band onstage together all beating into Matt Burr’s drum and the crowd clapping in unison to the deeply soulful sounds of Nothing But The Water was a priceless moment.