Fantastic show yesterday at the Bella Terra Festival up in Stephenstown, NY. The festival was held on the grounds of Garner Farm, in a section that I believe was a horse field with a sprawling lawn with a placid pond and nearby herds of cattle. The and turned in a forceful and focused 65 minute set hitting all the right notes and giving the crowd just what they wanted. The boys were also able to catch up with Barefoot Truth, their show mates from last spring's Keene State Solar Fest.
Bella Terra Festival
Virtual Circle, Milktoast Man, Tokyo Tea, Ghost, 20 In A 35,
Guillotine Machine,
Deep Monster Trance
Tonight is another local Connecticut show as the guys are headlining at the Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook Ct. Tickets will be still be available at the door if you're there early, the box office opends 1 hour prior to the performance and the doors open @ 7:30. it's a $17.00 ticket to a hall that holds 250, so this will be an intimate show with a heady atmosphere very similar to that of Infinity Hall.
Last night's show in Canton was another smoker with a couple new covers, the Groove Smugglers and an old favorite making appearances in a set that for all intents in purposes had to have been made with me in mind! Today is a travel day as I head up to Maine and then wander over to Burlington Vt tomorrow night to catch up with the band at Nectars. As I write this the McLovins are preparing for an afternoon show today at the Burlington Maritime Festival. The festival's headlining acts are Govt. Mule tonight and tomorrow evening Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Saturday night's Nectars show is a Grace Potter After-Show so if you're in the area do yourself a favor and check it out. I'm so happy to be able to post this special video by Dan Ogrodnik. Dan along with Dan Tyler and Mike Lamagna are colleectively The Groove Smugglers, and have backed up the McLovins last May at their Infinity Hall show and were special guests durig last night's set.
The Sounds of Summer have made their way up to the archive and here's a nice sampling of my favorite 5 recordings of the summer. I made this list based on the setlist, the performance and the recording, you may not agree with my choices, but these are all the cream of a very bountiful summer harvest.
(5) - Joe Bouchard (SmokinJoe) - MT The guys playing on a nice outdoor main stage, the day was a little windy but the recording is nice and full, very rich. A quickish set, only about 50 minutes and the perfect mix of shreddy and jammy.
(4) - John Dailey (Taper John) - Matrix recording. Another show opening for Max Creek, seems to really bring out the best in the boys, a sprite little show, some very nice exploratory jamming, Jeff and Jason are attached at the hip on this one.
(3) - Dave Malloy - Audience recording. Another of the shows that really set the stage for the McLovins sound of the summer. This is turning into a favored room for the guys to play, this night was a great mix of audience participation and setlist. The surprise of the night was the Tweezer Reprise which tied in so well with the Phish Double Tweeprise at Hartford the week before.
(2) - Dave Malloy - Matrix recording. A full and beefy sound from this upside -down boat bandshell the standout aspectof this show comes from the recording quality and choice of cover songs.
(1) - Greg Ott - Matrix recording. This is the real deal, the first song is audence only, but the rest of the show is gorgeous full blown matrix.. this short sharp shock to the system comes in at a lean and mean 45 minutes with the infamous killer Tweezer Reprise.
These are my choices, each one is a winner, and who knows, the best set of the year could be just around the corner and it probably is; lurking in the near future in all it's melt-tastic glory.
The McLovins find themselves on a roll at the moment, coming off their largest crowd yet at Gathering Of The Vibes and celebrating their 2nd Anniversary as a band, their momentum is undeniable. I threw together a collage of their performance last weekend as a way to thank everyone who showed up to sing and dance and help spread the word of this amazing group of guys. Next up are a couple local shows before a return engagement to Burlington Vermont, to play next Friday 8/13 at the Maritime Festival and Saturday 8/14 at Nectar's. There's still half of summer left to go and plenty of chances to see the band live, no excuses.
click picture to McLovinize
and a quick aside, this is post #100, when I started this I thought I'd be hunting for stuff to post about, but thanks to the hard work and talent of the band, there's no lack of material to wrte about! Thanks for reading.
The McLovins have had very good full moon weekends stretching back to their first Boston show last fall and last night’s Thunder Moon fete at the Main Pub 30th Anniversary Block Party was to be no exception.Equal parts homecoming and coming of age celebration, the band played a 2 hour set that was a perfect snapshot of the band’s current trajectory with no sign of growing pains.Coming off a 3 week break that saw their NATEVA performance achieve a mythic status online and Jeff’s visit to Israel, the band showed no effects from the layover and seem to have picked up right where they left off.
Deep Monster Trance kicked off the night and from the start it was apparent that the 3 week hiatus hadn’t meant a thing.The band brought in an incredible amount of energy and focus, feeding off of the crowd and pouring the emotion back out through the music.The third song of the set was Purple Trees and that’s when for me the night just took off.Jeff had already displayed some insane flourishes, and Jason and Jake were right with him but this night Purple Trees was a standout.This is my favorite song off of Conundrum and lately has been the springboard to their version of Rapper’s Delight.The surprise was as the Rapper’s began to die off, Jeff and Jason pulled the trigger on the intro to Tweezer Reprise and the crowd went wild, this is such a powerful song and the trio just destroyed it.In another interesting move, they dropped smoothly into Sea Of Wisdom, a second song off of Conundrum that’s been missing from sets for some time. This was played note perfect, very punchy and full in keeping with the tone of this show. Sea of wisdom was a nice tempo change and a bit of a lull, and then Milktoast Man which has been a recent set chiller, this was also twisted a bit with a second half jam that had an intense and shreddy feel, very loose and unhinged until dropping quietly back into the Milktoast groove.
Summer in the City was an appropriate choice for a warm mid-summer block party. This was last played at Strangecreek, and this time out Jason had a new effects pedal which was given a workout. Jake’s vocals were outstanding this night and Jeff had the perfect guitar tone for this cover. Cissy Strut was another surprise and is always a fantastic jamming vehicle for the band, Guillotine Machine and then Tokyo Tea closed out this extremely high energy, rocking set.
The real strength of this show comes from both musicianship and their re-acquaintance with their catalog. I think the band right now is in a position where their segues and drop-ins are perfect, as a trio they are more flexible to move in and out of jams, completely leave the original song behind and then on the turn of a dime bounce right back in. The show really gave them a chance to stretch, try some new things, remember some old things and all the while have a great time. Lately their jamming has a harder and funkier edge; no mere noodling here, this is Type II jamming, weaving threads of Prog, Jazz and funk into a heady pastiche that is satisfying both musically and thematically. The band is primed and ready, bring on The Vibes.
We're knee-deep in the run-up to Gathering Of The Vibes, but I'm just going to take a moment to mention a very nice review of GOOD CATCH which is coming up in the August issue of RELIX magazine. Amy Jacques wrote a great review, and has a solid handle on the band and the direction they're headed. Make sure you pick up a copy of this issue when it hits the stands, or better yet, subscribe so you can follow the future adventures of The McLovins and you know, I bet you can get the band to autograph a copy for you at a show.
They knew within seconds of the end of the show that all the practice and hard work had paid off, and paid off in a big way. As the band came off the stage, a phalanx of photographers and fans ran up to congratulate them. The audience was still going wild and some of the crowd came up with wide eyes and broad smiles looking to meet the band.
I always draw the cues about the show's success from the back-stage crew. For the most part these are journeymen technicians, they've seen it all and heard it all, so when you hear excitement in the voice of a sound or lighting man, you can be sure that it's sincere. Sometimes you can be too close to the band and though I really try to be as objective, it's easy to just go with the flow, so it's always great to see your opinions justified by that of professionals. I also notice how the band is treated by other bands that they play with. Their peer bands and even veteran musicians treat the guys with respect and professionalism, knowing that there is talent and drive behind all the success that they've achieved.
After an extended meet and greet with many of the fans that hang around after the show, then the gear gets stowed away and the last of the pictures are taken, it's time for the guys to enjoy the rest of the festival. We walk around for a bit and a constant stream of people come up to the band, praising the show, thanking them, taking pics, and it's just a whirlwind as they make their way to the hospitality tent. The band catches their breath for a bit and gets re-hydrated and then they take some time to go backstage to the main stage area and meet up with some o f the festival head-liners.
The rest of the afternoon is a blur of hellos and picture taking, as the band meets Ryan Montbleau, members of Drive-By-Truckers, Grizzly Bear and then they met the man. Wayne Coyne. Now Coyyne is the visionary lead vocalist cum driving force behind The Flaming Lips. Wayne is a very focused-soft spoken, gregarious man and he and Jake really hit it off. I'd like to think he was responding to the fact that here his band was headlining at a major new festival and in front of him was a hard-working talented young band who were just starting to make it. After some more camera time, he mentioned to the band that during the lips performance they like to bring people up from the stage to dress up in costume and dance during the show and would The McLovins like to do this at that night's performance? Jason and Jeff and Jake were pumped and after being shown their costumes, all that was required now was waiting until that evening's performance.
needless to say, there's much more to come from Nateva...
