photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

getting ready backstage @ Higher Ground - 12/28/2010

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals kicked off a four-night New Years run at Higher Ground in Vermont last night (12/28). Pictures from that show are in this post, and they do it again tonight, and then on New Years Eve, and then one more time on January 1st. The Vermont band will then spend most of the first quarter of 2011 on the road. In March they'll play Irving Plaza in NYC two nights in a row - March 9th and 10th. Tickets are on sale. All dates and more Vermont pictures, below...

Continue reading "Grace Potter & the Nocturnals kicked off their New Years run @ Higher Ground in Vermont (pics), touring (2011 dates)"

photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

Like Lauryn Hill before them, the Wu-Tang Clan preceeded the NYC-area portion of their tour with a stop at Higher Ground in Vermont. Unlike Lauryn's though, their show was met with positive reviews... including by someone who alledgedly works at the venue via a comment on the Seven Days blog...

"Hey there - just please let it be known - that we at Higher Ground had such a difficult time dealing with this - Lauryn's crew brought in their entire own PA and had their own engineers - which was totally unnecessary as we have a proper high end PA in-house that they could have used - but Lauryn chose not to. Other venues she plays will suffer the same fate unfortunately. It was too loud because they brought their own subwoofers - in addition to ours that are more than adequate to run any show - just ask the Wu-Tang Clan who had a great performance last night on all of our house gear. It was distorted because Higher Ground engineers - who weren't allowed to run the sound - and know the room better than any traveling engineer - were forced to allow Ms. Hill's crew to make the room sound as she requested. Therefore as a result there were some refunds given back and plenty of earplugs handed out, as well as a plethora of complaints, not only from concert attendees but neighbors as well...."

Wu-Tang Clan's tour is now underway. As previously mentioned, it hits Starland Ballroom in NJ tonight (12/23) and Best Buy Theater in NYC on 12/29 (tickets). An updated set of dates and more pictures from the Vermont show (setlist coming soon), below...

Continue reading "Wu-Tang Clan are on the road, played Vermont (pics) "

"[Last night's] show was advertised to start at 9:00. When we got there we heard rumblings about the show not starting until 10:30. I hoped this was just scuttlebutt, since it was a Sunday night. As it turned out, Ms. Hill did not grace us with her presence until 11:45. There was no explanation, and no opening act. I could see and feel the energy drain from the room as the wait got longer and longer. By 10:30 some people started going to the ticket window to try to get their money back (I don't know if they were successful). After two hours of standing around and waiting, her DJ came onstage and spun some tunes. Thirty minutes after that the band took the stage. I got the sense that even they did not know when (or if?) their bandleader would appear. They just stood there shuffling their feet for ten or fifteen minutes before Lauryn eventually showed up.

Ok, so finally we get to the music (consider this review as an allegory for the show itself). After all the drama, if she had actually come out and killed with her brilliance, all might have been forgiven. But alas, it was not to be. The band was a lesson in overkill: three guitarists, three keyboardists, three backup singers, bass, drums and DJ. The result? It was hard to hear much of anything. To make matters worse, the songs were sped up to the point of rendering them almost unrecognizable. It took me half the opening song to realize it was "Lost Ones". There was no groove; it was so fast you couldn't even dance to it. Needless to say we did not make it through the whole set." [The Big Takeover]

That review comes from Sunday night's disastrous-sounding Lauryn Hill show at Higher Ground in Vermont. It was the first show Lauryn played as part of her recent comeback tour that includes six sold out NYC shows, and now includes one on February 4th at Wellmont Theater in Montclair, NJ. It was also her chance to prove that she cared about paying fans. Oh well. A set of pictures, including one of the setlist, is in this post.

$65 tickets to the Wellmont show go on sale at 5PM Today. Tickets are also still on sale for the 12/22 show at Toad's Place in CT. She plays tonight, 12/20, in Boston. Updated dates and more Vermont pictures below...

Continue reading "Lauryn Hill eventually played Vermont (pics & setlist), adds another NJ show (updated dates)"

photo by Jane Richey

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars played an intimate acoustic set at the University of Vermont's Ira Allen Chapel on Tuesday [4/6], celebrating the release of their new album "Rise and Shine," from Charlotte's Cumbancha record label, and preparing for their performance at Higher Ground's Showcase Lounge [on Wed 4/7].

About 100 people gathered in the chapel to watch a short excerpt from the film, "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars," [which tells the story of their experiences in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war and the formation of the band]....After the screening, the band came out and played a couple of songs....The band took a quick break to answer questions from the audience about their music and the film, but jumped back into more music aafter only three short questions. The pews in the Ira Allen Chapel didn't allow the audience much room to dance, but Alhadji Jeffrey Camara (aka Black Nature) took the microphone soon after the Q&A had ended and got everyone on their feet.

Bandleader/ Songwriter Reuben Koroma said that despite the long flight, the band was not tired, and was excited for [Wednesday's] show. [Burlington Free Press]

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars kicked off their US trip, which runs into May, with a pair of shows in Burlington, Vermont.

They tour in support of their new record, Rise & Shine, which came out March 23rd on Cumbancha (and which you can preview here).

The group visits NYC for a show on Wednesday, April 14th at Highline Ballroom. Also on the bill are Bajah & The Dry Eye Crew and True Panther act and "Bubu King", Janka Nabay. Tickets are still on sale.

Clips from the doc and new album promos, album cover art and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars released a new album & are now on tour (dates include Highline Ballroom)"

Kyle Thomas, Ruth Garbus & Chris Weisman

Happy Birthday is Kyle Thomas (aka King Tuff), Chris Weisman, and Ruth Garbus. They formed in November 2008 to play one show at the punk-space "Tinderbox"(RIP), in their hometown Brattleboro, Vermont. Kyle needed a band to play his new pop songs because he was too scared to play by himself. They enjoyed playing with each other so much that they decided to keep doing it. They have now played a total of 5 shows. Kyle sings and plays lead guitar. The songs are mostly his, but the band arranges and finishes them together. He is also a painter and drawer and loves top 40, shoes, texting, comic books, etc. Ruth Garbus plays drums and sings. She also makes her own music and art. Chris Weisman plays "inverted-tuning" guitar, bass, and sings. He makes 4-track songs, enjoys reading and writing, and is a guitar teacher.
-[Sub Pop in September]

Happy Birthday's Sub Pop signing was announced in September, but so far the label hasn't released any of the tracks from the album's worth of songs the band recorded for them (due to be released March 16th, 2010). The record's tracklist is below.

The band was signed only a few months after their first non-Brattleboro, VT show, which happened in Winooski, VT in July. A video from that gig is below. Since then, the group made what we think was their NYC debut at Silent Barn on October 21st (during CMJ) and opened two nights for Devendra Banhart in Burlington and Boston in November.

Happy Birthday are scheduled to visit NYC again on December 12th for a show at Death By Audio with Yellow Fever (their debut album release show) and Vivian Girls
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Happy Birthday is a supergroup of sorts. In addition to their individual solo projects, Ruth and Kyle are both in Feathers, Kyle (aka King Tuff) is also in Witch, and Chris plays as a duo with Greg Davis.

Chris Weisman (who is not in Feathers or Witch) has a brother named Kurt Weisman who is also in Feathers (who are signed to Devendra Banhart's label Gnomonsong) and Witch (who feature J Mascis as a member).

Ruth Garbus has a sister named Merrill Garbus who recently broke up her band Sister Suvi and is now best known as Tune-Yards.

Ruth (Happy Birthday) just signed to Sub Pop. Merrill recently signed to 4AD. That's a family full of talent with a lot to be thankful for this holiday season. Catch both sisters performing solo on the same NYC bill for the first time at the Stone two days before Christmas.

Happy Birthday album tracklist and a live video of the group (possibly the only way to hear them via the Internet at the moment), below...

Continue reading "Happy Birthday signed to Sub Pop, include King Tuff & Ruth Garbus - sister of Merrill (who signed to 4AD) - live video"