The Allman Brothers Band March Madness run continued tonight at the United Palace where the band played their fourth of eight shows in Uptown Manhattan. Once again, the evening was
The members of Phish will take the stage tonight for the first time in 2010 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City where they will open this year’s Rock
Earlier this month, the Common Council of Madison, WI voted unanimously to make the members of Wilco honorary citizens of their town. One of the reasons given was that Jeff
Mike Gordon Band @ Pearl Street – March 13, 2010
Mike Gordon’s solo project combines a good dose of funk with a lot of boundless improvisation. The band stopped at the Pearl Street nightclub in Northampton, MA on Saturday to prove how capable and willing they are to put on a fresh, exciting, and unique show. In a post-show conversation with percussionist Craig Myers, “Mike is constantly pushing new sh**. Sometimes the hits come late, but then other times we’ve just created something new.” And more often than not, they’re creating something new.
His backing band is not so much of a “backing band” when you look at how guitarist Scott Murawski and keyboardist Tom Cleary took the helm during portions of Saturday’s show. Murawski’s solos are smooth and story-like, concluding gracefully as Mike subtly brings the band back to a chorus. While Murawski is off on his own improvising, he’s clearly locking into Mike’s playing at all times. Cleary, on the other hand, usually lays low adding color when necessary to every song. However, when it’s his turn to solo, Cleary is unstoppable and wild – he often ends up halfway through his jams standing up and spinning around while playing.
The Saturday show kicked off with Can’t Stand Still, an original song that evokes ’90s era alternative pop. Mike’s voice harmonized and blended well with the voices of the other members of the band who sang backup. While everyone danced in sync to the opening song, Spiral, which followed, was a little hiccup in the setlist. The groove was a little hard to grasp for an audience that wanted to dance. Things quickly changed however when Mike invited Mark Mercier, one of his favorite musicians and Murawski’s Max Creek band mate , to take over Cleary’s position on the boards. Mercier sang lead and jammed on Columbus Stockade, and Cleary came back to do double duty on keys with Mercier on Voices, a standout track from The Green Sparrow.
READ ON for more of Balaji’s thoughts and photos of the MGB…
Back in 2007, when Neil Young pulled into Philadelphia for a two-night run at the historic Tower Theater during the tour for Chrome Dreams II, the legendary singer-songwriter had some
This spring seems to be loaded with a number of high profile releases. Among the ones we’ve been excited to hear is the Drive-By Truckers’ ATO Records debut, The Big
ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Hollies and The Stooges will take their place among Rock Royalty tonight starting at 8:30PM as Fuse airs all the action live from the Rock
Like a long plane ride calmly careening through the air at 600 mph, the beautiful building classical piece from England’s orchestral "sinfonia ViVA," begins Gorillaz latest endeavor Plastic Beach. Signaling there is always more than first glance, the album mixes classical and hip hop and nearly every genre in between for easily one of the best recordings from any virtual band. Zing.
Mike Patton (Faith No More, Peeping Tom, Tomahawk) unveils Mondo Cane, his Italian language rock-meets-orchestra hybrid, on May 4 via Ipecac Recordings. Recorded at a series of European performances
This indie band from Florida seems primed to break into whatever sort of big time there is out there these days (lots of followers on Twitter?!?). Astro Coast is engaging guitar rock that blends experimentation and main stream hooks excellently while putting a high value on sing-a-longs and riffing out. This is a surprisingly strong rookie offering and the easiest comparison to draw would be Weezer’s Blue Album as JP Pitts has an air of young Rivers Cuomo about him.
