Reviews
Avery Brewery in Boulder Colorado has a small tucked away tasting room down the back ally of a local business park. They have a large selection of fresh tasty beers on tap, and I was there enjoying one when four guys drove up in a Green Van from Ft Collins. As they unloaded their equipment, set up their mics, tuned their guitars, and oiled up the Tuba I had no idea what to expect. What I got was a great set of music from Ft. Collins own Handpicked Holler!.
In 2004 the San Francisco rock outfit New Monsoon made a storied appearance at the famed Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado, and blew away newcomers with their unique blend of West Coast rock, jazz, Latin, and West Asian sounds. From that performance the band released their first live disc aptly titled Live at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
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The Starry Plough bar, on the corner of Shattuck and Ashby in Berkeley, stands out on the block as there is not much else around. I arrived a bit early and saw Dead Heads standing outside the bar smoking joints and cigarettes, making me think I was walking down the mythical “Shakedown Street.”
In December of 2004 I saw Béla Fleck & the Flecktones at the Water Street Music Hall in Rochester. At that show Béla made a mention of his plans which at that time included traveling to Africa to research the roots of the banjo. This intrigued me as I had just been to Morocco and seen banjos being played out in the square, a sight I was not expecting, and as I also have a large amount of family in Africa.
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On Thursday, for at least the third time in the last 12 months, the electro-dance-rock duo BoomBox graced our fair city and the Fox Theatre with their pulsing beats and feel-good funk. Guitarist Zion Godchaux and DJ Russ Randolph seem to like it here against the mountains, and it’s lucky for us that they do. In fact, they like the Boulder crowds so much that this time around, they brought a camera crew for a live music video shoot.
Honestly, I walked into the Boulder Theater this night expecting to hear more of a hip-hop show, which certainly was not the case. Although there were influences of hip hop, and with the keyboardist running a live audio editing software, perhaps Ableton, to me it came off as a classic rock sound. But, I was not even slightly disappointed! Mama’s Cookin’ delivers a sound that borders on replicating classic rock, think Zeppelin mixed with The Beatles, but with a modern flare.
They’re a posse of Asheville artists who play with the sort of spunk, meticulousness and joy that should be bottled and sold at some obscure roadside stand by a secret guru. The mystical, tribal and always fascinating Toubab Krewe have the ability to stir those emotions that you thought you may have lost, without singing a single phrase in any language.
Fat Tuesday, at the Fox, proved to be an evening of soulful celebration, where the positivity and spirit-moving sounds of Lubriphonic and Panjea shined as effervescently as the Madigra beads draped around fans’ necks.
The anticipation is over as thousands of fans have descended upon the city of Hampton, Virginia to take part in the first three shows since Phish disbanded four years ago. The Hampton Coliseum, a favorite venue among fans, will host this historic reunion as the band begins "phase 2" of their musical conquest.
