Click here to see the photos.

Mike Watt (formerly of the Minutemen and fIREHOSE) and the Missingmen opened up for Dinosaur Jr. for a sold out show at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA on 05-01-2009 with his legendary bass playing in the forefront.

If Neil Young is supposedly the godfather of grunge, I nominate Mike Watt the godfather of alternative/punk.  Mike Watt started off his legendary career playing with his band the Minutemen in Pedro, California and then later fIREHOSE.  His career boomed in the 90′s with his solo album “Ballhog Or Tugboat” which culled a who’s who list of the early 90′s alternative era including: Eddie Vedder, Flea, Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Thurston Moore, and J. Mascis as well as many others.

His iconic knee shake and thunderous bass licks are something for all to see live in person. His knees shake in double time like a kid on his first date throughout all the songs and his bass playing is absolutely thunderous.

Much like Dinosaur Jr., Mike Watt’s band was set up as a trio consisting of guitar, bass, and drums.  They hammered through songs of old as well as new.

I was secretly hoping that J. Mascis would come out and play their cover of “Maggot Brain” with Mike Watt as recorded on Ballhog Or Tugboat but it did not happen.  That 12-minute rendition of the song is the peak of the CD for me.  It is one long and scorching guitar solo by J Mascis that can not be missed.

It is always great to see the legendary Mike Watt.

Click here to see the photos.

Dr. Dog played a sold out Chameleon Club on 04-14-2009 in Lancaster, PA.  Again, the Chameleon Club was packed with fans to see their favorite Philly band.  The openers were two other Philadelphia native bands, Da Comrade and Drink Up Buttercup.

Dr. Dog subjected Lancaster to their infectious psychedelic sounds of the second coming of The Beatles.  I am not saying that they are the next Beatles but rather they have been musically picking up right where the Beatles left off with three and four part harmonies and addictive hooks and melodies.

Dr. Dog hit the stage pretty late for a Wednesday but their energy instantly rubed off and got the audience moving right away.  About half-way through the set, I finally peeled my eyes from the stage and I turned around to see hundreds of people singing and dancing.

Dr. Dog is starting to become a household name, the secret is spreading out about this band.  I started to see Dr. Dog articles and mentions of them on websites on a regular basis once the album “Fate” was released.  They are now playing some of the biggest festivals in the country which allows them maximum exposure.  If their next album is as good as their previous work, this band will be hugely popular very soon.

Go see this band as soon as you can!

THe setlist for the night was as follows :
The Way The Lazy Do
The Ark
The Old Days
The Pretender
The Breeze
My Friend
Fate
Oh No
Hang On
Fat Dog
Army of Ancients
The Girl
Fools Life
From
Worst Trip
The Rabbit, The Bat, And the Reindeer

Encore:
Alaska (With Toby’s Dad adding vocals)
My Old Ways
Ain’t It Strange

Click here to see the photos.

The legendary Buddy Guy played The Forum in Harrisburg, PA on 04-16-2009.  He is a five time Grammy winner and has inspired thousands of guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan to name an impressive and abbreviated list

Buddy Guy shows are a night full of entertainment complete with stories of the olden days such as meeting and playing with Hendrix or touring in the old days in the area traveling between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.  Buddy Guy also does a great job with crowd interaction, at one point Buddy Guy walked off stage while still playing guitar and walked to the last row in the auditorium and jammed on his guitar as well as met and shook hands with many of the fans.  On the way back to the stage, he invited a 16 year old on stage and let the kid play Buddy Guy’s guitar.

The kid invited on stage had trouble playing the guitar because Buddy’s strap was set up too low so he was bending over to put the guitar on his knee.  Buddy let the teenager play with the band for a while and then came out and commented on how he was holding the guitar and said “Get it done any way you can get it done” and then emphasized the importance of passing on the blues music to younger kids so that the blues live on.

Buddy Guy also showed off a few guitar skills that many including Hendrix have stolen from him.  Buddy throughout the show muted or nearly muted his band while he played guitar with only his left hand by tapping (hammer-on and hammer-offs) the notes on the fretboard making the string resonate and make a tune.  The other moves that Jimi Hendrix borrowed from the great Buddy guy are showmanship skills such as playing the guitar with his teeth and playing behind his head.

In addition to all this, Buddy Guy also carries along a great sense of humor and had a great outlook on everything especially the bluesman that came before him.  He spoke very highly about the legends as well as the unknown blues players that never made a dime on hit songs they wrote for other people.  He spoke about blues music preservation and how important it was for him to open the Buddy Guy club in Chicago not to make money but to make sure the word of blues music continues into the future.

Buddy Guy does not use a setlist on stage, and plays a lot of short snippets of songs before he goes into the next so it makes it harder to remember what all was played….  Here are just some of the songs that I recall him playing:

Hoochie Coochie Man
Voodoo Child (Jimi Hendrix Cover)
Feels Like Rain
Crazy
Hoodoo Man Blues
Feels Like Rain
Politician (Cream Cover)

Click here to see the photos.

Indigenous opened for the legendary Buddy Guy at The Forum in Harrisburg, PA on 04-16-2009. 

Indigenous is a five piece blues rock band that I had heard on the WXPN radio station many of times and this was a great opportunity to finally see them play live.  For this tour, Indigenous was supporting their upcoming Long Way Home EP which has since been released.

This was my first time seeing the band so I am not really familiar with their material other than what has been played on the radio.  Their set was solid and the lead singer was perfectly on the money with his vocal deliveries and guitar solos.  I look forward to seeing them again.

Click here to see the photos.

Toubab Krewe played the Abbey Bar at the Appalachian Brewing Company on 04-15-2008.  Round Table Presents brought this amazing band back to the dedicated fans at ABC once again for some intergalactic travels.

The crowd was really into this show, they were continually calling out for the band to “Go deep! Go deeper (into the jams)!” in between songs.  At one point the bass player, David, asked “How deep?” to which they replied “Into outer space”.  David quickly replied, “Outer space on a Tuesday night?”.  Of course the crowd ruptured in an affirmative approval.  I am not sure if any space traveling was done that night but some dense jams and improv exploration was executed.

Toubab Krewe play a complex set of music thanks in part to percussionists Luke Quaranta and Teal Brown.  Their rythmic changes and synchronicity really keep this band moving all together as one and the fans really feed off that.  There are no vocals in Toubab Krewe songs they are all instrumentals and their instrumentation speaks for themselves.

Prior to Toubab Krewe taking the stage, I noticed that the guitarist’s pedalboard seemed very empty.  I mentioned it a guy that travels with Toubab Krewe and he said that guitarist, Drew, simplified his pedal board to 4 pedals from the typical pedalboard full that I normally see him travel with.  He said they have been having problems with a few of the pedals so they took a bunch of them out of the signal to simplify it.  While talking to him, he also mentioned that they drove into Harrisburg that day from New York City where they were spending time recording an EP of studio material that is hoped to be released during the summer.

I walked through the venue a few times looking for audio tapers and I was bummed to not find any tapers at this show.  Unless I missed someone, this will be the first Toubab Krewe show there in a long time that has not been taped.  I’ve said it many of times…. Thank your tapers they do a lot of work for everyone to enjoy music.

The band is from Asheville, NC and is comprised of:
David Pransky – Bass
Luke Quaranta – Percussion
Teal Brown – Drums
Drew Heller – Electric Guitar and Cigarbox Guitar
Justin Perkins – Kora, Kamelengoni, Electric Guitar, and percussion this night

Click here to see the photos.

The North Mississippi Allstars played the Chameleon Club on 04-14-2009 in Lancaster, PA.  The openers, Hill Country Revue, consist of 2/3 of the North Mississippi Allstars band members.  So the guys had just walked off stage for a brief break before re-emerging as the headlining North Mississippi Allstars.  To see the Hill Country Review photos, click the “Bands” tab at the top of the page.

The North Mississippi Allstars consist of Luther Dickinson (also of The Black Crowes) on guitar, Cody Dickinson on drums, and Chris Chew on bass.  They have been nominated for a grammy in the blues genre a few times, have the honor of being the backing band for John Hiatt, and throw down a great blues rock show live night after night.  This is a power trio that features a predominant guitar player (Luther Dickinson) a la Jimi Hendrix, Cream, or Gov’t Mule.

Their set was a rocking and grooving one that had the whole floor dancing and shaking the whole night.  The audience at this show were really engaged with the band and the North Mississippi Allstars ate it all up. The band interacted with them all night and varied from their setlist to play some of the requests.  They were a fan’s band that night.

The show ended with a 10-minute version of Jimi Hendrix’s Hear My Train A Comin’ that was absolute bliss and it tore the house down.  I could not think of a better way to end the show.

There was a painter named Sean Poole that showed up and had his easel set up in the back of the venue and painted an image of the bad while the concert was going on.  See the last two photos in the slide show for an photo of the painting in progress. I had seen similar setups before on video and read about them in magazines but this was the first time I saw it happen live.  It was really cool to see.

The full show is available for streaming or downloading for free thanks to the tapers.  Here is the link .

The setlist for the night closely followed this though it was altered in parts. 
Intro
Shake
JR > Stay All Night
Lord Have Mercy > Stay All Night
Soldier
Take Yo Time, Rodney
I’m In Jail
Storm
Sugartown
51 Phantom
I’d Love To Be A Hippie
Keep The Devil Down
Po’ Black Maddie
Skinny Woman
Drum Solo
Shake ‘Em On Down
New Song *
ML
Going Down
Real Mother For Ya
Hey, Hey Baby
Snake Drive

Encore:
Goin’ Down South
Hear My Train A Comin’ (Jimi Hendrix Cover)

Click here to see the photos.

Hill Country Revue opened for the North Mississippi Allstars the Chameleon Club on 04-14-2009 in Lancaster, PA.  The North Missippi Allstars photos are available by clicking on the “Bands” tab at teh top of the page.

Hill Country Revue started as a side project for two of the members of North Mississippi Allstars (Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew) while Luther Dickinson plays with the Black Crowes.  But Hill Country Revue amount to much more than just a side project.  They play hip-shake rock blues but really adventure further deep into the rock blues like Gov’t Mule and even deep into the southern blues like Allman Brothers territory with dueling guitar solos.  Luther Dickinson also appeared on stage with them as guest at the end of the setlist.

This was my first time seeing Hill Country Revue so I was not familiar with the material played but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.   If you like the North Mississippi Allstars and you like dirty blues you will surely like this band.  They have a CD that will be released soon so keep an eye out for it!

The full show is available for streaming or downloading for free thanks to the tapers.  Here is the link.

The setlist for the night as on the setlist and verified on the recording per the link above is as follows:

Georgia Women
Hill Country Revue
Dirty Shirt
Good Times
Growin’
You Can Make It
Ramblin’
Instrumental *
Home Too Long
Alice Mae **
Psychedelic Sex Machine ***

* Appears as ‘Improv-Joyful Sounds’ on setlist
** with Luther Dickinson on guitar
*** with Luther Dickinson on drums