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Grace Potter took her rock and roll roadshow to Lancaster, PA on 08/09/2008.  I had seen Grace Potter once before and that was last fall when I saw her open for Gov’t Mule in D.C..  She has been playing music for a while and had been getting airplay on the WXPN radio station with her “Nothing But the Water” CD but really picked airplay when she released her “This Is Somewhere” CD by playing her singles “Ah Mary” and “Stop The Bus”.

While Grace’s Cds are great listening, her live performances shadow them by far in my opinion.  Her pitch perfect bluesy voice really comes to life and her band, the Nocturnals, have a lot more room to improvise and jam off one another.  Their cover of The Rolling Stones “Paint It Black” was a rocking great way to end the set and then closed the night with a sobering “Big White Gate” which is a stunning and uplifting song that she wrote just after her grandmother had passed away. 

Grace and the band have come a long way in the last few years much in part due to Warren Haynes support and taking them on tour with Gov’t Mule. There success is well deserved and quite frankly amazing they are not HUGELY popular yet.  Excellent band!

To top all of it off, the opening band Hoots and Hellmouth was an awesome opening band that got a great reaction from the crowd.  Great night of music!

Grace Potter and the Nocturnal’s setlist for the night was:

Treat Me Right
Sweet Hands
Stop The Bus
Ah Mary
Ain’t No Time
Apologies
Over Again
Nothing But The Water > Rory
Sugar
Paint It Black (Rolling Stones Cover)

Encore:
If I Was From Paris
Joey
Big White Gate