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Yonder Mountain String Band
Check out the video here: http://youtu.be/0XuoazFvcJs
YMSB at Canopy Club (photo: Michael Kaiz Photojournalism)
Can you believe Summer Camp 2013 is ONLY 44 days away? What do you think of the lineup the crew put together this year? Pretty amazeballs if you ask me. The festival mainstays of moe. & Umphrey’s are again front and center holding down headlining spots. But they share some pretty rarified company! The Wood Brothers and The Wailers were late adds that pleased many a camper. The only thing left to figure out is where everyone will be slotted with other great acts like Trey, Thievery Corporation, STS9, Avett Brothers, and YMSB.
The Wood Brothers (photo Michael Kaiz Photojournalism)
photo Michael Kaiz Photojournalism
Thievery Corporation is gonna rock the red barn late night.
I caught Thievery’s NYE show out in Vail as the ball dropped and we rang in 2013 at Dobson Ice Arena. Their mix of house electronic beats along side a live band with amazing female and male vocalists has been heard around the DC area for years. I’m thinking that the late night set with ZEDS DEAD is going to easily rival last years by Pretty Lights. Be sure to get your tickets to the RED BARN late nights while you still can. If not don’t worry they’ll have another set placed strategically throughout the awesome weekend at Three Sisters Park.
Lebanese Blond by Thievery…calling it for one of their sets.
What sort of collaborations will we see this year at Camp? Will Trey get down with moe.? Will Yonder and Cornmeal team up? These are the questions that get people excited, and with 44 DAYS to go…let your imagination run wild.
Keller and Al team up and heat up Moonshine stage.
Speaking of who is bringing rage sticks or totems this year? Last year saw some pretty unique creations, and I for one am gonna be scouting for the famous “STOP & GET DOWN” sign along with a host of others. I may give out prizes so be on the lookout for me and when you do see me throw up your best “rage face” for the picture.
This sign is my favorite…FGC likey it a lot too!
Flowers for Janis
I’m really thankful that this year i’ll have time in addition to covering the festival to hang with my band pals Family Groove Company, Old Shoe, Henhouse Prowlers, Afternoon Moon, Chicago Farmer, The Giving Tree Band, The Ragbirds, and Zmick. Friends are what makes the festival experience that much more special and its been almost a year since I hung out with my fellow CIT friends and Camp Counselor from last year. That’s a year TOO long for sure.
Part of last year’s Camp Counselor/CIT crew & our fearless director.
Let’s see besides seeing Widespread Panic this weekend at UIC. I’m heading out west on tour with Old Shoe as they play a few Colorado dates at the end of April. If you are around Fort Collins (4/17), Steamboat Springs (4/18), Denver (4/19), or Nederland (4/20) make sure you look up where they are playing on that Facebook thing and get on down to check them out pre SC2013! I’ll even share a tasty local beverage with you (if you are of age of course). Until we meet again at Camp keep your eyes peeled for the schedule and when its released start planning your romp through Three Sisters cause a good time starts with a good plan!
Allie Kral and FGC
Mountain Standard Time a band that immediately rose to Front Range fame, as a stalwart jamgrass group seemed to disappear almost as quickly. Over just a few years MST performed on some of the biggest stages in Colorado as well as festivals across the country. They left the scene amid rumors, but now MST emerges after all the speculation with a new lineup and a three-night Mardi Gras run with Jeff Austin. The first stop on that run was Fort Collins.
Continuing my streak of Thursdays at the Aggie, I headed down early to catch the opening set from North Lake Tahoe exports Dead Winter Carpenters. This five piece Americana, rock group has continued to endear audiences across the country. They performed a classic DWC set opening the night with “Making A Living 101.”
Set 1: Making A Living 101, San Antoine, Nothing At All, Bootleg Jack, One Foot In The Gutter, Whiskey Ain’t My Wife, Levi, Nobody’s Fault, Walkin’ Shoes, I Shot Him, Holy Moses
Jenni Charles made her fiddle purr throughout their hour-long opening set, with a special kind of veracity that made every note seem special. Song titles like “Bootleg Jack” and “Whiskey Ain’t My Wife” hint at a simpler time in music, but there is absolutely nothing simple about their performance. Blending styles of country, folk, Americana, rock, roots, and so much more; the Dead Winter Carpenters are truly worth showing up early for. Sharing vocal duties with Jenni, bassist Dave Lockhart and duel guitarists Jesse Dunn and Bryan Daines add so much versatility to what this band can do in a live setting. They finished their set by inviting Nick Dunbar to jam on the last couple songs. In all honesty with shows like this one at the Aggie, it won’t be long before they are headlining the evening.
Finally after much anticipation, Mountain Standard Time took the stage sans Jeff Austin. By this point in the evening the room had filled in with eager college students. I talked to two who seemed slightly annoyed that more people hadn’t turned out.
“Don’t people know who Jeff Austin is?”- Bleary Eyed College Student
Actually the room was fairly full compared to what I have seen on Thursdays at this venue over the last month. And for the record I’m pretty sure people know who Jeff Austin is. Mountain Standard Time opened with “Door Jamb.”
Set 1: Door Jamb> Lioness, Behind The Bar, EMS, Daises, Moon Rocks, Picture, Annabelle, Wandering, No Expectations, Tear It Down
Set 2: Oxytocin, Fairy Meadows, Katy Anne, Guitar Playin’ Man, Speckley Boy, Mamow, Kentucky Mandolin, No One Sees, Boatman, PS
Encore: Rollin, Solace
Out of the gate Mountain Standard Time ripped through their classic repertoire with a tenacity that one would expect from a band hungry to tour. The first look at the group revealed two new members including Otis Lande on bass and former Yamn! keyboardist Ryan Ebarb. Ryan’s departure from Yamn sidelined them for a bit as well, so it’s great to see both of the local jam monsters out playing again. They delivered a searing set before suddenly inviting Mr. Austin to the stage. Starting in the MST catalog they segued nicely into Yonder Mountain String Band’s “No Expectations.” This song featured some sweet back and forth between Jeff and Nick Dunbar. They closed the first set with a massive “Tear It Down.”
The second set turned it up a notch with MST coming back strong. Opening with “Oxytocin” and stepping it up a bit Mountain Standard Time was definitely up to some of their old tricks. Stanton Sutton stood like a young John Oates on the stage, shredding the guitar for the crowd. The highlight of the show was another Jeff lead Bill Monroe instrumental, “Kentucky Mandolin.” They closed their set with a fiery “PS.” Mountain Standard Time is on the cusp of coming back in a big way in Colorado. With younger and younger bands flooding the airwaves, it’s good to see MST back in business. They are a refreshing band to watch and I’m glad they decided to return to their seat at the jamgrass table.
http://deadwintercarpenters.com
Hey Scamperinos!
Here’s a little recap of my Sunday at Summer Camp. I began my morning with watching a random dude take a morning streaking run. If you were camped along the tree line across from the Moonshine stage, you probably saw him too at 9am. Nothin’ like making you’re last morning at Scamp more memorable.
Once I felt more wide awake from that sight, I headed to the usual 10am yoga. Like I said before, I LOOOOVE that Summer Camp had yoga at 10am. Because then I was able to make all session except for one. I never made it to the yoga sessions at other festivals since they were at 7 or 8am.
After catching some lunch, I headed over to the Field Day keg party and had a great time celebrating and getting to know all of the other teams and my fellow Yellow Teamers. I also was told that I was named MVP of the females on the Yellow Team, Woo! If you caught dodgeball, I was the last person standing for yellow with 5 men from purple starring me down like a piece of meat. It was a scary moment but fun at the same time. I also found out that my main squeeze Adam got MVP out of the males on the Yellow Team from when he won the only event for the Yellow Team which was arm wrestling. With being a first timer to Scamp, I really enjoyed having the option of participating in field day events, and I met so many great people through it too!
Then I began my afternoon filled with lots of bluegrass by catching some Greensky Bluegrass at the Moonshine stage. I moved on over to the Sunshine stage and caught the Devil Make Three, I’ve never seen them before and they were a fantastic three some! I continued on to get my next bluegrass fix at the Moonshine stage by catching some Yonder. I LOOOOVE me some bluegrass, such a great afternoon. Next I ran over to Michael Franti & Spearhead at the Sunshine stage. He put on an AMAZING show. I nearly cried 3 times because of how sincere he is and with the way that he connects with his fans. There was a young girl who was about 7 years-old who was standing side stage who he brought out on stage and Michael played a song that she requested earlier. The little girl was in complete shock and sang the entire song by his side, it was incredible. Here’s a pic of them singing together.
Then I caught some Victor Wooten. I’ve seen him once before, but man, he really knows how to get a crowd groovin’. Once he was done, I headed straight to the Vibetent to catch the band that I had been waiting all weekend for…Rubblebucket! As I waited for them to set up, I watched as a group of about 10 people came in with decorated white masks that said “Rubblebucket” on them. Then I realized that they had to be awesome since they had their own streetteam/true fans that came to Summer Camp to dance and cheer them on. When Rubblebucket started playing, everyone started dancing and I was amazed to see that they had a total of 8 people playing in their band! Once I danced my booty off at Rubblebucket’s show, I headed over to the Summer Camp Counselor Maria’s camp to catch her private show which included members of moe. and Greensky Bluegrass. It was an amazing show and here’s a picture of it
It was hard to leave all of the amazing friends that I met, but then I headed on to my last show at Summer Camp which was Jane’s Addiction. I’ve seen Perry perform before twice, but to see him with his original band Jane’s Addiction was an amazing experience. They made my night by playing Just Because and ending their set with everyone’s favorite, Jane Says. If you were at their set, one thing is for sure, Perry does NOT like glowsticks. When it was over, my man and I picked up some homemade delicious ice cream and sadly headed out of Summer Camp saying goodbye to Three Sisters Park about 10 times before I made it off the premises.
Love, hugs, and thugs,
-Mo
Sunday was the one of the BEST days of my life. On Friday I heard that I might be able to interview Yonder Mountain String Band and I hoping that it wouldn’t fall through. I got up early on Sunday a little before 10 am, which was hard considering I was at the Soulshine tent seeing Sun Stereo Recreate the Beatles just 6 hours earlier. I went to write my blog from Saturday and prepare for my potential interview with Yonder. After writing my blog I went back to camp for a quick “shower” with a little soap, water, and paper towels. I spent the next hour waiting for my interview. I was nervous that it might not happen, and equally nervous that it actually might happen.
Around 2:00 pm 2011 Summer Camp Counselor Nick Stock, and I set out for the Moonshine stage where Yonder was set to play in a couple hours. Nick was doing me a huge favor and was taking video of the interview. We got there 10 minutes early and milled around backstage for a few minutes. I have spent many shows wondering what backstage looked like and now I was there! I was in complete shock. I could hardly wait to see who in the band I would be interviewing. After another minute or two Nick and I spotted Jeff Austin and Ben Kaufmen the mandolin and bass player from Yonder Mountain String Band.
We went in to a trailer to do the interview and I was getting nervous. As soon as we started I realized all my fears were unfounded. Jeff and Ben are two of the nicest people ever. They made the interview fun and easy. They shared some of their weirdest moments at a show, and talked about how Summer Camp has been good to them. I felt so honored to meet them, it was a dream come true. This was a great experience but my day was not over yet.
I got back to the press area to to offload and was surprised to see Jordan and Janis from Family Groove Company there. I was offered to do an interview with them and I jumped at the opportunity so we made plans to meet up at the Everyone Orchestra Show. I couldn’t believe I was gonna get to interview another one of my favorite bands.
I ran to the main stage so I could catch a little bit of Yonder Mountains’ set before I did my interview with FGC. It was great! I could hardly contain myself knowing that only minutes before I had talk with these guys in person. I took off for the Everyone Orchestra Show and my interview with Janis and Jordan. While seaching for Janis in the Red Barn I got to enjoy some of the show and was impressed at the wonderful music coming from this band made up of many artists from the festival. I then met up with Janis and Jordan and did their interview. They had both participated in workshops this year so we talked about that and about growing with Summer Camp Festival as they have performed at almost every Summer Camp.
My day had been great already, and I had hardly seen any shows because I had been so busy, but now was the time to make up for that. These are the shows that I was able to catch on Sunday.
Shpongled presents The Masquerade
My favorite show of the day was from Galactic. They got the crowd going and got them involved. We were all singing and waving our hands, just having a good time listening to them perform. These guys hail from New Orleans and got their start playing at Mardi Gras, so they know how to party. There were several guest performers throughout the night and at one point there were 10 people on stage jamming and having a good time.
I had to check out the most controversial band this year at Summer Camp, Janes Addiction. A favorite of Summer Camp Creator Ian Goldberg the announcement was big news and a dream come true for Ian. Unfortunately some fans of the festival did not seem to be happy about the addition. Other than their hits, I do not know much Janes Addiction, but I am always excited to see a new band. I hope the “haters” were as impressed as I was with Janes Addiction’s performance Sunday night. Dave Navarro is a great guitar player and the stage set-up and lights were pretty cool as well. Perry Ferrell was the highlight for me though. He is a great frontman, a little crazy, but great. He talked about his sexual escapades with well-endowed dolphins, how glow sticks remind him of his terrible step mother who would take is temperatur rectally, and threatened to choke someone who was throwing things at him. He was very entertaining and the music was great too, I am certainly glad to add Janes Addiction to the list of bands I have seen.
We finished out the festival with a final set of Moe and headed back to our campsite with the intention to see This Must Be the Band, but after the big day I had, I did not have the energy to leave. It was a great day and I needed to sleep so I could wake up and perform the worst task at Summer Camp, taking down camp and leaving.
Living out in the Western parts of this country I get a chance to see a lot of bands that haven’t made a presence in the midwest yet. One of my favorites is the Oak Creek band out of Sedonah, Arizona, now living in Denver. I’m sure some of you haven’t ever heard them so I am telling you, check out this band. I’ve attached a video here:
This was the opener of there last show at Cervantes in Denver. A great way to start the night. I wish I hand;t had so many soda pops…the sugar got to me and I was not able to record the highlight of the night, a four on the floor, funked out, danced up version of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby.
These guys just came through Martyr’s in Chicago and I am sure they’ll be back through that way soon. Take my word for it and do not miss these guys. In the meantime check them out through the google machine.