:: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: Monday - March 9 ::

By Tiffany Childs

… And You Will Know U By The Trail of Dead has long been a favorite of mine to listen to, live or recorded, but last night’s show sealed the fact that these boys create such an epically loud sound in their live show that you need to hear them in this form to truly call yourself a fan.

Trail of Dead started the evening’s show at The Bluebird Theater with “Giant Causeway” off their latest release, The Century of Self. The rest of the night was spent playing a mixed bag of songs from most of their albums, much to the crowd’s delight if the head bobbing, foot tapping and occasional moshing were any sign.

The songs this group produces are so powerful that they seem to fill every particle in a room until you feel like you’re going to explode with the fury of their sound. And the band that plays them needs to have enough energy live that you can’t help but say “wow, that was fucking phenomenal” at the end of each song. Trail of Dead not only has that energy, they embrace it fully, seemingly losing themselves in the music, the moment, the crowd.

Toward the end of the night Jason Reece jumped off the stage and wound his way through most of the crowd singing and convulsing on the ground in the middle of the tiered set-up at the Bluebird Theater. At the time it seemed as though it was going to be rock and roll highlight of the night. It seemed so, in fact, until just before the last song when Conrad Keely shotgunned a beer in honor of playing the first song the band ever wrote. Or maybe just because he felt like it.

At this point Trail of Dead had riled the crowd up into such a frenzy that some show-goer hopped up on stage to join the band. Immediately security came at him from both directions. After a brief scuffle the stage guard managed to wrestle the errant fan off stage and began the process of throwing this guy out. Trail of Dead stopped in the middle of playing the final song of the night and tried to convince the security guard to let the guy back in during this process, yelling things like “we don’t care,” “we like people on stage,” and “that’s my cousin.” Perhaps it was a cousin, perhaps not. Either way security didn’t budge on the issue. So, then they started a “set him free” chant complete with drum and audience participation. And when that didn’t work Keely began pulling people from the front pit onstage while the one lone fan was being outcast through the back door. The result was the latter half of a grand finale played on a stage crowded with dancing, utterly blissed out fans and one of those concert moments that is forever etched in your brain as one hell of a memorable time.

That, my friends, is truly rock and roll.

As a service to our loyal readers, we’re putting all the info you need to fulfill your Phish reunion needs on our site.

To be honest, there’s nothing you can’t find here on Phish.com, but we couldn’t help but get wrapped up in the historic nature of these shows.

Free Downloads of the Phish Reunion Shows at Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, Va.

http://www.livephish.com/

There’s also some really good coverage, and photos at jambase.com

But feel free to comment here too.

Set List from 3.6.9

Set One
Fluffhead
Divided Sky
Chalk Dust Torture
Sample In A Jar
Stash
I Didn’t Know
Oh Kee Pah Ceremony >
Suzy Greenberg
Farmhouse
NICU
Horn
Rift
Train Song
Water In The Sky
Squirming Coil
David Bowie

Set Two
Backwards Down The Number LIne
Tweezer
Taste
Possum
Theme From The Bottom
First Tube
Harry Hood
Waste
You Enjoy Myself*

Encore
Grind**
Bouncing Around The Room
Loving Cup

* Started and stopped, and restarted.
** Acapella
DOWNLOAD FREE MP3s of this show now at LivePhish.com

Set List from 3.7.9

Set One
Back On The Train
Runaway Jim
Brian & Robert
Split Open and Melt
Heavy Things
Punch You In The Eye
Gumbo
Reba
Mexican Cousin
It’s Ice
Halley’s Comet
Beauty of a Broken Heart*
Guelah Papyrus
Lawn Boy
Run Like An Antelope

Set Two
Rock & Roll
Limb by Limb
Story of the Ghost
Piper
Birds of a Feather
Wolfman’s Brother
Prince Caspian
Mike’s Song >
I Am Hydrogen >
Weekapaug Groove
Character Zero

Encore
A Day In The Life

DOWNLOAD FREE MP3s of this show now at LivePhish.com

Set List 3.8.9

Set One
Sanity
Wilson
Foam
Bathtub Gin
Undermind
AC/DC Bag
My Friend, My Friend
Scent of a Mule
All Of These Dreams
Maze
She Thinks I Still Care*
Army of One
Tube
Cars Trucks Buses
Free
Frankenstein**

Set Two
Down With Disease^
Seven Below
The Horse >
Silent In The Morning
Twist
2001
Moma Dance
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Wading In The Velvet Sea
Slave To The Traffic Light

Encore
Contact
Bug
Tweezer Reprise

 * George Jones original, sung by Mike
** with Page on Keytar
^ fans tossed roses to the band on stage before the song began

 DOWNLOAD FREE MP3s of this show now at LivePhish.com

:: Hot Rize ::

:: Denver RootsFest ::

:: Ellie Caulkins Opera House/Swallow Hill ::

:: March 28 ::

                              Photo by Nathan Rist/denverreverb.com

By David Stuhlemmer

Deep down in the valley of time there existed a near-fantasyland called the Denver Folklore Center. Thousands of musicians passed through this hub and four of them got together in 1978 to form Hot Rize, named after the leavening product in Martha White flour products — an apropos moniker since the band rose well beyond expectations.

Founding members Pete Wernick, Tim O’Brien and Nick Forster graciously took time to speak with The Marquee as they got set to celebrate their 31st year together at Swallow Hill’s 30th anniversary soiree, and to tell the tale that has become legend.

Forster set the scene: “Six contiguous storefronts, 30 people working every day. There was a performance hall that held 100 people on the end, the next storefront was the repair shop where I worked. The next two storefronts were the music store where (now departed Hot Rize founder and flat-top guitarist) Charles Sawtelle was the manager. Then there was the bead shop for all of your ‘beading’ needs. Then there was a record shop where you could buy all of the records that you couldn’t find at the chain stores. The last was the music school,” Forster said.

O’Brien recalled, “We coalesced around the Denver Folklore Center. Pete and I were music teachers. That was a really vibrant place in the mid ‘60s.”
Continue — Read more »

:: The Bad Plus ::

:: e-town at the Boulder Theater (with Michelle Shocked) :: March 8 ::

:: Soiled Dove Underground :: March 9 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Are they a jazz band with a rock and roll problem or a rock and roll band with a jazz problem? Some say they walk the line between the two while others say they have created a dynamic new genre. Whatever the consensus, it is clear that The Bad Plus is pushing the sonic envelope all over the map.

While primarily an original band, according to their drummer Dave King, they have covered everyone from Abba to Nirvana since they formed in 2000. Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and Wilco’s “Radio Cure” may seem like strange cuts for a jazz trio to cover to purists out there, but King was quick to defend his band’s choices in a recent interview with The Marquee as he boarded a plane to Poland.

“We are celebrating the idea of the ‘new standard,’” he said. “The jazz standards of the American song book were all pop tunes of their time. We feel this is a part of the tradition of jazz and we don’t want to ignore the music that was important to us on some level as we were growing up. We are continuing the idea that pop music is available to improvise on and can be really creatively rewarding.”

Though covers have been a mainstay of their repertoire since the beginning, King and his musical foils, pianist Ethan Iverson and bassist Reid Anderson, worked exclusively as an instrumental band until they teamed up with a smoky voiced vocalist for their recent release For All I Care. “We had done five studio records as a trio and it is a jazz tradition to have some sort of sitting-in scenario or special guest thing,” King said. “We tossed around the idea of another instrumentalist that we respect but then we started thinking, ‘why don’t we go all the way and do a vocal record?’ One of our favorite records is the John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman record, where The Coltrane Quartet worked with a singer. What we love most about that record is that it is still the Coltrane Quartet; it’s not a band backing a singer. It is a true collaboration. We felt like having a vocalist come in who is a true ensemble player would follow that tradition. We just wanted to flesh out some tunes in a new way with a vocalist who is very daring and not an ego type. It’s really been fantastic.” Continue — Read more »

:: Portugal. The Man ::

:: Fox Theatre :: March 9 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Portugal. The Man released its latest album in September of 2008, but when The Marquee caught up with lead singer, guitarist and vocalist John Baldwin Gourley in late February, the band had just come out of the studio after recording yet another CD.

“We had the time and it was one of those things where we might as well make a record now if we’re going to be gone all summer,” Gourley laughed in his humble, shy demeanor.

The Portland-based indie quartet took a new direction on that as-of-yet-unnamed recording, and Gourley explained that for the first time, the band spent a lot of time in pre-production. “I got so nervous going in there with Paul (Kolderie). He’s done everything, like Radiohead and the Pixies. But it was crazy sitting down and doing this album and doing the pre-production because I understand how really difficult it is to sit down and write songs. You don’t just do it and throw it all out there,” Gourley said.

That’s in sharp contrast to the way Gourley and his bandmates approached last year’s Censored Colors release — in fact, it’s 180 degrees opposite. Continue — Read more »

:: Akron/Family ::

:: Oriental Theater ::

:: March 17 ::

By Timothy Dwenger

Yes, it’s spelled correctly, that’s a forward slash between the words Akron and Family and that’s the name of one of the more eclectic folk rock bands playing today. It’s an admittedly odd way to name a band, but drummer Dana Janssen shared the back story during a recent interview with The Marquee from the steps of his favorite coffee shop in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

“We wanted to avoid having a ‘The’ in our name because at the time Williamsburg was notorious for The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ‘The’ whatever,” said Janssen. “Every band was ‘The’ something and we didn’t want to be lumped into that group just because we were from the same neighborhood,” he said. “Seth’s mom actually came up with the idea. It gives the name a different depth and dynamic and we thought it was pretty cool.”

Those familiar with Akron/Family may remember them as a quartet. However, back in the fall of 2007 founding member Ryan Vanderhoof left the band to pursue other interests and the group has soldiered on as a trio. Their new record, Set ’Em Wild, Set ’Em Free, is their first in this configuration and Janssen shared his thoughts about the band’s new direction. “In some ways I miss what Ryan brought to the table, but in other ways we moved through things on this album with a certain ease of passage that we haven’t experienced before,” he said. “With just the three of us it was a lot easier to have the room to express our ideas and to flesh out some of the songs further than we otherwise would have been able to. I think we are really proud of this record and I am really excited to share it with everybody.”
Continue — Read more »

:: Great American Taxi ::

:: Hodi’s Half Note :: March 19 ::

:: Boulder Theater :: w/ Peak to Freak Horns and Black Swan Singers :: March 20 ::

:: Bluebird Theater :: w/ Peak to Freak Horns and Black Swan Singers :: March 21 ::

By Brian F. Johnson

Great American Taxi plays Americana music. But strip that genre away and you’re still left with a band that is so undeniably American that it’s like a Corvette made out with a Ford F-150, and the result was Taxi.

Slick and fast in some places and slow and powerful in others, the group, its founding members say, is a “blue collar project” that blends as many different items together as that other staple of American life — the hot dog — does.

Great American Taxi recorded their latest album — the band’s second — Reckless Habits, this winter and will be releasing it this month in grand style, accompanied by the Black Swan Singers of Denver and the Peak to Freak Horns. “We didn’t think anybody would be able to relate to the title,” laughed lead singer and guitarist Vince Herman during a recent conversation over burgers with The Marquee. “It’s actually from a song I wrote about Gram Parsons,” added fellow founding member and Taxi keyboardist Chad Staehly.

It wasn’t clear right then, but later I came to learn that each of their statements had just perfectly summed up the newest album — light hearted and funny in some parts, sentimental and doctrinal in others. A huge element of that makeup has to do with the band members’ pasts, and what each brings to the table.

Continue — Read more »

:: Boulder Acoustic Society

:: Fox Theatre :: Rock for Ratna Benefit Concert :: March 8 ::

:: Swallow Hill RootsFest :: March 28 ::

By Kathy Foster-Patton

The tiny room buzzed with creativity and energy when The Marquee joined the Boulder Acoustic Society at Macy Sound Studios for a mixing session for their upcoming CD.

Grammy winning producer John Macy manned the board while band members analyzed the accordion swell in a tango written and sung by violinist Kailin Yong. A megaphone was propped in the corner — at the ready whenever one of them might need to run into the sound room and add some new accent to the already eclectic mix. Their goal in this recording is simple: they want the songs to sound real — not digital. At one point as they listened, bassist Aaron Keim remarked, “That sounds too much like modern jazz — and not enough expressive us.”

Boulder Acoustic Society has changed in more ways than one since they placed second in the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest.  They swapped out two band members in January, 2007 to reach the current lineup and now the band is Keim on ukulele as well as bass, Scott McCormick on accordion and ukulele, Yong on ukulele as well as violin, and Scott Aller on spoons, washboard, hand drums, snare, and cymbals. And for this most recent recording, all of the band members share vocal duties. Continue — Read more »

:: Mama’s Cookin’ ::

:: Hodi’s Half Note :: March 11 ::

:: Boulder Theater :: March 12 ::

:: Quixote’s True Blue :: March 14 ::

By Michael Sutch

Conceived in the South and raised on Colorado’s Western Slope, Mama’s Cookin’ has been simmerin’ on the shores of Lake Tahoe for a couple of years now and are poised to storm back across the state they used to call home for a big run of 10 shows in Colorado in March.

For those that haven’t had a taste yet, Mama’s Cookin’ mixes hip-hop beats with a healthy dose of dirty Delta blues and some nasty funk bass to create a slick modern sound.

Fronted by charismatic singer/blues-rapper Zebuel Early’s roots-like lyrics and slide guitar smoothness, Mama’s Cookin’ has a G. Love, old-school feel with a bigger rock sound. Throw in Mike Adamo’s rock-solid drums and creative sampling, Eric Matlock’s funky keyboard fills, and Steve LaBella’s resonant bass work and high energy aggressive beats and you have some tasty home cookin’, like your Mama used to make. Continue — Read more »

In the 100th episode of “The Simpsons,” Bart Simpson is seen at the very beginning of the show, writing on the chalkboard: “I will not celebrate meaningless milestones.”
It didn’t dawn on me until I started laying out this issue, that March should be Music History Month, and we should, in fact, celebrate some meanlingless and some very meaningful milestones in our world.
A ton of really amazing things have happened in the world of music in the month of March, and while we didn’t set out to produce a special anniversary issue, we accidentally fell ass-backwards into one.
On an international music scale, some of the more noteworthy anniversaries this month, among countless others, are: the first FM radio station (1941), Elvis Presley’s TV debut (1955), the opening of the Fillmore East (1968), the death of Randy Rhoades (1982), and the simultaneous airing by 6,000 radio stations worldwide of “We Are The World” (1986).
Locally, we’ve got a few biggies, too. Swallow Hill celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, and our cover story on Hot Rize, who will play that celebration is approaching their 31st year as a band. The Fox Theatre celebrates its 17th year, and this little magazine you’re reading turns seven.
It’s pretty amazing, actually, that in an era when print media is dying all around us, that we’re still here, still going strong and are continuing to grow.
Thank you!
Whether you’re a fan of the magazine, a contributor, a distributor, an advertiser, someone who keeps one on your coffee table or the back of your john, we can’t thank you enough.
A relatively recent study said that 60 percent of all magazines fail in their first year, and 80 percent fail by their fourth year.
So to think that this magazine started without any financial backing — just the faith that the local music scene needed something like this — is mind-blowing to us. It’s just unfathomable, and as I write this I find myself overcome with gratitude to have been given this gift — even if I appointed myself to this post.
Continue to pick us up, and we’ll continue to bust our asses to get you a magazine worth reading each month.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
See you at the shows.

:: Bruce Springsteen::

:: Pepsi Center :: April 10 ::

Bruce Springsteen
Working On A Dream

Columbia Records

2 out of 5 stars

Bruce Springsteen is one of the rare artists that is engrained into the fabric of America.  He is just about as American as you can get. At the height of his stardom, Springsteen made John Mellencamp look like a cheap unpatriotic parody. However, the days of “Born to Run” and “Born in the U.S.A.” have long passed and Springsteen has almost become a parody of himself — as his Super Bowl halftime performance clearly showed — with a variety of lackluster albums featuring lackluster songs. His latest release Working On A Dream unfortunately follows suit.

If you enjoyed Springsteen’s last effort with the E. Street Band, Magic, you will probably love Working On A Dream. If you have never heard his albums Born To Run, The River, or The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, you will probably enjoy the new album as well.

Simply put, Working On A Dream is filled with slickly-produced mid-tempo songs and ballads. The album is chock-full of highly compressed pop-rock songs that makes one wonder if Springsteen has forgotten how to write a decent chorus that doesn’t repeat a single line over and over again. The real problems lie in Springsteen’s songwriting, which is lazy pop at its best. Just listen to the opening track, “Outlaw Pete,” and tell me it doesn’t sound like a bad Wallflowers cover. Yes, the album is more upbeat than some of his more recent work and yes, the album features the last recorded performances by late E Street keyboardist Danny Federici, but even sentimentality can’t save this one.

Out of the 13-song set I can honestly only recommend two songs: The country-inspired “Tomorrow Never Knows,” which would have been better served on his bluegrass album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, if Seeger had written it; and the closing track, “The Wrestler,” which was beautifully used in the closing credits of the movie of the same name.

I am not here to hate on The Boss. I love the man from Jersey and still think Born To Run is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Some of Springsteen’s recent efforts are worth noting as viable pieces of art, including his 2005 acoustic album Devils & Dust, and his 2006 effort, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. Working On A Dream, however, is a shallow album that only shows the shell of an artist that was once among the best.
— Jonathan Keller

:: Bruce Springsteen::

:: Pepsi Center :: April 10 ::

Bon Iver
Blood Bank [EP]

Jagjagwar

3.5 out of 5 stars

Fresh off his 2008 breakthrough release For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver (the pseudonym for musician Justin Vernon) returns with a 4-song EP that leaves you wanting more than the 16 minutes of music packaged as his new EP.

Blood Bank revolves around the title track, which was actually written during the For Emma, Forever Ago sessions and left off as it didn’t fit in with the rest of the album. The title track is clearly the star of this 4-song set and worth the purchase of the EP alone. The mood of the song is set by strummed electric guitars, a kick drum pulse and a gorgeous chorus of vocals that Iver has become well known for. When the first verse hits, Iver sings forcefully: “Well I met you at the blood bank / We were looking at the bags / Wondering if any of the colors / Matched any of the names we knew on the tags.” Blood Bank could have been one of the stronger songs on his debut release had it been included on it, and it is no wonder why this entire EP is packaged around it.

The other three tracks on Blood Bank were written and recorded specifically for this release and feature the melancholy “Beach Baby,” which is in the same vein as the songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, the staccato piano-driven “Babys,” and the throwaway experimental track “Wood,” which finds Iver using vocal pitch correction on this mostly acappella song. I hope that Iver forgoes this direction on his next studio album.

One great song out of four isn’t so bad and three good ones out of four makes the expectations for his next full-length studio album that much more exciting.

— Jonathan Keller