Pre-show/During-show/Overall Bowling Notes: I made it out on a Tuesday, even though I was quite spent from the work day, I went to see Bowlive IV with Booker T. and special unannounced guest David Hildago.
Since I was spent, I decided to get a cup of coffee from the restaurant. I saw a bunch of friends I knew including Eric Kalb (drummer, Deep Banana Blackout/Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings), and he called me a music addict. “This girl sees a lot, I mean a lot of music.” I laughed and acknowledged my addiction… and gave him props for the sick, sick DBB set last weekend at The Capitol Theatre.
We bowled, and I threw a horrendous score of 43. Don’t judge. I am a better Wii bowler than a real bowler. Yes, I know, the amount of time I am at The Bowl does not equal my bowling score. I go to dance and hear music, not bowl. I am glad all eyes were on the stage, some of my throws down the bowling alley caught air. Whoops.
So, with the bowling, and the very mellow mood I was in, I relaxed on the couch and listened sidebar…till the end of the show.
Opener: Have to say, it was a pretty incredible set from Cochemea “Cheme” Gastelum (Dap Kings) with about 1,000,000,000 players on the stage (ok, it was 9 players on the stage, but still pretty incredible.) There was Cheme alternating with a sax and flute and his band playing The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow, which sounded amazing to my ears. It was a mix of jazz/world beat music and it was such a great large sound to my ears. The world beat brought in a new element from the inundation of funk/jazz we’ve been treated to. Take my word, if you like horns and you like great percussion (2 percussionists and a drummer) and you like a mix of jazz/reggae/afrobeats, you’d love Cheme’s band.
photo by: Allison Murphy
Set 1 (and only 1, for a full 2+ hours)I had seen a set list from the Beacon Allman shows, and Hildago was supposed to be there, but instead he showed up at The Brooklyn Bowl. Lucky for us! Continue reading →
I covered Bowlive IV, night 3 for TheRoyal Family Records. My recap was on Brooklyn Bowl’s site and The Royal Family’s site, so that was cool. Here’s the words below. -M
Bowlive IV #3 Recap w/ Nigel Hall, James Casey, Igmar Thomas, and More : Tuesday’s 3/12 show w/ Booker T Jones & More
Bowlive alum Alecia Chakour Band opened the evening on this Bowlive Night 3. Chakour had her own special guests, the stage was filled with musicians including Cochemea “Cheme” Gastelum (sax, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings) and Igmar Thomas (trumpet.) Chakour’s vocals got the crowd ready for what was about to happen this evening.
By the time Soulive took the stage, it was a little after 10pm, the sold out crowd loosened up with a funky, ten minute “Steppin.” Kraz starts to soulfully play The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” before the stage erupts from Neal Evans’ keyboards. During Kraz’s shredding solo, the audience were singing “All the lonely people” to the band. What a moment!
Special guests James Casey (sax, Lettuce/Trey Anastasio Band), and Igmar Thomas, (trumpet) both from Bowlive’s past, joined the stage for “Lenny” and “Vapor”, where on Thomas was literally smoking his trumpet. No Joke.
DJ Logic then joined the stage and spinned with Soulive on “Tuesday.” Nigel Hall then came out to end the set, and played keys with Neal. It was more like a Nigel/Neal keyboard showdown. At first there were three hands on the keys, and that went into a dance, where Nigel and Neal switch sides with each other at the keyboard. I thought I saw Nikki Glaspie (drums, Dumpstaphunk) peeking behind James Casey and Igmar Thomas with a tambourine in her hand. The whole band was smiling, the crowd was smiling, it felt like family. Someone told me it felt like home. It was certainly beginning to feel that way.
Just when you thought it was setbreak, Alecia Chakour comes back on the stage to sing duet with Nigel. If you haven’t seen them before, Alecia can sing exactly, on Nigel’s level with her heavy duty pipes and her vixen voice. At one point, Nigel gets on his knees and sings to Alecia, like he’s begging, the crowd goes nuts, the moment had finally arrived at the Bowl. This was the quintessential Royal Family Records/Bowlive magic that has become commonplace here in Brooklyn in March. Continue reading →
So, we’re back – the 3rd annual Bowlive held in Brooklyn’s own Brooklyn Bowl. This is the favorite time of year to be eating lots of fried chicken, hearing bowling pins crash while listening to some of today’s finest musicians in a room where only 600 can comfortably stand, or dance. The first night went off without a hitch. Here’s my recount – it gets increasingly harder to understand my notes as the night goes on….
Pre-show:
No real preshow for me. I got to the Bowl at around 8:15pm, the show didn’t start until 9pm. I dropped my coat and bag off, said some hellos, hit the ladies room, got a drink and settled in for the evening. Chatted with my friend and looked to the right of me, there was John Scofield talking with some people, no less than 4 feet from me. I noted it but couldn’t bring myself to gawk at him. He’s one of my guitar heroes-being so close to greatness made me nervous.
photo by: RuthRocks
First Set:
Soulive alone. The trio (Eric Krasno and brothers Neal and Alan Evans) just came off their three night Snowlive weekend in Boulder Colorado, and they sounded tight. Soulive usually sounds tight but tonight they sounded like they had tightened a few notches up. They played alone, and for the first few songs I was so enthralled I had forgotten guitarist John Scofield was going to join the stage.
The trio just nailed the first set of the Bowlive 3 run, my friend turned to me and said, “first set, eh?”. I laughed and shook my head. It had already gotten heavy with funk and bass… We were only a hour in.
Set break:
Bathroom Run. Smoke Break. Hit the bar. Get back near stage left.
photo by: RuthRocks
Set 2:
Alan introduces John Scofield onto the stage and off we go.
Nigel Hall joined Neal Evans on the keyboard before he grabbed the mic to sing a slow bluesy serenade.
Here are my notes on that: Nigel slow serenade soulful sexy and raw. 10pm. Organ keys reverb right through The Brooklyn Bowl
Nigel wails. Scofield wails. Organ wails and a hot beat by Alan. Damn. Night 1 w the posse surrounding me, all goo love in the air.
First set. Jesus. It just started and it’s crazy funky souled up in here.
Scofield gives props to Soulive and particularly Nigel. Sweet. They go into Boozin’. Scofield is in love with Nigel. You can see it by his face.
Next, a crazy banter w Scofield and Neal. This rage officially melts the Bowl at 1022 pm.
Set Break: I’m kinda floating at this point. With permagrin wide I made it outside, chatted with friends, and realized I was starving. Good thing the Bowl has some good food.
I dropped my coat and winter crap back near my spot next to the stage and went for food. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had such an idea. So I hit the ladies room instead.
photo by: RuthRocks
Set 3:
Soulive comes on the stage, alone once again. I find a dark corner close my eyes and groove hard in anonymous land. I went there. But I was in dire need of food. So, off to the restaurant!
Food choice? The Beach french bread pizza. Oh my. Lord. Yum. Not for vegetarians but for a pork filled meat lovers delight? I highly recommend. Soulive plays while I wait for my pizza. Food!! Come quickly. They’re raging!
This weekend is the Royal Family Ball starring Soulive and Lettuce, with special guests. Last year, John Scofield showed up, with special surprise guest, Warren Haynes. Wonder who this year’s Ball will bring out of the woodwork?
Last year, I covered the show for View Skewed, and, well, it blew my musical head apart. Here’s the coverage of last year’s Ball: http://wp.me/ppvLC-D0Hopefully, people will dress like it’s a ball this year! :) And I hope to see you there.
Good lord.…! Bernie Worrell and his fifteen piece backing band brought The Brooklyn Bowl to its knees last night with the funkiest set I’ve seen in a while. A fifteen minute Mothership > Sweet Chariot > Me and the Boys > Sweet Chariot jam that is still playing in my head. Flashlight and Dr. Funkenstein rounded out the Parliament Tribute.
To be honest – I’m still processing this particular amount of sweaty funk I witnessed last night.
Here’s pictures from photographer Allison Murphy, of www.RuthRocks.com
“Please note: Tonight’s show at Terminal 5 starts EARLY so please plan accordingly. We don’t want to miss any of your (melting) faces.”
- Royal Family Records website
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
Cast of Characters:
Eric Krasno, guitar; Soulive/Lettuce/Chapter 2
Alan Evans, drums; Soulive
Neal Evans, Hammond B3, bass keys, clavinet; Soulive/Lettuce
Nigel Hall, vocals, keys; Soulive/Chapter 2/Nigel Hall Band
Adam Deitch, Drums; Lettuce/Chapter 2
Sam Kininger, saxophone; Lettuce
Rashawn Ross, trumpet; Lettuce
Ryan Zoidis, saxophone; Lettuce
Erick “E.D.”aka “Jesus” Coomes, bass; Lettuce
Adam “Shmeeans” Smirnoff, guitar; Lettuce
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
Special Guests:
John Scofield, guitar
Warren Haynes, guitar
Big Sam Williams, trombone, vocals
Talib Kweli, vocals
Maurice Brown, trumpet
Christian Scott, trumpet
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
The show started early, in good ‘ole Terminal 5. I was dressed for a ball, and have to note, the “ragers” this night forgot to read the title of the show – it was billed as The Royal Family Ball… why weren’t there more ties and dresses? Anyways, I had a dress on, bling around my neck, my hat and boots were rocking and I was ready to dance proper with the Royal Family.
photo by: Dino Perrucci
This evening extravaganza builded like a crescendo, each band (and there was 3 of them) set the bar to out”rage” the next set. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show like this. Soulive and their Royal Family friends are all raw power, highly technically sound musicians who are relentless. Relentless in the way that the energy these guys put out is matched by their fans appreciation. They filled the 3,000 capacity Terminal 5. They are recognized by the greats, why else would artists like Scofield, Haynes, Derek Trucks continue to cross their paths? They are on the verge of the next level, you felt it last night. I can’t wait to watch these guys soar to the next stratosphere. We will all be lucky when their music goes mainstream.
photo by: Denise Sullivan
Nigel Hall Band: At 7:45-ish, Nigel Hall took the stage. By the time I get into position I see Nigel Hall, Zoidis, Kininger, Deitch, Brown, Smirnoff, Krasno and the Evan’s brothers (Neal on keys, Alan on guitar) and 2 backup singers (who are they?) on the stage. Nigel’s incredible voice, raging, wailing, screaming into the mic for us to all stand alert and stamp our feet, and nod our heads into the same groove. Yessiree, the funk has landed in midtown NYC.
Lettuce: Full rage, and we haven’t even gotten to the Soulive part of the evening yet. By this point there were 5 horn players (Big Sam, Maurice Brown, Kininger, Zoidis, Ross), John Scofield on guitar, Krasno on guitar, Coomes bringing on the funky bass with his bad self, Talib Kweli comes on and hip hops his way around Nigel Hall blasting back at him, Neal Evans on keys, Alan Evans, percussion. The place goes nuts, the floor full of bouncing heads and dancing ragers.
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
I’m on the 3rd floor (thanks Peter!), looking straight down at the stage, the epicenter of where the sound explosion had begun bouncing all around Terminal 5′s rafters. I’m in awe, not boogie-ing yet – still trying to decipher the sounds of what is happening all around me, trying to hone in on each artist’s playing. Krasno so technically perfect it is mouth-gaping, Coomes going so low, keepin it all together, Adam Deitch kickin it on those drums, loud and crashing, the horns blasting this craziness into the stratosphere.
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
Talib Kweli brings it down to the ground, funky, loud, head banging raging insanity, trading licks with Nigel…..phewww boy it had gotten hotter from the heat rising from the stage, before Scofield comes on stage, -at first, his guitar sounds like a sax- and he continues blasting us all into a Funky Cold Medina with his trippy, groovy jams. My neck began to hurt from the heavy funky nodding/dance we had all commenced in. The Lettuce was dirty…dirty dirty Lettuce.
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
Soulive w/ Special Guests: Rubber Soulive goes down in full effect. A melody of classics from The Beatles, John Scofield and Eric Krasno in a musical tit-for-tat game both going just sick on their instruments of power. My notes are all jumbled. Can’t seem to read my handwriting. I have to somehow write this down from memory (and without any setlists yet – none are released at this time)…
photo by: Allison "Ruth Rocks" Murphy
My eyes settle on Alan, one of my personal top 5 drummers, and he’s frikkin wailing on the drums. His whole body raging into the beat, um, he’s setting the beat, fast and dirty, damn Al!, Neal Evans and his freakishly absurd hands playing keys and the bassline, at the same time! Eleanor Rigby flows into I Want You (She’s So Heavy) and by this time, my mind is floating, I’ve succumbed into the funkiness that is Soulive/The Royal Family, and my head gets light, I close my eyes, I shake my ass, and… that’s it folks.
photo by: Dino Perrucci
I watch Sco leave the stage, and Krasno and Alan bring him back, like “No man, you’re staying for this”, when I hear Krasno introduce Warren Haynes to the stage. Right. Warren. Head was light, now eyeballs are falling out. So, to recap, there is Eric Krasno, John Scofield and Warren Haynes on the stage – three of my personal top 5 guitar players. Holy hell, my head exploded all over the 3rd floor – I know mine wasn’t the only one. Warren with Sco and Kraz on Born Under a Bad Sign. Ridiculous. The night ends with an encore from Nigel and the Royal Family for a killer James Brown Medley. It felt like seven bagillion people were on the stage. Can. Not. Wait. For. More…….
I woke up to the most glorious, beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was that perfect not-a-cloud-in-the-sky blue, the lush green off the mountains were vibrating. I was ready to shake on the mountain, and I was able to find iced-coffee to boot. Fabulous! I was in for 8 sets of music today. That ice coffee would help.
Weather: Beautiful. Sunny, warm, a bit sweaty. I kept saying all day, “I can’t believe the weather is so gorgeous.” Last year’s Mountain Jam was cold. I was in flip flops the last night, it was 37 degrees cold. This Saturday it was bikini weather.
The day started off with a bit of London Souls. These guys are incredible. They have a shredding, Led Zeppelin sorta, old school rock n’ roll thing going for them. They rocked out, and dancing has commenced. Again, if they’re in your area, be sure to catch them.
photo by: M Berke
Drive By Truckers: They were a nice warm up to Yonder Mtn. String Band. I’ve never seen them before, and that was my first impression, with their rockin’ guitar riffs. They were solid. I was wandering through the vendor area while they were on stage,
Lettuceis probablymy first personal highlight of the day. Because of the schedule change with Dr. Dog, we were blessed with 2 sets of Lettuce on Sat. Lettuce’s core members are Eric Krasno, guitar, Neal Evans, keys; Adam Deitch, drums; Jesus Coomes, bass and The Shady Horns, Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis.
photo by: M Berke
Kofi Burbridge comes on and plays pretty much for the full set on his flute. Eric shreds his guitar, Adam Deitch going all Animal on the drums, and Jesus Coomes on the bass, yeah… these guys are really tight. Then there is Neal Evans. I don’t know what to say about this guy except he is amazing, I always become absolutely blown away. I remember thinking, “oh yeah…I know that nasty key playing sound. Oh yeah, silly me, how could I have forgotten.” Then, one by one, in this short 1 hour set, on the small stage on Hunter Mountain… well, it got kinda craaazy. Nigel Hall walks in and starts wailing soulfully into the microphone, like only Nigel does. Oteil Burbridge comes on stage with that beautiful bass of his. Derek Trucks comes on to shred a bit with Eric. Susan Tedeschi comes on stage to sing along with Nigel. By the end of it there were about a dozen people on the stage, raging out, people on the mountain were bouncin their heads to the same beat at the same time, we all got all sorts of funked up, and it got hot and steamy. The heat had nothing to do with the sunshine. The heat was radiating from the stage. Oh my my my.
photo by: Ross McKillop
To slow down the pace a half a beat (or more), Yonder Mountain String Band, joins the main stage for some bouncy bluegrass string ‘ole time plucking. I do love the Yonder, and if you like bluegrass at all, I’m sure you’ll like them too.
Dave Mason: No recollection at all. Unknown.
Photo by: Ross McKillop
Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi Band: So excited to hear these guys. Between Derek’s shredding of the guitar and Susan’s incredible voice, the Brothers Burbridge and Brothers Trucks on the stage… yeah. No words. The talent in this band is palpable, it kind of oozes off the stage into the crowd. They have so much fun playing together you can feel it and the crowd’s energy bounces off the band. A wonderful cycle.
Highlights: Love Has Something Else to Say (Susan belts it) into Midnight in Harlem (my newest favorite song, getting good rotation in my iPod lately…gosh I love that song) into Susan screamin her way through Love Was All in My Mind. I’ve never heard this song before, but the jist of it was this woman loved this guy, stood by all his crap then she finds him hangin w/ another chick. Susan belts this song like Etta James and Aretha put together. Incredible power. Mike Mattison and Nigel Hall on background vocals turn this into a hard core blues explosion. I laughed, I danced, I stood and just watched her. I need the lyrics to this song. Loved it. Good lord almighty. Check the video below.
Photo by: Ross McKillop
During Nobody’s Free, Derek literally destroys his guitar. 3 strings, gone. He keeps playing though, odd sounds bouncing around, the band keeps up with him… kinda. Finally Derek just goes off and hits those strings in “Trucks’ Time” and phewwww. Susan says, “I don’t know how he did that with 3 strings, or something…. destroy that guitar, honey.” She’s a great front woman for this band. Look Around was another highlight, Derek shredding, Susan wailing, Oteil getting really low with his bass, a great blues song. These guys are a great blues band, but then they go funky with Serve it Up. Insane keyboard playing by Kofi Burbridge, jammin out with the great beats from the drummers and his brother Oteil, then Derek goes off, whooo boy. Hot stuff.
At one point in I’d Rather be Blind, Crippled and Crazy, I believe the mountain went silent. I’ve been at DTB shows where the audience literally goes silent before, and it happened during this song. I love that stuff. Warren joins the stage and sings with Susan on Comin’ Home, the whole stage, the whole mountain… bounces. Into Drums. Yeah, Derek’s little brother Duane can play is an understatement. Tyler Greenwell is a force to be reckoned with as well They end the 90 minute set with Joe Cocker’s Space Captain. And I floated away…
Set Break: I had lost my posse during Derek and Susan, and I was on a mission afterwards to make sure I had a beer for Mule. As I settled into our homebase near the Karma Wash I see one of my buddies from Boston just standing there. Alone. I ended up hanging with him the rest of the set and enjoyed every moment of it. I also found my long lost cousin whom I only happen to see at shows. Fellow music lovers unite!
Mule: Did I gush about Mule in Day 1 enough? No. No, I did not. 3 hours of Mule. Mostly crazy cover set with incredible special guests sitting in. Derek Trucks, Eric Krazno, Matisyahu, Kofi Burbridge, Sam Kininger, Ryan Zoidis, Jackie Greene. Uh huh.
Woodstock, played near Woodstock. Yep, it felt right. Broke down on the Brazos ROCKED. That song gets better and better every time I hear it. Sad & Deep as You with Kofi. This rendition was not quite as drippingly sad as it was at Wanee, and yet was so
photo by: Ross McKillop
beautiful. Kofi’s flute makes it all that more tender, he makes the flute flutter… damn. Flute + Mule = Sweetness. Kind of Bird with Derek. They shredded guitars in pure Allman Brothers style. Fast, loud, yes please. Blind Man in the Dark, I love this song because of its slow rolling nature to crazy riff endings. The Mule was on fire.
photo by: Ross McKillop
The Joker what? really? Yeah, Steve Miller with a reggae beat. Warren began the sway, singing as he told us that we were going back to Jamaica. Matisyahu comes out and taunts the crowd with this one, schooling us for what was to come with his Day 3 set. I laughed my butt off as I shook my hips and tried to bounce on the mountain. 10 something pm on a sloped hill, 2 days into a festival, yes, this takes skill by this point. Zeppelin’s D’yer Maker – no need for words, just amazing. Rockin’ in the Free World, Neil Young cover. If you know anything about me, you know my love of Neil so, you could imagine my happiness. Hendrix’s Machine Gun rocked me away, total instrumental guitar insanity riffs holy hell.
photo by: Ross McKillop
These guys were relaxed, enjoying themselves, and the Mountain once again was bouncing and swaying then we went back to Rockin’. Um, wow, a 15 minute Rockin with Machine Gun thrown in there. Amazing. Warren says “ohhh, it’s about to go down.” And Eric Krasno comes out with the Lettuce Horns for the Stones’ The Spider and the Fly. Sam Kininger and Ryan Zoidis show us how they throw down those saxophones while Krasno decides to shred his guitar up there with Warren. “my, my, my, don’t ya tell lies…” yeahhhh…. beautiful.
photo by: Ross McKillop
Things get fuzzy by this point – Jackie Greene comes up and plays 2 songs and then for encore Mule throws out Pearl Jam’s Black. The posse had come back to the Karma Wash by this point and we all raged to the Pearl Mule Jam that was going down.Aerosmith’s Train Kept A Rollin’ kept us rollin’ on. Yeah. MULE. See ya next year, on the mountain.
Lettuce/DSO (late night set) I have to admit, Mule blew my face off my head so I have no set list. I have nothing except the Lettuce was crisp, and by the end of late night, about 2 hours later, the Lettuce was Shredded. God these guys were so damn hot, the place was packed, I was dancing, laughing, my buddies were all around me, the posse went up right to the front and I stayed back. I needed my space to groove. And then I went into music schizophrenia mode because I really wanted to see a bit of Dark Star Orchestra.
I ran up the mountain to hear Goin Down The Road Feelin Bad. Then I ran back for Lettuce, looked for my friends-couldn’t find them, closed my eyes and shook my ass to the rage that was Lettuce. Gosh, it was going DOWN in the Colonel’s Hall. I must have ran back up the hill to catch DSO again, because the notes say I was there for The Eleven>Shakedown Street>Tangled Up In Blue. I guess I couldn’t leave DSO while they were playing Dylan.
Evening into Morning: As I said, it gets very fuzzy around this time. I do know I ended back down at the Hall because I ended up with the posse, walking back to the campsite, and then hanging out in one of the VIP tents on the mountain until the sun came up. It was nice in that VIP tent, they had couches to relax on. And we were hanging with the Karma Wash Crew. It is nice to make sure your Karma is clean, and it is nice to have people to clean it for you. As the Tiny Rager and I walked back to the house it started to rain. Which was fine. We had beds, which were waiting for us all warm and dry. I slept like a baby for about 5 hours.
Ed note: I am grateful that Ross McKillop let me use his pictures, instead of my grainy whacked out photos. He reminded me to shout out to two great photographers who have incredible photos and prints, and capture the most amazing musical moments: Dino Perrucci and Allison Murphy. Check ‘em out, check their work, and pay respects. Thanks Ross!
