Grace Potter & The Nocturnals – Central Park Summerstage – September 24th – NYC
Back in Feb 2011, I first met Grace Potter and not only her band but specifically her crew and namely Ben, her Tour Manager – who treated me like freaking royalty. I’m not kidding, I’ve never experienced that type of hospitality from anyone (sometimes not even from the bands I work with haha) – It was just so nice to meet such genuine people who are a part of something real. They seem like a real family, band and crew as one, unlike the dysfunctional miscreants I travel with. And though I do appreciate the music and Grace is a killer performer, I felt like I was more motivated to go the show to see friends, namely Ben.
I get there, and same hospitality ensues – and this isn’t about how many free drinks I can squeeze out of the deal, it’s about respect, the same that I show others and it feels good when you receive it in return. Their are laminates waiting for me at Will Call as I find a table backstage I see Ben, who is busy naturally, but takes a second to come over to greet me. He rules.
He gets the band onstage, and then comes over to make sure I’m okay, and then walks me into this special trailer setup just for hospitality – they are big on treating people right I tell you that.
It even got surreal as we are both cracking up laughing at all the stuff to choose from, which even included her own brand of chocolate bars – an odd mix of chocolate and chili peppers – and I shit you not, in a mason jar was actual MOONSHINE that he said Willie Nelson had given them – how fucking cool is that?
He dares me to have a swig, but chili/chocolate candy was as far as I would dare – I walk to the side to catch the show on a perfect night.
She is so rad, with a Tina Turner vibe and killer legs to match as the band kicks ass behind her. The gorgeous New York City night went perfectly with the psychedelically lit stage. Nirvana seemed to be on everyone’s mind as the last few days the coming 20 year anniversary of Nevermind was reported everywhere. Jon Stewart was doing a special and how was this gonna be acknowledged at the Foo Fighters show in a few days? Without saying anything, clearly they were feeling it too as they band goes into a gorgeous cover of Come As You Are.
Setlist:
Stop The Bus
Only Love
That Phone
Goodbye Kiss
Oasis
Apologies
Low Road
Ragged Company
Ah Mary
Tiny Light
Come As You Are (Nirvana cover)
Colors
2:22
Why Don’t You Love Me (Beyoncé cover)
Paris (Ooh La La)
Encore:
White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane cover)
Nothing But The Water I
Nothing But The Water II
Tush (ZZ Top cover)
Medicine
An awesome show, and after I hung for a bit but of course I had to let Ben do his job. I invited him to meet me at a party in Brooklyn later, and he said the band was gonna be in town all week doing some recording and press so I left him to his gig and headed out to Brooklyn.
The Foo Fighters – The Meadowlands – September 26th – East Rutherford, NJ
So I had been in touch with my buddy Ben who Tour Manages Grace Potter and we were trying to get together to do something before they left town. I invited him out to see the Foo Fighters tonight but he had to cancel last second so I made the trip out to the Meadowlands alone. Now I like Dave Grohl and just about everything that he has been a part of has touched me in some way and if he’s involved its probably on my radar. That doesn’t change to fact that I honestly really don’t give two shits about the Foos barely past their first record. Now their most recent one, Wasting Light is certainly an interesting project, that reunited him with Butch Vig who produced Nirvana’s legendary Nevermind LP and I saw them burn the house down in Austin during SXSW after a screening of a really terrific documentary called Back and Forth. This new record is easily the heaviest thing they have released since 1995, but again it still doesn’t really speak to me nor helps me forgive the baffling mediocrity of their output of the last 10 years.
But also like most people, how can you just not like Dave Grohl? Also in NYC sometimes the trip to the show can be just as exciting, so since I had free tickets I was all in.
I did that thing where you take the bus from Port Authority out to the Meadowlands for a whopping $5.00 and people are bringing sacks of beer onboard – a total party.
I get there and get my ticket from Will Call and head in, in time to catch the opening act, Rise Against.
Now you talk about a genre of music that I truly don’t care about it would be the one that this band sorta leads. but I had a minor interest because the guitarist in the band that joined just a few years ago is Zach Blair, a Dallas musician that I’m friendly with but don’t really know, but should as we have both been around for a very long time.
Zach and his brother used to be in local favorites Hagfish and his brother Donnie I know who now plays in the Toadies.
They all played well, its just not my thing at all.
Ok so during the break, a situation started presenting itself – I was on the house floor pretty close to the front but resting on the retaining wall stage left. I noticed this 40-ish hippy girl starting to lose her grip. I noticed her before and saw her downing cups of wine and it was clear she was also alone. Well I know how wine can kick my ass and she was getting hers royally. Well chivalry be damned, I couldn’t help myself so when she started to go, I helped her up and asked if she needed anything when she sorta collapses in my arms. People now think I know her and are looking at me like “Why can’t your girl keep it together?” – In a rare act of awareness for the Northeast, this nice younger girl that was part of the production saw what was going down and rushed over and offered me a bottle of water to give to her. This seemed to get her back to somewhat normal.
Building up tension, the opening clanging chords of Bridge Burning All at once, the building full of Foo fans shouted first line “These are my famous last WOORDDDDS!!”.
Acknowledging that they are celebrating a special anniversary, (again as I had mentioned for Nevermind) Grohl brought his Nirvana out Krist Novoselic to the stage to play accordion on These Days. Needless to say, fans freaked as soon as he walked out, thrilled to see the two together in a live setting again. Adding some humor to the sentimental moment, Grohl added “Krist Novoselic is like the Eddie Van Halen of the accordion.”
The show was fun and well paces and I appreciated being there and this was obviously a special night for them, but the vibe was more like seeing Def Leppard than anything of real substance. At one point Grohl walked down this long I’m-the-singer-ramp where he was playing to the people in the very back. I’m sure they appreciated it and it was a cool thing to do for them, but it just felt so arena-rock and scripted that their was nothing I could really say I took from it.
Drunk girl was in and out of her stupor for the whole show and though it was not my problem I couldn’t help but make it my problem, that’s just the kinda dude I am. When the show ended she seemed more lucid that she had the whole night so I was confident that she could make it home ok and she was taking one of the buses I was but I wanted to make myself scarce. Especially when she started freaking out that her phone had been stolen and I think me making a hasty departure made her think I had taken it. Oh New Jersey.
Setlist:
Bridge Burning
Rope
The Pretender
My Hero
Learn to Fly
White Limo
Arlandria
Breakout
Cold Day in the Sun
Stacked Actors
Walk
Monkey Wrench
Let It Die
These Days (w/ Krist Novoselic)
I Should Have Known
This is a Call
In the Flesh? (Pink Floyd cover)
All My Life
Encore:
Long Road to Ruin (Dave Solo Acoustic)
Best of You (Dave Solo Acoustic)
Times Like These (Dave Solo Acoustic/Full Band Electric)
Dear Rosemary
Breakdown (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers cover)
Skin and Bones
Everlong
