Skip to main content

Vine Street Pub Block Party 9.17.11


Words & Photos By J-man

On Saturday, September 17th, the Denver brew pub Vine Street in conjunction with Boulder's Mountain Sun threw a block party featuring Yonder Mountain String Band's Dave Johnston and Drew Emmitt of Leftover Salmon/Emmitt-Nershi Band. Johnston and Emmitt were joined by guitarist John Ridnell and bassist Jeff Kazmierski for an afternoon of bluegrass music.

I arrived at Vine Street to find a sizable crowd gathered for an afternoon of music. Drew and Dave tuned their instruments as they got ready to take the stage which faced down the street and was enclosed by metal barricades. Security was checking identification as folks filed into the enclosed area. There were several tents under which the staff was serving reasonably priced beer. The were also grills on which the staff was grilling hamburgers, etc. Although it was crowded, the setup was great.

I made my way to the front of the stage to get a few good shots. As I did, it began to pour and lightning flashed in the sky. I decided to move away from the metal stage and sought refuge in the back room of the brewery with several other folks. We found ourselves surrounded by kind staff and large brewing vats. After twenty minutes or so, the rain passed and we re-emerged to get the show started.

Drew Emmitt & Dave Johnston Live at Vine Street Pub on September 17, 2011.



Owner Paul Nashak took the stage to introduce his business partners and the band. They tuned and began with an instrumental number. They sounded good as they mellowly picked through some standard bluegrass progressions. Dave at times seemed a beat behind. The banjo is a crucial instrument that is utilized to keep the count in most bluegrass music, yet Dave almost always seems to struggle as he would stop playing altogether to try to find the beat. Drew and John kept the jam going with solid picking and consistency.

As the set unfolded the same held true. Dave and Drew's vocals sounded good together as they harmonized and sang with smiles on their faces. Drew's voice is well suited for bluegrass music and his high register rang out perfectly. The highlights of the set were "Whiskey Before Breakfast", "Wild Bill Jones" and "John Hardy".

I enjoyed the set and the atmosphere. The music was alright. Dave's playing was pretty sloppy as usual, but Drew picked up Dave's slack and tore it up on the mandolin, with his fingers flying up, down and across the neck of the instrument.




They announced the final song of the set and I made my way to the back of the stage for a few candid shots...

There would be a second set though I didn't stick around to catch it. I had seen and heard all that I needed to hear and the comedian that followed the band was annoying, engaging in call and response banter with the crowd who booed him from the get-go. I dug the setup for the event and look forward to future events at Vine Street Pub.

www.mountainsunpub.com

J-man's Photos From The Show


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Livetronica Sampler 3.22.11

Words by Greg Molitor ( ReMIND Photography ) Ozric Tentacles This British group has proven innovative throughout the years offering a space-rock meets psytrance sound that remains alive to this day. Though never having a major record label, Ozric Tentacles has produced 28 albums of diverse psychedelia throughout its career. The band met at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1983 and truly fathered livetronica music with its use of sequencers and synthesizers. Simply put, there would be no livetronica without Ozric Tentacles. www.ozrics.com Octopus Nebula Colorado’s Octopus Nebula has certainly hit its stride as of late with its constant touring and increased festival interest. The group expands on the deep sounds of highly regarded acts such as STS9 and Shpongle but also carves a path of its own with its fresh takes on synthesizer tones and sampling in the live setting. Octopus Nebula Live at Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom on March 26, 2010. <--- Direct Archive Link www.octopus

Buckethead: Gimmick or Guitar God?

Words & Photos By Nicholas Stock ( phatphlogblog.blogspot.com ) At what point does the gimmick overshadow the performance? The obvious answer is Buckethead. The man is an amazing guitarist but something is not right in this world. The idea a performer who dons a KFC chicken bucket on his head for a concert has always intrigued me, and some of his side projects such as Colonel Claypool’s Bernie Bucket of Brains have been huge successes. However his performance last weekend in Fort Collins simply left me perplexed. From his robotic dancing, to his nunchuck display, to the fact the he performed with an iPod rather than a band all added to my confusion. Going into the show I was ready to be blown away, despite rumblings of disgruntled fans from the previous night’s show at The Gothic. Buckethead had had some sound issues and some missed cues in Denver but I was still trying to be positive for the show in Fort Collins. It did go off without a hitch technically but that was the least

The Origin of MusicMarauders

Words By J-man "What should I name this fucking thing?" I asked myself in the midst of a joint in my Upstate, NY apartment. "It's got to be something with just 'Music'in the title. Nothing more specific than that, as we'll be covering a wide variety of genres." One more drag on the joint yielded the memory of driving down Woodward Ave. in Detroit, listening to Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders. "MusicMarauders! That's it... It completely encompasses what we do in the sense the we are 'maraudering' or 'pillaging' for music," I thought as I stared out of the window at about three and a half feet of fresh Upstate snow. First things first, the domain had to be registered. "Do I have ten dollars in my account?" I thought to myself from a position of just scraping by. Pulling out my shiny, rarely used debit card, I put it to the test and was able to secure MusicMarauders.com. "What's next?" I