Yonder Mountain String Band are sharing tonights show for free!
Y.M.S.B are giving away a Halloween treat tonight with a free Webcast of their show from Chicago. They announced earlier their Halloween costumes were going to be Hallo- WEEN. So the show should be interesting as they put their unique spin on Ween. The show will be available on Yonder's Facebook page starting at 9:45 central time.
Y.M.S.B announced their Halloween theme and it will be the music of Ween. They are celerbrating at the House of Blues in Chicago on October 29th. They will play the album 12 Golden Country Greats. I think it's the worst costume ever!
Friday's Schedule For Lockn Festival has the first night of Phish and Ween's second show and a whole lot before those happen. Here is the Friday Lineup.
The Whole Schedule
Friday Only.
FRIDAY
Donna The Buffalo – 11:00am-12:00pm (Blue Ridge Bowl)
Moogatu – 12:00pm-12:30pm (Main Stage)
Turkuaz – 12:30pm-1:30pm (Main Stage)
Vulfpeck – 1:30pm-2:30pm (Main Stage)
White Denim – 2:30pm-3:30pm (Main Stage)
Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires – 3:30pm-4:45pm (Main Stage)
Peter Wolf (of the J. Geils Band) – 4:45pm-6:00pm (Main Stage)
Ween – 6:00pm-7:30pm (Main Stage)
Phish – 8:30pm-12:00am (Main Stage)
Circles Around The Sun – 12:00am-2:00am (The Woods)
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – 1:00am-3:00am (Blue Ridge Bowl)
“Jazz & Woods” ft. DJ Logic – 2:00am-3:00am (The Woods)
Garcia’s Forest (All Day & Night) – 12:00pm-4:00am
Ween played a great set with psychedelia, old classics and the first guest appearance with UM, and Vulfpeck put on a great show. Night One of the LOCKN Festival
I didn't catch much of Umphrey's set but I saw them a week ago and know they are playing tight and let's just say it, they never really play a bad show. They kept it tight and stretched out a few songs to fill the time instead of trying to cram in a bunch of tunes. Kudos to them for that. Some bands try to play a bunch of truncated versions of exploratory songs in order to pack a lot in to a short set. One of the highlights was the Gene Ween joining them as to form Godboner for a cover of Billy Joel's The Stranger. The crowd was coming down from Vulfpeck, one of our founder's new favorite bands, and Umphrey's teed them up for Ween who proceeded to go brown and get weird and make Boognish proud.
(thanks to Jambase for the photo)
For those that don't know, Boognish is the demon-god that has appeared three times too and was said to spawn Ween. A kind of Ween-ish "Icculus" if that makes sense. In the headline slot, Ween back together from their breakup in 2012 so Aaron (aka Gene) could get his health back in order, made a great showing of themselves and broke out two great songs they've only played four and eight times, respectively over 25+ years. "Transdermal Celebration" the "Pink Floyd dipped in Ween" sounding psych jam through "The Grobe" into the country great"Mister Richard Smoker". Gene then mentioned they were about to play one of his favorite songs,"Mr, Would You Please Help My Pony?" this is when things started getting really brown. "Happy Colored Marbles" led into the heavy psychedelia of "How High Can You Fly" which they have only played live three times before this version. This is one of the songs that made me really like Ween. I was happy to hear quite a few tunes that I haven't heard in a long time and thought that they came off live wonderfully.
They kept up the energy with possibly my favorite Ween song, and the drug and alcohol struggles the band has gone through have been well documented. I used to read "Baby Bitch" about a girl but now it can read it as an ode to cocaine. Especially since "girl" is an east coast slang term for cocaine but you didn't come for deconstruction. So anyway, it was great to hear it played live. Next up was a handful of songs that would've made the folks at the Arise Festival shit their collective yoga mats. To see Gene Ween exhorting the crowd to singalong to sucking dick and getting blow jobs at the "Boy's Club" was both a little cringy and totally Ween. Boognish was proud. The next few songs followed in the same vein with so many "f-bombs" dropped in a short time, and I don''t mean "fuck" that doesn't matter anymore but the word "faggot" is now more shocking than the original "f-word". These songs were written before the LGBT movement became the juggernaut it is today and you could feel maybe some people would walk away.
(photo courtesy of Jeremy Williams)
After either "Japanese Cowboy" or "Fluffy" both funny and well-played Ween songs, Gene looked out and said," Hey some of you are still here. That's cool" and they played their one "hit" that can't be mentioned without mentioning "Beavis & Butthead" in the same sentence. Over their many years together, they've written so many great songs, this and "Roses are Free" are probably the only ones in the mainstream and one was Ween's only charting hit and the other because of Phish. So after,"Push th Little Daisies" they busted out "I Play it Off Legit" for only the third time as Ween, all in this year. The other five times was played by the Gene Ween Group so technically, it's only been played by Ween this year after being released on Pure Guava from 1992. After a few more tunes, Gener brought out the mandolin for "Ocean Man" from one of my favorite Ween albums, The Mollusk. This tune kicked off "Ocean Man>Poopship Destroyer>Zoloft>Pandy Fackler". Gene said goodnight and left the stage after "Saturday" but came back out for the encore because he was the only one to leave the stage. The band stayed on and after the slow destructo-pysch of "Poopship Destroyer" with some great guitar work from Mickey (aka Dean) who frankly had been killing it all night. His solos were tight when they needed to be and he wasn't afraid to explore either. He's a great foil for Aaron and it was cool to see them together again. I saw my first Ween show in the parking lot of the University of Memphis in 96' or 97' so I've been keeping up with them, not closely, but have had an appreciation of their music for a long time. The always fun song Z-O-L-O-F-T was followed by slow-tempo "Pandy Fackler" and that was it for the first night of LOCKN for Ween.
The second set for Ween takes place right before Phish's first show tonight and "Roses Are Free" is still on the table and Joe Russo played drums in The Gene Ween Band so don't forget that's a possible sit-in opportunity. This festival has so many musicians that have played together it's almost like the musicians themselves put it together. So don't sleep on Charles Bradley for a dose of soul, Vulpeck, and Ween followed by Phish, all tonight for free streamed on nugs.net. The stream was a little choppy but you can't complain, a stronger stream comes from fans.com but they require a FB signin or email/password signup. Either way, last night was a good way to kickoff the proceedings and the next three days are only gonna get better. This is going to be the best festival behind the Desert Trip and this one didn't cost you a kidney. It's gonna be a grateful weekend, so stay tuned to Grateful Music for breaking news and collaborations and all things LOCKN. We already have an interview coming with Vulfpeck so stay tuned....
Written by: Greg Heffelfinger
Umphrey's McGee setlist
1. Nipple Tricks
2. 1348
3. Attachments
4. The Triple Wide
5. 2 x 2 >
6. Speak Up >
7. 2 x 2 (reprise)
8. Puppet String
9. Rocktopus
10. The Stranger*+> Puppet String Reprise
11. All in Time
* Billy Joel cover
+ with Gene Ween as "Godboner"
(courtesy of setlist.fm)
The Godboner reunion was captured by j cornell, view “The Stranger” here:
Setlist
Set: Nipple Trix > 1348, Attachments, The Triple Wide > 2×2 > Speak Up > 2×2, Puppet String, Roctopus, The Stranger* > Puppet String, All in Time
Phish is all set to end their Summer Tour and start up again after a couple of weeks on Fall Tour.
After what most agree was a shaky summer, Phish is ready to roll into LOCKN. The festival provides just what Phish needs at the moment. Page and Fish are sitting in with Phil as two of his "friends" and Fishman and Russo are poised to give the double drumming treatment that Phil got with the Grateful Dead et al. Page sat in during the wonderful "Phil & Phriends" run in 1999 that also featured Trey. After holding a Bass-ful day at Terrapin Crossroads with Mike Gordon. Phil has had all members of Phish join him on stage and he has joined Phish onstage when he played with Phish at Shoreline. A good show that also had Warren Haynes join Phil and Phish for a rendition of "Viola Lee Blues" that still gives me chills when I think about it.
So the cross-pollination is complete, especially after Trey played the Fare Thee Well shows last summer. So the first night of Phil & Friends is going to be a treat for all attending. The second night the Chris Robinson Brotherhood will join Phil with the Hendrix-esque, guitar wizardry of Gary Clark Jr.. Phishheads refer to Trey as a Jedi but to follow that metaphor, the force is strong with young Clark, it is. So look out for some Grateful Music both nights Phil and his friends take the stage.
Phish's summer tour as it were, has been uneven at best. Some fans got great shows, some fans got their "Ass-Handed" to them. There were even some fans that got their "Ass-Handed" to them at a great show. However, through weird song placement, some new songs and some repetitive song selections the tour didn't come close to heights they reached last summer. Blossom and Alpine and Lakewood and Nashville and actually the whole east coast with a great tour-ending run at Dick's comes to mind, put 2015 into the books as one of the best 3.0 tours yet. So the anticipation was high this year. I like the new song "Breath and Burning" and I have colleagues who think "Tide Turns" might be one of the best Trey ballads in a long time. However, keep "Farmhouse" out of "Mike's Groove" should be a t-shirt I have heard it so much. "You got your "Farmhouse in my "Mike's Groove", you got your "Mike's Groove in my "Farmhouse"" springs to mind. That reference dates me and if you don't get it don't worry. I'm just old.
I think the two dates at LOCKN will be good for the boys as festivals tend to cross-pollinate backstage as well as onstage and maybe they'll catch the spirit from the up and comers or they might realize just how lucky they are to be the vets they are now. Either way, it's gonna be a great couple of shows and a big thanks to Peter Shapiro for the free live stream for those who couldn't make it. It's a great idea and will only help this festival, which while big already, with this year's lineup, next year's tickets will be flying out of the box.
After LOCKN, Phish heads to what has become a tradition, the end of summer Dick's run. While the spelling game has been fun the last couple of years, I have a feeling it might have run it's course. After spelling "Thank You" last year, what else is there to say? It's been fun but if any year is the one to stop it on, this is it. Although after saying that, I'm going to these shows and would love to see the whole show spell "We love you, Greg" or "Goodbye and thanks for all the fish" another reference that dates me. After all, I remember when they retired the chessboard and the tour Fishman put the mumu away. A good band thrives on change and that's why the collective "we" love jam music. It doesn't always follow the same script. I know how the Rolling Stones are going to sound when they play "Gimme Shelter" or "Satisfaction" but the bands that I love, and I do love the Stones, keep people on their feet with jazz-inspired jamming or extended blues riffs or just a willingness to take chances and follow the muse wherever it leads. Umphrey's has their mashup shows, the Grateful Dead were pathologically incapable of playing the same song the same way, Phish loves to play with the energy that their fans put out and even if they don't do "Big Ball Jam" anymore and the word "ripcord" gets bandied about, they still can improvise when they want too. And like the Grateful Dead, they have reached a plateau where there are no "bad" shows. Some just aren't transcendent and sometimes they are but no matter what, you are going to have a good time. Even if it's just people watching or seeing friends and hanging out.
After Dick's and a couple weeks, the band heads out on fall tour ending on Halloween in Vegas. I do wish there was the possibility of a Salt Lake City, Dark Side of the Moon show but Vegas is it for the Fall. Who knows what they will costume themselves as or even if that tradition too will end? My gut says they just won't play on Halloween if they aren't going to cover anything but after the resounding success of the Disney album, the chances are good it's going to stick around. Most of those songs from that show are still in heavy rotation and "Martian Monster" has become a crowd favorite because of Mike's heavy bass bombs and Page's samples. In my personal opinion, the "phish in the future" costume seemed like a copout. That is Phish's conundrum though. We've seen them play all night and we've heard Exile on Main Street and Loaded and Remain in Light covered note for note. They are a victim of high expectations and can't just be a band anymore on Halloween or they get lambasted for it. What other band besides Umphrey's McGee puts that much energy, time and money into their Halloween show?
Also, I think some of the younger fan base aren't familiar with some of the material they cover and it doesn't get the respect it deserves. Playing Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus falls into that category because that album is amazing and one of the best live albums from the Seventies,period. I think Phish nailed it by picking the instrumental Disney album because they could interpret the songs as they felt and weren't locked in to a pre-set song form.
Whew! That was a tangent wasn't it? This year Dick's has become a hard ticket to get and while the place is huge, the crowd Phish draws can fill airbases and Indian reservations, so it's yet to be seen how many shutouts there will be. After the LOCKN sets and Dick's run we can put Summer 16' to bed. Then we start Fall 16' fresh and clean. The fact that they are playing at all is a miracle considering that not that long ago there was no Phish to see. So enjoy every show, treasure every moment because time is passing and no one is going to be around forever. Let's all raise our glasses to the summer and the fall and the band that is Phish and all that entails because they have become a part of our lives and for that, we thank them. And ps: Boys, Trey, if you read this, you asked Ween to get back together and now you guys are at the same festival.....hint,hint!!
Written by:Greg Heffelfinger
"Roses are Free" and the jam following from 4-3-98 "Island Tour"
The LOCKN Festival, formally Interlocken, is going to be the best festival of the year. This year's lineup has the most potential for band crossover jams and of course, the Ween reunion. So here are some clips from tomorrow's opening day bands. First up is Umphrey's Mcgee on the main stage at 8:30-10:00 "Ocean Billy" Live at Red Rocks 9/14/12 Here is one of their famous Halloween mashups feat. Beck/Radiohead/Phil Collins House of Blues 10/31/14 Next is Ween's first set back together on the main stage at 10pm-12am Baby, It' Gonna Be Alright Is This What Deaner Was Talking About? Live in DC 10/21/2005 In the Woods,is the SCI side project, EOTO-12am-2am. "Funky Middle Eastern Space Dub" Wanee 2012
At the Blue Ridge Bowl, will be Joe Russo's Almost Dead 1am-3am St. Stephen>Terrapin Station Suite Brooklyn Bowl 3/26/16
