For readers new to this blog, I should mention, lately I have been a bit obsessed with the banjo and all music that contains it. Whether it be Pete Seeger, Bela Fleck, Guster, Kermit the Frog or Trampled by Turtles. As such I was delighted when the TBT mgmt allowed me to shoot some photos at their show.
Dave Carroll
Of all the niche areas of blugrass, I have to say speedgrass is a new one. Speed infers punk rockers picking up pennies and grass folksy acoustic instruments. The reality of it is plaid shirted fans jumping and moshing to banjo solos, lots of fantastic beards and good looking women with jobs (not my phrase). It was nice too see all the OC hippies come out of the woodwork again, if only for an evening.
Ryan Young
TBT, doesn't just play fast however though. What makes a good show is balancing speed with slow, happy with sad and light with dark. Coincidentally the majority of the dark happened during the three songs I had to shoot in the pit. I did get a few good photos though.
Dave Simonett
There was just something about this band that made them feel organic. As if they all started playing together just for the hell of it and just happened to strike it lucky. Even though Dave Simonett is the lead singer, it really seemed each was an equal member of the band. Even their stage layout implied that with all five evenly spaced in a row with their own little spot on stage for amp and instruments.
To close the show, TBT played a fantastic rendition of Where is My Mind. Unfortunately I had been tipped off about their cover of it before the show so it wasn't the mind blowing supprise it could have been. Pretty cool with the crowd singing the oohs though.
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% Side Note: HoneyHoney
While the headliner of the show was Trampled by Turtles, HoneyHoney was impressive. Their records were a bit overproduced "meh," but live they were great. Very much enjoyed their blend of country folk and rock. Suzanne Santo's stage personality was fairly adorable as well, but when she was singing it was nothing but soulful country.
Suzanne Santo
With her pipes, HoneyHoney could easily go commercial pop country and be huge, so you have to respect them for keeping it real.
It's rare, but every so often a genuine band from LA emerges completely organically. Miner is a band that keeps it in the family. Husband and wife front the band with siblings and cousins backing. Their demo EP (of which I highly recommend picking up a copy) is actually independently funded. Their next full release will likely happen when a label snatches them up. There were a few guys in suits looking completely out of place there tonight so I am sure that will be happening soon.
While I know that musicians always cringe when compared in a description I would place this band somewhere in between the Lumineers, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and a band who's name eludes me. Their set was only around 40 minutes, and still in that short amount of time they played a cover. Although it was a very good cover who's name I don't recall. Seemingly they must still be in the process of writing and getting more material ready to perform. That said, they did still prove tonight that they have songs beyond those released on YouTube.
The band was somewhat lower energy than you might expect given their songs. On their last song Hey Love, they started to get into it a bit more. You could see Justin Miner almost tripping over his instrument cable while excitedly dancing as if it was something new to him. Tonight's show gave the feeling they are still figuring out the live thing together and that as they grow, they are only going to be even more fun to watch.
One thing that I think says a lot was that even though Miner was the opener, the crowd mostly dissipated in the front and surrounded the band after they played. This left almost no one near the stage for the headliner. I'd heard they were local, but it's nice to see an actual local scene around a band in a tough market like this. I think yet again this was a case of a show where the wrong band opened. I've just never seen such a dramatic example of it.
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% Side Note:
My only complaint? Their website is hard to find on search. Try typing Miner into google (until recently nothing), Miner the band (only press), this is Miner (the only thing that finds them). They may want to optimize their embedded tags on their website a bit more or expand the name to something like Miner Threat... oh wait...
