Weekend of local rock volume 14

As promised (and requested by at least one commentor), here’s a wrapup of last weekend’s Salisbury Festival on a musical note (a clever pun if I do say so myself.)

There were two bands that played the Block Party on Friday night and alternated sets. First up was the Permilla Project:

This band struck me as heavily jazz-influenced. I’d heard their name before but this was the first time I’ve seen them play – granted I wasn’t giving them my full attention because I was walking around talking to folks and taking pictures on both sides of the river. I also found out that I was acquainted with one of their players on a professional basis.

The Permilla Project plays quite a bit locally and I’ll be adding a link from my site to theirs so you can check for yourself. In the meantime, they have a CD out, as did the other attraction, local musician Wes Davis. Davis was the one with his own merchandise table:

I also have him to thank for the hat I got. And while Wes played mostly classic rock cover tunes on this occasion, I know he does his own music for other shows. He also seems to be making a living on doing local festivals because he’s in the lineup for the upcoming Delmarva Chicken Festival in June. Below is a picture of the multitalented Davis and his band.

That was the entertainment on Friday night. Come Saturday morning I had a busy day planned moving between two stages. Leading off my proceedings was another young group who’s no stranger to outdoor Salisbury shows, Boats to Tangier.

Hands down, Boats to Tangier is the toughest band for me to classify among the locals. They’re not heavy, but they’re not pop-rock either. Maybe it’s because they have a keyboard-driven sound much more than most bands I’m used to, but still I enjoy the show when I see them. Who knows, it could even be the accordion:

This evening Boats to Tangier is playing in downtown Salisbury again, I believe to coincide with a new CD release of theirs (geez, I just bought the last one!) Check out their site, I link to it.

Another band that is playing an event locally was next in line. Meet Red No Blue:

While judging by the set they’re primarily a cover band, Red No Blue played a number of songs in the alternative rock and pop vein that the growing crowd was getting into. But their next show will be for a good cause – they’ll be part of the entertainment at the Courageous Christopher fundraiser the afternoon of May 17th.

I was a little bit perturbed at whoever laid out the published schedule because I’d have liked to see more of these guys, and by the times I was given I would have. Someone jumped Death By Sunday up the bill so I only caught one of their songs, barely long enough to get this pic.

They just put out a CD themselves, but by the time I came back to pick one up after grabbing a quick lunch they’d already left. (I didn’t want to make them break a big bill.) I’m sure somewhere down the road I’ll see them again.

The last two acts I saw that afternoon sort of intersperced themselves at will. Paul Lewis and Matthew King are friends and were quite pleased about playing back-to-back – so much so that they did several songs with each other (as you’ll see in one picture.) So I set the photos up with Lewis first and King last, which was how they were originally ordered.

You could tell they enjoyed playing together and hopefully they got a little face time on Channel 47 because one of their cameramen was taking shots during the show. If not, they got some time here. While I like to see bands moreso than individual performers, these guys are both pretty talented. One person who was watching Lewis turned and told me that “this guy should be on American Idol.” I’m assuming he’s implying those who are really aren’t that talented?

I keep doing these posts because a) I really like the local music scene, and b) these folks are pretty talented (or in the case of younger groups, working on becoming so) and it’s a shame more people don’t realize it. Every time I hear some heretofore unknown but pedestrian group from some other area of the country that already has umpteen famous bands (to use past examples, think Seattle in the ’90’s or Los Angeles in the ’80’s) I wonder when the musical talent scouts will come down here to check our scene out. Of all the groups I’ve seen, there just has to be some who have what it takes to make themselves famous and share the enjoyment I’ve been happy to receive over the last three years.