Wow! The big five-oh for one of my favorite posts to write!
On Monday I gave you the lowdown on the Good Beer Festival in an overall sense but as promised I get into the bands today.
I suppose I should start with this so you know in what order the photos will appear.
There were a total of 12 performers at the Good Beer Festival and it was a showcase of many different types of music, not just straight-ahead rock.
First up was Blake Haley, who has played this event before.
Blake is a talented guy who I wish would put one of his old bands together. The thing I like about him is that he’s not afraid to put out some of his original stuff, even though I may well have been the only one who knew it (particularly the songs from his Pirate Radio days.) He found a way to make his time entertaining.
On the other stage, Chris English and his band got things started with some blues.
Chris is another veteran of the local festival stage, but when I noticed his son playing bass I realized I’d seen him somewhere before. Sure enough, when I pulled out my Boats to Tangier CD he indeed played bass for that group which has occasionally graced my website.
The doubly acoustic Ginger Band played a lot of old favorites, featuring dueling harmonies.
But the next band on the main stage had to win the contest for most creative name by a mile. Meet Sticky Long Fingers and the Rusted Butter.
They played a mix of covers and a few songs from the CD they just released called “Squash.”
I know they gained at least one fan while I was there, since my friend Jackie kept sneaking off to hear them play (not to mention one of them stopped by our booth afterward.) Truly they have a unique sound with so many players, and perhaps diversity of politics, too.
Wrapping up the bar stage on Saturday was the Saltwater String Band, who played a mix of tunes as well. Unfortunately, where I was situated I didn’t get to hear the bar stage as well as I could the main stage.
I did get to have a listen to the final band of the day, the Parkington Sisters.
Like last year’s Saturday closing act, Honor By August, the Good Beer Festival booked a more regionally-known band. In the case of the Parkington Sisters, this show came after a few days opening for a fellow New England-based band called Dispatch in venues such as Radio City Music Hall and DAR Constitution Hall. So perhaps it looked funny on their schedule doing a beer festival afterward, but they jumped at the chance.
Certainly with instrumentation like this, they were one of the more unusual acts but they kept a good portion of those who came until the end.
One highlight near the end was local musician Nate Clendenen joining them on stage for a unique version of “Ring of Fire,” the old Johnny Cash hit which has been remade several times.
Sadly, my Sunday thoughts are a little more limited because I really didn’t get to stay and hear some of the acts.
But I can tell you Kevin Poole has a purty guitar.
It was hard to miss the bagpipe intro Interesting Monsters played.
Of the twelve bands featured last weekend, they alone will do the doubleheader of playing at the Autumn Wine Festival, too. They’re on stage tomorrow at 2.
The final acoustic act of the GBF was Clayton Moore.
The one thing I can’t figure out about Biscuits and Gravy is whether the horn section is the biscuits or the gravy. But they utilized it in every song.
It seems like the GBF follows a pattern of sorts – they normally place acoustic acts on the smaller bar stage and also have the larger bands go second on the main stage. They simply flip-flopped the more eclectic acts, closing with one on Saturday and opening with one on Sunday – vice versa for the blues players.
That seemed to be the trend until The Hot Meals took the bar stage and got down. No acoustic act this.
The band is depicted as a rock/funk band and I would wholeheartedly agree. You could definitely get that vibe from their bar stage, unlike the acoustic acts.
And as I mentioned, it was blues which closed the festival with Tom Larsen and his band.
I believe they have played at least one of the three main festivals Wicomico County has each year since their inception. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like I see Tom Larsen a lot in this setting, and it’s no wonder – beer drinking and pork eating tend to work well with blues and rock.
The guy certainly was doing some marketing as well.
With as much marketing as I saw from some of these bands, maybe I should take my book out there. But then I suppose we wouldn’t be a non-profit anymore, so you’ll have to buy it here on my for-profit site. (ahem)
Overall, I would say this was a decent Good Beer Festival insofar as music goes but they have had better. One thing that was missing was a good, straight-ahead rock band; you know, the old-fashioned strap on the guitars, bring out the drums, and just play something catchy type. Last year’s event featured the aforementioned Honor By August and for my money the 2010 lineup still hasn’t been beat.
But it was a chance for (mostly) local musicians to play before an audience generally larger than you’ll find in the local bar or coffeehouse and you can’t blame them for saying yes. And with this year’s success, maybe they need to consider adding an off-site Friday night party, perhaps at Heron Ponds.
Programming note: there may or may not be a WLR with the Autumn Wine Festival since many of the bands don’t fit the genre. We’ll see.