Weekend of local rock volume 42

One thing about the Good Beer Festival is that they also have good music. On Monday I reviewed the event as a whole, now it’s time to talk about the music. Here’s a handy-dandy guide to what’s coming up:

One admission I had to make: with a couple exceptions, I couldn’t stay and hear every musical act. For the most part, acts on the bar stage were lost in the crowd noise but I could hear those playing on the main stage pretty well.

In all 12 bands were featured, and I’ll begin with Bryan Russo. The guy looks multitalented here, doesn’t he?

But when he actually got down to business, Bryan picked up a drummer to play some classics.

Shifting over to the main stage, Paul Brion and the Raucous Brothers mixed a gumbo of funk, reggae, and rock to get things going.

Back on the other side, it was one guitar and three-part harmony: it was Time Police.

Act number two on the main stage was a group familiar to Weekend of local rock: country rock stylists The Electric Co.

Closing up the bar stage Saturday was bluesman Chris English.

I even had a backstage pass. No, actually this was taken from the bathroom line. It tells you that there were a lot of people there to have a line – the preliminary estimate is that 3,300 people showed up between the two days.

It was here that I noticed the young lady playing keyboards, since you couldn’t really see her from the front of the stage.

To wrap up a Saturday of music, the up-and-coming act Honor By August headlined the main stage.

It didn’t take them too long to get the people moving with a tight modern rock sound.

One has to think this was a feather in the cap of the Good Beer Festival to get a band which is currently touring the East Coast.

That finished up Saturday with six musical acts. Sunday had the same number of acts, but some different sounds.

Leading off the Sunday proceedings was local musician Blake Haley, who I actually got to listen to for a few songs. It was an intimate gathering, but he was happy to hear that I remembered a couple songs he did from his days with Pirate Radio. Man, I miss that group because they were a rocking bunch.

Opening up things on the main stage was Good Beer Festival veterans Blackwater, who played a funky set.

As they were finishing up, guitarist Michael Bennett was getting set on the bar stage. He played a more country-style set, which fit in with the midday entertainment on Sunday.

I didn’t get to ask him if anyone had taken him up on this.

In case you can’t read the red-on-silver sticker, it says “I’m a musician! Can I sleep on your couch?”

I say country style entertainment only because I tend to lump bluegrass and country together, while Chester River Runoff may not necessarily do the same. They are another veteran group of the GBF.

But the folks were kicking up their heels.

Wrapping up the bar stage for the weekend was supposed to be a band called Adelina, but instead we got the third of three acoustic guitarists for the day. I didn’t really get to catch his act so I don’t know what he played or even who he was.

But I knew this was Tom Larsen and his band to close out the main stage, because he said so.

Tom plays a heaping helping of scorching blues and since my job was about done I got to enjoy listening in, as did these folks.

This last shot I just threw in because it would have been how the sound guy saw the show.

Tom Larsen provided a fun way to finish out the festival with a cover of the ZZ Top classic “LaGrange.” Twelve bands and maybe 100 or so songs later, we all had a good weekend of drinking beer, enjoying the sunshine, and listening to tunes new and old.

It makes me wonder what they’ll do to top this in edition number three in 2012.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.