As announced on their official blog, Google Music is now open for business. The idea here is that anyone can  upload their personal music collection for free to the cloud so you can stream it anywhere, any time. The service has been in beta since May and though I was a beta member I never used it. Since our move my main music library has been stuck on a computer that does not have internet access, so I didn’t have an easy way to upload my tracks.

I finally took some time today to login to the service and even found some free tracks to add to my library. The best find so far has been 13 selected tracks from the Dave Matthews Band Caravan tour stop in Chicago earlier this summer that I attended. According to antsmarching.org the tracks are all from night three. These tracks are well recorded and are only available on music.google.com. Be sure to download Live On Lakeside and start using this great service.

My recording of MER‘s performance at this year’s Pig-Fest XVIII is now uploaded to archive.org. This is nearly three hours of new original songs and a wide variety of classic and more recent cover songs, including “Friends In Low Places” with everyone in the crowd singing along. Remind me next year to point the stage mic toward the crowd to pick up the singing better on tape. MER is currently busy recording a couple of different albums that we hope to hear soon. He also has a bunch of music available on iTunes for purchase. Please support him now and in the future.

Last night was my first night ever seeing a concert at the historic Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky. I know that may be hard to believe, but I can now say it is one of the cooler venues in the Cincinnati area. I was a little hesitant at first as the smell of smoke immediately greeted me upon entering the front doors. The building is open to smoking, but according to the website shows in the ballroom are often smoke free. Fortunately the Robert Randolph show was scheduled for the ballroom and was a smoke free show last night.

The venue itself is really great. I was definitely pleasantly surprised. The room has a decent sized stage up about four feet from the floor. The room itself can squeeze 600 inside and there is a large balcony that wraps around three sides of the room. The sound was excellent and last night we had plenty of room. I definitely cannot wait for my next show in this fantastic space.

The Cincy Brass

I arrived as the opening act of the night was already on the stage. The Cincy Brass are a nine piece brass band that combines elements of Bourbon Street with funk, hip-hop, and jazz. They mixed some of their own original songs from an upcoming album with New Orleans street music and even some instrumental covers. Their version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” was especially awesome! They don’t have an official website yet, so future tour dates are a bit hard to find. Their Facebook page may be the best place.  I definitely  want to catch a future performance.

Robert Randolph & The Family Band

Robert Randolph & the Family Band  took the stage after The Cincy Brass and started things off with a couple of tracks from their latest album, We Walk This Road.  “Traveling Shoes” was a catchy number that got the crowd ready for some serious dance numbers that would follow. “The March” was played third and the crowd really loved hearing this one. And following it up with “Squeeze” was an incredible combination.

Also played were “Shake Your Hips,” complete with a dozen women from the crowd on stage dancing, standout track for the latest release “If I Had My Way”, the always incredible cover of Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile”, and crowd sing along  “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That.” Robert played all songs but two on his pedal steel, while cousins  Danyel and Marcus laid down the beat on bass and drums. Also on stage was “Noodles” on guitar and keyboard as well as Robert’s sister  Lenesha on vocals for the newer material.

As always Robert was all smiles while performing on stage. You can really tell that he enjoys every moment of their shows. His pedal steel playing is still incredible. In 2003 he was on Rolling Stone’s list of the top 100 guitarists of all time, and this designation definitely still applies. If you’ve never seen them play before, I would highly recommend it. Their shows are full of a ton of energy and the crowd is full of dancing and smiling the entire time.

Last night I spent yet another evening at PNC Pavilion, this time to see My Morning Jacket  along with Neko Case. Neko hit the stage right at 7pm with her five  band-mates. Though I was familiar with her name, I was not familiar with her music, which can best be  categorized  as alt-country. Neko and the band powered through a quick 45 minutes set full of short songs. The first few that I heard were full of depressing themes and stories, but those gave way to more upbeat songs, which I enjoyed much more.

Neko Case

Once Neko Case’s set ended I figured it would be 8:30 before we saw My Morning Jacket take the stage. Unfortunately that prediction was 10 minutes off, and I was caught out on the plaza when their set started. Fortunately the sound was loud enough that I could hear the opening performance which included the first two songs from their latest album, Circuital, back to back. Shortly after those opening tracks the band launched into two of their earlier singles, “Off the Record” and “I’m Amazed.” These two tracks really got the crowd moving.

My Morning Jacket

I thought last night was my first time seeing My Morning Jacket, but today I realized that I actually saw them at the Mile High Music Festival last summer. I wasn’t very impressed with their performance that day, but last night was a completely different experience. I haven’t seen a rock show like MMJ delivered last night in a long time.  Front-man  Jim James is one hell of a vocalists and guitar player. His long curled hair constantly flowing around his head as he  head-bangs  along with the music.

As impressive as Jim James is, I was also impressed with the rest of the band. Even though Jim often has many guitar solos,  Carl Broemel on the opposite side of the stage is also a fine guitar player. He also spent many songs on the pedal steel and even one song on the  saxophone. Bassist,  Tom Blankenship, the only other original member holds down the groove in the center of the stage playing in perfect rhythm with drummer  Patrick Hallahan. Hallahan also has a big mop of hair on his head, which flies wildly in the air as he beats on the drum kit. Rounding out the lineup is  Bo Koster on keyboards. I liked that he had a real upright piano is his repertoire  that added a very clean sound to a couple of songs throughout the night.

Other highlights of the show included “Wonderful (The Way I Feel)” along with “One Big Holiday” and the latest single “Holdin’ On To Black Metal.” The band took a quick 4 minute break before returning to play a lengthy 35 minute encore featuring “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Neko Case and some of her band members on stage. The song was originally recorded by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty. The male and female singing combination worked great with Neko on stage. Once the last note was played the band had been on the stage for roughly two and a half hours! It was a great night of music.

I’ve added a couple of other pictures to the show below. The lighting was really good and I was happy to see it was all LED powered.

Starting last Thursday with The Decemberists show, my string of late nights rolled through the weekend including last night when John Butler Trio stopped at the Madison Theater in Covington. I expected the show to be over around 11 but the band was clearly enjoying themselves with a packed house in a smaller venue and didn’t stop playing until 11:45! It turns out the Madison Theater doesn’t really have a curfew, which I’ll have to remember for future shows.

Before I comment on their set, I should mention the opening set from Mama Kin, who happens to be John Butler’s wife. Her brother is Nicky Bomba, who is the current drummer for the John Butler Trio. And another brother, Micheal, was playing keyboards for Mama Kin. So it was a big time family affair, with lots of guest musicians throughout JBT’s set.

Though there was no guesting during Mama Kin’s set, the three musicians on stage during the set were constantly changing instruments. All of them were very talented and they warmed up the stage so well. I have actually rarely seen an opening band be so widely accepted by the audience. By the end of the set they had the entire crowd singing along on their catchy tune “Beat and Holler.”

After a lengthy set change, the John Butler Trio took the stage between 9:15 and 9:30. The crowd didn’t skip a beat and the energy was really high. I have praised the technical skills of not only John Butler but the other members of his band many times on my blog, and last night was no exception. I brought along a friend of mine for his first JBT experience and he was very impressed. John played the first few songs all on his modified 12 string guitars, before he eventually settled into the first song of the night on lap-steel, “Treat Yo Mama,” which also featured  upright-bass.

Other highlights of the night included the always amazing solo instrumental performance of “Ocean” as well as a bluegrass intro that fed right into “Better Than.” I also really enjoyed hearing “One Way Road,” “Revolution,” and the other tracks from the latest album, April Uprising. I have only heard these songs one other time live, which was at last year’s Red Rocks show, which was actually just officially released last month as Live at Red Rocks.

The night ended with a rocking version of “Close to You” with all members of the trio participating in a superb drum solo. It was great to see them play in such a small venue where every seat seems close to the stage. It really did seem like the band liked it too, though I’m sure they will love their second headlining appearance at Red Rocks in a couple of days, which is like 8 times the size of the Madison Theater. Be sure to catch them if you can.

All week I was trying to find someone to go to The Decemberists and The Head and the Heart concert at PNC Pavilion that took place last night. Finally I found out that a couple of my friends from high school were indeed going, so I made plans to attend the show with them. They had VIP tickets, which allowed us access to a private area with discounted drinks and food along with pre-show entertainment. Around 8pm I headed inside the pavilion to watch the opening act, The Head and the Heart. You may know them from their recent track “Lost In My Mind,” which was played during their short half hour set.

The Head and the Heart are a six piece band featuring violin and piano in addition to the standard guitar, bass, and drum combination. Three of the members provide soaring vocal harmonies, which is the major highlight of their show. All members of the band were very energetic and you could tell that they were enjoying themselves. They closed their set with a great version of “Rivers and Roads,” and then all members of the band stayed on stage to tear down their own gear.  It is always neat to see a band on the rise, and they did not disappoint.

Thirty minutes after The Head and the Heart had finished their set, The Decemberists took the stage. After the first or second song  front-man  Colin Meloy  apologized  to the audience for his strained vocal chords. I thought he sounded fine, but he must have been in a fair amount of pain. Their concert tonight in Indianapolis was canceled because of this. Missing from the lineup was    Jenny Conlee who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. She plays  hammond organ,  accordion,  melodica,  piano,  keyboards, and  harmonica. Filling in was Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek on fiddle and vocals.

With these issues with the lineup, I still thought that they sounded really good.  “Down By the Water” came very early in the set and sounded great. Also played were  “The Rake’s Song,”  “O Valencia!,” and  “This Is Why We Fight” to name a few. Other than the missing accordion on some of the tunes, they all sounded great. Nate Query on bass was especially good. My only problem with the show came when the band finished their set in under an hour! They returned to play a two song encore including Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and then that was it.

I’m sure the vocal strain had something to do with the shortened set, and possibly the lack of energy from the crowd. I noticed that everyone was sitting in one of the three front sections. Or maybe the were too hot in their suits that they were wearing on stage in the dead of summer. Whatever it was that caused them to have an early departure also seemed to bring the band down. At times it seemed as if they were just going through the motions and that’s unfortunate. I hope that I just caught them on a bad night, but I don’t know if I will spend too much money going out of my way to see them again.

I had a couple of tickets for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals this past Friday night. Originally Kim was going to go with me to see this amazing singer, but she decided to stay home with Trey after just getting back from a tiring vacation. I convinced my friend Rob, who also just moved back to Cincinnati from Denver, to go to the show with me. Despite being the only guys in the audience without a female in their group, we had a wonderful time. Guys should not be afraid to rock out with Grace Potter.

If you have never seen Grace Potter perform before, get off your butts and go check her out. She has an amazingly powerful voice that soars over her accompanying organ and guitar. Not to mention that she is quite the entertainer with her always sparkling short dresses and her wild dancing across the stage. Her backing band, The Nocturals, are all very talented musicians as well, who can really turn a song into a long jam when needed. However, they also know when to keep it down and let Ms. Potter shine.

This was my fourth time seeing them play and my favorite show of theirs to date. Previous performances have all been either short festival sets, or an opening slot for another band. This night was a headlining performance, complete with a powerful encore with Grace performing  “Nothing But the Water (I)” alone on stage with only a pair of drum sticks to lead the clapping crowd. This was of course followed up with a rocking  “Nothing But the Water (II)” that eventually faded out with the band leaving the stage chanting the chorus, “Tried my hand at the bible, tried my hand at the prayer, but now nothing but the water is gonna bring my soul to bare.”

See also: a praising concert review from Cincinnati.com.

Last night we caught O.A.R. at the PNC Pavilion, which is attached to Riverbend. I have never been a fan of Riverbend, but right away I knew that I would have different feelings towards the PNC Pavilion. The pavilion has only a 4,000 person capacity, which is less than a fourth of what fits in Riverbend. One of my biggest problems with Riverbend is the terrible lawn with some of the worst sight lines I have seen. The pavilion doesn’t have any of theses problems as there is no lawn, and the entire seating area is tiered really well. There is a small pit area in the front with two different levels of seating behind that. And to top it all off, the entire thing is under a roof, which is critical in the Cincinnati rain. Or as we found out last night, it works just as well to block out the sun from a really warm summer day.

O.A.R. at PNC Pavilion

The show itself was really good as well. We missed the first opener, Kelley James, but saw the entire set from SOJA. SOJA was a really fun reggae  style band that I would watch play again. I was given a nine track sampler from one of the band members that I will take a listen to soon. O.A.R.’s set was high energy and full of some extra jams. Two songs had to be scratched off of the setlist due to the extended nature of some of the songs. The band is touring with an added two piece horn section that is really good. Highlights of the night included 52-50, Road Outside Columbus, and So Moved On. Be sure to catch them out of tour this summer.

It seems that 311 has toured under the unity tour headline for years. I know they used the name in 2007 when I caught the summer tour in Denver, and according to their  Wikipedia  page the same was true for the 2006, 2009, and 2010 tours. But why fix something if it isn’t broken? Saturday night Kim and I attended their performance down at Riverbend and it was just as good as any of their other shows I have seen in the past 15 years.

Beautiful Disaster

Their latest album, Universal Pulse, was released today. Though I haven’t heard the studio release, the band played the first three songs from the album at various points on Saturday. “Sunset in July” is this first single and was by far the catchiest of the three. The rest of the set (full setlist) consisted of nineteen songs, mostly from their oldest material, which happens to be my favorite material. Only one song was played from their previous two releases, which I have honestly haven’t heard that much of, so I was more than okay with that. The set closing combination of “Do You Right” followed by “Creatures (For a While)” was awesome.

Feels So Good

Though we arrived a little later than I had originally planned, we were still able to catch a large chunk of Sublime with Rome’s  opening set. If they really did start playing at 6:30 like I thought they were, then they played a two-hour set and it should be billed as a  co-headline  gig. We arrived between 7 and 7:30 and they played tons of old Sublime hits with a few new tracks thrown in the mix. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed hearing them perform all of these old Sublime songs.  They too have a new CD out so we heard a few of their newer tracks as well.

Unity Tour

This tour is definitely worth catching if you are a fan of either band from any time period, but especially if you loved them both in the mid 90s. I will warn you that it was definitely a loud show, one that made me wish I had a pair of earplugs for myself. I will have to remember that for next time.

Today I added a bunch of pictures of the Dave Matthews Band Caravan from our camera to kimandedjr.com. Enjoy!