Counting Crows, Augustana, and NOTAR - Musikfest - Bethlehem, PA - August 6, 2010

We had never been to Musikfest (*GASP!*). Even though Mama went to nearby Kutztown University and we have family in Bethlehem – Carter’s cousin actually plays Musikfest every year – we had never gone before. There is no excuse. We’ll be going every year from here on out.

Musikfest is a 10-day festival featuring more than 300 performances representing pretty much any musical genre you can imagine. It takes place each year in downtown Bethlehem, PA, on 14 platzes (stages), 11 of which are free. The festival began in 1984, with 182,000 attendees; it now draws over 1 million people.

Anyway, we were planning to see Counting Crows on Musikfest’s opening night on their main stage. A few weeks before, Mama landed a sweet freelance project and had the opportunity to write about NOTAR, the rapper who is on Adam Duritz’s record label and touring with Counting Crows. Over the weeks leading up to the show, the project expanded a bit and the article covered NOTAR, the overall concept of the Traveling Circus & Medicine Show, and the Greybird Foundation, Counting Crows’ charitable outreach arm.

As it turned out, Mama interviewed NOTAR via phone the day before the show. He was very gracious with his time, and Mama was even more excited to write her story after speaking with him – he’s very quotable, but also comes across as very genuine.

On the day of the show, Carter and Mama left early in the afternoon to begin what’s usually a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Bethlehem. When we stopped to get Carter a slushey and some beef jerky (his favorite road trip snacks), Mama checked her email and found out Adam Duritz had agreed to speak with her, but that he only had five minutes. He’d be calling her directly at 4 p.m.

At a few minutes before 4, Mama pulled off the highway, opened her laptop, and the phone rang. When she looked at the clock 45 minutes later, she apologized to Mr. Duritz and explained that if she didn’t get back on the road, they were going to miss the show.

Mama: We got back on the road and Carter had already finished the slushey, the entire bag of beef jerky and half his book. We immediately hit rush hour traffic near Harrisburg, and pretty much everywhere else between there and the Lehigh Valley. Our tickets said the gates opened at 6 and the show started at 7, and I was really worried we were going to miss the first half.

Carter: That beef jerky was good.

Mama: I can’t believe you ate the whole bag while I was on the phone.

Carter: Well maybe you shouldn’t talk so much to famous artists.

Mama: That interview was really a dream come true for me. I’m a pretty big Counting Crows fan. [understatement of the century]

Carter: Yeeeaaah…trust me, I know. We were going to Mama’s friend’s house in Bethlehem to catch the shuttle bus with them.

Mama: There’s a shuttle system to get people to the festival. We got off the shuttle bus around 7:15 and still had to walk all the way through the festival to the main stage at the other end. I was really upset about missing so much of the show. Rather than having an opening act, then the second band, then the headliner, the Traveling Circus & Medicine Show features all three bands playing all evening. When the curtain goes up, everyone is onstage playing Van Morrison’s "Caravan," and from that point on, everyone comes and goes, playing their own songs, sitting in on each other’s songs, and doing covers. I had seen the show several times last summer, and once already this summer, and I knew we should be there from the very beginning, but the phone interview and traffic had made us late.

Carter: I had to pee, and I wanted food tickets [food and beverages at the festival are purchased with tickets rather than cash], but Mama just rushed ahead to get to the stage.

Mama: As we got closer to the stage, I said, “I don’t hear any music.” We arrived to find out that there was a misprint on the tickets, and that the start time wasn’t until 8 p.m. So we hadn’t missed anything!

Carter: I got pierogies and they were even better than the beef jerky!

Mama: I skipped dinner, but after another chain of misadventures and serendipitous timing, I ended up in the pit in front of the stage. The website for which I was writing the story didn’t have any photographers available, so they asked me to take my point-and-shoot camera and try to get a few shots to accompany my story.

Left to right: Jason Gallagher (from NOTAR), Counting Crows front man Adam Duritz, and Augustana front man Dan Layus.

Mama: I ended up meeting a very nice photographer in the pit who graciously offered to send me a photo that Tri State Indie could use as long as they gave her photo credits.

Carter: I personally think the show was amazing. I loved it every time I saw NOTAR come out. I like the song "Matador."

Mama: Me too! I also like watching the people around us as he wins them over. I think many of them don’t think they’re going to enjoy a rapper’s performance, but he’s so engaging, and his band is so talented, that people just can’t help but love it.

Carter: When Augustana sang my favorite song, "Sweet and Low," NOTAR came out with his trumpet. I play the trumpet, too.

Mama: NOTAR told me on the phone that he plays for at least an hour a day. I was really excited when he came out onto the stage with it. To me, it just underscored what reverent musicians everyone on that tour is to see the rapper come out and play his horn like that.

Carter: It was kick-butt. At the end, they sang "This Land is Your Land."

Mama: I always love that part, because everyone sings along, and everyone leaves with a big smile on their face.

Carter: As we were leaving, we saw NOTAR, MGeezy, and some other guys from NOTAR’s band standing outside. Mama said, “Hi, I'm JJ,” and shook his hand. He said, “Nice to meet you, JJ.” Then Mama said, “We spoke on the phone yesterday.” NOTAR was like, “Oh, my God, JJ!!” and hugged her. Then he said, “Where’s your son?” and then he saw me and grabbed my head and said, “You have to practice your trumpet for an hour every day!”

Mama: He was serious, too. That’s good advice and I hope you listen to him.

Carter: I have!

Carter and NOTAR.

Mama: It was really great to meet him. The whole day, everything just fell into place so perfectly. I was so happy. I couldn’t wait to get home and write the story. [You can read Mama's story over at Tri State Indie...it also ended up on the home page at countingcrows.com for several weeks.]

Carter: I slept the whole way home except for a stop at Wawa.

Mama: I was wide awake and couldn’t stop smiling.

Carter: I’m tired just thinking about it. But it was a great show.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Deer Tick and Mountain Man at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at the Wellmont Theater, Hot August Blues in Cockeysville, MD, featuring Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Keb Mo, and Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, and Lee Harvey Osmond at Ourhouse in York, PA.

Dawes - Capitol Theatre - York, PA - July 29, 2010

After seeing Dawes at XPN Fest, we were really looking forward to their visit to York. At the festival, Mama fell in love with the song “Love Is All I Am,” and played it incessantly during the week between shows. The opener for their CapLive performance was a band from Philly called The Great Unknown, who we also saw at XPN Fest.

Carter: Their drummer had a magnificent moustache.

Mama: He sure did. They were good. I especially enjoyed the guy playing lap steel.

Carter: I think they were very good. And I got to meet them after they played.

Carter with the drummer and lap steel player from The Great Unknown.

Mama: People tend to arrive in time for the opening acts at CapLive shows. The theater fills up nicely long before the headliner starts.

Carter: Speaking of headliners, Dawes was awesome. Personally, I think they were better than when they did their show at XPN Fest.

Mama: I don’t necessarily agree. I definitely liked their show at the Capitol better, but I think it had less to do with their performance and more to do with the fact that they are very well-suited to the more intimate atmosphere you get with CapLive, as opposed to a large outdoor festival. Their songs translate very well to a space like the Capitol Theatre.

Carter: I agree with you and disagree with you; I agree on how great the venue is for them, but I disagree that it was just that that made it the best performance that I’ve seen them play.

Mama: I understand what you’re saying. The CapLive show was the biggest headlining show they had ever played, and you could tell they were feeding off the vibe there. So I guess I agree that perhaps the performance ended up being better because of it.

Carter: When everybody sang along to “When My Time Comes,” I was very excited.

Mama: That’s not my favorite song of theirs, but that was truly a magical moment. That’s exactly the kind of moment that makes me love live music the way I do.

Carter: Which is to say, very much. A thousand “verys.”

Mama: They sounded amazing, and you could tell they genuinely enjoyed playing the show.

Carter: The lead singer and the drummer are brothers and they both make really, really weird faces when they play…no offense to them.

Mama: Ha! Taylor Goldsmith, the lead singer, does have a great guitar face, and Griffin Goldsmith, the drummer, makes faces like he’s playing in a death metal band instead of a folk-y Americana kind of band.

Carter: After the show, Mama’s boyfriend was hanging out with them at Bistro 19 and he asked them if their parents were musicians and made weird faces, too. They said their parents are musicians, but don’t make weird faces, and that they get asked about that a lot.

Mama: They played a song about living and loving in Los Angeles, where they’re from. I didn’t recognize the song, but it made me think of my friend who lives in L.A. While my boyfriend was spending time with them, Carter and I had already gone home and I was googling the snippets of lyrics I could remember, trying to find the song. I couldn’t find anything, because, as it turns out, they haven’t recorded it yet. I sent my boyfriend a message and he asked Taylor about it. Taylor was kind enough to write down the words to the chorus on a napkin and my boyfriend brought it home for me. I took a picture of it and sent it to my friend in L.A.

...You got that special kind of sadness / you got that tragic set of charms / that only comes from time spent in Los Angeles / makes me wanna wrap you in my arms...

Carter: Overall, I think the show was awesome. I would love to go see them again.

Mama: Me too. I’ve heard rumors that Taylor Goldsmith might do some shows in early 2011 with Matthew Vasquez of Delta Spirit and John McCauley of Deer Tick. They’re all friends and have played together as a side project at places like SXSW. I would absolutely love to see them.

Carter: The guy from Deer Tick has a magnificent moustache, too.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show (Counting Crows/Augustana/NOTAR) at Musikfest in Bethlehem, Deer Tick and Mountain Man at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at the Wellmont Theater, Hot August Blues in Cockeysville, MD, featuring Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Keb Mo, and Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, and Lee Harvey Osmond at Ourhouse in York, PA.

Highlights from the XPoNential Music Festival - Wiggins Park - Camden, NJ - July 16-18, 2010

This was Carter’s first time at XPN Fest. It’s held each year at Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront. The atmosphere is very laid-back. There are two stages – one along the river, with the Philadelphia skyline in the background, and one along the marina – and the schedule alternates between them. Since WXPN broadcasts the performances, nothing overlaps and you get to hear all the bands (more than 30 over the course of the three-day festival). Carter has picked his favorites from each day to tell you about.

FRIDAY

Marina Stage: Toy Soldiers, Dutch, Ben Arnold, Free Energy

River Stage: Alejandro Escovedo, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Big Head Todd & The Monsters

Carter: I loved Toy Soldiers. I already knew some of their music, so I was all set.

Mama: They were the first act of the whole festival, and we were already familiar with them because I’ve booked them before and reviewed their CD for Folktowne.com. It was cool to see how much the crowd got into them.

Toy Soldiers

Carter: I got a Toy Soldiers T-shirt. I needed an adult medium. WHY AM I SO TALL?!?!?

Mama: It’s just the way you are, Carter.

Carter: On the next day, I wore the Toy Soldiers shirt and saw some of the guys from the band while The Felice Brothers were playing and they noticed my shirt.

Mama: Your other favorite band on Friday was Free Energy, right?

Carter: Correct. I liked them because they sounded like a band that I would have liked if I knew them before we saw them.

Mama: I only knew two of their songs because XPN plays them. I really enjoyed them, too. We danced a lot during their set.

Carter: I love that song that goes, “Bang bang pop pop…”

Mama: Me too. The whole crowd was singing along. Bruce Warren [XPN program director] told us that the two bands he was most excited to book for the festival were Free Energy and Dawes.

Carter: They were two of my favorites. Especially Dawes.

SATURDAY

Marina Stage: Birdie Busch, Bobby Long, Joshua James, Diane Birch, Robert Francis, Ben Vaughn

River Stage: Harper Blynn, Nicole Atkins, The Walkmen, Yo La Tengo, Roseanne Cash, The Felice Brothers

Carter: One of my favorite artists on Saturday was someone we already saw before – Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea. So I was looking forward to seeing them.

Mama: Me too. I really enjoyed them when we saw them earlier this year at the Capitol in York.

Carter: I think the best song she has is “Brooklyn’s on Fire.” The crowd sings along and the lyrics are, “Fourth of Ju-ly! Brook-lyn’s on fire!” This was only a few weeks after the Fourth of July. It would have been funny if we saw her sing it on the Fourth of July in New York.

Mama: She’s such a rockstar. She has a great voice, and the band sounds great, and she’s also really fun to watch.

Nicole Atkins

Carter: That night, one of my other favorite bands came out, The Felice Brothers. We were right up front for them, and I got to hit like three beach balls that were bouncing around the crowd.

Carter and His Mama watching The Felice Brothers

Mama: It was a completely different experience to see The Felice Brothers from so close like that than it was to see them the week before from way in the back of the park. You were really into it.

Carter: I loved it. They’re one of my new favorite bands. One of my favorite songs is “Whiskey in my Whiskey.”

Mama: I like that one, too, because the keyboard player comes out front with an accordion and sings it. I think everyone in the band sang a song during their set, except maybe the drummer.

Carter: I like when the fiddle player plays the washboard and stands by the drummer and hits the washboard on the cymbals.

Mama: Yeah, those guys are crazy. They’re coming back to the Capitol for another CapLive show in October, so we’ll get to see them again soon.

SUNDAY

Marina Stage: The Great Unknown, Fool’s Gold, The Holmes Brothers, These United States, Amy Correia, Earl Greyhound

River Stage: Blood Feathers, Dawes, Cowboy Junkies, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Dr. Dog, Robert Randolph & The Family Band

Mama: The line-up on Sunday was awesome. I loved every performance we saw.

Carter: Dawes was awesome. The whole crowd sang along to “When My Time Comes.”

Dawes

Mama: They were really good. We were up front for their set, too. Our friend Dave Simchock, one of the festival photographers, told us he was really excited for them, and it was really fun to see him and everyone else in the pit enjoying the show so much, especially during that song. The whole place went nuts.

Carter: They weren’t even taking pictures during that song!

Mama: I know. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be up onstage playing one of your songs and having everyone sing along like that?

Carter: It would mean you were a superstar!

Mama: One really great thing about XPN Fest is that if you’re a member, they give you a special wristband that gets you access to a members-only area. You get free drinks all weekend, so you can keep going back and filling up your reusable water bottles with cold drinks, and there’s also a meet & greet area. If you opt in, they’ll send you text messages to remind you when a meet & greet line opens.

Carter: The only band we waited in the meet & greet line for was Dawes. When we met Dawes, we gave them an I Love York City Sticker, because they were going to be playing the Capitol Theatre in a few weeks. When I met Dawes I almost flipped out because I was so excited. I got pictures taken with them.

Mama: They were very gracious, and we told them how much we were looking forward to seeing them at home.

Mama: I went back up front for Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, but Carter went to watch from a blanket on the lawn with some of our friends.

Carter: Michaela Mijoun [XPN Morning Show host] came out to introduce them and said that this was the most musicians onstage at a time during the whole festival. I was really excited.

Mama: They were SO MUCH FUN! I thought it was really cool how during Dawes, Edward Sharpe, and Dr. Dog, a lot of the people from the bands that weren’t playing would sit in the wings and watch the one that was.

Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. If he were a cult leader, we'd be drinking his Kool-Aid.

Carter: I kind of didn’t want to stand in the front for Dr. Dog, just because I didn’t know them very well. I like their music, but it’s not really my favorite.

Mama: But did you enjoy it once you were up there and they were playing?

Carter: A little bit. My favorite part about standing up there was the cold necklaces we had.

Mama: We bought those there from one of the festival vendors. They were cotton necklaces filled with expanding icepack gel stuff. We put them in a bag of ice and they got cold and stayed cool for a pretty long time. It was so hot all weekend and we saw lots of other people who had bought them, too.

What was cool about Dr. Dog was the fact that they’re from Philly and the crowd was so supportive. I really enjoyed their set. I had seen them the month before at World Café Live (during the 2010 Non-COMM), and this was completely different, with such a big, enthusiastic crowd. I thought it was an awesome show.

Dr. Dog (with two of the guys from Edward Sharpe watching from the best seats in the house)

Carter: The last band that played at the festival was, I think, the best one. It was Robert Randolph & The Family Band.

Mama: What I didn’t know until he said so onstage is that all the members of the band really are his relatives.

Carter: We sat far away at first, on the bleachers. But we left kind of near the end. When we were in the parking lot, we could still hear perfectly and they were playing Poker Face.

Mama: That was crazy! You were so excited!

Carter: I sang it in the parking lot and people started staring at me.

Mama: That was a great way to end our festival experience.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Dawes at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at Musikfest in Bethlehem, and Deer Tick at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at the Wellmont Theater, Hot August Blues in Cockeysville, MD, featuring Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Keb Mo, and Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, and Lee Harvey Osmond at Ourhouse in York, PA.

Hey! We've Got a Banner!

Thanks to Melissa Jones of Honeybee Studios for designing our cool banner. Business cards are on the way, too, so we have an easy way of pointing people to the blog.

We're a little backlogged on our blog posts at the moment, due to some family emergencies this summer - relatives in the hospital. Everyone's on the mend, and we're working a little bit at a time to get caught up on our posts. Our goal is to have everything caught up by the time school starts back up on August 25. After that, we'll be posting within 48 hours of attending a show.

Thanks for following along with us this summer. And don't worry, we're planning to attend lots of concerts through the fall and winter, so you can continue to follow our adventures here as Carter begins fifth grade, fall baseball, and lessons with his new trumpet teacher...we'll always make time for live music!

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: highlights from the XPoNential Music Festival, Dawes at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at Musikfest in Bethlehem, and Deer Tick at the Capitol Theatre.

The Felice Brothers - Long's Park Amphitheater - Lancaster, PA - July 11, 2010

Long’s Park, in nearby Lancaster, PA, hosts a great summer concert series. It’s conveniently located for us (about half an hour away and just off the highway exit), it’s family-friendly, it’s free, and their line-up of national touring acts is always great – good variety and a nice mix of seasoned veterans and up-and-comers.

For reasons that elude us, we had never attended one of these outdoor concerts. When we saw The Felice Brothers on the schedule for this summer, we blocked the date out on our calendars and starting planning our picnic menu.

Mama: This was Carter’s first time seeing The Felice Brothers, and my first time seeing them in an outdoor venue. For a change of pace, we found a spot at the back of the park, at a picnic table under a tree. It was a completely different experience from seeing a show from right in front of the stage. My favorite songs were just as good, but less intense from so far away.

Carter: I listened to them, but I couldn’t hear them as well as I wish I could have. So I read my book during the show.

Mama: It was a really laid-back atmosphere. I like that we could spread out, have a big picnic supper on the table, and hold a conversation if we wanted to, all while enjoying the performance. There were a ton of people there that we knew, so people kept stopping by where we were sitting to fill up a plate and hang out.

Carter: Near the end, people went up on stage with the band and we saw our friend up there.

Mama: She’s a big Felice Brothers fan, so I wasn’t surprised to see her up there. The Felice Brothers have a really big fan base. When they played the Capitol Theatre, I met people who had come to town from Philadelphia and from Ithaca, New York, to see them play that night in York. That was the first sold-out CapLive concert.

Carter: I can’t wait for them to come back and do another CapLive show in the fall.

Mama: Me too. I’m going to get our tickets now, because I’m sure it will be another sold-out show.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: highlights from the XPoNential Music Festival, Dawes at the Capitol Theatre, and The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at Musikfest in Bethlehem.