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.

Kate Miller-Heidke - WXPN Free at Noon Concert - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA - July 9, 2010

While trolling WXPN’s website on a Tuesday for XPoNential Music Festival schedule updates, Mama noticed that their upcoming Free at Noon concert would feature Kate Miller-Heidke. Mama called to Carter in the next room to tell him that the opening act from when we saw Ben Folds and a Piano back in April would be playing the Free at Noon on Friday at World Café Live. Carter instantly appeared in the doorway and asked, “well, can we go?” Mama couldn’t think of any reason why we couldn’t, so we reserved our spots, booked some train tickets, and got psyched.

Mama: Philadelphia is a really easy day trip for us, especially by train. World Café Live is less than two blocks from 30^th Street Station, so we planned to go out there, catch the show, grab a bite to eat, and hop the train back home by late afternoon.

Carter: The train is a good place to read because it’s usually silent and if you’re sitting next to a stranger sometimes they don’t talk at all.

Mama: But on that train ride, we got to sit together and have breakfast and talk and read our books. And when we got there, we had some time to kill before the show, so we got to run over to Capogiro at 13^th & Sansom and have gelato.

Carter: Capogiro is the most delicious, heavenly gelato place in the world.

Mama: It's definitely one of my Happy Places. I try to always stop there at least once on every trip Philly. After our mid-morning gelato, we walked up to the Avenue of the Arts and got a cab back up to World Café Live.

Carter: When we got to World Café, the doors to the downstairs venue weren’t open yet, but we got to line up and they checked our names off the list and gave us door prize tickets for tickets to some other show (we didn't win). Then they opened the doors and we went in and I got us seats right in front of the stage.

Mama: Kate Miller-Heidke is already a pop star in Australia, but her recent stateside appearances are her first U.S. headlining shows. She sings and plays the keyboard. She’s accompanied by her husband, Keir Nuttall, who is a fantastic guitarist.

When she came out to start playing, she opened with “Space They Cannot Touch,” which is one of my favorites. She’s a trained soprano – an opera singer – which gives her pop songs a distinct flavor. She’s also incredibly charming.

Carter: When she hits the high notes it startles me because I’m used to pop music more than opera.

Mama: I saw you jump a few times when she sang high notes. It sounds pretty though, doesn’t it?

Carter: Yes it does!

Mama: Carter asked me before the show started if I thought she’d play his favorite song. I told him it wasn’t suitable for radio, and since they broadcast Free at Noon concerts live on WXPN, there was no way she’d play it.

Carter: But they finished the broadcast, and she came out for an encore, and said, “here’s a song that’s not suitable for the radio.” When she said that, I laughed really hard because I knew it was my song.

Mama: You really like songs that use curse words. I thought it was fun to see the people around us react, because most of them were probably hearing it for the first time. They were cracking up. It was fun to watch them have the same response to it that we had when we heard her play it back in April. We already knew the punchline.

Carter: Afterwards they had meet & greet and I got her autograph.

Mama: We brought our CD from home. It was lucky for us that we got an opportunity to meet her, because when we saw her at the Hershey Theatre, the meet & greet area was too crowded to get near her. This was a much better set-up. She was very gracious. She seems like such a lovely person.

Carter: Then we went upstairs for lunch and I had the best burger ever. The bun tasted like garlic bread. Then I looked over and saw Kate Miller-Heidke and her husband having lunch a few tables over.

Mama: World Café Live is such a great, intimate venue. We’ve seen a lot of really great shows there, both in the upstairs area and the larger downstairs venue. It’s become one of my favorite places. Do you remember the first show we saw there?

Carter: Sara Bareilles!

Mama: Another lovely, funny, and talented singer/songwriter. Tony Lucca was the opener at that show. And now I have Tony Lucca lyrics tattooed on me! That was the first time I'd ever heard him.

Carter: Anyway, then we walked back to the train station and went home.

Mama: See? I told you. Easy trip.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: The Felice Brothers, highlights from the XPoNential Music Festival, and Dawes at the Capitol Theatre!

Delta Spirit with The Romany Rye and Ezra Furman & The Harpoons - First Unitarian Church - Philadelphia, PA - July 2, 2010

This was Mama’s first show at the First Unitarian Church, and Carter’s first time seeing Delta Spirit live. We were both really excited about the show.

We also got to have an early dinner before the show at Le Cochon Noir in West Philly (right by the Mann Music Center). Special thanks to Jamal for his hospitality. We HIGHLY recommend this place and can’t wait to go back.

Mama: We got to the venue and found out the show was downstairs in the church basement (the upstairs sanctuary is also used for concerts). The basement looks like…well, a basement. It’s got wood paneling and a very small stage. It was a warm evening, and the temperature went up considerably as we took the stairs down into the venue.

We got a spot right up front and settled in for the opening acts. We enjoyed The Romany Rye, and were very impressed with Ezra Furman & The Harpoons (Ezra Furman is kinda like Gordon Gano + Conner Oberst, with a tiny pinch of Joey Ramone).

Carter: Mama met people standing near us. One of them looked exactly like our friend from home.

Mama: We were comparing notes about other Delta Spirit concerts we’d been to.

Carter: I got so hot.

Mama: We were all really sweating by this point. Delta Spirit started and after a few songs, Carter asked me if he could sit down, but we were all the way at the front, and the place was packed.

Carter: And YOU were being the meanest person on Earth at that second. You wouldn’t let me sit down.

Mama: I was afraid you’d get stepped on!

Carter: Our friend took me outside because I was hot and couldn’t stand it anymore.

Mama: I thought they were going out for some fresh air and would be right back. But I didn’t see them again until the show was over.

Carter: I was hanging out outside. We met and talked to people. I met one of the guys from the Harpoons.

Mama: I thought you guys came back and stood in the back of the room. I didn’t know until later that you never came back in.

Carter: We also went to a restaurant down the street for a little bit. I hardly saw Delta Spirit at all.

Mama: Then I guess it’s up to me to deliver the recap. I’m sad you missed it because I think it was my favorite Delta Spirit show I’ve seen so far.

They played a fantastic show, with a great mix of old and new songs. The temperature really was an issue – I don’t think I’ve ever been that sweaty in my life. The fact that I stayed put for the whole show in that sweltering heat is a testament to how much I love this band, because I can’t stand to be hot.

Highlights for me were two songs off the new album: “Bushwick Blues” and “White Table.” The last time I saw them performed was the first time I’d ever heard them, before the new album was released. Loved them then, loved them even more now that they’ve become familiar favorites.

When they played “Motivation,” Matt Vasquez came out into the middle of the room and made everyone crouch down (“a little bit softer now…”). The place was so jam-packed with people, that in order to squat, you had to hang onto the people around you. We all started to rise as Matt sang, “a little bit louder now…” until he hit the crescendo and the entire room began to pogo in unison (“heeeey-ey-ey-ey!...”). Vasquez shot up out of the center of the room and crowd surfed back to the stage.

Even if this show hadn’t been in a church basement, it still would have been a religious experience.

When the show was over, I was surprised to find that Carter had missed almost the whole thing. The good news was that we had tickets to see them the next night in Washington, DC, at the 9:30 Club. But we were worried that after two nights in a row of concerts (we saw Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears the night before back home) and staying up late, that he wasn’t going to have a good time at the show in DC.

Carter: So I decided not to go, and I was glad because I was really tired and didn’t want to feel like I was going to pass out during the concert. I’ve been wanting to go to that venue, but if I go, no other concerts for a few days before.

Mama: Yeah, three nights in a row would have been too much for you. I was sad you didn’t go along the next night, but I want you to be able to enjoy it. So we still have to get you to your first show at the 9:30 Club, and I don’t think that the First Unitarian show should count as your first Delta Spirit show, since you didn’t really see any of it.

Carter: I love shows with seats and air conditioning. I’ll go see Delta Spirit when they play a show where there are seats and air conditioning.

Mama: Sounds like Delta Spirit needs to play a CapLive show!!

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Kate Miller-Heidke, The Felice Brothers, and the XPoNential Music Festival!

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Capitol Theatre - York, PA - July 1, 2010

This was the first show where we had seen an artist (in this case, at the 2009 WXPN non-commercial radio convention, or Non-COMM), gotten booking information, and as a result, saw them added to the CapLive concert series line-up. It was Carter’s first time seeing Black Joe Lewis perform live, but he knew the music well, and we were both really excited for this show.

Mama: I had seen them before, but it was so much fun to see them at what we consider our “home” venue.

Carter: We were walking by on our way to the show and we saw some of the guys from the band smoking outside. We got a picture with them.

Mama: It’s always fun when bands play at the Capitol, because it’s so small and you usually get the opportunity to hang out with them before or after the show, or at least meet them. Like, remember the time when you hung out with the guys from The BibleCode Sundays for a whole evening?

Carter: Yeah, some of them were totally drunk. But they were definitely fun. I got my picture taken with them, too.

Mama: When I came to find you, they were like, “Are you Carter’s mum? Will you take our picture with him?” Anyway, back to the Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears show. The opening band was called Hacienda, and I thought they were really good.

Carter: They weren’t awful, but they weren’t my favorite band.

Mama: I liked them a lot. Their merch was cool, too.

Carter: When Black Joe Lewis started, I was excited. I like them a lot.

Mama: Me too. Everyone got up and started dancing right away.

Carter: Even though I really like the band, somehow I managed to accidentally fall asleep halfway through the show. But I woke up for my favorite song [“Get Yo Shit”]. The lyrics are funny:

She said, ‘You don’t even buy me presents.’

‘Yeah, I did. I bought you a box of chicken, but I ate it on the way home.’

Just thinking about it makes me hungry for Bair’s chicken.

Mama: His lyrics are really funny. And he’s an excellent guitarist.

Carter: The horn section was kick-ass.

Mama: Carter! Don’t curse.

Carter: Kick-butt.

Mama: [dirty look]

Carter: Bad-butt?

Mama: So you liked the horn section?

Carter: Yes. Yes I did.

Mama: If you stick with the trumpet, do you think you’d like to play in a band like that?

Carter: No, I’d rather do classical stuff. I liked it, but it’s not something I would want to do.

Mama: So overall, what did you think of the show?

Carter: Awesome. I thought that it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Delta Spirit, Kate Miller-Heidke, The Felice Brothers, and the XPoNential Music Festival!

Steven Wright - American Music Theatre - Lancaster, PA - June 9, 2010

When Carter's Mama and his Aunt Elise were younger, they practically wore out a cassette tape copy of Steven Wright's "I Have a Pony." Mama recently saw a billboard for Steven's performance in Lancaster, alerted Aunt Elise, and commenced to Making Plans.

The show fell on Bill Schell's birthday, so we turned it into a celebration - dinner at one of his favorite restaurants, followed by the show. It was Carter's first comedy show (probably one of the only acts Mama could take him to, since the inappropriate material and cursing is minimal).

Mama: I kept wondering who the opening act would be. As it turns out, there wasn't one. The lights went out, an announcer said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Steven Wright!" The lights came back up, and there he was, already dropping one-liners.

Carter: I hoped there would be a lot of cursing. However, there wasn't a lot. Sadly.

Mama: There's more to comedy than using bad words. In fact, I admire comics who can perform on prime time television, because they have to be funny without using profanity, which might be a little more difficult.

Carter: I fell out of my chair laughing a lot of the time, but other times I didn't get the jokes. I would like to get an album of his so we can pause it when I don't get it and Mama can explain, because I bet those jokes are funny, too.

Mama: That's a good idea. I knew you'd like Steven Wright's sense of humor. I wonder how he remembers all those jokes. There is no transition between them and he hardly pauses at all.

Carter: Yes, it was quite amazing.

Mama: Do you think you could remember all that?

Carter: Yes. No. Maybe. Only if I was a waiter. Waiters have to remember a lot of stuff.

Mama: My favorite joke was when he said that next week, he's getting an MRI to find out whether he's claustrophobic.

Carter: My favorite joke was the one where the punchline was "pardon my French."

Mama: Of course you'd pick the only joke he told in a two-hour timespan that included bad words.

Carter: My love of bad words comes from your side of the family.

Mama: Hey! Wait, you're right. That's definitely true.