Hello everyone. Hope you are all doing well. I’ve been good other than the awful sickness and total disappointment I am feeling with the whole Penn State scandal. I hate to say it, but almost all of the institutions in the US are rotten. But, the only way to get through all of this is to stop and listen to the music play. And that’s what this entry is all about. I show Harrisburg how it is done with 2 shows in 10 days of non Dead, Phish, or Widespread Panic related music. So get ready to get down with some groovy jazz improv. and some shit kicking bluegrass, Northeast PA region style.
Medenski, Martin, and Wood was playing on a Wed at the Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg. ABC is a brewery/restaurant and one of the cooler places I’ve been, with a good selection of food and heady brews. Devolver played there a few times in the Golden Era (2000-2001) but I hadn’t seen anything there until this past April when Hanover’s own Boxcar Social played a private party in the bottling room. http://kempepedia.blogspot.com/2011/04/furthur-4111-hampton-va-boxcar-social.html
I have noticed they have been getting some incredible bands up there so I decided to take the opportunity to see some different bands since there is no Fall Phish Tour and East Coast Furthur tixs are out of my price range. A mid week show is also a super rarity for me. With a traditional Monday through optional Friday work schedule, I never hit midweek shows. My last stand-alone, non-holiday midweek show was Widespread Panic at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC on a Tuesday in 1998. Last midweek holiday show was Phish Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2009.
So I worked a “half day” at my job (5am until noon), go home, power nap, and meet my friend Emily (of the Summer 2011 Furthur Philly show in the hottest heatwave imaginable fame) in Mechanicsburg and pregamed with some of her crew, Kendra and Dimetri. Dimetri had more cool Phish refrig magnets than I knew existed, he even had one for Coventry from 2004. I can just imagine some Head thinking, So Phish is breaking up, I need to sell something at their last show. I know, I’ll sell magnets. Who knew there was such a huge market for non-healing magnets?
Get to the show about a half an hour before the band starts and it’s a nice chill scene. Sign said sold out but there was still plenty of room to shake your tail feather. First set was nice with Wood switching between a double bass and 4 string electric bass. They did the Dizzy Gillespie tune, Caravan, which I’ve seen Phish perform. Second set was all improv and they killed it. Little bit of drunken chaos post show but eventually get rolling and make it home around 2:30. Up 22 hours for the bliss that is live music, 4 hours of sleep and back to the paper tube mine the next morning at 9 am.
So, less than 11 days later, it was time to head back up to The Abbey Bar for some good old fashion Pennsyltucky bluegrass with Cabinet from Wilkes Barre, PA. My Dad was born, raised, and attend Wilkes College in Wilkes Barre. My grandparents lost EVERYTHING in the Flood of ’72 in Wilkes Barre. My brother was born in Wilkes Barre. I grew up outside of Scranton, which is 20 minutes up the road from Wilkes Barre. Needless to say, I have NE PA flowing through my veins, so seeing a bluegrass band from coal country is just what the doctor ordered.
I was meeting Paul (mandolin picker for Boxcar Social) at his crib and then heading up to the show. He wanted to get up there rather early to eat and pregame. He wanted to leave between 5 and 5:30. I get there at 5:20 and he was just getting out of the shower. We had to listen to some Old and in the Way vinyl and eventually got on the road at 6:05. On the way we went under a bridge and there was a slow moving train rolling over it; that will get me in the mood for some old timey music. Did I mention he was supposed to meet his friend Rin and her crew to eat at 6:30? We rolled in Prankster style at 7:05. No one had even ordered yet, all of them waiting on our slack asses.
They finally chow down and we head back to Rin’s crib to chill out. It was in the ghetto of Harrisburg. Whole blocks empty, a whole block with one lonely house on it. Stuff right out of the Wire. I half expected Omar to roll up on us. I’m assuming that the houses burned down during racial unrest at some point in the last 50 years.
While there, we listened to more music on vinyl. Long play records really have come back. Cassettes are NOT coming back, no matter what any half-assed music journalist writes. We make it safely back to the Abbey Bar to meet up with Christie, Christine, and Todd. Did I mention this was Christine’s birthday show? Happy 28th day of birth to the OG HMLL!
The show was sold out but had A LOT more people in it that the sold out show of MMW. I can't give ya a setlist but they ripped it up, even had a drumz segment. I danced so much and so hard my lower back was KILLING me Saturday morning. Also spent most of the night with something on my contact. Tour is rough, I made it until 1:15 but then had to hit the road. I needed a good night's sleep so I could get up early to write all this down for you.
November is shaping up to be a good month. Still ahead; Devolver on Nov. 25th at Kclinger’s and Boxcar Social the following night, Nov 26th at the Coliseum in Hanover. Boxcar will be playing downstairs rather than up in the loft so come on out to check out the new setup.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
Nice work Dave, and great writeup. Sorry 'bout that back. I could be very easily persuaded to try the Appalacian Brewing Company next time we are visiting, heady beer, food and music is.... shall we say, right in my wheelhouse.
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