Hello everyone. I
hope you are having a fine day today. I am blissed out of my mind and my soul
is filled like it hasn’t been since 2001. Why? Because I just had a super locavore
music experience in Burlington which is incredibly fitting because I am now a
local Burlington music devourer. An event so epic, it was about 35 plus years
in the making. TAB live at the Grand Point North Festival, on the Waterfront,
Burlington Vermont, and Sept 17th, 2017.
I first have to
say if this had happened 3 weeks ago, no way I would have enjoyed it as much. I wasn’t anywhere near as set up. I start my second job this week after securing
a 40 week job (no benefits…….. yet) chopping prices on produce in the south end
of town. My second job is cashiering at
Big Lots in Essex (discount on furniture for my HMLL’s!). The produce gig will
get me into the coop and the cashiering job gives me point of sale experience
which will lead me into a dispensary gig once they legalize. I already am certified
as a bud tender via Hempstaff. So I have a plan and am executing it, rather
well if I do say so myself.
As soon as I
figured out I was going to be moving to Vermont, Switzer hit me up and said Trey
band was playing at a festival on the Waterfront in September. Well I have to
attend that. It ends up being a 10 minute walk from my house. I never even had
too many Devolver shows I could walk to in Hanover. I purchased the ticket in
May and just kept it in the back of my mind. Once up here and first job
secured, I started checking out the music scene. And what a scene! Variety
beyond belief. And a huge Grateful Dead presence because how could there not
be.
Every Tuesday
night Nectar’s has the Dead Set, where different bands play amazing Grateful
Dead music. I have seen Disco Dead which had Zach Nugent from JGB with Melvin
Seals. They do an album in its entirety and then mix dance music with the dead.
Imagine BE Women>Get Lucky>BE Women and having it work incredibly well. Saw
another band, Local Strangers, do Jazz is Dead style tunes. They had 3 guest
vocalists including Haley Jane, a local singer songwriter who is going places.
It really feels good to be part of a thriving local music scene.
But I got a HUGE
heaping taste of the local music scene last night. I strolled to the park after
enjoying the hell out of a Sunday. Fantasy football, gambling on football, making
vegan chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, walking Hobbs in the amazing September
weather. I arrived at the waterfront to catch Grace Potter’s set. This is her
festival and she normally headlines both nights. But she decided to have Trey
headline. She used to follow Phish around so I am sure she was geeked beyond
belief to have Trey there. It was half of her rocking stuff and half of her
more poppy stuff. It’s local and I loved all of it immensely.
Then Trey Band,
right on time. Switz and J showed up right as they started playing. The third
or fourth song was Sand. Switz leaned over to me and said “My jam, my hometown”.
And Trey crushed it. I was having too much fun to keep a setlist but it was all
killer. Grace and Mike came out for a country heavy version of Water in the Sky
with Trey on acoustic. He told stories about the first time he visited
Burlington and saw and met the current bass player for TAB. He was getting choked
up at the memories. But not like at Bonnaroo 2002. I can’t even imagine what goes through his
mind. He just did something no band will ever top, the Bakers Dozen. And that
pales in comparison how much it means to him to play Burlington proper for the
first time in close to 20 years, I think. All the old school Heads in the
crowd. Their after party must have been beyond belief. Page came out and played
on First Tube. It was all too much. But I wanted more.
All Photos by Bryan Lasky
So we head to
Nectars. Hung out downstairs and listened to a reggae/dancehall dj spin and it
was awesome. The dj looked like an extra from the Harder They Come. Then
another dj took over and he was even better. I then eventually migrated
upstairs to see GROUNDHOG.
This was a one
off group of local musicians. One of them was from Pink Talking Phish. The
guitarist Seth Yacovone, local Burlington mainstay, did a lot of the vocals and
leads. And my boy Pappy from Cabinet was there too. He lives in Vergennes I
have been told. They did some fantastic covers and I had the time of my life.
Honestly, I have to go back to the beginning of Devolver or even further back
to Penn State when Cousin Dave told me about a party to describe how high I am
from all of this. The band was Dogtown Rd and they played some jazz influenced
stuff that was just amazing. It had that same local vibe. A vibe that I am now
part of. A community that I am now part of.
The divorce,
putting down Noah, and the stress of the move was the toughest run I might have
ever had. But as I remarked, all that pain will make my rebirth in Burlington
all the more sweeter. And that is really starting to be true now.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
