Monday, September 18, 2017

TAB Live at the Grand Point North Fest, Burlington Waterfront, Burlington, VT Sept 17th, 2017

     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

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