What’s up people? It’s been awhile for sure. Between a tight budget due to a slow down at work and various minor health problems, I just haven’t been inspired to write. But after an amazing weekend of live music and the announcement of Phish Summer Tour, my muse is back and ready to attack.
My favorite place to see Boxcar Social is Kclinger’s. It’s local and they have just the right amount of volume for the place. Devolver, as much as I love them, can be a little too loud. I was a little late as I had dinner in York with some friends and missed most of the first set. I caught Frannie Mae (which has a great coda) and an improptu birthday song. Damn, looks like the first set was good.
Set 1:
Pockets > SPAP > You Can't Always Get What You Want > SPAP > Pocket, Moonshine Revival, Symptoms, Push > Which Way It Is > Push, Thinking It Over, Funk 12 > D
Frannie Mae, Birthday Jam For Brian*
Set 2:
Normal We're Not, Man Smart, Woman Smarter > Unrest, Coming Into Los Angeles
Mt. Air, Appalachian Range, Relativity, Pound Of Gold, First Tube, Caught Up In The Sound
*-This was an impromptu song written on the spot for a guy in the crowd named Brian who was celebrating his birthday.
The boys are up on archive.org but this show is not up yet. I believe there was a snafu with the recording of the first set. So here is Boxcar on 2/19/12 in Camphill, PA.
http://www.archive.org/details/boxcarsocial2012-02-18.flac
The second set was a nice mix of covers and originals. Normal We’re Not is a new tune that highlights what makes this band special. Frank’s guitar and Paul’s mandolin ride the groove laid down by Josh. Super late night for me but I had to rest up for another night of music, NE PA’s own bluegrass band Cabinet.
As many of you are aware, I grew up outside of Scranton, PA. There are many different bars that feature live music in the area but since I moved away when I was 15, I really couldn’t take advantage of it. Cabinet has emerged from the scene and made a name for themselves up and down the East Coast.
They played at a bar/restaurant in Hagerstown, MD call the Hempen Hill BBQ. Very cool heady venue. Lots of open area and very chill staff. A low riser stage placed perfectly in the big room for good effect.
Once again I missed the first set because I was in a poker game. It was the last game of a 10 game season and ended up 6th in points going into the championship game. Glad I played so well, pissed I missed a pretty good first set.
Set 1
Cripple Creek, Old Farmer's Mill, Nashville Blues, Eleanor, Shifty Shaft, How Mountain Girls Can Love, Groundhog, Salt Creek, Tower, Long Journey Home, Coalminers, High On A Mountaintop, Midnight Moonlight, RRR
Set 2
Caroline, Gumboots, Two Timer>Heavy Rain, Little Maggie, Doors, Sharecropper's Son, I Ain't Broke, Susquehanna Breakdown, Old Home Place, 54-46 That's My Number> Clinch Mountain Backstep, The Dove, Wagon Wheel, The Boy In The Bubble, Friend Of The Devil, Kentucky Bootlegger, Pig in a Pen
You can download a soundboard recording here
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=553196
You can also stream it here
http://www.archive.org/details/cabinet2012-02-25.theshawman.flac16
Really nice little scene. Lots of cool people and I didn’t see anyone getting out of hand. It was as much of a show as anything I’ve seen at Hampton. There was even a line for the bathroom. I had a chick pay for my nonalcoholic beverage. We met a Head from Hanover than neither myself, Paul, nor Perkins knew. As Perkins remarked, ”We think we know all of the Heads in town, but a few slip through the cracks”. Another member of our family is found.
At set break I struck up a conversation with the banjo player, Pappy. I was ready to talk all things Scranton when he tells me he was originally from Cleveland. 6 guys in the band and I talk to the one that isn’t from NE PA. I did talk to 2 other members of the band after the show. They seemed very cool and down to earth.
Caroline is a great tune that really shows off Cabinet’s harmonies. The fiddle player had a board for his pedals and effects that rivaled the old Mission Control board back in Devolver’s golden era. Sharecropper’s Son had a hoedown train, which was kind of like a conga line for bluegrass. First time they ever did that. The last five songs just built one on top of the other, leaving the audience wanting more. A nice mixture of covers and originals, just like another band with a mandolin. And Cabinet’s harmonies are CrosbyStillsNashesque.
While I love following a band on Tour, there is something really cool about seeing 2 different great bands on back to back nights. Since my muse has been reawakened, expect to see more of Kempepedia on a regular basis.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD in Rock and Roll
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