One of the things I missed during the pandemic years was going to see live music, so it was lovely to get a chance to see some of my favorite bands this spring.
Here's a very short trip report.
We made plans to see Bonnie Raitt at the Chumash Casino in California's Central Coast region on March 11, but unfortunately mother nature had other plans, and a combination of a family health crisis and a series of terrible spring storms caused us to abandon those plans at the last minute. Luckily, my brother was able to use our tickets; unluckily, they caught COVID at the show. However, I really do like Bonnie Raitt's newest album, Just Like That..., which won a Grammy this year for Best Song I believe?
At the end of April, we saw Joseph at the Fillmore in the city. Joseph are the three Closner sisters from Oregon; we've been listening to them since 2016's I'm Alive, No You're Not was on steady repeat in our car stereo. The Fillmore is a classic SF venue which has played a major role in American music history over the last 70 years. It's a tiny place, and mostly standing room only, though there is a tiny upstairs balcony. It's dingy and loud but the earplugs are free and there's still a basket of apples at the entrance. And the staff are super-friendly. And it's always so fun to wander around and look at the pictures and posters on the walls!
The Joseph show was really great, I loved it! This was the first show of their tour and they sang their hearts out. Their new album The Sun is great and they had a nice collection of new and older songs. They also did a breathtaking cover of the Rascal Flatts song Here Comes Goodbye. It's not surprising that various fan tapes of this great version are starting to be shared online.
Opening for Joseph was a band I'd never heard of from London, Flyte, who quite impressed me and I've been enjoying listening to their music since the show.
In mid-May, we saw First Aid Kit here in Oakland, at the wonderfully-renovated Fox Theater. First Aid Kit are the Soderberg sisters from Sweden, and we've been passionate fans of them for a decade, ever since we couldn't stop listening to 2014's Stay Gold. This was the middle of the First Aid Kit tour, which started in Europe last winter as part of the release of the new album Palomino, which is very good and much awaited, as the band had been silent for nearly 4 years after they had to cancel their 2019 tour quite unexpectedly.
Opening for First Aid Kit was another new-to-me band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, who are quite promising I think. Here they are from 5 years ago, captured on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series.
Then, just this week, we made a 400 mile road trip to see a big favorite of mine, Lord Huron, at a venue I'd never been to before, the Redding Civic Auditorium. Lord Huron have become a big act and they typically fill big name shows like this summer's upcoming date at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, so we were unbelievably lucky to get to see them in this tiny spot in Redding. They bring a lot of high production values in their show and we loved this performance. They haven't put out new music in a while, but they did include several new songs during their show so hopefully we'll see some new release soon?
We first started following Lord Huron around 2015, when I heard their music on the soundtrack of the Robert Redford movie A Walk in the Woods, adapted from the Bill Bryson book. At that time, they were still seen as "that new band from Michigan", but they're a big LA-based act now.
Opening for Lord Huron was Allie Crow Buckley, who has a fine voice and I enjoyed her performance as well.
Really, except for the storms of March, we had as perfect a springtime of live music entertainment as we could possibly hope for, and it sure was nice to get out of the house and actually see performers performing and entertaining.
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