I won’t be able to go to Coachella this year, but I still got to enjoy a ton of the performances from weekend one of the festival. Thank God for the internet!
Certain performances are being “rebroadcast” on Youtube and you can try your luck at catching your favorite band by clicking: ->THIS LINK <-
KCRW has once again curated a summer concert series with talent overflowing. Inspired by The Annenberg Space for Photography’s newest exhibit,“Country: Portraits of an American Sound,” which will be on display through September 28th, 2014, KCRW’s “Country In The City” Concert Series brings to Los Angeles a country music line-up that any Nashville resident would be proud off.
Kicking off the concert series with Sturgill Simpson, KCRW brought a brand of outlaw country music that has had critics raving since his debut 2013 album, “High Top Mountain”. Since then Sturgill has been going at it hard, touring relentlessly, recording his follow-up album in four days, and releasing “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music” in May of 2014, gaining more and more fans along the way.
Perhaps it’s his gruff voice. Perhaps it’s his passionately effective lyrics. Perhaps it’s his unassuming and down-to-earth honestly. Whatever “it” is, it seems to be working.
Sturgill took the stage with his band (Miles Miller on drums, Kevin Black on bass and Laur Joamets on Guitar) and immediately announced to the audience that he was honored to be opening for Gregg Allman. After powering through the first song, he earnestly apologized to the audience for being less than 100%, promising the audience that he was still going to, “hit it hard, and try to get to 90%”.
His “country” humor came out when he introduced “Long White Line,” stating, “This ones for the ladies …. That’s bullshit. It’s all for the ladies”, and afterwards he introduced his band members, noting that his guitar player, who was effortlessly strumming country licks, Laur Joamets, was from Estonia.
“Just keeping it real,” Sturgill smirked with a sly look to his players.
He mixed in a little bluegrass, and some covers. Before playing his cover of Lefty Frizzell’s “I Never Go Around Mirrors” noted that this time last year when he played “the Hotel Cafe, there was 20 people there.” A look of appreciation beamed from his grizzled face as looked into the audience.
He even gave the audience a little history behind several of the tunes. For example, before closing the night with “Railroad of Sin”, he explained that when he was starting his path as a songwriter, his wife said that he had to have a song with a train in it cause every country artist had one. When it was all said and done, and before closing the set with “Railroad of Sin,” he told the audience how lucky they were to have Gregg Allman coming up proclaiming that, “That ain’t no bullshit.”
Happy he was going to have the rest of the evening off, he joked that he and the band usually stayed sober after gigs in order to travel to the next venue … but not tonight.
I certainly hope you had a chance to unwind Sturgill. You deserved it.
(Approximate) Setlist:
KCRW returns to Century Park in Century City this summer for FREE all-ages outdoor concerts inspired by theAnnenberg Space for Photography’s newest exhibit,“Country: Portraits of an American Sound,“ which will be on display through September 28th, 2014.
I was approved for a media pass the during the week before first concert in the series, so I wasn’t able to post a preview for the first concert, but I will be posting previews and reviews/photos for the second two concerts of the series.
All of the concerts that are a part of this series are free and open to the public, provided that you RSVP and arrive early enough to gain admittance before the venue reaches capacity. The doors for the concerts open at 5pm and the line for each show starts at 3pm. I highly recommend getting to the venue early to wait in line, as the lines for the concerts will definitely be long, with the potential to wrap around blocks (note, plural, blocks) in Century City.
You can RSVP for the shows on the KCRW website. CLICK HERE to get redirected to the website.
Below are my blog entries for this concert series:
July 19, 2014
July 26, 2014
August 2, 2014
#DKLPHOTOS 