Friday at Newport Folk Festival reminded attendees and musicians alike that family-friendly festivals aren't always what you expect.
Fotobom
FOTOBOM: QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT @ TD GARDEN
FOTOBOM: IRON MAIDEN AND GHOST @ XFINITY CENTER, 19JUL17
The pre-show anticipation of the masses hung just as heavy in the air as the hot, sticky humidity of the summer evening. I’ve not seen the Xfinity Center lawn so packed in quite some time, and people were ready to cut loose with Harris, Murray, Dickinson and the rest of the Iron Maiden ...
FOTOBOM: GORILLAZ @ BLUE HILLS BANK PAVILION, 7/12
In a rare Boston appearance–their first in seven years–the genre-defying Gorillaz brought their full-band roadshow to Boston with a handful of digital guests.
FOTOBOM: RYAN ADAMS @ BLUE HILLS BANK PAVILION, 5/10
Wednesday was just the second night of the season for the Pavilion, Boston’s tented harbor-side venue which remains perpetually at nature’s mercy.
FOTOBOM: AIR @ ROYALE, 05JUN17
French duo Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin have been strangers to our land for nearly a decade, and once again their brought their A game on stage.
FOTOBOM: DR OCTAGON, MR LIF, GOLDEN AGE @ MIDDLE EAST, 02JUN17
Kool Keith celebrates the 20th birthday of seminal hip-hop record Dr. Octagonecologyst with partners Dan the Automator and DJ Qbert in two.
DAY TWO: COME FOR THE OPENERS, STAY FOR THE COMEDY AT BOSTON CALLING
From Cousin Stizz to Hannibal Buress, the music festival proves its early acts are worth your time, as is the new and improved comedy tent.
DAY ONE: GROWING PAINS AS BOSTON CALLING MATURES
Chance the Rapper, Deerhoof, and Sigur Ros impressed, but the festival is learning that booking big names comes with big logistical issues.
FOTOBOM: THE OBSESSED, KARMA TO BURN, LO-PAN, GOZU @ ONCE, 17MAY17
The term ‘lifer’ can have some negative connotations, an inference that it’s slog along the journey, a burden rather than a dream. But for others, it’s a lifestyle, a calling, and none quite underlines that ethos quite like Scott “Wino” Weinrich. If you scan the pages of the Encyclopedia of Doom Metal, you’ll find countless references to him as history of that Sabbath-fueled movement unfolded. Saint Vitus, The Hidden Hand, Spirit Caravan, Premonition 13, all the way back to the unrecorded Warhorse from the mid-’70s. The man has been involved with countless classic riffs and the first band who charted this course was The Obsessed. After a minor dalliance with resurrecting this band (a one-off reunion show at Roadburn in 2012; a Guy Pinhas-less lineup at Maryland Death Fest the year after), Wino has re-established the brand with a new record, the just-released Sacred.
The touchstones are there-the snarling vocal delivery, the hard crunch of chords that worm their way into your brain, and the thunderous rhythm section. A very early song “Sodden Jackyl,” dating from their first single in ’83 was dusted off and reworked for the record, and you’d never know that it predated other material by decades. Wino’s got a preternatural knack for creating music that is lasting, and while the formula doesn’t vary too much, why fuck with a winning recipe? You wouldn’t want something like apple pie to feature kale and cheddar cheese-stick with the basics.
The support cast was a great complement, courtesy of Grayskull Booking who know their way around crafting a solid metal bill. Karma To Burn took riffs to the most basic element possible by completely eschewing vocals and letting the amps and drum heads do the heavy lifting, aside from an out-of-the-blue “Tequila!” shouted out by guitarist William Mecum towards the end of their set. Lo-Pan took a similarly heavy approach, but the vocals of Jeff Martin have a subtlety and fluidity that you don’t expect from bands who typically steamroll their audiences. Local heros Gozu are just back from a West Coast tour, and they tightened their already tight delivery to a ridiculous level. Like Martin, singer/guitarist Marc Gaffney’s got a singing style that belies his physically foreboding appearance, while slinger Doug Sherman walks a razor-sharp line between the shred and the flash. Keep an eye out for a new record that should drop sometime this year.
Click on Wino for photos of all bands: