Greensky Bluegrass 9/28/2012 at the Majestic Theatre
Goodbye, Blue Skies... Hello, Greensky!
by Sal Serio
Posted: Sep 2012
(2747) Page Views
Greensky Bluegrass 9/28/2012 at the Majestic Theatre - photo by Sal Serio
I like living in the capital city of Madison, Wisconsin, but it sure is “feast or famine” sometimes when it comes to cultural offerings. Last Friday, September 28th, the feast was definitely ON, and quite a bounty it was! The evening got off to a rocking, lubricated start with a free concert on King Street by The Hold Steady, and well before their set had reached it’s last crunchy, eardrum-rattling, power chord, the fragrant jamgrass faithful were lining up in front of the Majestic Theatre to see the late night Greensky Bluegrass concert.
Almost immediately upon the venue’s doors opening, music started by Eau Claire’s Evergreen Grass Band, and the festivities were off and running! Look for good things to come from this talented quartet in the future. Next up was The Deadly Gentlemen, fronted by a gent with the dubious moniker Stash Wyslouch. I mean, Stash Wyslouch?! Who’s his daddy, Snidely Whiplash? It was obvious that The Deadly Gentlemen knew how to have a little fun, and by this point the Majestic’s main floor was crowded by a grooving and partying mass of humanity… ‘cause of course, Madison knows how to have a little fun, too!
Madison is no stranger to Greensky Bluegrass either, and the assembled ragamuffins were primed for the Kalamazoo group’s return, after playing the Majestic late last January. I am sure no one was disappointed, as the show was quite long and the dance floor consistently packed! What I like about Greensky is that they don’t try to “out-tempo” the genre, which you’ll sometimes see in the jamgrass circuit. Rather, they are, in a sense, more traditional bluegrass steeped in lush vocal harmonies and delicate interaction, especially between dobro player Anders Beck and banjo player Michael Arlen Bont. Paul Hoffman’s lead vocal and mandolin strumming kept everything centered and dialed in all night.
From new material like “Don’t Lie”, off of Greensky’s brand new “Handguns” release, to the encore set’s inclusion of the Paul Simon song “Gumboots”, the quality of performance never lagged, although the mood ran from happy-go-lucky to the stark murder ballad style of the high and lonesome sound. By the time the set ended, the crowd seemed spent but with a sort of post-coital afterglow, if I may use that sort of association. I think everyone got their collective musical glands off, and it was simply time for a good night’s sleep… and save their energy for the next time Greensky Bluegrass comes back to town!