Photos by Jim Mimna
The Scene: It was a busy weekend in the Colorado music scene last weekend so fitting in a Grace Potter performance with Galactic as an opener was no easy task amidst the college football madness and street parties that dotted the Denver landscape on Saturday. The crowd was an interesting mixture of older out of town fiftysomethings – I met fans from Maine, Florida, Minnesota and Alabama throughout the show – and a younger local twenty something crew enjoying a perfect fall evening at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Interestingly the attendance at the show was quite sparse overall so everyone had excellent views of Grace and her new band as well the typically funky power of Galactic.
Galactic: Arguably the finest, and certainly most commercially successful, Funk and Jazz band to emerge from New Orleans over the last two decades, Galactic has performed many epic shows between the hallowed Rocks dating back to the late 1990’s. On this night we heard classics from the venerable Stanton Moore and Robert Mercurio and some new popish tracks off the recently released Into the Deep. My only wish would have been for the two bands to flip-flop spots on the bill especially with Potter’s less than stellar new album so the Galactic funksters could have had a headlining slot. Alas, we still danced the sunset away in style and the set was excellent overall.
Grace Potter: At several points in her career Grace has been touted as the next Stevie Nicks, a female powerhouse with phenomenal skills on the guitar, piano and a incomparable voice. Unfortunately, she recently parted ways with that band that she emerged onto the scene and produced several seminal albums with, The Nocturnals, and, as her debut solo effort showed, that has done her no justice.
Despite the lackluster showing on Midnight, one thing that cannot be denied is her stage presence and that’s exactly what she blessed us with on Saturday night. That and a set chock full of songs she penned and rocked with the Nocturnals for the past decade. In total, 14 of 23 songs played were Grace Potter and The Nocturnals tunes and while she did deliver six tracks from her new album, they were fairly well spread out through the performance with the exception of a three song block near that end of the set that culminated in the very regrettable “Alive Tonight.”
Highlights of the show included a sit in from Galactic drummer Stanton Moore on The Pointer Sisters’ “Yes We Can Can,” a powerful “The Lion, The Beast, The Beat” that opened the set, and a fierce howling session from Grace on a cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” during the first encore. Grace even emerged for a second encore channeling her inner Janis Joplin as she blasted into Bob Dylan’s “I Shall be Released.”
I’ll admit I didn’t go into this show with high expectations following a late night listening session with her new album. Fortunately, she took us on a genuine journey through her history and proved her immense musical talents will never go to waste no matter what her current album sounds like.
Energy: B+
Musicianship: A
Sound: A
Stage Presence: B+
Set/Light Show: A
Overall: A-
+ There are no comments
Add yours