Jam Bands Galore, NYE in Richmond

Here it is, Christmas Eve Eve, and not a creature is stirring except my cat, who just threw up a hairball. "Merry Christmas, people. Hack!"

Anyway, Saturday begins the little mini-jam band fest here in Richmond.

Saturday night, the reunited New Potato Caboose plays The National. Tix are $15 in advance, $18 day of show and doors open at 7, with the show starting at 8 with opener Indecision. New Potato had some regional success in the 80s and 90s in the Northeast as a band that played Dead, Little Feat and other classic rock along with some originals.

If you would prefer to see a local Dead cover band, check out King Solomon's Marbles on Saturday night at Cary St. Cafe. Show starts at 10 and cover charge is $7.

Tuesday night, uber-Dead cover band, Dark Star Orchestra plays at The National with Donna Jean Godchaux (formerly of the Grateful Dead) & the Tricksters. Doors open at 6, show starts at 7, tix are $25 in advance, $28 day of show. You know the drill by now, DSO takes the setlist from a Grateful Dead show and "recreates" the show live. Donna will probably sit in for a few tunes.

On Wednesday, 12/30, Keller Williams plays The National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8, tix are $18 in advance, $21 day of show. Keller will do 2 full sets so there is no opener. I've never been a huge fan of Keller when he does his one man band thing with the looping. Its interesting for about 15 minutes but never really grabbed my soul. I have enjoyed Keller when he is with a band. Looks like you'll get a little of both at this show. The National site says: "Keller Williams with an Added Bonus, an even blend of Keller's solo looping show and new flavors of grassy disco jazz funk featuring Claude Arthur, Jay Starling, Toby Fairchild as well as digital visuals by Scott Sunn." Here you can check out Keller doing his one man band thing with the song "Brown Chicken Brown Cow":



If you are looking for some music on New Year's Eve, the choices are unfortunately very few.

Jackass Flats, The Hot Seats, and Barnun & Co. will be doing the bluegrass thing on NYE,officially known as the 2nd Annual Richmond Roots Music Extravaganza at The Camel. Tix are $20 for the whole night of music, plus heavy hors d’oeuvres and a champagne toast at midnight.

Crucial Elements will be doing the reggae thing at Cary St. Cafe on NYE. Show starts at 10 PM and tix are $10.

If you have recovered enough from your NYE hangover to bang your head on New Year's Day, you can head to The National for a FREE concert from AC/DC cover band, Hells Bells (not to be confused with the all-female AC/DC cover band, Hell's Belles). Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with openers Half Brother Sid, Stoke Row and Medusa Switch.

I'll leave you with a video from what could be the weirdest Christmas party you would ever want to go to (and I would want to go to it) presided over by Bob Dylan (in a wig?) in Bob's song "Must Be Santa" from his Christmas album.

Have a Merry Christmas & and Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Tony Jordan

Dark Star Orchestra webcast live on Thursday

Gathering of The Vibes, the big jam band fest in Bridgeport CT, will be announcing some of their lineup at 7 PM on Thursday night on a webcast on http://govibes.com/. That's cool but what's really cool is that Dark Star Orchestra will play a live three hour show right after the announcement.

DSO is the Grateful Dead cover band that picks a setlist from a Dead show for each one of their shows and then plays that setlist. They'll be featuring their new guitarist, Jeff Mattson. Their old guitarist, John Kadlecik, is leaving DSO to play with a band formed by former member of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, called Further. So you know if the Grateful Dead is stealing members from DSO, that DSO are pretty damn good.

Also, Jeff Mattson's old band, the Donna Jean Godchaux Band, will be playing on the webcast too. Donna Jean is herself a former member of the Grateful Dead so expect her to sit in with DSO.

As you can see, this is just one big incestual ball of fun.

DSO will be coming to The National on 12/29 with opener, Donna Jean Godchaux and the Tricksters, so the webcast is a good chance to check DSO if you are curious.