Friday April 08, 2005

Yonder

We've had a very nice run of shows lately in Lake Tahoe. Last week it was SCI, last night it was Yonder Mountain String Band, and next weeks its moe. Additionally Railroad Earth is playing on the other side of the lake this coming Tuesday and Umphrey's McGree is playing next month on the north shore.

This is my second Yonder show. The band is a foursome made up of a banjo player, a guitarist, a mandolin player, and a bass player. The mandolin player carries most of the vocal duty although they all sing. The show was opened by Shawn Camp who also played a lot of fiddle with Younder throughout the evening. The Younder crowd is made up of many of the same types as would go to jamband shows (like the SCI show) but also another demographic would could be described as bluegrass enthusiasts. This makes for a little bit of cultural conflict¹, but generally works out with the "kids" (roughly jamband fans) going to the front part of the auditorium and dancing and the other fans rocking out in their seats. This might also explain why the Tahoe Tribune didn't feel the need to write two article for the front page attempting to describe the social fabric of the fanbase.

I loved the show. If there was any critical comment I'd make it was that when Yonder are doing songs with lots of vocals that tends to get in the way of their incredible intense jamming. Hopefully we get to see these guys on a regular basis.

¹During the opener I was standing in front of a booth the group of people I was with had reserved. The people behind complained such that a friend heard. He told them he would tell me but that once Yonder went on it was likely there would be a lot more people standing. I choose to sit down and to go to the front when Yonder was on. ( Apr 08 2005, 11:07:49 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]