Wow! It’s certainly been a while since I’ve been able to cover a show for my own publication. Hopefully you’ve been keeping up with the work I’ve been doing with the fine folks over at Music Scene Media. If you have or if you still follow this little blog of mine you saw that I got to cover Colonel Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade a little over a week ago. Well, for those in the know it was a double feature of an evening. While the party wasn’t exactly private, it wasn’t exactly public either. You may have stumbled upon a QR code leading you to the event page, or maybe you knew the band that was playing, or you just heard through the grapevine that something was going down. The online flyer I saw said “it’s gonna get weird, and its gonna go late” and this party certainly lived up to that claim. Over a week later and I may finally be caught up on sleep.
After an amazing show at The Township Auditorium and a mind bending encore of “Whamola” by Les Claypool the crowd spilled out onto the sidewalks. A short jaunt and a turn down a back alley led my girlfriend and I to the door of the after-party. This certainly wasn’t your typical house party. To help promote things the organizers had hidden rubber frogs around town and posted coordinates to them on the event page. Finding a frog got you free entry, otherwise a suggested donation got you a wrist band and open bar access. After grabbing some wrist bands we popped into what I can best describe as the lobby/bar area to grab some free drinks and check out the wares of the vendors who were set up along the back wall. After milling about and saying hello to some friends and acquaintances and topping off our drinks we ventured into the “venue” to catch one of my favorite local bands Harry and the Hootenannies.
I first heard this trio of folk-funk-jam rockers when they opened for H.R. of Bad Brains at New Brookland Tavern last year and I described their sound as “a whimsical fever dream”, so naturally they were a PERFECT fit to play the after party of a Les Claypool project. Starting off Harry and the Hootenannies paid homage to Primus and Les by covering both the South Park theme and the Primus classic “Too Many Puppies” drawing elated cheers from the crowd. After priming the crowd up the band would play a song of their own, “Got Damage” before shifting gears again and covering Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” to keep the crowd on their toes, and on their feet. The evening would continue much the same with the band weaving fun covers in with original songs like one of my personal favorites “Raide”. Being an electric mandolin fronted 3 piece even cover songs have the bands fun and unique finger print to them. The crowd banter is top notch as well, I don’t think I would have made it to work the next day if the band hadn’t reminded me to DRINK FUCKING WATER.
I ended up having to leave a little early since I had to be up for work in a few hours at 6am, but going off the set list it looks like I managed to catch the majority of Harry and the Hootenannies set. All in all it was an amazing party. The band was a perfect fit, they were obviously having a great time along with the crowd. Thanks to the crew at Fuselage Productions the lighting was top notch, and Its tough to beat live music and an open bar.
Harry and the Hootenannies: Facebook / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube
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