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krispyweiss · 2 months ago

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Sound Bites Presents the Live Music Year in Review

Much about 2024 sucked rotten eggs. But Sound Bites’ live-music calendar did not.

In addition to attending San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival - links to coverage here - for the second year running, the blog caught a few-dozen-plus gigs in his home state of backward Oiho.

What follows are capsule reviews of said performances in order from favorite to least favorite with hyperlinks to the full reviews and photos. May you have musical 2025.

Toubab Krewe (3) at Levitt Pavilion, Dayton, Aug. 16 - Listeners who closed their eyes and let the breeze with the slightest hints of autumn carry the music to them were transported to a lush, beachfront performance space miles - continents - away from downtown Dayton, Ohio. Review and photos here.

Sierra Hull (3) at Woodlands Tavern, Columbus, Sept. 15 - Hull is a solo artist but, like Billy Strings, is so in a band context characterized by shared solos and harmony vocals directed by the ebullient, ever-smiling bandleader. Review and photos here.

Old Crow Medicine Show (5) with Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway (1) at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, July 9 - Double bill. Doubly potent bluegrass. Review and photos here.

Todd Rundgren (44) at Andrew J. Brady Music Center, Cincinnati, April 24 - The Me/We tour is one for the faithful. Review and photos here.

Los Straitjackets (1) at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, May 8 - Performing at the confluence of musical seriousness and playful showmanship, Los Straitjackets’ gig dealt in all-inclusive entertainment. Review and photos here.

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives (2) at Columbus Anthenaeum, Nov. 21 - Stuart is the star attraction, and sang the majority of the nearly two dozen songs on the setlist while playing lead and rhythm acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and electric sitar. But he also left no doubt the aptly named Fabulous Superlatives are a band. Review and photos here.

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams (5) at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, April 23 - Campbell and Williams should be playing arenas. Review and photos here.

Steep Canyon Rangers (10) at Fairborn Bluegrass & Brew, Fairborn, Aug. 2 - Perched on a makeshift bandstand near the corner of Grand Avenue and Main Street, the Rangers did what they do - and were in top form - in front of a hometown audience of a few hundred on an unseasonably comfortable Ohio night that dodged the threat of torrential storms. Review and photos here.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (6) at Nationwide Arena, Columbus, April 21 - Though the band could’ve phoned it in, the expanded 18-piece - augmented with four-voice choir and five-piece horn section - instead brought a loud hailer. Review and photos here.

The Wood Brothers (8) at Southern Theatre, Columbus, April 3 - Having been scheduled to play Columbus before COVID-19 got in the way - Sound Bites still has his ticket to the canceled gig - the Woods’ trip to town was a long time comin’. Review and photos here.

Pete Best Band (1) with the Cyrkle (1) at Valley Dale Ballroom, Columbus, July 28 - Sound Bites still isn’t sure what he expected from Best. But it surely wasn’t an exceptional gig such as this. Review and photos here.

Hot Tuna (12) Acoustic at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, July 11 - Having played together nearly 60 years, it might be reasonable to assume Hot Tuna see their work as a grind; the opposite is true. Review and photos here.

Dom Flemons (2) at Happy Hollow Hootenanny, Snow Fork Event Center, Nelsonville, June 1 - Birdsong accompanied the early portions of Flemons’ Happy Hollow Hootenanny headlining appearance and fireflies lighted up the encores. Review and photos here.

John Craigie (3) with Tré Burt (1) at A & R Music Bar, Columbus, Oct. 11 - “I’m telling the agents - we gotta go back to Columbus,” Craigie said. And Burt likely felt the same as the audience went bonkers for two solo-acoustic folk singers who are also quite hilarious. Review and photos here.

The Travelin’ McCourys (4) at Woodlands Tavern, Columbus, Aug. 1 - There were times during this gig it seemed as if Woodlands Tavern might lift off the ground. Review and photos here.

Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros (3) featuring the Wolfpack with Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, at Music Hall, Cincinnati, Nov. 13 - The psychedelic-symphonic integration was complete by the time “Playing in the Band” launched with CPO handling the melody before dropping out and allowing the 10 members of the Bros and the ’Pack to take the number for a little walk in the woods. Review and photos here.

Robert Cray Band (10) at Lincoln Theatre, Columbus, Aug. 23 - The Robert Cray of 2024 is very much like the Robert Cray of 1989. Review and photos here.

Carsie Blanton (1) at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Sept. 17 - This was much more than a traditional music concert; call it a non-traditional concert wrapped in tragedy and comedy. Review and photos here.

Nickel Creek (1) at Mershon Auditorium, Columbus, Feb. 15 - After playing together since they were children, the now-40-something members of Nickel Creek often sound like one player rather than the three who are on stage. Review and photos here.

moe. (10) with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country (1) at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, July 19 - Twenty-seven years after playing the opening slot on the Furthur Festival, moe. are now the veterans lending their stage to such newcomers as Donato’s Cosmic Country. Review and photos here.

Rodrigo y Gabriela (1) at Columbus Athenaeum, May 15 - From hard rock to flamenco to classical, RyG spanned the world of music and spoke volumes while saying virtually nothing. Which is what the universal language of live performance does. Review and photos here.

Old Crow Medicine Show (4) at KEMBA Live!, Columbus, Jan. 25 - Old Crow Medicine Show ain’t sellin’ no snake oil. No, Sir and Ma’am. Their music is a proven elixir for all that ails at the end of a long day. Review and photos here.

Jorma Kaukonen (6) with Special Guest John Hurlbut at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Feb. 25 - Despite the seamless, single-set presentation with no encore, Kaukonen and Hurlbut presented a gig that felt like two gigs owing to its diversity of style and substance in an all-too-rare live-music innovation. Review and photos here.

Ruthie Foster (2) at Levitt Pavilion, Dayton, Aug. 8 - The set consisted mostly of covers. But they sounded like Ruthie Foster songs. Review and photos here.

Norah Jones (2) with Mavis Staples (3) at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, July 10 - Celebrating her 85th birthday with 4,000 friends and fans, the opener outshone the headliner, which was no small feat. Review and photos here.

Little Feat (4) with Los Lobos (24) at PNC Pavilion, Cincinnati, June 18 - When writing about a two-band gig, journalistic norms dictate leading with the headliner. But where Little Feat and Los Lobos are concerned, such guidelines are bunk. Review and photos here.

Violent Femmes (2) with Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Commons, June 22 - A twitchy brand of acoustic punkabilly music goes well with orchestral accompaniment. Review and photos here.

Yarn (1) at Woodlands Tavern, Columbus, Nov. 16, 2024 - Celebrating the power of music. Building community. Focusing on the good things in life. This is what Yarn’s performance was all about. Review and photos here.

Amythyst Kiah (1) at Natalie’s Grandview, Columbus, Nov. 23 - Accompanying herself on acoustic guitar and banjo, introducing and explaining the songs’ origins and looking like the world’s-coolest bespectacled professor in checkered Vans, black pants, a muted-yellow jacket and top and a bolo tie, Kiah proved genres artificial. Review and photos here.

The Steel Wheels (3) at Woodlands Tavern, Columbus, Jan. 17 - From head-banging electric guitar and drum solos to a cappella spirituals around a single mic to vaguely psychedelic esoterica, the Steel Wheels roll to and from every location on the musical map. Review and photos here.

Richard Thompson (3) at Stuart’s Opera House, Nelsonville, July 23 - Though Thompson’s good British humour was intact, his respiratory ailment limited his song choice to numbers in lower keys, likely caused the guitarist to forget the words to “Walking the Long Miles Home” and “Singapore Sadie” and to abandon “She Twists the Knife” altogether after one line. Review and photos here.

LA LOM (1) at A&R Music Bar, Columbus, Dec. 14 - If there’s a knock on LA LOM, it’s that the trio tends to have a sameness in tone and style, leading to flatlines among the huge peaks. Yet the young trio is clearly at work at blazing a path that, when realized, is going to leave sonic scars in the ground it treads. Review and photos here.

Jennifer Hartswick (1) at Levitt Pavilion, Dayton, Aug. 30 - The music flowed like a long, winding river of sound, alternately cascading and riffling across American rock ‘n’ roll, blues, funk, jazz and soul music on a hot-and-humid night that Tennessee resident Jennifer Hartswick said “is like winter” for someone living in the South. Review and photos here.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (1) at Rose Music Center at the Heights, Huber Heights, Sept. 7 - Jason Isbell cleans up the sound of his formative experience with Drive-By Truckers, adds elements of Neil Young and Crazy Horse and the Allman Brothers Band and - with key support from “my rock ‘n’ roll band, the 400 Unit” - creates something smooth and contemporary. Review and photos here.

Cat Power (1) at Columbus Athenaeum, Sept. 18 - Cat Power took the Columbus Athenaeum stage and a faux Bob Dylan concert broke out. Review and photos here.

Sarah Jarosz (1) at Memoriał Hall OTR, Cincinnati, April 26 - Jarosz plays pop music well. But this was pop, not Americana, music. Review and photos here.

Circles around the Sun (2) and Mikaela Davis & Southern Star (1) at Skully’s Music-Diner, Columbus, March 20 - Mikaela Davis wasn’t the headliner, but she was the star of the show. Review and photos here.

The Avett Brothers (5) at KEMBA Live!, Columbus, Aug. 20 - The Avett Brothers of 2024 are a band in flux. While the seven-piece touring lineup remains the same, the group is supporting a pop-leaning LP and talks from the stage about working, more than playing, for its audience. Review and photos here.

12/26/24

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