The Felice Brothers: Iron Horse, Northampton, MA – Sept 5, 2008

Did you ever wonder what side of the line a certain family’s politics fall on? I mean, brotherly advice can range from: “Where did you find Jesus?” to “Where can I bury this hooker?” The Felice Brothers kinda walk a tightrope down the middle on that one. So who are these fellas? Well, just like the band name says, three members of the group are from the family Felice: Ian takes lead vocal duties (sounding a bit like Bob Dylan - but with more clarity) and plays guitar, James (Jimmy) plays the accordion and lends a hand on vocals, while Simone plays drums and fills out the vocal roster. (Of note: though Ian plays lead, all three look equally at home on the mic.) The brothers are accompanied by Christmas on bass and Farley on fiddle and washboard. They hail from the Catskills in New York, and their musical journey started by playing in New York City Subway stations. While they only have one major label release in the US (the self-titled Felice Brothers), they have an import album from the UK (Tonight At The Arizona) and a disc that they recorded themselves (reportedly in a chicken coop – what a perfect image – it’s called Adventures Of The Felice Brothers Vol. 1) that’s only available at the live shows. And that’s not counting their original indie debut, Through These Reins and Gone. So there’s no lack of material to choose from…

When I got in to the show, the whole downstairs had been opened up by removing all the tables – and it’s a good thing, because the place was jam-packed, even with the balcony open. When the guys took the stage, I thought how amazing it is that this unassuming looking bunch of characters can produce such a raucous sound. A lot of bands will wear their Sunday best to try to look “professional” – thankfully, this band isn’t in that pretentious crowd. T-shirts, plaids and jeans all around, thank you, with James wearing his trademark wide-brimmed hat. Scruffy and scraggly all, they were picture-perfect for this rowdy evening of Americana.

And right from the get-go, we got the feel for how these guys like to party when they gave the intro to “Ruby Mae” – “This one’s about the murder of a stripper in New York City” - a lovely ditty, punctuated by Simone’s pantomime of a cabaret dance while he stood atop his drum kit. This segued easily into “Where’d You Get The Liquor”, a song that proved to be one of the big three topics for the brothers Felice: booze, guns and Jesus – all three inspire a different sense of devotion, but these guys may be the only ones to squeeze them all together for one deliciously confusing evening.

During their 21-song set, the boys took us on a roller coaster ride. The boys regaled us with tales of sin like “Whiskey In My Whiskey” (sung by Jimmy and Simone) ending in a call-and-response kind of volley that left your head spinning like a good glass of Jack. Or perhaps you like your breed of sin to have a slightly more feminine allure? Well, “White Limousine” (a new song) might have the cure for that – it’s the tale of a lady who picked up the band after their bus had broken down in Ohio. In that white limo, she showed the guys how they put the “Sin in Cincinnati”.

Or maybe you were looking to hear some cover songs? No, these guys aren’t likely to break into a round of “Mony Mony” – but if you wanted to hear some songs about influenza or the Lord? They had you covered. Examples, you say? Well, their upbeat version of Elder Curry’s “Memphis Flu” almost had you wishing for hospital whites. “Saved” (an Elvis tune, also done by The Band) was one of the most animated songs – featuring a face-off between the washboard and drums while Ian danced side to side like a marionette with a drunken puppeteer. During “Lord, Send Me An Angel” (Blind Willie Mctell), there were the requisite band intros – and then the ladies in the crowd swooned as Simone went shirtless. Then the boys got a chuckle, too, as Simone kneeled in “prayer” by Ian, only to be knocked over by his brother – these fellas are true showmen.

Also of note during the set was another new tune called “Run Chicken Run”, and of course the “last song” was “Frankie’s Gun”, the huge radio single. Of course, last songs just lead to encores – which led to another four savory bits. At first, Ian came back solo for “Saint Stephen’s End”, but he was rejoined for “Two Hands”, a Townes Van Zandt tune. This may have been the pinnacle energy for the evening’s festivities, and Simone had appropriately introduced the song by saying we were in the Midnight Church Of Sin. At the fever pitch of the song, Ian was up on the drum kit kicking cymbals, Christmas was standing on one of the amps and Farley was clapping so hard that you really believed you might “dance through heaven’s door”. Hallelujah Brothers! And thank you for the best night out Northampton’s seen in a while!

For more info and tour dates, check out the band's MySpace page here and check out a great fan site called Hey Hey Revolver here.

For those of you looking for a full set list, here it is - thanks to the anonymous contributer for filling in song #11 for me:

1. Ruby Mae
2. Where’d You Get The Liquor?
3. Cypress Grove (by Skip James)
4. Whiskey In My Whiskey
5. Mercy/Christmas Song
6. White Limousine (Cincinnati Queen)
7. Her Eyes Dart Round
8. Memphis Flu (by Elder Curry)
9. Murder By Mistletoe
10. Saved (by Leiber & Stoller/Elvis/The Band)
11. Goddamn You, Jim
12. Run Chicken Run
13. Hey Hey Revolver
14. Radio Song
15. Lord, Send Me An Angel (by Blind Willie Mctell)
16. Helen Fry
17. Frankie’s Gun
Encore Set
18. Saint Stephen’s End
19. Two Hands (by Townes Van Zandt)
20. The Devil Is Real
21. Glory Glory (traditional)

Newport Folk Festival 2008 - Day 1, Part 2 (The Rains Came)

And now for the rest of the day – did I mention it was starting to sprinkle a little rain on the festivities during Steve Earle?…

3:00pm: Still at the Harbor Stage, waiting for my most anticipated band of the day, She & Him. If you don’t know who that is – first off, shame on you, but the “She” in the equation is super-cute indie movie sensation Zooey Deschanel while “Him” is alt-country hipster M. Ward. And if you haven’t HEARD them and you’re whining that “This is probably just another pampered Hollywood star needlessly indulging her musical fantasies!” – just shut up now, because theirs is one of the best collaborations/albums of the year. Deshanel’s soulful, delightfully off-kilter vocals mesh perfectly with Ward’s arrangements - a mix of music that is complex in its simplicity punctuated with endearing lyrical musings. Couldn’t have been more excited - so of course the skies had to open up right after they hit the stage. I’m not talking about a little rain, I’m talking about a hosing down rivaling wet t-shirt night, kids. But the show went on in the tent, with Deschanel in a sparkly yellow dress eventually covered by a polka dot poncho as we hit monsoon season. They were troopers, even when technical difficulties threatened – Ward had to abandon the acoustic guitar when it gave some (continuous) loud feedback, pulling a Newport classic and going electric. The highlights of the show? They played a good portion of the material from Volume One (their recent debut CD) during the 14-song set, with Deschanel occasionally playing keyboard. Their two singles were big hits, a rockin’ version of “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” and their breakout song “This Is Not A Test”. Sandwiched between those two gems was “Magic Trick”, a song from M. Ward’s solo work, which also featured the talent of Jim James – the My Morning Jacket frontman who is up next on this stage. Two other songs of note: first, backup singer Becky Stark (of Lavender Diamond) got lead vocal duties on her own song, “The Garden Rose”, and “Lingering Still” was the other non-solo-act non-album-track – very well received by the audience. They all took their bows after the finale of “Sweet Darlin’”, and Zooey graciously accepted flowers from a fan.

4:00pm: I now look like I’ve BEEN IN a wet t-shirt contest. No way to get under the tent, so we’ve been flat-backed against the fort wall, which has a slight overhang. Not MUCH shelter, but not AS drenched as other folks, so there’s that…

4:10pm: The aforementioned Jim James comes out. I’m not the biggest fan – I like the guitar work, I respect the man, I just don’t get the whole singing-in-a-tin-can vocal sound that he likes. But my girlfriend loves him, so I’m trying. At any rate, he came onstage with a little electric effects box (is there a more technical term – I’m sure, but you get the picture) that he rocked out with solo for the first few songs, later to be accompanied by M. Ward for a few songs (the two seem to travel in the same circles quite often, not just today – I saw Ward open for My Morning Jacket at the Webster Theatre in CT). The rain stopped partway through his set, so we decided to ring out our clothes and take a walk.

4:45pm: Got to the Waterside Stage and couldn’t hear anything at a distance. The Felice Brothers were supposed to be playing, and I was hoping they didn’t have to cancel them due to the rain. As we got closer, we could see the crowd and hear some singing and instruments – unplugged, how quaint, I thought (I also assumed that the tiny tent covering the sound storm probably wasn’t enough to shield it from the rain, and maybe fearing electrocution cut the power. I later learned that electricity had gone out due to the storm, and this was the only stage without backup power.). Trudged through the mud and puddles to get as close as we could, but the crowd was thickly massed around the band to hear better. It turns out that they had taken the act off the stage and into the audience to make things a little more personal. Their energy was astounding, and Ian Felice (lead vocals/guitar) was already starting to lose his voice from shouting. Oh, and he was down to four strings on his gee-tar, presumably lost to the frenetic first half of the show. James Felice, a bearded bear of a man, squeezed the accordion with flair, helping lend some backup voice to his brother. Simone Felice is the crazed drummer of the family, and he was encouraging the audience to sing and clap along, leaving his kit to maniacally roam the middle aisle in an attempt to bring the energy levels to a combustible level. On washboard and fiddle was Farley, joining in the raucous antics. When Ian asked for requests towards the end, it may have been a mistake – people were obviously shouting out things that were too difficult without a mic. They did the big crowd-pleaser, their first hit, “Frankie’s Gun”, and Ian got to take a break when everyone sang pretty much the whole song for him. James had everyone up and dancing with the band at one point shortly before the end, and prefacing the last song (which I think was a rousing rendition of a traditional tune, “Hallelujah (Lay My Burdens Down)”) Ian said it was their finale, then he was going to go die of throat cancer. Hopefully not, because I have GOT to see these guys again!

5:40pm: Went back to the Fort Stage to check on our soggy chairs and bags. Stephen & Damian Marley were still playing – much later than they were supposed to be, but everything on that stage was rain-delayed. They had the crowd up and dancing, but I confess I was preoccupied with drying out – although it was really fun to watch a bunch of older ladies playing the part of the dancing fools:)

6:00pm: The big finale, The Black Crowes. I love-Love-LOVE their studio music, but I confess I’ve been fairly disappointed seeing them live in the past (I’ve see them twice before). My previous experience was that they would noodle around on the guitar, extending each 3-4 minute studio song to a 10-15 minute opus. One of my bad experiences was a nearly two hour set consisting of seven songs. Yeeesh. Don’t get me wrong, I like some jam bands and guitar solos in general. But when you lose track of what song the band was playing out of sheer boredom, they’ve lost you. This set was almost the exact opposite – they came out with acoustic guitar for the first few songs, keeping it to the 3-4 minute limit. Good, I thought, maybe they’ve figured out the right stage formula. But it never really got any flavor to it, and I actually found myself wanting more electric guitar, god forbid. Chris Robinson has an amazing voice, but it just seems like they weren’t giving it an opportunity to shine. It sounded like there was a lot coming off the latest disc, Warpaint, like “Whoa Mule”. Although it’s a solid effort, it may be a bit on the slow side to showcase the band’s talents. I want to love every facet of these guys, but I just don’t get the live stuff…

All in all, a fantastic day – I just wish the rain hadn’t trapped us for so long. As usual, the most fun to be had was at the smaller stages, since they provide more intimate venues and have such great new talent - we've seen Old Crow Medicine Show, Hot Buttered Rum and Foghorn Stringband play the Waterside Stage in the past, and such an exciting way to be introduced to new music.

Coming up soon, I'm looking forward to seeing the Felice Brothers again, and as luck would have it they will be appearing at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA on Friday September 5th (for more info/tix go here). Hope to see you all there!