Photo: Caulfied/WireImage(Dylan), Hill/FilmMagic(Coldplay), Sung-Jun/Getty(Strokes)
We are still recovering from our crazy Memorial Day weekend.
It truly began for us last Thursday, when the Smoking Section presented Dylan Fest '09, our annual tribute to Bob Dylan, who celebrated his 68th b-day over the weekend! The gig went down at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, and we had a ton of amazing guests, including Strokes' Fab Moretti - he played that sick guitar lick on the Hard Rain rendition of "Shelter From the Storm," and some mean congas on "Hurricane" -- and Nikolai Fraiture, who sang, strummed and blew harp on jazzed-up version of "When the Ship Comes In." The amazing Adam Green stepped up and sang "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," "It Takes A Lot To Laugh," and "Absolutely Sweet Marie." Classic.
The killer singer Grant Maxwell of the Morning Pages fronted the band (yep, the band was called the Smoking Section) on "Quinn the Eskimo" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere." Hymns, a killer rock band from NYC, sat in on "Most Likely You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine" (featuring the Teenage Prayers on horns) and "Like A Rolling Stone." Allison Pierce (of the Pierces) sang an awesome "Oh Sister," and joined Jersey-bred songwriter Nicole Atkins in backing up Yours Smokingly on "Where Are You Tonight?" Also, songwriter and violinist Tracy Bonham was like our very own Scarlet Rivera, shredding on "Hurricane," "Isis" and "Oh Sister." Our most special guest was Rob Stoner, Bob's original bassist who played on Desire, Budokan, Hard Rain and the Rolling Thunder Revue!!! Rob reprised his retarded performance on "Hurricane." It was truly mind-blowing!
This year Dylan Fest sold out in less than 24 hours. Next year we'll be playing a bigger venue for sure. In August, the SS will present the second annual Petty Fest, featuring another stellar cast. We're locking down a date in late August. This year Petty Fest will go down at the fuckin' Bowery Ballroom, NYC's greatest venue! We can't believe it! Look out for details.
On Friday night we all went to GuyStock -- a BBQ and beerfest thrown by Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman -- that is certain to become an annual tradition. GuyStock was legendary.
The Coldplay guys are so goddamn nice that they invited the SS to come to one of their gigs on the East Coast, so the following day we joined Fab and our other favorite drummer, Matt Romano (who was the bedrock at DylanFest), on a field trip to Connecticut!
We rolled with Coldplay to Teterboro Airport in Jersey, hopped on the band's (modest) private plane, sucked down a few Becks', and rolled over to the Comcast amphitheater to watch Coldplay's gig.
We've seen the band play about a dozen times over the years (mostly while we were doing a Coldplay cover story a few years back), but the quartet were truly incredible in Connecticut. We've never seen a band engage the crowd like they did. They were running around the whole venue, playing a few songs towards the back of the shell, and racing up to the lawn to give a special treat for those in the cheap seats.
(Thanks to Vicki and Franksy for hookin' it all up!)
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
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K. | June 1, 2009 12:36 AM
Why is there a picture of Julian... Was he there too?
RZ | May 31, 2009 12:51 PM
That "Where Are You Tonight" was stellar!
The Man | May 31, 2009 12:21 AM
You guys gotta stop talking about other bands on this blog. The only band that matters is The Strokes. You should be diverting all your attention to them as they make their new album. Because, basically, they are the shit, and every other band should bow down to them.
Pofrede | May 30, 2009 7:00 PM
Is this blog written by a 13 year old? Lester Bangs is rolling over in his grave. "Killer", "awesome", "retarded". No wonder everybody reads Pitchfork now.
Omvig | May 27, 2009 11:48 PM
You hooked it up big time. We saw the pics of the flight on Coldplay's twitter. Sounds like an incredible memorial day weekend. Congrats on Dylan fest Austin! Wish I could of have been there.
Mich1 | May 27, 2009 2:34 PM
Petty Fest? Who? When? Where? How? Need to know these asap.
Tyler | May 27, 2009 2:17 PM
How is Rob Stoner Dylan's original bassist?
He did some great playing in the mid to late 70's, but he was not Dylan's first bassist.