Grace Potter & The Nocturnals/The Leaves/Jen Crowell & The Woods Vehicle
Palace Theater, Manchester, NH – 6/6 & Lebanon Opera House, Lebanon, NH – 6/7
David Schultz
Snippets from a nicely written review of the Concerts for the Cause shows back in June – to read the whole article at jambands.com - click here: http://www.jambands.com/ShowReviews/content_2008_06_30.01.phtml
It is well worth the read!
In an era where music gets separated and classified into highly specific genres, it’s slightly comical that a straightforward rock and roll band like Potter & The Nocturnals falls between categories. If they had come around a generation earlier, no such confusion would occur, as they would have fit in nicely with the earthy, rootsy rock bands of the time. In today’s world, people seem to struggle with how to describe a band that consists of a lovely and charming lead singer who plays a devastatingly gorgeous Hammond B3, a guitarist who can expertly deliver the blues as well as reach the melodious heights of guitar geniuses like Roy Buchanan, a bassist who can subtly work the power chords of classic rock without overwhelming the entire sound and a drummer who gets more out of his sparse drum set than most drummers do with a kit twice the size. However you want to characterize them, the New Hampshire shows left no doubt that by defying people’s expectations of what they should be, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals are one formidable, entertaining and exciting band.
Potter wasn’t the only strong female vocalist to perform at the New Hampshire shows. The Lebanon Opera House show featured a wonderful opening set by Jen Crowell & The Woods Vehicle, which on this night consisted of bassist Max Adam and Tournet. Seated across the front of the stage, Crowell led the trio through a folk-style throwdown, a milieu in which Tournet really flourishes. Crowell’s sultry, bedroom voice, similar in tone to Natalie Merchant’s, mesmerized the Opera House and her guitar exchanges with Tournet on the dreamy "Hey Dixon" and intoxicating "Marvelous" received great reactions from the crowd. For the final song, Tournet and Adam exited the stage, leaving Crowell to close the set on her own. A fitting end to a finely delivered performance, Crowell’s Cold Front became the must-have item for sale in the lobby during the set break. She wasn’t done though. Having Crowell back in the on-stage fold provided Potter & The Nocturnals with the inspiration to break out "Go Down Low" from Original Soul, with Crowell perching herself on a stool behind Potter’s keyboards to lend a hand on vocals.
On the previous night, The Leaves, who hail from the jamband haven of Burlington, Vermont greeted the Manchester crowd with a nicely-crafted set of hard-edged coffeehouse rock and roll. Aya Inoue, The Leaves’ dynamo of a singer, may be recognizable to anyone who caught Ramble Dove, Mike Gordon’s traveling honky-tonk road show a couple years back. Fronting The Leaves, Inoue shows she can do much more than sashay to a two-step beat, her stature belying the bold voice and powerful lyrics that explode from her tiny frame. Along with Steve Sharon (drums), Cory Beard (bass) and Matt Harpster (guitar), Inoue and The Leaves’ focused their set around newer material, on which Inoue showed glimpses of Gillian Welch’s feistiness, only playing the title track from Timid Line, their wonderful recently-released EP. Their smoldering set, perfectly matched the Town Hall atmosphere of the Palace Theater.
