I must first commend the folks at 91.9 WFPK. Here it is late June, and with summer having technically just started last weekend, there has been a constant stream of amazing music coming through our beloved city. That being said tomorrow brings their Waterfront Wednesday series to the Big Four Lawn with another truly stellar lineup.
These United States open the show at 6 pm, and I just hope we do them justice by turning up in droves. I’m willing to wager, not that I condone gambling of course, that they’ll bring their finely tuned, grinding folky-rock to this rip as they have done in their roughly 800 shows over the past 5 or so years. With 4 studio albums, gigs with the likes of The Head and the Heart and Heartless Bastards (among present company), and a tenure at SXSW last year even WFPK is quoted as saying, “These United States are on the cusp of it all. My Morning Jacket status. Blog darlings. Tour heros. The whole nine yards.” BOOM!
Next would be The Walkmen. Having been through their ups and downs, they have taken to the road in support their new album ‘Heaven’. In their earlier days, about 10 years ago, they got bottled into the label of a ‘New York’ band, were accused of ripping of The Strokes, yet I still had the pleasure to catch both together in May of 2004 at Gillian’s (now Diamond’s) on Barret Ave. Now as my thousands of readers can attest, if you ‘know’ The Strokes, it doesn’t take a genius to realize you can’t tour with a band you ‘ripped off’. Julian Casablancas (Strokes’ frontman) is/was a studio perfectionist that such accusations of jacking someone’s sound certainly wouldn’t fly with such tour mates, let alone this unconscious music snob. They killed it then and 8 years later I can’t wait to hear how they’ve matured.
Closing out the show will be Trampled by Turtles. Having formed from punk and rock bands, with the goal to ‘play music with acoustic instruments as a break from our rock bands’, you are really in for a treat the way this bunch lays down a mix of bluegrass, folk, fused with their own sound. Their latest album, ‘Stars and Satellites’, is ‘result of us continuing the search for our own voice and a step in the growth of a band that, at the very least, still loves to play together.’ (Dave Simonett)
Be sure and stick around for the duration and revel in the presence of such thorough brilliance... limit your sitting around looking lost to in between sets, no outside alcohol, and please no face eating or bath salts (no really)!
Photo Credit: http://www.wfpk.org/waterfront-wednesday-june-2012/
