Live music is so good
Feb. 8th, 2025 08:49 pmYesterday, my sister took the train up to meet me and we went to a show. I was apprehensive, it was really windy and it would be a decent drive but since she made the commitment to go, I actually had to buck up and go.
The show started at 8pm and it was an hour and a half drive to Amherst. We got out the door in time and ordered food for pickup since the venue didn't have any food service. The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, the wind started dying down around the time we left, so while it was windy, it wasn't too bad and also we were traveling pretty much straight east for most of the drive.
We picked up the food, which was cheap and bland unfortunately but we ate in time for the show.
The first band was The Wild Shoats which were a newer band and you could tell from their performance that they were a little nervous. But the music they made was beautiful and amazing and as soon as they got off stage I bought their album from Bandcamp.
Then the feature was Big Richard. I found their music from a basket weaver that I follow on instagram and I'm always looking for cool bluegrass/Americana bands. They. Were. Amazing. omg. They were relaxed and wonderful on stage, the music they played was incredible and so varied. Three of the band members played multiple instruments while the fiddler only did that but she was so good. There was clapping along, there was whooping, the beat was so good. I love bluegrass so much for being music that I feel like I know in my bones.
The sang some songs off their new album which is excellent but also did two really really good covers. One of Millionaire by David Olney and they made sure to say it should be about the billionaires and the class struggle happening right now, regardless of who we voted for. It was so good. The second, they brought back some of the members of The Wild Shoats and became a metal band and did a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs, saying we need to stop the president who called for an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It was beautiful and discordant, I've never felt that song so hard before.
The whole thing was amazing and beautiful and there was such a variety of songs, cheerful and sweet and heavy and sad and angry. It was incredible music and incredible performers.
Their last song, they came off stage and into an open area of the seating and they and The Wild Shoats did an unplugged performance that was absolutely beautiful.
Big Richard is amazing.10/10 would really recommend seeing if they come to a place near you.
Then we went home. Me and Z were so hype about the performance that it got me most of the way home without getting too tired, but the last half hour was really hard. We got home around 12:15am, so dang late and I was in bed and zonked out by 12:30. I definitely wouldn't have gone by myself with such a late drive. We had such a good time that we vowed to go to more music shows together and that way she would make me go.
We slept in this morning and lazed around the house until I took Z to the train and dropped her off. I picked up more non-eth gas for the snowblower because we've got a doozy of a storm rolling in tonight.
The show started at 8pm and it was an hour and a half drive to Amherst. We got out the door in time and ordered food for pickup since the venue didn't have any food service. The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, the wind started dying down around the time we left, so while it was windy, it wasn't too bad and also we were traveling pretty much straight east for most of the drive.
We picked up the food, which was cheap and bland unfortunately but we ate in time for the show.
The first band was The Wild Shoats which were a newer band and you could tell from their performance that they were a little nervous. But the music they made was beautiful and amazing and as soon as they got off stage I bought their album from Bandcamp.
Then the feature was Big Richard. I found their music from a basket weaver that I follow on instagram and I'm always looking for cool bluegrass/Americana bands. They. Were. Amazing. omg. They were relaxed and wonderful on stage, the music they played was incredible and so varied. Three of the band members played multiple instruments while the fiddler only did that but she was so good. There was clapping along, there was whooping, the beat was so good. I love bluegrass so much for being music that I feel like I know in my bones.
The sang some songs off their new album which is excellent but also did two really really good covers. One of Millionaire by David Olney and they made sure to say it should be about the billionaires and the class struggle happening right now, regardless of who we voted for. It was so good. The second, they brought back some of the members of The Wild Shoats and became a metal band and did a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs, saying we need to stop the president who called for an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It was beautiful and discordant, I've never felt that song so hard before.
The whole thing was amazing and beautiful and there was such a variety of songs, cheerful and sweet and heavy and sad and angry. It was incredible music and incredible performers.
Their last song, they came off stage and into an open area of the seating and they and The Wild Shoats did an unplugged performance that was absolutely beautiful.
Big Richard is amazing.10/10 would really recommend seeing if they come to a place near you.
Then we went home. Me and Z were so hype about the performance that it got me most of the way home without getting too tired, but the last half hour was really hard. We got home around 12:15am, so dang late and I was in bed and zonked out by 12:30. I definitely wouldn't have gone by myself with such a late drive. We had such a good time that we vowed to go to more music shows together and that way she would make me go.
We slept in this morning and lazed around the house until I took Z to the train and dropped her off. I picked up more non-eth gas for the snowblower because we've got a doozy of a storm rolling in tonight.