Live at Stubb’s
Jan.31,2015 • Austin,TX
Mountain Trout Photography
By: Katherine Sartain
The end of a dreary, slow, precipitous, day in Austin, Texas; the chance of a thunderstorm still looming close. Pair this with a sea of muddy, wet and eager music goers at Stubbs BBQ, and you get the wildly anticipated Austin stop to close out RRE’s first visit to Texas in 5 years. The Shook Twins of Portland, Oregon loosened up the audience with their quirky folk style from their latest album “What We Do.”
After the opener, the crowd greeted the 6-man string band like a long lost love. Set one kicked off with the harmonica and the rapid dynamics of “Cold Water” from the band’s inaugural album “The Black Bear Sessions,” fitting in ever so perfectly with the atmosphere of the wet evening. This segued into a more intimate ballad, “Grandfather Mountain,” during which Todd displays his purely natural lyrics while singing of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a deeply personal yet honest way. The energy was then resurged with the funky “Bread and Water,” pumping up the audience with the group’s rock & roll spirit that is not to be forgotten. The next tune, “Everything Comes Together,” renewed a lighter atmosphere to the scene and was paired with a light show that enriched the equally as beautiful lyrics. “All That’s Dead May Live Again” followed this up with the tune’s Rivendell-esque roller coaster ride of a jam. The first set highlight then slowly erupted with a “New Lee Highway Blues” into “Fiddlee” ride that was equal parts Andy acoustin guitar and mandolin solos split with deadly Carbone violin spotlights. It was challenging to tell who was more mesmerized by their playing, the Austin crowd or John Skehan playing next to them. The set break landed on a fantastic note.
The second set was a mix of face melting violin solos and subtle wisps of the flute and pennywhistle during the more serene songs on the menu. Starting off strong with “Storms” the next transition took us to “For Love.” They then took us back to the eerie woodwind place of the “All That’s Dead May Live Again”, floating nicely into “Chasin’ a Rainbow,” off the band’s 2014 release. “Stillwater Gateway” and “I am a Mess” closed the second set suavely with the range of John’s mandolin and the psychedelic ring of Andrew Altman’s electric bass skills.
The encore carried out the most heartfelt of performances with “Lovin’ You” and “One Night on the Road,” full of rock & roll power and the natural twang of Andy’s pedal steel. The crowd was left in a whirlwind of satisfaction and wanting more. Despite the drizzle of rain just hard enough to not be ignored, everyone at Stubbs on Saturday night was visibly enthralled to be exactly where he or she was for those few hours. The band made the mud-soaked outing worth everyone’s while, to say the least.
The set list as a whole was a whiplash between older and newer songs, directing the audience’s rhythm and dancing like puppeteers with their wide range of rhythm and spirit. One of Railroad Earth’s most unique aspects is their defiance to have their music labeled as a part of any one certain genre. We’re essentially playing rock on acoustic instruments,” violin/vocalist Tim Carbone explains on the band’s website*. These two playing styles so often seen as mutually exclusive are blended together to give life to this New Jersey string band. Songwriter/lead singer Todd Sheaffer suggests “a souped-up string band? I don’t know. I’m not good at this.” These guys have so much charisma when they play together that a textbook categorization would only strip them of their shining individualism. Watching each band member shuffle between two or three different string instruments throughout the duration of each set was like watching children in a toy store; their songs are carried out with expressions of pure uninhibited joy that is reflected directly in the audience’s enthusiasm.
By the end of the night the rain had subdued and the crowd had danced itself dry. After a two-song encore the band slipped off stage and their inaugural Stubbs appearance came to a rolling stop. By the end of the night, we all had unsalvageable mud stains on our shoes, dirty rain drops in our beer, and the highest hopes for the rest of the night after such a riveting second set and encore.
You can download and watch live performances on the band’s website and follow the second leg of their Winter Tour that kicks off next week in Ohio.
*Source: Railroadearth.com
Set 1: Cold Water
Grandfather Mountain
Bread and Water
Everything Comes Together
All That’s Dead May Live Again –> The Hunting Song –> Fisherman’s Blues
New Lee Highway Blues –>Fiddlee
Set 2:
Storms
For Love
The Forecast –>Tuba Mirum –>Chasin’ a Rainbow
Stillwater Getaway
I am a Mess
Encores:
Lovin’ You
One More Night on the Road
