Lovin' it Live!

Ok, so I love small-scale live music shows. Small venues where you can chat it up with the band/musician, drink a beer, and enjoy great live music. We haven't seen too much live music since moving to Lexington, but this past weekend made up for the previous deficit. On Friday night we saw "Trampled By Turtles" at Al's Bar. They are a young, flannel-shirt wearin' bluegrass band from Duluth. They would fit in perfectly in Fairbanks - we actually tried to talk the fiddler into touring up there. Anyways, I haven't heard anything like them - hardcore, crazy energetic bluegrass. Mandolin, Fiddle, Banjo, Guitar, Bass Guitar. They rock out like crazy, and the lead singer's sound works well with the instrumentals. Another unforgettable aspect of the concert was that a huge crew of folks from Harlan, KY came to town for it. Apparently a guy from Harlan got a mix-cd a few years ago with a TBT song. He loved it, ordered their cds, and now TBT has a huge following in Harlan. The Harlan-ites were wildly enthusiastic and definitely added to the energy of the show. Check out some videos of their live performances below....

Trampled By Turtles - Empire (Duluth)

Trampled By Turtles - November (Duluth)

On Saturday evening we went to the Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe in Frankfort. The "Clack Mountain String Band" was performing. They do a lot of old-timey bluegrass, and it was a perfect contrast to the show on Friday. After the previous high-energy night, the scene at this concert was very chill. The band members are based out of Morehead, but each grew up in different eastern KY communities. We had great sandwiches and beers and were also really excited about the coffee shop and Frankfort in general.

After a busy past week-and-a-half, this weekend was just what I needed to re-energize for the final push before the holidays.