I went to see Yonder Mountain String Band last night. Bad news. I did not enjoy their show very much at all. I enjoy their recorded work a lot, so I was very excited to finally see them play, after last year’s failed attempt. They are very different live. I usually love it when bands are really different live. As I found with Dr. Dog, The Blue Scholars, and others, having a different sound live can be refreshing and wonderful.
In the case of Yonder Mountain, though, I was disappointed. The show suffered from a few problems. The banjo was mixed way too quiet. The only time you ever could here the banjo was when everyone else on stage was playing quietly to showcase a banjo solo. The rest of the time, you could look at the guy playing, but you couldn’t hear the notes. The mandolin suffered from the opposite problem. It never got lost in the music because it was always mixed too loud. You could never forget it was there, because even when the guy was playing it quietly it was nearly as loud as whoever was soloing.
What made me suffer the most, though, was the soloing. Bluegrass is all about showing off your licks on your instrument, and so when you go to a bluegrass show, you expect some truly sweet solos. Yonder Mountain plays too many goddamn solos. Live, their music butted up against jam-band territory. Between every verse we had to hear first an entire run (or two) of the mandolin solo, then an entire run (or two) of the guitar solo. Occasionally, we’d be reminded that the banjo existed by listening to a run (or two) of banjo solo. Solos should be treats! They should be the icing on the cake, the impressive musicianship that showcases the individuals in a band. Near the end of the second half of the show, it was treat whenever they stopped soloing.
At the beginning of the show, I was enjoying the solos. The guitar player deserves recognition for being fast and never making a mistake. The banjo and mandolin, less so. Their solos suffered from biting off more than the musician could chew. This was less noticeable in the banjo, when his solos did come around, though, it was clear that his brain was ahead of his fingers. On one occasion, he fell painfully off beat, but the banjo was so barely noticeable, that it was difficult to tell.
Truly distracting was mandolin. To be fair, the mandolinist was quite good. He was doing some things with rhythmic chucking that I hadn’t heard before, and that was quite impressive. His solos, though, did not showcase this. His solos consisted of playing really loud and consistently botching notes. When he wasn’t trying to play more notes than his fingers could handle, he was nailing three. Just three. Over and over and over again, like a loop tape of the opening three notes of a rockabilly song.
This was okay for the first hour and a half of the show, but by three hours in, the solos were driving the show into being really, painfully boring. I left before the encore. At least, I assume there was an encore. I seemed to be the only person in the audience who thought it wasn’t the best show ever. I was surrounded by Phish phans in hemp necklaces, and guys in grateful dead shirts and blond dreadlocks. They were all having a blast. I will say this for Yonder Mountain, I have never seen a crowd at higher ground with a higher ratio of dancers to standers-still. So, maybe I just have bad taste.
If you want to see a great bluegrass show, go see Crooked Still, or Old Crow Medicine Show, or something. Skip Yonder Mountain String band. Spend the twenty-five dollars you were going to spend on their show on their records. Their records are good.
Sincerely,
Reverend Harris
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