It has been over a year since my last real concert, something unheard of in Brewsterland. Sure, over the years my ability to go out and hear live music has decreased, but I’ve always managed to see a show at least once every few months. It was the summer of 2004 since I caught anything live or musical. Wow, just reading that makes me sad.
There is nothing like live music. With all the technical wizardry and beeps and gadgets they come up with in the studio, as amazing as some of it is, it just can’t beat the magic that comes from hearing a band playing live for all they’ve got. Standing in a crowd of people moving in one groove as the sounds pump right through your insides is nothing short of awesome.
I once saw Phil Lesh one hot Thursday afternoon in Oklahoma City. It was well over 100 degrees and I was standing in a patch of ground that had been baked into dust. I came home drenched in sweat, sunburnt beyond recognition and caked in dirt, dust. It was one of the best times of my life.
So, it was with great anticipation that I waited for Friday night to come and my chance to see Railroad Earth at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana.
The Bluebird is an old country bar that saw its best days around a couple of decades ago. It is old and worn and best seen through a smoky haze, something you don’t get anymore since the city has outlawed smoking pretty much everywhere.
The stage has grown since the last time I visited. A couple of years ago I saw Sam Bush and his band could barely fit on the tiny platform. I’ve always loved the stage, though. It stands about waist-high and is set up so that you can get within inches of the band.
I first came to know Railroad Earth, oddly enough, through a T-shirt of syndicated radio host, David Gans. After hearing him rave about them again on the Grateful Dead Hour I downloaded one of their shows on The Internet Archive and found there really was something to rave about. Those boys can cook!
They are a hard band to describe. They play bluegrass instruments (banjo, fiddle, dobro, mandolin, etc.) but have a drummer and everything is plugged in and amped up. You can hear influences from bluegrass to jazz to straight up rock and roll.
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