Brad Matthew

The Avett Brothers

The David Grisman Quintet

Ha Ha Tonka (photo: John Henry)

Saturday evening Chicago’s Congress Theater held host to the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival.  I was pretty curious how much of a festival atmosphere there would actually be considering the venue, but with the music starting at noon and going non-stop till 1 a.m., festival was a good label for the occasion.

I walked through the doors a bit after 6 p.m. and unfortunately only caught a few tunes of Majors Junction’s set.  This Chicago alt-country outfit has some great songwriting and is always a pleasure to catch live.  In between sets at the main stage there was a band set up on the side balcony.  Set changes were a bit stretched out, which slowed down the flow of the night at times, but the wait was well worth it.  Ha Ha Tonka hit the stage around 7 p.m. and plowed through a well received hour long set mixed of songs off their debut Buckle in the Bible Belt and new tunes they will be recording for their upcoming sophomore release on Bloodshot Records.  The new tunes lean more on the indie rock side rather than the foot stompin’, but the songs hit hard and there is still plenty of foot stompin’ to be had.  Really looking forward to hearing these tunes recorded.

The legendary mandolinist David Grisman, known for his days of jamming with Jerry Garcia, and his quintet were next to take the stage.  The level of musicianship on that stage was amazing!  All players were masters of their instrument, each of them trading off ripping solos, challenging each others abilities.  It takes a certain level of expertise to play Bluegrass the way these guys did.  Grisman seemed to be the main attraction of the night, but was not the one to steal the show.

Over the past year I have heard a tone of buzz about headliners The Avett Brothers and man did they live up to it.  These dapper North Carolina brothers play straight up Appalachian music, but with more attitude than the brattiest punk music, head banging and thrashing throughout their set.  Aside from playing guitar and banjo, each brother had some auxiliary percussion at their disposal, one with a high hat and one with a kick drum.  Throw in the stand up bass, some cello and some soaring southern harmonies and you’ve got yourself one of the rawest, most honest live bands around.  Please see these guys next time they through your town, you will not be disappointed, no matter what kind of music you are into.  You can check out their myspace profile to hear some tunes, but I would suggest checking out some live video first.

The whimsical Swedish songstress, Lykke Li, will be heading back to the US for a string of dates that start in DC at the end of January and wraps up in Austin, TX, February 19.  Her last stop through Chicago, she played a sold out show at Empy Bottle, which i unfortunately missed.  This time around she will be gracing the Metro stage, February 7.

A Swedish beauty I know got me hip to Ms. Li earlier this year and I have been enchanted by her music ever since.  Her debut album, Youth Novels, was released stateside in May and is quite delicious.  The first single of the album, “Little Bit”, is a sexy little number, which could probably be said for most of her music. Bon appetit!

01-31 Washington, DC - Sixth and I
02-02 New York, NY - Webster Hall
02-04 Montreal, Quebec - Club Soda
02-06 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix
02-07 Chicago, IL - Metro
02-08 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity
02-11 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore
02-12 Portland, OR - Hawthorne
02-13 Seattle, WA - Showbox
02-15 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
02-17 Pomona, CA - Glass House
02-18 Dallas, TX - Granada
02-19 Austin, TX - Antone’s

As mentioned in my fall concert preview, this Saturday, November 22, Ha Ha Tonka will be sharing the stage with The Avett Brothers, David Grisman and many others at the Congress Theater for the Chicago Bluegrass and Blue Festival.  This will surely be a rocking evening, so get some tickets and get ready to stomp some feet on Saturday.

Ha Ha Tonka’s drummer, Lennon Bone, was gracious enough to answer a few questions about the bands past, present and future…

Word on the street is that HHT is heading back into the studio to record the follow-up to Buckle in the Bible Belt. What is the writing process like for HHT and has that changed since the last album?

Such accusations are true. We are headed back into the studio. We go in on Sunday after the CBGB fest with producer Jason McEntire at Sawhorse Studio’s in St. Louis. As far as songwriting goes, writing for us has always been a very collaborative effort. I was still fairly new to the band when we started writing the songs for “Buckle” - so there was some trial and error things. It was a learning process, I think, for all of us to kind of figure out how to approach each other. Now days we lock ourselves in someone’s basement and just go at it for hours, hashing and re-hashing idea’s until we all come to the conclusion that the tune is at the best possible place it can be. Some tunes come as more complete idea’s - others start as just a drum groove, while others are just a few chords… so it’s been really interesting seeing where these new songs have ended up. This is the first time that we’ve had quite a few tunes that nobody has even heard yet, and our first opportunity to have a producer that’s been able to give input on the songs as they’re growing. So, it’s exciting to finally get them down. We’re hoping the new record has some surprises on it for everyone.

With 2008 coming to an end, what are some of the highlights from the past year?

Wow… this year has been a lot of fun for us. We started it off with the Sundance Film Festival in January. Then of course SXSW. That was a real treat for us, as it was the first time it felt like people were starting to talk about us a little. I know we have a long road to go, but it’s always neat seeing the progression. Then the biggest highlight for us, probably even in our entire career as a band was Lollapalooza. Just the status of that festival alone was enough to make it worth while. Turns out, we had a great show, and have seen a lot of people since that ended up catching or set, or hearing of us from there… so it was obviously the right move.

What does 2009 look like for HHT?

Well, the plan at this stage is to get the record done in time to release a 7″ vinyl around February. Then we’ll of course be hitting SXSW again in March, and have set a tentative release for the new record in May. We’re all hoping that with the new release this will be the most exciting year yet for HHT. We have a couple of tours in the works, but nothing that is solid enough to talk about just yet. In the music business, it seems as though nothing is set in stone until it’s actually finished. So, we try to be cautious about what we let out of the bag too soon.

The holidays are upon us and touring slows down this time of year. What do you look forward with your time off from the road?

Personally, I love touring, but I do love down time as well. Gives me actual time to practice, which I’m not so good at when we’re on the road. I spend a lot of time with me wife and dog, and also quite a bit of time tinkering with my own tunes. So, even when we’re off I spend as much time as I can doing music. Brett and I even have a cover band project that we’re trying to kick into gear here in the Kansas City area with our friend Kyle from Antenna’s Up, and Wayne from a band called the Abracadabra’s. It’s been a lot of fun playing music with some different folks, and it also helps get me geared up for touring again when that time come’s back around.

What’s the last album you listened to?  What albums have HHT been listening to on the road?

This could sound incredibly nerdy, but last album I listened to was portions of “Einstein on the Beach” by Phillip Glass. I’ve been given the opportunity to try my hand at instrumental composition for a friend of mine, so I’ve been diving into some minimalist artists, and Glass was one of them. It’s some supremely weird and hypnotising stuff. I highly suggest it. As for the band spins… we’ve been listening to Fleet Foxes a ton lately. Also the new Coldplay. You’ll appreciate this one - the new Kings of Leon… there’s a lot of stuff that gets pumped through those crappy van speakers… but more often than not you’ll catch us listening to NPR.

Seems like anything Jack White touches turns to gold.  The guy is a modern day rock god.  While Meg White is trying to get her shit together, Jack is off to the races with The Raconteurs, who have released a new video for “Old Enough” from their latest LP, Consolers of the Lonely.  Taking the directors post is rock photog Autumn de Wilde, who has worked with both The White Strips and Raconteurs.  If you haven’t seen The Raconteurs, please do.  I caught their set at Lollapalooza a few years back and they blew that festival up!  They had the balls to cover “Crazy” before Gnarls Barkley’s set that same day and managed to pull off a version that rivals the original.  Great job!

In other JW news, he recently collaborated with soul diva Alicia Keys on the theme song for the new Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace.  Daniel Craig is one bad mother!

One of my former addictions, Death Cab for Cutie, have a new video for one of the stronger songs, “No Sunlight”, off their most recent effort, Narrow Stairs.  If you missed their recent Midwest stops in Champaign and Chicago, you can catch them December 2 in Milwaukee at the Eagles Ballroom with Jack’s Mannequin and The Ting Tings.

GO VOTE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!  See ya’ll in Grant Park!