The Future Of Cosmic Vibes

Hello friends,

Thank you for reading and becoming a fan of The Cosmic Vibes Blog. Many of your comments, emails and feedback out in the field have inspired and driven me to continue on this journey. I've gone from writing the blog, to photography, now video and lately providing support for local and national live music, venues, and festivals through Twitter, Facebook and You Tube. All of the work done here has paid off in ways that I never thought possible. It has allowed me to obtain all access media passes at concerts and festivals, meet cool people from bands, meet fans that have the same passion for seeing and documenting the experience of live music. Most of all it has allowed me to help promote fellow musicians and artists, which is what gives me the most satisfaction out of this project. Now it's to the point where I think of it and treat it as a business.
The future of Cosmic Vibes is going to focus on bringing the concert experience home to the fans. Providing fans with one place to go for an events calendar, pictures and videos from shows, links to local DC/Baltimore bands, music venues and festivals. The Blogger format is no longer the easiest and most effective way for me to deliver those things to the reader. For the past 6 months I have been building a new site that can accomplish all of those goals without the fan leaving the site to go find video or photos from events. The new site will eventually allow other fans to contribute their reviews, photos and videos from their experience at shows. The site is now up and running. I still have work to do as it will always be a work in progress, however it is ready and loaded with photos, videos, concert calendar, Live Music Archives widget, and blog page for reviews.

From now on I will be posting everything over at Cosmic Vibes Live. I hope you will join me on my new journey and thank you for joining me here at The Cosmic Vibes Blog.

The Infamous Stringdusters: State Theatre Falls Church VA.

The Infamous Stringdusters and Trampled By Turtles brought their Fly Palomino Tour to The State Theatre in Falls Church Friday night 11/12/10. With many choices of great music in the DC metro on this Friday they managed to sell out The State. Believe me it was a great night of music right here in Falls Church VA. A long line in front of the venue left fans waiting outside to miss some of the super fast paced, progressive bluegrass of Trampled By Turtles. They literally wail on their instruments. The banjo player strums his banjo like it's a guitar. I heard a lot of people in the crowd saying they had never heard of this band. Who are these guys they rock?  How do they have so much energy? How do they play their instruments so fast? All I can say is WOW. This band was awesome. They brought so much energy into the room and prepped the crowd for The Dusters. I am sorry I missed them at Del Fest but it appears they have blown up since, and the fans are digging them. Here is a video of one of the performances by TBT @ The State on CosmicVibesLive you tube channel.

After the crowd was well warmed up from TBT, The Infamous Stringdusters took the stage around 10 pm kickin it off with Fork In The Road, and keeping that face paced energy going with the fiddle tune Y2K. After God's country the boys thanked TBT saying "we didn't know these guys before but we're in the midst of fifteen shows with them and every night they just keep blowing our minds, we love it. We love em so much we're gonna have them at The Festy next year." "Was anyone at The Festy? Well if you weren't at The Festy ask one of those people near you screaming about it. Or maybe they don't want you to know".
The Festy was an absolutely amazing experience and you should go next year if you love bluegrass, mountains, and people who love music. We'll be there again for sure! This band's sound and energy continues to improve every time I see them. Here is some video footage from the next song Getting Down The Road This is where they really started getting into the groove. The night continued to get better and more intenese as they jammed out Black Rock, Hit Parade of Love, When Silence is The Lonely Sound>Rain> and back into Silence. Aside from being on that stage, it doesn't get better than a watching bunch of guys on stage having fun playing music. You can see it in their faces that they are just having a blast.  It provides an even better experience for the fan. I know it does for me at least.
Next up was "High On A Mountain Top" a tune written by theirs and everybody's bluegrass hero Del McCoury, then ripping into tune after tune through a 18 song set. Ending the show with amazing encore performance by unplugging their instruments, getting out on the floor and doing an acoustic version of "The Weight" by The Band with all of the fans singing back up. There is no better way to connect with the fans then to let them be a part of the show. This part was a lot of fun, and looking back at the video it's definitely one of those give you the chills moments.

Check out the encore performance of The Weight on CosmicVibesLive

Below are links to audio recordings of both ISD(setlist provided) and TBT at The State. Audio provided by Josh Ungar. Thank you tapers for keeping the shows alive. Thanks also to Christina for figuring out the setlist.

Infamous Stringdusters on Archives

Trampled By Turtles on Archives

 For photos from the TBT/Stringdusters show @ The State click the links below.

The Infamous Stringdusters

Trampled By Turtles

Music and Whiskey at The Whiskey In Annapolis

The Whiskey in Annapolis held it's Whiskey Rebellion celebration last Saturday with great music and party goers in 18th century garb. Along with plenty of top shelf whiskey being doled out by folks that could tell you anything you wanted to know about whiskey, it's history and the rebellion.

The music consisted of solo acts, and duets on the downstairs stage. Full bands of a few different genre on the main stage up stairs. The sets were staggered so that when one act would finish downstairs the fans would be advised to head upstairs for the next band. The Whiskey a very spacious and accommodating venue for patrons and musicians alike. A very well run establishment I must say.

The music kicked off at 4pm on the downstairs stage to a pretty decent size mid afternoon crowd with Ace Elijah. The music was continuous from then until close. I can only report on what I saw and here is what I saw

Moonliscious DC area Funk/Rock/Jam band started it off on the upstairs stage with a forty five minute funky original set. Followed by Maybe Not Even a blues/rock band out of Annapolis MD. I really dug this bands sound, their choices for covers as well as their originals. They were followed by Small Targets out of Philadelphia. The music continued on downstairs with the beautiful voice and guitar playing of Christie Lenee. At 9:10 pm the much anticipated arrival of the amazing bluegrass band The Whiskey Rebellion on the upstairs stage. The high energy quartet went off the rails with Ozzy, Ran like hell with Pink Floyd, and went down to Deep Ellum for the blues. They performed some of their original numbers as well for a solid seventy five minute bluegrass set in front of a whiskey energized audience. The Cheaters rock band of the mid atlantic region continued the energy with some high energy original rock n roll. Finishing off the night to close out the party on the main stage also from Annapolis Sweet Leda. The night got too late for me to stick around for them but I heard they were great. The whole whiskey event was a lot of fun and it's a great venue. So get on down to The Whiskey next time you visit Annapolis. As they're known for showing off and supporting some of the best local bands of the Mid Atlantic region.

Thank you to Christina for organizing this great event and congrats to a job well done, also to The Whiskey for putting on the event, sound man Ruckus for all of your help with the recordings and making sure the sound was great all day, also to the great staff and all of the great musicians who participated in the event. It was an awesome day of music, fun and meeting new friends. I hope we can do it again next year.

Click on the links below to see photo footage from each of the bands on the upstairs stage at The Whiskey Rebellion. Also stay tuned for video footage from the bands at CosmicVibesLive you tube channel coming soon.

Moonliscious

Maybe Not Even

Small Targets

The Whiskey Rebellion

The Cheaters