Four Schneiders: Ohio River Throwdown

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Ohio River Throwdown

Alex Ebert of ESMZ

You may remember that we started off the Summer of 2014 with a pilgrimage to Blossom Music Center to see Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and Jack Johnson in concert. Suffice it to say, it was nothing short of ABSOLUTELY FREAKING PERFECT that the ESMZ crew was coming back through town to help us end our summer the same way it started.

All told, it was a really cool mix of bands. We discovered some new favorites (add Hurray for the Riff Raff and Trampled by Turtles to your spotify STAT) and finally got to see some live acts that we've heard great things about!

Trampled by Turtles commanded a big stage with a small buy loyal cadre of fans there to get down! (Would love to see these guys in a small venue.)

Ever since my sister passed me a Trombone Shorty CD years ago, this guy has been on my list of folks to see. He did not disappoint! Totally took me back to our Robert Randolph & the Family band days.

It is impossible to put "Grace Potter" in a sentence that doesn't include "badass." Seriously, I spent at least half of her set daydreaming about what life would be like if I was born Grace Potter instead of Carri Johnson. (Spoiler alert, there would be a whole lot more hair swinging and guitar wailing.)

Even though we really enjoyed all the bands we saw, we were definitely there to see ESMZ. We had great PIT tickets---really great because this is a band that's fun to be up close & personal with. Even though Louie thought I was a big fat dork for wanting to, I made him head over to the mainstage early so we could watch them warm-up. (Thanks for indulging my inner groupie Lou.)

Because they were headlining and because they seem more comfortable on stage sans Jade than they did in May and because the audience was really there to see them and because ESMZ let the audience curate the set by yelling out songs to play, it was a really amazing show - from beginning to end!