Wreckless Eric, punk legend responsible for “The Whole Wide World,” played the Pilot Light a few years back and found humor in the fact that he was playing a small club date down in the Old City on the same night that his former label-mate Elvis Costello was up on Gay, headlining the Tennessee Theatre.
To paraphrase, Eric said Costello and his Tennessee Theatre audience were similar to the tuxedo-clad aristocrats in the ballroom deck of the Titanic, while he and his Old City crowd could be culturally akin to the giddy immigrants and working folks doing wild drunken jigs with Kate and Leo below deck.
On Friday, Day One of Rhythm ‘N’ Blooms 2016, the analogy was apt: the ship set sail, anchors aweigh, and the party below deck immediately bloomed with manic gypsy party fury.
Blank had a fortuitous start to the weekend, pulling up and luckily finding a perfect parking spot on the viaduct bridge on North Gay, directly across from the stairs leading down to the newly refurbished Jackson Terminal. As with Big Ears’ use of the newly opened Mill and Mine last weekend, Rhythm and Blooms is showcasing this beautiful new venue for one of its first events since it was refurbished from what served as long-term freight storage for years. Like the Mill and Mine, it has a wide, clean open-concept industrial feel, with exposed beams and duct work and large walls of glass windows interrupting the sanded brick.
Jackson Terminal serves as one bookend to the festival strip; on the other end of Jackson, just past Barley’s and under the interstate bridge is the Cripple Creek Stage area, what could be considered as Rhythm ‘N’ Blooms’ version of Centeroo, an enclosed spot with the massive main stage set-up and multiple beer and food vendors.
In between, there are intimate folk-based and other special interest shows at Boyd’s Jig and Reel and rowdy rock stuff at Pilot Light and Barley’s. In the Old City Courtyard, a large Silent Disco tent is available to those who want to get blissed out to some crispy grooves and politely dance the night away at a personally acceptable volume. Lox Salon is hosting several secret shows throughout the weekend (ooh la la).
Here’s the rundown on a few shows Blank caught on Friday:
The cello virtuoso has played classical concertos, sessions work on pop, hip-hop and metal albums –basically any genre you can think of, Dave Eggar has found a unique way to work his cello craftsmanship into it. We could list here all the big names he has played with and for over the years but his Wikipedia page can do that for us. Suffice it to say, Eggar has been around the block a few times, and he’s done some real refined stuff and some real balls-out wild, fun stuff. Friday’s frenetic jazz-funk-jam set with a pop-up group of ten or so other top-notch musicians was the latter. Eggar alternated between carving his cello on deep, bassy rock riffs and whispering magic over the strings with his bow on ethereal, heady improvisations. He sang, rapped and otherwise made a joyful noise with on-stage collaborators like fiddler Evie Andrus and tap dancer Andrew Nemr. He also had drums, bass, guitars, a trumpeter and even a guy on hammer dulcimer. The world music grooves put bluegrass, jazz, hip-hop, blues, rock and anything else that comes to mind in a big jubilant blender and shot it out over the enthusiastic crowd. The party continued out into the street with one of Eggar’s guest vocalists standing in the bed of a pickup truck by the curb, chanting and rapping down to a crowd on the sidewalk before the group dissipated into the night to bring the energy to other shows.
This Ann Arbor collective had a similarly bohemian/world-music-jam effect seen through a Celtic lens, led by siblings Erin and T.J. Zindle on fiddle and acoustic guitar, respectively, and vocals both. The siblings’ compact stature and bright-eyed, joyful charisma and bohemian dress, combined with the energetic yet mystical Celtic sounds…well, honestly, The Ragbirds felt like a band that would play under the aforementioned Titanic deck, or for the Lost Boys in Spielberg’s 1991 classic Hook, or as the house band in a wild hobbit party in an underground pub in The Shire.
Veteran Knoxville drum ace Matt Honkonen (Llama Train, Tenderhooks, RB Morris, Tim Lee 3) has made a name for himself over the past few years under his Paper Wires and Chambers monikers, and now, with his second full-length album, the self-produced Take Me Home, the budding sonic auteur has “come out” to the Knoxville scene under his own name with a spate of prominent recent shows at the top venues around town. With him, a crack-squad band of ace musicians including Christian Barnett of Blond Bones, Nathan Gilleran of Johnny Astro, Bob Deck of…everyone in Knoxville, and Cody Noll of Cody Noll Band, Nokatula and Joey English. The band was tight, dynamic and smooth in Friday’s intimate set at Boyd’s Jig and Reel, prefaced by a few rowdy poems from Bill Alexander, the Appalachian Hippie Poet. Noll and Barnett provided strong harmony vocals for Honkonen’s songs, and they played songs from both solo albums as well as covers of Paul Simon’s “Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes” and snippets of Lana Del Ray and other artists during jam breaks or bridges of Honkonen songs. Matt Honkonen continues to blossom as a solo artist and sonic auteur and Blank eagerly awaits to see what he does next.
Cozmo Holloway could not have been too worried when the Dirty Guv’nahs announced their break-up; he must have known he was sitting on the next big thing, a gold mine of talent and dynamics, with Electric Darling. Yasameen Hoffman-Shaheen, the group’s front woman, is pure charisma, a big, powerful soul voice and an expressive on-stage persona that commands attention. The band, Holloway on guitar duty with Kevin Hyfantis, Matt Nelson on bass, Luke Palmer Bowers on drums and Aaron Mastin on keys, is spot-on, playing polished grooves, heavy, full and dynamic. Holloway tears it up on solos without straying from the core song–not showing off or wading into jammy territory–just ripping out chugging riffs or wailing solos when the moment of crescendo in the song approaches. This band is made for big festivals like Bonnaroo so it will exciting to see what they do moving into the future.
When Rhythm & Blooms festival started it was primarily an Americana festival. Over the years as the Chyna Brackeen’s baby has grown, so has the diversity of the acts. Now Rhythm & Blooms features a wide variety of musical genres including hip-hop. Last night, Knoxville’s own J Bush and DJ Wigs put on a clinic of what hip-hop should be. Rocking the Pilot Light to a packed house, J Bush sent the day one crowd out on a high note. Kicking off things with a mini tribute to the great A Tribe Called Quest and the late Pfife Dawg, legendary DJ Wigs set the tone early for the rocking set. The crew had a most enjoyable time on stage as evident by their big grins and nods to the crowd throughout the blistering set. J Bush’s flow was impeccable and DJ Wigs sound and production was on point throughout. It’s always nice to see local talent showcased at these festivals, and when they’re on their game as J Bush and DJ Wigs were on Friday night, it makes you proud to call Knoxville home.
Day Two (Saturday): Blank Recommends…
-Jack Neely Musical History Walking Tour, leaving from Jig and Reel at 2pm
-Paleface, Pilot Light at 2:15pm
-Twin Limb, Jackson Terminal at 7:15pm
-Mute Math, Cripple Creek Stage, 9:15pm
-Midnight Merry G0-Round: David Bowie Edition with King Super and the Excellents, Hudson K and more, Jackson Avenue Terminal, 12:15 am
