Photo by WGK
The first rumblings came, as most rumblings nowadays do, through Facebook. A purposefully vague status update here, a suggestive comment there… something was clearly afoot in the Strangefolk community.
A few well-placed texts would bring back the news my husband and I (and thousands of others) had been waiting 12 years to hear: the original members of Strangefolk — Jon Trafton, Reid Genauer, Erik Glockler and Luke Smith — were going to play together again. The official announcement would come in the next couple of days (it did, along with the new Strangefolk Reunion Facebook page).
Having been relocated from Vermont out to Washington State when Microsoft recruited me five years ago, I had been decidedly out of the Strangefolk loop since then as trips to the west coast were not in the cards for “Newfolk”*. I was happy to find that out of sight was not out of mind; as word spread about the reunion, we were inundated with questions about whether or not we’d make the trip from the Seattle area back to New England for the shows. Given that our family is in the Boston area and our friends are spread out across the northeast, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take that long overdue vacation where we could see everyone we love over the course of two weeks; one on the road with Strangefolk, and one back home with the fam.
Wednesday, March 28th at The Brooklyn Bowl – Brooklyn, NY
Set I: Poland, Bus Driver, Valhalla, …As, Pawn, Chasing Away, Alaska, Stout-Hearted
Set II: Speculator (w/ Comes a Time lyrics), All the Same, Oxbow, Elixir, China Cat tease->Rather Go Fishin, I Tell Myself, So Far Gone, Westerly
Encore: Roads
Having never been to the Brooklyn Bowl before, I do have to take a minute to say how much I love this venue… what’s not to love about a place where you can see a show, bowl and get a fried chicken dinner? I was impressed with everything about it: the layout, the décor, the atmosphere — a great experience all around. If we lived within driving distance of it, I could absolutely see it quickly becoming our regular weekend hang out place. But I digress…
In the weeks leading up to the run, occasional check-ins on the new Strangefolk Reunion Facebook page would make it clear that there was one question that lingered for many fans: what does this reunion run mean? Is it just a shooting star moment in time that will mean little more than a collection of recordings and cherished memories, or could it be something more?
While I was tempted to ponder that little quandary myself, I knew it would be wasted energy until after the run was over; it still remained to be seen whether the magic was still there. 12 years is a long time and a lot has happened.
Would Jon still have those face-melting tension-release solos at the ready?
Would Reid still have both the pipes and stage presence he used to (AOD was good, but never lived up to the bar that had been set with Strangefolk for me)?
Could Erik still bust out those Beatle-esque harmonies?
Would Luke still be on top of those perfectly-placed signature fills and tasteful cymbal work that we all know and love so well?
I walked into the Brooklyn Bowl show making a conscious effort to not think about any of that. I just wanted to enjoy whatever we’d get for what it was without thinking about what I wanted it to be. You could say I was trying to keep my expectations low to avoid disappointment.
While the show was solid and the set list far better than I had hoped, I walked out with the feeling that the crowd’s energy just wasn’t high enough to kick the floodgates open. Some might have chalked it up to shaking off the rust after so much time had passed, and that’s probably true to a certain degree too, but I really felt like the show could have been better if the crowd had been better. Having been to over 300 Strangefolk shows (prior to becoming a responsible, “settled down” adult and parent), there isn’t a question in my mind that the band’s performance is directly tied to the crowd’s energy level. I’ve seen that energy/performance loop happen with other bands too, but to me, it always seemed especially pronounced with Strangefolk. That’s not to say the crowd’s energy was low — it wasn’t — but it wasn’t as high as I expected it to be for the first show of the run.
For me, “So Far Gone” was and continues to be Strangefolk’s bell weather song… if they can pull off a killer “So Far Gone,” then all is right with the world as far as I’m concerned. The one from the Brooklyn show was better than I had hoped for considering neither AOD nor “Newfolk” had ever touched it — I expected it to sound like a song that hadn’t been played in 12 years (there were some “Oldfolk” songs that each band continued to play, others that have lain dormant since the last time “Oldfolk” played them… So Far Gone was one of these).
I’m happy to report that it didn’t sound rusty at all. Perhaps not as adventurous as it had been back when they played like a well-oiled machine, but not at all lacking. It was much like a So Far Gone I’d expect to hear during a festival set: solid, but not as experimental as the ones you’d hear when it was their own show with a sold out audience full of confirmed ‘folk freaks. That’s not to say they disappoint during festival sets, but there’s a discernible difference in their playing when listening to a festival set where they’re trying to balance a good mix of their most well-loved songs with some of the jam vehicles that they could only take so far given the abbreviated length of time they have to work with.
Suffice it to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and was even a bit surprised at my own reaction to being there again, seeing a sight and hearing the sounds that played such a large and looming role in my life, once upon a time. Having broken down in tears when Jon joined Reid on stage at the State Theater for an acoustic duo opening set to an AOD show many moons ago, I expected a similar reaction that night in Brooklyn, but it didn’t come. I didn’t choke up, I didn’t shed even one tear… from the moment they took the stage, it felt like they hadn’t skipped a beat; as though we had just seen this same group of guys play a show like this only a few months ago. I was also relieved to hear that Reid’s voice was exactly the same as it had been. I had heard a few studio-produced AOD songs on Pandora that had me feeling some trepidation at the thought that it wasn’t just the production that made him sound so different from what I remembered (I actually had to go look at the computer to double check that it was his voice… there was enough familiar, but enough different to make me question it too).
All in all, I’m glad we made it to Brooklyn, but at the same time, I don’t think anyone who wasn’t able to make it missed out on anything monumental — the best was indeed yet to come.
Photo by WGK
Higher Ground – South Burlington, VT: March 29th & March 30th
March 29th
Set I: Lines & Circles (w/ Find the Cost of Freedom lyrics), Rachel, Walnut, Shift My Step, Fountain, Blue & Gray, Two Boys, Burned Down
Set II: Furnace, Sinner, What Say You, New Glock II, Whatever, Far From Yourself (started w/ just Reid and Jon, Erik and Luke rejoined after a few minutes), Cabin John, Utterly Addled, Neighbor, So Well
Encore: Things That Fly
March 30th
Set I: Dance, Who I Am, Sometimes, Faces, Otis, Take it Easy On Me -> Video Game -> Take It Easy On Me, Mama, Like You Anyway
Set II: Pooh Bear’s Mistress, Rather Go Fishin’, Filter, Great Long While, Crest of My Wing, Come On Down, Woman Child, Reuben’s Place (w/ Lay the Dust lyrics)
Encore: Roads, Juicy Fruit
After a quick trip to the local grocery store to load up on donations for Strangers Helping Strangers and a full dose of 5hr Energy to counteract the 4 hours of sleep I had the night before, we set out for Higher Ground.
The Vermont shows were, in a word, magical. I think a friend of ours summed it up perfectly when she said, “It takes me an hour to get to the bar because I have to stop to hug someone and chat with every step”. That’s what was missing from Brooklyn… there was clearly a large contingent of fans there, but it felt like it was lacking that crucial critical mass that kicks the energy into overdrive. Both nights in Vermont had that critical mass and the band’s performances absolutely reflected it.
These two Higher Ground shows provided a great overview of some of Strangefolk’s most well-loved classics. Worth noting is that there were two performances of Two Boys over the course of the run, a song that once was played very rarely despite its rampant popularity among fans. I don’t think it’s possible to listen to this song and not smile. Though once upon a time it reminded me of my own childhood running wild through the woods (I was a bit of a tomboy), it now makes me think of my son and his best friend. It’s lyric-listening moments like these when I’m reminded that I’m not the only one for whom the past 12 years have brought with it a lot of changes, having gone from being a semi-carefree road-tripping college student to becoming a wife, mother and career-minded worker bee. Even though the crowd conversations have shifted from bitching about unreasonable professors, difficult roommates and the challenges of our chosen majors to unreasonable bosses, difficult spouses and the challenges of adjusting to parenthood, if there’s one thing that these four shows did, it was prove that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The “Cabin John,” “Neighbor,” “So Well,” “Things That Fly,” “Like You Anyway,” “Pooh Bear’s Mistress,” “Crest of My Wing” and “Reuben’s Place” were highlights for me, though the “Reuben’s Place” especially so because I ventured up to the rail for the first time in over a decade.
While I was absolutely a rail rat back in the earliest days of my time as a diehard Strangefolk fan, I’m most often found hanging around the taper’s section nowadays as I created an AV geek monster when I bought my husband a DAT deck for our first Christmas together (he’s since moved on to some other gadgets with names consisting of number and letter combinations that only make sense to other gear geeks). I had almost forgotten how intense the energy is up there, but it didn’t take long for it to come flooding back.
It’s hard to put into words what these Vermont shows meant to me. Not only in terms of seeing Strangefolk back on their home turf again, but to see so many familiar faces and spend time with good friends we haven’t seen in five (or more) years was exactly what both my husband and I needed.
I’m trying not to turn this into a novel, so I’ll leave it at that for Vermont.
Photo by WGK
The State Theater – Portland, ME: March 31st
Set I: Reuben’s Place, All the Same, Valhalla, Hildegard, Whatever, Great Long While, Rather Go Fishin’, Dance
Set II: Oxbow, Westerly, Faces, Elixir, Blue & Gray, Two Boys, So Far Gone, Far From Yourself, Neighbor, So Well
Encore: Lines & Circles (w/ Swing Low, Sweet Chariot lyrics)
Like the Higher Ground shows, the State Theater show sold out superfast. I heard it through the grapevine that it sold out faster than Jane’s Addiction did when they played there. While it’s worth mentioning that Jon and Erik are Maine natives and both had plenty of friends and family in attendance, even stretching beyond that network of support, there is no question that Maine has always been one of the most rabid pockets of Strangefolk fandom in the country. Some would argue it even rivals the Vermont crowd where the band first started making a name for themselves in and around the UVM campus back in the early-to-mid 90s.
From the first note to the last, the energy level was through the roof at the State Theater. When thinking about what I wanted for a set opener in Brooklyn, “Reuben’s Place” had come to mind simply because I have a sentimental attachment to it; it was the first Strangefolk song I ever heard, courtesy of a random gift tape of Set II from Colby College 9/9/95 that was added to a Phish trade I had set up through AOL’s Phish Bowl chat room back in October of 1995 (Ryan with the DOB of 9/27/75… are you out there?). Not only would Luke’s thundering drums make a fitting return to the stage, the lyrics spoke to the atmosphere as well: “Excuse me, think I’ve been there once before… it seems so… so familiar don’t you know… “. When they opened the run with Poland instead, I wasn’t at all disappointed as that one has been tops on my list of songs I never get tired of (plus the “pony in Brooklyn” line was just as apropos). Looking back, I’m glad they didn’t open with Reuben’s Place in Brooklyn and instead saved it for the Portland opener… the crowd’s energy was there in spades, which made it that much more intense. Even after all this time has passed, it seems their ability to read and respond to the crowd is still absolutely there.
I haven’t listened back to the recordings yet, but I’m willing to bet you’ll be able to hear the crowd singing along to most songs during the show, especially so during “Reuben’s Place,” “Valhalla,” “Two Boys,” “So Far Gone,” “So Well” and “Lines & Circles.”
Near the end of the show, Jon took to the mic to thank everyone for coming out, express how overwhelmed they all have been with the whole experience and to let everyone know that they’d be set up at a table in the lobby to say hello to anyone who wanted to stop by. Considering how big the State Theater is (close to 2,000 I’d guesstimate) and the fact that they had a gaggle of friends and family waiting to see them post-show, I thought that was exceptionally generous of them and as such, is worth mentioning.
In summary, all those worried doubts I had in my mind about Jon’s solos, Reid’s voice and stage presence, Erik’s harmonies and Luke’s ability to both fill and expand the gaps were beyond dispelled over the course of the four shows, but especially so in Portland. The consensus was that each show was progressively better than the last and the experience of being there for not only the music, but to experience the family vibe of the Strangefolk community all together again made it all more than worth whatever hoops any of us had to jump through to make the trip.
And in the end…
We’re still lacking any official word on what the future might hold for Strangefolk, but if this run offered them any kind of glimpse into whether or not the fans had been patiently waiting for the original line up to get back together again, I don’t think there’s a doubt in anyone’s mind that the collective reply was a resounding, “YES!!!”. At present, they’re confirmed to appear at this year’s Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, CT on July 21st and at the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival (an event dubbed “Edge of Eden” as a nod to their annual Garden of Eden festival) at Waterfront Park in Burlington, VT on August 11th.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a question around what a permanent reunion might mean for “Newfolk”, there absolutely is and I think it’s safe to say that those who stuck around after Reid’s departure would love to hear that that incarnation of the band will carry on in some capacity, be it Dirigo or something else. Our love for “Oldfolk” doesn’t detract from how we feel about “Newfolk”. I’d imagine it’s a lot like having two kids: though each one is completely different, you don’t have any less love for one in comparison to the other.
We live in and of each other, we will remain… (and Pete Shapiro is a god among men! ).
*“Newfolk” and “Oldfolk” are monikers used by fans to distinguish the two versions of the band marked by the departure of founding member, Reid Genauer in September of 2000. With Reid (circa 1993-2000) is known as “Oldfolk”, with guitarist Luke “Patchen” Montgomery and pianist Don Scott (post-2000) is “Newfolk”.
