I know many of you have been there. You’re looking down the Marquette Music Scene Festival Report, and you see all these bands coming to the U.P. You know there are people excited for them, but this isn’t what’s played on the radio. They may very well be a style you’re familiar with and enjoy, but there is just so much music out there you can’t find everything.
Well, don’t feel bad. Even as the kind of folks with access to early releases and promotional folk all over our e-mail boxes have a hard time keeping up. However, we know we have more time (maybe more “opportunity” than time) than the average folk to filter through the legions of artists and new releases.
So, who is, Damn Tall Buildings who will be headline slot swapping on the Hiawatha Music Fest Main Stage on Saturday & Sunday night?
Well, this Brooklyn based trio, yes I said Brooklyn, NY will knock your socks off with their combination of bluegrass, blues, swing and old time music with some East Coast grit and maybe even a little punk influence. Okay, fine, like many New Yorkers they’re transplants who’ve made their way in the city with Avery Bollata (Violin) from Bozeman, Guitar/Banjo picker Max Capistran from New Hampshire, and Sasha Dubyk (Bass) hails from Philly, so this is still a roots band without what many would consider a traditional upbringing for this style of music.
Honestly, this is just a cool band. The kind of band that could play the dinner music, ramp it up for a party, or keep ya going in the after party, for fans of all kinds of roots music.
The playlist we’ve put together covers their fun catalog of two full lengths and one EP, with. Starting off with just a quick lyrical message, because Damn Tall Buildings doesn’t “Mess Around,” it then rolls into the first single from, the mostly crowd-funded, “Sleeping Dogs” dropping later this year with “Cold Rain,” followed by a solid mix of mid to faster paced diverse bluegrass tracks including, the timely for this playlist, “Late July,” a blusier, lyrically edgier track with “Cocain’s Gonna Kill Me,” “Honey I’m Coming Home,” and a slightly more epic “Ballad of Nigel Williams.”
This leads into “Buddy’s Wild Ride,” which for this playlist works as a blazing instrumental interlude before closing out with a couple tracks from each of their full lengths, again with a focus on mid to faster paced songs, closing out with “Nobody’s Business” which really shows this band is both serious and having A LOT of fun doing what they’re doing.
Though we don’t have anyone fully covering Hiawatha this year, we’re definitely thinking we may have to stroll in when the gates drop, as Damn Tall Buildings plays both Saturday at 10:35 before Cajun ramblers The Revelers, and close out the festival at 9pm on Sunday.
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