Yonder Mountain String Band performs at the Fillmore last week. Reverb file photo by Marla Keown.
concluded their three-night with a show that mixed new and old elements, and included several interesting cover tunes and a distinctly un-Yonder middle set after the traditional countdown to the New Year.
After opening the Fillmore show on Thursday with a fiery “Bolton Stretch,” from their first album, a loose jam quieted into a very mellow riff. With jam band shows, part of the fun is listening to the jams and trying to figure out where they are going, and the astute listener could pick up elements of the Grateful Dead’s “Reuben and Cherise” in the jam, especially on Dave Johnston’s banjo playing. Jeff Austin sung the ensuing “Reuben,” which tied nicely with the “painted mandolin” lines in the song.
Guest violin player Darol Anger again sat in on the whole show, and stepped up with wild playing on “Old Dangerfield.”
Much of the first set included material from the newest Yonder album “The Show,” including the very popish “Complicated,” sung by bassist Ben Kaufmann, and “Honestly,” which is one of the more interesting compositions on the new record, a two-part song with a relaxed groove on the first half and a faster closing section that showcases harmonies between guitarist Adam Aijala, Austin and Kaufmann.
The first set closed with Kaufmann’s ode to a power mad sheriff “On the Run,” which had a mid-song jam that led to a fierce “East Nasville Easter.” Austin ripped the jam into “East” off with a distortion pedal on the mandolin, making it sound very electric.
Yonder has never been afraid to do unique versions of rock songs, which in many ways puts them closer to new acoustic music than bluegrass. Set 2 kicked off with “Angel,” which led into the band’s take on the Talking Heads’ “Girlfriend is Better,” with Austin using his mandolin to mimic the vocal melody to great effect.
The countdown to New Year’s Eve was led by John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender on “Futurama,” who served as the emcee of the evening. During the ensuing toast, opening act Lee Boys, who had energized the crowd with the fierce funk blues of “Testify” earlier in the evening, came out and setup to sit down for a long jam that kicked off with several disco tunes, including “Good Times” and “Boogie Man,” the latter of which was sung by DiMaggio.
In 11 years of seeing Yonder Mountain play, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aijala strap on an electric guitar, but he did for this portion of the show, even using a wah pedal on a few songs, including Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and Parliament’s “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk),” which had the audience singing along. After Lee Boys left the stage, the second set ended with the bluegrassy “Casualty,” from the latest CD.
The three-song encore seemed to serve as a tribute to jamgrass pioneers Leftover Salmon, kicking off with John Hartford’s “Boogie,” which Salmon has long played, and ending with Left Hand String Band’s “Get Me Out of this City.”
Yonder has already announced that they won’t be doing New Year’s shows in Colorado for a while, so last night served as a fantastic close to their New Year’s shows here.
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band the defCATS.
