revolution rock : smash up your seats and rock to this brand new beat

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are well on their way to playing 180 shows this year. Quite the busy schedule for a band who initially imagined “slowing down a bit” from the rigorous pace of the last few years on the road. But what exactly does a typical road day look like for GPN these days?
(backstage and soundcheck photos by Adrien Broom, performance photos by David Barnum)

Thanks to the courtesy of everyone in the band and crew and especially Matt and Grace I was able to spend a full day with the band from arrival at the venue to heading out for the evening.

I arrived at Revolution Hall in Troy, NY at 4PM to see a Penske rental truck pulled up to the curb outside the club. The crew was just beginning to unload the gear as I parked a few spots up. Seeing no band members in site I took a quick walk over the bridge to look at the Hudson river as it winds it’s way down towards the New York harbor and spills into the Atlantic ocean.

When I returned to the club I spotted a bespeckled Grace Potter on the sidewalk in knee high red socks and black Chinese slippers watching as Matt guided the bands modest Ford Econoline Van, which belongs to tour manager Bobby Haight, into a spot on the curb. Greetings from Grace and Matt and I poke my head in and say hi to Bryan and Scott, who is reclining in the back reading the latest issue of Rolling Stone.

Grace and I check out the posters in the clubs window announcing upcoming shows. She mentions that she digs Delta Spirit, I point out the upcoming Marc Broussard show and we both love the look of Los Straitjackets who Grace refers to as “GWAR on a budget”. The festival circuit the band rolled through this summer has exposed them to many new live sounds and I get the sense that they’re listening to and absorbing lots of new musical information.

The overall feeling on the street as the band eases their bodies out of the van is one of general weariness. With over six hours until show time though everyone just wants to stretch out and relax. Scott, Matt and Bryan were on stage for over three hours the previous night in New Haven, CT as Blues and Lasers opened for GPN and a three and a half hour car ride in a cramped space doesn’t do much to ease the aches even though the afternoons viewing of “Top Gun” on the DVD player has Grace thinking that maybe the club should project the movie on the screen behind the stage during the show.

The Revolution Hall folks help facilitate a new, more secure, parking space in back of the club for the van and Grace and I walk around the corner as Matt drives to the new spot next to the back entrance.

Ah, now it’s time to enter that bastion of relaxation and luxury, the ‘Green Room’. In this case, the Green Room is down a steep stairway (watch your head) and consists of three mismatched tables, two beat up couches and two chairs. All of the furniture has certainly seen better days. A bathroom with a shower stall is connected to the space. Total size, about 10 x 15 feet. The food and drinks supplied seem like they could stock a typical collegiate party with the notable exception of copious amounts of Gatorade. The Makers Mark bottle (I imagine the one luxury in the contract) is derided for being “too small” and Scott makes a complicated physical joke about the relative “sadness” of having a too small bottle of Maker’s Mark in which the bottle is substituted for a penis but hey, without the visual, this is going nowhere. In general, the bands expectations are minimal – no preening diva complaints or requests from anyone. As long as there is somewhere to sit and stretch out everyone is happy. It’s time for checking e-mail and making phone calls and complaining about the funkiness of the free wireless access.

The clubs manager calls Grace upstairs to take a look at a new acquisition. It’s a framed portrait of Grace from the Russ Harrington/Harp Magazine photo shoot. This one is a new shot that we haven’t seen before and, when given the chance to critique it, Grace declares it “not porno” or at least “less porno” than the shot Harp originally published. Grace tells me that she was intimately involved in the shoot, the flag was soaked in tea for 10 days to color it and she arranged and ripped it until she was happy. I’ve never seen this image online so it seems like the only way to view it might be a trip to Revolution Hall.

Back downstairs it’s like any scene from your high school basement days. Drinks, snacks and chaos. Four band members, Nicole on merchandise, Justin, Charlie and Bobby along with Benny and Steve from Blues and Lasers all crowded into the same room. Right now the crew folks are mostly upstairs working on setup. Bobby is futzing with his new tour management software to do guest lists, print out traveling directions and communicate everything back to the management team. Jen Crowell, former GPN tour manager, pops in and proceeds to lust after the software as only a tour manager and road geek is able to. She brings pressed copies of her new CD to share and receives a hearty round of congratulations on the project.

Grace reads a line from the Kings Of Leon article in Rolling Stone that brings some good natured derision from Scott. “I’m sick of being big everywhere else,” – reads the quote which leads to “then get your little baby ass out on the road and play some fucking shows”The Kings of Leon discussion indirectly leads to the cover of “Arizona” that appears in the show later that evening.

Chuck pokes his head in to ask Matt to come upstairs to check the sound on the drums – the beginning of the sound check that will take almost an hour to complete. Soon the repetitive thwack, thwack, thwack starts drifting downstairs and eventually everyone makes their way up to the stage to participate. Tonight’s sound check takes almost an hour to complete, mostly due to a feedback problem with the mikes. The band plays two songs together that I have never heard before. Grace tells me later that they use sound check as a”mini practice session with all the weird shit we’re trying out”, only when they headline. As an opener, they rarely get more than 15 minutes or so to do sound checks so they tend to check things they plan on performing. Grace does another beautiful acoustic number by herself to finish the sound check that’s also new to me.

During the sound check Grace remembers that she put in table reservations for the restaurant next door at 6:45 and there is no way they’re going to be done with the check by then. I run over and ask the reservation person to hold them for us but I’m met with an officious busybody who is not interested in hearing the story. She puts us down for 7:30 and tells me that we CANNOT be late if we expect to eat. As 7:40 approaches and we’re finally leaving for the restaurant I tell Grace that she needs to charm the woman because I don’t think I can pull it off. We get there at 7:45 and even though our reservation has been canceled we get the next table available because Grace is doing the talking.

Matt who has to leave before the food arrives because he needs to sound check with Blues and Lasers joins us. For most of the band and crew grabbing dinner is a hit or miss proposition of timing so it’s take out for almost everyone else.

Over dinner a few well-wishers stop by and Grace and I talk about recording the next album. ˜We might end up in New York”, she says, “because of access to equipment and studios but mostly because producers and engineers want to work during the day then have their own life with their buddies in the evening. We’re the kind of band who would love to be secluded and lock ourselves up somewhere in the sticks to knock it out but when the label is footing a portion of the bill you gotta play along with it. Gotta pick the right battles to fight.” Further conversation turned to iPhones, Vermont, Obama, and more music.

By the time the bill gets paid and we made our way back to Revolution Hall Blues and Lasers were hitting the opening notes of “W.N.Y.G.D.” Scott, Matt and Bryan grabbed about half of a takeout dinner and Bobby and Nicole fixed sandwiches for themselves from the catering layout. Grace and I discuss eating on the road and how hard it is to both know what you’re missing and not have time to find good places to go.

Grace headed downstairs to get ready for her show and I found a spot in the middle of the floor to watch Blues and Lasers do their thing to an almost full crowd. The back and forth interplay of double guitar solos and double drum fills anchored by a powerful bass line is a strong tonic that the crowd is drinking in. You get a sense that they are amazed that an opening band is really this good – what a deal!

The floor at Revolution Hall has a perma-sticky coating from spilled beer and a stage that’s high enough for Grace to announce “no skirt tonight” in the disappointed tone of a woman who likes to dress for a show. Earlier, the club manager announced that they had sold over 300 tickets pre-sale and they expect a big walk up crowd since it’s a Saturday night.

What can I say about the GPN show? Any residual weariness is gone by the time the band hits the stage for this set list.

Sugar
Mastermind
Treat Me Right
Ain’t No Time
Meantime
Joey
Right Place, Wrong Time Ragged Company
Arizona
Ah Mary
Sweet Hands
Paint It Black
Paris
Watching You
******************************
Nothing But The Water
Oh Death -> Big White Gate
Mystery Train with Benny Yurco

What strikes me is there ability to bring something new to each song on the list. Even Nothing But The Water, a live staple if ever there was one, gets a keyboard changeup from Grace that gets commented on post set. The crowd is bigger = a near sellout = and I’m astounded by the number of folks in the audience who seem to know the words to many of the songs. Later, I wonder why I am astounded but when I mention it to Matt it seems to surprise him a bit as well.

Scott rips the strings from the Gibson SG at the end of “Watching You” in a fit of – what -“ passion? Afterwards he seems to not really know why he did it “ it just felt right and in the moment”.

Downstairs later the band spends time critiquing their own performances, alerting each other to issues and changes they interjected into their own instrumentation and getting feedback on choices. Everyone begs off going upstairs to sign merchandise based on exhaustion that might lead to crankiness. If you’ve met Grace and been charmed by her you should know that what you saw was real. She’s not interested in faking it for the benefit of others. Everyone gladly signs all the merchandise that is brought to them though and a few long time friends pop in to say congratulations on the show.

Grace pulls out the MacBook and plays a few new songs she is writing, recording directly to the computer via GarageBand in the preceding week. Matt has overdubbed drums but otherwise it’s a very low budget/portable way to share and work out songs. Later she’ll mix down very rough versions of ones she likes to MP3 to share with everyone else as the cycle of creation continues.

For tonight at least, things are winding down. It’s 2AM and the van is packed. They’ll drive about 10 miles to an inexpensive hotel and head off the next day for a show in Montreal. Grace mentions that the reporter for the local student newspaper that interviewed her about the upcoming show said that he might be “the only GPN fan at the school”. Not after tomorrow night I think to myself as I say goodbye and hit the road for home.