A mighty lineup of bluegrass giants brought out a crowd Wednesday night bigger than most Saturday night shows can manage. Yonder Mountain String Band headlined a trio of rock and bluegrass brilliance with Split Lip Rayfield and Mountain Sprout building up the massive audience beforehand. Hardcore fans old and new came out in droves and partied all through the night like there was no tomorrow.
Mountain Sprout began the show at 8 p.m. for a sizable group of listeners with even more fans outside the Crossroads' fence tail-gating in the parking lot. The Arkansas band has become a Kansas City and Lawrence regular, playing alongside our best local bands and rocking out at festivals all around the Midwest.
Split Lip Rayfield took the show to a new level with their heavy set of aggressive, energizing songs. The trio jammed with the vicious passion of a furious metal group, leading the crowd to a dance and sing along. By this point the Crossroads was virtually overflowing, with a hot, sweaty crowd packed at the front of the stage, both inside and outside of the VIP section. Perhaps the most thrilling part of this epic set was when Jeff Austin - the mandolin player from Yonder - joined Split Lip to play the fan-favorite "Used to Call Me Baby," which the audience enthusiastically sang along to.
Yonder Mountain String Band has shown Kansas a lot of love over the years. Their demonstrations of their unique style of rock'n'roll bluegrass have thrilled crowds for years. Last night was an affirmation of the band's legitimate fame, as they rocked out hardcore with two colossal sets. The four-some has all kinds of influences and experience in spades, which you can hear in their style of catchy, dance-able bluegrass. An enormous crowd roared with approval through both sets.
This October Yonder Mountain String Band's Harvest Music Festival will feature an unbelievable list of artist playing bluegrass of call kinds from the 13th to the 16th. If you can afford this festival and can make it down to the beautiful Mulberry Mountain in the Ozarks of Arkansas, it will be well worth it.
Now for Previews:
Tonight there is a FREE show at the Yacht Club, Tyler Gregory, Ashes to Immortality and Dumptruck Butterlips will be raging it for all acoustic bluegrass fans. This remarkable treat is something Lawrence music lovers cannot afford to miss! Be there tonight! Doors at 8:30 p.m.
Friday night The Brody Buster Band will be playing at the Jazzhaus, any fans of Blues rock should be there! The show starts at 10 p.m.
Saturday the 20th, The Bottleneck will host the "Foxy By Proxy Burlesque Revue" Carnival Show with The Spook Lights! The Spook Lights, Lawrence's own rockabilly surfer-rock garage band will rage along with games prizes, a freak show, a kissing booth, fortune teller, face painting and more. Lawrence's local troupe the Burlesque Beauties will be making a circus show out of the Bottleneck. This is sure to be a spectacle of wild proportions, so be there! Tickets are just $7! Doors open at 8 p.m.
That same night Checkered Beat will be jammin' reggae and ska at the Jazzhaus. Doors open at 10 p.m.
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