It was officially Fall, and unofficially, Fall weather had also arrived. But for Point of the Bluff Vineyards in Hammondsport, NY on the shore of Keuka Lake, there is still time left for outdoor music. So it was Saturday, September 24 when they invited Shakey Graves and The Ballroom Thieves to perform.
The show got started with some rapid fire questioning from The Ballroom Thieves’ Martin Earley, “You guys wanna party? Do you have your wine? Should we start?” And start they did, just as they do on their new album, with the gently rocking “Worldender,” which included some nifty alternating “oh”s from Earley and bassist Caitlin Peters, creating an acoustically derived digital-sounding effect. They followed with another one off of Clouds, the short and punchy “In the Morning.”
The Ballroom Thieves weren’t just sporting a new album though. Last summer founding member Devin Mauch left the band and this summer Peters and Earley got married. In fact, this show was only their second as husband and wife. The lineup was rounded out by drummer and keys player Kevin Kennedy O’Connell, from not-too-far-off Rome, NY.
The trio found lots of space to explore, mixing up their sound with regularity during their 45 minute set. “Pendulum” and “Bees” saw Peters switching to cello and O’Connell switching to keys for a couple of finger-picked folk beauties. O’Connell left the stage completely for a spell of duo tunes, a cover of Jackson Frank’s “Blues Run the Game,” and “Borderline,” accentuating the couple’s stellar harmonies as they lovingly gazed into each other’s eyes. Then they closed on a trio of grittier rocking with the bluesy “Fistfight” and punchy “Wolf.”
Shakey Graves entered the stage solo, already plucking out some notes on his guitar, holding a glass of wine wearing a dapper brown suit. He climbed up on a riser at the back of the stage and started banging out a rhythm with foot pedals on a cajon and cymbal, playing “Nobody’s Fool.” Before “Square One,” Graves explained how he always wished he could tour the country playing music, and it happened. But then he found that he was traveling too much so he wished he could just pause it for a bit, and unfortunately for the world, that happened too. He said he was sorry though. Then he wished he could drink wine at the top of a hill overlooking a lake and play a show, and poof here he was.
The rest of his quintet arrive on stage, in matching suits, for “The Donor Blues.” Graves added a lot of emphasis to his music, through hand motions and asides sprinkled throughout the set. When he sang, “I got my gall from the boys back east” he added, “That’s you…” pointing out to the crowd. In “Business Lunch” and “Ready Or Not” his hands kept busy acting out various lines.
Like The Ballroom Thieves, Graves kept the set moving with good variety. “Family and Genus” tied together with “Kids These Days” through a short burst of hectic rock, while the latter kept it up with some hard rocking energy behind solid drumming. But then Graves was alone on the stage again, sitting on the riser and picking out a long intro to “Was Here” followed by “Pansy Waltz.”
When the band came back, they were all taking shots from a small jar of brown liquor handed up from someone in the audience. The band crowded around one mic to sing and clap their way through “Unlucky Sin,” their appropriate we’re-under-a-tent “church moment.” And that zoomed up to the off-kilter “Counting Sheep” which burst into an extended anthemic two-guitar outro. On the show-closing “Dearly Departed” the crowd was encouraged to clap along, and eventually would take over the singing duties in full, lifting the tent in voice and making Graves’ dreams come true.
Ballroom Thieves Setlist: Worldender, In the Morning, Pendulum, Bees, Blues Run the Game (Jackson C. Frank cover), Borderline, Fistfight, Anybody Else, Wolf
Shakey Graves Setlist: Nobody’s Fool, Square One, The Donor Blues, Business Lunch, Ready Or Not, Family and Genus > Kids These Days, Was Here, Pansy Waltz, Unlucky Sin, Counting Sheep, Century City, Dearly Departed E: Late July
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