(image: Black Flag in 1985)
By Mike Stampalia.
60 years ago: Ian & Sylvia @ Berkshire Music Barn
There was a hint Saturday that the Tysons’ performance lacked the force it had a year ago, and that their music was beginning to wear a little thin. Perhaps they have been with the same tunes a bit too long, but the hint probably was not evident to listeners who hadn’t heard them before.
– The Springfield Republican
40 years ago: Black Flag / Saint Vitus / Dog @ Bennington Armory
30 years ago: Maura O’Connell / Chris Smither @ Washington Park
Dressed in a floor-length black gown with her upswept mass of reddish-blonde curls surrounding her face like a halo, she also provided something of a master class on the very best contemporary American songwriters, too, delivering a compassionate new John Gorka tune, the deep, dark drama of Shawn Colvin’s “Shotgun Down the Avalanche” and the zesty bounce of Cheryl Wheeler’s “Summerfly.” “The theme of our show tonight is positive love songs,” O’Connell confided, but she was equally as mesmerizing with the whole spectrum of subtle shades of emotion.
– Greg Haymes for the Times Union
30 years ago: Mary Chapin Carpenter / The Mavericks @ Tanglewood
What the crowd didn’t hear, for the most part, was any real country music, at least during Carpenter’s set. Instead, the singer-songwriter performed her well-crafted brand of mainstream pop-folk, which was occasionally peppered with some country, blues, and R&B like so much spice from the rack.
– Seth Rogovoy for the Berkshire Eagle
20 years ago: We almost got Trey Anastasio / Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals / Jurassic 5 / The Black Keys / Donavon Frankenreiter @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center, but the whole tour was canceled due to poor ticket sales.
10 years ago: The Lone Bellow @ The Egg (Swyer Theatre)
Midway through the show, the Brooklyn-based band reverted to the trio format, stepped off stage and walked halfway up the center aisle to launch into a spine-tingling rendition of the gospelesque “Watch Over Us,” with Elmquist taking over the lead vocal chores with excellent results.
– Greg Haymes for Nippertown
1 year ago: Fallujah / Persefone / Vulvodynia / Dawn of Ouroboros / Divine Incarnation @ Empire Underground
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