Review: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals St. Michaels College Spring Concert

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Ross Sports Center, St. Michael's College, Colchester VT

April 2, 2011 Spring Concert

Barefoot Truth opened

By Nancy Nutile-McMenemy

In a little advertised, "secret" show, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, returned to their home state of Vermont to perform at St. Michael's College, home of the Purple Knights, for St. Mike's Spring Concert. Rumor has it that the show did sell out late last week as information about the show started to leak into print and radio media. Those in the know that weren't St. Mike's staff, faculty or students, had heard about the show early in March and waited patiently for the tickets to go on sale to the general public on or about March 10. There was buzz for about a month on the internet but no official announcement was put forth.

After being told by security, which was tighter than the TSA, that no bags of any kind would be allowed into the gym along with no food, beverages or gum, folks that had patiently waited in line to enter were told to empty their pockets, security gave a cursory glance then OK you can enter. WTF

 The Nocs took the stage about 9:30 pm and played for two hours. They opened with "Mastermind", "Only Love", "Low Road", "Joey", "Goodbye Kiss" and "Hot Summer Night". Grace told the crowd that "Now that it's hot in here..." and went right into "Oasis", "Colors" and "222" with a great beat being kept by Matt Burr on drums. They moved on to "That Phone", which I'm sure many in the crowd, a mix of students and general public will be downloading as a ring tone for their cell phones.

Burr and Catherine Popper left the stage for the acoustic song performed by Scott Tournet, Potter and Benny Yurco on acoustic guitars. As Burr and Popper were leaving, Potter told the crowd that they were going off stage to "touch each other" and she broke into a quick "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls, "When I think about you, I touch myself"

 Once the acoustic guitars were strapped on Tournet, Potter and Yurco treated the crowd to "Treat Me Right" at the end of the song Burr and Popper rejoined and the Nocs played their rendition of the classic Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."

"Tiny Light was up next followed by "Glory Box" a Portishead song," "Some Kind of Ride" and "Nothing But the Water" and if you check the set list  sheet that Potter posted on Plixi.com after the show, the Nocs wove in a little nostalgia playing some of  PHISH's "Tweezer Teaser" as a tribute to when PHISH played St. Mike's in 1992. (You can download that PHISH concert here.)

The band returned for encores at 11:20 and after Potter asked the crowd if they wanted some medicine, "it's cold and flu season in Vermont, everybody needs a little medicine" the band ripped into "Medicine" which included their now famous five-way drum solo.

The show was closed with "Paris." The crowd had a special treat as Popper handed the mic, with stand, to Scott Tournet's father who belted out, on cue "Ooooh la, la!" Popper proceeded to laugh her bass off!

Potter was behind the Hammond B3 for most of this show, very little "flying V" guitars for her tonight but I don't think the crowd cared, they were just happy to be in the Sports Center watching a local band, maybe for the last time in a small venue, before the Nocturnals start playing arenas and stadiums.
Setlist:
Mastermind
Only Love
Low Road
Joey
Goodbye Kiss
Hot Summer Night
Oasis
Colors
222
That Phone
Treat Me Right (acoustic)
White Rabbit
Tiny Light
Glory Box (Portishead)
Some Kind of Ride
Nothing but the Water (Tweezer Teaser-PHISH)
Encores:
Medicine
Paris

Barefoot Truth opened for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals will be announcing the Burlington Waterfront show plans soon according to Tweets put out by Potter, you can follow along at @gracepotter

The band headlines The Bank of America Pavilion Boston MA, August 20 TICKETS.

More Photos by Nanci images of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Please excuse the quality of the images I only had my point and shoot not my Nikon D300s

Copyright ©2011 Nancy Nutile-McMenemy

www.photosbynanci.com