The day after Thanksgiving brought out a North Colonie crowd to see North Country favorites Lucid and Albany’s fast risers Formula 5 on Black Friday. The crowd poured in throughout the night and writer Jenni Wilson checked out the night’s music.
Lucid
It could have been the fact that everyone was home for Thanksgiving break, or perhaps the high energy both Lucid and Formula 5 exude, but the Bayou Café was packed wall to wall throughout the entire night. Lucid played an energy driven set opening with “Can’t Get Me High,” and kept the crowd dancing throughout. This was only the second time I was able to see Lucid and I was once again very impressed. Lowell Wurster, in charge of percussion and vocals, laid down bluesy choruses with his raspy voice giving each song its own authenticity in the jamband community. This band has a professionalism that you do not often see in a younger band. They are fully accompanied by guitar, sax, keyboards, and various percussion instruments including bongos. The highlight of the night was definitely “Spliff Blues” and “Highest Vibration” which had the energy high throughout the bar. After the band packed up and left they made a trip out to Lake George to play a surprise show with Twiddle and Capital Zen, just further proving their dedication and love for the music they play in Upstate.
Formula 5
After missing them for the past few months, I finally got a chance to see Formula 5 after numerous friends telling me to GO SEE THIS BAND! and I picked the perfect night. Packed into the Bayou (a pleasant feeling once again), the four-piece band (interviewed by Jenni Wilson last week) opened up with a good starter in “Hot Box” followed by “Catch Me,” with guitarist Joe Davis very guitar happy and sounding a solid bit like Trey. “King Harvest,” with a slight twist, was a unique call and showed that this group is a true jamband, playing originals and covering the rarer songs, not “”The Weight” or “Brown Eyed Girl”. The more ambitious or rare the cover, the higher praise and respect you’ll gain from an audience. Speaking of that, I was blown away by Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” a solid cover with a nice jam in the middle. “Coming Home” featured Mike McDonald on keys, followed by “Mister Elixer” that was intensely extrapolated. Tuning up “The Music Never Stopped,” a cover debuted at Autumation in Lake George, had a little something extra in it and generated the crowd to dance, with many likely unknowing of the song’s Grateful Dead roots; it was a young crowd. “Goin’ Down,” a Freddie King song better known as the theme to Eastbound and Down preceded “3 Ring Circus,” a song off Formula 5’s upcoming debut album, slated for release in January of 2013. An encore of “Weekapaug Groove” and original “Movin’ On” capped off more than two hours of music that satiated the crowd after a full Thanksgiving night of family and food.
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