Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Turner Hall Milwaukee, Wisconsin January 15, 2011...
What a Show!!
As Bill and I mentioned before, Jamie, Bill and I took up our standing positions dead center with Grace’s mic stand right in front of us. The opening band which was called “Chamberlin” where actually quite good. I didn’t get a chance to record any of their songs, but did take several pictures of them. Also, you can get a feel for their music from some videos that are posted on their site here: http://www.chamberlinband.com/info/
With the change between bands, you could feel the apprehension in the crowd for what we were about to see. Of course, the people gathered for the show were already on pins and needles because the Packers/Falcons game was well underway. And then, to the sounds of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals took the stage. The crowd let loose a tremendous roar releasing some of their excitement all at once. And then, there she was, Grace Potter in the shortest, prettiest dress you can imagine, with high, high heeled platform shoes on strutting her stuff onto the stage. At first I thought Grace was maybe going “Commando” under the dress. That’s when I just about fainted thinking, how am I going to watch this show? Thank goodness though, Grace did have a garment on underneath her dress.
Their first song of the night was “Medicine” and I was fortunate enough to catch that song and their entrance onto the stage on video. My impressions of Grace and her band immediately reminded me of an early Tina Turner, where the rule of thumb for their shows was fantastic, high paced music played with reckless abandon and that is just what these fine people did for us. All of the guys were dressed in suit coats and had a feel of a very professional band. And Catherine “Cat” was dressed in a short skirt with black nylons. I ask you, is there anything sexier than a tall, thin, lovely looking women, finely dressed with high heel leather boots on while playing a fantastic bass? I think not! 
Sorry BJJ. 
The two men sharing guitar leads and rhythm were Scott Tournet and Benny Yurco and both are excellent guitarists who share backing vocals with bass player Catherine “Cat” Popper. Scott seems to be Grace’s right hand man and actually stands to her right. Benny is a wild man on stage and about the only times he’s not really rocking out is when he’s either playing acoustic guitar or singing backup. On drums is another great drummer by the name of Matt Burr. I never thought I’d see another drummer who could smile more than Bogie did, but Matt does. Wearing his sunglasses and pounding away on the drums, most of the time he has a very broad smile on his face and like the rest of the band, thoroughly enjoys what he is doing!
The show was really broken down into three sets even though, there was no break in the action. The opening part of the show featured the band playing many of their hits and rockin’ Turner Hall hard. Then came the shorter acoustic set with Grace, Scott and Benny playing together pretty much alone. This is when you could really appreciate Grace’s beautiful voice. She also shows more of her guitar skills on acoustic as compared to when she’s playing her Gibson Flying V in which she normally just plays power chords. However, Grace’s skills on organ are undeniable and she plays it like as if trying to rip the keys from their mounts. There was also one song during which Grace sang alone all by herself and accompanied only by her tambourine. I must say, that was simply beautiful.
After the acoustic set and with the announcement from Grace that the Packers had won their playoff game, it was time for the band and crowd to get down and dirty in their third set. Oh man, can you say sexuality was on display in the form of music? With each song the band took the crowd, now hot and sweaty, higher and higher. Of course, this was during the time they played “Paris” to the screams and shouts of the crowd. Sometime during the last few songs of the night, Grace sat down on the drum stand and removed her shoes. I then could see that Grace had no nylons on at all and that the perfection in her legs was all natural. Sorry people, but I am a leg man and I haven’t seen many gams like Grace’s in my life! In addition, one rather jubilant man wearing a Clay Mathews Green Bay Packer jersey jumped up on stage, removed his jersey and gave it to Grace. Grace in turn held it up to show everyone and then tied it to her mic stand. The jubilant man was then ushered topless off the stage. My hopes is that he had another shirt somewhere as it was a quite cold Wisconsin night this past Saturday. Apparently, there is some sort of friendship between Clay and Grace.
Grace actually posted the set list prior to the show via her Twitter account. Here’s that picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8384830@N04/5365696016/
That’s right, there were 18 songs and I really lost track of exactly how long they played. I would guess somewhere around 2 to 2 ½ hours of non-stop fun!
Here’s the two videos I was able to capture before the video police shut me down:
“Medicine” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrlIpvIz0sk
“Oasis” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg-w6LoaRhI
Sorry, they stopped me short of the ending of “Oasis”.
And the pictures from the night which I left in raw form. Yes, many of them are a bit blurry, but I think it shows the movement of this band and their high paced energy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8384830@N0 … 839695890/
And of course, my favorite picture of Grace from the night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8384830@N0 … 839695890/
My, oh my, what a talented, young woman! 
Roy
Joe is the Best!
