the hum / By Bob Doran

Crawling

The Fall Crawl plus too many other music fests, a touch of classical and a rockin’ reading

(Sept. 9, 2010)  They call it the Fall Crawl. It’s another in what’s become a seasonal series of benefits highlighting the local music scene. Scott Carlson of Humboldt Brews serves as spearhead — he started with Mad River Summerfest in 2009, followed by Winterfest, a multi-venue bash in Arcata. Now after a second successful Summerfest, he’s taking on Autumn.

Friday’s Crawl is basically a fine-tuned version of Winterfest, a music marathon with what just seemed to be too many bands stretched over too many hours. 

Magnum PHOTO BY BOB DORAN

GALLERY >

This time out it’s spread out more beginning at the Jambalaya at the reasonable hour of 7:45 p.m. (while Arts! Arcata is still underway). And it starts on a high note with a revised Huckleberry Flint, different, but not totally: Dustin Taylor and Adam Dick are still out front on guitar and banjo/mando respectively, but Kevin Porter has shifted to drums, and with Marybeth Taylor on hiatus (in full motherhood mode) Lauren Pilger is now on vocals (and melodica) with Lauren’s husband Brian on electric guitar. Add in bass player Ray Robinson and it’s a changed sound. The result when they tried it out on KEET’s Lost Coast Sessions proved less bluegrassy and more alt. country/rock a la Wilco etc. I thought it sounded great.

The Jam is the most eclectic venue of the night with Huck Flint followed by ex-Rubbernecker Greg Lojko with some punky folk, The Smashed Glass, supplying folky punk with a splash of Irish whiskey, then synergistic roots reggae band Synrgy closing things out with the one drop.

The Crawl over at HumBrews starts around 9 — a night of electronica and electro-funk with Moo-Got-2, plus electronica artist/DJ Zanapod and visuals by the World Famous lightshow.

For the rawkus crowd the night is all about crawling into the Alibi 11-ish where Iowan transplants Radio Moscow lay down psychedelic stoner rock as they launch a national tour. Then, last but never least, the Journal editorial squad’s favorite band Magnum gets heavy and teary-eyed playing what they’re claiming is their “final” show. They’ve even changed their FB image to a graphic that says, “over & out, alibi ~ friday.” (Who needs caps?) Could it really be over? We’ll see. Remember that Magnum rose from the ashes of Sad Wings of Destiny, a band that has had more “last show ever” announcements than Steve the Alchemist can count on his allegedly-webbed fingers. One thing for sure: Terrence will milk the drama until the teats are sucked dry.

One price for all three venues — extra added bonus: All Fall Crawl proceeds go to campus radio station KHSU, which is celebrating 50 years in action and deserves an unsolicited benefit. BTW, if you happen to read this on Wednesday when the paper hits the street, tune in to KHSU at around 2:30 for Fogou (90.5 FM) to hear a blast of Radio Moscow live on the air. (Full disclosure: I “co-produce” Fogou with Vinny Devaney.)

It might be hard after all that crawling, but there are a lot more music fests the next day. The second annual North Town Block Party on Saturday is another exercise in eclecticism with the ubiquitous SambAmore drummers and dancers, jammy rock by The Fickle Hillbillies, funkiness from Bump Foundation, hard rock by The Rezonators and several relatively new bands: Wet Fez, Ashes and Children of the Sun, who tell me “experimental soul” is a good way to describe them. That’s all day in the parking lot by Big Pete’s Pizza.

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE >SHARE