Somehow I made it through the last decade chasing bands like Phish and Widespread around without ever seeing Perpetual Groove. Plenty of my friends love them, I’ve even written previews of their shows a couple times, but something always stood in the way.
So I headed to the Music Farm last week highly excited about finally seeing the boys from Georgia. I was surprised by the turnout — poor for a band that played New Year’s Eve here last year — at about half full, maybe 200. It was also a young crowd, and at least five of the older folks (mid-20s) I talked to said, “They used to be better.”
But they were still there, so I didn’t let them bias me. Even if they had, the first ten minutes of the show would still have blown my mind. The “Deception” opener found a whirling epic peak within four minutes, and held it for twice that. Guitarist Brock Butler locked in on a high arpeggio, looped it, and then muted his guitar to tune while the rest of the band kept playing. I stopped dancing out of principle for a moment, but the tuning decision was worth it. They spiraled into an over-the-top finish to that song that left me speechless except for a jaw-hanging “Wow.”
And then that was it for about forty minutes. Except for a lackluster cover of The Butthole Surfer’s “Pepper,” the next few songs were mostly repetitive mind f*ck. After awhile I wanted to take Brock’s aforementioned loop pedal from him and demand that he just play his guitar. I know that he can.
Fortunately, the set ended with a “TTFPJ (Tribute to Freddie Prinze)” that absolutely rocked. It was enough to tide me over for set break, and set two was solid throughout. The opener “Sundog” was frantic, but not a mess, getting downright funky towards the end when Brock finally showed off his finger style. A cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (Ground Control to Major Tom) was pretty cool, and they kept me interested for the duration, even unsouring my mood after I inquired about the lack of the free water coolers at the bar, a long time staple at the Farm, and was told, “We charge for water now.” In my opinion, any place dishing out unlimited booze needs to give their patrons a free glass of tap water when they ask for it. That’s Ethics 101. 
So thoughts… It’s got to be hard to play an epic show, even if you’re a band that specializes in being epic in every song, when you’re playing to half the crowd who came out last time you played that venue. PGroove’s fan base seems to have stayed the same age as they got older. The main criticism I heard from the veteran fans in attendance was they’re all perpetual now and no groove. Although there was plenty of groove, they’re definitely a band that holds one groove for a long time.
I went in with high expectations, and overall they put on a great show. All four players are incredible. Drummer Albert Suttle is a fill machine, and Matt McDonald had me gettin’ down several times. Had I been my 18 year old self at this show, I’d have probably danced myself all over several people’s personal space and come out wide-eyed with my life changed.
So I’ll probably go see Perpetual Groove again. But probably not at the Farm.
4 Comments
It would be in their best interest as a bar for liability purposes to serve free water. This policy might come back to haunt them. Maybe they are afraid the water cool might mess up those pimped out carpets they installed.
I believe they’ll give you free tap water. They just charge for the bottles.
The only liability for the farm is not making a buck off the under 21 crowd.
“I believe they’ll give you free tap water. They just charge for the bottles.”
Your right Kristen Thompson, I guess he just made that up.
But give em a break Stratt, they had to charge for water to pay for the ganja surveillance thugs, line monitors, and body cavity searches.
It’s only fitting to be treated like cattle at a place called the farm…
Goodbye Music Farm, hello House of Blues.
By the way, the music FARM had their cattle so tightly packed in there on saturday at yonder mountain that getting a drink, hell, walking around was near impossible. Water coolers? Gone. Bad attitudes from the staff taboot.