Concert review: Good music at Good Records birthday bash (April 18)

by JW Richard of Mandrake Arts & Media

After I received the tweet from Pete Freedman about the bands having to move inside because of noise, I figured I’d get on down to Good Records to see what the fuss was about. This past Saturday was Record Store Day and Good Records 9th Birthday celebration. I always seemed to miss the store when I go to Greenville, so seeing the black tarp and stage set up helped me identify the store for the first time :-) .

I stepped into the store and heard Jack With One Eye. They gave a energetically noisy and dramatic live pop set, mainly because their drummer was a absolute beast! Dove Hunter also had a guy killing it on the drums and holding solid grooves in concert with the bassist. It’s so great to see new (to me) bands live that you want to see perform again. And the fact that they’re local makes the deal even sweeter. Hip-hop soul crew Dem Southernfolkz also had a good show; however, I’d love to catch them again with a live bass player, which I think would really fill out their live sound.

The Cannabinoids featuring Erykah Badu were on the outdoor stage surprisingly, only because I thought it got shut down earlier. However, I knew that with the level of synthetic bass, squonks, and squeal being mixed live on the stage, it would only be a matter of time before Dallas Police would shut it down again. Before DPD arrived though, Ms. Badu gave a solid vocal performance of her hits, “On & On,” mixed with “…& On” (from Mama’s Gun), and “Appletree.” The only misstep I painfully noticed were the chords in “On & On,” which were just plain wrong! This wasn’t about jazz dissonance, this was “I don’t know the chords!”. A frightful musical moment in an otherwise grooving improvisational set.

All good things came to a end with the Dallas Police shutting it down, even the inside bands. Boo on them for real! However, thank you Tim and Good Records gang, Taco Joint, and Monster Energy for a very nice Record Store Day!