Tree To Grow
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All set for the fall tour

6/6/2015

8 Comments

 
Few things make us happier than knowing we have a few The Lone Bellow shows on the horizon.  We've got quite the ritual in place for when new shows are announced: frantically text each other to make sure we each saw the announcement; pore over the dates and locations to see which shows we can actually attend; figure out which of us is buying tickets for which shows; and finally, the anxiety inducing event of purchasing the tickets. 

This is, perhaps, the mother of all first world problems, but indulge me for a bit. We are not rational people when it comes to getting our hands on TLB tickets. This week found us purchasing tickets at our children's homeschool field day, and we selfishly ignored our friends and kids both before and after their class at the Museum of Fine Arts while we dealt with a snafu trying to get our tickets for the Seattle show. Clearly, we have abandoned our four-hour-rule and are now going by the do-we-have-friends-in-any-of-the-towns-tlb-will-be-performing-in rule. 

We are hopeful that some New England shows get added to the lineup, but feel incredibly lucky that this time around we will be traveling to NYC and Seattle. Even better, we were able to get VIP packages to both shows. When we first saw that this was an option we were ridiculously excited. But it dawned us that musicians can't really offer this sort of thing unless they have a big enough audience base to pull from. Yes, our little magical discovery of a band is growing up! It makes perfect sense, of course. They work so hard and they are amazing so naturally they continue to get more and more fans. They deserve every bit of recognition and praise that comes their way. We are genuinely happy for their success, but it is bittersweet for us. It's only a matter of time before the venues get bigger, the shows sell out faster...there may even come a time where we won't be able to get tickets to a show. The horror! 

For now, we are going to continue to relish every chance we get to see them live. And even though we love our Boston summers, we really cannot wait for fall. 
8 Comments
John James
6/19/2015 05:33:55 am

Hi Both, thank-you for your website,look forward to exploring it more, Came across TLB on a TV show and bought Then Came the Morning and I really cannot stop playing it. There are few albums which are hard to find a flaw, but I'm really struggling. Some critics may say they are derivative,but I find they have interesting takes on some classic Americana tropes. What is apparent is that the songs are sincere and honest,the emotion of the songs tell their own truths..I am so pleased that they found each other,let us hope they can survive all the merrygoround of relationships and the gruelling road, The fact that they are quite mature and seem fairly settled gives you hope for them; I just want to listen to them for many years to come.
A worry is that Kanene is such a fabulous vocalist in her own right,she may want to do her own stuff in future; I know I would queue up for her work,but hopefully there will be an understanding in the group to give each other freedom to do other things and then come back.
I will be buying their eponymous first album soon, and hope that they may be tempted to come across the pond to us here in Ireland. (Luckily most places here are within the 4 hrs of where we live,here in Enniskillen, so anywhere on the island will do for me)
Thankyou once again.

Reply
John James
6/24/2015 05:14:57 am

Hi Both

Just zipped on the link to TLB website and they are doing a gig in Dublin. I have tickets. Look forwatd to seeing them at the end of next month. Yay.

Regards

Reply
TreeToGrow link
7/2/2015 04:33:57 am

Hello! Thanks for getting in touch, and for checking out our site. I'm so glad you were able to get tickets - I have no doubt you are going to be blown away by their live performance! We would love to hear from you after you see them!

John Sno link
7/6/2015 09:58:29 pm

love TLB! the best.

Reply
Tree To Grow link
7/13/2015 06:05:25 am

They really are! What is the best show of theirs that you've seen?

Reply
John James
7/30/2015 06:11:46 am

Assessing a gig experience is difficult, because it can be subject to all sorts of external factors, which are all about you and not the band; context is everything.
In this context, the pre-cursors were not too great. The world is going to hell in sharp order in a hand-basket and my own health is not too good,thus travelling down the big city for a gig was perhaps not ideal.
Whelans is a small venue,but it has a lot of musical history and it has an atmosphere and it is in a city filled with history and music and the love of telling stories,
Met up with Michael (pronounced the Irish way (Mee-hawl) and Bob, veterans of the venue,just here to see some fresh talent; old stagers like myself. After a pleasing performace from the support act, Old Hannah, Brian came on-stage to tune-up his guitars with the other sound-check guys.
They all came on at 9.30 with a blistering performance of 'And then came the morning.' which raelly livened up an already rowdy crowd,followed with Fresh Roses and Marietta - I thought that they were just going to do the whole album in live reproduction,but they mixed in some tracks from their first album,before ending the first third with a rousing 'Georgia Will' with Brian cheerleading the crowd and getting us all to sing - that did not take much encouragement.
Bob - who had dissed the merchandising stall - had bought the cd after the third song.
They then left the stage to do an acoustic version of the stunningly beautiful ''Two sides of lonely', which surprisingly for Dublin,required the crowd to fall quiet - even more surprising was that they did! This is Dublin, after all.' You could hear a pin-drop as they harmonised tin the song, performed as I said,out there in amongst us. Wonderful.
They rejoined the rest of the band on stage for a pleasing mix of the two albums;my only personal disappointment was that they could not find a space for 'Telluride.' which reminds me of Springsteen at his most poetic. But they came back with 'Carry Me Away' with the crowd helping out on the chorus - we're good like that! Then they joined us in the middle again and Kanene sang Paul Simon's 'Slip-Sliding Away', good grief what a voice she has, I found my cheeks wet with emotion and we all helped her out with the chorus and despite it being 11.05 and we were well lubricated,surprisingly we held the tune with Kanene. 200 strangers chrorusing in tune without rehearsal was just one of those experiences that you cannot describe, it was so beautiful. And it wasn't just me in tears,Michael and many others around me were wiping their eyes.
I am way of slipping into hyperbole. But I have 30 years of gig-going behind me and I cannot think of another night that I have enjoyed more than that night with TLB. I think they are special. I really hope they recognise how special they are and they keep it together, because Bob and Michael both said they will be massive. They deserve to be
It will inevitably mean, that you won't see them again in such a cosy, intimate venue,which will be a loss,but they are ready now for the main stage at the big festivals,stadiums and other big venues..
I know now,that if you can get to a TLB gig, then you should really strive to do so. A special special night. I love the band.

Reply
Tree To Grow link
7/30/2015 06:22:24 am

Thanks so much for the recap! I'm so glad to hear you had such a special night, though not surprised, as TLB is quite good at delivering those!

Would you mind if we posted your comment/recap to a main post on our blog?

Reply
John James
7/31/2015 03:02:59 am

I guess you have gotten to see them much more than I have and can really vouch for TLB's ability to deliver knockout concerts.
Thank you for your kind comments on my commentary, please feel free to post it elsewhere.
I don't know when they are coming back to us here in dear old Ireland, but even it is tomorrow or the next day,it cannot come around too soon.




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    Who We Are

    We are Abra and Bobbie, two friends living in Boston who go to a lot of concerts together. We saw The Lone Bellow, having never heard of them, and could not believe our good fortune in discovering such talent. We now try to go by the "Four-Hour-Rule", meaning if we can get to a show within four hours, we will be there, hopefully right up front.

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