Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Live Shows: Mighty Poplar and New Dangerfield, Prescott Park Arts Festival, Portsmouth, NH 7/29/24


Prescott Park Arts Festival is one of my all time favorite places to see a show. It's in a gorgeous public park on the waterfront in Portsmouth, NH, and it's a very reasonable suggested donation entry fee to get in. Unfortunately, I haven't been since pre-pandemic, as my schedule hasn't worked, or a show has gotten rained out when timing did work out. But, if I was going to make my return trip to the festival, I can't think of a better option than seeing two string supergroups: Mighty Poplar and New Dangerfield.

Playing only their fifth show ever, New Dangerfield opened the show. The band is a black string group consisting of Kaia Kater, Jake Blount, Tray Wellington, and Nelson Williams. You would never know that this was a band that could count the number of total performances on one hand if they hadn't mentioned it. New Dangerfield had that perfect mix of playing tight and loose you get with folk/bluegrass/string bands, especially ones with a pedigree like theirs. They played a mixture of standards and original compositions, some instrumental and some with lyrics. It was an outrageously great fifth performance, and Mighty Poplar had quite the challenge playing after them.

Luckily, Mighty Poplar are another string band supergroup, consisting of Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers), Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers), Greg Garrison (Punch Brothers, Leftover Salmon), Andrew Marlin (Watchhouse), and filling in on fiddle was Stuart Duncan. (Fiddle player Alex Hargreaves was busy on tour with Billy Strings, playing in front of arenas and making much more money.) The band joked that their normal projects are all far more lucrative, but that just shows they're playing in Mighty Poplar out of love for the music, and that was obvious during their set. The band played a tight set that left plenty of room for solos and improvisation, and also played a set of standards and originals. There's just something magical about watching masters of their craft cutting loose and playing for the love of music. If you've ever been to a concert in a public park that's free or semi-free, you'll know that it can be a bit of a disaster as people are just there to be there, which allows for maximum chit chat and other distractions. Monday night saw a crowd that could not have been more appreciative, and everyone was rewarded with an all-star performance.

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