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Yonder Mountain String Band in Maryland

Yonder Mountain String Band
The Fillmore Silver Spring
Silver Spring, MD
October 27

It could have been the beach balls that audience members batted around the club. Or maybe it was the slim woman dressed as Little Red Riding Hood dancing with a man in a wolf outfit as other costumed fans did their own kicks and twirls. Of course, the guy in the back of the crowd holding a sign that read “I Want to Eat Tacos with Jeff Austin,” brought a laugh. And who can forget the audience members – baby boomers mixed among early 20-somethings near those of indeterminate ages – all bobbing their heads to Yonder bluegrass, giving the appearance of buoys riding atop ocean waves.

The Summer of Love was clearly well before the birth of many of the Yonder Mountain String Band fans that packed a recent Washington, D.C.-area concert by the four-piece bluegrass jamband, but that didn’t stop their devotees from recreating the heavy-duty peace and love vibe of 1967. It wasn’t the Dead in its heyday but it sure seemed like that band’s offspring as evidenced by the electricity ricocheting between the audience and the players.

Almost as soon as Jeff Austin, Dave Johnston, Adam Aijala and Ben Kaufmann took the stage and roared into a rendition of “Rambler’s Anthem,” blazed into “Strophe,” and then swung into “Night Out” the crowd was dancing, laughing, and singing as noticeable sweat plastered shirts to bodies, even on this cool fall night.

Any fears that the band had left its best form and energy behind weeks before at its own Harvest Mountain Festival in Ozark, Ark., just a few weeks before were quickly dispelled by the interplay among the players that found at least one audience member remarking that the show was like a bluegrass version of speed medal. Although Yonder Mountain doesn’t do the whole video augmentation so popular with its musical brethren, their pulsating, heavy-duty light system combined with a spinning disco ball added the perfect topper to the mood especially when the band played a haunting cover of The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence.”

It’s fair to guess that news of the impending storm that was poised to sweep the East Coast was on the minds of revelers at the Fillmore Silver Spring in Maryland, but it didn’t keep anyone from staying through the more than two hours of music, broken into three sets and an encore.

“You all seem to be in a very spirited good mood tonight. It’s nice to be among you,” said Austin with a laugh as the audience let out one of the many ear-shattering cheers they sent up through the night. “Get the bluegrass in while you can!”

It was likely something of a relief to Austin and his band mates that this time their music could outlast Mother Nature. The Colorado-born Yonder had to cut short one of its own Harvest Mountain Festival sets – it’s 1500th show according to the Arkansas Times – due to violent thunderstorms that left fans scrambling for cover.

Even though body-to-body crowds crept out of the venue to the smoking section in front of the club at the break, it was clear almost no fans left despite storm warnings of the fast approaching Hurricane Sandy.

Those that stayed were amply rewarded by Yonder with two more sets and an encore that ran the gamut from “Jail Song,” to “Sometimes I’ve Won” and even a debut of two new songs – an unnamed instrumental and another titled “Gut Feeling.”

On a night when ultra long jams and freeform scat ruled, Yonder Mountain caused the real storm, much to their fans’ delight.