Shaman’s Harvest
NORTHAMPTON – Let’s start this by stating, Lazer 99.3 out of Northampton has done a great job at bringing some great shows to the Pearl Street Nightclub over the past couple of summers. Lazer is bringing national touring acts to the area and the real kicker is… tickets are only $9.93. Only one slight problem, why aren’t the fans showing up for these shows?
Show One: Last Thursday Lazer and Pearl Street teamed up to bring Devour the Day to the club for a one-off show for the band, n the middle of a full-blown tour with Three Days Grace and not wanting to let a free night go by without playing a show. The band headed to Northampton for the night.
Devour, hailing from Memphis and made up of former members of the band Egypt Central, has been touring relentlessly for the last couple of years. Tonight’s set was mostly made up of songs from their 2013 release Time & Pressure.
The lights went down and singer Blake Allison walked on the stage and by his facial reaction was fairly surprised by the crowd on hand. Or should I say lack of crowd on hand. The band opened with their third single, Respect, and played liked they were in front of an arena crowd. This was a high-energy 50-minute set that included Check Your Head (a bonus track on the re-issue of Time & Pressure), White Rabbit (Egypt Central cover), Handshakes to Fist Fights and Move On.
Halfway through the set, Allison brought out an acoustic guitar and played a great solo version of their song The Drifter. Devour also broke out a new song, well, released in March of 2015, called Faith. Faith fits right in with their current setlist.
The band ended the night with their first single and hit song, Good Man. Nice to see this band playing a small club and looking forward to some more new music in the near future.
Show Two: Monday night, yes a Monday night for a Rawk show… I know what you are asking: how and why? I say for the love of music and we will leave it at that. Shaman’s Harvest, from Missouri, and already five full releases in to their career made their way to Northampton as part of a package tour with Trapt, Sons of Texas and Guns Out at Sundown.
Touring since April in support of their 2014 release Smokin’ Hearts & Broken Guns, Shaman’s put on a solid 45-song set consisting mostly of new material. The band opened with Blood in the Water and then pounded the Pearl Street crowd with other stand outs including Here it Comes, Devil’s Gift, Dangerous (which was their first single and recent hit off of Smokin’) and a very cool, rawked out version of Michael Jackson’s Dirty Diana.
The band went back to their 2010 release Shine for their finale with the song Dragonfly. Dragonfly was their first real hit and gained them some serious exposure. The song was also on the soundtrack for the movie Legendary. Great set by these guys and by the way they are constantly played on the radio, we should be hearing more from this band for many years to come.
Now back to my comment: where are the fans for these shows? The Shaman’s/Trapt show definitely had more people, but not nearly enough to make it a success. Is it that Pearl Street hasn’t put a dime in to this place since it was opened and could use a serious facelift? Is it that Lazer 99.3 isn’t doing enough to promote these shows? I wish I had the answer to this question as it would be a shame to see them stop. Think about it, a short drive, a national act, a $9.93 ticket… get off your butt and support these bands!
Reach out to Mike and his Rawk Report by sending an email to [email protected].
