A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to photograph the Infamous Stringdusters as the performed at the Aggie Theatre in Old Town Fort Collins, Colo. The band preforms their own style of bluegrass and have a knack for grouping around the artist soloing in a manner not seen by other bands, creating an experience not available anywhere else. Their emotion and energy on stage illuminates the room and creates a get down that is not to be missed.
The night was started off by Lake Street Dive, a New England based quartet with a soulful, pop sound that offered a wonderful warm-up to the raging bluegrass that was to come from the Infamous Stringdusters. From there, was the typical stage breakdown and set up and before long the lights went down, and it was time for the guys everyone came to see, the Dusters.
The boys came out flying with “Travelin’ Tear Drop Blues” a Shawn Camp tune that got everyone going and then jammed it straight into the Earl Scruggs standard “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” with a little added “Dust” that offered an early view of what the night would be like.
The band continued from there through the first set and included the single off their new album, Silver Sky, “Place that I Call Home”. The set also included John Hartford’s “Stem Powered Aeroplane”, a sweet version of “Deep Ellum Blues” a Grateful Dead original and the Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe’s “My Sweet Blue Eyed Darlin'” as well as some originals of their own.
From there they played “Night on the River” into “Well, Well”, and the first set complete. It was a pretty long set with a ton or great tunes, one of my favorite Stringduster’s sets to date. After the short set break the boys were back again ready to keep everyone going.
The second set started with “Fork in the Road” the title track to the bands first album from 2007 that was clearly a fan favorite as the crowd was singing along the whole way. The set continued along with more Stringduster orignals including “Keep on Truckin'” and one of my personal favorites “Fire”.
From there the get down kept going into a wonderful version of “Up On Cripple Creek” that took the breath away of just about everyone in the room. Then, they played a few more originals that included “Get it While You Can” and “Black Rock” and the second set was finished.
The band encored the Grateful Dead classic “Rosalie Mcfall” and left the stage for seemingly the final time of the night. However, the crowd hadn’t had enough. The hoots and hollers roared from the mouths of Stringduster faithful until they returned to the stage for a heartfelt “How Far I’d Fall For You” that offered a perfect ending to a wonderful night. As usual the Infamous Stringdusters performed wonderfully for the Aggie Theatre crowd, with a handful of great covers and highlights of many crowd favorites, the band created a home-like atmosphere for the thousand or so lucky few to make it out for the show and as expected the night was far from a disappointment.
