Yonder Mountain String Band
October 9th at the 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

Having been born and raised around the Washington, DC area, the 9:30 Club was always one of my favorite spots to see a band, so when I realized I’d be in town when the Yonder Mountain String Band was playing there, it seemed like a great excuse to incorporate a little bit of nostalgia into catching a group I’d never seen before. Yonder Mountain String Band, who hail from Nederland, Colorado, are first and foremost a collective of quite talented string musicians, but they go beyond bluegrass in the way they approach their instruments. And since I’ve been very intrigued by the recent Americana prevalence in so many bands—both seasoned and burgeoning—of late, I figured I’d enjoy seeing their own implementation of the genre. With a down-home hokeyness, the four-piece converge their respective skills on their instruments to bring a danceable and listenable breath of music to audiences that go beyond the Colorado outdoor festival scene. While banjo and mandolin carry the tone for their twangy, melodic instrumentation, the guitar and stand-up bass structure many of their songs in a more conventional rock music method.

Their show on Friday night at the 9:30 Club was very, very lengthy—with two full sets of music, the band started at 9pm and played well past midnight, but the long show time was appropriate for the boozing, high-energy sect that was in attendance to sell the venue out. Despite the eventual redundancy of the set and the soaring temperature in the upper decks of the balcony, there was something both newly refreshing and safely comforting in finding myself in that place—back East listening to a band that explores the outer roots of their own center—that made the night the perfect live music supplement to my visit back home.

Watch: Yonder Mountain String Band, “Half Moon Rising” [at youtube.com]

Read past installments of It Shows:

Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop of Travis at the Swedish American Hall, San Francisco

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

MV & EE at Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco