Field Report- The Back Room at Colectivo, 4/20 and 4/22/18

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Field Report performed two sold-out shows in the Back Room at Colectivo this past weekend, garnering a hero’s reception both Friday and Sunday night in celebration of their outstanding and critically acclaimed third record, Summertime Songs, that was released last month.  A palpable buzz wafted through Colectivo like the aroma of the coffee roaster’s “Blue Heeler” blend, as many of Milwaukee’s music aficionados packed the Back Room to the gills to commend a band who has been able to catapult themselves beyond the wall of Brew City and, in the process, have established themselves as a bonafide national touring act.  While Field Report’s popularity has increased both locally and beyond, the earnest humble nature of singer-songwriter Christopher Porterfield and his band mates, Barry Clark (bass), Thomas Wincek (keyboards and vocals), and Devin Drobka (drums), shines through. While I have been lucky enough to see Field Report perform many times throughout the years, there was something really special about these Colectivo shows- and that is seeing the band truly grooving together and having a great time on stage in the process while reinterpreting their songs live.  When I recently chatted with Porterfield for an earlier piece, he mentioned, “records don’t change, but songs can change and morph all the time when performed.”

photo courtesy of Brian Norman

This was inherently evident in the live performances given on Friday and Sunday night.  The set opener, “Healing Machine,” was delivered with an ethereally mechanical intro that brought to mind material from Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot era or a War on Drugs show.  Other stand out tracks included, “60 Second Distance Run,” which featured Porterfield, Clark, Drobka and Wincek utilizing a variety of effects to give the song a dynamically moving effect.  Despite having a cold from the first leg of tour on the road, Porterfield was able to howl the refrain, leaving his soul on stage in the process. “Summertime,” an infectiously iconic track off of Summertime Songs does not have a regular refrain, but has a big sound that pays homage in a way to big arena rock from everyone from Journey to Springsteen to U2.  “When we think of summertime songs, we needed a big sound, so we put the vocals on this one on the back of a mighty ox,” Porterfield stated with a wide-eyed smile Friday night as he introduced Milwaukee singer extraordinaire, Mark Waldoch, who provided powerful guest vocals to make “Summertime” rattle the rafters in Colectivo and echo beyond into Prospect Avenue!  

photo courtesy of Brian Norman

photo courtesy of Brian Norman

While these powerhouse numbers were great, slower more reflective tracks reminiscent of past Field Report shows were also well-received.  Porterfield took time away from the whole band to deliver a solo performance and request portion of the evening which showcased some of his older material.  “Wings,” (from Marigolden) and “Fergus Falls,” (from Field Report) were both played on Friday, and Sunday’s set included “Fergus Falls” again, along with “Summons” (off of Marigolden) which was delivered with earnest emotion and heartfelt longing.  Both nights featured a performance of “Pale Rider” (from Marigolden) with opening acts Caley Conway and Ryan Necci (from Buffalo Gospel) providing accompanying vocals with Porterfield.

Speaking of opening acts, Porterfield was able to curate both of his Colectivo performances, choosing acts that inspire him and his band from Milwaukee to provide support.  Caley Conway was picked by Field Report to support on Friday night. Conway was joined by a bass player and drummer. Her set increased in intensity as it progressed from start to finish and she wowed the crowd with some serious guitar jams and pedal work.  Highlights included, “Middle Child Syndrome,” which featured some crazy-good drumming, and “Funk,” which offered Conway room to stretch her guitar prowess.

Buffalo Gospel, a five piece country-soul-rock outfit, had the crowd ruckus and jamming one minute and silent and reflective the next, as they delivered a powerful support set on Sunday evening that had the capacity crowd at Colectivo yearning for more.  Singer-songwriter, Ryan Necci has one of the finest voices in the city and was able to belt it out on numbers like the classic Buffalo Gospel track and set opener, “Song of the Ox,” and newer number, “Son of a Gun,” from their forthcoming release On the First Bell which drops on May 4th.  Porterfield, who used to play more regularly with Buffalo Gospel sat in and provided some guitar jams on “Lonestar” and “Mule,” in the middle of their set.  

photo by Will Piper

While Field Report may be reaching rock star status in Milwaukee, their humble nature, honest songwriting, and love for promoting others made this weekend’s shows at Colectivo feel like both a rock  concert and a big ol’ family get together all at the same time. Field Report certainly did a great job bringing the Milwaukee music loving community together to rejoice in Summertime Songs.

Field Report Invites You To Try Some Summertime Songs at the Back Room at Colectivo, 4/20 and 4/22/18

“It takes an unknown amount of people to push on the rock before the rock will move, but suddenly we have people pushing rocks around here,” triumphantly stated Field Report’s Christopher Porterfield in a recent conversation when asked about the state of live original music in Milwaukee.  Field Report has been at the heart and soul of the Milwaukee music scene for quite some time now with a reputation for honest tunes, riveting performances, deep lyrics, and wonderful songcraft from Christopher Porterfield and company. With their release of Summertime Songs last month, Field Report pushes beyond the nuanced folk sound that they have been known for, and in the process have created songs that are as intimate and earnest as ever, but also expand their collective sound to fill larger spaces.

With two sold-out shows coming up at the Back Room of Colectivo this Friday, April 20th, and Sunday, April 22nd, a critically acclaimed new record, and a ton of energy, Field Report is ready to take Milwaukee by storm much like this spring time snow and sleet.  MKE Rocks had the chance to catch up with Christopher Porterfield to talk about the new record, current tour, and the thriving Milwaukee music scene.

MKE Rocks:  Congrats on the amazing new record and tour.  How has this tour been going you and the band?  

Porterfield:  Thanks so much!  The tour has been good.  The record came out on the 23rd of March and then we started on the road in Chicago early the next week on the 26th.  The record was just out so the first leg of the tour was for the early adopters- the ones that knew about the record when it came out and who got to hear it first.  We do really well obviously in Milwaukee, and our idea is to get every city in North America to feel like Milwaukee when we come to down. We had a great turn out in Chicago and a couple of excellent shows in New York, Ann Arbor and Toronto. Even by the end of this leg of the tour we noticed that there are more unfamiliar faces in the crowd along with folks who’ve supported us regularly over the past several years.

MKE Rocks: Last time you performed a show in town it was with Bon Iver and Collections of Colonies of Bees at the Bradley Center for the epic For Emma, 10 Years show that Justin Vernon curated.  Knowing what a big Milwaukee Bucks fan you are, what was it like to play on that stage at the Bradley Center?

photo by Daniel Ojeda, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 

Porterfield: It was cool to get that notch in our belt before that building just disappears.  It was such a beautiful day to be a part of terms of celebrating music in Milwaukee and the state.  There was great energy and camaraderie. Our dressing room was not too far away from where the Bucks locker room is.  It was fun thinking about Giannis Antetokounmpo getting ready for his games not too far from where we were and thinking about if roles were reversed for Giannis to be tuning up a guitar.  It was kind of surreal to be part of that for me.

MKE Rocks: One of the things that fans love about your songs is your creative use of similes. On your song, “Summertime,” you have a great one, “quiet as a gas leak,” that really resonated with me as a listener.   This is going to sound like an English teacher question (coming from a teacher by trade), but where do you find inspiration for your lyrics, especially your similes, on the new record?

Porterfield: I really am a sucker for similes.  Like and As are good pals for a songwriter.  They are a useful tool to describe something that otherwise is not describable.  Similes are helpful because as a songwriter, you need to make choices. You can’t spend 8,000 words describing every thing so similes really help listeners.  As an artist, they get me excited and allow me to explore some of the ideas in the songs too. The line, “quiet as a gas leak,” is a particularly good one, in part because you can’t even hear a gas leak, you smell it first, and when you do, you know there’s danger.  That thought goes across the different relationships in that tune where things are ok or maybe not ok. It creates more questions than answers at time.

MKE Rocks: Speaking of Summertime Songs, the track “Healing Machine,” was first debuted in a different form back at the Alverno Presents “How to Write a Popular Song” show a couple years back.  Can you talk a bit about how this song progressed to where it is on the record?

Porterfield: For that Alverno show everyone did a version of a Charles Harris song, and then made a new work after reading his book How To Write A Popular Song.  The song that came out for me was “Healing Machine,” which wasn’t part of anything Harris wrote, but a tune I’d been working on that I thought the cast of people who were there could do something with. It started off as a minor key American folk sort of thing. In the studio it morphed into a kind of spookier Peter Gabriel sounding tune.  We changed the key to the song to make it feel closer to the ground. That’s the cool thing about songs-- they can change at the drop of a hat. Records don’t change, but songs can change and morph all the time when performed. There are a lot of synced up rhythm things in “Healing Machine” that almost sound mechanical at times, which goes with the theme of the song.

MKE Rocks:  The song, “Summertime” is another highlight and features some incredible work by Mark Waldoch.  Can you share how you came to have Mark do vocals on that track? It was just epic hearing it live.

Porterfield:  It’s funny because that song (“Summertime”) doesn’t have a chorus.  It has line after line of telling the story. The instruments are all hooks, but there is no chorus.  We were having fun with the idea of what is a “summertime song” exactly. It’s a little Spingsteeny, a little bit like Arcade Fire, and a little like LCD Soundsystem… there’s even some U2 in there.  It had a feel of a song that is meant for bigger rooms. We decided, if we’re going to do this, we need a vocal that is all the way in. That’s not me! Our first call was Waldoch, who came into the studio and punched it out in an hour and nailed it.  Whenever we can we like to bring Waldoch up on stage to sing that with us. We brought him up on stage in Chicago and enjoyed doing that. I think now that we have people who have had some time to live in the record that it will be a special thing for people in Milwaukee to see him cut loose.   Mark Waldoch will be joining us for both shows at Colectivo to perform “Summertime.”

MKE Rocks:  With your two sold out Colectivo shows, what can fans come to expect?  Obviously, you’ll be playing songs off of Summertime Songs, but are any older tracks from Marigolden or Field Report making it into the set?

Porterfield: We are touching on a little bit of Marigolden material with the band and built in a section of the show where I do some solo songs that we haven’t hit yet.  Those songs change every night. When we were on the road that was a really cool opportunity to break down the wall between us and the audience.  I was able to chat with people, answer questions and take requests. I really love playing with the band and creating an immersive and really intentional musical experience experience.  I also really love doing the solo thing and talking about the tunes and honoring the fact that anybody might have a relationship with songs that aren’t on this record that were there before.  There were different requests in every city. It was really cool to be reminded that people like a bunch of our work and be able to share that in an intimate way.

MKE Rocks: You have two amazing opening acts slated for the Back Room at Colectivo shows. Caley Conway is opening up the show on Friday, 4/20, and Buffalo Gospel will share the stage on Sunday, 4/22. Can you share a bit about how you came to pick these great acts?

Porterfield: It is cool when you get to curate the entire show.  With those Colectivo shows I got to hand pick people whose aesthetics are close to ours.  I wanted to couple our energy with theirs. I always like to keep an eye on people up to good things in Milwaukee.  Caley I’ve gotten to know over the past year or so. She has a killer voice and just shreds. I have a improv trio “Agropelter,” and we’ve had Caley sit in with us, and she has been really great and just loves to jam pedals and play guitar.  She has got a great point of view and something to say.

Buffalo Gospel keeps getting better and better.  Ryan Necci is just a fantastic songwriter, and I used to play in that band.  They have a great soulful country sound and will just rock the place, and they keep getting better and better.  The band is tight and Ryan’s vocals are amazing. When catching up with Ryan Necci about Buffalo Gospel opening for Field Report, Necci stated, "It's an honor to be part of the show- truly- but as a long time Field Report fan, I'm most looking forward to watching our friends do what they do best."

MKE Rocks: The Milwaukee music scene over the past several years seems to be blooming in all different directions from rock to pop to hip hop to Americana.  Can you comment a bit on the scene as a whole?

Porterfield: Scenes ebb and flow.  Sometimes there’s a high tide and sometimes there’s a low tide.  It is approaching a high tide right now. There are some young people who don’t care at all about the old scene.  The people who are doing important work don’t really remember the 90’s stuff or care about it. You have a lot of young people doing whatever they want in the city.  

I recently was at B-Free’s show as part of the Alverno Presents series at Turner Hall where she curated a concert paying tribute to the late Michael Jackson.  That might have been the best Alverno show I’ve seen. She was killer band leader, singer and arranger. I think B-Free suddenly got vaulted up to the top of the list in Milwaukee.  People are starting to realize that some of the stuff that’s happening here is a serious cultural export. Radio Milwaukee’s generator project is doing lots of good work to get artists beyond the city too.  There are a bunch of people who are talented enough to start making waves over the breakers of Milwaukee It will be really exciting to see who can make it over the wall.

We are so proud of Field Report for being an amazing Milwaukee export sharing their emotionally gripping tales and fascinating sound with the good people of Milwaukee and all around the country. They are a big part of what has gotten the metaphorical rock of the Milwaukee music scene to start moving.

Dead Horses with Ben Jaffe- The Backroom at Colectivo 4/5/18

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

"It's hard for me to concentrate with all of your smiles," Dead Horses singer-songwriter Sarah Vos quipped during the band's robust 90+ minute set in front of a filled-to-the-gills Back Room at Colectivo, as Dead Horses celebrated their album release of My Mother The Moon, the band's third LP.  The capacity crowd hung on Vos's every word, swayed, danced and often sang along with numbers, including some of the tracks on the new record!  An elated and joyful vibe filled the Back Room at Colectivo as Dead Horses stopped in their hometown in between dates in St. Louis and Ann Arbor to perform their entire new record as well as a plethora of other tunes in the midst of a massive tour which will take them around the country, including a spot playing at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater later this summer with Trampled by Turtles.  Thursday evening's show at the Back Room at Colectivo was not so much a coming out party for the group as it was a was an arrival of a band who is quickly blossoming into a bonafide national act.

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Dead Horses embodies everything that is great about Americana music.  From Vos's raw, powerful and emotive vocals, to the precise bow work and plucking of upright bassist Daniel Wolff, to the brush work and subtle nuanced percussion of Jamie Gallagher, to Ryan Ogburn's mandolin and guitar accompaniments and jams, Dead Horses sounds like a well-oiled Americana engine traversing our country's rural roads. Rooted in folk traditions, Dead Horses employs elements of bluegrass, jam band, country and indie rock to create a rich sonic timbre that is both familiar and surprising at the same time.  The new tunes from My Mother The Moon were distributed throughout the set and felt like old friends, as Vos and company spun tales of modern American life in a way that made the listener feel like she/he was a passenger riding shotgun as the band traveled throughout the American countryside.   

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Highlights of the set included many new tracks from My Mother The Moon, like the heartbreaking honest set opener, "American Poor."  "Darling Dear," a standout number from the new album had an almost anthem-like quality about it when performed live.  "On and On," a cut that Vos shared was written in her head while on a drive between Stevens Point and Oshkosh was another track that held the crowd in the palm of Vos's hand.  Older "classic" tracks from Dead Horses like "Lay Me Down," "Deep Blue Sea," and "Golden Sky" were also well-received and played to perfection.

Opening for Dead Horses was honeyhoney songwriter and singer Ben Jaffe, whose highly engaging solo set took the audience on a journey throughout Los Angeles that included tales about aspiring love and even a befriended cat.  In addition, Jaffe entertained the crowd with his witty banter and fun haikus about tour-mates Dead Horses.

photo courtesy of Gigshotz by Stephen Bloch

Buffalo Gosspel and Zach Pietrini Bring The Soul of Americana to Cedarburg April 14th.

Cedarburg Cultural Center has run an impressive series of concerts this season as part of their Rebels and Renegades Series.  Over the past several months many of the midwest’s finest Americana, blues, and roots acts have graced the stage at the friendly confines of the CCC.  Coming up, is a true barn burner of a show featuring a dynamic double-bill of two of Milwaukee’s finest acts, Buffalo Gospel and Zach Pietrini.

The good folks at the Cedarburg Cultural Center should make sure the roof is reinforced because if Buffalo Gospel singer, Ryan Necci gets on a roll, the roof could blow right off the Center and into the majestic Cedar Creek below!  Powered by the soaring vocals of Necci and nuanced, well-layered musical interplay between drummer Nick Lang, upright bass player, Kevin Rowe, guitar and banjo player Michael Rossetto, and Andrew Koenig on electric and acoustic guitar, Buffalo Gospel provide an honest soulful sound that is unlike any other.  Buffalo Gospel can make your heart ache with soulful ballads one minute and have your toes tapping on the dance floor the next with juke joint boogies and numbers that would play well at a rowdy barn dance. Buffalo Gospel is gearing up to release their second LP, On the First Bell this May.   I had a chance to catch up with Ryan Necci about the upcoming show at the Cedarburg Cultural Center.  

Q1: Have you ever visited Cedarburg?  If you have, what stood out to you?

I have, many times. My wife and I love Cedarburg and were actually looking at some houses there the last time we moved. We really enjoy the downtown area and all that the community has done to revitalize that district while keeping the small-town charm. You can definitely tell they take a lot of pride in their town -- rightly so.

Q2: What are your thoughts about playing as part of the Rebels and Renegades series at the Cedarburg Cultural Center?  

We’re thrilled to be a part of it. My renegade days might be in the rearview but we sure are honored to be a part of such a talent-filled lineup. We’ve heard great things about the CCC and what they’ve been doing for regional music for a few years now so it’s really wonderful to be able to finally work together with them.

Q3: Buffalo Gospel’s music is hard to define by genre.  While you may be a “country” act, you also exhibit characteristics of “soul” and “Americana.:  How would you best describe the Buffalo Gospel sound?

I’ve given up trying to figure out what it is we do. I know we all love country music so there’s a thread of that in everything but we also all have pretty diverse taste. There’s some rock, some blues, some soul, some folk. Really whatever it takes to serve the particular song we’re working on.

Q4: You have a new record coming out, On the First Bell, which is slated to drop in May.   Your last record We Can Be Horses came out back in 2013.  How would you say that this new record and the new material on it is different than your previous work?

I think we put a lot more time and thought into the pre-production of this new one. We Can Be Horses was a very quick, unintentional piece or work that I think worked in its’ favor. Because we were on a tight timeline and budget, we had no choice but to be loose and we were able to capture some lightening. The way folks seemed to embrace it was overwhelming in the best way possible. We didn’t really want to make that record again, though. This time around, I spent a lot of time editing the songs before I brought them to the band. Chris Porterfield basically taught me how to edit my lyrics. It’s something I’d never really thought about but I think it made a world of difference. Then the band worked on rehearsing and arranging the songs for a few months before we finally went into the studio. Those guys - Chris, Kevin Rowe, Ryan Ogburn, Nick Lang - they’re so good at what they do. It blows me away to watch them work. I think the patience and up-front preparation really shows in the final product. We’re all very happy with how it turned out.   

Q5: For fans who have never seen you or Zach Pietrini live, what should they be expect to see on April 14th?

Zach’s a fantastic songwriter and a compelling performer. He’s got a great voice and a formidable mustache. He’s also one of the nicest guys you’ll meet out there, which never hurts. We’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with him now a couple of times and, as a big fan of quality songwriting myself, it’s always a treat.

Music fans from Ozaukee Country best shine their boots and get ready for a rip-roaring night of soulful Americana at its best when Buffalo Gospel and Zach Pietrini take the stage at the Cedarburg Cultural Center on Saturday, April 14th.