Sing to the moon, sing to the trees, sing to the fact that we have a recording of Pixie and the Partygrass Boys performing at Beanstalk Music Festival!
To say that the party was brought to Beanstalk Music Festival would be superfluous – the party is always brought to Beanstalk Music Festival. The weekend is a celebration of all things music in what inevitably feels like the most genuine representation of what the jam scene can offer both musically and viscerally. However, if you were at the first night of Beanstalk this year then you may have said that the party was at the Platform Stage, being run by the appropriately named bluegrass powerhouse group, Pixie and The Party Grass Boys. I don’t know that I’d disagree.
The band, hailing from Utah’s Salt Lake City, was the only slated performer for the stage that day, performing two tweener sets in between Main Stage acts, making them the only band to command the stage for an entire day of the festival that weekend. And command they did, performing just shy of two hours’ worth of party grass to a crowd packed with day one festival goers full of energy and ready to… well, party.
The first set exhibited the band’s more classic bluegrass stylings with songs like “Runnin’”, “Wild & Free”, and “Flames”, highlighting the band’s ability to blend a Nashville-Country-Rock type style into their bluegrass stew. This shines through front-woman Katia “Pixie” Racine’s powerful vocals and the band’s proficient strings, especially fiddle player Amanda Grapes, who provided several show-stopping moments, including her lead throughout the instrumental “Snake Creek”. The band also had some more folk-pop oriented tunes like the set closer, “Dance”, with its beautifully rhythmic cadence, but none hit me like their newest tune, “Club Thing”. Please, indulge me for a second.
Rarely do I gush this hard about a song, but from the moment I heard it, it was stuck in my head for the rest of the day and night. I even woke up with the melody still there, as if somehow through a day’s worth of indulgences, that brand new melody seeped into my subconscious, pulled out a chair, and was just waiting for me the next morning. Then it stayed for two more days. The moment I got home from the festival, I taught myself how to play it on guitar (Verse: F Bb | Pre-Chorus: Gm Bb F | Chorus: F Cm Eb Bb – Enjoy!) and sent a copy to my sister-in-law who confirmed what I had expected all along… this song is a banger. Please do yourself a favor and listen to it right away. But I digress…
The second set started with a rousing interpretation of the Eagles’ “Seven Bridges Road”, featuring solid vocal harmonies and a couple of fiery solos from mandolinist Ben Weiss and fiddliest Amanda Grapes. The second set had a more partygrass-vibe, and honestly, I think I am picking up what they are putting down. Performing more of their fun tongue-in-cheek style songs, like the second song of the set, “Livin’ In Utah”, which laments the pitfalls of living in the Mormon state, including lack of eligible bachelors and lack of access to weed. Fair enough. This was followed by the song “Ski & Party”, another stomp-romp tune that shows if you want something then you must manifest it yourself, teaching the lesson that “You can’t ski & party if you don’t ski & party”. Fair enough. They also performed a fan request of “Appreciate Where You Came From” which is a song about vaginas. Fair enough. These songs all help add levity to the set without feeling hokey, a great recipe for any party. There were also more of their pop-centric originals, such as the supremely catchy “California” and the equally catchy “Home”, each serving up beautifully accessible choruses that will become your new respective ear-worms for days to come.
Like any great party, the band played longer than they initially expected, squeezing in the solemn “Don’t Leave Me This Way” before performing something for the crowd (like any great party host), a uniquely grassy take on the Avicii tune, “Wake Me Up”, which also featured a bit of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. The set then closed with an original tune the band described as “if you took EDM and turned it into bluegrass and then left us in the car too long with no sound system” – it was unfortunately cut for time but I think the crowd heard enough to leave them wondering what could be. Sometimes the best parties end too early and leave you wanting more.
One wonders if Party Grass makes the band or if the band makes the Party Grass, but existential questions aside, this band is about as appropriately named as can be. The band has toured extensively, and it shows in their ability to guide their sets through well crafted song selection and dexterous bluegrass playing. They were the best choice to run the party on the Platform Stage for night one of Beanstalk, and if they are in your town any time soon, they will be the best choice for your party too.
Pixie & The Partygrass Boys | 2022-06-23 | Beanstalk Music & Mountains Festival at Rancho Del Rio, Bond, CO
-= Set 1 =-
- Runnin’
- Snake Creek
- Come November
- Club Thing
- Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones cover)
- Marching On
- Flames
- Wild And Free
- Dance
-= Set 2 =-
- Seven Bridges Road (The Eagles cover)
- Livin’ In Utah
- Ski & Party
- California[1]
- Cabin Fever
- Big Wet Dog
- Appreciate Where You Came From
- Home
- Don’t Leave Me This Way
- Wake Me Up > Smell’s Like Teen Spirit > Wake Me Up (Avicii/Nirvana cover)
- Bear Shark Duck Snake[2]
Show Notes: These sets were performed on the first day of the Beanstalk Music and Mountains Festival. This was the festival’s ten year anniversary. These sets were performed on the Platform Stage.
[1] “California” contained a “Soul Bossa Nova” (Quincy Jones) tease.
[2] “Bear Shark Duck Snake” was cut short due to time.
Taper Notes: Mics setup on-stage DIN formation around 3′ DFC. There were clipping issues with the on-stage mics during the first set so that is only the soundboard. The second set is a matrix of both the on-stage feed and the board. The PA gets cut during “Bear Shark Duck Snake” because the band was out of time. Board patch & mix thanks to FOH Engineer Trea.
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