Thursday's Earful: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals @ Terminal 5

By: David Schultz

The path to glory rarely runs downhill. About one year ago, at the tail end of a lengthy stretch of touring to promote their sophomore studio effort This Is Somewhere, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals played before a packed house at Webster Hall, at the time, the largest room they had headlined in New York City. Shortly afterwards came news that T-Bone Burnett would work with the band on their next album. However, the noted producer’s fondness for using his own musicians provoked endless discussion amongst the band’s fans over what role the Nocturnals would have in the studio and whether the band’s third release would be more akin to a Potter solo album. Adding fuel to the fire of the debate, in March, bassist Bryan Dondero announced he would be leaving the band.

What doesn’t kill you only serves to make you stronger. By the start the summer, having restocked themselves with bassist Catherine Popper and Blues & Lasers guitarist Benny Yurco, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals 2.0 hit the road. On a co-headlining tour with Brett Dennen, GPN returned to New York City just before Thanksgiving for a show at the warehouse on the West side known as Terminal 5.

Potter’s potential to be a breakout performer has always seemed an eyelash away from becoming a reality. Notwithstanding the music, which too often takes a back seat in these matters, Potter’s musical versatility – she can rock a Flying V as well as a Hammond B-3 – her winsome personality and her amazing voice make her one of those rare performers that come around once in a blue moon. Resisting attempts to break her away from her band or make her a more mainstream artist, Potter has remained fiercely loyal to her band and to her vision. As it turns out the new album won’t be the potentially divisive one overseen by Burnett and recorded before Yurco and Popper signed on. Rather, the new album, which will be released sometime in the spring of 2010, will be the fruits of their collaboration with Mark Batson. It not only features the current band but according to guitarist Scott Tournet, it “sounds more like GPN than ANY other album.”

At Terminal 5, Potter & The Nocturnals offered a sample taste of the new songs, which run the gamut of edgy, exposed-nerve rock and roll (“Oasis”) to softer ballads (“Things I Never Needed”). Even though the venue’s midnight curfew made the set feel slightly abbreviated, there was plenty of time for GPN’s brand of rootsy rock and roll. Nothing But The Water’s “Some Kind Of Ride” made for a spectacular opening number, a great showcase to quickly bring the uninitiated up to speed on what GPN can deliver. The band’s one kit drum circle, which used to arise during “Nothing But The Water,” now comes amidst “Sweet Hands” but other things remained constant. Drummer Matt Burr provides the fifties style beat that propels “Mastermind,” Tournet throws himself body and soul into his solos and the crowd remains mesmerized during Potter’s a capella to “Nothing But The Water.”

It’s only been six months since Popper and Yurco joined the Nocturnals and there’s no tentativeness or rough edges to their interactions. A bubbly stage presence, Popper’s personality complements Potter’s while she provides some powerful bass lines. No stranger to those who know him from Vermont’s ever-thriving live music scene or Tournet’s Blues & Lasers, Yurco expands GPN’s capabilities as a band. A worthy foil for Tournet, the two guitarists play off each other in much the same way as when playing together with Blues & Lasers. Yurco’s presence not only frees Potter from the necessity of playing guitar, allowing her to slink around more often playing tambourine, it nudges Tournet to up his game and they bring back a bit of the Crazy Horse sound the band used to revel in.

For the encore, Potter slickly belted out the Alice In Wonderland inspired images of the Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” Watching Fergie undeservedly prance around and parry vocals with Mick Jagger while U2 backed them at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concerts dredged up feelings of disgust and disdain that can only be unearthed when treasured classics are used by fledgling starlets as a contrived sign of status. Britney Spears raised the same feelings by misappropriating “Satisfaction” for her own nefarious schemes. No such horrorshow takes place when Potter & The Nocturnals adopt the classic rock era as their own, laying claim to a birthright to which they’re entitled. Potter’s voice drips with the bluesiness of Joplin, the majesty of Slick and the soul of Aretha. The comparisons are grand but once Potter lets loose, you realize they are justified.