Old Crow Medicine Show @ Brewery Ommegang (Cooperstown, NY)

Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of seeing Old Crow Medicine Show at Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York (otherwise famous as the birthplace of baseball). The night held a lot of firsts for me, and I have to say it was incredible overall.

It was kind of a last-minute fluke that I was even at the show. My brother and his wife had been planning to go together, but my sister-in-law had a bachelorette party the night before. Furthermore, she's eight months pregnant and decided she really didn't want to drive a four hour or so round trip to stand outside for three hours. So I got the invite in her place – and I'm glad I chose to accept! We met up with one of his coworkers and his wife while we were there.

The Venue: Brewery Ommegang

I've never been to Ommegang before, but a number of friends have seen shows there, and they've all raved about the venue. All in all, I have to say they were right.

Located about 10-15 minutes from Cooperstown, the brewery sits in the rolling foothills of the Catskill Mountains. The hill on which the brewery sits makes for a natural amphitheater, and it offers a stunning view of the idyllic surroundings. The brewery plays host to well known bands almost every weekend from late spring through the end of the summer – other bands appearing at Ommegang this summer include Cake, the Avett Brothers, and the Shins.

Next to the amphitheater and brewery is a large open area for camping out. It's not exactly a campground, as there are no designated campsites. But it's a place to set up a tent and pregame the show, and then to crash afterwards. The worst part about it was that it was full of loud, drunk people that made it hard to sleep (or at least stay asleep for long). But my brother and I were planning to leave fairly early anyway, and given that today is Memorial Day – meaning neither of us needs to work – we were able to get enough sleep to make it back home in the morning.

Around the perimeter of the amphitheater area were about a dozen or so food, beer, and merchandise tents. They served the brewery's beer, of course – the Nirvana IPA was quite good. I also had the Rare Vos, an amber ale, which was okay but I switched back to the Nirvana after one. I was pretty hungry by the time we arrived and got into the amphitheater, so I had some barbecue chicken and salt potatoes from the Tickled Pink BBQ food truck. It was very good.

The seating is all lawn, with people bringing in their chairs and blankets and such. However, the area between the stage and the sound booth was blocked off for standing room only. We decided to stand up front rather than heading back to the campsite and grabbing our chairs. As it turns out, it was a great decision.

Opening Act: Driftwood

Driftwood is a nationally touring bluegrass rock band out of Binghamton, NY. I'd never heard of them before, but I'd definitely go see them again. They had a lot of great energy, and with what amounts to something of a hometown crowd, there were a lot of people up front (even up fronter than we were) who were dancing and singing along.

The band is made of four people: a guitarist, a violinist, a bassist, a drummer who also played banjo. They traded off lead vocals almost every song, with the rest of the group supplying backup. They were pretty tight, and the crowd responded really well to their music.

Perhaps the highlight of the opener was their song "Buffalo Street," which was about as much of a crowd pleaser as you can get. It featured a lengthy jam that was centered around the banjo player and bassist doing an extremely cool, extemporaneous back and forth. You can find other live versions of the song on YouTube, soundcloud, and of course they have recorded versions for sale through their website.

The Main Event: Old Crow Medicine Show

To be honest, before last night I had never heard any song by Old Crow Medicine Show other than the uber-famous "Wagon Wheel" – and that I've heard more in covers than I have their own version. The ironic thing is that even after listening to them for three-plus hours last night, it's still true that I haven't heard any of their other songs.

The reason is that the band's current tour is themed as a reimagination of Bob Dylan's 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, the first rock double album ever. OCMS came out and played the entire album in two sets – complete with an intermission where one would "flip over the record." It was really awesome, considering that Blonde on Blonde contains many of Dylan's greatest songs, including:

• Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
• Visions of Johanna
• I Want You
• Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
• Just Like a Woman
• Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine

The group did an amazing job of covering songs. They were all recognizable (at least, for anyone who is familiar with the Dylan album), but they nonetheless put their own spin on many of them, making them simultaneously familiar yet unique and new at the same time.

Old Crow killed it from From a showmanship perspective, as well. For one thing, every member of the band was dressed up as a different version of Bob Dylan, recognizable from various periods of his career. I don't know what they do with their own songs, but they traded off the vocals between several different members of the band. There were also a number of instrument changes between the various members, demonstrating an exceeding amount of talent.

While it's hard to pick a single highlight from the show, one of the most memorable moments was an anecdotal story told by the lead singer. He told about a time when a former member of the band encountered Bob Dylan, and Mr. Dylan told him:

You guys are killing it.

The story was told with as much panache as the rest of the show, with mood music supplied by the pianist/keyboardist and a hoodie-shrouded Dylan played by one of the other members of the band, who mumbled into the microphone just like the bard himself would. Good times!

The two-set reimagination of Blonde on Blonde was well done, but the icing on the cake was when the band came out and started an encore with a melodic acoustic version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." They continued with what they called the "hootenanny" section of the show by playing some additional Dylan tunes from other albums, in what amounted to a third set nearly as long as the other two.

The penultimate song of the night was the only non-Dylan song they played the whole evening. In what must have been something of an impromptu memorial to the recently deceased Gregg Allman, they played a moving rendition of "Midnight Rider" that somehow managed to get the crowd moving even more than it was the whole evening.

The capstone of the evening was a predictable, but no less enjoyable, of Old Crow Medicine Show's signature tune "Wagon Wheel." It fit perfectly into the evening as a tribute to Dylan, given that the chorus was famously written by him, and it's the song that put OCMS on the map. Everyone sang, everyone danced, and everyone had a great time.

Panorama shot of Old Crow Medicine Show at Brewery Ommegang

So, that's the long and short of it. It was a great show.

All images taken by me.

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