What a beautiful late summer day to spend our 1st time at the Borderland Festival this past Friday. The lineup that we were able to take in for Friday were: The Black Crowes, Cory Wong, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country and The Sheepdogs. The festival was held deep in the town of East Aurora at the Knox Estates. This was our first time experiencing Borderland so we had no idea what to expect. It’s still a relatively new festival with it being its 6th year in existence. It was very spacious with a llama petting zoo, various food trucks, a secondary stage and multiple vendors selling various items. The entire vibe overall was very laid back and peaceful.
There was some travel issues with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country so they had to switch slots with The Sheepdogs. Its been many years since I’ve seen The Sheepdogs live. Eight years to be exact. I was looking forward to them and they didn’t disappoint. Their hour set included some fan favorites in “Find the Truth, ‘I Don’t Know” and “Feeling Good.” Even after multiple guitar player changes over the last 10 years the band still continues to function at a high level. I believe they turned on a lot of attendees who weren’t familiar with their music.
Up next were Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country. The band had some technical difficulties and extended their soundcheck for quite bit. They ended playing only 40 minutes due to this. I thought their playing fit the vibe of the carefree festival. Their music was little bit of everything; country, jam, psychedelic, rock and more. They are still on tour in support of the bands sophomore album titled ‘Reflector’ and enjoyed playing choice cuts off it like “Half Moon Night and “Hi-Country.”
Following Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country was Cory Wong. Even though Wong’s set was instrumental. It was a high energy instrumental which included a 3 piece horn section. You can call Wong a groovy virtuoso. I can honestly say that Wong delivered in his hour hour set.
The Black Crowes were the headliners and it was their first appearance in the WNY since 2010. The band went away in 2015 but were resurrected by by both Chris and Rich Robinson in 2019. They brought back long time bassist Sven Pipien but the rest of the band was new. The other band members consisted of Erik Deutsch on keyboards, Nico Bereciartua on guitar, Cully Symington on drums and Mackenzie Adams & Lesly Grant on backing vocals. They opened up with “Bedside Manners” off of their brand new record ‘Happiness Bastards.” Chris Robinson was in fine form singing dancing and very interactive with the audience. We all know the tasty licks that Rich Robinson has provided us over the years but Nico Bereciartua was a fantastic add to the lineup. He was a beast on guitar during this show. Songs like “Sting Me” and “Rats and Clown” he killed it on. Rich Robinson took over lead vocals for the Velvet Underground song “Oh! Sweet Nuthin.’ I love the lead single from their latest effort called “Wanting and Waiting.” That and “Remedy” were the highlights of the show for me. In fact, you can say all the songs were really highlights as the band is firing on all cylinders right now. Hopefully, it’s not another 14 years for Western New York before we see the Black Crowes again.
Overall, this festival had a lot of positive’s and a few things that needed to be tweaked some. Having the Black Crowes and some other amazing artists made it for an enjoyable Friday. Also, enjoying days like this makes it a little bit easier as we start to transition out of summer and into the fall season.
The Black Crowes setlist:
Bedside Manners
Sting Me
Twice as Hard
Thick n’ Thin
Rats and Clown
Sister Time
Wiser Time
Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ (The Velvet Underground cover)
Wanting and Waiting
Thorn in my Pride
Hard to Handle (Otis Redding cover)
She Talks to Angels
Jealous Again
Remedy
We would like to thank Dana Marciniak from 85 West Communications and and Zach Keller from Borderland for the credentials to review the show.
