Two nights of Trampled by Turtles & Shakey Graves in San Diego

On a Sunday night, Trampled by Turtles and Shakey Graves came to The Sound in Del Mar for a perfect end to a beautiful Southern California weekend. It was the second night of two consecutive evenings at the venue; the two acts bringing an incredible lineup of folk-influenced stomping and hollering to both.

This was the last night of the Love and Love and Nothing Else Tour, a nine-show stretch on the west coast. After a sold-out show the night prior, The Sound did not seem to be nearly as packed as it could have been. However, attendance did not matter, with it being the last night of the bands’ tour together.

The acts made sure to curate a special night for the crowd.

Trampled by Turtles, a bluegrass and folk band from Minnesota, was first to the stage — a change-up from the previous night. Trampled’s set had an energy that was infectious, received by people who wanted to stomp and holler (and clap) along to the erratically stunning rhythms of these six-string musicians.

The six musicians entered in the dark, spacing equally along the front of the stage. They then began a beautiful tuning session to warmup before going straight into “Midnight on the Interstate” with minimal lighting. From there it was “Kelly’s Bar”, a complete vibe shift, with a beat meant to be clapped along to, created by acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, and cello being played like crazy. These first two songs set the tone for the rest of their performance.

Playing entirely different songs than the night before (except for a few), Trampled by Turtles put on a performance that was soaked in, interacted with, and received well. Each musician plays with such emotion and intensity and heart. Mandolinist Erik Berry has a stage presence of drama and passion, this night with a fan at his feet, constantly blowing his backlit, halo-like, long hair into the air. I feel confident that fiddlist Ryan Young has snapped hundreds of thousands of strings throughout his career, as he ended the set using his fiddle essentially as a bow and arrow.

Their last song was their most popular — “Wait so Long”.

Like most of their set, it was melodic and moving, jarring and beautiful. Waves of music were provided, then pulled back in moments of simplicity, with lead vocalist and guitarist Dave Simonett threading it all together with meaningful lyrics.

It was a tough act to follow, but Shakey Graves did not disappoint. Alejandro Rose-Garcia — more widely known as his stage persona, Shakey Graves — walked onto the stage wearing a cowboy hat and his signature jumpsuit with “Shakey” embroidered over his heart. With only himself and a golden spotlight for the first two songs, Shakey’s gravelly tone entranced the crowd, especially with a brief snippet from the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?”

Once his band joined him (all in their own name-embroidered jumpsuits), the night blended into a dreamscape of blues-country sounds, with songs literally blending into each other. The stage set added to the dreaminess, as well, with stunning lighting from The Sound pairing with two TV windows on either side of Shakey — each with six panes.

The videos projected throughout the show was like peering into different memories or landscapes.

This set design was reminiscent of Shakey Graves’ interactive music website, where users can generate their own movie soundtrack using an extensive collection of songs Shakey has recorded (many of them unavailable on streaming). This emphasis on experience and storytelling was this night, with an added presence of soul and genuineness. A favorite moment was about mid-set, when the band was segued from an incredible breakdown into Shakey Graves’ biggest hit, “Tomorrow”. The crowd all sang along before we were given another personal anecdote of this Austin-born musician: turns out, the song “Built to Roam” was written while he lived in southern California.

Shakey ended his main set as he began it, alone onstage, ending with “Roll the Bones” for the crowd to clap along to before applauding him to reunite with his band for a dreamy encore. Fan-favorite “Dearly Departed” came next, a perfect way to bring everyone together with keyboardist Dan Creamer teaching the crowd how to clap along while Shakey called the audience to sing the lyrics “it didn’t seem so strange”. After another couple of songs, the night ended with smiling faces. Can’t wait to catch the next tour!

Photography by Elizabeth O’Guin

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