By James Quade
Photos by Renee Clark Quade
An early afternoon show isn’t exactly The Boxmasters’ preferred setting. The band joked throughout their July 31 show at Lincoln Hill Farms in Canandaigua that they are more accustomed to being “vampires” than playing in the sunshine, but the unusual start time didn’t seem to bother them once they got going. Their scheduled opening act had to cancel because of a family emergency, leaving The Boxmasters to take the stage on their own. What followed was a fun, laid-back set of roots rock and country with plenty of stories, jokes, and interaction with the crowd.
The band made it clear early on that there wouldn’t be anything hiding behind the music. Thornton pointed out that they don’t use tracks or other gadgets to make themselves sound better. “If we screw up, trust me, you’ll hear it,” he told the audience. That approach fit the rest of the show. The Boxmasters sounded like a band that was comfortable enough with each other to let things happen naturally instead of worrying about making every moment perfect.
Before “It Sounds About Right,” Thornton warned the crowd that it’s a song the band doesn’t always play and one they sometimes screw up. He challenged the audience to give them the biggest cheer of the night if they made it through without a mistake. It was the kind of exchange that kept the show from feeling overly structured. Thornton wasn’t afraid to joke about the band’s mistakes, and the audience was more than happy to play along.
A lot of the stories throughout the night gave the songs a little more meaning. Before “The Strays,” Thornton talked about growing up in Arkansas with his grandmother. He recalled not having running water or electricity until he was about nine, hauling hay as a teenager and later working at a machine shop, storm door factory and sawmill before hauling heavy equipment between Houston and Little Rock. He also talked about the stray dogs that were always around his grandmother’s house, eventually connecting those dogs to people who don’t necessarily fit into society’s idea of where they belong.
“Some people are strays too,” Thornton said.
That led into “The Strays,” a song about people who exist outside the usual rules and expectations. Thornton’s story gave the song some context without taking away from the music, and it was one of several times during the night when his stories helped explain where a song came from.
The band also played “Where Did the Fun Go?,” the title track from their upcoming next album. Bass player Raymond Hardy took the mic to explain how the song started during a night on tour in Tomball, Texas. With only two weeks left on the tour, most of the band had gone to bed around midnight, while Hardy and Thornton stayed up until around 3:30 a.m. They started talking about how everyone had gone to bed so early and asked each other, “Where did the fun go?” The phrase stuck, and eventually became a song.
Hardy joked that the original recording they made that night was terrible, comparing it to a bunch of tomcats fighting in the woods. That rough voice memo eventually turned into the title track of the band’s next album. It’s a pretty fitting story for a band that spends much of its year on the road and clearly gets plenty of songwriting material from those experiences.
Before “The Light of Lenore,” Thornton shifted gears and talked about Edgar Allan Poe and The Raven. He explained that he has always liked Poe and talked about the different emotions running through the poem, including love, hope, desperation, sadness, and paranoia. The song was written as a tribute to Poe and the character of Lenore.
Those stories were only part of what made the show fun. Thornton spent plenty of time talking to people in the crowd, including joking that he could tell who the musicians were because they usually stand with their arms crossed. He found several guitar players, someone who played triangle and another person who played cowbell. He also joked with some of the husbands who may not have been quite as enthusiastic about attending the show as their wives.
The crowd interaction picked up toward the end of the night. Thornton encouraged people to get out of their seats and come closer to the stage, eventually asking why anyone would want to stay where they were when there were only a couple songs left. Fans began moving forward, and the band tossed picks into the crowd after one of the songs. Earlier in the set, Thornton had also picked up drumsticks and played parts of songs on the drums before throwing the sticks out to fans.
The final stretch of the show felt noticeably more lively as people gathered near the stage. The band closed with “True American Racer,” giving the crowd one more chance to get on their feet before the night came to an end.
For all the talk throughout the night about how unusual it was for The Boxmasters to be playing so early, the band seemed perfectly comfortable once they were onstage. There was no opening act, no complicated production and no need for anything other than the songs, the musicians and an audience willing to have some fun.
And that’s exactly what happened. The Boxmasters played their music, told stories about where the songs came from, joked with the crowd and eventually got people out of their seats and up toward the stage. For a band that spent part of the night wondering where the fun had gone, they didn’t have to look very far. It was right there at Lincoln Hill Farms.
Photo Gallery – The Boxmasters – Lincoln Hill Farms, Canandaigua, NY
