PHOTOS: Peach Music Festival at The Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton, 08/15-16/15
The fourth year of the Allman Brothers Band’s Peach Music Festival at The Pavilion at Montage Mountain, held Aug. 13-16, was bigger and riper than ever, so NEPA Scene took a bite out of Saturday and Sunday’s festivities and enjoyed the show almost as much as the talented musicians performing in it.
“The fans at Montage love what we do so much, and the bands feed off that. The Peach is always a great time,” founding ABB member and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gregg Allman said in a press release before the festival.
The originators of “hip-hop blues,” G. Love & Special Sauce, rocked the Mushroom Stage on Saturday afternoon before Willie Nelson played a lively career-spanning set on the main stage of his country and jazz hits, as well as hit songs he wrote for other artists like “Crazy,” made famous by Patsy Cline. Dopapod, influenced as much by EDM as by Phish, showed what the new wave of “dance jam” bands could do, while founding Grateful Dead member Bill Kreutzmann played two sets on the Peach Stage later that night with his new project, Billy & the Kids. Grateful Dead alum Bob Weir sat in for the band’s second set, performing Dead classics to the delight of longtime fans until the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Ron Holloway Band, who often performs with Scranton’s own Cabinet, played on the Grove Stage Saturday night. In 2012, Cabinet played an early afternoon set to open the second day of the inaugural Peach Fest. Since then, the homegrown group has exploded in popularity as they’ve toured the U.S. and become Peach mainstays, playing three sets, one on each stage, over the course of this year’s festival.
Formed in 1961 and opening for the Grateful Dead in the 1970s, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, joined by Weir, kept the spirit of classic New Orleans jazz alive on Sunday afternoon. Carlos Santana closed out the Peach with his signature style of Latin jazz-infused rock.
The full lineup of the entire weekend included Gregg Allman, Santana, Bob Weir and Billy & the Kids, Willie Nelson & Family, Warren Haynes featuring Railroad Earth, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band, Butch Trucks & Very Special Friends, Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers, Lotus, Old Crow Medicine Show, G. Love & Special Sauce, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenues, Beats Antique, Dark Star Orchestra, Papadosio, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Oteil & Roosevelt, Rusted Root, Dumpstaphunk, Dopapod, Cabinet, The Werks, Twiddle, Kung Fu, Bobby Lee Rodgers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Keller Williams Grateful Gospel.
