Higher Ground kicked off its 2021 summer outdoors live concert series at Backside 405 over Memorial Day weekend with Quiltro and Barbacoa.

The venue is Backside 405 located at 405 Pine Street in Burlington, Vermont. It is outdoors with one stage, food trucks, and a bar – it is a lot like a mini-festival set-up. Open air music is planned for every Friday and Saturday through August.

The first live bands played on Saturday, May 29^th. They are both three-piece instrumental rock bands but they play very different music.

Quiltro is a space rock band, laying down laid back, ethereal lines meant to envelope you and send you on a journey, Their first album came out last year and you can get it at the Bandcamp link below. The band is Mark Taylor (guitar and keys), J. D. Hoffmann (drums), and Mike McKinley (bass).

Barbacoa is often described as a surf rock band. They do play in that vein, and also rockabilly along with other recognizable stylings. The music is upbeat and peppy – great for summer nights. Their latest album is Pharoah’s Camaro which came a couple weeks ago (link below). The band is Bill Mullins (guitar), Jeremy Fredericks (drums), and Kirk Flanagan (bass).

For now the crowd is limited to 500 people but could grow as the summer warms and the limits start to melt away. Backside 405 is a great place to spend Friday and Saturday nights – I’ll be there most every weekend.

You can get tickets at the Higher Ground link below, including a season pass to all the shows.

All photos by Wayne Edwards.

Links.

Higher Ground, https://highergroundmusic.com/

Quiltro

Bandcamp, https://quiltro.bandcamp.com

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/QuiltroMusic

Barbacoa

Bandcamp, https://barbacoa.bandcamp.com/music

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Barbacoa-184518134930665

© Wayne Edwards.