Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
I'd heard Grace Potter was a great live act, but most of that praise came from the same older customers at the record store that will praise watered-down blues rock acts. Luckily this is one time we could all agree. Grace Potter & the Nocturnals are a damn good live band.
As I left Killer Mike's set and ran to catch Grace Potter, the band was finishing up their explosive first track. As I got there, Grace sat down and unbuckled her shoes. As she kicked them off, I realized that seeing her barefoot in her flowing robes backed by a powerful rock band was the closest I had ever come to feeling like I was seeing Stevie Nicks in her prime. Everyone on that stage had incredible presence and overflowed with skill. Even when Grace left the front of stage to play piano, her band filled in the frontwoman vacuum with overlapping guitar solos and plenty of lead guitar crowdwork.
The best moment for me was when the band kicked into "Medicine" once I was back in the crowd. It's a fantastic song that for months I always thought was a Heart song when it would come on WRFL. It's not only a crowd pleaser, but a song that the band clearly enjoy using to pump themselves up. In a lineup full of my favorite bands, that song still stands out from Forecastle 2013.