Bearsville Theater: God Street Wine Brings Enduring Musical Triumph to Woodstock
A founding member of the explosive jamband scene, God Street Wine will reveal its relentless fury by way of a nuanced approach to performance.
God Street Wine. Photo by Patrick Glennon
The State University of New York at New Paltz generated many, many great memories for me.
Attending college there from 1990-93, I like to say, was the greatest decision I ever made in my life, outside of marrying my wife.
My on-campus achievements carry me through each day, in my professional life as a journalist, more than 30 years later. My off-campus exploits, hustles and adventures empower me to be bold and to never take anything too seriously, myself in particular.
Those off-campus exploits include attending many, many shows at Snugs, a hole-in-the-wall bar on lower Main Street. Snugs was awesome. When I think of this establishment, I think of bands raging until 3-4 a.m., many pitchers of beer and sheer triumph consuming the crowded dance floor.
One band that sticks out in my mind, all these years later, is God Street Wine.
In the early 1990s, the jamband scene was on fire, and we were blessed in New Paltz to have our very own group of musicians bringing it all home for us. God Street Wine was always inspiring, always on fire, always there for us and, it always seemed, cheering us on as much as we were cheering them on.
God Street Wine. Photo by Patrick Glennon
I recently took a spin through YouTube to see what the guys have been up to lately and I was pleased to see that they’ve still got it. I was already excited to see them perform at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY, this coming Saturday, March 15, the Ides of March and the late Phil Lesh’s birthday. And after my viewings on YouTube it’s clear that this five-piece ensemble, that embraces musical abandonment, is still cheering us on—and we will of course be cheering them on.
A major New Paltz shout-out to Aaron Lieberman on vocals and guitar; Lo Faber, vocals and guitar; Dan Pifer, bass and vocals; Jon Bevo on keyboards; and Tom Osander on drums and vocals.
The guys in God Street Wine are always striving, never satisfied, never predictable and always encouraging us to rage in our triumph, inside and outside of the music hall. At the heart of it all is finely crafted music that has a strangely-familiar feel but is authentic and original, inside and out.
“God Street Wine is like this organism to me,” said Lieberman, a Woodstock resident. “It’s so interesting to see where it is now.”
The dynamic between the band members, Lieberman said, is driven by “the unexpected…I’ve always used the word synergistic. The sum of all our parts is larger than any one of us.”
Lieberman is especially excited to play the Bearsville Theater because it is now operated by Peter Shapiro, the musical impresario who ran the old Wetlands Preserve club in Manhattan. God Street Wine is a veteran of performing at the Wetlands, which was a cultural outpost for the jamband scene. Shapiro also owns Brooklyn Bowls in Williamsburg, Nashville, Las Vegas and Philadelphia; as well as Garcia’s at The Capitol Theatre and Garcia’s Chicago.
Adding to the anticipation of the gig is the fact that the God Street Wine Bearsville show will be recorded for a live album at Utopia Studios Bearsville. Utopia sits adjacent to the Bearsville Theater in the Bearsville Center complex; is run by the well-respected Pete Caigan; and is where The Lumineers recorded their recently-released album, “Automatic.” The God Street Wine live album will be released through the Relix Live Vinyl Series.
Lieberman performed at the Bearsville during a Woodstock Day School event, when he was the technology director and early childhood music teacher there. But God Street Wine has never performed at the Woodstock cultural destination.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to play there with my own thing,” he said. “The room is really nice. Pete Shapiro is running it. We’re excited to play that hallowed ground.”