There is a certain amount of tie-dye in the crowd at the Forum, and – very unusually for a show not populated entirely by teens – a strong smell of weed in the air, which seems odd for a show by the latest hero of bluegrass. But then Billy Strings – William Apostol until his aunt gave him his nickname – makes bluegrass of a different kind: this is jam-band bluegrass. Hence the covers of Black Clouds by String Cheese Incident and Fearless by Pink Floyd, alongside more conventional bluegrass staples by the likes of Bill Monroe.
All that is done with no concessions to a rock band lineup, though: Strings, on guitar, is backed by an expert band of mandolin, upright bass, banjo and fiddle. There are no drums – the percussive thwump comes from the bass, and from Strings’ furious downstrokes. There are times when the band makes you think how much bluegrass has in common with technical metal: the formal structuring of some of the songs, and the reverence for high-speed shredding. And over two sets, totalling two and a half hours, you do get a lot of opportunity to listen to high-speed shredding.
