Trampled Under Foot Gives Sioux Falls One Last Great Show

Kansas City's award-winning Trampled Under Foot played the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Sioux Falls Friday night on their farewell tour and left the near-capacity crowd on their feet wishing it was the beginning, rather than the end.

Trampled Under Foot or TUF, announced earlier this year that after 11 years, the band was going to split to pursue new ventures. The 'family' band of Nick, Danielle and Kris Schnebelen really ended at the end of 2013 when drumming brother Kris left. Nick and Danielle continued the fantastic tradition, adding drummer Jan Faircloth and keyboardist Mike 'Shinetop Jr. Sedovic, but the music and show never wavered.

This was the fourth time I've been fortunate to see the band (and introduce them) and each show was completely different, yet SO good. They opened JazzFest 2013 and I'm far from the only person to feel like they were the stars of the entire festival that summer. To call TUF a blues band really doesn't give you the full view of all the genres they cover so well in concert. They gave us some fantastic songs from their 'Wrong Side of the Blues' and 'Badlands' albums while also giving us a glimpse into the future of what we can expect when the new bands emerge in 2015 with albums from Slick Nick Schnebelen and the Danielle Nicole Band.

About 2/3 of the way through the set, both Nick and Danielle took solo turns on stage to give us a little 'taste'. Nick gave us a dobro slide fest with a song he wrote for his daughter when she was born and a cool cover of Johnny Winter's 'Mean Town Blues' with a chorus of Ram Jam's 'Black Betty' thrown in for good measure.

Danielle put down her bass for her mini set and picking up a guitar, which she played pre-Trampled Under Foot (she learned bass so the siblings could have a true family band and went on to win a Blues Music Award for best bass player) She covered Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin (Goin' to California) before doing one of my favorite TUF songs, appropriate for the farewell tour, called 'Goodbye'. Her voice has always given me goosebumps, but in that stripped down setting with the acoustics in the Orpheum Theatre, I had a tear in my eye and more goosebumps than I ever thought I could have. I was the first out of my seat for a standing ovation, but certainly not the last as she brought the house down with that performance.

The full band returned to rip through a few more songs, including their set closing cover of the Led Zeppelin song that bears their name: 'Trampled Under Foot'. We wouldn't let them leave without one last encore that left the crowd milling in the lobby talking about what a great show we had just seen while so many lined up for merchandise and a chance to say goodbye to a fantastic band and hello to two new bands in the coming year.

Thank you to Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society and all the sponsors for continuing this great series that brings so many talented bands to Sioux Falls. You can see the rest of the lineup and order tickets here.