Ganstagrass

May 17, 2019











Gangstagrass

Whenever I travel anywhere, I always try to take a look at the cultural and entertainment scene of the place before I arrive just in case there is something going on that I should check out. I usually find that there is, in fact often multiple choices are usually a problem and I get to be selective about what I go and see and what I do. My trip to Indianapolis this month was no different and once again I was able to seek out the new, unique and different to explore.



This led me to one of my favorite venues in Indianapolis, the Hi Fi in Fountain Square which pretty much constantly delivers some of the best music around and where I find myself increasingly spending my free evenings when I am in Indianapolis. My first visit this month was to go and see the band Ganstagrass, which I was previously totally unfamiliar with, but which seemed to fit the bill as something unique and interesting.







Formed in 2006 in Brooklyn, Ganstagrass is a crazy interesting mix of two genres that you would never normally associate with each other, hip hop and bluegrass. When mixed, it produces a totally new and original sound unlike pretty much anything I had ever experienced. The band found initial success when one of their songs was selected as the theme song to the FX TV show “Justified”.









Gangstagrass producer Rench and rapper T.O.N.E.Z were nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music for "Long Hard Times to Come." And found some commercial success after that through near constant touring. Yet somehow the band had totally escaped my notice, which must mean that I am slipping somewhat on keeping up with newer music. Thankfully I was able to rectify that by attending the show.









It really is a totally unique blend and certainly worth a listen, the live show that the band presented was a high energy blast that had the crowd amped. I was certainly happy that I was able to attend and look forward to hopefully seeing the band again in the future.



Johnny Rutherford





Of course the real reason that I was in Indianapolis was to attend the 103^rd running of the Indianapolis 500 and practice for this year’s race officially began on Tuesday after the Indy Grand Prix under sunny, cool conditions that were just about perfect for the cars. I spent much of the week at the track attending the practice sessions as the teams attempted to get their cars up to speed for the qualifying weekend.

Dan

Fernando Alonso and Tony Kanaan



Michael Andretti

James Hinchcliffe



One of the cool things that I did this week, that I had never done in all my years in coming to the track was tour the inside of the Emergency Medical Center which treats both drivers and fans in two separate areas. Not generally a place anyone wants to see the inside of, the tour was nonetheless a fascinating look behind the scenes at the medical center. It is really remarkable what they can accomplish in such a small space and their work has saved both drivers and fans from some horrific injuries during the month of May.













The practice week went fairly smoothly for a lot of the teams, with one of the exceptions being the biggest pre-race story of this year, the return of Team McClaren and driver Fernando Alonso, who is one of the world’s best drivers and was attempting to make a return to the starting grid after being here in 2017 with Andretti Autosports. Sadly the team struggled throughout the week, culminated by a fairly substantial crash that totaled their primary car and had them scrambling to prepare a back-up in time to qualify.













http://gangstagrass.com/