By Fred Mills

Grace Potter bursts into the dressing room area of the Orange Peel like a woman on fire—if she were a ‘toon, there would be a small dust storm trailing in her wake. I chalk this up partly to the fact that her band the Nocturnals has just been informed by the crew that they are due onstage in less than five minutes—Potter & Co. are currently in the middle of the 12-date, co-headlining “March Madness Tour” with the Benevento/Russo Duo, en route to a big blowout in Florida at the Langerado festival, and tonight it’s their turn to take the opening slot—but mostly because, based on observing her in concert a few times, she IS a woman on fire, an effervescent dervish hell-bent on a musical mission. Indeed, you can’t help getting swept up in that wake: with her arrival the action quotient ramps up in the room, bandmates Scott Tournet, Matt Burr and Bryan Dondero visibly energized merely by her presence.

Or maybe it’s because I’ve just passed out copies of the March issue of Harp, the final issue that features Potter literally draping herself in the American flag for our Election 2008 special. [Editor’s after-the-fact note: Harp, which folded in mid-March, was BLURT’s immediate predecessor.] The male three-quarters of the Nocturnals are bound to have seen their frontwoman sans clothing at some point; there’s no way a band can tour as much as these folks do and not encounter some occasional immodesty (unintentional or otherwise). But still, there’s just something about looking at a photo of a gorgeous woman wearing nothing but white go-go boots and the Stars & Stripes…

“Oh my god, that’s awesome!” Potter hoots when I show her the magazine and point at the photo in question. Clearly, this is an insightful individual who can appreciate the tangled nuances of politics, publishing and pulchritude. Okay, Grace, I will leave you folks to get ready for your set…

… and we’re off. Potter may be a woman on fire, but tonight she intends to spark the blaze stealthily. The show opens with “Sugar,” a slow soul-blues with Potter seated at her keyboards, coaxing out sleek chords from her Hammond organ as the Nocturnals lay down a sensual groove behind her. (They’ve played this song for Asheville once before: Potter wrote it last December while they were in town for two nights of the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, debuting it for the assembled holiday season revelers.) And it’s the perfect opener, setting the mood for the next song, the equally sensual but distinctively funky “Stop the Bus,” one of the best-known tracks from the band’s 2007 hit This Is Somewhere.

The heat gradually rising in the room, Potter then straps on one of her trademark Flying V axes and the band launches into THE signature tune from that album, “Ah Mary,” which was all over the radio last year. Even if they’ve played it probably every night since it was penned—anthemic to the core and a sure-fire adrenalin-stoker and crowd-pleaser, it may be destined to become the Nocturnals’ “Born To Run” or “American Girl”—they plow into it with the same levels of vim ‘n’ vigor a group might muster during the early stages of a favored song’s setlist tenure. It’s called hitting that sweet spot, and you can’t fake it.

By now the crowd—duly sparked—is in motion, and Potter isn’t about to squander the momentum. She and her Nocturnals have a keen sense of how to channel dynamics and in their material they also strike an impressive balance among styles. One moment they’re serving up a rootsy/seventies Muscle Shoals vibe (Potter’s Hammond figuring largely in that equation), the next a jamband-friendly psychedelic rocker (it’s no surprise that the j-b community embraced the Nocturnals early on), and the next a joyous burst of pure powerpop (“Ah Mary” isn’t necessarily a group template, but it is one of several insta-anthems that they excel at). In short, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals wanna take you higher—and they do.

Among the many highlights: “Ain’t No Time,” Springsteenian and engaging, alight with guitar jangles and Potter’s urgently intimate vocals; “Big White Gate,” a showcase for Potter-as-soul-mama in the vocal tradition of Bonnies Raitt and Bramlett and Joan Osborne; and a rousing slice of Stones-like Southern blooze-rock ("Meantime") spotlighting Tournet’s estimable slide skills and featuring Potter on that Flying V once again (“My flying vagina,” Potter quips).

By the time Marco Benevento (keyboards) and Joe Russo (percussion) come out onstage to guest, the atmosphere in the club is positively electric. With Potter’s natural, hip-swaying charisma and the Nocturnals’ muscular musicality having already fanned the flames, the expanded ensemble’s rousing, so-funky-it’s-stanky version of Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time” is like spraying gasoline on the fire. And for the final number, a holy-rollin’ gospel boogie rawker called “Nothing But the Water” (from the 2006 album of the same name), Grace, Scott, Matt and Bryan pull out all the stops, channeling everybody from Aretha Franklin to Humble Pie to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to My Morning Jacket. As I glance around the room and take stock of the heaving, stomping crowd I could swear I spot several audience members spontaneously combusting.

Burn, baby, burn.

[Photo Credit: Allie Goolrick]