Setlists For Sure Cure for the Blues

Definately One For The Vault!
This is one of the most amazing Hookah shows and setlits of all time! The Alexander may be the best ever! Sure Cure, the ever rare Blues Forgotten not to mention some Hookah classics lazy river and day by day with Sharon, My own Way and a sick Alexander>Werewolves of London>Backwoods>Alexander. This was before Polanski was a full time member and he sat in the whole show. Could do with out The Giant and Tree House, but some great Ed tunes Surround, Spiders. Blue Sky encore nuff' said!

KooKie HooKie
Very observent China. I think I meet you that day. But I just wanted to add there were a few people that you could tell was not used to the No Hassels or bad aditudes vibe that a EH show brings. But in all I had fun. Thank to what ever group that was that put on the rare UT EH GIG. Woooo Hooo

flatlands
remember ed being pissed off from the stage when ther was a fight, sayig something like 'we are gunna stop this show if fuckin security dont get down here and take care of this' - not exact but remember him saying 'fuck' - was kinda a buzzkill! -love ed tho and still a fan of his- but still a EH fan first!

Beehive
I went north a day early and chilled in Kent for a day, before heading up the Pittsburgh way. Danni and I left on I-76 east towards Youngstown about 4pm or so on Friday, and with the helpfully detailed directions via Smitty, we arrived at the beehive around sound check time where i sat and talked shop with Chopp for a while. on to Mr. Bill to see what was all entailing in his world. he was lax as usual, aside the fact he was dealing with a sound system that looked like something straight from the early 50's or so. it created more hiss than a 20th generation analog cassette that had been taped on something that hadn't been cleaned or demagged in over 100 uses. i thought to myself that this might be an interesting evening. we had a couple of hours to burn before show time so we sat around and played backgammon and euchre with Dave and Eric until it approached the supposed 9:30 start time. the venue itself was a little odd for me, as the soundboard was on the under 21 side and the only thing between me and a view of the stage was a 10 foot high diagonal metal fence. the atmosphere and energy in the room was something i thought was pretty intense. as for the structural lay-out of the place, everything was awesome except that fence. it's an old movie theater and has, what i thought, were very good acoustics. the lights dropped and the the place got dark. thanks to the Wobblee himself, we had a somewhat synchronized light display. he did the best with what we had to work with. amazingly enough, although the hiss was pretty bad when it was dead quiet, Ol' Bill must have twirled his magic fingers, because it sounded good. from minute one I thought the mix was perfect. They opened the show with one of my all-time favorite ed tunes, springtime again. the energy started out intense and just escalated. i kept looking at the time and the songs they had played and through the first five tunes, they had been playing almost an hour. from the opener, Dave took the mic and laid down a really thick utopia, followed by Roller Coaster. i now have a new appreciation for that song. the crossfire of instruments in the heat of the rhythm unloaded the most cocky version of surround i have ever heard. at one point all instruments were in complete synchronized jam so intensely that they almost became one. as soon as they did, they brought it back down with the bow we wow woump. hands down boys. Dave lightened the load for a little bit, while the mellowness of the beginning stages of so they say took place. as for the second half of this tune, just like jack the ripper. i love hearing ed sing the fi fi and her red knitted sweater song. one of my favorite cover tunes. lady vanilla followed up before Dave took on the acoustic guitar to finish up the set. it had been 45 shows since Dave last played sure cure for the blues. he had chopper all freaked out, cuz the last time before that that Dave had played it, was also 45 shows apart. just coincidence? i think so. music closed the set and the boys paused for a 25 minute intermission. The lights dropped once more and the boys goofily twanged their instruments before Clifford teed off with John Henry. from there, the insanity intensified with a crazily mind-blowing schwa. every time they play this song, it makes me want to jump onstage and start screaming SCHWA!!! the urge hasn't yet overcome the cognitive, so my insanity stops there. i really dug the daffodils. absolutely one of my favorite songs. that beginning guitar riff does something to set my groove right. this blended really well into Hush, a tune I hadn't heard in a long while. ed mellowed the rage with a splendid version of pass the cider. he has a way of making even the mellowest of songs intense. then he made the intensist of tunes more intense, when they busted into lax. that reggae-ish type jam in the middle of the tune is pretty wild. Dave got on acoustic guitar and they kicked down an awesome rendition of silver train that segued into the ever so foot stopping hodown song, Keepin' Time. Ed polished off the close of the set with the back to back Alexander jams. man was Sweney on fire. hanging out with Eric earlier, he was remembering the specifics of the encore, so i pretty much guessed it was coming. this tune too, i hadn't heard in a while either, so it was nice. they jammed for about three total hours, and worth every second of it. off for Kent that night, and with a few things left undetailed in our directions, we were lost from the get go. Pittsburgh is a tricky city to get around in and if you're not familiar, you end up, you guessed it, lost. somehow we ended up on I-279 southbound, needing it northbound. after crossing the river, we decided to get out the map. it turned out that if we went a little further, we'd hit I-79 northbound. so off we went, not being able to keep going on I-279 southbound towards I-79. instead, we were on I-279 northbound going back into the city. oh well, that we did and eventually pulled into kent around 4:30AM. it was a rainy night and her windshield wipers were blurry in the rain. talk about hypnotizing. it made it for a long drive back that night.

Superstar
This has to be my favorite acoustic show. Great time with my friends right in the middle of falling in love with my wife. Another memory I'll never shake.

pilgrim
http://www.archive.org/details/eh2007-12-01.aud.shn imo worth a listen the under full sail from this night is only paralleled in my heart by the ufs>ikyr from 2/17/07 hbd

My after birthday show
Yesterday was my birthday and I had such an awesome time with my family and friends. My mom brought me some cutie clothes and got a cake, my coworker got me a few awesome things, and my boyfriend took me out to see a movie all in all is was a pretty awesome day. But today has nothing to do with my birthday it has to do with Ekoostik! For all those that don't know Ekoostik is one of my top three favorite bands ever in my life that I've seen over a hundred times and travelled near and far for. They are a really awesome Ohio grown band that has a freaky unique style of music that consists of rock, jam, bluegrass, and you know it just is what it is: Ekoostik style. Ekoostik style is the rough yet harmonious vocals of John Mullins and him sometimes forgetting his lyrics, the always mind melting soulful twangs of Steve Sweney's guitar the sound as if the guitars a vocalist in itself, the always funky bass jam of Cliff Starbuck or the way he plays the harmonica like it's a body function and him sometimes forgetting his lyrics, Eric Lanese's boom in your chest beat of the drum but ever melodious thunder in his voice and yet again hard rock Harley driving side, and Dave Katz intoxicating voice and the way he plays his piano like making love to a sexy lady sometimes soft and slow, and sometimes rough and dirty. We have gone through many trials and tribulations with our fellows, good times and great times. I've been traveling to see Ekoostik for the past 7-8 years and that's not even a lot compared some people. We are a tight knit group of people. I've made many long lasting friends that I consider my family. Traveling around with Kellyjo and brookie, attempting cheerleading costumes with Allie, going to ville after ville festival after festival, listening to the ever wise words of Nem, getting bear hugs from BrotherMike, always looking up to Liz and Corrine, being jealous of the photos that Chris takes, riding a bus to Georgia with all the crazies there are too many too even mention. Over the years I've gotten to know the members of the band and their families as well and consider them my family. Anyway what was I talking about again, oh yeah the hookah concert. So I woke up today alone since Joel had to work early and I'm giddy but there's no one here to share. As soon as I heard his key in the door I jumped for joy and skipped down the stairs. I was going to ask him if he remembered what today was but I hadn't let him forget for the past few weeks so I settled with a kiss. I cashed my check, paid some bills, watched Joel play Mario tennis while I put on makeup and doused myself with black glitter then we were on our way. Being a hookahhead through and through I knew that the show was at headliners instead of the before planned Civic Theater. I wanted to be there at 9:00 but we didn't end up getting there till 9:30. Of course we made the usual bet of when hookah was going to go on, I always think it's going to be earlier and Joel always knows it isn't. He said he knew that they weren't going to be on when we got there and he was so positive he took the long way to prove it too me. The whole way I kept asking "are you lost, are you lost". We finally did arrive and so did hookah and it was lights camera action time. How else can I describe Ekoostik except to say fun was defiantly had by all! The first set finally let me release that bouncing energy that I had built up over the past weeks but it had enough slow moments to not let me burn completely out. Tumblin defiantly is always a great way to start the show. I once again floated my way to my front designated spot, if you don't know its Katz side for me. I was always bouncing even in while unhealthily smoking "What, u guys don't know how to slither like a Serpentine?" I was singing and dancing while smoking, waiting in line for my beer, and even in the bathroom. The guys appeared to be really enjoying themselves and that always makes the shows so much better. They really seemed to be in sync with each other. As soon as I got up front, saw Dave and he wished me Happy Birthday before going into the next song I knew this was going to be a fun one. Deep River blues was a great added feature because I always love hearing Eric sing, his voice was smooth like butter. In the clouds sent my head floating up to the risers. The soul in Dave's voice like put me in a trance that felt like a dream. Then John took it into stuck in the snow and I felt like a zombie but instead of brains I feed on intense lyrical content and deep meaning. Too much metaphor, I'll try my best to stop but it's so hard. Sheepdog was like icing on my birthday cake. It seemed like you could hear more feet stomping then Eric's drumming. I always feel like I'm at some crazy psycadelic hoedown where all the people are cover in tie-dye and patchwork yet still slapping their knees and doe see doeing. At one point I literally had to stop to breathe, damn cigarettes. I used the little I had left to boogie to shadane then got relieved when john said they were taking a break. I needed to sit for a minute, hey what can I say, I just turned 25 the day before I'm old. Joel jokingly said "I got my Sheepdog, I'm ready to go." I just laughed, he knew there was no way he was dragging me out till the fat lady sings or at least till the encore. Black Mamba started off the next set of what I thought was just pure magic. Before the show Joel and I made a bet on a game of Mario Tennis, If he won he would have full control of the show. I mean full control like where to stand, when to go up front, and gasp how much beer I could drink and the bet was vice versa. Can you tell who won? I used the bet to my advantage so by long way home I was up front center Dave side, the best side. Take that! Just kidding. Anyway carry on, Isis set us raging. Cliff was on point and at one point he used his head bandana to channel Jimi and took his bass all the way to the ground and brought it back up. He plucked his bass with fury and spit the harmonica with so much intensity. I was up front with a girl that made me giggle. She had a teeny tiny loner sign and she was trying to show Dave. Being the queen of the signs, I told her she needed it to be a bit bigger if she wanted to get his attention, then we jumped up and got his attention. The crowd was going crazy bananas by the time that here today started we all were on a definite cloud nine. The guys must have thought that all the bouncing built up an appetite because before we got to gone tomorrow we had a scrumptious bit of loner in there. Yummy! Many of you know me well and you know I don't like to be touched, stranger wise, and I stand my ground and I'm stubborn! So needless to say when a super drunk old bald guy came up and wacked me right in the head to get to Dave it was more than I could handle. I'm a Katz side girl but I'll hold my ground like those crazy Sweney siders. So as he was winding up for air POW number two, I grabbed him by the arms and said "If you touch me again ill punch you in the face." Joel was right behind me and seemed a bit nervous that he was going to have to defend me in a fight, but without blinking an eye I started dancing it up again like nothing ever happened. By the end of loner I turned and that guy was completely gone, score one for me. After loner we were expecting a slow again but that didn't happen when they added the cheese to our sandwich by playing grass. Grass made us fly high and finishing loner then gone tomorrow, the here today was earlier, we were all stuffed to the brim. Of course during reciprocity Joel wanted to smoke but he doesn't understand the meaning it has for me. My first Ekoostik album ever was dubbabuddah; I listened to that CD for literally a year straight before I got another one. That CD was dust when I was through with it so he definitely didn't get cigarette time. By the time reciprocity was over he was fiending for a cigarette and they had said goodnight but in hookah tradition we knew the encore was coming soon. After a couple minutes of "Hoooooooooooooooooookah" Steve came back out and with the first minute of playing I knew what was coming. And when I die isnt one of the songs I requested but that's ok because it is one of my top five. After finishing my exercising for the night I blew Dave air kisses and we went on our way, what can I say I was exhausted! All in all hookah was on point, the crowd was full of devoted fans and my hookah belly was full, defiantly satisfying!

NYE 2009
cliff's "last" show with the band was, as expected, one to remember. for some of us! haha..some meories include solo's and duo's and banjo's. SFS played some sick-nasty acoustic Monnett. was nice to hear everyone do their own thing. there was cliff's funny hats and his funky boogie break down dancing :)...it was a rare blue moon and the theme was put to use with "circle of the moon", "hide behind the moon", and "blue moon of kentucky." there were dueling double bass features and the sickest "sister sugar" of the decade took place. of course there was some harmonica in there. other song highlights, for me, include "thumper" and "green." it was nice to have the added elements..especially the sax. but i am biased on that one. love me some horn action!! overall, was most definetely the way bring in 2010. thanks boys!

NYE
What a great show! A little bittersweet but a good show! The energy never stopped!