Reviews

Agora
We arrived at the agora around 8PM or so and got acquainted with the venue one more time. I hadn't made a trek to this wonderful theatre since they played the psychedelic festival with widespread panic and hypnotic clambake in, I believe, march of 94. how beautiful. we goofed around and randomly chatted with friends until the opening act started. I think their name was the Andy Johnson Explosion. anyone confirm this? i didn't stick around for much, but they seemed, and i know it's not right to make comparisons to other bands, but a cross between electric 90's bob Dylan and Elvis Costello. the boys eventually took the stage and christened the night with backwoods rose. over the years this song has come a long way in the bands stability and they show us why in this rendition. boy does it sound polished. you know it's going to be a good night when the second tune out of the gate begins with one of the funkiest sugar jams I've ever heard. The twistling of the ivory and the thumping impact of Clifford dropping the bomb on my chest, literally set me in my seat. I think ed was having technical difficulties with the acoustic when he launched the giant. fe fi fo fum. the boys though it would be goofy to enact a baseball skit of some sort, so ed took the guitar and acted like he was batting. Clifford was catching and Dave was at the keyboard pitching. Starrcatt handled the ball while Eric reenacted the sound of the ball on the kick drum. poor Steve. i think he was better left to sit and figure out what exactly was going on. Dave pranced around with the ever so melodic, happy go lucky tune, brighter day. tree house was to follow. what a gem. I love this song as much as the next. Irv, your bumming. Sharon graced the stage with her presence accompanying the boys with the Robbie Robertson tune, it makes no difference. back to hee haw time as Dave took to the strings for silver train. then they let loose a new tune, an instrumental tune that has about as much potential to evolve as the Dead's own dark star. Dave said he's calling it dumpster. I didn't ask the details as to why and just accepted the fact. this closed the set and a bit of time to relax before the lights dropped again. Ed took the stage solo style and offered us much to celebrate at the beginning of the second set. in honor of earth day and peter Frampton's 50th birthday, he sang another first time played, All I Wanna Be (is by your side). Talk about nailing some high pitches. whew! the band then came back on stage and Dave kicked down a rather absorbing My Own Way that gravitated into Lax. their transitions from song to song seem to be getting more subtle and it works well. After a few second stall, Dave brings us find out that subtle-ized itself into what I thought was a ear whacking experience, sifting into a sweetly beautiful mountain home. those of you that at the last second decided not to go, you missed the highlight of the night here. they continued on their way through the set with a fatty Ecstasy, before ed barked out bone. i didn't recognize Clap for the Wolfman at first, as i hadn't heard it since Halloween. it worked well gliding into the spaced out, high intensity tune that always seems to take the roof off the place. Something about Slipjig that blows my mind. leaving the stage on a high note, the boys had yet to do an encore. when they came back out and Dave was on acoustic guitar, I thought only one thing. somewhere down the line. it seems like I haven't heard that tune in a bit. while Eric and the Starrcatt gave us a little rhythm groove for a minute or two in the sandwich, the night slowly came to an end. safely home and sound, it's now after 1:15AM, and I have to get up in under 4 hours. For those of you have made it all the way to the end, thank you for letting me share the experience. I hope all is well in hookahland. Enjoy your day.