Buffalo

[Tea]

Elective

Set One: The Music Never Stopped ; Jack-A-Roe > Big River ; Cold Rain And Snow ; Greatest Story Ever Told ; Just Like Tom Thumb Blues ; Gomorrah ; Beat It On Down The Line ; Ramble On Rose ; Let It Grow

Set Two: Help On Te Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower ; Sunrise ; Saint Stephen > Iko Iko > drums > space > I Need A Miracle > If I Had The World To Give > One More Saturday Night

Encore: Let It Rock

Sold Out

[Brian NJ]

Great setlist, was nobody at the show to report on this smoker?

[Mr. Goat]

Okay, I'll take a stab at it. It was a seasonably crisp November evening outside, but inside the venue was toasty right from the get go. Before the band took the stage, Sam Cutler came out and announced that a concert hall in Paris had been the scene of an apparent terrorist attack. Although he asked for silence, a couple of bozos behind the soundboard either weren't listening or didn't care, and just kept cackling. When Sam had said his piece, the band came out, explained his significance, and picked up their instruments.

 

The show began with a really hot Music, then came a competent Jack-A-Roe/Big River combo, leading me to believe it would be an elective. I thought the Cold Rain & Snow never peaked, but Eaton's Greatest Story more than made up for it - powerful doesn't describe it. Eaton was at the top of his game the whole night. Skip never ceases to amaze me with his vocal prowess. The guy's a dynamo. I understand he's typecast into singing almost exclusively the Phil tunes, but with a talent like his it's almost criminal not letting him belt out a few other tunes along the way. I guess I should be grateful for what I can get. That Tom Thumb's was one for the highlight reel, and I'm not exaggerating. Next up was Gomorrah. It seemed not many people in the crowd knew that tune, and the same went for Sunrise and World to Give which was to come during set II. BIODTL and RoR both rocked, and then came the Let It Grow which showcased Eaton's ability to bring us to our knees.

 

A phenomenal Help-Slip-Frank began set II, although I thought they could have jammed out Slipknot! just a little more. Damn deadheads can never get enough, right? Lisa absolutely belted out Sunrise, by far my favorite Donna song of all time. It seems her voice just gets stronger with age. The St. Stephen and Iko were both quite sweet. At one point a roadie brought a stool onstage for Mattson, who seemed to be favoring his left knee. An old football injury perhaps? After an abbreviated drums and a lengthier space, Robbie smoked it again with our Miracle. Then came the song of the evening: World to Give. My white whale, I had never seen this beautiful song done live until this moment. DSO was masterful - the guitars were piercing while Skip was the catalyst and the drummers were just going freaking nuts. A Friday night One More Saturday Night was the icing on the cake. An Eaton-heavy show where he just rocked us out of our socks until we had nothing left but smoking leather. The Let it Rock encore was fun, but by that time my face had been stolen and my brain was all amush. It's been two days and I'm still a little shaky. Maybe electives are the way to go after all. See you in Albany.

[PennsylvaniaT-roll]

Solid review Goat! I was there as well and I'd like to echo that the Help>Slip>Franklin's was next level!!! And Let It Grow was top-notch....there was actually a mini drums segment in the middle of it, but right before that segment they got a really unique jam going and it seemed like Skip was leading the ship.

 

And the Town Ballroom is such a cool venue! Really unique architecture. You can literally smell the history of the place when you walk in. I was reading about how Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and a ridiculous list of other talent have played there and that Al Capone used to hang out there frequently as well. Pretty cool!