by beantownbubba » Sun Feb 17, 2019 4:47 am
I am approaching this post w/ the greatest humility because I feel like even attempting to describe tonite's show will somehow diminish its perfection. But you know that I will in fact bulldoze my way through and hope to catch some of that lightning in this bottle.
I'll start w/ the easy stuff, which is my personal headline: "Bubba Does the Rail." Biggest thanks to Clams for insisting I give it a whirl and acting as my guide. And thanks to the railbird family who welcomed me with open arms and smiles. The 2 songs I spent up front were revelatory. I mean, I know what the rail is like, I've been there for a couple of non HC DBT shows and some other non DBT shows but there's knowing and there's experiencing. No doubt the immediacy and visceral connection can't be beat and if I could just walk up to the rail at showtime I definitely would, especially now that I have my handy dandy first-time-worn ear plugs (thanks BCM). But God bless you full time railbirds who take the time and make the commitment to secure your spots. I can't do that but I'm glad you do. I just wish for your sakes that you started a little bit later in the day, you crazy kids.
It would not have been hard for any semi-serious fan to predict the likely outlines of tonight's show: It was almost certainly going to be rock/loud oriented and was likely to feature some of the many classics/standards that had not been played the first two nights, e.g. Living Bubba, Uncle Frank, etc. But even knowing and expecting that does not begin to describe the show.
It wasn't like Friday night's sort of cosmic feel good trip through the semi-unknown. It was the straight ahead rock show on steroids and informed by what I would call an equally special sense of community. By Saturday night, almost everyone in the audience had been in Athens and at the shows for at least a couple of days, many had circulated at the heAthen events and the band, too, had been a part of the "scene" beyond the shows themselves. And that's what the show felt like: a community of like-minded people having the time of their lives and communicating on multiple levels/wavelengths at all times. The band was clearly having a blast and seemed perhaps a bit awed at this monster they have created. OT1H, they seemed very appreciative of all the attention and love and OTOH they seemed to get that they could do pretty much anything they wanted to try and the crowd would follow them which has to be an awesome sense of power and just a lot of plain ole fun.
The crowd for its part was ON from the first notes. The loudest, singingest, most electric, most connected, most appreciative crowd I can ever recall being a part of. Just standing in the room was an adrenaline rush and electric buzz.
Before I forget, I've said a couple of times over the years that I hope that I don't start taking Jay Of All Trades's multi instrumental virtuosity for granted, but I fear I may have done just that. At the least I haven't given him appropriate props this week for all he adds to the band's sound and live performance and particularly for his ability to play both keys and geetar in the same song. He's been excellent all week but I thought he particularly smoked tonight on all instruments throughout the set.
Tip of the hat to dogstar for predicting "Living Bubba" for the kick off (at least my guess, "Lookout Mountain" was played). This was not one of those "it sometimes takes a few songs for them to find the groove and that extra gear" nights. Things kicked in at 10, ok maybe 9.5, and went straight up from there.
I'm not sure I realized just how popular "4th Night" is but there was no doubt tonight as the crowd ate it up and following it w/ "Love Like This" was perfect.
"Tales Facing Up" may or may not have made the set due to a request by a certain mollusk, but damn did the crowd fall for it hook, line and sinker. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks there's something special about singing "Sometimes I feel like shit" at the top of your lungs.
There wasn't a down moment in the entire set as the band went from high to high. It's hard to pick out individual highlights before the last couple of songs because they were all played at such a high, intense level. Patterson barely spoke, probably the least I can remember at an HC show, so the momentum just kept going and going. If forced to make some picks, I might spotlight "Uncle Frank," "What It Means" and "The Company I Keep." "Goode's Field Road" and "Where the Devil Don't Say" were also undoubtedly highlights but I may have been influenced by being up front for those.
Just as an aside, I had never noticed before what a great segue "Zip City" is from "I'm Eighteen." Very cool stuff.
"Hell No/Sign O the Times" and "Rockin in the Free World" did manage to achieve a level of superlative that outshone even the rest of this incredible show. The three guitar freak out as Sign morphed back into Hell No was completely over the top, controlled chaos that threatened to spin out of control but never did. Matt's bass in "Rockin'" was so driving and seismic that I had to check twice to make sure that Barbe was indeed playing guitar and not a second bass.
But beyond the individual performances, set list and other typical factors, the key to tonight's show was the electricity and energy that was virtually a tangible thing and the sense of shared enterprise (community?) between band and audience that I've never experienced to that degree before. Nobody could have possibly felt cheated by the time the band decided to call it quits, but I have to say that if they had played all night I would have stayed for every single note. I just didn't want it to end. A truly wonderful way to end a spectacular weekend/Homecoming experience. Let's do it again real soon!
Not sure where to put this, so I might as well do it here: Special shout outs and congratulations to jonicont, ramonz and big tom for receiving well deserved recognition for their efforts on behalf of Nuci's Space in the form of "records" w/ their names on them being added to the Nuci's "wall of fame." Great jobs, gentlemen! I'm sure we'll get the official word soon, but based on the preliminary numbers announced at the Nuci's auction, we raised a shit ton of money this year. Congrats and thanks to all who participated in so many different ways.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard