DBT Deerfield MA 8/4/22

[beantownbubba]

Always go to the show. An excellent show on a beautiful night.

A beautiful really special outdoor venue at a brewery. The weather was close to perfect once the sun went down and a threatened Tstorm passed by without incident. The show was "sold out" but they clearly were limiting capacity (to 500 I heard) because there was plenty of more room. I also heard rumors that J Mascis was there and that Rachel Maddow might be there but I can't confirm either one. Josh Kantor, however was definitely there and played 2 songs on organ w/ the band. Patterson did a shoutout to local heroes Dinosaur Jr during "Let There Be Rock."

It's always a bit more special when the boys seem to be enjoying themselves and that definitely seemed to be the case tonight. There was a great vibe on stage, in the crowd and between band and audience.

More tomorrow.

[Dose Amigo]

Yes it was a wonderful venue and the band was on fire. The Brewery did a fine job on their first outdoor show. It was wise to limit sales but as Bubba says, there was plenty of room for more.

It was my son's first show and I got to meet Jeff, a long time fan and friend of the band.

Great mix of songs and wonderful energy as usual~

Thank you in advance to the tapers~

[beantownbubba]

I really enjoyed this show. And yes, the band was on fire and the people were great But the things that made this show special for me were more intangible and therefore harder to describe, much less "prove." Undaunted, I will give it a try.

Without question, the venue and the vibe made a difference. Just a beautiful night in all respects. The new songs fit very nicely into the set and most already feel like old friends. A substantial portion of the crowd was obviously familiar with them.

The first thing I noticed, by the second or third song, was how much the band seemed to be enjoying themselves. The vibe I got was that they were just playing for themselves, kind of like front porch picking, it was that kind of relaxed and smiles all around. The next thing I picked up on was that Cooley seemed to be the one pushing things: it seemed like he wanted to just rock out and kept pushing the band w/ his song selections and aggressive playing. For example, "Zip City" was his second song.

OTOH, even saying that, "Filthy and Fried," Cooley's first song, was taken at a little slower than usual pace and Cooley's vocals were extra clearly enunciated and highly emotional. Combined w/ the slower pace, it gave the song a different feel. Instead of being a confused, but more or less positive view of independent sexually forward women, it had more of an elegiac, wistful feeling, kind of like it belonged on the new album as more of a "look back" than current commentary. Like I said, hard to explain but I felt it and thought it gave the song a very new and different feel. Patterson followed with "Righteous Path" which seemed to be a little faster than usual which took a little bit away from it for me, but certainly added to the "we're rockin' out tonight" aspect of the show.

Patterson opened w/ "Shake and Pine" which I know has been his wont recently. Just like when he used to open shows with "Guns of Umpquaa," I don't really get it. Neither song is what I would call a typical show opener. But Patterson knows what he's doing and why so I scratch my head a little bit and follow where he leads. Good version w/ a little live "crunch" enlivening the song without distorting or minimizing it.

Several of the rockers were old fashioned barnburners, featuring the kind of 3 guitar freakouts that used to be common but which we don't hear as much of lately. The guitars were absolutely smoking. Patterson got in his share of licks but Jay and Cooley were particularly, dare I say it, on fire. "The Driver," "Hell No," "Lookout Mountain" and "The Company I Keep" were among the songs benefiting from this kind of attack, especially "The Driver" and "Lookout Mountain." Several people around me commented more than once on the quality of Jay's contributions on both piano and guitar and I certainly agree.

"Every Famous Flameout" and "Sounds Better in the Song" were two more beneficiaries of Cooley's more emotive approach to his vocals as described above. He really rung every bit of the depth and feeling out of "Sounds Better" in particular. It was the kind of performance that makes one sit back and say, "oh yeah! I know it's a great song, but I forgot that it's THIS great."

I was surprised that Patterson did "We'll never wake you up." I don't know what recent set lists have been like and maybe he's been playing it a lot, but it's not the kind of song I expect to hear live very much. Patterson more than did it justice with his committed vocals and the band punched it up in a way that maintained the mood but also sounded better than the record.

The highlight of the evening may have been "Goode's Field Road." I've been calling the arrangement that the band's been doing for a while now the "funk version" but there is funk and there is funk. This was down, dirty and mean, aided mightily by some serious sax playing by the guy whose name I should know by now (apologies!) who does the sax part on "Every Famous Flameout." This was a different kind of playing entirely, not soul accents but more James Brown/Herbie Hancock (in one of his many iterations) souljazz deep within the funk rhythms. Great stuff. I have been saying for a while that the band should take advantage of having the horns around and while this was one great example (and not the one I would have guessed as most likely) I think there is plenty more room to play around w/ horn arrangements on a number of songs and I hope the band goes for it.

I've been hearing raves about opener Wednesday so was really curious to get to hear them. Unfortunately my attention was in and out as I attended to social and logistical matters but I liked what I heard. Maybe not quite as much as the most enthusiastic reviewers (who include Jay and Patterson, btw) but still very good and a band w/ great promise.

ALWAYS GO TO THE SHOW!!

I haven't listened yet so I don't know exactly what's on the tape, but the song listing on archive.org leaves out "Filthy and Fried" as the second song, what should be track 3 including the introduction.

[glennrwordman]

This was down, dirty and mean, aided mightily by some serious sax playing by the guy whose name I should know by now (apologies!) who does the sax part on "Every Famous Flameout."

Mr. Ben Hackett.

[beantownbubba]

I got to meet Jeff, a long time fan and friend of the band.

Presumably headhunter a longtime contributor but seldom seen in recent years.

[beantownbubba]

This was down, dirty and mean, aided mightily by some serious sax playing by the guy whose name I should know by now (apologies!) who does the sax part on "Every Famous Flameout."

Mr. Ben Hackett.

Merci beaucoup mon ami.

[litdimly]

THANK YOU for the write-up Bubba. This is why I cried when it became apparent that you wouldn't be able to go to Paris (edit - that didn't come across as intended. I was sad when you didn't go to Paris because... you didn't get to go). Your reports truly are the next best thing to being there (I sadly had to google to recall that was the phone company's tag line).

The summer tour schedule is exhausting on paper, seems longer than a typical pre-pandemic run by my questionable recollection. I haven't counted but I think they have more shows this run than my hero Bill attends in a month.

[beantownbubba]

THANK YOU for the write-up Bubba. This is why I cried when it became apparent that you wouldn't be able to go to Paris (edit - that didn't come across as intended. I was sad when you didn't go to Paris because... you didn't get to go). Your reports truly are the next best thing to being there (I sadly had to google to recall that was the phone company's tag line).

The summer tour schedule is exhausting on paper, seems longer than a typical pre-pandemic run by my questionable recollection. I haven't counted but I think they have more shows this run than my hero Bill attends in a month.

Thank you so much <3

Per Newton's Fourth Law it is impossible for a band to perform more shows than Bill can attend but yes, it seems like the band's touring schedule is particularly heavy right now. I know I get tired just looking at it on the screen.

One thing I forgot to mention above is that it was pretty cool to watch (and participate in) the crowd's reaction as the show went along. Initially I'd estimate that there were 50-75 people standing in front of the stage in the "pit". After each song (literally) a few more people would head up there so that by the 3/4 mark or so, at least half the crowd was standing in front. That's a pretty good indication of what the audience thought about the show.

[tinnitus photography]

important detail - what kind of beer did you get?