Heathens Homecoming 2024

[beantownbubba]

Aaannnnnd right on schedule cue snowstorm. Safe (and timely) travels, everyone!

[scotto]

Aaannnnnd right on schedule cue snowstorm. Safe (and timely) travels, everyone!

Safe travels to you as well. See you Tuesday probably.

[beantownbubba]

Aaannnnnd right on schedule cue snowstorm. Safe (and timely) travels, everyone!

Safe travels to you as well. See you Tuesday probably.

I like the hedge, born of experience.

[RedCelt]

I’m officially in now.

Purchasing Saturday was a bear. I tried Saturday first and after multiple failed attempts, I bought the other three nights. Then I still couldn’t get Saturday, but eventually I was able to get them.

Purchasing Saturday involves enough emotion that I feel the experience is due for a DBT composition. I feel like I just raced in Daddy’s Cup!

Normally I have a similar experience when the presale, and I thought I wouldn’t this year since all tickets were released at once.

Oh well, 25 minutes of torture for a long weekend of fun with great friends ain’t too bad of a deal!

See y’all soon!

Beaverdam - I can relate to the torture of those ticket sales - It looked for a bit like we weren't going to get Saturday night tickets. But we did and we are getting ready for the drive down to Athens Wednesday. Look forward to seeing you again.
-RedCelt / Mike M

[RedCelt]

Let’s do the Annual Beer Share Friday @ 4pm ish at the motel hotel Holliday Inn!! Happy hour!!! Or Hours depending on how long you stay. Looking forward to seeing all of the Bobs!!

Looking forward to the Beer Share and seeing all the Bobs again.

[Beaverdam]

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t missing Smitty!!!!

[beantownbubba]

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t missing Smitty!!!!

Fuck yeah. Especially, for me, during Pauline Hawkins.

[beantownbubba]

Special 12 word review for Clams:

"Space City." Mercy 'Buckets." Do i really need to say anything else?

To the surprise of no one i'm sure, i will say more either later tonight if I can't sleep or in the morning.

[beantownbubba]

Last night was a fun evening. It was obviously going to be different than a DBT homecoming show and it was. Just about everyone I spoke to liked the idea of starting earlier in the evening and "easing into" the weekend with something a little "lighter" and more informal (not that the rock show is exactly a formal event, lol).

I thought the evening had a lot of highlights with all the performers contributing but didn't really cohere or jell as an event. I think that was mostly because there were too many people on stage (6; PH, Cooley, Jay, Claire Campbell, Don Chambers and Dave Marr). That's not a complaint about the obvious high level of talent, just that rotating songs among 6 people was too many for things to knit together. Also the audience as a whole was unsurprisingly way more familiar with the PH and Cooley songs (though i was a little surprised and gratified at how many seemed to be at least somewhat familiar with Jay's) which made for an uneven ebb and flow. I thought there would be more storytelling introducing the songs and banter among the performers and I think the large number of performers hindered that a bit, at least until late in the show when things loosened up considerably.

As indicated, 'Mercy Buckets" and "Space City were the highest highlights for me. Claire Campbell had a moment which I imagine most performers dream of: The crowd was getting progressively louder as the first round of songs moved from Hood and Cooley through Chambers, Marr and Gonzalez and Campbell pretty much quieted everyone just with the quality of her voice/singing and her stage presence. It also helped that the song was a very funny take on a one night (or maybe it was a no night?) stand. She also stood out playing the saw on one of Jay's songs. The fact that there is something called playing the saw continues to amaze me just by itself

Speaking of the crowd, the audience went about 2/3 of the way back at the 40 Watt but it was much less crowded together than is typical of a homecoming rock show so my very off the cuff estimate is that the place was about half full. The front portion of that half was very into the entire show, giving the performers their complete attention and having some familiarity with all the performers material (I put myself in the full attention category but other than Jay, I lacked familiarity with the others' work). There's obviously nothing wrong with going out for an evening at a bar to drink and socialize. What i don't get is why anyone would pay $35 for the "privilege" and then basically ignore the show and yak through all of it as about 20 or 25% of the audience did. That's not even considering the basic consideration of allowing other patrons to listen (the show was all acoustic and the talking was not covered over as it can be with loud amplified music).

Especially since it was the first night there was plenty of excitement and enjoyment with people seeing each other for, in many cases, the first time in quite a while. "The people" are always one of the great joys of this event and this year is no exception. I have no idea whether that last sentence is grammatically correct but i'm gonna go with it. More arrivals are expected today but some of the regulars are not attending and they are missed.

Always go to the show!

[beantownbubba]

PS The show clocked in at a very generous 3+ hours.

[vt3pinandy]

My friend, JR (HHC virgin last year), is meeting me again. Due to the difficulties securing hotel rooms, we are sharing a king size bed at the Holiday Inn Express…we’ve been buddies for a quarter of a century

Lucky you. My buddy Dave who is here this year and I shared a Queen bed on a ski trip a few weeks back. The spoon jokes are still flowing. You got room for a monkey in the middle in that big thing . Good to see you again and look forward to catching up more at the events.

[vt3pinandy]

Especially since it was the first night there was plenty of excitement and enjoyment with people seeing each other for, in many cases, the first time in quite a while. "The people" are always one of the great joys of this event and this year is no exception. I have no idea whether that last sentence is grammatically correct but i'm gonna go with it. More arrivals are expected today but some of the regulars are not attending and they are missed.

Always go to the show!

Thanks for the recap and hope the full band and volume tonight will help keep the chatter to a minimum. I was probably a little guilty as I saw many of my peeps for the 1st time of the weekend and hellos were had but tried to focus on the band and don't think I got to many dirty looks. It was a pleasure seeing you again and hope to talk more outside the Rock Shows!

[Frog Man]

Is there a meet up this evening before the show?

[beantownbubba]

Is there a meet up this evening before the show?

I am not aware of anything specific but there will always be heAthens in 2 places: On line at the 40 Watt, usually starting at least an hour before doors (It starts earlier as the weekend moves along) and flicker bar where people tend to drift in and out but which should be pretty crowded starting sometime after 6.

There will also probably be scattered groupings at nearby bars and restaurants including Ted's, Clocked and Trappeze. There's also a new (at least since last year) tex-mexish place where the Korean bbq place and before that Farm 225 used to be; I don't know if it's been discovered yet or whether it's worth discovering.

[Mundane Mayhem]

On line at the 40 Watt

Your New Yorker is showing, bubba.

Very jealous of all you HeAthens this weekend and looking forward to following along from afar.

[scotto]

I know Bubba's review of Thursday night will be much more eloquent, but here's mine: Holy Fucking Shit!

[beantownbubba]

Your New Yorker is showing, bubba.

I knew I would hear about it from someone, I just didn't know who.

[beantownbubba]

I know Bubba's review of Thursday night will be much more eloquent, but here's mine: Holy Fucking Shit!

Damn, scotto, throwing down the gauntlet. That's a tough, accurate act to follow.

I'll start with the 10 word review, tonight in honor of ponygirl, wherever she may be: The band was on fire and the people were great. Really.

[beantownbubba]

I have learned not to go down the rabbit hole of what's "a Thursday show" v. "a Saturday show" and the like. There are common elements to most shows but there are also differences which endlessly renews the experience and leads to the mantra, "always go to the show."

It was a barnburner tonight. Patterson started it off with, I shit you not, "Life In The Factory." Cooley saw that and raised with "Shut Your Mouth and Get Your Ass on the Plane." Seriously? A much loved rarity and a rip roaring end of set crowd stoker as the first two songs? Who does that? I need to see the setlist to be more certain about how definitively i can say that the band drew from most eras of their career, but if they didn't hit them all they sure hit a lot of them from "Buttholeville/State Trooper" to "Every Single Storied Flameout." I don't think it was any kind of conscious retrospective, i suspect it just worked out that way.

The show clocked in at a very efficient 2:15 or so and by efficient I mean it was straight ahead music w/ not a lot of talk. Jay always and continually amazes me with his multi instrumental talent but tonight i thought he particularly shined on guitar.

Everyone I spoke to had nothing but high praise for the show with not a single complaint or "but." The mid set segue from "Every Single Storied Flameout" to a seriously funky "Goode's Field Road," both with horns was a super special highlight. Glennwordman approves this message and I didn't even have to ask him to know that. The people I spoke to were also uniformly in favor of the earlier start time.

I'll probably add a few more comments when I see the setlist but the bottom line is, to quote a friend of mine, "holy fucking shit."

[scotto]

The other big surprise was "Wallace." Complete with the vamp about the backup singers all being pregnant and in U of Alabama cheerleader outfits (yes I did) and the audience singalong on Alabamaaaaaaaaa. I'd never caught that one live before and I--and about everyone I was near and I'm sure most folks in the room--were slack jawed. So I counted five SRO songs; however, Patterson made a big point to neither confirm, nor deny, those rumors going around, which he coyly didn't specify, but the only ones I've heard concern SRO, the upcoming tour, and a special release package. It's a great to be a HeAthen.

[beantownbubba]

Yeah, I woke up this morning thinking "oh no, I forgot 'Wallace'!" Definitely a surprise and probably a first for just about everyone in the audience. Folks were buzzing about it afterwards.

[vt3pinandy]

The other big surprise was "Wallace."

Wallace was fricking amazing. I might have melted a bit at that point and guessing my eyeliner(attempt at Goth) was 1st to go. The smiles all around were indicative of what transpired in that room. To top it off I am 99 % sure it was my 40th DBT show. Looked at the list before I came down and realized I had not entered a couple PH shows in Dec. Look forward to seeing some of you at Cine today and then tonight.

[Mundane Mayhem]

Anyone got a setlist?

[beantownbubba]

Anyone got a setlist?

A VERY good question. Ahem, ahem. You know who you are.

[pearlbeer]

Anyone got a setlist?

A VERY good question. Ahem, ahem. You know who you are.

Two nights and no setlists?

[scotto]

Friday night: Road Cases!

[beantownbubba]

About 5 or 6 songs into the Truckers' set i caught a flash of something in my peripheral vision, looked to the right and saw a shock of silver/white hair and a longish silver/white beard. For just that half second I thought "Good, Rod's here..." So this 7 word review is in memory of the much missed LBRod: That was a show for the ages.

Back in the old days, before Patterson and Cooley started confusing us by opening shows with songs like "Life In The Factory" and "Shut Up...," among the surest signs that the evening was likely to be special was if Patterson opened w/ either "Lookout Mountain" or "The Living Bubba." Tonight it was Bubba and it turned out to be about as sure a sign as there is.

Do people still say "shredding" to describe superior guitar playing? Well, I guess I do 'cause Jay and Cooley were absolutely shredding all night. Thrilling.

"Love Like This," played slow and understated with a great Cooley vocal might well have been definitive. "Adam Raised A Cain" was imho the definitive Truckers' version and it is a contender for best version period since Bruce himself was doing his thing during the original Darkness tour. Outstanding and transportive.

If I heard him correctly, Patterson said how much he loves playing on "Women Without Whiskey" and called it among the greatest songs ever written. Two nights in and still no "Zip City." Not unheard of but not all that usual, either.

Perhaps a little oddly or perhaps indicative of some of the ways this show was special, it was clearly a show the cognoscenti could love with great playing and songs pulled from everywhere ("Wife Beater," anyone?) but I think was also accessible to newer fans with plenty of straight ahead rockers (w/ those great guitars) and a setlist heavy on the "classic period" albums SRO, DD and TDS. The band's catalog is so vast at this point that they can only play a fraction of it on any given night but after 2 nights the "missing album" that stands out to me is American Band. That's not a complaint, just an observation. I guess the band is just going to have to play longer Tonight's show was about the same length as last nite's with an extended version of "Angels & Fuselage" bringing the proceedings to an almost eerie (in a good way) close.

I'm not sure if this is true, but it seemed like EZB's kit was way back on the stage which created a lot of extra room for the other players to move about the stage more than usual. I'm curious whether others saw it that way too. The band also did a lot more of that "4 across the stage" thing w/ Matt, Cooley, Patterson and Jay all singing on multiple songs.

I had been greatly looking forward to the opening set by The Paranoid Style but I was also a bit concerned about how their very wordy, quirky and clever songs would translate to the live stage and I have to say that while it was exciting to see them (especially with the estimable Peter Holsapple on guitar) those concerns were well founded. I don't understand why the vocals (i.e. the lyrics) which are the raison d'etre of this band were so low in the mix. Still, I am glad I got to see the band live.

Come on setlist keepers, help us out here, wouldja?

[RolanK]

About 5 or 6 songs into the Truckers' set i caught a flash of something in my peripheral vision, looked to the right and saw a shock of silver/white hair and a longish silver/white beard. For just that half second I thought "Good, Rod's here..." So this 7 word review is in memory of the much missed LBRod: That was a show for the ages.

Back in the old days, before Patterson and Cooley started confusing us by opening shows with songs like "Life In The Factory" and "Shut Up...," among the surest signs that the evening was likely to be special was if Patterson opened w/ either "Lookout Mountain" or "The Living Bubba." Tonight it was Bubba and it turned out to be about as sure a sign as there is.

Do people still say "shredding" to describe superior guitar playing? Well, I guess I do 'cause Jay and Cooley were absolutely shredding all night. Thrilling.

"Love Like This," played slow and understated with a great Cooley vocal might well have been definitive. "Adam Raised A Cain" was imho the definitive Truckers' version and it is a contender for best version period since Bruce himself was doing his thing during the original Darkness tour. Outstanding and transportive.

If I heard him correctly, Patterson said how much he loves playing on "Women Without Whiskey" and called it among the greatest songs ever written. Two nights in and still no "Zip City." Not unheard of but not all that usual, either.

Perhaps a little oddly or perhaps indicative of some of the ways this show was special, it was clearly a show the cognoscenti could love with great playing and songs pulled from everywhere ("Wife Beater," anyone?) but I think was also accessible to newer fans with plenty of straight ahead rockers (w/ those great guitars) and a setlist heavy on the "classic period" albums SRO, DD and TDS. The band's catalog is so vast at this point that they can only play a fraction of it on any given night but after 2 nights the "missing album" that stands out to me is American Band. That's not a complaint, just an observation. I guess the band is just going to have to play longer Tonight's show was about the same length as last nite's with an extended version of "Angels & Fuselage" bringing the proceedings to an almost eerie (in a good way) close.

I'm not sure if this is true, but it seemed like EZB's kit was way back on the stage which created a lot of extra room for the other players to move about the stage more than usual. I'm curious whether others saw it that way too. The band also did a lot more of that "4 across the stage" thing w/ Matt, Cooley, Patterson and Jay all singing on multiple songs.

I had been greatly looking forward to the opening set by The Paranoid Style but I was also a bit concerned about how their very wordy, quirky and clever songs would translate to the live stage and I have to say that while it was exciting to see them (especially with the estimable Peter Holsapple on guitar) those concerns were well founded. I don't understand why the vocals (i.e. the lyrics) which are the raison d'etre of this band were so low in the mix. Still, I am glad I got to see the band live.

Come on setlist keepers, help us out here, wouldja?

Experiencing HC through the words of Beantownbubba. It’s not the same as the real thing, but sure helps take away some of the blues of not being in Athens. Checked in here to read this. Thank you for posting these!

[Howlinwolf]

DBT-Feb 16, 2024 40 Watt Club Athens, Georgia

1. The Living Bubba
2. A Ghost to Most
3. Puttin' People on the Moon
4. Slow Ride Argument
5. Why Henry Drinks
6. Shit Shots Count
7. Ronnie and Neil
8. 72 (This Highway's Mean)
9. Tornadoes
10. Women Without Whiskey
11. Wife Beater
12. Primer Coat
13. My Sweet Annette
14. Love Like This
15. Adam Raised a Cain
16. Maria's Awful Disclosure
17. Dead, Drunk, and Naked
18. Guitar Man Upstairs
19. Sink Hole
20. Where the Devil Don't Stay
21. The Driver
22. Made Up English Oceans
23. Rosemary With a Bible and a Gun
24. One of These Days
25. Road Cases
26. Shut Up and Get on the Plane
27. Angels and Fuselage

(source: setlist.fm dot com )

[Clams]

Random notes:
Never listened to or even heard of Vision Video but goddam their opening set on Thursday night was one of the best I've ever seen at HHC and that includes all the great ones like dexateens, cracker, lydia loveless and all of them.
Another amazing set was Thelma and the Sleaze who played for an hour at Dial Back Sound's showcase at Flicker yesterday. Raunchy queer down and dirty rock and roll. I am addicted to the sleaze.
While last night's show had some moments (Adam Raised a Cain as bubba noted and Primer Coat were especially good IMO), I thought Thursday's set was the stronger of the two from start to finish. Can't wait for tonight!
On PPOTM last night Patterson changed "working at Walmart" to "working at Amazon" and not sure if it was intentional but I'm 95% sure Mary Lee morphed into Sara Lee (purveyor of frozen pound cake, if I recall correctly) near the end of Sweet Annette.
I say it every year and I'll say it again: there just isn't anything like watching these shows in the 40W with a couple hundred like minded lunatics. It is mind blowingly fun.
And yes, the Wood Duck is still working the tiki bar!