We had an early dinner at a sports bar near there in Bangor (Seasons), and then approached the venue from the Main Street side, though we had tickets up front and they want you to use the Northeast entrance for those sections. They waved us in though, barely checking our tickets, and we found ourselves a bit confused as we passed through the lobby. Were we in the right place? Were they having a JRAD concert here? They were selling JRAD gear in the merch stand, but besides us and the many venue staff who were all friendly and trying to assist us, there was no one there!
We kept on going toward the front sections, and realized there were a few people. Dave and I stopped for the bathroom and to fill water bottles, but where was everyone? The bathroom didn't have a line, in fact it was deserted. We walked into the front section and saw what the story was, though it still mystifies us. The front section was only about a third full. The rear section and the lawn were closed as they had been for TTB in July, but the front section had been packed for that. We had great seats, dead center (maybe a row or two behind where we were for TTB) but had so much room around us we could sit and see everything on stage. At one point the seats in six rows in front of me were empty.
Really, really strange. This band sells out places in Boston, and that's what we'd been expecting, but I guess they're not big enough ("just a Dead cover band") to attract the casual fan in Maine?? That's too bad, but the good news is that this meant it was one of the most mellow concert crowd scenes we've been in in a while. It was really fun to just have a casual evening and to see such a great band. And another great thing was that everyone there wanted to see and hear JRAD, this wasn't a "let's go to a rock show, who's playing?" crowd. Everyone was in their Grateful Dead gear of course, including an uber-cute father and young daughter, dancing in front of us. One guy was wearing a "Fat People Are Harder to Kidnap" t-shirt.
Anyway, the band came out right on time (why wait?) and they had Jon Shaw playing bass instead of Dave Dreiwitz, who was touring with Ween. Details of JRAD's setup change, though they generally keep the same positions (Marco far left, Scott far right, etc.). This time they lined up close together, though it's a large stage and they could have spread out. Joe was not set up as far front as usual, but he had a huge set, including a second, smaller bass drum, and the sound was excellent. I was afraid they'd be uninspired by the small crowd, but these guys don't worry about being stars. They turned in one of the best shows I've seen from them. Here's the first set:
- Good Morning Little School Girl
- Reuben and Cherise
- China Cat Sunflower
- Feel Like a Stranger
- West L.A. Fadeaway
- The Other One
But as you might expect if you've ever seen JRAD, this was not a textbook set. They opened with a long blues jam and then Scott started singing in such a funky style you almost couldn't recognize School Girl, it wasn't done like Pigpen did it. They stopped and reversed direction with the story song of Reuben and Cherise, on which Tommy usually excels except on this one he totally blew the words. He seemed to be having a tough set with glitches in his teleprompter, his monitor, and his guitar going out of tune. But he persisted and next sang a strange, little China Cat ... they may not have broken the three-minute mark with this one before going into a deep jam that ended with Scott suddenly springing to the mike and singing about everything flashing.
But after Stranger and West L.A. they went back into deep jam territory and got louder and louder until Joe was absolutely hammering his kit at an unsustainable pace, and then he really went crazy. And we realized we'd ended up in The Other One. Jon may not have been as dynamic as a Phil or an Oteil here, but the rest of the band made up for it. Besides Joe, Scott (on his old guitar), and Tommy having great nights, perhaps the performer of the evening was Marco. He had (at least) 4 keyboards set up, including a baby grand, and as we said in the car on the way home, it was just mind-boggling some of the dual parts he played with his right hand on the piano and his left on the organ.
Wow, that was a great set, and it was still early evening on a great Summer day, with plenty of room to spread out. Pretty standard set break and then they came back out with:
- Catfish John
- Good Lovin'
- Shakedown Street
- The Wheel
- Dark Star
- Tennessee Jed
- Greatest Story Ever Told
- Fire on the Mountain
Well, this set may have been even better. They started off with a wonderful, lazy, sunny, and mellow version of Catfish John that could melt in your mouth. And then they went right back to rocking. At the end of The Wheel Joe started taking off again, breaking sticks and pounding the bejeezus out of everything in sight ... the twin bass drums are a great addition to his rig. But then he calmed down and we realized we were adrift in space and there was a Dark Star right over there.
I was afraid they'd mail in the Bangor show, but they did a great, long, loud second set, ending with a fantastic GSET (which I love) and then an incendiary Fire. Great stuff! It was so amazing not being jammed into a small space to see this band, and we all spread out and relaxed a bit before they came out for a tidy encore of Ripple, with Tommy singing. His equipment luck had been much better in the second set than in the first.
What a fun concert, it was wonderful to hang out a bit, have a leisurely walk the few blocks back to where we had parked for free, and then have totally empty roads for the 50-minute drive back home. I'm looking forward to seeing more great acts in Bangor.
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