Billy Strings finished off his weekend trip to the big top circus at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Saturday with his third of three shows. Among the highlights of Billy Strings’ Saturday finale in St. Augustine, FL were a huge opening “Turmoil & Tinfoil”, an Old & In The Way bustout, and a closing tribute to late Alice In Chains frontman Layne Staley on the 23rd anniversary of his untimely death.
Billy Strings, Billy Failing, Jarrod Walker, Royal Masat, and Alex Hargreaves charged out of the gate promptly at 7:04 p.m. with “Turmoil & Tinfoil”. The sprawling 20-minute rendition oscillated between Strings’ overdrive-infused electric-acoustic wailing and Walker’s traditional mandolin runs, Hargreaves’ brooding fiddle maneuvers and Masat’s undulating basslines—and that was only the beginning.
Billy Strings — “Turmoil & Tinfoil” [Pro-Shot] — 4/5/25
The first set saw plenty of other highlights, including an enjoyable train of “Must Be Seven” > “Ernest T. Grass” > “Ole Slew Foot” immediately following T&T. The fivesome also dusted off Norman Blake‘s “Randall Collins” and the traditional “Done Gone” for the first time in years—though Strings was the first to admit to flubbing the latter’s ending. Luckily, Billy has a band of brothers adept at making him look good (his words not mine), whether that’s Royal covering the changes or Jarrod cheering Billy on as he plays Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on the tour bus. Bookending the set with some sizable jams, the first frame came to a close with a thrilling 11-minute sequence of “Taking Water” > “Reuben’s Train” that saw Strings explore the stage and get up close and personal with fans in the front row.
In the second set, Billy hit the gas with a “Leadfoot” to start before the band’s first reading of Old & In The Way classic “Kissimmee Kid” in nearly a year, per BillyBase. Strings’ eponymous backing band was as stylish as ever on Saturday night, and though Royal Masat’s new bleach-blond hairdo may have stolen plenty of glances, Alex Hargreaves’ Vassar Clements shirt felt the most fashionable as he sawed away on the song penned by the late fiddle great.
Other highlights from the weekend’s final frame included a smoldering “Fire Line” and an energetic swell that started with Black Sabbath‘s spacey “Planet Caravan”, built up with Béla Fleck‘s “Tentacle Dragon (Revenge Of The)”, and finally came bursting out the other end with a rowdy “Doin’ Things Right”.
Ending the second set promptly at 10 p.m. with New Grass Revival‘s “Whisper My Name”, Strings and company returned to the stage with plenty of time left on the board for the encore. They used it wisely, as Strings patiently strummed the opening to Alice In Chains’ “Nutshell”. Billy Strings has made no secret of his love for grunge, citing his mother’s copy of Pearl Jam‘s Yield as a major influence, and the fact that he chose to cover Alice In Chains on the anniversary of the day Layne Staley died in 2002 (and Kurt Cobain died in 1994) seems much more than coincidental.
Related: Billy Strings Delivers Dutiful Nirvana ‘Unplugged’ Tribute At Ryman Auditorium [Videos]
One of the things that sets Billy Strings apart from other artists—including other bluegrass artists—is his ability to balance tributes to his influences with bold declarations of what he’s doing with all the genres he touches. There are few better examples in his live catalog of this delicate walk between reverence and originality than his pairing of “Nutshell” with the original “Wargasm” (aka “Nutgasm”). The haunting stillness and impenetrable loneliness of Staley’s lyrics are counterbalanced with Strings’ crushing denunciations of today’s war pigs, as the interminable spirit of grunge flows through Billy into the modern age.
Billy Strings — “Nutshell” (Alice In Chains) > “Wargasm” — 4/5/25
[Video: Todd Norris]
Check out some videos from Billy Strings’ Saturday night closer in St. Augustine by Todd Norris. Billy’s tour rolls on this week with a Wednesday one-off in Tampa ahead of a two-night weekend run in Savannah, GA on Friday and Saturday. Find tickets and tour dates here and livestream every night of the tour on nugs. Not a nugs subscriber yet? Sign up here. [Editor’s Note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Ordering your nugs subscription or purchasing a download via the links on this page helps support our coverage of the world of live music. Thank you for reading!]
Billy Strings — “Must Be Seven” > “Ernest T. Grass” (Ronnie Bowman, Dan Tyminski) — 4/5/25
Setlist: Billy Strings | St. Augustine Amphitheatre | St. Augustine, FL | 4/5/25
Set One: Turmoil & Tinfoil, Must Be Seven > Ernest T. Grass (Ronnie Bowman, Dan Tyminski) > Ole Slew Foot (Johnny Horton), Love and Regret, This Old World, Escanaba, Randall Collins (Norman Blake) [1], Done Gone (Traditional) [2], Taking Water > Reuben’s Train (Traditional)
Set Two: Leadfoot [3], Kissimmee Kid (Old & In The Way) [4], Fire Line, Be Your Man, Running The Route > Cabin Song, Planet Caravan (Black Sabbath) > Tentacle Dragon (Revenge Of The) (Béla Fleck) > Doin’ Things Right, Love Like Me, Whisper My Name (New Grass Revival)
Encore: Nutshell (Alice In Chains) [5] > Wargasm
[1] Last Time Played 2022-07-30 | 230 show gap
[2] Last Time Played 2023-12-12 | 80 show gap
[3] Billy Strings on his Masterton ML-1: Missing Link Béla Fleck Baritone Banjo & Billy Failing on Guitar
[4] Last Time Played 2024-05-21 | 54 show gap
[5] Layne Staley, the original lead singer of Alice In Chains, passed away on April 5th, 2002