Greensky Bluegrass kicked off the first of two shows at Denver, CO’s Mission Ballroom on Friday night, which saw the quintet debut “Until I Sing”. The track is set to appear on Greensky’s forthcoming Stress Dreams album, due out on January 21st via Thirty Tigers.
Despite canceling its two-night run of New Year’s shows at The Pageant in St. Louis, MO on December 30th and 31st, the band kept the NYE spirit alive during night one in Denver. Midway through the “Courage for the Road” opener, members Paul Hoffman (mandolin), David Bruzza (guitar), Michael Bont (banjo), Anders Beck (dobro), and Mike Devol (bass) took a detour into the classic new year’s celebration song, “Auld Lang Syne”. After returning to “Courage for the Road”, the group pulled from 2016’s Shouted, Written Down & Quoted with “Room Without a Roof”, before reaching back even further to 2006’s Tuesday Letter with “Better Off”.
“New Barns” and “Kerosene” set up one of the evening’s biggest highlights, the debut of “Until I Sing”. This surprise debut led to “Past My Prime” before a set-ending “Living Over”, which contained teases of the Grateful Dead‘s “Eyes of the World”, and, once again, “Auld Lang Syne”. Following a short encore break, the jamgrass five-piece returned for a live telling of “Stress Dreams“—the title track to the outfit’s forthcoming album that had just seen its studio release as a single earlier that day.
Related: Greensky Bluegrass Shares Sprawling Title Track From New LP, “Stress Dreams” [Listen]
After welcoming its tour manager/frequent collaborator Guido Baptista for a vibraphone sit-in on “What You Need”, Greensky made its way into “Murder of Crows” and “Give a Shit”, which set up the jam of the night, “Broke Mountain Breakdown”. Once again, the “Auld Lang Syne” teases emerged, in addition to tastes of Deep Purple‘s “Smoke On The Water” and Phish‘s “Down with Disease”. Paul Hoffman even laced his shoes extra tight for a “Macarena” dance before the song ended and made its way to “Miss September”. Another crew member, Josh Limpert, then joined the group on Tibetan finger cymbals for “Burn Them” before “Wish I Didn’t Know”, “It’s Not Mine Anymore”, and “Grow Together” ended the second set. Hoffman, Bruzza, Bont, Beck, and Devol then returned for an encore, delivering the upbeat “A Letter From Seymour”.
Greensky Bluegrass will return to the Mission Ballroom tonight, January 8th, for its final stop at the venue. Patrons who arrive early and donate $25 at the door to Conscious Alliance will receive entry to a special “soundcheck set” beginning at 6:30 p.m. MT. The band will then head east on January 20th for a stop at The Palace Theatre in Albany, NY, followed by The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on the 22nd. Visit the band’s website for a full list of tour dates and find the full setlist from last night’s show below.
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