On Friday night, Greensky Bluegrass hit Red Rocks Amphitheatre for their first of three performances at the beloved Morrison, CO venue this weekend. The Friday the 13th performance featured a full moon overhead and support from The Lil Smokies onstage.
The Lil Smokies – 9/13/19 – Red Rocks [Pro-Shot]
[Video: The Lil Smokies]
Following The Lil Smokies’ opening performance, the men of Greensky Bluegrass took the stage to kick off their Red Rocks weekend with a cover of Pink Floyd‘s “In The Flesh”, earning audible cheers from the crowd with its opening lyrics, “so ya thought ya might like to go to the show.” The Pink Floyd intro quickly led into an ominous “Bring Out Your Dead” > “Before Bring Out Your Dead” > “Bring Out Your Dead” to get the show moving in earnest.
Greensky Bluegrass – 9/13/19 – Red Rocks – “In The Flesh” [Pink Floyd cover] > “Bring Out Your Dead” > “Before Bring Out Your Dead”> “Bring Out Your Dead” [Pro-Shot]
[Video: nugsnet]
After working through “Cold Feet”, “New Rize Hill”, “Collateral Damage”, a stretched-out “Living Over”, and a short-and-sweet “Blood Sucking F(r)iends”, the band closed out their first frame with the set’s biggest highlight: an exploratory “Broke Mountain Breakdown” infused with a cover of James Gang‘s “Walk Away”.
Following their intermission, Greensky Bluegrass retook the stage for set two with All For Money track, “Like Reflections”, followed by fan-favorite, “Burn Them”.
Greensky Bluegrass – 8/31/19 – Red Rocks – “Like Reflections” [Pro-Shot]
[Video: nugsnet]
Next, the band welcomed up fiddler Smokin’ Jake Simpson of The Lil Smokies. After an amusing take on Simpson’s “theme song” sung to the tune of Phish‘s “Chalk Dust Torture Reprise”, the fiddle-assisted band worked through “Fixin’ to Ruin”, “Merely Avoiding”, and a 15+ minute “Worried About The Weather”.
Another If Sorrows Swim favorite, “Wings For Wheels”, came next before a lightspeed rendition of “Radio Blues” brought the show into its home stretch. The set’s remaining three songs were cleverly tied together, as “Do It Alone” moved into The Beatles‘ “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” [Note: This was the second time in as many weeks that a Red Rocks crowd has enjoyed this cover following Joe Russo’s Almost Dead‘s rendition on 8/30].
“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” featured a pair of notable lyric changes. First, the opening stanza’s words were altered from the titular “why don’t we do it in the road” to “why do we do it all alone” in a nod to the song that preceded it. As the song neared its conclusion, the altered lyrics “I need a little courage for the road” indicated Greensky’s next move: a segue into a fantastic set-closing “Courage For The Road”.
Finally, after a brief exit from the stage and an acknowledgment of the significance of the full moon and Friday the 13th, Greensky welcomed The Lil Smokies to the stage to assist on an appropriate encore rendition of Old & In The Way‘s “Midnight Moonlight”
You can stream a full audio recording and check out a gallery of photos from the show below via photographer Bill McAlaine:
Greensky Bluegrass – 9/13/19 – Red Rocks – Full Audio
[Audio: gerry gladu]
Setlist: Greensky Bluegrass | Red Rocks | Morrison, CO | 9/13/19
Set One: In the Flesh > Bring Out Your Dead > Before Bring Out Your Dead > Bring Out Your Dead, Cold Feet, New Rize Hill, Collateral Damage, Living Over, Blood Sucking F(r)iends > Broke Mountain Breakdown (1) (2)> Walk Away > Broke Mountain Breakdown
Set Two: Like Reflections, Burn Them (1), Smokin’ Jake Simpson Theme (3) (4), Fixin to Ruin (4) (5), Merely Avoiding (4), Worried About the Weather (4), Wings for Wheels, Radio Blues, Do It Alone > Why Don’t We Do It In The Road? (6) (7) > Courage for the Road (8)
Encore: Midnight Moonlight (9)
(1) Smoke on the Water teases
(2) Girlfriend is Better” teases
(3) Sung to the melody of “Chalk Dust Torture Reprise” (Phish)
(4) with Jake Simpson (fiddle)
(5) Keith Kinnear on woodblock
(6) Lyrics changed to “Why do we do it alone”
(7) Lyrics changed to “I need a little courage for the road”
(8) with “Do It Alone” quotes
(9) with The Lil Smokies
