Oysterhead returned to 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, CO Saturday for night two of the supergroup’s long-awaited reunion concerts.
Night two saw Oysterhead, comprised of Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool, and Stewart Copeland, run through all 13 songs on the band’s lone album, The Grand Pecking Order, as well as debut renditions of songs by Cream, Primus, and Phish. While the setlist was predominantly made up of the same tunes as night one, the two-set performance saw the group experiment with the song order as the show opened with “Mr. Oysterhead”. After an airy jam that stretched the song near the 20-minute mark and contained teases to “Them Changes” by Band of Gypsies, the band went into “Oz is Ever Floating”, followed by “The Grand Pecking Order”, and “Shadow of a Man”. The band then pulled out its first debut of the evening with “White Room” by Cream. The classic 1968 psych-rock staple saw Claypool take lead vocals for the verses, while Anastasio took over singing the higher-register notes for the refrain to take the band into set break.
Much like the previous night, the second performance saw Anastasio and Claypool don acoustic guitars for “Birthday Boy” and engage in some friendly banter. “We meet again on the wooden stools of glory,” Claypool beckoned to Anastasio. “I have so much I want to talk about right now,” which culminated in Claypool asking his burning question, “so who’s better looking, me or Dave Matthews?”
The two finally got down to business as Claypool introduced the song, “We’re not supposed to say what this song’s about, but I’ll tell you four things: Vegas, a penis, some cocaine, and a pair of tits.” To which he quickly added, “and Kid Rock.”
The band went electric once again for “Little Faces”, followed by “Polka Dot Rose”, and “Wield The Spade”, which saw Anastasio remain at the guitar this time, as opposed to Friday night when he took over Copeland’s position behind the kit. After that came “Army’s On Ecstasy” and “Owner of the World” to close out the second set.
The encore kicked off with the band’s first-ever attempt at a Primus song, with “Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers” from 1991’s Sailing The Seas of Cheese. Not to be outshined, Oysterhead then launched into the high-energy Phish instrumental “First Tube”, followed by the show-closing “Pseudo Suicide” to complete the entire track listing from Pecking Order.
Check out a collection of fan-shot videos from night two of Oysterhead at 1STBANK Center.
With the two reunion shows down, Oysterhead will part ways until the members meet back up in April for a pair of California dates. For now, Anastasio will head down to Mexico for Phish’s Riviera Maya destination concerts at the Moon Palace February 20th–23rd. Les Claypool’s schedule is wide open until the next Oysterhead shows, and Stewart Copeland’s next gig is a staging of The Invention of Morel at Manchester University in Wabash, IN February 28th and 29th.
Setlist: Oysterhead | 1STBANK Center | Broomfield, CO | 2/15/20
Set one: Mr. Oysterhead [1], Oz is Ever Floating, The Grand Pecking Order, Rubberneck Lions, Shadow of a Man, White Room (Cream) [2]
Set two: Birthday Boys, Little Faces, Polka Dot Rose, Wield the Spade, Radon Balloon, Army’s On Ecstasy, Owner of the World
ENCORE: Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers (Primus) [2], First Tube (Phish) [2], Pseudo Suicide
[1] Contained “Them Changes” Band of Gypsies teases and quote
[2] Oysterhead debut