Pigeons Playing Ping Pong continued its tour with winged brethren Goose at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, MI on Friday night.
The ever-rising Goose kicked off the evening with a nearly 70-minute opening set that began with “Madhuvan” and continued to run through a series of the band’s originals. After “Madhuvan”, Goose went into “Rosewood Heart”, followed by a slowed down version of “All I Need”, which segued into “Hot Tea”. “Hot Tea” began a jam sandwich that led into a cover of “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest, only to segue back into “Hot Tea” to complete the sandwich. The band had time for just one more and closed out with a rocking “Yeti”.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong took the stage and started the show with the always-energetic opener “Porcupine”. This began a lighter set, featuring some older fan-favorite songs including “Henrietta”, “Whirled”, and “Julia”. About halfway through the set, Pigeons invited up Rick Mitarotonda from Goose to sit-in on “Lightning”, which they previously collaborated on at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco last month. After bidding farewell to Rick, Pigeons teed up a segue series that began with “Landing”, which transitioned into “Zydeko”, thus beginning a sandwich that went into “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, only to segue back into “Zydeko” to close the first set.
Pigeons returned for the second frame, where they kicked things off with “Lost In Line”, a relatively-new original that was debuted in December at Washington D.C.’s The Anthem. After that, the band went into “Overrun”, which was followed by another sandwich of “King Kong” into “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder, and ultimately back into “King Kong”. Pigeons rounded out the second set with a smattering of originals including “Whoopie”, “Bad For You”, “Horizon”, and finally “Sunny Day” to close out the second set. Upon returning to the stage for the encore, Pigeons ran through the instrumental “Avalanche”, which was recently released on the band’s new album, Presto.
Next, Pigeons and Goose take their tour to Delmar Hall in St. Louis, MO for a Sunday performance. After that they head to the Madison Theatre in Covington, KY on Wednesday, March 11th, after which they will bounce around the South. For tickets and a full list of tour dates, head to the band’s website.
Scroll down to check out a gallery of photos courtesy of Steve Baran.
Setlist: Goose | The Intersection | Grand Rapids, MI | 3/6/20
Set: Madhuvan, Rosewood Heart, All I Need [1] > Hot Tea > Dancing In The Moonlight (King Harvest) > Hot Tea, Yeti
[1] Slow version
Setlist: Pigeons Playing Ping Pong | The Intersection | Grand Rapids, MI | 3/6/20
Set one: Porcupine, Henrietta, Whirled, Julia, Lightning [2], Landing > Zydeko > Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg) > Zydeko
Set two: Lost In Line, Overrun, King Kong > Signed, Sealed, Delivered (Stevie Wonder) > King Kong, Whoopie, Bad For You, Horizon, Sunny Day
Encore: Avalanche
