I was traveling back from a gig on the prior Sunday, so I missed “Jimmies” night, which happened to be the night they managed to play ALL of the songs I was hoping to catch during the run (The Curtain With, Esther, Col. Forbin’s > Famous Mockingbird, David Bowie, Harpua) and one of my favorite jams of the run during “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing”… just listening to this on the stream, it was clear they were adventurous and locked in. Upon hearing that, I went directly to Ticketmaster.com to secure tickets for Tues and Weds, and started working on tickets for the final weekend which was sold out.
The donut this night wasn’t actually a donut, but donut “Holes”. Hinting at the theme, they opened with “Way Down in the Hole” the theme to The Wire, originally by Tom Waits.
Great opening set, which included favorites “Guyute” and “Meat”, and featured Trey on drums and Fish on the vacuum for “I Didn’t Know”.
During the second set “Mike’s Song”, they took a spacey detour and as haze billowed from the stage they went into “O Holy Night”. WHAT? This was really bizarre to be hearing, but in a moment I got it… “O HOLY Night” another nod to the Holes theme (which I explained to a few others who didn’t quite get it at the time).
They capped off the night with one more nod to holes by covering “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles, which include the lyrics “now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall”. After 10 nights, the band was still on a roll and delivering something entirely different every night.
Thanks to Mike and Adam for hooking me up with tickets during the final weekend. It was a 13 night run for the ages, commemorated with a banner hanging from the rafters of Madison Square Garden!
Who would have thought these guys would achieve that?
I didn’t take many pictures at the final shows of the run, but here are a couple from Sat 8/5.
