Paul Ducharme was a fixture in the New York area music scene as a taper and live music enthusiast, before passing away due to complications from diabetes last month. He served as Native’s manager and prior to that, worked with God Street Wine. To honor his memory, God Street came together for three sets on Saturday in New Jersey to pay tribute to Paul. An afternoon performance took place at Citizen’s Park in Ridgefield before an evening show in the basement of one of Paul’s friends in Wyckoff (where the band had played an early gig in 1988). The event was entitled ‘A Love Ducharme, A Paul Supreme,’ which GSW’s Aaron Maxwell explained was an inside joke from Paul’s early days with the group that developed during a late night of excessive drinking while listening to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (God Street quoted the song throughout its performances on Saturday). The afternoon set ran from 12:30 – 2PM and included versions of ‘Waiting for the Tide,’ ‘Drive West,’ ‘Imogene,’ ‘Blackbird,’ ‘Dear Prudence,’ and a take on ‘Borderline’ that segued into ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ and then back into ‘Borderline.’ The two evening sets, which began at 7:30 and concluded around midnight, included covers of ‘He’s Gone’ and ‘Death Don’t Have No Mercy,’ as well as such songs as ‘Good Dream,’ ‘Home Again,’ ‘Lighthouse,’ ‘Epiphany,’ ‘Diana’ and ‘Into The Sea.’ Members of Echofission opened the daytime show, while members of
Native did the same in the evening.