After a great night of re-uniting with old friends and familiar faces it was back for night two at the Chicago Theatre. I don’t know if it was in tribute to the highly anticipated new release of Tom Wait’s new album or because it is a regular cover, but “Going Out West” got things started on this night. The rarely played rendition of Prof. Long Hairs “Stag-O-Lee” was presented to us next, by Jojo. A couple nice pairings came next, as highlights, which included a great “Little>Lily into Henry Parsons Died”. The crowd was getting down again, in full force, at this point. The opening rift which always throws everyone off, because it is sometimes the rare “Dirty Business”, but more likely and in this case was a well played version of “Christmas Katie” which nicely drifted into the rare, “Let it Rock.” JB really nailed this one down nicely and I thought it would close the set until I heard the opening notes to the old school instrumental known as “B of D”. I knew this would not close the set. It would be cool if it did, but sure enough the band launched into “Conrad” to really stomp down the first set.
At this point in the tour, the band is really on fire, and this next set would really remind us of their capabilities. “Tall Boy” got the crowd started again (Tall Boy was also one of the three Panic- named drink specials at the Chicago Theatre that weekend) and segued into one of my favorites, “She caught the Katy”. Our fourth Bloodkin cover, in two days, came next with “Can’t Get High”, and the newer original “Cotton Was King” followed. The band played a nice tribute to Mr. Houser with a great rendition of “Airplane” that would lead us into one of the most interesting and extreme moments of the weekend. A nice jam came out of “Airplane” and led us into “Greta”, at which point brought the crowd into a most inaudible explosion of cheering that actually drowned the band out completely. I thought there were naked girls onstage or something. I hadn’t heard the crowd hit this level of intensity in many years, if ever (I have attended nearly 200 shows). It was AMAZING! “Fishwater” came out of “Greta” and led us into another sandwich that was stuffed with a “Drums> “Driving Song” (both verses) > Arleen”. This version of “Arleen” stood out as another highlight of the night. I think JB threw in every “Arleen” rap that has ever been sung on this one, with some extra fervor. It was truly a work of art. This brought us back into “Fishwater” to finish the sandwich and close things out on a very high note.
As it was time for the last songs at the Chicago Theatre, before the band took a day off to set up for Halloween at the Aragon, the tension was high for what was to come, in the encore. They couldn’t have picked a better way to kick off “Halloween” then with the first rendition of the Doors’ “Peace Frog” since it was last played in Chicago in 1998. I saw both and this version seemed to be spot on and really topped the previous. “There’s Blood in the streets…the town of Chicago!” This segued, as does the Door’s studio version, into “Blue Sunday.” Excellent! JB then picked up his mandolin to give us a beautiful “End of the Show” followed up by an appropriate and crowd pleasing, “Ain’t life Grand”. At this point, I was fully blown away and ready for a day off until the Halloween show.
10/29/11 Chicago Theatre, Chicago, IL
1: Goin’ Out West, Stag-O-Lee, You Should Be Glad, Little Lilly > Henry Parsons Died, Me And The Devil Blues, You Got Yours, Christmas Katie > Let It Rock, B of D, Conrad
2: Tall Boy > She Caught The Katy, Can’t Get High, Cotton Was King, Airplane>Take Off Jam>*Greta > Fishwater > Drums > Driving Song > Arleen > Fishwater
E: Peace Frog > Blue Sunday, End Of The Show, Ain’t Life Grand
[‘Blood and Fire’ rap by Dave during ‘Arleen’; Last ‘Blue Sunday’ – 11/28/98, 1017 shows; Last ‘Peace Frog’ – 11/28/98, 1017 shows; Last ‘Stag-O-Lee’ – 11/04/07, 295 shows]
*Take Off Jam between Airplane & Greta (edited by Bill McAlaine)
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