Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams ~ 2010 February 13 ~ Common Fence Music Series, Portsmouth, RI
Band personnel: Joziah Longo (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin); Sharkey McEwen (backing vocals, guitar, mandolin); Tony Zuzulo (drums); Tink Lloyd (backing vocals, accordion, cello, theremin, percussion); Orien Longo (backing vocals, bass, keyboards, harmonica)
Setlist
Sunday in the Rain - Pushing Up Daisies - Picture - Folsom Prison Pinball/I Wish - Flapjacks From the Sky - Already Broken - Baby Jane - Tink (I Know It's You) - Trans-Slambovian BiPolar Express ... intermission ... Slambovia - If It's a Dream - The Great Unravel - Beautiful Friggin' Day [new song] - Look Around - She's In Her Own World - Talking to the Buddha - Alice In Space ... encore ... unknown novelty song - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida [fragment] - Wild Thing [fragment] - Angels We Have Heard on High/Gloria.
Review
After stopping for a bite to eat in Portsmouth, and then making a wrong turn or two on the way, we found this community center venue at the end of a dirt road out on a peninsula somewhere in Rhode Island. There were already a couple of dozen folks in line, even though it was more than an hour until show time.
It was a very cold night and we could hear (and see through the window) the band sound checking "Sunday in the Rain." We wished they would open the doors and let us in, but of course they didn't. Once the sound check was over, the doors were opened, and to my dismay patrons with physical tickets in their hands were allowed right in, while those of us with will-call tickets stood in a line to have our tickets presented to us. Despite this inefficient and unfair practice at the door, we still managed to score very good seats on the Tink side of the stage.
Once inside, concert goers started opening up bags and baskets and Concert Going Partner and I realized that this was the type of venue where they allow you to bring food. Our favorite concert hall, the Narrows in Fall River, has a similar policy. We filed this info away for future reference in case we attend another show here, and wished that the website had said something about this practice, to save us the expense of a restaurant meal. The venue also sold very nice desserts and coffee, and a volunteer circulated selling tickets to a raffle (which we did not win).
The stage was low to the ground and average-sized, big enough for the five musicians, but without a lot of room to spare. The seating was at long tables, perpendicular to the stage. The room was packed; and I do not think people at the backs of the tables along the sides could see at all well.
Concert Going Partner and I were excited to be seeing our new favorite band for the second time. Since the first time we saw them, in Nov. of 2009 at the Narrows, we had acquired a couple of their albums but did not know all of their material yet. We did not yet know what the Mad Genius of Joziah Longo & Co. had done to the traditional Christmas carol "Angels We Have Heard on High."
This song was in the encore set. Joziah, Sharkey and Orien all sang prettily into their microphones: "Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains, and the mountains in reply, echoing their joyous strains ..." and there was a little pause, and Sharkey's guitar rang out with a couple of power chords, and the singers shouted out: "Gloria!" But it was Van Morrison's Gloria! The song went on, madly melding the lyrics and the music of the famous G ... L ... O ... R ... I ... A rock song with the well-known traditional Christmas carol. And I sat there in utter, complete amazement, for I had never in my life heard such a thing, such a wild and fantastic and absolutely mad and completely wonderful thing.
But that wasn't all the craziness in this show! To begin the encore set, Joziah told the audience that he has recently been hired to write the music for an off-off Broadway children's musical, and the Circus actually played a song from it. My set list reads "unknown novelty song." They also played a bit of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" during the encore. Sharkey and Orien had a wildly good time all night long.
More Circus
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