Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams ~ 2010 September 18 ~ Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA
Band personnel: Joziah Longo (lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, mandolin); Sharkey McEwen (backing vocals, guitar, mandolin); Tony Zuzulo (drums); Tink Lloyd (backing vocals, accordion, cello, melodica, ukulele, xylophone) ... also known as the Grand Slambovians
Set List
Grand Slambovians - Pushing Up Daisies - Slambovia - Davy Crockett - Summer's Day - Windmills - Song for Woody {Dylan} - Already Broken - Genius ... intermission ... Picture - Long Gone Lonesome Blues - Sullivan Lane - Trans-slambovian BiPolar Express - Tink (I Know It's You) - Alice in Space ... encore ... Motorcycle Song - The Invisible - Angels We Have Heard On High/Gloria
Video
"Genius"
Review
For the second time in a little over a week, Concert Going Partner and I were off to the Iron Horse. We got to the gig late by our standards because I had a commitment earlier in the day to help with a Native American festival, Wampanoag Day at the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum on Cape Cod, where I have worked for the last few years. By the time we got to the venue all the floor seats were taken but we scored a very good table on the rise to the right of the stage.
The Iron Horse sometimes books two shows in an evening, and the first band performs under the time pressure of having to be done by a certain hour. But luckily for us Slambovian tourists, the second band on this night cancelled, removing the time pressure from Joziah and the rest. That lack of pressure resulted in a show that was even more goofy and fun than usual.
This show was the first time I have seen the Circus as a four-piece band. In previous concerts I've seen, in addition to the core four of Joziah, Sharkey, Tink, and Tony, they have had a bass player. Since I have been following them, the bass player has been Orien Longo, Joziah and Tink's son, although in previous years their bass player was Chen Longo, their other son. (The boys are twins.) However, both sons are in college full time now, and the band is back to playing without a bass. The band members seem ambivalent about this loss. Sharkey likened it to "performing without a net" -- lacking one instrument on stage that they were previously counting on. But the loss of the bass also has allowed them to open up and perform some songs that the twins didn't know, or that simply didn't need or allow for a bass in the arrangement. We will see how this tightening up of the band will affect their sound as time goes by.
As anyone who has seen the Circus knows, they are a band liable to break out into the weirdest covers without a moment of warning. I think Joziah has a mental jukebox with about a million songs, and the rest of the band can play along with anything. Tonight they played the theme song to the early '60s Disney show Davy Crockett, which Joziah claimed was his first paying gig when he was a very small child. He said that he'd get paid a quarter for singing the song at the local community center.
Another treat was the Longo family version of "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," the lyrics of which were changed by Joziah's dad. In the traditional song, the main character commits suicide when his woman leaves him for another man, but in the Longo version, the main character gets a gun and exacts revenge. Yet another improv was the "Motorcycle Song," which Joziah claims HE wrote and then traded to Arlo Guthrie for his hat.
For the first time I took a video with my new Flip camera that I consider good enough to watch. Other times when I tried to take a video, I would turn the little camera off and then on again by mistake every time I tried to zoom, making for a very disjointed video that I wouldn't dream of inflicting on anybody. This time I just held the camera steady without any zooming, and it worked since from where I was sitting I could fit all five musicians in the frame at once. Scroll up to find the video; and enjoy.
More Circus
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