Slambovian Circus of Dreams ~ 2018 July 27 ~ Vinegar Hill Music Theatre ~ Arundel, ME
Band Personnel: Joziah Longo, lead vocals, guitar, harmonica; Tink Lloyd, accordion, cello, flute, recorder, bell, sitar, hand claps, backing vocals; Sharkey McEwen, guitar, mandolin, vocals; Felipe Torres, drums, percussion; Bob Torsello, bass, backing vocals.
Set List
Grand Slambovians - Look Around - Lost Highway - Summer's Day - Baby Jane - Very Unusual Head - Folson Prison Pinball / I Wish - Beautiful Friggin' Day - Step Outta Time ... intermission ... Silent Revolution - Solve It All Daily - Pluto's Plight - Picture - Bees - Moondog House - Freight Train Blues {Doc Watson} - Trans-Slambovian BiPolar Express
Review
It was a real pleasure to see the core Slambovian band. I had not seen this configuration of the band perform a non-Christmas show in well over a year. Although there were a couple of technical glitches -- Joziah broke a string on the black guitar he usually plays, and then he broke the replacement string -- all told it was the best Slambovian show I have seen in quite a while.
This is mainly due to the apparently permanent return of Sharkey McEwen, who is not just the lead guitarist but is to a large extent the stage manager. The show flows much more smoothly when Sharkey is there. More good news is that Sharkey is now working on producing the new album. Tink said from the stage that they had given him tapes from four different recording studios. This hopefully means that the unreleased songs that live audiences have enjoyed hearing in the recent past will soon be seeing a release on CD and maybe vinyl. Songs played tonight that are slated for this new release include "Look Around," "Beautiful Friggin' Day," "Pluto's Plight," and "Bees," which is a really fun live number with audience participation.
The Circus also treated long-time fans to performances of songs that haven't been regularly played of late. These included "Summer's Day," "Baby Jane," "Silent Revolution" (which Joziah said was the first song of theirs to get any radio play), and "Picture." All these songs sounded fantastic. Another song worth a mention is "Lost Highway." This song has been played many times in the few years since it was released, and it has evolved from a contemplative ballad to a real rave-up. I like it, rave-up style. Although Joziah broke a string twice on his favorite guitar, there was a silver lining (or maybe I should say a "ghosty lining") because it gave him a chance to play two other guitars that audiences don't normally see. There are photos of both in the photo gallery to the upper right.
The show ended with Joziah mostly solo absolutely killing the high train-whistle notes on "Freight Train Blues" (which he insists on calling a Dylan song, when it's really by Doc Watson, but I suppose Joziah is following Dylan's interpretation). Then the show ended with "BiPolar Express." There was no encore, probably since they were bumping up against 11:00 pm and had been asked to be done by that time. But it was a good long show and the lack of an encore wasn't a problem.
Joziah always asks for a show of hands from people who have never seen the band before. No one in the front two rows raised their hands. Then there were a couple of completely empty rows, and the back half of the audience mostly raised their hands. Funny how the new people all clustered in the back. Joziah would say it would make it easy for them to sneak out at the break. But that's really a joke because nobody did.
This was my first visit to this venue, which is in an old restored barn in the middle of nowhere a few miles inland from Kennebunk. There is a pleasant patio outside for waiting for the doors to open, but since there was heavy rain during the performance (audible on the roof between songs) they didn't open the patio during the intermission.
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