Slambovian Circus of Dreams ~ 2024 July 6 ~ the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (the Kate), Old Saybrook, CT
Band Personnel: Joziah Longo, lead vocals, guitar, harmonica; Tink Lloyd, accordion, flute, recorder, sitar, cello, ukulele, bell, vocals; Sharkey McEwen, guitar, mandolin, vocals; Matthew Abourezk, drums; R.J. McCarty, keyboard, banjo, vocals; Bob Torsello, bass, vocals.
Set List
Grand Slambovians - Silent Revolution - Look Around - Radio - Step Outta Time - Solve It All Dali - Beez (I Know Where the Beez Have Gone) ... intermission ... Circus Of Dreams - Good Thief - Pushing Up Daisies - Holy Rollers - Summer's Day - Tink (I Know It's You) - Freight Train Blues intro / Trans-Slambovian BiPolar Express ... encore ... Alice In Space
Scroll to below videos for a review of the show.
Videos
Silent Revolution
video pending
Holy Rollers
video pending
Review
Joziah and the band were just home from their tour in England, so I wondered if they'd show signs of jet lag, but no such signs were in evidence, as they blasted through a generous, energetic two hours (including intermission). The sound at this venue is good. They played a good sampling of songs from their debut album, A Good Thief Tips His Hat, because it's twenty-five years old this year. This includes the wildly entertaining, crowd pleasing "Alice In Space," today's encore. When I first started seeing this band fifteen years ago, this was a regular in the set list, and many audience members would celebrate this song with twirling parasols, but tonight only faithful Marie had brought hers -- she's got hers lit up with Christmas lights!
I really don't want to sound critical, because I loved this concert and had a fabulous time, but I do think this version of the band's a bit top heavy. A bit leaning too much toward prog rock. Bob's enthusiasm is fun to watch, but the bass is too loud on a few of the songs. As much as RJ's youth and splendid long blonde hair, blowing in the breeze of his onstage fan, adds to the visual appeal, very few of the songs need a keyboard ("Holy Rollers" is the only one, really) and on a few of the songs the keyboard drowns out what Tink is doing. The Kate's stage, it's true, is a big one and fits a six piece band nicely, but that's definitely not true of all the venues this band plays. We'll see how the band continues to evolve.
Maybe I feel this way because I recently had the pleasure of watching a streaming broadcast of the "Slambovian Underground," the three-piece version of the band, Joziah, Tink, and Sharkey, from Caffe Lena. With Sharkey on guitar, this band still rocks even without a drummer, and with the reduced amount of sound it was a real pleasure to be able to listen more clearly to the lyrics, which are so good, and also to Joziah's excellent guitar playing, which is largely drowned out in the full band.
More Slambovians
Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with content relating to the band that started out calling themselves Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams.