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02/03/2018 Big Wreck (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
By Eric | February 5, 2018 3:45 pm
[Attica Riots was the opener, didn’t watch them. From Winnipeg.]
I only saw Big Wreck once during the initial run of the band, in 2001 at Edgefest, but this show marked the fourth time since the revival! Once on each of the last three new album tours, the Edgefest show was part of the Pleasure and the Greed tour, and now I got to complete the cycle by going back to the beginning – this being the tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of In Living Memory Of…
I timed this one pretty well, as I didn’t get into Buffalo until almost 8pm, which allowed me to stroll right in without waiting in line. I grabbed my ticket, poked my head in for two seconds to see what I was(n’t) missing as far as the opener went, and grabbed a beverage. No sooner did I receive it when I ran into my concert buddies from Syracuse, Kiersten and Pete! I hadn’t realized they were coming, so it was nice to have people to hang out with, and great to catch up on all the shows we’d seen and are going to see. We got corralled by a photographer for the Gusto taking all the “people at the show” pictures, and we look like pretty much everyone else that was at this show, perhaps a touch younger!
Onto the show itself! We managed to grab a spot at the barrier of the 3rd level, just left of center. It was a great spot, and given the show’s demographics, there was no jostling or anything. What made this anniversary show kinda cool is that they didn’t play the songs in album order. They opened with my favorite, Look What I Found, into the first crowd pleaser, That Song. What came next was a nice little wrinkle – a b-side from ILMO, Ill Advice! [More bands need to do this on their anniversary shows!!!] As Ian put it, (and I’m paraphrasing) “someone at the record company didn’t think this was good enough to make the record, but I really like it, so we’re gonna play it!” This was included on the re-issue (on Spotify anyway), but I’d had it for years on the Much @ Edgefest 99 compilation. I’d seen a number of these songs at the previous shows, but certainly not all, and I’m willing to bet there’s stuff they’d never played at all prior to this tour. Most everyone was singing to every single song, but the biggest reactions were for the singles by far, That Song, Blown Wide Open, and of course The Oaf. There was a fair bit of noodling and soloing through each of the songs, and holy hell can Ian Thornley play the guitar. My word. However, during one of the songs (can’t remember which), Ian forgot to put his slide on, and started to try to play without it! We all got a chuckle out of that one, as did he.
We got an encore starting with Albatross, which I’m happy to say had people singing just as loud, if not louder, than any of the ILMO stuff, and then Digging In, before they closed it out with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”. They had been playing Thornley’s “Come Again” as the last song, but unfortunately not tonight. The band sounded great, Ian sounded great, it was just a fun trip down memory lane all the way around. Super glad I came down for it!
In Loving Memory Of 20th Anniversary
Look What I Found
That Song
Ill Advice
How Would You Know
Under the Lighthouse
Prayer
By the Way
Waste
Blown Wide Open
Between You and I
Oh My
Fall Through the Cracks
Overemphasizing
The Oaf
Encore:
Albatross
Digging In
Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin cover)
End of Overemphasizing / The Oaf
Topics: Concerts | Tags: 2018, Big Wreck, Buffalo, Town Ballroom | Comments Off on 02/03/2018 Big Wreck (Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom)
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