Wednesday I went to my 3rd show in as many days. Except that the scheduling for the blog got a little screwy because the first 2 shows were last minute additions. So you’ll hear about those next week 😉 Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers (SK6ers) performed at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, CT. To be honest, if I hadn’t already bought a ticket I probably would have skipped out on going to this show because I was so tired and it is just over an hour for me to get there. I had been keeping an eye on how many tickets were sold since the show went on sale, and it was kind of sad how few tickets were sold. The venue has 2 sections of the floor, so the first 3 rows had people and then there were some empty rows until the seats were in the cheaper area. Stephen commented a few times about how we were all spread out.
Opening for the evening was Chris Koza a songer songwriter from Minnesota. I didn’t keep track of what he sang – I know he did a song called Centralia about a ghost town in PA and he said that we should look it up on wikipedia and that is where he got the lyrics from. He also did a mashup of 26 songs into a medley – but it was just the “na na nas” and “heys” and “hey yas” from songs throughout the years. His intro of it did it no justice – it was incredibly entertaining and fun to try and figure out which songs were which. He did a song called Dark, Delirious Morning and also the song Geese in the Fly Away which he had Stephen Kellogg join him on. He also did a Bob Dylan cover. (And I am sure there are many more I am missing.)
Due to being so tired at this show everything is kind of meshing in to one thing so if I mention things that happened before/after/during songs please keep in mind that it might not be exactly accurate. SK6ers tour is the “stripped down and fully clothed” tour – which basically means it is acoustic (and that they aren’t naked). They started the set with a stripped down version of Shadey Eseperanto and the Young Hearts. It is always interesting to see/hear how a song changes when it goes from electric to acoustic. Before Keep Your Thoughts Stephen had mentioned that the song is their most downloaded song in their catalog, they don’t play it often, but yet it rarely gets requested. It doesn’t get shouted for, no one emails him about it so he thinks that maybe Rihanna has a song with a similar title or somthing.
Before Start the Day Early Stephen mentioned that he likes to throw parties where he throws groups of people together so that it will be awkward and that he’d be doing it on stage tonight. He said he would be bringing out Tim of The Alternate Routes (who were playing Infinity Hall the next night – would love to have seen them but that drive 2 nights in a row was definitely not happening.) and Chris Koza who had just met that day to sing their duet during the song. To make things even more awkward, they were forced to share a stool on stage as well.
Stephen talked a bit about how there were songs out there that he had wished he had written – either for the monetary aspect or because the lyrics meant something to him. He said how he wished he had written “party rockers in the house tonight” and then went on to sing Too Old Now To Die Young, a Will Hoge song.
One of the songs, I can’t remember which, (My favoritre place maybe?) he sang in “Norwich” instead of “Norfolk” after the song people started shouting at him that he was in Norfolk and he thought he had just misprounounced it. He said usually that line being changed to the city they were in got a response but we didn’t have one. Then he realized he said the completely wrong city and teased that maybe the other 200 people to fill the venue were actually in Norwich instead of Norfolk. He also was talking about how there was an era when the band drank a lot and someone screamed out asking what he was drinking and he said milk. Eventually he ended knocking over the milk that he had one the table next to him and then someone screamed out to not cry over spilled milk.
The guys will be back out on tour in the fall – but he mentioned that they were coming to NYC in November, so it appears that the dates won’t have Connecticut on them this next tour – which is a bummer. I am pretty much all NYC-ed out… but maybe they’ll add something in, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Shady Esperanto
Watch You Grow
Keep Me In Your Thoughts
Glassjaw Boxer
We Belong Here
Start the Day Early (with Chris Koza and Tim Warren)
My Favorite Place
Too Old Now To Die Young
Born in the Spring
Vegas
Maria
Howl at the Moon
Gravity
The Bear
Wagon Wheel>This little light |
4th of July
Roots and Wings