Stephen Kellogg Tour De Forty @ The FTC Warehouse

Katie February 27, 2017 0 Comments

Friday night Stephen Kellogg rolled in for a home town show at the FTC Warehouse. I believe this was his first time playing the Warehouse, previously he had played the smaller Stage One next door.

Opening the show was Don Miggs. I may have gone in to the night a bit biased because my friends had said they saw him the night before and weren’t impressed, but I have to say that I wasn’t all that impressed either. I don’t think I have ever seen an opener mess up nearly every single song in his set – and admit to it. He later mentioned that he probably shouldn’t admit to it but that’s who he was. Which I can get, but if you’re playing to a crowd of people that most likely don’t know your songs you can just cover it up with a new lyric and no one would have been the wiser. (Although a few songs were covers so it was a bit more obvious if you knew the originals) Most of his songs were for his wife, which was sweet.

Then it was time for Stephen Kellogg.  He had a band of 6 backing him and it has been a while since I’ve seen him with a band and not just him and his guitar and I have to say there is a HUGE difference in his stage presence with a band than not and this show was a whole other level than any of the other shows I have seen from SK in the past 10 years. So much so I was considering going to the show Saturday night too, but it was just not going to work out.  I had seen SK6ers 25 times before their split and SK solo now 5 times since then and this has to be my favorite show of his ever. The show just seemed to go on forever and it was just amazing. I’m not sure if any of his shows after this will ever measure up (although I am sure seeing him at BTTI in January will be amazing for different reasons)

Stephen also called out some people in the crowd for not even looking at the stage.  There was a lot of chit-chat going on during the openers set, and I figured it would stop once Stephen took the stage so I was pretty surprised when it didn’t. Several years ago he had commented from the stage at a show about some drunk girls talking right by the stage but when I mentioned it to him more recently he said he mellowed out a bit as he was getting older – but I was glad he took the time to ask the people not even looking at the stage to either look or head somewhere else to do whatever they were doing.  I am not sure why people go to a show to not pay attention to the headliner but it is what it is.

Hopefully my next SK adventure will be the BBQ this summer!

Stephen Kellogg Band at Stage One

Katie November 17, 2015 0 Comments

Lately I’ve been trying to avoid concerts during the week because it messes with my being able to sleep a decent amount before work. (I know, I’m so not a rock star anymore)  However, there are some exceptions and Wednesday night that exception was Stephen Kellogg.  He is touring as the “Stephen Kellogg Band” as a part of the promotion for his upcoming album South, West, North, East.  Brooks Hubbard opened the show, Miranda Mulholland was up next with stand up bass player Zachariah Hickman.  The latter two also were part of Stephen’s band.

Brooks did a set of 3 songs. He is from New Hampshire but relocated to Nashville.  He had posted a cover of one of Stephen’s songs and Stephen wanted to know who this guy was that sang his songs with better pitch than him.

Miranda had teased during her set that Stephen plays a lot of songs about hope and family songs and that there was legislation passed that you can’t have a set full of just that so she was going to sing all the autobiographical songs about relationships that didn’t work out.

The Stephen Kellogg Band consisted of “South” – Zachariah, “North” – Miranda, “East” – Boots Factor (former SK6er) and “West”- Sam Getz (former SK6er).

The set started with Curtain Call, with everyone up around one mic.  I found that Zachariah and Miranda were a welcome addition to the band – who knew that what was missing was a fiddle and a stand up bass?

After Thankgiving, the band left the stage.  Stephen said “The band said they’d learn Thankgiving, but then they needed a break!”  Since they were home, Stephen was going to try something that had not been planned and he called backstage to see if his kids were still there. “A couple” was yelled back.  “A couple? I hope a couple didn’t leave” and then shortly after all 4 of his girls joined him on stage and he asked them to sit on the stage and he was going to tell them how much they were loved.  He started crying and had to turn around and compose himself for a minute and then did a medley of “Four Kids”, “Sweet Sophia”, “Oh Adeline”, “Noelle, Noelle” and “Greta Girl”, which are some of the songs he had written for his daughters.  Greta ended up having to leave the stage before her song came up because she was not too thrilled to be out there.  Stephen was also using a guitar strap that had S A N G on it – of course after this medley I realized the letters stood for his daughter’s first initials.

The band played from about 10 minutes to 9 until shortly after 10. It was a great set with a mixture of songs off the new album (that I have not yet listened to even though I got it early for backing the project through pledgemusic) and some older favorites as well.

Curtain Call
Wolf
4th of July
The Open Heart
Start the Day Early
Such a Way
Father’s Day>
The Bear
Thanksgiving
Four Kids / Sweet Sophia / Oh Adeline / Noelle Noelle / Greta Girl
Wallpaper Angel
Shady Esperanto
Almost Woke You Up
Gravity
Last Man Standing
E: We Say Goodbye
Big Easy (with Brooks Hubbard)

Stephen Kellogg at Arch Street Tavern

Katie December 31, 2013 0 Comments

Sunday night, Stephen Kellogg ended 2013 with his last show in Hartford, CT at the Arch Street Tavern.  This is a restaurant, not a venue so the seating was rather awkward.  We opted for a booth over a seat in the middle of the floor because we wanted to eat.  That meant I had my back to the stage and would have to lean around the booth to see the stage.  Opener Dan Mills took the stage at 8pm and I opted to not turn around for most of his set, but the sound was great and I did enjoy his set even if I couldn’t see him! At 9, Stephen took the stage and more people had showed up, blocking our view even if we did lean out of the booth.  Fortunately they ended up moving to a different spot and I ended up sharing the other side of the booth with my friend so I wasn’t twisting around all night.

Since it was a holiday run of shows – he did a couple of Christmas songs after talking about how creepy most of them are – noting particularly Santa Baby and Baby It’s Cold Outside. Then he did another creepy Christmas song – I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. He had Dan come back to sing Winter Wonderland with him and Dan stayed on stage to do Start the Day Early with him as well.

Before Ingrid’s Song he asked if the bar could be quiet for just 2 minutes and then seemed to get a bit annoyed when while he was talking about the song and how it is for his mother in law and glasses were still clanking. Things seemed to calm down when he was actually performing the song though.

He talked a bit about how David Copperfield had been really inspiring to him on his latest record (which he said based on sales he knew most of us didn’t have it. oops! I keep meaning to buy it but then get distracted!)  Then he read a few passages from the book.

He ended the main set with Thanksgiving – which gets so much emotion behind it, it gives you goosebumps. The song gets more and more powerful as it goes on and it was just an amazing performance.

For the encore he did a couple songs and then moved out in the crowd and stood on a chair to do My Favorite Place. And he had us sing along.. and along and along. It was a great sing a long to end the night!

He mentioned coming back to end his tour in March in Fairfield so I am looking forward to that – as long as it doesn’t fall on a date when I already have a show. (His other dates are dangerously close to the weekend I am already booked up!)

Born in the Spring
Watch You Grow
Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts
Lost and Found
4th of July
The Brain is a Beautiful Thing
Girlfriend as Pretty As You
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Winter Wonderland
Start The Day Early
Men and Women
Ingrid’s Song
(Copperfield Reading)
See Yourself
Diamond
See You Later, See You Soon
Thanksgiving

Satisfied Man
Gravity
My Favorite Place