Stephen Kellogg Solo

Katie December 29, 2012 0 Comments

While Stephen Kellogg has done solo shows in the past, I was never able to catch one.  However, Thursday night I was able to catch his Alone For the Holidays tour at my favorite venue – Fairfield Theater Stage One.

Opening was Native Run.  I had never heard of them before, but the moment they stepped on stage I knew that I was in for something special. Rachel came out and asked us all to check out her shoes because she’d be taking them off in a second.  After their second song, Bryan said that they were done and he was exhausted!  Of course, that wasn’t their last song but they were hilarious and so entertaining.  They sounded great in harmony together and Rachel has a wonderful voice on her own as well.  AND they even did an infomercial for the Water Sack Stephen was selling (or free with a shirt purchase) that evening.  I definitely give them two thumbs up!

Stephen is working on a new solo album, so a handful of the songs were new and he didn’t tell us what the name of the songs were.  So I made some names up for my setlist and we’ll see what happens there.  Usually the setlists get posted at SK6ers.com, so I’ll keep an eye there to see how close I was to being correct and will then update the post accordingly.

He started off with a new song.  I am calling it Heart of a Man. But I don’t know.  Then he said that he would do some older stuff for us too and did Roots and Wings.  During Fourth of July, you could hear a lot of giggling coming from backstage. Stephen has 4 daughters and no doubt they were all playing back there.  At one point he turned to look at the back and just laughed himself.  For the next song – he called the gigglers out on stage to be his special guest.  His 2 oldest daughters came out an danced while he sang Gravity.  So adorable.  They got a standing ovation.  Then he did 2 new songs – one I am calling Lost and Found.  The other he had us echo back “It’s Arlight” so I’m calling it that.  He also said that it was him singing a song he might get in trouble with and it was him being Andy Rooney.  It’s a very political song about his beliefs and how It’s Alright because it’s just what is in his brain and his opinion.

Then he went back to some older songs – 1993 is the song he wrote after his record label told him to stop being so specific with dates and events.  They thought if he was less specific, they could find more people to listen to him.  Personally, I like that his songs are all specific and personal and tell his life story.  Although I can see why the record label might not be too into that if they think that is what is hindering him from gaining fans.   Then he went into the drinking song, Start the Day Early.

Next up Native Run joined him back on stage for a Christmas song.  He said it was after Christmas but they always do a Christmas song on the winter tours so it was a tradition.  Rachel noted that some people celebrate 12 days of Christmas so we were good.  Stephen also teased that it was either the most racist of the Christmas songs or it was talking about how global warming would be coming.  They did White Christmas.  Native Run hung around to join Stephen for another new song – but he told us the title is Forgive You, Forgive Me.

Then he talked a bit about how on December 15th when he woke up he didn’t think any of his songs were good enough after the tragedy that happened.  He went through his catalog and found one that he thought would work and dedicated it to those affected by everything that had happened.  He was also wearing a green ribbon on his jacket which I can only assume was to honor those killed at SHES.  He then sang In Front of the World and next up was Satisfied Man and Milwaukee.

Everyone gave him a standing ovation and soon after he returned to the stage with Bryan from Native Run to do The Bear.  The last song… was interesting.  I wish I had recorded it.  I’m calling it Thanksgiving because that seemed to be what it was about.  It started off soft but as the song went on, he seemed to be getting angrier and angrier. The song got louder and louder and it just had more and more emotion pouring in to it.  It was quite the way to end the night!

Or well, I thought that would be how my night ended.  Except that on the way home, I spotted up ahead a tractor trailer that was SPARKING.  Everyone moved over to the far (fast) lane to avoid it, as it sparked its way to the shoulder.  The air smelled really bad and when I went by it, the driver’s side front tire was completely GONE.  I don’t know where it went, I must have missed it blowing off.  But that was definitely very scary and I am glad it appeared no one was hurt and all of us on the road were able to get out of the way.  Several cars pulled over right after it I’m assuming to call 911.

(setlist from SK6ers.com)

Men & Women
Roots and Wings
4th of July
*Gravity
Lost and Found
The Brain Is A Beautiful Thing
1993
Howl at the Moon
Start the Day Early
** White Christmas
** Forgive You, Forgive Me
In Front of the World
Tweets
Satisfied Man
Milwaukee

SK6ers Hi-Ate-Us Tour Final Show

Katie November 29, 2012 0 Comments

Saturday was the final night of the SK6ers Hi-Ate-Us tour.  Yes, Hiatus. In that they are taking a break and we don’t know when we’ll be seeing them again.  In July the hiatus was announced and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it to a show since they were not coming to CT.  My friend Jen who got me in to the Sixers 6 years ago and I decided that we needed to be there, so we made it happen.

I won’t get into how shitty Webster Hall is as a venue in this review and that because of this I was in tears before the band even came on stage and not for any reason that I thought I’d be tearing up at the show. There may be another post about this later though, or just a letter sent to management. We’ll see!

I will say that otherwise this review was difficult to write.  The show left me speechless.  As a music fan, I think you look forward to these kinds of shows – but as a blogger? Speechless isn’t ideal.  I can’t just post a blank page with a setlist and have you “get it”.  I’m still not sure that anything I write will allow you to “get it”, but I’ll try.  They played from roughly 7:30-10:15. Nearly 3 hours – but it seemed like the show was over in a blink of an eye.  The whole train ride to the show we reminisced on some of the memories that we had from shows past (This was my 25th show, Jen has lost count and there are some that we didn’t go to together as well)

I thought the setlist was a nice mix of past, present and future.  Yes, future – they debuted a new song “I Don’t Want To Die  On The Road”.  Instead of doing just 1 or 2 covers, they did a medley of 7 covers that they had done over the years.  As they were singing this medley the memories came coming back of which shows I had heard them perform the covers at before.

I didn’t take many photos.  I took 9 during the show. 6 were of the backs of people’s heads.  Once we moved to the back of the venue I took 1 decent shot, tried to zoom in on just Stephen and got frustrated.  I decided rather than spend half the show annoyed I couldn’t get the “perfect” shot, I’d put the camera away and just take it all in.

The theme of the night was – “You keep clapping, we’ll keep playing” the only thing in our way of them playing all night was the curfew at the venue.  There were 4 encores.   One song was played in the crowd. My setlist notebook had a front and back page filled with the setlist (first time that ever happened and probably the last!)

There are 2 lyrics that I think sum up the evening – “Celebrate before it’s too late” and “See you later, see you soon”

The next chapter will continue next month, when I go see Stephen solo in Fairfield. (Hopefully Jen can come too!)  Maybe then it’ll really hit me that it is “over” (for now) because right now it all just seems like a blurry dream.

Flower in Rain
Sweet Sophia
Gravity
Roots and Wings
4th Street Moon
Song For Lovers
Start the Day Early
Diamond
We Belong Here
Days
Fathers Day
The Bear
Big Easy
I Don’t Want To Die On The Road
Oh Adeline
Such A Way
1993
Medley – Cripple Creek / Fat Bottom Girls / Piano Man / Baby It’s Cold Outside / Rock N Roll All Night / Let’s Go Crazy / Time of My Life
4th of July
See You Later, See You Soon

E: Satisfied Man
Milwaukee

2nd E: Mabeline
Glassjaw Boxer

3rd E: Shady Esperanto
My Favorite Place

4th E: In Front of the World
Curtain Call

SK6ers at Infinity Hall

Katie June 30, 2012 0 Comments

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.

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Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers – Mohegan Sun Wolf’s Den

Katie January 17, 2012 0 Comments

Sunday night, SK6ers played a free set in the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun.  The night was pretty crazy – my friend I was going to ride up with got sick, so I rode up solo.  Then I met up with a couple of other friends, but one had an expired ID and they wouldn’t let her in the Wolf’s Den (I’ve rarely had them check ID, but they checked everyone’s) so I ended up going in by myself – and sitting at the table with a twitter friend purely by coincidence.

I got there when the guys were sound checking and heard a couple of songs.  I thought there was no line – but it turned out that at some point since I was there last (September?) they completely changed where the entrance to the place is.  When we did finally get in line it wasn’t that long – but it was just so confusing because the other entrance there was a straight line back you could wait in and on this new side there is a HUGE wheel of fortune game.  People didn’t understand the line cut off after us, and security that was placed there to tell people to move to the other line didn’t do a good job of it either.

We were let inside about 5:30 for the 7pm show – which baffled the Mohegan workers. (No one seems to inform them of anything!)  SK6ers would be doing a pre-show fanclub 2 song set at 6pm, so in order to not totally screw over the fanclub members and make sure they got  seat – everyone was let in early.  Half the table left for 6erstown and while they were gone me and the other girl left at the table tried to convince the navy guy that was sitting with us that Hanson was good. He just kept saying he hated them lol

At 7, Stephen took the stage solo and sang Satisfied Man. The rest of the band (which now includes Chip – formerly of the Alternate Routes) joined him on stage for the rest of the set.  I think there were only a couple of songs that I hadn’t seen them do live before (Roots and Wings, My Favorite Place), but even so the sets are always different because Stephen is very in the moment and will play off the crowd which will make his banter change or how long the song goes on for, etc.  During one song he told about how he used to tell his dad he was staying at his mom’s, and tell his mom he was staying at his dad’s and then sneak off to his girlfriend (now wife’s) house.  The fact that this went on without anyone realizing it scares him now that he has 3 daughters.

The set was about an hour and a half long – and also included a cover of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” complete with Boots (drummer) dressed like a purple banana…  The set ended with “Big Easy” so we all got to do the dance.  I still remember when Soucy was teaching us the dance the very first time they did it.  It’s evolved a bit since then…

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Stephen Kellogg&The Sixers 1,000th show

Katie April 5, 2010 0 Comments

Last night was my 21st SK6ers show, but it was the 1,000th show the band had played. Before I left, my computer had a virus so I tried to clean it up and left a scan running and was hoping when I got back it would be fixed. Then I took the 5:01 train in to the city and was going to meet my friend Lauren who was taking the train in from NY.

I got to Grand Central earlier than anticipated and waited outside my track for Lauren. While I was waiting, a woman came up to me and said “This is what you do? Just standing here? Isn’t there anywhere to sit?” and I was like “I don’t know, I’m just waiting for my friend” Why it was such a concern to her that I was standing, I don’t know, as I wasn’t the only one standing around. Lauren showed up about 5 minutes later and we took the Subway to Irving Plaza.

As we were walking there, we saw Boots, SK6ers drummer. He was with Soucy who was the guitarist when I first got into the band, but left the band a few years later after getting married.

Doors were opened when we got in line and we chatted with the girls in front of us a bit about Michael Jackson and “This Is It” We got our 21+ wristbands and checked out the merch. They had a bunch of retro stuff to celebrate the 1,000th show, there were a couple things I thought about buying but didn’t want to hold and/or carry home. (Maybe they’ll end up on the website for sale? lol) and I ended up buying a set of Boots’ drumsticks and the new guitar picks they had to offer. For someone who doesn’t play guitar, I sure have quite the collection of picks!

We then grabbed a spot by the barricade on the side and waited for 8pm to roll around. Serena Ryder took the stage and did 5 songs, I really enjoyed her and she could hold out some amazing notes for a crazy long amount of time (Idol contestants, take note!) For one of her last songs she had SK6ers come out and sing with her. She also commented that someone had told her that NYC wouldn’t sing along to one of her songs, but we did!

About quarter to nine Stephen took the stage and sang a song solo. Then he talked a bit about how he met Goose and he joined him for a song. Then he talked about how Boots joined the band and Boots came out for a song. And finally he had Sam come out and there we had The Sixers! A special guest, Josh Ritter, joined them on stage for a song in the first set.

Then there was a break and the screen came back down in front of the stage and played some slide shows of photos of the band throughout the years. A photo of Boots with Taylor Hanson got about 6 screams.. and a couple of the marquee signs from when the band opened for Hanson got the same amount of screams – that was how we knew where our fellow Hanson fans were standing in the crowd!

The band came back out for their 2nd set. For a couple of songs they brought out Soucy who was a special guest and Stephen said that Soucy had been there for about 400 of the shows so he had to be there with them to celebrate. For Big Easy they brought out Marc Roberge, the lead singer of OAR who had been very supportive of the band when they were first starting out.

Then it was time for the encore. For one of the songs, Stephen said he wanted a couple to come up on stage as it was a slower song. Cousin Jess picked out a couple from right near we were standing and escorted them to the stage. Once they got to the stage, the guy got down on one knee and he proposed to his girlfriend, who was shaking. She said yes, showed the ring to us, and then they got to dance on stage for the song “Diamond”, it was such an amazing moment!

For the final song, they went up to the balcony with no mics. They were right over our heads so we could hear them, but the whole crowd sang along with “See You Later, See You Soon” and it was just the perfect ending for the show! It was an amazing night and I am really glad that I got to experience that with them, and hope that I can see them again and again during the next 1,000 shows of their career!

Oh and another highlight was when Stephen said, “I feel like I’ve said this 1,000 times.. “Hit it Boots!””

(and ps, the computer seems to be fine now – but I will be spending most of my time over the next week making sure I have everything important on my external hard drive!)

Satisfied Man
Anthem of our Discovery
Start the Day Early
4th of July
My Sweet Charade
*Lil Ol Wine Drinker
Oh Adeline
Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts
Thirteen
The Bear

Wagon Wheel
Sweet Sophia
**Lonely in Columbus
Pedal Steel
***Father’s Day
***Now I’m not so lost
Such a Way
****Big Easy
Uninspired Gambling
Milwaukee

Diamond
Days
***See you later, See you soon

* with Josh Ritter
** with Serena Ryder
*** with Chris Soucy
**** with Marc Roberge

Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers 9-11-09

Katie September 12, 2009 0 Comments

This show was also even more special as it was the FIRST show on the latest tour for SK6ers and their CD “The Bear” just came out on Tuesday – so it was the first show where it was available for sale.

The opening act was Jeffrey Gaines who before pretty much every song it seemed told us what the song he was going to sing was about and why he wrote it. Knowing why songs were written or how they were inspired is incredibly interesting to me so it was fascinating to hear these stories.

I had DLed The Bear on Tuesday from Amazon MP3 to get the bonus tracks, but then ended up so busy I hadn’t listened to it yet, so going into the show I wasn’t sure how many songs I would know, but Jen and I discussed on the way there that a few of the songs on the CD we did know from them playing them live before they actually made it on to a CD. Stephen also assured the crowd at the beginning of the show that they would throw in older songs as well – and they sure threw in all of our favorites 🙂

A new cover was thrown into the mix – of Sheryl Crow:

A couple of songs in a guy next to me jumped over the row and sat right next to me. When there were 3 empty seats next to me so he easily could have gone in to the middle seat not to disturb anyone. He also was clapping off-beat and that threw me off royally when Stephen had us clap along to Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts. I opted to record video of the song at that point instead. He also had a really WIDE clap and for a small venue that was just not appropriate at all…

It was great to see the SK6ers again, I think the last time i saw them was on the Rock Boat so it had been quite some time, for Jen almost a year and Jessa – 2 years!

After the show, I purchased the hard copy of the CD to get it signed. We talked to Stephen first, and he smelled my CD. Then we went to Kit and he also smelled my cd lol It’s got to be cool to a see a CD come together after so much time working on recording it and designing it and stuff. Kit also was checking out Jessa’s insert saying how it was nice to see it all finally together. Boots did not smell my cd, but we did talk a bit about the Mets and how sad the season was.

I’m not sure when I’ll be seeing the SK6ers again as their tour isn’t coming back this way for quite a while, but I am very much looking forward to seeing them again – I always leave with a huge smile on my face.

The Bear
Sweet Sophia
Start the Day Early
See Yourself
In Front of the World
My Old Man
Oh Adeline
Milwaukee
Big Easy
Satisfied Man
Maria
All I want to do
4th of July
Days

E: Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts
See you later, See you Soon
Goodnight