The Revivalists: ACL Taping: April 9, 2019

I scored the hookup from one of my best friends to get two seats at the ACL taping for the Revivalists last night - his brother-in-law is in the band.  Which is still kind of insane to me.  I remember when he used to talk up this band that his brother-in-law was playing in, and it seemed like some little thing that would just toil in obscurity in New Orleans or fade into oblivion after a few albums.  Now they're selling out two successive nights at Stubb's, playing Red Rocks, scoring big slots on major festival posters - they're killing it.  And little Ed has grown into a hunk of a man sliding his fingers around on a steel guitar.  Life is weird.

Anyway, this show was freaking great.  The second song was when I realized that I was seeing something other than a one hit wonder coasting on that accomplishment - their rendition of "Oh No," with two drummers hammering the shit out of their kits, Ed slaying on the steel, and the whole band just grooving in sync was freaking fantastic.  I had never really even noticed that song on the new album, but now its a highlight of the disc for me.  Of course they did good versions of  "All My Friends," "Change," and "Wish I Knew You," but they also jammed out on "Criminal" and the encore "Soulfight."

Personally, I find "Got Love" and "Celebration" to be a little cheesy, so I could have done without those two coming back to back in the show - the lyrics are just a little clunky, too much repetition and na na na/ love love love sections that seem placed in there just to get the crowd to participate even when they don't know the songs.  "Got Love"-style songs are the reason that I don't much enjoy Robert Randolph.

The vast majority of the show was taken from the new album - and I get that they are pimping the new album on tour right now, but being that they were making a taping for ACL, I kind of wish they had broken out more of their older, well-known, well-loved songs.  "All In The Family" is a jam that would have been good to see them tear into.  "Monster" is another good one from that last album.

Those two nitpicks aside, the show was super high energy fun.  The band has a trumpet-playing organist who sings backup, a dancing saxophonist, a top notch steel player, a regular lead guitar who can jam, two drummers (who not only kick ass, but also look like they are having a really fun time up there), a goofy bassist (keep your tongue in your mouth, man), and a charismatic lead singer who brings it all together.  They brought the thunder for the show.  Anyway, highly recommend (and not just because the tickets were free).