06/06/2008 The Gourds & Patrick Sweany @ The Blue Note

Well it was another great night at the Blue Note to watch music when The Gourds rolled into town between stops at Twangfest in St. Louis and Wakarusa in Kansas. Opening the show was Patrick Sweany and his band, and since he is apparently from Jefferson City, it was a little like a family reunion to start the show. Patrick plays a nice brand of bar rock blues, and you could tell from his show that he was good at keeping the drinkers at the bar interested in listening to his music. During the show his stage banter was a cross between a conversation between old friends and a cheerleader keeping the crowd engaged in the show. During the show he stopped twice during a song, one to announce the new tattoo that a friend's son had just gotten, and the other to adjust his sleeves so that he still looked good for the audience. It was actually a rather entertaining show. I am not that into the blues or blues rock, so musically it wasn't my favorite show, but if you do like this style of music Patrick plays a mean guitar and puts on a great show. At the very least it is fun to sit back and have a couple of drinks with a few friends while he is playing in the back ground. The highlights of the show for me included the last song and some of the instrumentals near the middle of the show.

Set List:
1) Intro
2) Instrumental
3) Step Outside
4) Wednesday Night
5) Nobody Dance
6) Instrumental
7) Your Man
8) Instrumental
9) I Want It All
10) Instrumental
11) Instrumental
12) Bad Love
13) Think About It
14) Yeah Man

The Gourds took the stage and brought forth their brand of Americana greatness to the stage. They opened the stage with a Rockin' Do 4 U with Midnight Rider played in the middle. They then proceeded to play through a meandering set that scorched, swung, and swayed. They covered a lot of ground in the Gourds catalogue moving through accordion, key board, fiddle, lap steal, banjo, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar through out the night. I am not familiar enough with the Gourds live set to know what might be a rare track or a interesting version. They of course played Gin and Juice (which seemed to get the best crowd reaction), and part of the fun of Gin and Juice now is to see what songs they transition to in the middle of playing. For this set we go a little bit of Everyday People and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. For the encore Jimmy Smith put down the bass and played acoustic guitar. All in all it was a great show that any fan of the Gourds would love. I will say that highlights for me were Do 4 U, Motherless Children, Burn The Honeysuckle, Ant On The Melon, Gangster Lean, Gin & Juice, and All The Labor.

Set List
1) intro
2) Do 4 U (Midnight Rider middle)
3) Motherless Children
4) LGO
5) Right In The Head
6) Blankets
7) Burn The Honeysuckle
8) Ant On The Melon
9) Big Santiago Bust
10) Illegal Oyster
11) Red Letter Day
12) Bug Blues
13) Shake The Chandelier
14) Mister Betty
15) A Few Extra Kilos
16) Flavor On Yer Tung
17) Collections
18) My Name is Jorge
19) Gangster Lean
20) Gin & Juice (Everyday People & Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheep)
Encore:
21) Plaid Coat
22) All The Labor

I got pretty good recordings of both bands and they are posted on my site Lovin Live Music for download in MP3 or SHN formats.