Peach Fest 2019 was easily one of our favorite weekends of the summer. The festival was filled with fantastic performances. Don’t worry if you couldn’t tune in for every minute of the show, we’ve got you covered with a full list of on-demand shows from this weekend. Subscribe to nugs.net to take performances from Peach Fest 2019 and over 15,000 live shows with you wherever you go.
Peach Festival kicks off tomorrow in Scranton, Pennsylvania and live performances from the festival’s Peach Stage will be streamed for free on nugs.tv. The webcasts start tomorrow at 3 PM ET and will continue all weekend through Sunday night.
The String Cheese Incident kicked off their 2019 Red Rocks run in style with the help of Cory Wong. After his opening performance, Wong and several members of his band joined SCI for “Freedom Jazz Dance” during the first set. Following set break, Cheese returned to the stage with Cory Wong and co. Together they performed a rousing take on “I Wish,” which you can watch below.
Cory Wong: Full Performance
Set I Opener: Little Hands
Set II Opener: I Wish
Night Two:
The second night at Red Rocks was filled with tributes, anniversaries, and Keller Williams. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their collaborative album “Breath,” Keller and Cheese played the album front to back. The special set was an absolute delight. During the third set, a horns section known as Horns Bruceby joined during “Jellyfish” and stayed for the remainder of the set. Later, the band paid tribute to the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 by playing space-themed jams including tracks from Close Encounters, Star Wars, Star Trek, and more.
Set I Opener: Stupid Questions
Set II Opener: Love Is All Around
Set III Opener: All We Got
Night Three
Sunday opened with a special set featuring bluegrass legend Del McCoury, celebrating his 80th birthday. After Cheese took the stage, the band took time to bring Del up and sang “Happy Birthday” with the packed crowd. After the celebration, Del and members of his band stayed on stage for several tunes. The second set opener featured a specially choreographed dance from Denver’s own Celtic Steps, River Dancers that accompanied “Rivertrance.”
Set I Opener: Chatter
Set II Opener: Rivertrance (with Denver’s own Celtic Steps, River Dancing)
You’re in for a treat this week if you loved the first collection of Dopapod shows that we added to the nugs.net catalog earlier this year. Over 100 new shows are now available to purchase or stream with a subscription. Listening to a Dopapod show is unlike anything else and with over 100 shows, there’s plenty to choose from. We talked to Dopapod Keyboardist Eli Winderman to find out about a couple of the band’s favorite shows from the new collection.
2/23/2013- Blockley Pourhouse, Philadelphia PA
“Ah, the good old Blockley Pourhouse. We loved playing this now-defunct Philly music venue. I think it’s where we had some of our best shows leading up to this time. I grew up outside of Philly so we always had a bit of a connection to the city. This particular show was added last minute after playing two nights in a row. In between the last song and the encore they asked if we wanted to announce a surprise 3rd night and we agreed. What transpired was basically a one-song set.”
“I listened back to a lot of our shows while preparing for the bands return and this show really stuck out to me. It was the last show of a very grueling and never-ending tour and in my opinion, I think this may be the most “dialed in” we’ve sounded. But that is all up to everyone’s own opinion of course. Coincidentally, it was the same date as our recent Capitol Theatre return show.”
“This was actually the first set back after Fro’s hiatus from the band from 2013-2016. We had a blast putting together a Pink Floyd set and we really tried to make it unique. I’m proud of the different arrangement ideas we came up with for these classic songs. We even brought in an Arp Omni string synth to replicate the sounds on “Welcome to the Machine”.”
“This show was really fun for a few reasons. I believe it was a Sunday show and we had Adrian Tramontano from Kung Fu/The Breakfast join us on percussion (which is always a treat). We did some fun variations on songs including a reggae version of “Nerds”. Then at the end of the set we switched instruments for a long and fun improv jam. I’m pretty sure Mike Gantzer from Aqueous joined at one point, although my memory is a bit fuzzy and I could have just completely imagined that.”
“This is the infamous rain set. We got completely rained on. Like monumentally drenched and just kept playing. There was no cover over the stage and as the rain started we just said F*** it and kept going. It will always be one of my favorite memories of this band’s journey.”
We’re celebrating festival season by looking back at some of our favorite festival performances including Dead & Company at LOCKN’, Red Hot Chili Peppers at Lollapalooza Paris, Pearl Jam at Voodoo Fest, Widespread Panic at Bonnaroo, and more from your favorite artists.
It’s always a treat to catch Dead & Company on the road, but this festival appearance was extra special. The Show opens with an incredible “Playin’ in the Band” that is later reprised with a tease during “Loser.” The band returned from set-break with a new addition, Branford Marsalis on Saxophone. Marsalis stuck around for the entire second set adding some wonderfully smooth flair to the set.
One of The Allman Brothers Band’s final shows, this one is filled with stellar covers and guests. The show opens with a great cover of The Spencer Davis Group’s “Don’t Want You No More.” After “Midnight Rider” the band covered “Done Somebody Wrong” by Elmore James. Later, Taj Mahal joined for a cover of “Statesboro Blues” by Blind Willie McTell immediately followed by Ron Holloway joining for “Soulshine.” After that number, the band played Willie Cobbs “You don’t Love Me.” The final cover of the night was “Good Morning, School Girl” with guests Gábor Presser & Chris Karlic. After the Sonny Boy Williamson’s cover, Peter Levin joined the band for “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’” and “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.”
The opening “Walk on the Flood” form this Jazz Fest 2008 show is a great gem for Panic fans. Phish fans will love this Panic show featuring Page McConnell on “Love Tractor” and “Fixin’ to Die.” Wild Magnolias also join for a rousing take on “Drums” > ”Big Chief.”
This Billy Strings show is filled with some mesmerizing covers. The first cover of the show is a great take on “Southern Flavor,” by Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys which was immediately followed by the Jerry Garcia & David Grisman song “Dreadful Wind and Rain.” Cory Walker joined for a lengthy cover of The String Cheese Incident’s “Black Clouds.” Next, the band covered “10 Degrees & Getting Colder” by Gordon Lightfoot before closing out the show with “Turmoil & Tinfoil.”
Greensky Bluegrass’ Camp Greensky returned to Wellston, Michigan last month for its second year. The band was in peak performance all weekend as the headlined each night of the three-day festival. To commemorate the festival’s second year, Greensky debuted a duo of “two” themed covers. The first was Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston’s “It Takes Two” and was followed by Eddie Money’s iconic “Two Tickets To Paradise.”
Summer’s over for Dead & Company. The band wrapped up their 2019 Summer Tour last weekend in Boulder Colorado. Both nights were incredible. The first night in Boulder was a battle against the elements as the first set was quickly cut short by a rain delay. After roughly an hour, the band returned to the stage and played the full show with no interruption. It was breathtaking. After a full summer of shows, the band continues to surprise with incredible versions of the songs we love. As the tour came to a close, each member of the band got a chance to shine with some fantastic solos spaced throughout both shows.
Dead & Company’s Summer Tour is over, but the magic doesn’t need to stop. We’ve got audio from every night of the tour. The discounted box set includes every jam, every debut, every solo, and so much more. With 19 full shows, you’ll have plenty of content to keep you jamming until Dead & Co.’s next scheduled stop: Playin’ in the Sand 2020 at Rivera Cancun in Mexico.
Coming off their incredible Electric Forest performances, we were excited to see what The String Cheese Incident had planned for their next shows in the south. The incidents in Louisville and Atlanta were fantastic follow ups. Their Independence Day show in Louisville was filled with a pair of patriotic covers including James Brown’s “Living In America” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.”
Ronda Thomas joined the band for three songs during the bands second night in Atlanta. The vocalist first joined midway into the first set for “Valerie.” Thomas returned during the second set for a tribute to Col. Bruce Hampton with a cover of “Yield Not to Temptation.” To close out the night, The String Cheese Incident invited Thomas back on stage for a performance of “I Wish” as the lone encore.
The end of one era and the beginning of another, the newest archival release from Metallica reaches all the way back to January 1st, 2000. Being the band’s first show of the new millennium, this release is a must-listen for longtime fans. Highlights from this show include “Whiskey in the Jar,” “Mastertarium,” and the closing “Phantom Lord.”
Umphrey’s McGee’s summer dates are in full swing now as the band tours all over the country. UM kicked off their July shows with performances on the west coast. Playing at High Sierra this weekend, the band welcomed Skerik to close out their set. The saxophonist joined for a thrilling cover of David Bowie’s “Lets Dance.” The band later returned for a festival encore that included “The Triple Wide,” “Hajimemashite,” and “1348.”
One of the most thrilling times to be a sports fan is when your team is in the midst of a winning streak. They occur in all sports, but in baseball and especially basketball, winning streaks are irresistible because of the unique way they place team chemistry, a “never give up” mentality, and moments of individual brilliance against a backdrop of ever-rising stakes. Who doesn’t want to tune in to see if your team can push their streak to 17, 21, or 33 in a row?
It could be argued that the entire live performance history of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is one long winning streak. That acknowledged, and with the benefit of hindsight and live recordings, fan consensus has coalesced around notable E Street streaks: the last two weeks of the 1977 tour with the Miami Horns; the late-’84 stretch of the Born in the U.S.A. tour.; and the final U.S. leg of Magic 2008 to name but a few.
The River tour boasts a few of its own streaks, and without question, Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve 1980 is among the best of them. A staggering run of shows throughout the Northeast culminated in a three-night stand at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. With his first chart-topping album and a Top Five single (“Hungry Heart”) in hand, Bruce and the band closed out 1980 more popular than ever.
Shows that wrapped that leg of the tour offered an intoxicating mix of musician-athletes performing at their peak, newfound confidence drawn from a long-awaited commercial breakthrough, and a continued hunger to prove it all night.
Supporting a double album of new material, that hunger was manifest in the increasing duration of the concerts and the stunning number of songs performed. In fact, until records were broken in 2012, the late-’80 River shows were the longest of Bruce’s career. Other shows and tours have their own distinct qualities, but if you are talking about a run of epic Springsteen concerts, the Thanksgiving-New Year’s ’80 streak is the reference point.
Nassau Coliseum 12/29/80 and its sister show 12/31/80 (reissued in a newly remixed and remastered edition) each stretch to 35 or more songs and live up to the legend of Bruce’s four-hour concerts by running close to that (counting the between-sets intermission). There may be other eras where the band played this well, but there is no period where they played better.
Both stunning performances are packed with delicious rarities along with some of the strongest versions of core material ever caught on multi-tracks. With a bounty of more than 70 songs between the two shows, there’s too much good stuff to cover, but here are ten things to listen for as you relive these magical nights.
1.Springsteen debuted his brilliant take on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain” three shows earlier at Madison Square Garden. It has endured as one of the band’s finest covers, popping up a few times on tours ever since. The versions performed on 12/29 and 12/31 are musically rich and heartfelt, pointing to the musical direction Bruce would explore six months hence on the band’s first proper tour of Europe.
2. Having just read Joe Klein’s biography of Woody Guthrie, Bruce covers “This Land Is Your Land” for the first time during the three-show Nassau stand, calling it an “angry song…an answer to Irving Berlin’s ‘God Bless America’.” With the possible exception of a one-off performance of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom” in 1978, it is the first protest song Springsteen performed in concert with the E Street Band and signals the start of his public turn toward social and political commentary.
3. The paternal pairing of “Factory” and “Independence Day” on 12/29 is not only an evocative stretch of storytelling, but could pass for a dramatic monologue at a Broadway theater.
4. One of the signature sequences of early River tour shows is Roy Bittan’s mini-suite of “The River” into “Badlands.” 1980 performances of “The River” start with an original piano prelude (echoed by Danny Federici) before Bruce’s plaintive harmonica wail starts the song formally. Shortly after “The River” ends, Bittan starts into his interpretation of Ennio Morricone’s theme from the Sergio Leone film Once Upon A Time In The West. As Bittan plays the moving piano refrain, electric guitar chords start to chime in, building energy that crescendos when the intro gives way to an explosive “Badlands.” Magnificent.
5. The River tour is the height of Stevie Van Zandt’s role as backing vocalist, at times reaching the point of co-lead vocals. He’s a marvel at these shows on expected songs like “Two Hearts” and “Prove It All Night,” but listen for him in more unexpected places like the chorus of “Thunder Road” for signs of just how into it he is at Nassau.
6. Bruce’s spirited vocal on “For You” is full of fresh intonations distinct from other renditions.
7. The earnest story that leads into “Stolen Car” on 12/29 might melt your heart; the moving performance itself will have you reaching for a tissue or three.
8. The gorgeous, stripped-down arrangement of “The Price You Pay” on 12/31 starts solo. The band joins softly in the second verse, and we’re treated to the alternate third verse found in the single-disc version of The River included in The Ties That Bind box set. As good as it gets.
9. While we’ve heard the incredible version of “Incident on 57th Street” from 12/29 before (it was released as the b-side to “War” from Live 1975/85), hearing it in context of the show is so much sweeter. “This is a song we haven’t done in a real long time,” says Bruce, as he tests out the chords on his guitar. “No, it ain’t ‘Kitty’s Back.’ I hope I remember all the words….” Roy tinkles out the first few notes, the crowd swoons in recognition of the song, Max comes with his drum intro, and the lead guitar sends us soaring. If that wasn’t enough, after nearly ten majestic minutes, it rolls straight into “Rosalita” as it does on The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.
10. You want rarities? We got rarities. Beyond the aforementioned, the Nassau shows feature “Rendezvous,” the first-ever version of the “Hungry Heart” b-side “Held Up Without a Gun,” sublime seasonal nuggets “Merry Christmas Baby” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” plus Happy New Year covers of “In the Midnight Hour” and “Auld Lang Syne.” All that, plus 15 of the 20 songs on The River, including the under-played “Fade Away,” “Wreck on the Highway” and “The Price You Pay.”
A Final Note: Jon Altschiller’s new mix and mastering on 12/31/80 moves the listener from the 40th row to the first, proximity that reveals incredible new detail and musical power.
After electing to Plangent Process 12/29/80 for release, it was clear that 12/31/80 also deserved a Plangent-transferred new mix and mastering to match, as the version released in 2015 was not up to the same standards. While the Plangent Processed and remixed version of 12/31/80 is being sold as a standalone release, anyone who bought the original can access the new upgraded audio for free via the “My Stash” section of the nugs.net app, which provides streaming access to all shows purchased as downloads or CDs (no subscription required). Previous buyers of New Years Eve ’80 can log in with the account credentials they used to buy the show the first time.
Dead & Company has been all over the country this week. The band’s been truckin’ along to Bristow, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Dallas since June 26th. The highlight of the Bristow show came at the halfway point when the band closed out the first set with a killer version of “Throwing Stones.” John Mayer’s solo on the song is incredible. Two night’s later Charlotte got one of our favorite setlist arrangements of the tour featuring “Truckin’,” “Cassidy,” and a fantastic “Estimated Prophet” that led into “Eyes of the World” The next night saw the band heading down to Georgia for a night in Atlanta. The show featured a breathtakingly beautiful version of “Standing on the Moon.” Last night Dead & Company headed deep into the heart of Dallas, Texas. A couple of Texas-themed songs made their way into the setlist with “El Paso” and “Deep Elem Blues,” a reference to the famous Dallas neighborhood. The highlight of the night came near the end of the first set with a show-stealing version of “Sugaree” that is already becoming a fan-favorite.
Listen to every show from Dead & Company’s summer tour on nugs.net
Widespread Panic just wrapped their 2019 three-night run at Red Rocks. Selling out the iconic venue has become an annual affair for Panic at this point. Each night was filled with fantastic bust outs, rarities, and fan favorites. If you missed out on the sold-out shows, we’ve got exclusive video from our webcasts:
