On New Year’s Eve, Railroad Earth wrapped up a three-night run at Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse to help ring in 2015. Both local Atlantans and those who traveled a long distance for the run were handsomely rewarded as the jamgrass veterans delivered the goods, playing two lengthy and powerful sets for a packed house in the clsasic art deco movie theatre. The excitable, eclectic crowd lapped it all up, whirling away as the sextet of professorial-looking dudes ripped through a heady blend of Americana, jamgrass, and folk-inspired rock and roll. Focus on stage and in the crowd was high throughout the night, and the congenial band members didn’t exhibit an ounce of we’re-really-good-and-we-know-it smugness at any point, instead masterfully plodded through original highlights like “Long Walk Home,” “Dandelion Wine,” and the fan favorite odyssey “Like A Buddha” (among other selections).
Additionally, the band dished out some cool covers — I’m particularly looking forward to re-hearing “Walls of Time” and “The Wheel”. There were more than a few flashes of virtuosic brilliance exhibited throughout the show and it’ll be a treat to relive this night once the recordings surface.
Check out the setlist and gallery below.
Set 1:
Monkey
Saddle of the Sun
Happy
Chains
The Forecast
Long Walk Home
Any Road
Dance Around Molly
Dandelion Wine
Lovin You
Cuckoo
Donkey For Sale
Everything Comes Together
Set 2:
Walls of Time
Drag him Down
Countdown to midnight
Midnight Special
Jiggy
Buddha
Give That Boy a Hand
#12
Warhead Boogie
Black Bear
H Ape
Stillwater Getaway
The Wheel
Encore:
El Cumbanchero
A special thanks to Tim Carbone and the Railroad Earth team for allowing me the special opportunity to photograph the band from on-stage around midnight, what a memory!
