While I patiently wait for the videos to upload - here's the review of my day in Providence with Blind Melon. I will type as long as i can keep my eyes open....
We arrived in downtown Providence around 4pm. By the time we made some stops we found and parked near the venue around 5. There were 4 or 5 people hanging around outside and as we walked up we could hear the sounds of a band sound checking inside. Not wanting to get too excited, I thought to myself that it was probably one of the other bands, but no sooner did i think that did i hear the undeniable drum beat to "Soak the Sin" and before i knew it we were all trying our best not to geek out right there on the street we could fully hear the band rip into Soak the Sin, and we all got our very first listen to Travis sining a classic Blind Melon tune. I think the girl standing next to me summed what we were all thinking at that moment when she said -
"Oh my god, he fucking sounds just like Shannon."
And he did. Honestly, it almost sounded like they were blasting the record from inside the bar. But it wasn't - it was the boys rehearsing on the other side of this brick wall. Just the first of the many times i would utter the phrase "Amazing" on this night. We stayed on the street and listened to them soundcheck "soak", "Drive", and "The Pusher". goosebumps.
We headed back to the club around 8pm. We took our position center stage, 1 row of people back. The first band started at 9pm - can't remember their name - but they were largely forgettable. I believe they were what is called a "local opener" booked by the venue for this stop only. They were sort of a mix of Creed and Matchbox 20 which isn't the best combination i can think of. During their set we headed out to the back alley smoking section where we saw Christopher Thorn for the first time of the night - just walking through the people, being friendly, and looking genuinely excited. We all were.
The Dusty Rhodes River Band took the stage and after sound initial sound problems got started around 10pm. To be totally honest, by this point the place was filling out and EVERYONE in the joint was ready for Melon, but to their credit, the Dusty Rhodes band performed a fantastic, high energy, and really unique set. I fully intend on picking up their album. Very different, very cool band. I dug them a lot. Plus, after every song their frontman would ask the crowd - "Are you guys ready for this?" "Are you guys ready for Blind Melon?!?" Talking to him after the show, the whole band are huge Melons fans and really seemed honored and humbled to be a part of this night and tour.
At the conclusion of the Dusty Rhodes set, the anticipation in the place was unbearable and the venue was pretty packed out at this point. There seemed to be an agonizing delay for the sound guys to get Christopher's mandolin working, but they FINALLY got everything set up. It was about 11:30 EST at this point.
Without warning, the opening horns from the Soup album blared over the PA without shannon singing the "I'm entering a frame..." just the instrumental track. A side door to the stage opened, the boys emerged, the place went bannanas, and just like that - Blind Melon were back.
The kicked right into Galaxie without a word. It was if 12 years of pent of aggression were stored up in all of them and they just let it all out. Let me say this right now - Travis is fucking legit. He nailed everything the whole night and it started right off the bat with Galaxie. I have pics and video to prove all this but you can take my word for it.
After Galaxie, Brad said to the crowd. "Thank you so much for being here. This is really heavy for all of us. Real heavy."
I can go song by song, but everyone will be like - oh yeah, they nailed this one to the wall. it was all that mind blowing.
After 2x4, Travis mentioned that was this band's first gig in 12 years. That was met with thunderous screaming.
Before "Change" Travis took some time to talk to the crowd for the first time. I don't want to misquote him and i think i caught some of this on video, but he basically said - "I want to tell you all right now, that nobody - not me or anyone- can replace Shannon Hoon. If Shannon Hoon were here right now, I'd be out there with you and these guys wouldnt need me to do their thing. I'm just here so these guys can continue to do their thing. I just want to keep this going. Anyway, speaking of Shannon Hoon, here's his song" Again - that is not an exact quote. We were all too bust screaming everytime he said the name "Shannon Hoon". Then the band went into Change. The place lost it (again). Or maybe i should say - the place continued to lose it
Soup was great. the crowd was singing so loud you couldn't hear Travis
Make a Difference was great.
Sleepyhouse was great.
Drive was great.
Time was great.
Travis came out for the encore and played Mouthful on acoustic. They had a girl on stage with them to sing Jenna's part - I can't remember her name - however she is also working with the film crew that is following the band. I believe they are making a documentarty. (So am I!!! lol). Anyway, you couldn't really hear her over Travis and the deafening crowd.
For "The Pusher" Travis came out into the front few rows of people and led the mass of people swarming him in a huge sing along. I got some video of this too.
For No Rain Travis called up random people from the audience to help him sing. At one point a girl in a bee costume was dancing around on the stage. What a fucking amazing show - 12 years in the making.
After the show, all of the band members were hanging outside the bus on the sidewalk in front of the venue. They spoke to every single person who wanted to talk to them - at length. I had a seperate conversation with each of the guys on the sidewalk tonight. Little details of each conversation are slowly coming back to me (you can imagine i was sort of stoked to be chilling with the guys and was finding it difficult to concentrate. My buddy locked his keys (and our smokes) in our car, Travis felt bad about it, and bummed us a few smokes out of his pack. I talked to Glen about the video contest. I tried to sneak a picture of Brad and as soon as I did he grabbed me and said "I wasn't ready bitch!" I cracked up, and then i got a really sweet pic with him.
Shit, I'm rambling and this is the longest post in the history of the blindmelonforum. WHAT AN AMAZING NIGHT. FOR EVERYONE. FANS AND BAND ALIKE. I don't want to speak for them obviously, but it was obvious they were excited and really happy to be back.
Looks like pics are done uploading. I will post a few. Sleep is calling even though i'm still wired. Shit! it's 4:30am! damn!
WELCOME BACK BLIND MELON!!!