Jacobs Pavilion in Cleveland is a venue which I am not familiar with. So when I caught a glimpse of the stage in the urban setting right upon Cuyahoga River with boats and cars driving behind the sunny summer stage, I loved the vibe. The high stadium seating in a tight footprint and the Darian Lake Amp-style white tent over the crowd makes the venue alone a memorable affair. The band took the stage only twenty minutes after ticket time again with people parking behind the stage in Kayaks. Like in Rick in Indiana last week, it was Cotter’s turn to show his guns in his tank top on this warm summer night.
What Not to Miss
Time to Flee
Arrow
Borne → Sleepwalk → Borne
Given the vibe of the evening Elizabeth was the perfect opener for this show, the first of the entire year in fact. The hot rendition’s jam snaps to a crispy finish before Lead Up. I feel like Lead Up is a rather unremarkable song but I enjoy it so much because of its 90’s alternative rock vibe.
Speaking of unremarkable, Echo came next to much fanfare from the crowd (and myself) but the focus here was with segueing into Green River. Good segue, yes, but not a terrible amount to report on here. They close the Echo sandwich with the end of the lyrics just to tie things in a neat bow for setlist reporting.
The last two songs stood out as some of the show’s best playing between Time to Flee and Butter Rum. Time to Flee, one of my favorites, comes out of the gates with Peter on the clav getting setting up an almost trancelike funk. Slowly the guitar emerges as the lead and Cotter, like a good bandmate, hears his guitarist and starts picking up the beat to match it.
The set-closing Butter Rum gave everyone flashes of Quincy from the now-canonical 6/10 version. This version doesn’t go type-II though. It does, however, rock with Rick spewing notes from up and down his fretboard. The band retires the set with the sun still shining and the crowd excited for what is to come next.
When the boys came back out for the second stanza, the sun had then fully set with the lights within the nearby building windows dotting the night sky behind the stage like square stars. Arrow begins the set in dramatic fashion: it quickly sinks to a dark place with Peter drawing everyone down with his synth. Rick finds a good groove to lock everyone into with some good strumming before the (loud) fog starts blowing downward on the stage and Rick quickly moves into the lead with Cotter thumping harder and harder on his snare to give Rick’s notes some backbone.
Borne comes out with another beautiful rendition before slipping into a gorgeous take on Sleepwalk; only the fourth time ever played. Rick plays the version swaying with his eyes closed as if he indeed was sleepwalking. Borne wasn’t finished yet though, and following the last notes of the Santo & Johnny cover, the hi-hat closed and the strumming came out a la 2001. Back into the Borne jam we are and it sounds beautifully similar to what they did with the 6/4 version. Trevor’s bass must have fallen in the Cuyahoga because it’s dripping wet in this jam. Pete’s synth came back out to make things extra spacey and even, hilariously, added the sound of dolphins—unless they were in the river. Peter moves over to the piano to bring the jam into a bit of a more…civilized space. Rick moved from strumming to noodling, yet the indirect, 2001-style lights persisted wonderfully. Rick, as he always does, finds an opportunity to peak before segueing seamlessly into Electric Avenue. This segment was the star of last night’s show.
White Lights took the set home with a big, bright peak and Slow Ready closed the show out fashionably. I should also commend the band on not giving into the temptation to open with Look Out Cleveland, something everyone expected and a temptation I wasn’t even able to avoid with this article.
Goose now takes a break tonight before heading to North Carolina tomorrow, giving us only a little time to catch up on all the great music from the past few weeks.