Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers Concert @ Bluebird ~ With MLC, Yoho, and Seanie 24Apr25

The show @ Bluebird was great last night. Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have been a favorite band of mine (and Matt's) for a long time. I have every album, including pre-Peacemakers Refreshments stuff, and knew 80% of the songs delivered. The lineup has not changed for decades and the band was tight; Roger's songwriting is epic and his voice still shines. They rocked the heck out of a knowledgable and supportive fan base, many of whom sang along and motioned at appropriate moments from the mosh pit. The Peacemakers vibe is completely southwestern US and Colorado is included among the cherished spots describe in the lyrics. Matt invited is friend Seanie to the show and Yoho (who was presented a Peacemakers dive last year on the NestMT) joined for this keen outing.

Before the show we'd orchestrated dinner (Jim & I) at the old school Bastien's Steakhouse nearby and a meetup at the excellent Cerebral Brewing around the corner. We enjoyed some killer hazies at Cerebral, my 2nd most favored brewery in Colorado, including a great collaboration with Tripping Animals, a very fine Florida brewery. We then joined the queue about 6:40pm before doors opened at 7pm.

We grabbed a great position at the 2nd rail above the pit and I stood my ground the entire show. Jim was right there with me and Matt & Seanie were in & out of the show nearby all night. The sound was good in Bluebird but I did use titanium earplugs on a off (thanks Jim). Ike Reilly opened and was solid with good lyrics, a decent voice, and presence. Beyond songwriting, his set was at a consistent pace and within a narrowish range... making it repetitive for me by the end. Illinois boy.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers... ripped their opening with the fun "Down Together," a Refreshments tune. That was followed by a great 90 minute, 17 song set with five more songs from the original Refreshments days (early 2000s). There was great stuff from The Peacemakers offers too, but they never sang Americano. The encore was a fine version of the keen Switchblade song, Matt came outside to call me back in for it. Jim Dalton is an excellent lead guitarist and has been constant from The Refreshments... he sang lead on a Railbenders cover. The Mexican trumpet sound was also for cool for several songs. Now local Johnny Hickman, frontman for Cracker, joined for his song, Mr Wrong, with the band. He was good too.

The evening was a great outing with Yoho, TK and his friend. And the show was stellar ~ I'd go again. They declared they were aligning for a show in Puerto Paenasco/Rocky Point in Mexico soon... hmmm, I have a friend who has a house on the beach there.