Shakey; December 11, 2009; High Noon Saloon

Madison has been blessed with some of the highest quality cover bands I’ve seen. It makes sense that a town with this much musical diversity and talent would choose quality music when not playing their own. There’s the delightfully eclectic Hometown Sweethearts who play everything from “Safety Dance” to “King of the Road,” and do all of it well. Then there are the Low Czars whose repertoire of obscure 60’s and 70’s hits rivals the Nuggets collections. And then there’s Shakey, who take their name from Neil Young’s nickname. What makes them so great is that they have five vocalists, each who captures a different aspect of Young’s voice.

For these happy hour shows they usually chose a record from his seminal career to play in its entirety. This evening’s selection was Tonight’s the Night and it was one of the best shows I’ve seen them play. As with almost all of his records, I didn’t know the whole thing, but I knew a handful of the songs. The highlight may have been Maggie Weisner who took lead vocals on the title track, an inspired choice since Young’s voice already leans toward the feminine side. Hand in hand with that is the other standard component of the show, a reading by Pete Kaesberg, the nominal leader of the band, from the Young biography “Shakey.” Usually it has something to do with the record of choice, but it almost always has something about drugs.

After they play the entire record they usually have time for a selection of some of their other favorite Young songs. This is usually where we get to hear the powerful “Like a Hurricane.” Surprisingly, at least to me, was that my favorite part of tonight’s show (other than Matt Joyce’s strangely hypnotic hair) was the nearly eight minute “Change Your Mind” from Sleeps with Angels, a record I’d mostly forgotten about, as I had most of Young’s output from the 90’s on. Sung by Matt Appleby, who comes closest to the true Neil, it was stunning. I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I started recording video at the beginning of the song, but I was sure glad I had, even though my arm almost fell off. I can’t wait to see what record they tackle next.