Shakey; February 10, 2010; Overture after Work, Overture Center Lobby

Other than a WORT benefit at the Crystal Corner, every Shakey show in their four or so year history has taken place at the High Noon Saloon. Most of these have been happy hour shows where the crowd takes advantage of two for one drink specials while listening to the band recreate another classic Neil Young album. So there were a number of things that felt strange about them playing the Overture after Work series. The first was that it was really light, and it took me awhile to figure out how to take pictures somewhere other than a dark bar. The second was this was not a usual Shakey crowd, I only recognized a handful of people in the good size crowd of well-dressed folks who probably had actually come after work.

What was the same was the band. Even tonight as they picked and chose songs rather than focusing on one record, they passed over the hits in favor of their favorite songs. Perhaps the best known from their two sets were “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” in the first and “Powderfinger” which ended the second, and has been a part of every Shakey show to date. AWithout the constraints imposed by choosing only one record they were able to highlight many of the aspects of his career, going all the way back to his days in Buffalo Springfield. As always, Matt Appleby stands out as the most Neil of all of them, and his solo turn with just an acoustic guitar was unnerving in its resemblance.

Most interesting is when Maggie Weisner takes the lead vocals, an inspired choice seeing as Young’s voice often has a feminine quality to it. Her “Dreaming Man” was nicely complimented by backing vocals from all the boys in the band. Apparently when they were completing the stage plot for the show there was a “do you need a piano” box which they promptly checked. They made excellent use of it, though Matt Joyce did look slightly out of place seated behind the baby grand in his Western shirt. I wasn’t sure if leader Pete Kaesburg would pull out his worn copy of Neil Young’s biography (titled Shakey of course) as he does at every show to read a few paragraphs, since the subject matter is almost always drugs. Instead he used it to introduce a song which defends Young’s band Crazy Horse to the record label who felt they couldn’t play.

While the Overture’s featured special of $3 Miller Lite taps certainly wasn’t as good a deal as the High Noon, it wasn’t as bad as the overpriced drinks they serve for their other events. In fact I was enjoying the evening so much, even their cover of “Cortez the Killer,” by far my least favorite Young song due to his seemingly endless renditions of it live, couldn’t ruin it.