This past weekend, Billy Strings graced the stage of the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, for a four-night run of shows. The shows featured Strings powering through his catalog, along with an incredible array of covers.
It was the first time Strings welcome an audience back to the Cap since January 2020. Last year, Strings slayed the historic room in a series of livestream shows, minus an audience. Those shows were dubbed ‘The Deja Vu Experiment’, a nod to the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s February 1971 performances at the Cap.
This year, Strings paid homage to the Grateful Dead’s famed 1971 ESP experiment with Dr. Stanley Kripper at the venue. The original ESP Experiment involved the crowd at the Dead show trying to connect “psychic sensitives” with two subjects sleeping 30 miles away in Brooklyn. It was a pretty trippy concept, with mixed results on the ESP but historic results for Grateful Dead lore.
The Billy Strings ESP shows, however, were far from mixed results. This year’s run was affectionately dubbed Deja Tu, with Strings invoking a little ESP voodoo on banjoist Bela Fleck, his new fishing buddy Les Claypool, and Momma Strings.
Strings and Company, of course, tore the place down. The Grateful Dead songbook was interspersed throughout the run, including “Dire Wolf”, “Me and My Uncle”, “Deal”, “Peggy-O”, “U.S. Blues”, and more. Strings worked in plenty of other traditional American bluegrass tunes, new and old, including covers from John Hartford, Doc Watson, The Dillards, The Stanley Brothers, Johnny Horton, Gordon Lightfoot, Chris Henry, and the late, great Jeff Austin.
All four of the shows are now available to listen to via nugs.net. I have links to each show below, individually, below.
If you’re not already signed up, let me remind you that nugs.net is the best way to relisten to your favorite live music moments from artists like Billy Strings, Widespread Panic, Goose, and more. The platform boasts over 25,000 full-length concert recordings from of the greatest concert acts of all time.
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Don’t miss these shows – This run was something special for all who got to experience it live. Billy Strings just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I can’t wait to hear him at Santa Barbara Bowl out here in California in April. I’m also extremely excited for whatever he’s cooking up in the mad music lab with Les Claypool – I’m sure it’s going to blow my mind.
You love to see it. All of it.
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Billy Strings – 2/3/2022
The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y.
Set I: You Don’t Know My Mind, Pyramid Country > Ole Slew-Foot, Cold on the Shoulder, West Dakota Rose, Love & Regret, Wargasm, Along the Road, Streamline Cannonball, Ground Speed, John Hardy
Set II: Bronzeback > Secrets, Slipstream, Red Rocking Chair, Pretty Daughter, Love Like Me, Away From the Mire, Long Forgotten Dream, Dire Wolf, Come Down the Mountain Katie Daly
Encore: If Your Hair’s Too Long (There’s Sin in Your Heart)
LISTEN NOW VIA NUGS.NET
Billy Strings – 2/4/2022
The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y.
Set I: Know It All > How Mountain Girls Can Love, Tipper, Run Down, There Is Time, Dust In A Baggie > Dealin’ Despair, Livin’ Like An Animal > Me And My Uncle, Heartbeat Of America, John Deere Tractor (Larry Sparks), On The Line
Set II: Freeborn Man, Thunder, She Makes My Love Come Rolling Down, Ernest T. Grass > Air Mail Special, Show Me The Door, Oh Babe It Ain’t No Lie, Rosa Lee McFall, Turmoil & Tinfoil
Encore: Roll On Buddy, Roll On
LISTEN NOW via NUGS.NET
Billy Strings – 2/5/2022
The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y.
Set I: Red Daisy, Thirst Mutilator, A Good Woman’s Love, A Robin Built a Nest on Daddy’s Grave, While I’m Waiting Here, Home of the Red Fox > Little Maggie, China Doll, I’m Still Here > Last Train to Clarksville > Everything’s the Same
Set II: Doin’ My Time, Running > Ice Bridges, In the Morning Light, Meet Me at the Creek, Shady Grove, Deal
Encore: Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down
LISTEN NOW VIA NUGS.NET
Billy Strings – 2/6/2022
The Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y.
Set I: Fire On My Tongue > Must Be Seven, Hellbender, Fire Line > Rueben’s Train (Doc Watson) > End Of The Rainbow (Frank Wakefield) [1] > Running the Route [1], Home, Highway Hypnosis
Set II: Taking Water, Likes Of Me, All Fall Down, Tennessee, Nothing’s Working, Doin’ Things Right, Peggy-O (Traditional), Hide & Seek
Encore: U.S. Blues
LISTEN NOW VIA NUGS.NET
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