Well, it\'s been a few days and now is the time to thank everyone involved with a another in a long line of splendiferous evenings.
The Breakfast is far-and-away one of my favorite bands of all-time and I\'m extremely fortunate to have grown up around them and their scene. If not for this bit of luck, who knows what music I\'d be listening to and with whom I\'d be sharing it? It\'s scary to think that since they\'ve improved so much since day one, that there is actually potential for more improvement. I don\'t know how you top some of the shows I\'ve seen, especially in the past year, but the new batch of songs are adding even more dimensions to a band that already has a ton of them.
It\'s also highly appropriate to thank everyone involved. Justin and Aruny put forth perhaps their finest work with the new poster. The stage set up looked quite cool and everyone who was there early deserves plenty of credit. I\'m sure the montage was well done even though I didn\'t see it. The newsletter timeline brought back a lot of memories. And no list of thanks would be complete without acknowledging Dave for .info, Ellis and Dobz for their technical prowess, and Gavin and Gencs for truly being jacks-of-all-trades.
As far as the show, Honey Butter started the rip-roaring mood that stayed throughout and was a perfect choice. Always glad to hear Lovely Rita, which I hadn\'t since that infamous night in Branford 10 months ago, and there was obviously some great jamming through Puppetry. Rita\'s spaciness led to a perfect segue to Psygn, which I thought had the best jam of that lot, and then to Puppetry, whose jam started very funky and non-Puppetry-ish before coming back home to the main theme, followed by the requisite recklessness. A damn fine first set.
I thought this particular Buquebus was great as always, but maybe a bit too quick to achieve epic status. Perhaps I\'m nit-picking, but after Providence set the bar for me two months ago, it\'s tough to not compare. Hands-down, my highlight of the show was The Late And The Great>Over Exposure. For one, TLATG is starting to catch my ear. For two, Over Exposure, in addition to being my new favorite, I felt had the tighest and most exciting jam of the night. I was completely transfixed. I was then completely stupefied by Fly Like An Eagle. My thinking is that there are numerous better songs out there that are way more challenging for a band and enticing to an audience than this psuedo-psychedelic loafer. And to place it at that particular point of this particular show, followed by the Barley finish, was just odd. I would have been fully satisifed had they ended with Over Exposure, but just like before, I\'m nit-picking, which is the only manner in which you can even consider criticizing such a dynamite show. It was another set of significant quality.
Tim smashing his guitar will live in infamy. Truly classic stuff. Surreal Radio was a great closer. We started with a rocking manner and ended that way. To finish with that says a lot about this show and the strength of the band\'s new tunes. Here they are playing a hyped and historic show in front of their hometown fans--most of which grew up with the old-school songs--and The Breakfast turns in a brilliant performance with just four originals that debuted before 2005. It speaks mass volumes about maturity, both in terms of compositional and jamming ability.
Overall, this was one of the better shows I\'ve ever seen the band play in my 119.
Ok, so the only other thing that needs to be discussed is late night, or in this case, early morning. What can I say? When you fall asleep at 9:45 a.m., you\'ve had yourself quite a time, little buckaroo. That\'s just the type of event it was at Toad\'s and beyond this past Saturday. Glad everyone was a part of it. I love all of you.
Chris Pitch
