Beginning Of The End | 2017-01-14 | Guster

2:04:18

Taper:

Dave Mallick

Transferrer:

Dave Mallick

SHNID:

guster2017-01-14.km201.flac24

Source:

Elation KM201's>Lunatec V3>Microtrack II (24-bit/48kHz)

Lineage:

WAV>Sound Studio 4.8.4>xACT 2.38>FLAC

Taper Notes:

View Notes* with Ashley Larracuente and Anna Rosati on vocals
# with Jeremy Wolf on vocals
$ with Spencer Ayscue on guitar and vocals
% with Brian on vocals
^ with Tim Gammel on vocals

The third show of Guster's four-night run at the Paradise in honor of their 25th anniversary as a band and the 40th anniversary of the club.

After Bad Bad World, the band unveiled a giant wheel with song titles written on it, as well as several bonus spaces labeled Viv's Choice, Karaoke, Patriots Score, Brian Sings, etc. They then proceeded to spin the wheel and true to their word, they played every single space they landed on.

Songs labeled above with a symbol (except Cheers) were from karaoke spots, where they chose slips from a bucket that people had put in before the show.

First Melanie since 12/20/03, first Great Escape since 01/31/08.

This show was extra-special for a number of reasons - chief among them the incredible acknowledgment that the band showed by granting my wife a space on the setlist wheel. Although it never landed on that section, the tantalizing "what-if" every time the wheel spun was tremendous fun.

But the evening was not without a familiar face getting some time in the spotlight. Spencer Ayscue works at the same place as Viv and me, and when he mentioned to a mutual friend that he was going to the show, the reply was "Oh, you should meet Viv & Dave." During our ride to and from the first show, he talked about the friends back home that he played Guster tunes with, and the two shows he had managed to make it to from his hometown in North Carolina. Shows three and four were fun enough, but when his name came up in the third karaoke spot, he seized the opportunity and made the most of it. A moment none of us will forget.

Finally, the show hearkened back to the only other setlist wheel show the band had ever played, in Providence, in February of 1998. As Ryan said at that show, most of us in the room had seen the band so many times that they wanted to shake things up. Nearly 19 years after that, the band is still experimenting, still having fun on stage, and still delighting their fans. Thank you, guys.