Leftover Salmon: Boulder Theater Nov. 28, 2015

(Leftover Salmon. Boulder Theater. 11.28.15. Photo by Nick Hutchinson.)

Thanksgiving. It’s a holiday that goes well with live music. Following this year’s feast of the bird I found myself headed to Boulder for a little Leftover Salmon.  It had been a few years since I’d seen the group that has come to define Colorado roots music and it was a treat to catch them live at my favorite local venue, the Boulder Theater, which serves as a kind of unofficial home to the outfit that invented Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass.

I had not seen the iteration of the band with keyboardist Bill Payne, so, with the recent announcement that Payne would be leaving to join the Doobie Brothers, it was nice to finally catch them with BP before he left Salmon land. Appropriately, the night’s sets included some Little Feat classics such as “Easy to Slip,” “Fat Man in the Bathtub” and “Six Feet of Snow.”

Bouncing back and forth between the balcony and the main floor of the beautiful old theater, it was great to catch up with some old friends, sip a few Colorado craft brews and dance to the unique bluegrass- and rock-inflected sounds.  Mandolin ripper Jeff Austin had warmed up the stage with his band earlier that evening and thus he was on hand to sit-in with Vince and the boys for some hot pickin’ during their first set.

Set 1: Rag Mama Rag, Midnight Blues, Easy to Slip, Bird Call*>Drums>Jam*>Bird Call*, Zombie Jamboree*, Western Skies, Tu Na Pas Aller, River’s Rising

It was great to hear classic Salmon tunes such as  “Zombie Jamboree,” “Midnight Blues,” River’s Rising” and “Highway Song” as well as an unexpected cover of the old soul tune “Piece of My Heart.” But the highlight of the evening for this reveler was the encore, a Salmonized take on John Hartford’s “Up on the Hill Where They do the Boogie.” You can’t go wrong with Leftover Salmon on a holiday weekend at the Boulder Theater and everyone in the crowd seemed to appreciate the annual ritual more than ever.

Set 2: Let’s Give A Party, Way Down Under, On The Other Side**, Jokester, Highway Song> Fat Man In The Bathtub, Six Feet Of Snow, Piece Of My Heart, Reuben’s Train

Encore: Up On The Hill Where They Do The Boogie

* w/Jeff Austin ** w/Pete Kartsounes

(Leftover Salmon at the Boulder Theater. 11.28.15. Photos by Nick Hutchinson.)

Visit https://archive.org/details/los2015-11-28.spc4.16bit.aud  to hear the whole show from the Boulder Theater.

Leftover Salmon celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with the release of a CD aptly titled 25. The disc includes 25 never-before-released live tracks. They also teamed up with Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery, which celebrated it’s 25th anniversary in 2015, to create a limited edition IPL called Silver Salmon.

(Leftover Salmon celebrates music and fine spirits with a pre-show gig at Hazel’s Beverage World in Boulder, CO. 11.28.15. Photo by Dan Katz.)