Cafe Nine New Haven 7/12/09

Here is a quick review from the CT show last night:

I arrived at the the bar Cafe Nine around 7 when they were schedule to go on at 9. The bar was relatively small compared to where I have seen the brothers play before. Capacity was only about 150 and it did get crowded. I think this was the first time that they played in CT or at least in the New Haven area. It was good to see that their are many die hard Felice Brothers in CT. Ian came on stage a little after 9 and opening with "In the Arms of Buffalo Bill." After the solo number, Ian asked "where the fuck his band was." From that point on they were on fire and did not slow down till the show was over. The first few rows of people knew every word to every song and were constantly buying drinks for the band which the brothers enjoyed throughout the show. Overall every member of the band sounded great. Farley's fiddle was on point, Ian let loose with some really intricate guitar solos, and even with the extremely small stage James was able to play some serious accordion riffs. This was the first show that I saw Dave play the entire set and he held his own. You could tell that he really enjoys playing with the group and is just as passionate about the songs as the rest of them. Highlights for me were "Let Me Come Home," "Swine Flu," "Murder by Mistletoe" and "Cooperstown" which I had been dying to hear since "Yonder is the Clock" was released, and finally Farley's crowd surfing. He had no room to dive into the drum set at the the end of "Penn Station" so he went head on into the audience. It was a great performance and definitely converted any new listeners there last night into full blown fans.

Here's the setlist of what I can remember and probably a little out of order:
In the Arms of Buffalo Bill
Take This Bread
Cooperstown
Love Me Tenderly
Murder by Mistletoe
Cincinnati Queen
Greatest Show on Earth
Whiskey in My Whiskey
Whered You Get Your Liquor
Wonderful Dream
Ahab
Hey Hey Revolver
Farley's Song
Goddamn You Jim
Memphis Flu (Swine Flu)
Run Chicken Run
Let Me Come Home

Encore
Two Hands
Penn Station

Jared Riviere