[ATTENDED: December 14, 2019] Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band
I have seen Kevin Devine twice. The first time was in 2017 when he opened for Frightened Rabbit. The second time was earlier this year when he did a brief solo tour with John K. Samson. The second show was so good–he was so full of energy as a headliner, that I knew I’d see him again. But I really wanted to see him with The Goddamn Band (hilarious name).
When it was announced that Kevin and the Goddamn Band would be playing a short tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of the 2009 album Brother’s Blood, I bought tickets immediately. I didn’t even know the album, I just wanted to see the whole band. And holy cow was it a great choice.
Kevin has a fantastic stage presence–he bonds with the crowd instantly (even when I first saw him as an opening act and had no idea who he was, he just owned the stage). He invites the audience to sing and the audience does.
And with the whole band, that interaction was even greater. Kevin joked with the band members, soloed off of them and made the whole show like a party.
The crowd was totally into it–singing along to nearly every song.
It was a fantastic show.
I have since listened to the album a bunch and the songs are really great–but this live show was something amazing. The band feeds off of each other, making every song bigger, richer, with more noise and jamming. They clearly love playing with each other and were having a fantastic time. It was wonderful.
The lights dimmed and Kevin came out on stage with an acoustic guitar. After the cheering died down he started quietly strumming and sang the opening song to Brother’s Blood, “All of Everything, Erased.” 
This is what I was used to from him and he sounded great. I really love the way he can sing very sweetly but also scream his head off. After a couple of verses, Mike Strandberg joined in on electric guitar. I had already seen Mike play with An Horse (and he was fantastic), so I was really looking forward to what else he would do. He started playing a quiet melody over the top of Kevin’s.
The rest of the band slowly came out on stage. But nobody played except Mike and Brian Bonz on the computer. They started making noises and effects. Those grew louder and louder. By the last verse, the band was making an incredible wall of noise but Kevin was still strumming and singing the same way.
Bassist Chris Bracco and drummer Mike Fadem joined in (with his sticks in what I think of as the jazz drummer’s style). They added a low end of noise as the stage turned into complete chaos. Bonz and Strandberg were manipulating sounds until Kevin put down his acoustic, picked up his electric and the noise segued into “Carnival.” It was an amazing opening. I love the chord progressions and vocal delivery in this song. It started out quietly but near the end, Mike Strandberg picked up a transistor radio and was using it to play his guitar–he had turned it on and the broadcast was coming through the pickups while also making weird sounds on the strings.
The show was already everything I wanted it to be.
At some point I realized that there was another guy on stage. He was behind Brian Bonz and I barely saw him all night. He was Russell Smith. At one point Kevin said that he usually plays all of Russell’s guitar parts when he tours as a solo artist. So you had Kevin strumming, Russell playing riffs and Mike playing solos.
After “Another Bag of Bones,” Kevin started chatting with us. It was the day after the elections in England and he was as bummed as everyone else that an idiot about as dumb as trump won their election. He told this hilariously sad true anecdote about Boris Johnson before introducing “Hand of God.” Mike switched to mandolin for this song.
Then came the title track. I saw Kevin sing this song solo last time and it was amazing. So intense, so passionate and with two or three different parts that work so well together. With the band, the song was outstanding. They jammed it out, the intense parts were more intense, they fed off of each other. It felt like Crazy Horse. I was absolutely blown away.
When it was over a guy in the back shouted “Play it again!” which made Kevin laugh. He said, “I could. But instead…” He joked that the follow-up song, “Fever Moon” was his attempt at writing a Leonard Cohen ballad.
Up next was “It’s Only Your Life,” a long song that was just him on acoustic guitar. He played the opening and then paused. “Wow, my brain just froze up.” Then he remembered the lyrics and began the song properly. After the middle instrumental section when the lyrics started again, he once again forgot the words. He just stood there, said “fuuuuuck” and then someone in the audience prompted him and he picked right up again. After the song he thanked the audience for the prompt and us for our patience and then he joked that you can only hold a pause for so long. At first it’s dramatic and then … it’s oh, he forgot the words.
He introduced Kayleigh Goldsworthy to come out to sing “Murphy’s Law” a song about “an Irish guy and his dog and the boat and the end of the world and dead dogs.” Kevin told us that Kayleigh was also in his Irish band Kenny O’Brien & The O’Douls and that this particular incarnation would be playing Philly for St. Patrick’s Day! (I can’t wait).
Brothers Blood has so much diversity in the songs–it’s a fantastic album. I love thew way the songs go from the slow ballad to the Irish song to the raging fun of the super catchy “I Could Be with Anyone.” This song featured some introductory beat boxing from Brain Bonz who shouted that they had pints of Ozzy Osbourne’s blood in the green room which had Kevin nearly on the floor.
“Yr Husband” was a nice breather, a mid tempo rocker that prepared the way for the end of the album.
Then the band left the stage, except for Mike, and they played “Tomorrow’s Just Too Late” the quiet acoustic album ender.
Kevin told us that he loved playing with Brian Bonz because he was always doing things that made Kevin laugh. He also said that Bonz was Mike Strandberg’s brother. Huh. When Kevin referenced the Ozzy Osbourne comment, someone shouted “Crazy Train.”
Mike had the mandolin and started playing the riff and Kevin started singing it. Then he had to call it quits because he didn’t know at what point… “I can never tell within myself when it gets serious.”
Kevin said that normally he would do an encore break right now, but he just didn’t feel like the fakeness tonight. He joked that he usually did an encore break because he had to pee. But tonight he had bladder control. The crowd started chanting “bladder control, bladder control” which totally cracked him up. Then Brian Bonz came out and sang “bladder control” into his vocal processor and we all erupted.
Kevin told us he’d pretend to leave. He tuned his back to us and then jumped and spun around and actually all surprised. It was very amusing. He said they’d have to play … six or so more songs.
The first two songs of the encore were from the She Stayed as Steam EP which he said was released as a kind of companion to Brothers Blood.
All night the two girls behind me were very chatty, but in a good way. They knew all the words and kept commenting about Mike and Kevin. When he announced that these songs were from the EP, they both went nuts, singing along to “Big Bad Man” which had acoustic guitar and a kind of surf vibe and “She Stayed as Steam.” When this song started the girl behind me said “this is my favorite fucking song ever,” then Kevin started playing a gentle electric guitar.
He announced that next they’d be playing two songs from the Put Your Ghost to Rest album. They played “The Burning City Smoking” which he said was written about the Iraq war. After he wrote it, his mother told him not to play it in Texas, but he did–that’s what these songs are for. After the show the bartender who was very nice to him before the show wouldn’t even look at him.
Up next was “Just Stay” which everyone sang along to.
Then there came two songs from the 2005 album Split the Country, Split the Street. I was blown away by these two songs. “Buried by the Buzz” features a fantastic solo from Mike (the tube he used during An Horse made another appearance). It also ended in a punk workout that just crashed through to the end.
“Cotton Crush” ended the show with a terrific sing along from the crowd.
When the song ended, Kevin whispered to everyone and they all agreed. Then they all started playing the opening melody to “Brother’s Blood” again. The crowd went berserk!
I didn’t really get any decent footage of the song the first time, so I was totally prepared this time. Once again I felt there was a huge Craxzy Horse vibe. I loved it. Here’s the middle soloing section and a bit more of the sing along.
The setlist indicated that he would play this version solo, but I’m really excited the whole band played it with him–it made the whole night extra special.
I wound up staying after the show to but one of Kevin’s shirts. I waited for a pretty long time (I could have gotten home pretty early if I hadn’t) and when I got up to the table, the merch person told me the guy in front of me bought the last one in my size.
Come on!
Still, outstanding show.
SETLIST
- All of Everything, Erased ß
- Carnival ß
- Another Bag of Bones ß
- Hand of God ß
- Brother’s Blood ß
- Fever Moon ß
- It’s Only Your Life ß
- Murphy’s Song ß
- I Could Be With Anyone ß
- Yr Husband ß
- Tomorrow’s Just Too Late ß
encore - Big Bad Man $
- She Stayed As Steam $
- The Burning City Smoking ¶
- Just Stay ¶
- Buried By the Buzz ⊗
- Cotton Crush ⊗
- Brother’s Blood ß
⊗ = Split the Country, Split the Street (2005)
¶ = Put Your Ghost to Rest (2006)
ß = Brothers Blood (2009)
$ = She Stayed as Steam EP (2010)
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