***Over the next few days, I am backfilling these older posts from earlier in the year in order to get caught up to the present. This was originally published on April 9, 2024***
This Tuesday, we travel back in time to Thunder Road for the sixth Neighbor show of the Thunder Road Residency, taking place 5 years ago today featuring Ricky, Lyle, Zack Burwick, and Mike Miksis.
“Yo guys, I hate to inform you, but it’s almost tax time—You gotta pay your taxes, it’s part of life! If you don’t, you’re going to fuckin’ jail” Those were Ricky’s first words of todays recording prior to jumping into a sax-filled, tax deadline edition of Taxman -> All Apologies -> Taxman -> All Apologies. Sonya also got her favorite (though not practiced) Baker Street, complete with Cory Schechtman on the saxophone. During On Your Way Down and Move Along Little Jimmy, Ricky tasked Lyle with guitar impressions, with everyone from Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastacio, B.B. King, Eddie Van Halen, Derek Trucks, Chet Atkins, to Stevie Ray Vaughn represented. Honestly, having listened to every show thus far and most of the rest of the Thunder Road residency shows, this show has to be in my top 5 favorites of the entire 43-show Thundies residency. There is a ton of banter before Baker Street, after Spanish Moon, and during other parts of the show that I didn’t reproduce here—you’ll just have to listen for them 😉
This show included 6 songs played less than 15 times ever: Taxman (13), All Apologies (12), On Your Way Down (14), Baker Street (2), Everywhere (12), and Nobody Home (1). I Tried (15) recently graduated from this list as well, having been played for its 15th time on March 12th, 2024.
However, despite all the rarities, the tried-and-true Neighbor tunes contributed to the musical highlights of this show as well: Skin it Back (which is missing a part of the beginning) clocks in at nearly 20 minutes, filling every bit of that timeframe. Adding to the Little Feat vibe after the 30 minute Taxman suite, On Your Way Down also clocks in near 20 minutes while bringing a smooth funky vibe to the show. Don’t forget about Little Jimmy, either, clocking in at over 20 minutes as well and featuring a rare sax solo. Cory “saxman” Schechtman sat in for a good deal of the show on the saxophone, including the Taxman suite, Baker Street, Spanish Moon, and I Tried.
Debuts for this show included the aforementioned Baker Street cover (Gerry Rafferty), as well as Nobody Home (Pink Floyd). Everywhere also had it’s first full band performance, as it had only been played solo previously.
You can view the full setlist here: https://neighbortunes.net/setlists/neighbor-april-9-2019-thunder-road-somerville-ma-usa.html
You can listen to the show on Mixlr here:
Set 1 — https://soniabegonia-live.mixlr.com/recordings/855237
Set 2 — https://soniabegonia-live.mixlr.com/recordings/855268
You can download tracked and tagged .mp3 files of the mixlr stream here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aO8ixm-8M8YY5RN3lf7WwuzPKr9MUVmq
Views from the Hot Air Balloon 