***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 January 22, 2024***
This week, we travel back in time to Down the Road Brewery Co. in Everett, MA, which 5 years ago hosted the final week of “Taste Bud Tuesdays” (though by now the band was officially known as Neighbor) featuring Ricky, Lyle, Zack Burwick on Drums, and Mike Miksis on Bass. The band dedicated the show as a tribute to Jon DeStefano, who had passed the week before.
Memorable moments from the show include a look into the meaning behind the title of Love Like Stone (“Love that is so strong, it’s like a rock”), as well as which parts of town were actually the Strangest (shoutout to Worcester and Albany), and many, many Rock Lobster requests.
This week brought its fair share of rarities, too: Southpaw (1 of 7), Work Your Magic (1 of 5), I Tried (1 of 12), Dear Mr. Fantasy (1 of 1), Boogie on Reggae Woman (1 of 1), Wild Blue (1 of 12), Ophelia (1 of 4), What a Wonderful World (1 of 1), and On Your Way Down (1 of 14).
Special guests included Vin Pugliese (introduced as Peter Grigio of Peter Grigio and the White Grapes) on vocals (sounding very Louis Armstrong-like) on What a Wonderful World.
Notable jams from the show include a monster Work Your Magic -> Skin it Back, a jam-filled I Tried (with a Jessica ABB tease) -> Dear Mr. Fantasy -> Boogie On Reggae Woman -> Somerville Shuffle, and a trippy Spanish Moon.
Debuts included I Tried as an original and covers of Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic), Boogie on Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder), Ophelia (The Band), and What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong).
You can view the full setlist here: https://neighbortunes.net/setlists/neighbor-january-22-2019-down-the-road-brewery-everett-ma-usa.html
You can listen to the show on Mixlr here:
Set 1 — https://soniabegonia-live.mixlr.com/recordings/830765
Set 2 — https://soniabegonia-live.mixlr.com/recordings/830783
You can download tracked and tagged .mp3 files of the mixlr stream here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TuDe5974I560n8CW4igLX2AFWjK9AQvF?usp=drive_link
Views from the Hot Air Balloon 