Ghost Light (Spooky) 2018-04-14, Thunder Road

     This past Saturday we went to see the latest jamband supergroup to hit the scene, Ghostlight, with Tommy Hamilton (guitar/vocals), Holly Bowling (keys/vocals), Raina Mullen (guitar/vocals), Scotty Zwang (drums/vocals), and Steve Lyons (bass/vocals).  They were playing at this new place in Somerville called Thunder Road, where we saw previously Midnight North (with a much smaller crowd).  It's a funky little place with a big bar, tv, and tables upstairs, and a smaller bar and pool table downstairs.  The stage is this tiny little thing that makes even a small band like this one seem pretty cramped, but the sounds and lines of sight are very good.

     We have of course seen Tommy with JRAD a bunch of times, but had only seen Holly online solo or playing with the likes of Phil Lesh.  Raina is from Tommy's other band (American Babies,) but the other two were totally new to us.  We got there early to eat, and more importantly to get a good spot over against the wall where there were coat hooks and a ledge for drinks.  We made friends with Joe, who was sitting next to us and was at Midnight North as well, and a taper who showed up (Craig?  Sorry if you're reading this, I can't remember your name) who had recorded them in Bridgeport the previous night and promised us we were in for a real treat.  While I haven't been able to find "Craig"'s recording, this just posted when I started writing, and is listed as and sounds like a Matrix recording, which is great!
https://archive.org/details/gl2018-04-14.matrix

     To get my one complaint out of the way, which really is a petty complaint, if you're going to advertise a show as starting at 8, you should at least be on stage by 9.  We got to watch the Bruins kicking ass in the playoffs while we waited though, and once the band came on stage the night only got better.

Set 1

Jam > Lead Weight > Tangled Up in Blue > * If You Want It (title unconfirmed) > Lead Weight

Set 2

Epic Battle Between Light & Dark > Untitled (D Riff), Isosceles > Greatest Story Ever Told %**, Boy > Epic Battle Between Light & Dark, 100 Years Ago > Untitled (D Riff)

Encore

Old Time Religion ***

* w/ Lead Weight & Isosceles teases

** w/ untitled (D Riff) teases

*** w/ Greatest Story tease

% Ghost Light Debut (Grateful Dead)

     I won't do a song for song recap for this, and part of the reason for that is also one of the reasons I loved this show so much.  With the obvious exceptions of "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Greatest Story," these were all songs that I, and much of the crowd, was totally unfamiliar with.  At straight-forward Dead shows, and even JRAD, the whole crowd knows the songs so well the you can tell when you're hearing a good or bad version of the song, or you notice if the band does something with a song that usually isn't done.  Here though, everyone was figuring out the music as it happened, which really allowed us to get lost in the magic of the moment and dance our asses off.

     "Lead Weight" was one of (two of, technically) my favorite songs of the night, and I was immediately impressed with Raina Mullen's playing and singing.  I was expecting her to be a third lead player, but she played a very solid rhythm guitar instead, leaving the leads to Tommy and Holly.  While Holly did some directing and coordinating of her own, it seemed that Tommy was the leader of the band, which was a cool change of pace from JRAD where Joe is obviously in charge.  "Tangled Up in Blue" really had people dancing and singing along, and then they took a hard left turn into deep space and cosmic improvisation.  I couldn't believe it when they came back into the song, it felt like we had travelled to a different galaxy completely where a structured song was a ridiculous notion.

     I know I said I wouldn't a song-by-song review, by "If You Want It" was another highlight for me and I would be remiss to skip over it.  This is an original song that is surprisingly well matured already, and the crowd picked up on a great place for a call-and-response "woo!" in the chorus, which had the band beaming.  Here's a crowd of people hearing a song for the first time, and not only are they dancing to it and having a great time, they're paying enough attention to help craft the music with the band!

     It was a short break, but it gave the sold out house plenty of time to go smoke, get another drink, and hit the bathrooms.  Soon the lights went down (they were never very bright to begin with) and the band came back on, and already people were cheering for them to play all night.  They opened with a song I didn't recognize, but is apparently an American Babies original.  "Untitled (D Riff)" was another of my absolute favorites at this show, so I was glad to have it reprised like my other favorite!  Obviously everyone went wild when they slipped "Greatest Story" in, with Raina and Tommy belting it out along with everyone else in the room.  They jammed on the theme of the song for a bit, and then took it into totally unknown regions, extrapolating off of a single riff that Tommy just would not let go of.

     A lot of songs they played were vaguely reminiscent of Dead songs (or maybe I was just projecting).  The song "Boy" that they played next it sounded a lot like "Morning Dew."  Maybe Tommy will see this and tell me I'm crazy, but I swear that he and I locked eyes when this one was starting up, and I gave him a "no" of surprise and hope and cocked my head, to which he also cocked his head and winked; obviously it wasn't "Dew," but the similarities to it allowed for some great solo work.  Tommy was at his liquid-silver-best this night, just letting the music flow from his guitar unadulterated by ego or mistakes.  Holly totally lived up to and surpassed our expectations for seeing her live; we have really only seen snippets of her playing in bands, most of what we knew being her playing acoustic piano solo.  To see her really let loose on synth, rhodes, organ, and more on top of her regular piano, and to even sing, was jaw-dropping.  She and Tommy truly are two of the most vibrant musicians in the scene today, and the back and forth that they had going created some of the most intricate musical shapes I have ever experienced.  It had the dense, jazzy quality that something like Phil Lesh's Q can create, but the pure fun and wildness of a JRAD show, all contained in the totally unique package of Ghost Light!

     I haven't said enough about Steve and Scotty, who are fundamental parts of this great band.  Scotty did a great job of keeping the beat in interesting ways, playing some nice fills and showing off some cool frills without going up his own ass like some jamband drummer seem to.  Steve was excellent, mostly laying down a groove for the rest of the band, but at other times almost playing leads while steering the band in their deep space explorations.  They both sang some great backing harmonies too.

     They closed the show with a traditional song that whoever the original artist(s) may have been would have been blown away by and sent us all home beaming.  I highly recommend seeing this band if their tour is coming remotely near you, but if you miss out on them this time around, Tommy made it sound like they'll be sticking around and doing some more tours, which I am all for!  It's great to have a new band with new material, especially when it's a jamband that's writing songs as good as these.