Greens show last night at 6 Pence

The Greens had yet another truly raucous and rambunctious show - keeping a string of Parkersburg area shows going that folks will be talking about and remembering for a long time. These holiday shows also pull in some wider, new audiences it seems; so that can't help be good in getting the word around. From "Cars and Horses (first song) to Apocalypso (6 or 8th encore) the crowd was intensely into it, and there was marathon dancing going on throughout. The "guest" saxophone-ist(?) was a great contribution to the festive sound- Chris? from Morgantown? Now, we're all loyal to the contribution of Aaron Phillips for so long in helping create that signature sound of the early greens songs, and no one will match his inspired creative musicianship, but this musician last night had a great way of picking up the main signature saxophone parts from: cars and horses, beekeeper, flying solo etc. etc. etc from the early CD's.
Now the "distraction." For whatever reason, the 6 Pence Pub had a dart tournament going on during the first full set of the Greens- this was bizarre scheduling as far as I was concerned. There, right where the Greensfan would have congregated to get things moving on the dance floor, there were the whizzing of darts by folks who didn't seem to care about the music too much, and had their little following taking up much of the prime seating for the Greens show!
Andy did his usual diplomatic best to keep everyone happy and accepting of the crazy distraction and confusion. And it was only by gradual attrition that the dart-ers finally cleared the way. There was a pretty distinct set list from the night before; the large contingent that were at both shows (bless their stamina and enthusiasm!) could feel they got two different shows, especially with the nice addition of the saxophone. Now, Jan's eerie showing of Willy Wonka on the wall behind the band is something to behold. Andy Huggins took the light show to be about ready to open up into a Simpson's episode anytime now.
I was just a tad bit disappointed not to get Thunderwear in the extended encore time, but ya can't get 'em all in. What is Today? What is that smell? were two more that have added value with the saxophone line. There were again, some pretty amazing guitar solos. And by the time Whipping Post was served up late in the encore "set" the Allman-esque vibe was a pretty awe inspiring thing to witness. I scan the crowd for the familiar folks, and know they are thrilled and fully into it, but its an added bonus to get a (relatively) newer, bigger crowd getting just as into it; hope there can be some more venues of these sorts for the upcoming shows into spring. I was glad Chuck could get out to enjoy a night off work and just be a customer; and Becky made it finally to a show again, though still having to come after closing another job.
I don't really know the wait staff / employees, etc. at the 6 pence place, but they had to be pretty pleased with the audience and the show. They were a tired looking crew there toward the end. Lots of sporty and outlandish St. Patrick's day costumes and trinkets were on hand; I forget that people go for that kind of stuff. Its just kind of another occasion to hear the greens, with the little extra distractions. On to the (skip a weekend) last weekend of the month, when Andy is playing at Borders on Friday the 30th and the Greens are at the Marietta Brewing Co. on Saturday, the 31st. By then we'll have heard about the battle of the bands line up forthe final event (April 3rd) in Morgantown. That show the end of April in Elkins also is intriguing.