Concert review
Sturgill Simpson was supposed to be on the opposite side of the state, playing an arena six times larger than Showbox SoDo — a venue the country star outgrew about a decade ago.
Yet there he was Saturday night, cozying up in the comparatively tiny hall for a three-hour barnburner in front of a riled-up crowd who still couldn’t believe they were a Gorge Amphitheatre headliner play a sweaty little Seattle rock club.
Earlier this month, Simpson announced that he was canceling a Spokane Arena show and another in Alabama, with a statement on his YouTube channel saying only that the band “has decided to play smaller club shows in select cities instead.” Last week, Simpson announced a short-notice date at the 1,800-capacity Showbox SoDo in place of the Spokane show, with tickets quickly snatched up. Anytime an artist downsizes their venues after announcing a tour, it’s usually a sign that tickets weren’t flying off the digital shelf, which Simpson seemed to suggest was the case with Spokane.
After swinging through fan-favorite oldie “Long White Line,” Simpson had a little more to say about how he wound up doing what’s easily the underplay of the year thus far.
“We were supposed to play an arena in Spokane, but I opened my mouth about eight years ago and isolated half the people,” he said before a slow-building “Brace for Impact (Live a Little),” which eventually boiled over with a saucy guitar solo. “Little bit my fault, but I’ll take it.”
The outspoken singer-songwriter’s ascent, which came without support from mainstream country circles, was marked with a few feather-ruffling remarks. Though he was likely referring to when he called President Donald Trump a “fascist pig” and espoused other social and political views that alienated some conservative crowds while livestreaming a protest concert outside the 2017 CMA Awards.
At any rate, Spokane’s loss was very much Seattle’s gain, and Simpson didn’t appear to have lost any sleep over the road that led them to the more intimate Showbox SoDo. The throwback club gig seemed to afford Simpson, who lived in Washington while serving in the Navy, a quick trip down memory lane.
“It’s good to be here — back here, I should say,” Simpson said a few songs into his marathon set. “Your fair city has changed quite a bit since I lived here, I will say that. … The Funhouse moved, for instance.”
Simpson recalled playing early-career shows at the Blue Moon and Tractor Tavern, on up to a planned KeyArena date that never came to fruition, either due to the pandemic or its reconstruction as Climate Pledge Arena.
Pleasantries dispensed, Simpson and his ace four-piece backing band — including Kennewick bassist Kevin Black — got down to business, barreling through a wealth of material from across his catalog.
The left-of-center country king has long had some jammy tendencies, which he flashed during his last Seattle metro show at Marymoor Park in 2017. Simpson’s Who the [expletive] is Johnny Blues Skies? Tour, which features three-hour sets, fittingly visited town as Phish weekend simultaneously consumed Seattle, and ole Stu was deep in his jam-rock bag Saturday, teasing out lengthy instrumental passages and choice covers.
“This is what you call a three-hour exercise in tension and release,” Simpson quipped, approaching the set’s midpoint.
During his 2010s come-up, Simpson was hailed as outlaw country’s heir apparent, though his influences have long extended beyond the genre, especially on his 2016 major-label debut, “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” — his new-fatherhood magnum opus. Even without the recorded version’s dramatic strings, a tender “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)” could have filled a pint glass with dad tears Saturday, despite Simpson’s vocals lacking a little punch toward the end as the singer battled a chest cold.
Any vocal imperfections were forgotten when an extra tough rendition of “It Ain’t All Flowers” drifted in with guitars smokier than a ‘70s pool hall. Stu and the boys worked the psychedelic 2014 tune off “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music” into a rowdy guitar jam, eventually backing out into a dubby, upstroking cover of Eddie Murphy’s ‘80s pop hit “Party All the Time” that felt like an ice pack on the knuckles after a bruising bar fight.
Simpson’s other cover picks were more predictable crowd pleasers, with a “Purple Rain” singalong coming toward the end of the night and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider” chasing the escapist, Jimmy Buffett-vibing “Scooter Blues” from last year’s “Passage Du Desir.” The 2024 album was Simpson’s first under his Johnny Blue Skies alter ego, which didn’t feel all that different from his regular ego, to be honest.
Another highlight newbie came down the homestretch with “One for the Road,” which set up that end-of-night “Purple Rain” cover and a sweetly wavy “Turtles All the Way Down,” with the line “met the devil in Seattle” drawing predictable cheers.
Would the Washington nod have gone down as well on the eastern side of the state? Guess we’ll never know. But Simpson’s impromptu Seattle gig added a nice bit of lore for one of the city’s signature rock clubs.
#Sturgill #Simpson #slays #Seattle #club #canceling #Spokane #arena #show
