Michigan-birthed jamgrass act Greensky Bluegrass presented a “Casual Circus” Halloween show at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday night. Members of the band dressed in circus costumes and various circus performers took the stage throughout the evening.
Greensky are known for treating fans to special concerts on “Casual Wednesday,” an original named after humpday. With Halloween falling on a Wednesday this year, the quintet worked “Casual Wednesday” into the theme for their October 31st concert. The band opened with a debut cover of Pink Floyd’s “In The Flesh?” and segued from the tune into an extended “Don’t Lie.” Next up was the fitting for the occasion “Blood Sucking F(r)iends.” GSBG continued on with a rendition of the Stanley Brothers’ “Little Maggie” ahead of the first instance of “Casual Wednesday.” A big surprise came soon thereafter when the five-piece act debuted their take on Bon Jovi’s “Runaway.”
More new covers were featured in the evening’s second set. Greensky fit their first-ever version of Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like A Lady” into “Broke Mountain Breakdown” and then inserted the debut of Pink Floyd’s “In The Flesh (Part II)” between “Before Bring Out Your Dead” and “Bring Out Your Down.” The encore started with a celebration of dobro player Anders Beck‘s birthday played to the tune of “Casual Wednesday.” Next came a gorgeous rendition of “When The Circus Comes” by Los Lobos, yet another cover debut. Greensky Bluegrass ended the night by bringing out support act The Lil Smokies for a take on John Hartford’s “Get No Better.” Watch a series of fan-shot videos captured by Dylan Bondy:
Take Cover
Casual Wednesday > When The Circus Comes
Get No Better
Setlist (Hat Tip – Lucas White)
Set One: In the Flesh? (1) > Don’t Lie, Blood Sucking F(r)iends, Little Maggie (2), Casual Wednesday, Just to Lie (3), Runaway (1), Take Cover (4)(5)
Set Two: Just Listening, Burn Them (5), Let’s go to the Fair, Train Junkie (7), Demons, Broke Mountain Breakdown (5)(8) > Dude Looks Like a Lady (1) > Broke Mountain Breakdown > Before Bring Out Your Dead > In the Flesh (Part II) (1)(9) > Bring Out Your Dead
Encore: Casual Wednesday (10) > When the Circus Comes to Town (1), Get No Better (11)
- (1) First time played
- (2) “Cluck Old Hen” tease
- (3) “Labor of Love” quotes
- (4) “Big Top” circus theme teases
- (5) With circus performers
- (6) With Keith Kinnear on tambourine
- (7) “Space Oddity” tease
- (8) “Bathtub Gin” tease
- (9) “Casual Wednesday” quotes
- (10) Lyric change “Casual Birthday”
- (11) With the Lil’ Smokies
