Vermont’s own Twiddle closed out a two-night Double Down run at Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction on Saturday night with help from special guests. The quartet was joined by keyboardist Ryan Dempsey‘s father, Dr. Stephen Dempsey for a song in the second set and Dopapod guitarist Rob Compa for the evening’s finale.
The start of Twiddle’s performance was delayed on Saturday and an opening set from bassist Zdenek Gubb and guitarist Mihali‘s Gubbulidis & Friends project was scrapped after an intense storm moved through the area. Saturday’s first set was filled with classic material, while the final frame of the weekend featured a number of more recently debuted songs.
The four-piece came out of the gates with “Daydream Farmer” and then fit “White Light” within a +20-minute “Gatsby The Great.” Beloved staples “Syncopated Healing” and “Jamflowman” brought the frame to a close. “Collective Pulse” got Saturday’s second set underway. Then, Dr. Stephen Dempsey emerged towards the end of the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon” for a saxophone solo. Ryan Dempsey’s dad is an Associate Professor at the University of Vermont’s School of Business Administration.
A well-jammed “Polluted Beauty” followed “Rocky Raccoon.” From there, Twiddle covered ELO’s “Fire On High” before ending the set with two songs debuted in 2019 — “Dinner Fork” and “Slippin’ In The Kitchen.” Saturday’s encore began with “Hattie’s Jam” and then Twiddle was augmented by Dopapod’s Rob Compa for the “When It Rains It Pours” that ended the concert and Double Down event.
Twiddle returns to the stage later this month at the Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois. From there, the band will embark on an extensive fall tour. Stream an audience recording of Saturday’s show taped by Phil Fernandez below:
Setlist (via PT Twiddle)
Set One: Daydream Farmer, Gatsby The Great > White Light > Gatsby The Great, Syncopated Healing, Jamflowman
Set Two: Collective Pulse, Rocky Raccoon [1], Polluted Beauty, Fire On High, Dinner Fork, Slippin’ In The Kitchen
Encore: Hattie’s Jam, When It Rains It Pours [2]
- [1] – w Stephen Dempsey on sax
- [2] – w Rob Compa on guitar
