Sturgill Simpson Plays First Solo Show In 3 Years At Surprise San Francisco Club Gig [Videos]

Given his penchant for sidestepping the music industry’s expectations, it makes perfect sense that the first Sturgill Simpson show in three years would be at a 685-capacity club instead of the massive music festival he was headlining two days later. The re-emerging singer-songwriter on Friday performed a surprise concert at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco, marking his first solo concert since suffering a tour-ending vocal cord injury in 2021 that kept him off stage for two years.

Simpson has had quite a character arc lately. In the past year he has: made a surprise appearance at Farm Aid (only slightly upstaged by Bob Dylan‘s surprise set), played with members of the Grateful Dead in Mexico, acted in Martin Scorsese‘s Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon, released a new album Passage du Desir under the pseudonym Johnny Blue Skies, and announced his first tour since 2021. On Sunday he headlined the final day of Outside Lands in San Francisco, but on Friday he shook off the cobwebs with an impressive 21-song surprise concert.

As is customary of the singer-songwriter whose entire existence is a giant middle finger to the country music establishment, Simpson’s set was full of curveballs. He played only one song from his dreamy new album Passage du Desir, the beautiful “Right Kind of Dream” which on the studio recording features melancholy violins but in the live setting was handled by his original bandmates Laur Joamets (guitar), Miles Miller (drums), and Kevin Black (bass), plus the addition of former Midland member Robbie Crowell (keys)—all of whom will join him on the Why Not? Tour.

Of the 21 songs the band played, eight were by other artists (not counting the one by the debonair Johnny Blue Skies). Some of them were logical choices for a man of Simpson’s musical persuasion like Texas poet laureate Steven Fromholz‘s “I’d Have to Be Crazy” that opened the show and country oldie “Long White Line” by Charlie Moore and Bill Napier (found on 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music). Other choices paid homage to Simpson’s love of classic rock like the Allman Brothers Band‘s “Midnight Rider” and Little Feat‘s “Spanish Moon”. He also threw in teases of the Grateful Dead’s “China Cat Sunflower” and “I Know You Rider” into “Brace for Impact (Live a Little)”. Others reflected Simpson’s erratic taste in music, like the band’s twangy rendition of When in Rome‘s ’80s hit “The Promise”, proto-psychedelic rock Summer of Love staple “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum, and Neil Diamond‘s “Red Red Wine”. Johnny Blue Skies wasn’t even the only instance of Sturgill covering himself, as he threw it back to his pre-solo career days fronting Sunday Valley with “Sometimes Wine”.

Friday’s show marked the beginning of Simpson’s latest act. Healed from the injury that sidelined him for years, he has returned as an unpredictable stylistic wrecking ball to demolish artistic boundaries and expectations—whether that be where he’ll perform, what he’ll play, or even what he’ll call himself.

Check out some fan-shot videos from the first Sturgill Simpson concert in three years. His headlining tour kicks off on September 14th at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, with dates scheduled until Thanksgiving. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates here.

Sturgill Simpson — “Voices”, “Midnight Rider” (Allman Brothers Band), “Sometimes Wine” (Sunday Valley), “Red Red Wine” (Neil Diamond) — 8/9/24

[Video: Beth Boylan]

Setlist: Sturgill Simpson  | Bimbo’s 365 Club | San Francisco, CA | 8/9/24

Set: I’d Have to Be Crazy (Steven Fromholz), Right Kind of Dream (Johnny Blue Skies) [1], All Said and Done, Brace for Impact (Live a Little) [2], A Good Look, All Around You, Call to Arms, Voices, Midnight Rider (The Allman Brothers Band), Sometimes Wine (Sunday Valley), Red Red Wine (Neil Diamond), You Don’t Miss Your Water (William Bell), Welcome to Earth (Pollywog), It Ain’t All Flowers, Best Clockmaker on Mars, The Promise (When in Rome), Fastest Horse in Town, Long White Line (Moore & Napier), Spanish Moon (Little Feat), I Don’t Mind, A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum)

[1] Live debut
[2] w/ “Viola Lee Blues” and “China Cat Sunflower” teases

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Source: L4LM.com