Live in Philadelphia
Nov. 22, 2014 at District N9ne
By Alex Buschiazzo
Dopapod returned to Philadelphia Saturday, 11/22 after a cut-short show at Gramercy Theatre in New York City due to a speaker fire. The band honored ticket stubs from the New York show for half price tickets in Philadelphia, a great gesture by the band. District N9ne seemed to graciously hold the Dopapod crowd with room to move around, spin hula hoops, dance, or camp out at a booth. There were no fires…but fire indeed was the theme again Saturday night starting with Pre-show music that included:
-The Ohio Players disco hit “Fire”
-Deep Purple’s Rock standard “Smoke on the Water”
-Billy Joel’s “we didn’t start the fire”
Set break music contained:
-Wailing Souls “Firehouse Rock”
-Grateful Dead “Fire on the Mountain”
Great to see Dopapod keep a steady sense of humor with themselves and with fans. The show opened up right where they left off at Gramercy the night before to finish up the jam heavy Vol 3. #86 – playing exactly 60seconds to tail the song off then going right into Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire” which is just what I had expected. I discovered earlier in the night that guitar player Rob Compa had just learned the song during sound check and pulled it off quite well on stage as well. With their new album being released “Never Odd or Even”, we naturally saw those tracks sprinkled tactfully throughout both sets. Picture in Picture, Psycho Nature, and Upside of Down all popped the first set with freshness accompanied by Brookline Bridge from the 2009 album, Radar, and the guitar heavy “Roid Rage” from the 2009 release, Drawn Onward. Closing out the first set was the twangy(and Zwangy!) yet delightfully syncopated “Give it a name” from the 2012 Redivider album.
The second set of the night came at us heavy. Now that they had gone a few rounds, the quartet appeared much more at ease and sank right into the highly energetic Bubble Brain from Redivider to start followed by the bass-lead Dracula’s Monk, debuted live earlier this year in August at Peach Music Festival. Next we returned to Never Odd or Even with Like a Ball preceding STADA sandwiching the untracked song Priorities. Reaching back to the 2011 bass-heavy hit Onionhead then following up with the eclectic FABA from the new LP to seal up the second set – a slow mellow and funky journey that crescendos into ferocious energy and pristine guitar licks from Rob Compa and spatial tones from Eli Winderman on keys.
I can’t say enough about drummer Scotty Zwang, a young voracious drummer with incredible energy and quite a friendly fellow with the crowd and fans to boot. Scotty’s residency with Dopapod is coming up on the two year mark and he’s proved himself to be a key player in this band. Bass player Chuck Jones remained a pillar throughout the night keeping a solid line to follow and providing deep grooves for Rob and Eli to swim through. Rob Compa shines as a guitar player both creatively and technically, I’m always amazed to see and hear Rob play. Keyboardist and lead songwriter Eli Winderman is blessed at Turnin’ Knobs and never disappoints with various keyboard antics and robotic sounds – to put it simple, Spaceship music at its finest.
With just over a week to relax the four minstrels return to Richmond, VA on December 2nd to the Broadberry and will continue to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and will conclude the year in Worcester, MA at the Palladium for New Years Eve. Dopapod will then be appearing at Phish After-parties at Grand Central in Miami, FL January 1st and 2nd.
Set I
Vol. 3 #86 (ending last night’s fire cancelled version)
Fire (Hendrix)
Picture in Picture
Brookline Bridge
Psycho Nature
Roid Rage
Upside of Down
Give it a Name
Set II
Bubble Brain
Dracula’s Monk
Like a Ball
STADA
Priorities
->STADA
Onionhead
FABA