The Elders live at the Record Bar, January 7, 2006

View all my photos here, and a few of my favorites are below. In the photo album I put the songs where I could figure out what song they were playing in the picture.

It was crowded. I got there about 8:10. I got right in with no wait. But by 8:30 when the opening band started, there were folks waiting outside.

The opening band was In Transit. They were good. Me like. :) I'd describe the music for you all if I could. But you can listen at their MySpace page. It was good and danceable. And I was able to find enough space up front to dance. 3 of them used to be in Tabla Rasa, and In Transit's music is somewhat similar.

They played about 45 minutes. Then after time for a changeover, it was time for the Elders.

The Elders opened with "Fire in the Hole". That surprised me. I'm so used to them starting off with "Michael's Ride", and "Fire in the Hole" being 2nd to last (not counting encore) right before "Devil's Tongue". They did have "Devil's Tongue" in that usual spot. But I'm getting ahead of myself there.

Next up, "It'll Be Alright". Okay, I remember that was 2nd from looking at my pictures. I got a "hoisting a pint" picture.

Sometime in there was "Packy Go Home". (I can tell from my pictures, specifically one particular one of Norm's bass playing.)

And somewhere in the middle of the set, "Buzzz's Jigg" followed by "Galway Girl".

And somewhere in that first set, "Need a Miracle", or whatever the proper song title is. That might have been the 3rd song of the night, but I'm not sure on that. My memory is fuzzy, and I didn't grab a set list after the show.

The first set ended with "Love of the Century" followed by "Turnpike". Brent was playing that rather quite fast by the time it got to the end.

The 2nd set started with "Lukey". That surprised me. Good song. Plus Steve sings it. Ah, I do like Ian's singing. But I like Steve's too, and sometimes at their shorter shows Steve doesn't do too much lead vocals. And only two songs on [i]American Wake[/i] with lead vocals.

Speaking of which, on the song "American Wake", I've noticed something. Now, on the CD (studio, not live), Ian does all the lead vocals on the song. Live however, while Ian does all the solo lead vocals, I've noticed where there's harmony, Steve actually takes over lead vocals with Ian singing harmony. Compare the studio version with the [i]Live at the Gem[/i] version.

That song was in there somewhere, though I don't recall where. But I recall hearing it.

"Brettski's Medley" was somewhere in the middle of the 2nd set. And sometime after that, "Men of Erin" followed by "Turning Point".

And the 2nd set ended with "1849" followed by "Devil's Tongue".

I thought the applause, yelling, etc for an encore after the band left the stage was rather dismal. I think we've gotten spoiled. We expect an encore, we know it's coming, and so we get complacent and don't clap, yell, etc all that enthusiastically. Or maybe it's that a bar just doesn't lend itself to an "applaud the band when they finish" vibe. Though I've seen better applause at bar gigs that last night, I think.

Two song encore. First, "Message in a Bottle", by request. They do that one so well. They've turned it into an Elders song, I do believe. And then "10 lb Earhole". The girls won. :)

Somewhere in there they did "Haverty Brothers" (or "Haverty Boys" if you prefer).

They also did "Cousin Charlie". That one late in the second set. Ah, a new song, first time I've heard it. I don't remember it much. So, therefore, it must be a good song, because if it wasn't that would have stood out. :)

And they did "Story of a Fish".

It's good to hear new songs. It's definitely time for some new songs in the set list. Or new old songs. Shake things up, and not just so the same songs land in a different order. :) And, they are doing new songs, so that works out nicely.

And there were more songs, but that's the ones I remember.

Okay, time for a few photos. Click the picture for a larger version.


A nice one of Brent

Norm wandered over to Brent and Steve's side of the stage a few times. (On Wednesday evenings, playing with Bob Walkenhorst, that's Norm's side of the stage.)

I like this one, because not only is it a nice picture of Steve, but it's a good shot of Tommy in the background.

This was the beginning of the 2nd set, during "Lukey". There's a fiddle section in the song, and Brent moved over to the middle and Steve went over to the side of the stage, which gave me a clear shot at Steve for photo taking.

I showed this one to my husband and he said "He looks goofy". I think my husband's figured Brent out. ;)

Brent and Steve watching with the rest of us during the instrumental section of "Men of Erin". There were bagpipers. 3 of them. Steve's drinking wine, which puts into mind a couple songs lines, one Elders song line, one pre-Elders Steve Phillips song line. 20 some years later, Steve still knows how to drink his wine, it appears. ;)

This was during "Message in a Bottle". Steve playing with his thumb rather than a pick.



No, the photo album is not balanced between band members, nor are these 8 here. It's a matter of where I was standing. Which wasn't just personal preference, but also it was where I could get to up front. I did take Norm pictures when he wandered over to the Brent/Steve side of the stage. Brett didn't wander my way. And me wandering over his way for photo taking was very much not an option.

During the 2nd set, I had people in front of me, except I had an unblocked view of Brent when he wasn't at the microphone. I experimented with holding the camera above me or to my left, and using the screen instead of the eyepiece. I also took advantage of the couple of times when the space in front of me cleared out a bit, from people bending down or temporarily leaving or such. An interesting photography challenge. For the encore I made it up front and had an unblocked view again.