By: Michael Broerman
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong has never been a band to shy away from a theme. The band is pretty much the closest thing to a themed date party at a fraternity. From this Halloween’s “Red Hot Sergeant Peppers,” last NYE’s “
So this year we patiently waited to see what zany, semi-punny theme the boys would pick this year for December 31 at Stage AE in Pittsburgh with Magic Beans. Rumors circulated among Pigeons’ dedicated following, The Flock, about what the theme would be. One popular rumor floating around the Facebook comment section, which proved true, was that Jeremy had told one fan that, “there may or may not be horns.” Which, on the surface, could tell us absolutely nothing. But Christmas came early November 19 when the announcement arrived that the theme for this New Years Eve show would be “New Year’s stEve,” and the band would be joined by the horn section from Domefest alumni West End Blend. And that’s when even crazier theories started running around.
Luckily, the announcement was accompanied by a poster giving teasers of what could be expected. A pigeon with colorful cornrows, handlebar mustache and shiny orange sunglasses. Of course, everybody’s first thought was that this would be a Stevie Wonder cover set. No complaints here.
But as the time grew closer, Pigeons made it clear that this isn’t just one Steve. This New Years show would be a celebration of ALL Steves. In the weeks leading up to New Years, the band plastered pictures of prominent Steves all over its official Instagram page, most notably a DIY craft project for making “Steve Buscemi Eyes.” Later posts included Steve Harvey, Steve Jobs and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
Of course, we all had our own predictions. Some more realistic than others. We all obviously knew that there’s at least one Stevie Wonder cover, quite possibly “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” as it makes mention of New Years Day. There are the maybes: mine is to see Jeremy Schon to rip into some Stevie Ray Vaughan. It could happen. There are there unlikelies: given his untimely passing, I’m hoping for a tribute to Spongebob Squarepants creator Stephen Hillenburg, specifically with a cover of the Bubble Bowl classic “Sweet Victory.” Then there are the “no ways” and I’m gonna have to go with Steve Martin, because if anybody could rip into a funky “King Tut,” it would be Pigeons.
Riding the subway into downtown Pittsburgh gave the feeling of going to a real New Year’s celebration like those boys at The Garden. And that energy of authenticity continued when walking into a sold out crowd of 2,400 people at Stage AE, Pigeons’ biggest headlining show to date. The band’s shiny gold sequin suits, complete with “Hello My Name is Steve” nametags, showed they came to party.
The show opened up with an arid “Burning Up My Time” into the instrumental “Offshoot” where bassist Ben Carrey really dialed in and started shaking the venue with thumping bass riffs.
The first Steve of the night went to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith when the band launched into “Sweet Emotion” where Jeremy got to rip into some Joe Perry licks.
Going out of “Offshoot” into “Sweet Emotion” established a pattern for how Pigeons would incorporate Steve covers throughout the night: mainly by using original songs as vehicles to segue into themed covers. This method continued later in the set when the West End Blend horns and Magic Beans keyboard player Casey Russell joined Pigeons for an instrumental “Whoopie” that went into “I Wish” and “Master Blaster,” both Stevie Wonder tunes, and finally back into “Whoopie.”
The band took this opportunity to bust out the new Latin-inspired party tune “Yo Soy Fiesta” in which Greg showed off his bi-lingual abilities. This original was followed by two more Stevie Wonder covers “Boogie On Reggae Woman,” in which Greg changed the lyrics to encourage several other Steves (Wonder, Tyler and Harvey) to “Boogie On,” and the inevitable “Superstition” which allowed Russell to assume a much more prominent position in the jam.
Set one closed out with a smoking-hot “Poseidon,” during which it seemed that Jeremy briefly extended the flowy, Dickey Betts-inspired intro into a seriously mellow groove.
Going outside during set break to discover that the pouring rain had ceased for the first time all day was a good omen that could not be ignored. When the band posted that there would be a tight 15 minute set break, they meant it. The entire night was about as punctual as a hippie jam show could get. Magic Beans on at 8, Pigeons at 9:30 sharp, and the band hitting the venue’s 1 a.m. curfew on the dot.
Set two is where the Steves really came to play. After getting into a “Porcupine” groove, the band took on Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac with a cover of “Edge of Seventeen” as well as an instrumental tease of “The Chain” before returning to tried and true Stevie Wonder with “Sir Duke” as the West End Blend horns and Russell returned to the stage.
As the clock drew closer to midnight and the party grew wilder, an apropo “Drunk People” was in order, which included teases to “Smoke on the Water” and Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra,” eventually leading into the ball-dropping jam of “Ocean Flows” which was extended into the New Year. Of course everybody there, myself included, expected Pigeons to play “Horizon” into the New Year, but somebody taught these birds some new tricks.
With the ball-dropping out of the way, the band was able to get back to business, which they did by heading into a hard-hitting “King Kong” which segued into yet another Stevie Wonder cover of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.”
After a run-through of “Fortress” it was time to close out the set with one more big segue, and they Signed, Sealed, Delivered on that with the final Stevie Wonder cover of the night “Living for the City,” which went into the long-awaited “Horizon.” But the melodic bliss of the “Horizon” riff was quickly overshadowed by the final cover of the night, a long-overdue foray by Jeremy into the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan with “Lenny” which eventually led back into “Horizon” to close out the show.
The audience barely let the band get off stage before the entire venue was on its feet, demanding more, which Pigeons delivered with a blistering “Schwanthem” that ended precisely at the venue’s 1 a.m. curfew.
This was my 10th Pigeons show and quite possibly the best one yet. Even though they had sold out the previous three nights of its New Year’s Eve run through Covington and Nashville, this one was clearly special as Greg pointed out that it was “Pigeons’ biggest headlining show ever,” and shortly before starting the first set he waxed philosophically that “maybe we’ll see you at Heinz field one day.”
Greg says a lot of silly things on stage, but this was not one.
Seeing the band go from playing a tiny Jackie O’s brewery in my college town of Athens, Ohio, to handing off a guitar pick to John Mayer at Lockn’, to them crushing all five sets at its very own festival Domefest, makes me think that anything is possible. I would relish the opportunity to pay $60 for nosebleed seats to see these guys play stadiums one day. I haven’t consulted the Chinese calendar yet, but 2019 will be the year of the pigeon.
Setlist: Pigeons Playing Ping Pong / Stage AE / Pittsburgh, PA / 12/31/18
Set 1: Burning Up My Time > Offshoot > Sweet Emotion^ [1] > Offshoot, Somethin’ For Ya > Medicated Goo^ [2], Whoopie*~ > I Wish^*~# [3] > Master Blaster^*~ [3] > Whoopie*~, Yo Soy Fiesta, Boogie On Reggae Woman*~” [3] > Superstition*~” [3] > Poseidon
Set II: Porcupine > Edge of Seventeen^ [4] > Porcupine, Sir Duke*& [3], Drunk People > Smoke On The Water^@ [5] > Abracadabra^ [6] > The Chain^ [7] > Drunk People, Ocean Flows% > Auld Lang Syne > Isn’t She Lovely^@ [3] > Auld Lang Syne >, King Kong* > Signed, Sealed, Delivered* [3] > King Kong*, Fortress*, Living For The City^* [3] > Horizon > Lenny^ [8] > Horizon
Encore: Schwanthem*
Notes:
“New Year’s stEve”
^ First time played
[1] Aerosmith (Steven Tyler)
[2] Traffic (Steve Winwood)
* w/ West End Blend horns
~ w/ Casey Russell (Magic Beans) on keys
# w/ Wild Wild West tease
[3] Stevie Wonder
“ Last time played 9/05/2015
[4] Stevie Nicks
& Last time played 7/06/2011
[5] Deep Purple (Steve Morse)
@ Instrumental
[6] Steve Miller Band
[7] Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks), Outro only
% w/ NYE countdown
[8] Stevie Ray Vaughan
Photo credit goes