Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Teams Up with DIZGO for Sold Out Midwest Run


Pigeons Playing Ping Pong Teams Up with DIZGO for Sold Out Midwest Run
Written by Cam Elkins
Photography by Kendall McCargo
For years, Pigeons have toured the country endlessly. They’ve grinded through hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice, thousands and thousands of miles of traveling, and through countless numbers of extremely strange and complicated situations that come along with being a touring musician. Night 1 in Louisville, Greg mentioned to a sold out Headliner’s Music Hall that their first time in Louisville, they played to a crowd of under 30.
At the beginning of the night, as I made my way inside, I was taken over by a strange feeling of combined disappointment and excitement. I unfortunately had missed the first part of DIZGO’s set, but I was arriving just as they were going OFF on a cover of Birds of a Feather by the band Phish. I had to rage extra hard for the rest of this DIZGO set. I made my way up front, the funk had taken me over, and that sloshy early-winter haze was nowhere to be found.
The effect that music can have on the feeling of time passing really is quite interesting. We danced right through the next half hour, and it seemed to pass by as fast as an elementary school recess. But not just any recess… A recess for adults with a bunch of best friends that you only get to see every now and then. But this recess has music, a very special kind of music. The kind of music that feels like all of eternity had collapsed into the tone of a singular guitar note. If you could imagine, perhaps, the process of a seed growing into an entire rainforest, THAT… except with time passing in reverse. Maybe I lost you with that metaphor, but anyways, I felt like a kid again, having a psychedelic dance session on top of the broken bones and bleeding body of the fading fall’s overcast cloudiness.

Following DIZGO, Pigeons stepped onto the stage to a Louisville crowd filled with hundreds of screaming fans. Apparently, there was a young guy in the crowd whose parents had surprised him with a birthday trip to see his favorite band for the first time live in concert. During the Penguins banter, Pigeons even wished him a happy birthday. In the grand scheme of things, those parents are basically like miracle, one-of-a-kind parents for surprising their kid on his birthday with a pigeons show. For Pigeons’ fans, however, this was nothing out of the ordinary. Whether its with pins or concert tickets or whatever… we kind of all give each other epic surprises like that. Nevertheless, here is yet another example of pigeons’ fans being pigeons’ fans.
This Louisville night was absolutely one for the books. I loved that Pigeons played “Water”, and definitely enjoyed their covers of “Give it Away” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and “Paint it Black” by The Rolling Stones, as well as “Sail On”, and “Horizon” into “Ocean Flows”.
11/06/2019 • Headliners Music Hall • Louisville, KY
Tour: Fall Tour 2019
DIZGO: Through the Right Place, Dreams > No Diggity, Birds of a Feather, HAMN > First Tube > Rent, Debra, Set Me Free
PPPP: Set 1: Pop Off, Somethin For Ya> Havana> Julia, Water, Penguins> Funkijam> Totally, Give It Away>Moonwalk
Set 2: Landing> Time to Ride, Sail On, Skipjack> Paint It Black> Skipjack, Horizon> Fade Fast, Ocean Flows
Encore: Live It Up
After an easy drive from Louisville to Indy, we were all super, super amped for night 2. It is known that every time Pigeons comes through Indy, they through the f* down. It is also well known that the Indy Flock Fam is the best, so I knew that today was basically going to be like a holiday.
From Condado’s Tacos to The Vogue, Indianapolis had been taken over by Pigeons fans. The venue was sold out, and at only like 9pm, the packed house was already going crazy for DIZGO. I had seen DIZGO a few times and was impressed, but was never impressed quite like I was tonight. I was already on cloud 9, dancing up a storm, and then they busted out an instrumental cover of “Believe” by Cher. This was incredibly cool, and the whole place was just about as stoked as I’d ever seen for the opening band. In their home state, DIZGO kept their foot on the gas with their high octane psychedelic disco-funk, and then capped things off with a cover of the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by Simple Minds. After leaving this show with a set list signed by the full band and their manager, Patrick Milescu, I definitely would never be forgetting this night at The Vogue. I’m really hoping that we’ll be getting a couple late-night DIZGO sets at Domefest this year.
The Pigeons set that was soon to follow goes down in my book as one of their top sets that I’ve gotten to see in over 30 shows. The funk meter was all the way off the charts, basically broken, and the entire building seemed somewhat possessed. From Whirled, to Porcupine, to Overrun, then into Poseidon, it was obvious they were holding nothing back. They then hit us with some one of the most badass displays of their psychedelic funk that I’ve ever seen with that Drunk People > Abracadabra (by Steve Miller Band) > Drunk People sandwich. They closed set 1 with a celebration of their midnight release of the new single, “Dawn A New Day”, and it was undeniable that music magic had swept over The Vogue theatre.
The overwhelming awesomeness was kept all the way up for set 2. P4 sandwiched Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” inside of “Burning Up My Time” and then went right into the ultra spooky and psychedelic “Snake Eyes”. The rest of the set was classic Pigeons, and I 10/10 recommend listening back to this whole night. Guiding the crowd from a super high-energy funk dance party (“The Liquid”), down into like a murky slow-funk groove (featuring Gator and Ben exchanging solos on “Spacejam” into “The Hop”), and back up into that burning hot funk for “F.U.”, set 2 was a wrap. The encore was of course equal parts special, nostalgic, and of course, funky, as Pigeons thanked the crowd for the love and played “Su Casa” into “Doc”.
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong are a living example of the power of staying true to your journey, and they are now at a level most artists never get to achieve. Years of hard work has led them to now playing all around America for packed venues, and now they are channeling their influence to introduce fans to other amazing bands. Their festival, Domefest, features the scenes greatest up-and-coming jam bands, and their tours are no different. Many of my friends have discovered bands that they are now absolutely obsessed with through Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, and I think the same thing happened this weekend for hundreds of people with the Indiana-based live electronic group DIZGO. These DIZGO guys are an extremely genuine, talented, and hungry group. They truly deliver fans that next-level psychedelic-sports-car-ride filled with awe and excitement that people crave from the top jam bands. I have a lot of respect for the way Pigeons support and uplift groups that other genres, like rap for instance, might consider “competition.” This 2-day run from Pigeons and DIZGO was exactly what I needed, and I can’t wait to see what these two bands will have in store for us in 2020. Keep your eyes peeled for that new P4 album! And we hope to see all you weirdos at Domefest!
11/07/2019 • The Vouge • Indianapolis, IN
Tour: Fall Tour 2019
DIZGO: Luminate > Never On Time > HAMN Jam, Have a Cigar > Indy Jam, My Own World > Misserlou, On the Groove > Believe [Cher, instrumental]*, Fly* > Dont You (Forget About Me)*
PPPP: Set 1: Whirled, Fox and Toad, Porcupine, Overrun, Poseidon> Drunk People> Abracadabra> Drunk People,Dawn A New Day
Set 2: Burning Up My Time> War Pigs> Burning Up My Time, Snake Eyes, The Liquid, Spacejam> The Hop>F.U.
Encore: Su Casa, Doc