Buffalo Tom and Belly are two of my favorite bands of all time. Bill Janovitz and Tanya Donelly have made music and performed together multiple times over the years, but I had never seen the two bands together. As soon as I heard they were playing together up at State Theater in Portland, ME, I knew it was time for a roadtrip and an overnight stay!
Belly took the stage first (in Providence, RI the next night the two bands swapped and Belly played last). It's easy to forget just how many amazing songs the band has. After opening with "Low Red Moon," they played "Super-Connected," "Gepetto," and "Slow Dog" all in a row. That's three of my all time favorite songs, and we weren't even past the first fifteen minutes of the night. For a band that plays sporadically, they sounded incredibly tight, but also loose enough to be enjoying themselves and allow for some change ups in the song. After battling some sound issues early on (Donelly's microphone seemed to keep cutting out during "Gepetto"), everything eventually gelled and it turned into an all time performance.
The band even broke out some rarely played songs, including the first performance of "King" in thirty five years. "Seal My Fate" was also played, which bassist Gail Greenwood said was her favorite. Speaking of Greenwood, I don't think anyone has ever had more fun on a stage than she did Friday night, and is officially what we New Englanders would call "a character." When the band played "Feed the Tree," I assumed they were done, but we still had three more songs, including "Seal My Fate." Now we just need to figure out how to get Belly to play more often...
Between sets, Bill Janovitz and Tanya Donelly took the stage to play a trio of songs. It was a great treat, and felt much more intimate than anything else that happened on that stage Friday night. The audience felt transported to The Burren or Lizard Lounge instead of a theater.
Buffalo Tom might be the most underappreciated band in the country. They always kill every live performance, and play with a level of showmanship rarely seen in the 90's alt-rock world. Their set Friday night was one of the best times I've had watching a live show this year. They're another band that can just crank out killer song after killer song for over an hour. Even a newer song like "All Be Gone" from 2018's Quiet and Peace has sneakily become one of my favorites of theirs.
Of course, the classics were the ones the crowd was there for, and no band has classics like Buffalo Tom. How classic are these songs? The original lyric for "I'm Allowed" was "Waiting for an answer, but I waited twenty five years," and is now "... waited fifty eight years." Songs like "Sodajerk," "Treehouse," and the immortal "Tailights Fade" simply can't be beat in a live setting. They broke out "Late at Night" and reminisced about performing the song for two days on the set of My So Called Life. Plus, they closed with my personal favorite "Tangerine," which left my dreaming about heading from Portland to Providence for a second night reliving my favorite songs from college (and high school).
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