Show Review - Sturgill Simpson aka Johnny Blue Skies 10/18/24 Pittsburgh, PA
Rock and Roll
Sturgill Simpson, alias Johnny Blue Skies, brought his “Why Not?” tour to Pittsburgh last night, taking over the Petersen Events Center on his way east. While I’ve seen all the chatter and love for this tour on social media, I made the decision to go in mostly blind to the show – other than a few covers and clips, I was entirely unfamiliar with the Sturgill catalog.
Safe to say – the show blew me away. Taking the stage right at the stroke of 8 o’clock and playing for three hours straight, I was amazed at the level of consistent energy displayed by the quintet and the soul poured into each song.
The show began with a standout rendition of “It Ain’t All Flowers,” lead guitarist Laur Joamets stretching out on the 10-minute opener with some blazing licks. Smoothly segueing from one song to the next, one of my favourite moments of the night came with the hard-hitting riff of “Best Clockmaker On Mars,” drummer Miles Miller’s aggressive-yet-tight style delivering a perfect foundation for the repetitive licks.
Simpson himself looked like he was having the time of his life up on stage, a feat not lost on me as he is a month into a tour where a lot of the same material is being performed night to night. It’s clear that his return to the stage has equipped him with a fresh zeal for performing, and his impassioned vocal performance as well as guitar throughout the night was of someone purely excited to be there.
Another interesting factor about seeing the show was the stripped-down stage setup. While I am used to a massive light show and production at Phish or Goose shows, last night had a minimal setup to light the arena, and the stage was empty except for the band’s relatively small rigs. This allowed the music to be the absolute focal point – I’m going to continue to repeat how much power and energy the band was putting out because of how significantly that struck me.
As the set continued, the 20-minute segment of “A Good Look” -> “L.A. Woman” was insane, the band settling into the initial “La Grange”-ish vamp of the former as the two guitarists engaged in spirited interplay before smashing the Doors cover with a blast of energy.
A second perfect cover placement came later in the set with “Purple Rain” emerging out of “One for the Road,” playing the Prince cover with heavy emotion.
I recognized “Brace For Impact (Live A Little)” as the song that had contained “China Cat Sunflower” teases on some previous stops, so was a little bit disappointed when Simpson danced around the Grateful Dead melody without actually jumping in, though the song’s steady thumping rhythm was great.
As someone who sees pretty much only jam band concerts, last night’s Sturgill show was a really cool look into how jam-inclined musicians can put pockets of improv in a show, and while there’s no outside-the-box Type II exploration to be found, the easy way that the band played with dynamics and moods was amazing to see.
The moral of the story? Go see Sturgill on this tour if you have the opportunity. Whether you’re familiar with his material or just a fan of awesome music, you are guaranteed to have an amazing time.
