Longtime friend of HT Joe Madonna has contributed news and photos to the site over the past few years. Joe recently attended a Guster concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City and wanted to share some thoughts on the show with our readers. Take it away, Joe…

Lost and Gone Forever, besides being Guster’s 3rd album, is classic. It has horns, it has rhythm, fans whistling and Page McConnell of Phish playing theremin. It’s classic! On Saturday night, we got to hear this amazing set live in all its glory. Fans young and old filled the historic theater over two nights to see the New Englanders rock this classic piece of work. There aren’t many bands that can pull off playing their whole album, but Guster pulled it off.

[Guster joined by producer Steve Lillywhite on bass]

Guster’s first set was a mix of old and new tracks, including a new song called This Could All Be Yours. The band dug deep and played X-Ray Eyes from 1998′s Goldfly. As they sometimes do live, Guster jammed into Blue Oyster Cult’s Don’t Fear The Reaper during their original Red Oyster Cult.

To close the first set of the show,they played a dance-hall version of Airport Song which had a very Passion Pit feel to it. Multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia’s dazzling keyboard work made it rock out. Old school fans threw ping-pong balls on stage to the band during the song. The band took a quick setbreak, and then came back out to a cheering crowd as Prince’s 1999 was played over the PA. That was a bit fitting since the album came out then.

READ ON for more from Joe on Guster @ the Beacon…

Some big highlights of the show :

• During the song Center of Attention, the band brought out their producer for LG&F, Steve Lillywhite who played bass and jammed into Cream’s Sunshine of your Love.

• Fa Fa made use of a great horn section. The Horns really brought out the sound of the song. Another highlight for the band was during All The Way Up To Heaven when the band brought a choir of Catholic School Girls from DC to do the “whistle/singing” part of the song. It really made the song fun for the audience.

The band went on to rock out the rest of their “classic” album.  Guster’s lighting director followed along  making the stage look beautiful while remaining in sync with the music. The group closed out the show by coming to the front of the stage with just guitars and Joe on banjo to do a acoustic and no mics version of Jesus on the Radio.

I’ve been seeing Guster since 1996, and this had to be one of the best shows I have seen from them. The band, just like another band we love. Phish, is totally re-charged. I can’t wait to see them live again and their future album release.

HT Staff

Hidden Track was started in October of 2006 and features a team of dedicated contributors from across the country. This article was written by one of the newest members of our team or was a collaboration by more than one contributor. Want to contribute to Hidden Track? Send us a pitch to scott at glidemagazine dot com.

Website - More Posts