(July 2017 "SOMETHING NEW") - "I Shall Consume Everything" Live at Boot and Saddle (2017)

This video comes from a recent live performance we did at a venue called "Boot and Saddle" in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 1st, 2017. The entire concert was filmed, and the song featured here is called “I Shall Consume Everything”. It is the closing track from our third record Quickly Quickly Quickly. 

“Consume” was a regular in our live repertoire after the release of QQQ in 2012 and into the first half of 2013. After that we didn’t perform it again until our December 2016 tour. Much of the set for that tour included material from our fourth record Grappling which, by comparison, is very dense and musically complex. We were looking for a song to create some space and extended drama for an added flavor to the show experience. “Consume” provided us with exactly that. We tinkered with the arrangements a bit and worked to emphasize the journey of the song for a live audience. We’ve enjoyed watching the live version take on a new life of its own and in this video you get to see how it’s developing.

This was a great show. We hadn’t played in Philly for 4 months and the crowd was spectacular. We decided to take advantage of being on home turf and debuted 3 new songs (which might just find their way into the hands of our Patrons in the coming months!) 

There were many memorable moments during this show, not least of which was performing new material, hanging out with some true blue Tea Club fans afterwards, and having the opportunity to further infect young minds by insisting they listen to The Planets by Gustav Holst once a day for 3 months and read the entire 2 year run of the comic Swamp Thing by Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and Alan Moore. 

Here are 2 more things that come to mind: I typically try to take a few deep breaths while onstage right before we begin playing. It helps calm me down and get focused after (what is usually) a rushed and stressful experience of getting set up. But at this particular show I suddenly got the urge to include the crowd in this ritual of mine, so I asked everyone to take a few deep breaths with me in silence. To my shock and joy, it worked! The nearly sold-out crowd stopped what they were doing and stood quietly with us for a few seconds, breathing together in rhythm. It was fantastic, and I believe it contributed to what was a wonderful show. The second memorable moment was finding a paperback copy of The Stand by Stephen King at a local thrift store called Circle Thrift. A good night all around. 

Enjoy!

-Pat M